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The Washington Post
September 9, 2008 Tuesday
Suburban Edition
Gilmore Seeks Some McCain Momentum
BYLINE: Tim Craig; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: METRO; Pg. B05
LENGTH: 753 words
DATELINE: RICHMOND, Sept. 8
Republican U.S. Senate candidate James S. Gilmore III's new TV ad tries to latch on to the momentum of the GOP presidential ticket by aligning the former Virginia governor with the policies of Sen. John McCain.
The ad also seeks to tie Democratic candidate Mark R. Warner to Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), the Democratic presidential nominee.
But Warner, also a former governor, picked up endorsements Monday from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Fraternal Order of Police, two groups that traditionally support GOP candidates.
"People know my record of independence," Warner said.
Gilmore sees an opportunity to jump start his campaign by tying his run to the enthusiasm among Republicans over McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
"We need Jim Gilmore in the U.S. Senate, and so does John McCain," states a narrator in the ad, who adds that McCain and Gilmore are "veterans who will keep America safe, keep taxes low and bring down gas prices."
The ad, which is being paid for by the Virginia Republican Party and includes footage of McCain-Gilmore signs, is the most visible example to date that Virginia's Senate race is becoming entwined in the state's newfound status as a battleground in the presidential race.
Although recent polls indicate that Obama and McCain (Ariz.) are locked in a close race in Virginia, Warner has consistently held a double-digit lead over Gilmore. Warner also had more than $5 million in the bank as of June 30, compared with Gilmore's $116,000.
Gilmore suffered another setback last week when Del. Robert G. Marshall, the Prince William County antiabortion activist who ran for the GOP nomination for Senate in June, said he will not endorse his former rival. Marshall accused Gilmore of running a nasty campaign during their nomination fight.
To counteract those and other doubts about Gilmore, Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick (Prince William), chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, said the state party would step up its efforts to tie Warner to Obama.
"The more people learn about Mark Warner, the less they like him," Frederick said. "The fact is, he is a liberal who makes campaign promises he doesn't keep."
Gilmore will join McCain and Palin at a rally Wednesday in Fairfax County. Obama will hold a town hall meeting today in southwestern Virginia, but Warner will not attend because he has a previously scheduled fundraiser.
At a news conference in Richmond on Monday, Warner called Gilmore's ad linking him to Obama "tired old partisan politics."
"I think Senator Obama is the right choice, but I also know I have a lot of McCain-Warner supporters," said Warner, whose campaign will respond to Gilmore's ad with one of its own.
Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University, said Gilmore is smart to try to link himself to McCain, saying it is his "only chance" to improve his standing in the polls.
"Palin's selection has really energized the Republican base, and Gilmore is essentially trying to capture that momentum," said Kidd, who thinks that McCain improved his standing in Virginia by selecting Palin.
But Warner is also determined to win over Republican voters.
He was surrounded by a dozen police officers Monday when he picked up the endorsement of the Virginia chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, which is supporting McCain in the presidential race. Warner's campaign noted that Monday's event marked the first time in more than 20 years that the Virginia FOP has endorsed a Democratic candidate in a U.S. Senate race.
"We are looking at this [Senate race] as being completely different than the national presidential race," said Lt. Thomas E. Stiles of the Chesterfield County police, past president of the Virginia FOP.
He credited Warner with helping to fund pay raises for law enforcement officials when he was governor from 1998 to 2002. "We are looking for someone who can take care of Virginians," he said.
In making its endorsement, the Chamber of Commerce referred to Warner as a "champion for the people of Virginia and an invaluable leader on important business issues."
But there are risks in Warner's efforts to build a broad coalition that spans ideological lines. On Monday, Warner declined to take a firm position on whether he supports the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for unions to organize work sites.
Warner did not offer a clear opinion when reporters asked about his stance on allowing police officers to collectively bargain.
"I want to bring both sides together," Warner said.
LOAD-DATE: September 9, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE
IMAGE; As James S. Gilmore III (R), left, unveiled a TV ad, Mark R. Warner (D) picked up endorsements from two groups that usually support the GOP.
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502 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The Washington Post
September 9, 2008 Tuesday
Suburban Edition
'The Original Mavericks,' or 'More of the Same'?
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A06
LENGTH: 710 words
THE AD
The original mavericks. He fights pork-barrel spending. She stopped the "Bridge to Nowhere." He took on the drug industry. She took on Big Oil. He battled Republicans and reformed Washington. She battled Republicans and reformed Alaska. They'll make history. They'll change Washington. McCain. Palin. Real change.
ANALYSIS
John McCain is using this ad to try to reclaim the "maverick" label once routinely attached to his name, before he embraced the Republican right more tightly in seeking the presidential nomination. His running mate, Sarah Palin, can also claim to have taken on her state's Republican Party as Alaska governor, though it is conservative media outlets that most often call her a maverick.
The senator from Arizona has made a crusade of battling pork-barrel "earmarks," but the whopper here is the assertion that Palin opposed her state's notorious Bridge to Nowhere. She endorsed the remote project while running for governor in 2006, claimed to be an opponent only after Congress killed its funding the next year, and has used the $223 million provided for it for other state ventures. Far from being an opponent of earmarks, Palin hired lobbyists to try to capture more federal funding.
McCain can fairly be said to have taken on the drug industry by co-sponsoring a bill to allow imports of cheaper drugs from Canada. Palin presided over a tax on oil company profits and pushed the industry to develop Alaska's natural gas reserves.
To say that McCain "reformed Washington" is an overstatement. He has had limited success, such as on campaign finance legislation, but many of his other efforts, most notably on an attempt to revise immigration laws, have failed. And McCain has changed his position on such issues as President Bush's tax cuts, which he originally opposed but now wants to extend.
The commercial makes it clear that McCain, with the addition of a rookie governor, is no longer running as the candidate of experience. Instead, he is trying to steal the "change" mantra from his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, and appeal to swing voters who are disillusioned with the Republican Party.
THE AD
They call themselves mavericks. Whoa. Truth is, they're anything but. John McCain is hardly a maverick, when seven of his top campaign advisers are Washington lobbyists. He's no maverick when he votes with Bush 90 percent of the time. And Sarah Palin's no maverick, either. She was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. Politicians lying about their records? You don't call that maverick. You call it more of the same.
ANALYSIS
This mocking response ad from Obama tries to tie the Republican ticket to old, conventional politics -- but also has the effect of bringing Obama down a notch, into a debate with McCain's running mate.
McCain's top campaign leadership is packed with former lobbyists, but that is not unusual in presidential races -- Obama's deputy campaign manager is a former lobbyist, and more than three dozen lobbyists have worked for his fundraising team. And McCain took on big lobbies with his successful push for campaign finance revision.
More damaging is the ad's citation of McCain's overwhelming legislative support for President Bush, raising questions as to just how independent he is from the man he is vying to succeed.
The senator from Illinois recycles a 2004 Bush attack line against Democratic nominee John F. Kerry, who had said he was for $87 billion in war funding before he was against it. The ad accurately charges that Palin, who is touting her opposition to the bridge project, originally supported it when she ran for Alaska governor.
Does that amount to politicians "lying" about their records? Palin's description of her role in the bridge funding is highly selective at best. An on-screen headline cites a critique of McCain's ad calling it a "naked lie," but that is from the liberal New Republic magazine. And while McCain may be exaggerating his maverick credentials, that is not evidence of lying.
The commercial's opening shot shows Obama with fellow senator and running mate Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the words "For the Change We Need." That encapsulates the ad's underlying purpose: not to let McCain hijack the change theme that has been at the core of Obama's candidacy.
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503 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The Washington Post
September 9, 2008 Tuesday
Suburban Edition
On Campaign Trail, Tax Issue Is Simple, and Complex
BYLINE: Michael D. Shear and Peter Slevin; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A03
LENGTH: 1036 words
DATELINE: LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo., Sept. 8
As the U.S. housing crisis deepens and job losses accelerate, Sen. John McCain is trying to distill the debate over the economy into a simple, and familiar, message over taxes.
"I'll keep taxes low and cut 'em where I can," the Republican presidential candidate vowed Monday afternoon at a rally in the swing state of Missouri. "My opponent will raise your taxes! My tax cuts will create jobs. His tax increases will eliminate 'em."
McCain's approach is a familiar one for Republicans, who have for years promised to lower taxes and accused Democrats of wanting to raise them. "All you have got to do is appeal to the common sense of the voters. They get it," said Mark Salter, one of McCain's top aides. "Go out there and state your case. It's no more nuanced or complicated that that."
Mindful of the difficulty Democrats have had in countering a tough message on taxes, Sen. Barack Obama has charged that his Republican opponent is purposely steering away from offering the kind of detailed economic policies that voters are craving during hard times.
In Flint, Mich., where unemployment is twice the national average, Obama on Monday promised a cut to 95 percent of taxpayers. He said retirees earning less than $50,000 would pay no taxes on Social Security payments, and he urged Congress to pass a second stimulus package "so that people would have a little more money in their pockets."
Obama also talked about a $4,000 annual tuition tax credit for college, trade schools or retraining classes. He said that he would require employers to set up retirement investment accounts and that the federal government would make a one-time $500 starter contribution for each worker.
In a briefing for reporters on Monday, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe also described the economy as McCain's "huge Achilles' heel" and the central question in voters' minds. "On the economy, more and more so every day, people want a clear departure," from the policies of President Bush, Plouffe said.
But the advantage Obama has enjoyed for months on the economy appears to be fading as the Democratic candidate tries to make the more complicated argument to voters: Some taxes will go up, others will go down. Big corporations and the rich will pay more, but the middle class will pay less.
In a Washington Post-ABC News poll, Obama's edge on the economy has slipped to only five percentage points, a low for the campaign.
"He's a very smart guy and clever," McCain aide Salter said of Obama. "The way he describes things, it's always a little bit of this, a little bit of that. The fact is, he's proposing tax increases."
According to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, Obama and McCain are both proposing tax plans that would result in cuts for most families. All taxpayers would receive a cut under McCain's plan. Taxes for those who make less than $226,982 would go down under Obama's proposal and they would rise for those who make more than $603,403. Obama would give the biggest cuts to those who make the least, while McCain would give the largest cuts to the very wealthy.
When talking about the economy, Obama typically moves beyond taxes and jobs to wrap in his call for new energy sources and affordable health care, arguing that both are connected to people's pocketbooks. In Flint, for example, he suggested that unemployed young people could be hired to insulate homes against harsh winters, teaching them a trade and providing a service.
Obama always talks about his proposal to spend $150 billion in federal tax money in the next 10 years on renewable fuels. He argues that it will ease the dependence on foreign oil, help the environment and create millions of jobs. Similarly, he said federal investment in roads and rails will produce jobs and make the U.S. more competitive.
In his stump speech, McCain also regularly goes beyond taxes, talking about the need for a new energy policy that will create thousands of jobs in the U.S. by building nuclear power plants, shifting to a new generation of electric-powered cars and increasing off-shore drilling, a pledge that invariably leads to a chant of "Drill, baby, drill!" from crowds. McCain regularly draws "boos" when the Republican accuses Obama of wanting to raise taxes.
McCain's embrace of Republican purists on taxes is somewhat ironic, given his history of being viewed with suspicion by anti-tax activists who accused him of betraying their cause by voting against President Bush's tax cut proposals early in the administration.
McCain's refusal to pledge not to ever raise taxes and his efforts to reform the campaign finance system made an enemy out of anti-tax crusaders like Grover Norquist. But Norquist and others have now rallied to McCain's side, prompted in part by his new, tough rhetoric on their key issue.
As they clashed on taxes, McCain and Obama also continued their war of words over who would be best able to bring change to Washington.
McCain accused Obama of pandering to the "extreme left" during the Democratic primaries, saying that the Democratic nominee once said he would reduce spending on weapons systems and now says that he will spend more on them.
"Mr. Obama told the extreme left whatever they wanted to hear during the primary," McCain said at the Missouri rally. "Now he's trying to tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear."
The McCain campaign released a new television ad touting the Republican ticket as a pair of mavericks and highlighting, among other things, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's move to stop "the Bridge to Nowhere."
In Michigan, Obama stood in front of three gasoline-electric hybrid SUVs and renewed his criticism of Palin for her claim that she opposes congressional earmarks and rejected the Alaska bridge.
"When she was mayor, she hired a Washington lobbyist to get earmarks, pork-barrel spending. All the things John McCain says are bad, she lobbied to get. And got a whole lot of it," Obama said. He added that she favored the bridge "until everybody started raising a fuss about it," and "suddenly, she was against it."
"I mean, you cant just make stuff up," Obama said. "You can't just reinvent yourself. The American people aren't stupid."
LOAD-DATE: September 9, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; In Lee's Summit, Mo., John McCain said his opponent would raise taxes.
IMAGE; By Rebecca Cook -- Reuters; In Flint, Mich., Barack Obama said 95 percent of U.S. taxpayers would foot a smaller bill with him in the White House.
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504 of 972 DOCUMENTS
Washingtonpost.com
September 9, 2008 Tuesday 1:00 PM EST
Station Break;
Today's Pop Culture
BYLINE: Paul Farhi, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4331 words
HIGHLIGHT: If it's on the dial, over the air, on cable, or just plain Out There, it's fair game for Station Break with Paul Farhi. Bring your comments to the conversation on America's Fastest Growing Pop Culture Chat. He was online Tuesday, Sept. 9.
If it's on the dial, over the air, on cable, or just plain Out There, it's fair game for Station Break with Paul Farhi. Bring your comments to the conversation on America's Fastest Growing Pop Culture Chat. He was online Tuesday, Sept. 9.
A transcript follows.
Farhi is a reporter in The Post's Style section, writing about media and popular culture. He's been watching TV and listening to the radio since "The Monkees" were in first run and Adam West was a star. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Los Angeles, Farhi had brief stints in the movie business (as an usher at the Picwood Theater), and in the auto industry (rental-car lot guy) before devoting himself fulltime to word processing. His car has 15 radio pre-sets and his cable system has 500 channels. He vows to use all of them for good instead of evil.
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Paul Farhi: Greetings, all, and welcome back...Well, I don't really want to turn this into a bash-the-media session (Esteemed Colleague Howie Kurtz has that territory ably covered), but I do think the massive ratings for the Dem and Repub conventions have told us something. And what they have told us is that some of the media's pre-convention--that the conventions are over-covered, news-free infomercials for the political parties--was really off the mark. "Over-covered?" Maybe, but there was obviously plenty of interest in what the candidates and the parties were doing and saying. "News-free"? Not a chance--Obama's speech at Invesco Field, McCain's naming of Sarah Palin as his running mate (and her convention debut), etc. were huge stories. "Infomercials"? Well, sure, but why denigrate infomercials? They sell stuff, often very cleverly and effectively. Tens of millions of people clearly wanted to learn more about the goods on offer. All in all, very much worth covering, and maybe worth covering more than the itty bitty hour handed over each night by the broadcast networks (and zero by Fox).
And now I await your why-is-the-liberal-media-bashing-Sarah-Palin queries. Let's go to the phones.
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Late night NPR listener: Are things so vapid now that Sarah Palin is now the most famous celebrity in the world? I'd love to see the Obama attack ad using Britney Spears and Paris Hilton now!
Paul Farhi: Not the most famous, and not the most vapid, and why complain in the first place? Palin was unknown just a few days ago; now she's the proverbial heartbeat away from the candidate who would be president. Inquiring minds (and even many lazy ones, too) want to know.
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MSNBC: Any thoughts on the Great Anchor Purge of 2008?
washingtonpost.com: Liberal Blogs Assail Anchor Changes (Washington Post, Sept. 9)
Paul Farhi: Good move for journalism, bad move for TV. There were no indications--ratings-wise--that the Olbermann-Matthews combo was hurting MSNBC. In fact, MSNBC has been staking out a niche as the anti-Fox News Channel, with O and M leading the charge. And no other network got as much buzz and publicity during the convention as MSNBC for all its off-mic antics. All in all, it made MSNBC watchable in a way that it has never been.
Journalistically, however, the whole circus is/was indefensible. Even Fox News knows it's a going too far to put O'Reilly and/or Hannity in the anchor chair for big news stories like primaries and election nights. I know the walls between commentary and reporting are falling fast, but let's at least try to maintain the appearance of standards.
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FRINGE: So... not so good, huh? Here's me: I love other JJ Abrams shows like ALIAS and LOST, but I hate sci fi stuff like X FILES. Is this a show for me, or no?
Paul Farhi: It's not entirely sci-fi-ish, but it definitely gets into the "paranormal" and other hogwash. I mean, the title tells you what you need to know about its take on science--i.e., "fringe" science. Which is to say, not science.
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washingtonpost.com: 'Fringe' Teeters On the Edge Of Nowhere (Washington Post, Sept. 9)
Paul Farhi: And here's a link to the review of the show, courtesy of my brilliant producer....
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Bashing?: She would have to come out from behind the Republican Curtain to be bashed. I mean, the sheer effrontery of me wanting to see her interact in a dynamic question and answer session! I am such an elitist.
Will the media do its job of calling this what it is, or cower in fear of being called names?
Paul Farhi: I think the media's doing just fine, thanks. There's been a healthy pushback against the McCain campaign's assertion that reporters owe Gov. Palin "deference." We don't owe anyone deference. Politeness/courtesy, sure. But no one has named Palin queen yet.
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Arlington VA: Is WJFK the last spot where local talk can be found?
Excuse me -- local talk not broadcast by Wee Danny Snyder, that is.
As someone who remembers WRC-980 ("Joel A. Spivak, speaking!"), the execrable Chris Core (but the -local- Chris Core), and numerous other spots, I'm left to the locker-room antics of WJFK. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you.
I actually enjoy the midday show of Big O and Dukes; they have a LOT of preoccupations that I hate (martial arts and electronic games), but the chemistry seems genuine, and on repeated listenings, they're smarter than they act.
I wish the same could said of the Junkies, who are starting to sound tired. And although I like the fresh air of the PM drive show, O'Meara just doesn't seem to be able to carry a show -- there's somebody who's LABORING to entertain, always a bad sign.
What are your thoughts? Since they're the only local talk, they're all I've go to talk about. . . .
Paul Farhi: Yes, WJFK does a certain kind of talk--guy talk. And being a guy who likes to talk, I like the programs, generally. But there's plenty o' talk elsewhere. WMAL has Rush and Hannity and used to have Chris Core. WAMU has NPR and Diane Rehm and Kojo Nnamdi and Terry Gross. WPFW has all kinds of lefty talk. Even the news stations, WTOP and WFED have it, too. Check it out.
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Cleveland Park, Washington, DC: Paul -
You get the first page of Style and Shales gets C7? Who do you have compromising pictures of?
Paul Farhi: I'd like to think Tom had an off day, but Tom doesn't have off days. Next thought: Maybe I wrote a good review?
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NoVa: Why did 94.7 change their somewhat unique format to bland, top 40, cookie cutter classic rock?
Paul Farhi: Well, same answer as always: Ratings/money. The old eclectic format really wasn't moving the needle. As much as I'd like radio to take a few chances (and the old WTGB took 'em), the mass audience doesn't. The mass audience likes predictable formats and playlists. The old WTGB wasn't that, exactly...
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Alexandria, Va: You ready for some particle acceleration?
washingtonpost.com: Mysteries of universe to be probed in giant project (Reuters, Sept. 9)
Paul Farhi: We were talking about this yesterday. I don't really understand the whole thing except that there's a small chance that the collisions in the accelerator could lead to a black hole that will swallow the Earth and all life upon it. That kind of gets your attention.
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Waldorf, MD: I have to weigh in. The new Microsoft commercials with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld are beyond horrible. Seinfeld is so insufferably smug he makes Gates seem likable, which should be an impossible task.
Paul Farhi: I'm sure Seinfeld would prefer "charmingly quirky" for himself and his new commercial. But I'd go your way on this one.
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Palin's Pregnancy Problems: What was the age of her daughter at time of the baby's conception?
I have not heard any media questions on statutory rape charges.
washingtonpost.com: Judging from a little Googling, Bristol (17) and Levi (18) have nothing to worry about, as the age of consent in Alaska is 16 and there is less than a 3-year age difference between them. Marriage is allowed at 18, or younger with parental permission - Elizabeth (producer, not lawyer...)
Paul Farhi: See, I told you my producer was brilliant...
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Baltimore, MD: Have you seen the pro-high fructose corn syrup ads that have been running on various channels, including ABC Family (paid for by the Corn Refiners of America)? They take appalling to a whole new level. I don't have the stomach to go to their web site but I'm sure it's more propaganda about how HFCS is just as healthy as honey.
washingtonpost.com: I'll do it for you:
Paul Farhi: I haven't seen the commercials, but I have seen the full-page ad (in today's Post), which makes more or less the same point. Thing is, I don't know enough about nutrition and HFCS to be appalled but I like these ads for one reason: They make me want to find out what's really going on. So, by raising the topic, the Corn Refiners of America may invite more outrage than support.
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Silver Spring, Md.: I really liked the old 94.7 format! Now I have to redo my radio station presets in my car. Which of course is why radio stations are right to pay no attention to me - I only listen to the radio when I'm in the car, which is for maybe an hour a week. Maybe. Tops.
Paul Farhi: I very rarely listen to radio outside of my car. But since I'm in a car for quite a few hours a week, it may be one of my most-used media sources.
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Herndon, Va: Mr. F: I'm not sure about Ms. Palin - if she's VP do the Station Break singers and dancers no longer have a choice? Since you're an expert on "pop culture," where's the geographic dividing line at which a Coke/Pepsi/7-UP/whatever changes from a bottle of "soda" to a bottle of "pop"? It's "soda" on the East Coast, but, someplace west of the Alleghenies, it becomes "pop."
washingtonpost.com: Ohio, I think. My college roommate was from Ohio and she would often come back to our fancy Northeastern school after break with several cases of soda and she insisted we call it "pop" since it was imported from Ohio. But then when does it change back to soda going west? - Elizabeth
Paul Farhi: Growing up on the East and West Coasts (Brooklyn and Los Angeles), it was always "soda." "Pop" does seem to be a mid-western thing. My southern friends add another wrinkle: A soda--of any kind--is a "Coke" (i.e., Dr. Pepper or 7-Up is generically a "Coke" when ordering in a restaurant or asking for it in a store).
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Herndon, Va: If anyone cares, until some time in the 1960s in Massachusetts, the minimum age for a "woman" to be married was 12 or 13 (the law went back to Colonial times and was finally changed).
washingtonpost.com: Here is a useful chart giving the age of consent, not only in the 50 states, but around the world. Stay safe, folks.
Paul Farhi: I'm wondering who exactly would need a chart like that. Those polygamist cult people in Texas maybe?
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Silver Spring: Did JJ Abrams sleep through the 90s? Guy+Girl+FBI+paranormal storylines... I think we all know what "Fringe" will be relentlessly compared to. All the rip-offs circa 1996/1997 didn't fare so well, so why does anyone think it'll fly now?
Although, they do say that there are no new ideas, and what matters is what you do with them. But from reading your review, it doesn't sound like they did much.
Paul Farhi: Well, of course, others can disagree. And from what I've seen elsewhere, "Fringe" has gotten very mixed reviews. So others obviously do disagree.
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washingtonpost.com: Here's that link to the high fructose corn syrup site: SweetSurprise.com
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HFCS: has a chemical in it that tells your brain you are not full, so you eat more and get fat.
one more reason not to eat it
and why of all things are they eating popsicles in a park to show a food with HFCS?
is this on the line of a viagra commercial and the shape of that pill?
Paul Farhi: See, I dunno about all this, and I'm certainly not vouchsafing for you. I DO know that a) we've had an explosion of obesity in the past 20, 30 years; and b) there's a lot of HFCS in the products we consume. I'm not asserting a causation between a) and b), but we do know that HFCS isn't exactly slimming, either.
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"Pop" Culture: Also, Rochester, NY...this wonderfully random pocket of the midwest where the word 'pop' is used, but extends neither west to Buffalo or east to Syracuse.
Paul Farhi: Noted...Let's start drawing our "Pop-Soda-Coke" map....
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Atlanta, GA:"A soda--of any kind--is a 'Coke'...."
This is greatly misunderstood by my Yankee friends, who like to use it to make the case that all southerners are brain-damaged.
Yes "Coke" is often substituted as a generic term for soft drink, but you wouldn't order a "Coke" in a restaurant when you really want a Sprite.
Paul Farhi: Oh. Now I'm so confused...
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Pop is not midwestern: I grew up in Buffalo and it was pop, not soda. Maybe it's a Great Lakes thing?
Paul Farhi: I think we can lock in the Great Lakes as pop-centric...
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Pop or Soda questi, ON:"Tonic" in at least parts of New England. Or at least it used to be that way; maybe the homogenization of American culture has made that another artifact of a bygone age.
washingtonpost.com: ooh... memories of hearing the Labor Day sale ads for "15 flavahs of tauwnic at Stah Mahket" signaling the end of summer vacation...
Paul Farhi: Okay, that's just weird. Tonic?
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Silver Spring, MD: The "pop line" is farther east than Ohio; I was confused when I went to school in Pittsburgh and that's all they referred to the beverage as. It must extend at least as far as midway through Pennsylvania.
Paul Farhi: Could the Mason-Dixon line have anything to do with this? ...Okay, I didn't think so, either.
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"Ms. Palin": Why is it "Ms." Palin but "Mrs." Clinton? Of the two, Gov. Palin certainly seems more "married."
Is the "Ms." simply being used to diminish her the way Angry Left commenters always use "Sir"?
Paul Farhi: Never thought of it, and certainly never thought of it THAT way. You're saying that "Sir" is a loaded partisan word? As Ross Perot might have said (maybe it was Dana Carvey AS Ross Perot): That's just sad. (If true).
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Co, LA: Re: "Pop" vs. "Soda" -- someone has done the research:
http://popvssoda.com:2998/countystats/total-county.html
washingtonpost.com: The link that chatter sent didn't work for me, but this Pop Vs. Soda Map is truly impressive.
Paul Farhi: Rats. I was hoping the Vast StationBreak Nation would wiki this subject to greatness. The people, united, will never be defeated. Unless the internet already has done it for the people.
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I'm wondering who exactly would need a chart like that. Those polygamist cult people in Texas maybe? : I had a friend who kept calling me while hiking the Appalachian trail, asking the age of consent in Virginia, then Pennsylvania, etc.
I learned more about my friend while he was off hiking the trail than I cared to know.
Paul Farhi: Oy!
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Soda vs. Pop: A couple of posts on this. First, when I traveled the rural South years ago some old-timers would call a soda a "dope", which hearkens back to the very beginning of the product's history ( "Coca-Cola" was named for the coca leaf, "Seven-Up" contained lithium, etc). Good times!
Also, when my father was a boy in the '50s, the corner grocery store once had the following ad posted in the window - "We don't know where Mom is, but we've got Pop on ice!"
Paul Farhi: Haha! Great sign.
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Arlington, VA: Paul, re: convention coverage, I actually got annoyed at the major stations and watched mostly on CSPAN, with PBS as my first choice for commentary. The other stations were wasting too much time with pundits repeating the talking point du jour instead of doing useful commentary or showing speeches that I actually wanted to hear.
By the way, please convey my appreciation to your colleagues who covered the convention and continue to cover the campaign. I realized last week that I am learning virtually nothing from the TV news but am getting much important information from the articles you folks are writing.
Paul Farhi: Newspapers: Still your best info-value!
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Decoding the Seinfeld Spot: Truth in Advertising:
Windows Vista is like The Conquistador shoe in the spot: it doesn't really fit, you have to manipulate it to get it into use at all, and you'll wind up coming back year after year for updates.
Paul Farhi: Plus, like the actual Conquistadors, it'll give everyone around it a virus, which could be fatal.
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"Ms. Palin": Shouldn't it be "Gov. Palin" anyway? Or at least just "Palin," it's not like anyone says "Mr. Obama" or "Mr. McCain."
Paul Farhi: If we're doing honorifics, maybe we should just stick to Sen. McCain, Sen. Obama, Sen. Biden and Gov. Palin. But I got no problem with Mr., Mrs., Ms. and Sir. Madam, on the other hand, does seem a bit much.
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Rats in DC: Have you seen the commercials from the Health Dept in DC talking about the rat problem? It is hilarious.
Paul Farhi: Not exactly a problem that shouts "hilarity," but do tell...
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Philadelphia: I assumed (broadly) that "Ms." Palin is an effort to appeal to progressive women who would otherwise be appalled by her policies, and "Mrs." Clinton was an effort to appeal to more conservative women who would otherwise be appalled by her policies...
Paul Farhi: Ah. Now I get it. "Mrs." Clinton also has an implied reference to Bill, whereas "Ms." Palin implicitly makes Todd Palin a non-entity. Don't know how that plays politically, if it plays at all.
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Alexandria: Equally bad as the Seinfeld commercial, I saw a clay-mation mess of a Chips Ahoy commercial the other day, that used Rod Stewart's "If You Think I'm Sexy" song. Now, I'm far from his biggest fan, but how could any self respecting artist allow their material to be used for such dreck?
Paul Farhi: But plenty of "self-respecting artists," including the Beatles, have sold out to sell dreck for years. This line was crossed many, many years ago, when "Revolution" was used in a Nike commercial.
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transplanted American (soda) in London: Over here, they're "fizzy drinks" (which makes me think of Alka Seltzer, although I'm only 30 - I don't think I ever actually saw those commercials as a kid, but I know the jingle!), and lemonades are often carbonated sodas.
Paul Farhi: Thanks, London. I noticed that the Brits also refer to the beverage industry as the "drinks" business. I mean, yeah, they're drinks, but this just seemed slightly off-center to my American eyes.
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Herndon, Va: The "soda/pop" map was great. As a native Nebraskan, though, I find it strange that there's one spot of yellow there (a not "pop" area) - however, that's Cherry County, with slightly more than 6,000 people in an area bigger than Connecticut - no doubt only 3 people were interviewed, and they had migrated from Back East.
Paul Farhi: So, you'd put all of Nebraska back in the "pop" column? Maybe our wiki soda-map idea still has a future!
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M(r)s. Pal, IN: Perhaps the reader is bouncing between the NYT and other papers/sites. The NYT still insists on honorifics in all of their articles, Ms. for women and Mr. for men. It leads to hilarious articles in the music section about Mr. Dogg (Snoop) or Mr. Rock (Kid). I have no idea what they call Ms. Cher or Ms. Madonna.
Paul Farhi: I wonder what the NYT's style is for various heinous and reprehensible historical people. Mr. Hitler? Mr. (Attila the) Hun? Mr. Ivan the Terrible?
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This line was crossed many, many years ago, when "Revolution" was used in a Nike commercial. : Yes, and who do we have to thank for that? Why, Michael Jackson, who bought their song catalog when it hit the open market. Got to pay for the Neverland upkeep and legal fees somehow...
washingtonpost.com: Michael Jackson, now 50 years old!
Paul Farhi: Actually, we can "thank" the Beatles (and their heirs) for putting the catalog on the market in the first place. They could have placed restrictions on the use of the songs (no commercials, no use in circus acts, etc.) but they apparently didn't, as this would have lowered the value of the catalog.
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Alexandria: Ah, but my point is, if you're going to sell out, then at least be a little discriminating. The Nike ads at least were sleek and well-designed. The Bob Seeger Chevy ads are catchy and appeal to their target audience. This Chips Ahoy thing was non-sensical and looked like it was done by an art class of schizophrenics.
Paul Farhi: Okay, how about the California Raisins and their use of the Temptations' likeness and "Heard it Through the Grapevine"? On paper, seems dreck-y. In practice, amusing and charming.
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Pop in Rochester: Mr. Pop in Rochester doesn't know ---- !
All Buffalonians say pop. All of Western New York does.
Paul Farhi: Mr. Chairman, the great semi-state of Western New York, home of Tim Russert, the thrice-Super Bowl-losing Buffalo Bills, and snowfall up to your eyeballs, casts all of its votes for "pop"!
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Pop vs. soda: Hope I'm not to late to get in on this. I think it breaks somewhere around the Great Lakes. I grew up with "pop" in central Ohio, and had a college friend from Buffalo who said it, but I lived briefly in Cincinnati and was mocked by "soda" people just as much as at my East Coast college. (I soon caved and adopted "soda." Conformist.)
Paul Farhi: So it appears that one of the pop-soda dividing lines may be somewhere west of Columbus... And "soda" people: More intolerant than kindly "pop" people?
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"I wonder what the NYT's style is for various heinous and reprehensible historical people. Mr. Hitler? Mr. (Attila the) Hun? Mr. Ivan the Terrible?": They don't use "Mr." for dead people. I often read the classical music articles, and they never say "Mr. Beethoven", it's just "Beethoven". Since Hitler, Attila and Ivan are dead... no Mr. for them.
You have to be a living heinous person, e.g., "Mr. Manson" (Charles) was used earlier this year.
Paul Farhi: Excellent distinction. Mr. Manson will be so pleased.
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Another drink-related question: Has anyone but a menu writer EVER called it a "soft drink"?
Paul Farhi: Haha! That's like weather-person talk: Does anyone but them call it "precipitation," or worse, "precip"?
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Wheaton, MD: Paul, is Lou Dobbs Howard Beale of "Network" come to life? CNN is running ads for Lou Dobbs' Independent Convention "now that the other parties have had THEIR say". Look up "chutzpah" in Webster's and there's Lou's picture.
Paul Farhi: He's got the same scowl as Howard Beale, that's for sure. I saw him the other night and he seemed to have developed three extra scowl lines. How does he do it? Practice, I guess.
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"Sir": It's how Olbermann and the commenters on Post articles refer to people they think are evil...you know, people who don't share their opinions.
O'Reilly probably does it to Libs too, but he's way too over the top for me for me to watch and verify.
Paul Farhi: What are we saying here? That "sir" has been hijacked by snide liberals to denigrate non-liberals? Calling someone "sir" is denigration? Should change the name of the 1960s Sidney Poitier movie to "To [Tool of the All-Powerful Teachers' Unions], With Love"?
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Herndon, VA: I was an Army brat and figure I've heard a hundred different distinctions for a soft drink. I find myself using Coke, pop and soda interchangeably. Try it, it's fun!
Paul Farhi: At the very least, doing so would irritate every region of the country equally. Fair IS fair.
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Burke, Va: I went to Penn State, and it was pretty evenly divided between soda-ites (from Philly) and poppers (from Pittsburgh). So I nominate State College, PA as the East/West continental soda divide.
Paul Farhi: Y'know, there's a bit of legit sociology here. Colleges, particularly big 'uns like Penn State, collect people from all around a region and from out of state. So, they become crossroads for stuff like this. Maybe they need to be excluded from the pop-soda-Coke map altogether as aberrations.
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Arlington, VA: If we're doing a pop-soda map, don't we also need a sub/hero/hoagie/poboy/what-else-am-I-missing map?
Paul Farhi: OMG. Can o' worms there, so to speak. I am both a hero (NY) and a sub (CA) guy....
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Arlington, VA: Actually I usually see and hear Governor Palin and also hear the very dismissive "Hillary" instead of Senator Clinton. I'm not sure what your poster is talking about. See how many times Senator Clinton is called Hillary and contrast that with anything like Sarah or Ms. Palin.
Paul Farhi: Yes, this topic got a good airing many months ago during the pre-primary days on the very fine NPR show "On the Media." There was much debate over whether calling Clinton "Hillary" was dismissive and disrespectful, or simply a way to distinguish her from Bill, another famous person who shares her last name. Personally, I am neutral, in a pop-soda-hoagie-hero sort of way.
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Paul Farhi: Folks, I know the pop-soda debate is ripping our country apart right now, but all this talk has made me hungry and thirsty. So I'm walking on you. But never fear. There's much more to talk about, and we'll do it again in two weeks. Thanks for this week's fun. In the meantime, regards to all....Paul.
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Washingtonpost.com
September 9, 2008 Tuesday 12:00 PM EST
Chatological Humor: Eating While Chatting? That's Okay. (UPDATED 9.10.08);
aka Tuesdays With Moron
BYLINE: Gene Weingarten, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 9694 words
HIGHLIGHT: Daily Updates: WED
Daily Updates: WED
Gene Weingarten's humor column, Below the Beltway, appears every Sunday in The Washington Post magazine. It is syndicated nationally by the Washington Post Writers Group.
At one time or another, Below the Beltway has managed to offend persons of both sexes as well as individuals belonging to every religious, ethnic, regional, political and socioeconomic group. If you know of a group we have missed, please write in and the situation will be promptly rectified. "Rectified" is a funny word.
On Tuesdays at noon, Weingarten is online to take your questions and abuse. He will chat about anything. Although this chat is updated regularly throughout the week, it is not and never will be a "blog," even though many persons keep making that mistake. One reason for the confusion is the Underpants Paradox: Blogs, like underpants, contain "threads," whereas this chat contains no "threads" but, like underpants, does sometimes get funky and inexcusable.
This Week's Poll: MEN | WOMEN
Important, secret note to readers: The management of The Washington Post apparently does not know this chat exists, or it would have been shut down long ago. Please do not tell them. Thank you.
Weingarten is also the author of "The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death" and co-author of "I'm with Stupid," with feminist scholar Gina Barreca.
New to Chatological Humor? Read the FAQ.
P.S. If composing your questions in Microsoft Word please turn off the Smart Quotes functionality. I haven't the time to edit them out. -- Liz
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Gene Weingarten: Good afternoon.
So, white women voters: The polls say 20 percent of you have shifted to McCain now that he has placed a white woman on the ticket, even if that white woman would put the cause of women back a few decades. You want to explain yourselves, white women voters? We are all ears.
(I'm guessing not many of you 20 percent are within the reach of these pixels.)
Okay, okay, this is probably just a momentary emotional convention bounce in a highly volatile election year. So relax, everyone. The only thing we know for absolute certain is this -- in the end, this thing is going to be decided by idiots.
Follow my thinking here:
We are presented with two tickets that offer the voters as clear a choice as any we've had in most of our lifetimes. On one side there is a ticket that is pretty darn conservative, on the other, one that is pretty darn liberal. At the top, it's youth v. experience. Pro-choice v. anti-abortion. Universal health care v. no universal health care. Stay in Iraq v. Leave Iraq. School vouchers v. No school vouchers. Gun control v. No Gun Control. It's black v. white. (Literally, too!)
You would think that with so clear a choice, everyone would have made up his or her mind by now. For example, everyone YOU know has made up his mind. But, nope:
There remains, as there always remains, a gradually dwindling core of people who are undecided. The undecideds! They just can't figure this durn thang out! Or they haven't thought much about it, what with one thing or another. The Undecideds are like The Undead: sightless, thoughtless, zombie-like, wandering the Earth, arms extended, staggering, drooling, trying to find the voting booth where they will bump into one lever or the other.
In the end, these are the folks who will decide this thing. Isn't that comforting?
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Now, I am not one to criticize anyone else's voice. But after a week long search to discover What Sarah Palin Sounds like, and with the help of some friends, I have now figured it out. Sarah Palin is Principal Victoria.
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In The Gene Pool last week I called for poetry about Palin. This rather remarkable piece was produced seriatim by GaryL1. Only lightly edited, it is a fine bit of doggerel despite a rather abrupt rupture of rhyme scheme midway through:
The Ballad of John McCain
In order to steal the votes of the lasses I'll choose a young woman with schoolteacher's glasses
She governs a state. She's a much-breeding mother. Flies airplanes with one hand, shoots wolves with the other.
She can bring down a moose using rifle or pistol, While arranging a love match 'tween Levi and Bristol.
Denies global warming. (Al Gore couldn't fool her!) It's not getting warmer, the earth's getting cooler!
A conservative Christian determined to win, she wears her poor babe like a flag lapel pin.
All-in-all, she's my pick, I do really love her She makes my heart tick, Only Cindy's above her.
We'll reach across aisles with tooth-sharpened smiles To the folks that we savaged and the country we ravaged.
Her baby, my scars, and the stripes and the stars proudly waving, we'll win the White House and then
I'll be freed from my demon ambition and die, leaving Sarah the Pit Bull. -Good luck! And good bye!
----
This exciting page was brought to my attention by John Maynard, my friend at Newseum.
---
Here is the sweet Clip Of the Day, courtesy Heather Moline.
And here is the sour Clip of the Day, courtesy Henry Chen. I'd like to call it wretched excess, but it's better described as self parody.
Please take today's poll (MEN | WOMEN). Mens' predilections, and women's assessment of men's predilections seem to jibe nicely. The best single result is with the battery and the tongue. Boys do it, and girls don't, in roughly equal majorities. Not very surprising news there, I'd say. Remember the Dave Barry column in which he discussed the three men who suffered serious injury one day because they decided, while a little drunk, to see what would happen if they went down a ski jump in a canoe?
Same impulse.
The Comic Pick of the Week is Wednesday's Rhymes With Orange. First Runner-Up: Monday's Pearls. Honorables: Monday's Speed Bump, Thursday's Orange, Thursday's Sally Forth, Friday's Doonesbury.
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Alexandria, Va.: It's my daughter's birthday. Would you write her a poem? We like the double-dactyl style you do so well. Her name is Lily, and she thinks poo is hilarious.
Gene Weingarten: People like you make me sick. Sure you WANT a poem. Join the club, pal. But that's where your part of the deal ends for you, doesn't it, daddy-o? Are you ready to deliver any pertinent information to INFORM a poem? No. "Write me a poem, rhyme-boy, but don't expect me to, like, give you any help." You're like the ignoramuses in the audience yelling at Dylan to sing "Free Bird." It is sicking how fine artists such as myself are treated by the unwashed multitudes. Higgledy Piggledy Lily-With-No-Last-Name What is her age? We have Nary a clue. Hair color? Mystery! Ditto, ethnicity. Garbage in, garbage out: Lily likes poo.
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Alameda, Calif.: Last week's comments about smells evoking emotions made me think about how certain sounds do the same for me. For example, a vacuum cleaner sounds angry to me because our house was generally a mess and cleaning only happened in chaotic fits. My wife thinks it sounds pleasant and comforting because her single mom spent a lot of time away from home working and cleaning was a "together" activity they did when she was home. Any sounds that have a feel for you?
Gene Weingarten: I don't like dogs screaming in pain. Hey, in the Gene Pool yesterday, when I asked for things that make people's skin crawl, several people mentioned two pieces of Styrofoam rubbing together. Also, two people said that the feel of a popsicle stick in their mouth makes their mouth feel terribly dry and crackly. One person said for the same reason, she can't cook with a wooden spoon.
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Lin, KS: In the intro, the link for Monday's Speed Bump is a repeat of the link for Monday's Pearls.
washingtonpost.com: It's fixed now. My bad.
Gene Weingarten: Okay.
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Commando: I'm under no delusions about my marvelously human husband, but I know he's unlikely to wear his underpants two days in a row. He's usually more than happy just to go without.
But pee in the sink? Please, one night after he over-indulged, I had to body check him to prevent him from peeing on my entire shoe wardrobe.
The sink looks downright polite after that.
Gene Weingarten: I'm not sure I've ever been loaded enough to pee in a closet. Ever. This does remind me of the great "gold urinal" joke. Man comes home stinking drunk. His wife accuses him of seeing another woman, but he shwearsh he was at a nightclub alone. Yeah, what nightclub. "I don' remember," the guy says, but it was on 14th Street an' they had gold carpeting, an' gold shot glasses an' even a solid-gold urinal." He passes out but the wife is still really suspicious. So she starts calling nightclubs on 14th street asking about gold carpeting. Finally one place says, yeah, they have gold colored carpeting. "Uh, do you have gold colored shot glasses, too?" "Matter of fact, we do." "And, uh, do you by any chance have a solid-gold urinal?" She hears the man cover his phone and shout out to someone else: "Hey, Louis, I think we have a lead on the guy who peed in your saxophone."
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Nine volt on the tongue: I wonder how many women who put the battery on their tongues have brothers? I'm one of the minority who had, and I think I can safely say that I never, ever would have done it if my brother hadn't dared me to.
Gene Weingarten: I bet you are onto something there.
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Onthethro, NE: Gene, Your link last week to a Sunday "Pickles" comic strip (whose punchline referenced the bathroom necessities "one" and "two") has led me to ask...what about "three," which, umm, combines a one and a two? Let's face it, this often occurs. This has long been an inside joke between my betrothed and me. Say we're watching TV and a commercial comes on. If one of us so much as rises from the sofa, the other will invariably arch his or her eyebrow and suggestively ask, "Number three?" Therefore I ask: have we created the newest catchphrase for the 21st century?
Gene Weingarten: I think it's funnier to think that a "three" is a male orgasm.
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Fred from New Orleans: Hello Gene,
Back from the evacuation and waiting on Ike. Missed your last Tuesday chat and I just hope that we will talk about something funny today. Not politics--not that politics can't be funny.
Great poll, more in line from what I would want from you.
I do have an observation/question for you and the audience. Can your spouse, specifically the female, side tolerate a small picture of dear old mum on the night stand?
When I unpacked I found a small pix of my late mother, sharply attired in her Marine Corp uniform circa 1945. I put it on the night stand next to ME. Spouse was rather adamant that I remove the pix to my office or other place. So the temporary comprise is that I turned the pix around. I suppose I will move it to a different place in the name of marital harmony.
Loving spouse did love her late MIL so that is not the issue. And since you did not ask but are about to do so, no, it would make no difference to me if she put a pix of her mother next to the bed.
What say you Gene and others?
(signed)
Fred
Gene Weingarten: So mom is watching you have sex? Your wife is right. You are lucky she didn't leave you.
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Bethesda, Md.: If you're going to link to Monday's Pearls Before Swine, you also have to link to Monday's Hi and Lois. Coincidence?
Gene Weingarten: Wow. I did not know. No, this is clear collusion. And it makes both of them funnier.
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Undecided: "We are presented with two tickets that offer the voters as clear a choice as any we've had in most of our lifetimes. On one side there is a ticket that is pretty darn conservative, on the other, one that is pretty darn liberal. At the top, it's youth v. experience. Pro-choice v. anti-abortion. Universal health care v. no universal health care. Stay in Iraq v. Leave Iraq. School vouchers v. No school vouchers. Gun control v. No Gun Control. It's black v. white. (Literally, too!)"
Do you not think it is possible for an intelligent person to agree with your position on some, but not all, of these issues?
For instance, Obama now says that we need to stay in Iraq (at least for a while). Is he an idiot?
Gene Weingarten: I do. I think that is the Great Fallacy in my argument, but I am not man enough to admit it.
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Washington, D.C.: OK, I have an etiquette question that I need your advice on. Is it OK to leave your cart in line at the grocery store while you go back and get something else, and then expect to get back in line where you were? I've always been under the impression that if you leave the line, you leave it and then get back in at the end -- that's what I've been doing. Apparently, not everyone thinks this, as evidenced by the argument I got into at the store last night. Have I been wrong on this? Is it actually OK to leave your cart as a placeholder in line while you go off and do more shopping? Can I start doing this everywhere I go?
Gene Weingarten: I contend it is okay only in very specific circumstances: 1. There is ZERO chance your cart will get to the cashier before you get back. Because that merits corporal punishment. 2. You seek and receive specific permission from the person behind you. At the very least this person needs notification that you have not disappeared, and that you will be right back. This person must agree to push your cart forward should the need arise.
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Kensington, Md: Gene, as a white woman, I can't explain the Palin bump at all. She terrifies me, not just as a religous extremist, but also as a moron. Really dumb. So she's a right-wing idiot. Oh, and a compulsive liar. And a bit of a thief.
Gene Weingarten: See next post.
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Huh?: "even if that white woman would put the cause of women back a few decades"
I suppose you're talking about the killing of unborn children, half of whom will grown up to be women.
Typical.
Gene Weingarten: So, there's that.
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Arlington, Va.: Admit it, when the century turned the Red Sox took over the Yankees spot and the Yankees are now playing the role of the Red Sox. Year after year the Red Sox pour young talent through their system and have won 2 of the past 4 World Series. They are definitely contending again this year and look like they will be in good shape for the post season.
Meanwhile the Yankee$ go out and sign aging over priced free agents for a while and build a team with NO HEART. So then they decide "we are going to build from within." One problem, they didn't do all the hard work to DRAFT the talent. So they have over rated players (I really need to hear more about the Joba rules, he is SOOOO much better than say Jon Lester of the Red Sox) and then cry about injuries when they fall short (wow, no one else had any injuries...and if you spend over $200 million you might want to have some depth). They essentially believe it is their birth right to be the best. Sorry, it is not the case.
I am so happy they are closing out that toilet of a stadium with a failure of a season. It is over. They are so last century.
Your thoughts?
Gene Weingarten: Hey, I'm publishing it. That must mean something.
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Palin pain: I'm a white woman. While there is no way I was ever going to vote for McCain, I'm pretty horrified about the reaction to Palin. I really think the teenage pregnancy frenzy drowned out more important news, such as how she is completely and totally unqualified.
I'm very, very scared. The last two elections have proved Americans are stupid enough to fall for gimmicks and spin, no matter what the real issues or factual information is.
Please say something to make me feel better. I want to go hide in bed for 2 months...and then hope I can get out.
washingtonpost.com: E.J. Dionne: Pulling the Curtain on Palin, (Post, Sept. 8)
Gene Weingarten: This'll do it.
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Alexandria, Va.: Gene Weingarten: I'm not sure I've ever been loaded enough to pee in a closet. Ever.
I had several friends in college that peed on their sleeping roommates thinking they were in the bathroom.
Gene Weingarten: Wow.
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Underwe, AR: I think you left important info. out of the two-day question-- does it involve sleeping in the underwear, and then keeping it on for another day, or taking it off, showering, and then putting it back on? The former is a symptom of a lazy comfort, the latter of laundry emergency.
Gene Weingarten: This is a good point. I have done the first, I think never the second. Or, not since college.
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Rockville, Va.: Now that I think of it, there are three things that I should have sent in to your Gene Pool yesterday under "things that make me crazy." All three are annoying people who I see virtually every morning when I'm trying to watch the morning news.
(1) That annoyingly perky redhead who shills for The Room Store.
(2) "Mr. Opportunity" the Honda cartoon guy.
(3) Lisa Baden - traffic person on WJLA channel 7 news. The only reason I stick with WJLA is because the rest of the news team is far superior to what is offered on channels 4, 5, or 9. But Lisa baden is truly the most anoying person on local news in this town.
Gene Weingarten: I LIKE Lisa Baden. She's chirpy and seems to know she's kitsch.
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The article by the lady WAITING for the ring: Is it OK that I hate her?
I just really can't believe that anyone would be that pathetic. And actually be proud of being that pathetic. An engagement watch team? Her poor co-workers.
washingtonpost.com: One Ring Circus, (Post Magazine, Sept. 7)
Gene Weingarten: Okay, I have received many posts about this magazine piece, and this is one of the kinder ones. I thought the story was unforgettable, if not entirely in a good way. I read it twice. I think Rachel Beckman is a talented young writer. There are excellent lines in this article, and original observations; she is a naturally gifted essayist, and is going to get even better. Sometimes, in trying to deliver a compelling and funny narrative, with a compelling and funny voice, writers don't realize that they are misrepresenting themselves, creating a distorted image of who they really are. This has happened to me many times, and I think that happened here.
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MoCo: "There remains, as there always remains, a gradually dwindling core of people who are undecided. The undecideds! They just can't figure this durn thang out!"
I'm undecided. Seriously. I so dislike both candidates that I can't decide which one I like the least. I'm probably going to lodge a protest vote for the Libertarians. Don't worry though - I live in Maryland. My vote is already counted as Democrat. Thank you electoral college for rendering my vote moot.
I'm also a white woman, leaning conservative. Palin's selection didn't change anything.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you.
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Brooklyn, N.Y.: The problem with eating on the can is not so much that it is gross, but that it reduces you from human to eating/crapping machine. Heck, why not just skip the middle man and flush the food down the loo?
And what would be the reason for eating on the can? That you don't have time to eat or that you don't have time to defecate? You need to seriously reevaluate your priorities in life if you don't have time for one or both of these activities.
Gene Weingarten: Yeah, this is one bit of grossness with which I cannot identify.
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Speaking of the killing of unborn children: Did you see the Daily Show segment last week where Samantha Bee went around the GOP convention and tried to get delegates to use the word "choice" to describe Bristol Palin's pregnancy? It was hysterical.
Gene Weingarten: It was. Liz, can you find this?
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Unalaska, WA: So, what exactly was Sarah Palin's talent offering in the beauty contest?
Knife throwing?
I'm guessing it wasn't foreign policy.
Gene Weingarten: She ripped a moose's throat open with her teeth.
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Delusion, AL: The women's "one night stand" answers are fascinating. Currently, of 19 votes, there are 10 "never" and 8 "I doubt it" votes. This will probably get me lynched, but as an adult, professional male with many adult etc. friends across the country, I regret to inform those voters that many of your partners already have cheated on you. More of them will. Yes, even the really upstanding ones. Men just don't view infidelity through the same lens as women.
Gene Weingarten: That's pretty cynical, and I don't think accurate. I think plenty of men are monogamous because they want to be. The key to this question in the poll, I think, was "in a faraway place." I think to many men, the anonymity of being far away confers a sense of anonymity and contributes to temptation. But that's an awfully broad brush with which you paint, and I don't buy it.
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washingtonpost.com: Here's that Daily Show Samantha Bee clip.
washingtonpost.com: Here's that Daily Show Samantha Bee clip.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you. Quick!
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Neuritis and Neuralg, IA: Hey Gene - Back when we were growing up (we're the same age) I seem to recall that every commercial on TV for any over the counter drug advertised that it was good for the treatment of neuritis and neuralgia. We never hear about neuritis and neuralgia any more. Why is that? Have they been cured in our lifetime? Are today's drugs no good for this purpose? Are we more concerned about different common ailments? Or was it all just a bunch of typical advertising jive? That's my guess. What's yours?
Gene Weingarten: What a great question! And a simple googling doesn't give a good answer. Near as I can tell, neuritis and neuralgia were catchall terms for "pain in the nerves" that apparently have been replaced by more specific terms: Guillain-Barre, herpes, shingles, trigeminal nerve disorder, fibromyalgia, etc. Mostly, though, this is the "catchall" designation that every generation of doctors have for vague symptoms that plague symptom-riven people. Back in my mom's day it was "neurasthenia." It means, mostly, "tsk tsk."
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Columbia, Md.: Please, just tell me why anyone would pee in a sink. What, you have to go so bad and someone is in the bathroom and you just can't wait for another 30 seconds. The sink is just a fun place to pee. You just want to see if you can watch it go down the drain. I really don't get it and I certainly don't want to be washing my face in a sink a man just peed in. Give me a break. Men really are from a different place aren't they.
Gene Weingarten: After establishing that we had each at some time done the sink thing, my son and and I asked each other "Why?" We came up with the same answer at the same time: "Because it was there." Same reason for the 9-volt, which we also had both done.
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Who? Who?: OH MY GOD!!!
WHO EATS WHILE ON THE POTTY!!!
HOW! CAN! YOU! DO! THAT!!!!!!
excuse me, i am going to go brush my teeth.
Gene Weingarten: Many, many more people than you'd think, apparently. This one I don't do. Anyone want to explain this? Dan said I needed a followup question to the potty question: "If you answered yes, above, was it ever ... fudge?"
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Silver Spring, Md.: What kind of man has never peed in the sink or tongued a 9-volt battery?
Gene Weingarten: I could forgive one lapse or the other, but not both.
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Boston, Mass.: I loved the anti-wedding article, but when I read the transcript of the chat, all of the hostile responses made my eyes roll right outta my head and down a hill. Really, people? One very funny and cute article about how big weddings suck brings out this much defensiveness? I'll call the wahmbulance for you fools.
I got married on my lunch break in City Hall with three guests, who seemed rather weirded out once they realized how low-key the whole affair was going to be. Sob. Poor me, deprived of swan ice sculptures. How has my marriage survived all these years? Sob.
washingtonpost.com: The Anti-Wedding, (Post Magazine, Sept. 7)
Gene Weingarten: Well, think about it. What if you had spent $40,000 on a big ol' ostentatious wedding that you or your parents were still paying off (and maybe secretly regretting) and here flounce in two smart young women who are openly contemptuous of the nature of your choice, and who proceed to plan and execute a cheap, hilarious, unforgettable wedding for two people who loved it and will carry great memories of it for a lifetime? Don't you think you might be a little crabby and over-the-top defensive? This was a nifty story. I hope it starts a movement.
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NY, NY: Gene, you've been the recipient of many a femcomium. How much do you think you really know about women? Please answer with both a percentage (how much you know of everything there is to know) and a percentile (how much you know relative to other dudes). And don't be modest.
Gene Weingarten: Hm. Well, I haven't had that many sexual partners in my life, so I am deficient in my knowledge of the diversity of women's physical needs and wants and pecadillos and unusualities and thus such. I am not studly and versed in the ways of the mysterious Orient. I think I've always listened to women, maybe more closely than many men do. And working with Gina Barreca for five years led me (whether I wanted to or not) to think more deeply than some men have thought about what women feel, and why they feel the way they do. Through Gina, I came to understand women, intellectually, more deeply than I had before. These chats, too. About 60 percent of the chatters are women, and I feel that over the last five years I have had oddly intimate public conversations with them. So, in conclusion, I know almost nothing about women. But it is more than most men know.
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Chantilly, Va.: Once in college, when I was fairly drunk but not "falling down" drunk, I stood at one end of a line of four urinals and tried to hit the bowl at the other end. I seem to recall having been moderately successful. My wife says that this is more disgusting than peeing into the sink, because whatever missed would end up on the floor. I told her that it was evident that she was never in a men's dorm bathroom.
Gene Weingarten: My brother swears that he once witnessed a distance-peeing contest won by the sole female contestant. He was too drunk to remember how she did it, though.
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Brooklyn, N.Y.: Listen, you can disagree with Sarah Palin about the issues and the actions she undertook as governor of Alaska or any other public office she's held. You can disagree with her on her published statements or things she utters while running for the office of Vice President. But don't you think we owe it to her -- and ourselves if we want to retain any integrity -- especially if we object to smears about Barack Obama -- to get the facts right about her?
OK. Here we go.
She's not a creationist. She never supported teaching creationism in Alaska schools. She thinks kids should learn about condoms. Bristol Palin had perfectly ordinary sex ed and got pregnant anyway. Sarah Palin never had any books banned while mayor of Wasilla. She has never been a member of the Alaska Indpendence Party, which is not a secessionist party anyway. She never supported Pat Buchanan. She did not have an affair, and her husband's business partner had his divorce records sealed to prevent media ghouls from harassing him and his son. The public safety commissioner she fired has gone on the record in the Anchorage newspaper saying she never pressured him to fire her brother-in-law. She's never said derogatory things about Eskimos.
Truth is a good thing. Now go back to your regularly scheduled hatred of people who don't do things they way you think they should do them.
Gene Weingarten: Wait, wait. TELL US ABOUT THE ESKIMO CHARGES. I hadn't heard that before. What did she not do???
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MoCo: The thing that fascinates me about the Palin frenzy was the jibe by the Democrats that she is horribly inexperienced. She is, unquestionably. Her resume is not enough to be VP to an oldest President ever.
In fact, it has only slightly less resume points on it than Obama's. New Senator vs. new Governor. Former mayor vs. fomer state legislator. I am amazed how someone can tear Palin's resume apart, but uphold Obama's as good enough. Either they are both good enough or they're both horribly inexperienced. Can't have it both ways.
Gene Weingarten: No, there is a big difference. You will deny it, but it is an enormous difference: Barack Obama has been running for president for three years. He has been traveling the country, developing complex positions on national and international affairs, speaking to knowledgeable people, getting vetted by the public, winning elections. He is, by now, a hugely knowledgeable man about the affairs of the country and the world. Palin, until ten days ago, never thought outside Alaska. Huge, huge difference.
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I eat in the loo: Not always by choice, but, well, here goes. I have a spastic colon, and I am frequently in the loo. I have been so dehydrated from going, on such a prolonged basis, that I have resorted to bringing a snack and a drink to keep me from passing out. It's not often, and I'm not proud of it, but I answered truthfully. As a young woman, it is absolutely mortifying, but I do what I have to to get by.
Gene Weingarten: You go, girl. Eat proudly on the can.
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Washington, D.C.: Gene: "Sometimes, in trying to deliver a compelling and funny narrative, with a compelling and funny voice, writers don't realize that they are misrepresenting themselves, creating a distorted image of who they really are. This has happened to me many times, and I think that happened here."
I actually got the sense that she realized how distorted her position had become. She seemed well aware of the ridiculous nature of the whole thing. I enjoyed the essay.
Gene Weingarten: Good. Then, for you, she succeeded.
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Weddings, etc.: Gene: Our daughter is engaged, but no date yet. We are talking about giving them a fixed amount for the wedding. Spend less, and keep the difference. Spend more, and pay the difference. We completely financed our own wedding, and liked the degree of control that we had.
Gene Weingarten: I like this plan. I have considered it myself.
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Bristol's health insurance?: Do you or the chatters know the answers to this?
If Bristol Palin marries her baby daddy, won't she lose her health insurance coverage for her pregnancy, which I assume she has via her mother's employment? I'm guessing that Levi doesn't have health insurance, but even if he does, would it cover a pre-existing condition (pregnancy) of Bristol's if he marries her before the baby is born?
Gene Weingarten: This is an Only-In-Washington question.
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Falls Church, Va.: A woman I used to work with told me about her husband once being so drunk that he peed into a vent on the bedroom floor. God only knows how they ever cleaned THAT up....
Gene Weingarten: Oooh, and you would be getting feedback from that for weeks.
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Richmond, Va.: Did you hear the one about the two Irish gay guys?
Patrick Fitzgerald and Gerald Fitzpatrick.
washingtonpost.com: AHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Gene Weingarten: Hahahahaha.
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Phone on the Throne: I'd be more interested in knowing how many people would admit to carrying on a phone conversation while on the toilet. I admit to hypocrisy here; while I'd be horrified if I heard, err, "bathroom noises" on the other end of the line, sometimes a conversation is too important to interrupt. So am I deviant or common? (I'm also a 20-something woman).
Gene Weingarten: I am very afraid to do this because the flush instict is so strong and automatic.
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Sarah Palin v. Harriet Miers: What about the comparison of Sarah Palin with Harriet Miers? Is this fair?
Gene Weingarten: No. Harriet Miers was much more experienced.
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Samantha, Bee: I think she's hilarious, but I'm a lady. She's also hot, right? Does she get the Sarah Silverman bump? (I am asking as the lady who wrote about how hot those young you tube hot boys were a bit ago...)
Gene Weingarten: She's no Tina Fey. In the hot department.
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More Poll Questions: Gene,
I went through the poll with my husband.
When I asked, "Do you look at internet porn for relief," he answered, "Isn't that what it's there for?"
Good question!
Gene Weingarten: A couple of people have asked why I included "for relief" in the question. It was to eliminate the possibility that any women might allow herself the common self-deception about what men do with Internet porn. Men do not "look at" internet porn or "read" internet porn. Men "use" internet porn. Liz, can you link to that great muppet video, synched to "The Internet is for Porn"?
washingtonpost.com: I can.
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Washington, D.C.: Why does everything have to be so black and white to you Gene. Why are Democrats the good guys and Repubs the bad guys? I'm a Republican and simply like to have lower taxes and you know why because my older retired mother likes it when I send her "goodies" of her favorite magazines or chocalates or when I fly her to vist me and her grandchildren. I like having more money in my pocket because I give 10 percent to my church and to charities that I work personally with. Yes I make more money than most, but I also give back more than most and I don't think the bloated bureaucracy of the federal government is the most efficient spender of my money.
On abortion, I think life is better than death, but I'd rather work with mothers rather than banning abortions. I also hate the death penalty. Gene I know its funny and it gets a rise out of people, but its not black and white. Just because people don't have Biden or Obama's experience doesn't mean they can't lead. Lincoln certainly ran a lot of losing campaigns before he became the man.
Gene Weingarten: All of this is fine, until the Palin-Lincoln implied comparison.
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To Brooklyn: That was a somewhat misleading list of statements about Palin. No, she never had any books banned from the Wasilla library, but it wasn't for want of trying. She asked the librarian about it more than once, and then tried to fire the librarian after she refused. Palin also brought up banning books at public meetings. That's plenty for me to have serious concerns about her perspective on free speech and the marketplace of ideas. Additionally, she -did- say that she supported teaching evolution and creationism "side by side," and -did- say that she did not support "explicit" sex-ed programs.
Gene Weingarten: Oh, I wasn't endorsing that prior list. You are right on all of this. Hey, you know what I want to know? What books, specifically, did she want to ban? Because I am guessing that the library in Wasilla, AK did not have, say "Lolita." I am guessing when we learn what books Ms. Palin wanted to ban, we will have a very amusing look at Ms. Palin's brain.
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Silver Spring, Md.: That was not an anti-wedding. That was just a different kind of self-absorbed spectacle.
An anti-wedding is what I had, and what Gene had -- go to the courthouse at lunchtime, and get it done.
Gene Weingarten: Not really! You and I had NO wedding. Definitely a statement, but a private statement. This was different. This was aggressively ANTI, an in-your-face, crisp a one-finger salute to the Matrimonial Industrial Complex.
washingtonpost.com: The Anti-Wedding, (Post Magazine, Sept. 7)
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From Caitlin: Just weighing in on the Sarah Palin thing. I'd like to say that I think the most UN-feminist perspective of all is the one that assumes women are so unfathomably stupid that if you substitute one chick for another, it doesn't matter, because hey -- she's a woman! Any intelligent person, man or woman alike, isn't going to support someone soley because of their chromosomal makeup, for God's sake. Sarah Palin is horrifying. She is NOT HILLARY. Any Hillary supporter who could possibly, even for one second, consider switching alliances to back Palin is not doing any favors for our gender. We're smarter than that, even if the GOP doesn't think we are. I hope.
Gene Weingarten: Hey, Cait. The polls say you are wrote. The polls, at least for the moment, implies plenty of your gender are NOT smarter than that.
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Gene Weingarten: Er, wrong, not wrote.
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Ethical Dilem, MA: My wife, a lovely individual, has an ethical dilemma. Years ago she dated a guy who's grandfather, she later found out, was a sexual predator. Fast forward quite a few years. She knows exactly where the man lives, and she found out that he is in an "unknown wherabouts" status by the state of California. She believes he is legally required to register regardless of state lived in (no longer California). My personal opinion is that she just wants a little revenge on her ex-boyfriend, but she insists that her want to "turn in" the grandfather is noble.
My personal issues: I hate the registering law, it punishes someone for life when there are often mitigating circumstances. In addition, it's an unfunded mandate that requires significant police resources to create less than clear results.
On the other hand, the law, is the law. What say you? Turn him in? Go about our business?
Gene Weingarten: Well, my initial reaction is the one I usually have with buttinskis: Butt out. But then all the "what ifs" start tiptoeing into the room. I don't like the notification laws myself, much. So I stick with butt out, but I will be second guessed by others.
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Defending Lisa Baden: You're right, gene. Lisa is awesome. She yells over the radio at the people who slow down to look at accidents. That rocks.
Gene Weingarten: I am a fan. I bet she is a nice person, too.
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What the heck?: Heard a discussion on the radio this morning, and one guy came out and admitted that he didn't think he could vote for Obama because of his race. I was hoping we had worked our way past this. (And why does everyone seem to ignore the fact that the people who actually raised him were white?)
Gene Weingarten: There is something interesting that is not part of the general knowledge about Obama. Have any of you read "Dreams From My Father?" He is a brilliant writer. Magnificent. Like a good novelist.
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After, Divorce: So after being seperated for over a year, and formally divorced for six months, what do I do with my ring? It's not a simple, run-of-the-mill gold band, but rather a custom piece, and am loath to throw it away for aesthetic reasons.
Gene Weingarten: Wear it on your other hand. It will really confuse the hell out of women.
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One Ring Circus: The essayist may have succeeded in describing her descent into ridiculousness (and her awareness of it), but I couldn't get past the fact that she basically bullied her boyfriend into proposing TWO YEARS before he was ready. Is that really OK? She already had the silver "commitment" ring on her right hand. Why did she need the sparkly one on her left so darn bad? I'm surprised this doesn't rile you up as much as women changing their names does.
Gene Weingarten: It does, and it riled up a LOT of readers. (Read the comments.) I am simply saying that I think, in the interests of presenting a compelling story in a limited space, the writer told only part of the story, one that was the least flattering to herself. As a writer, I can see how this happened, and why.
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Carlisle, Pa.: Gene, the funniest part of that Samantha Bee clip was the beginning, where she got the gut reactions of why Palin is experienced, and one delegate said that it is because it shows that -anyone- can be president. I had to stop after a minute of the choice baiting, when she started acting the role of Bristol, it was waaay too contrived to be humorous.
Gene Weingarten: That was great, anyone can be president. I agree, her Bristol imitation was straining.
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REPORT HIM!: My niece was abused by an unregistered sex offender. If he had registered - some of the abuse would have still happened - but not the last say 7 years of it.
I know we all like to think that all parents carefully evaluate all people their children are left alone with and would ---know--- and act if they thought their child was being hurt. The truth is all parents aren't like that and registration laws can help others intervene on the child's behalf.
Gene Weingarten: Okay. As I said...
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Undecided, here.: I'm one of those moronic Undecideds, and here's the thing: McCain feels like my guy, because I'm conservative and tend to see the world through those glasses. BUT............much of what Obama says and who he is speaks to me. This whole election is forcing me to examine, carefully, WHY I think, act, vote and respond the way I do. I may,in fact, vote for Obama not because I align with him on all specific issues, but because I see it as a good thing for this country, at this time. I love this election. I see positives and negatives in both candidates, both parties, both outcomes. I'm proud to be part of this process.
Gene Weingarten: Okay, you're no zombie.
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Melbourne, Fla.: Don't know where you and Lizzie come down on the topic of "Mad Men'' but something in recent episode disturbed me. Aside from the business cheating, marital cheating, smoking and drinking that seeme oh-so-prevelant in the 1960s, we seem to have been serial litterers back then too. I'm too young to remember, but did people routinely chuck beer cans to the ground and leave their picnic wrappings behind for all to see? Is that why that Indian cried so much in those TV commercials?
washingtonpost.com: I just watched that episode last night and can assure you that my eco-minded sensibilities were duly shocked. And while I wasn't even anywhere near being alive in 1961, I find it hard to believe it was the norm to just leave your picnic litter and run. I think the "Mad Men" characters -- and their habits -- are meant to be a distillation of that period. They're caricatures. People perhaps littered, smoked, drank and patted women on the rear, so these characters exaggerate those qualities. But Gene, who was definitely alive and of littering age in 1961 may have a different answer...
Gene Weingarten: Littering in all ways was far more prevalent and casual. It was common to throw wrappers out of a moving car, for example. No one picked up after his dog. In New York, in particular, littering was an epidemic, and so prevalent it was essentially impossible to police. The city wound up with signs that didn't so much ORDER people not to litter as BEG them not to litter. ("Every Litter Bit Hurts.") A brilliantly written detective novel of 1948 was Rendezvous in Black, by Cornell Woolrich. The plot was based on a man's attempt to exact revenge for the death of his girlfriend; she was killed by a beer bottle flung from the window of a mall charter plane flying over Manhattan. The point didn't seem to be so much that it was outrageous that someone might fling a bottle from a plane; it was astonishment at the coincidence that the bottle actually hit someone.
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Sorely vexed: I am one of those white midwestern, middle-aged women who is supposedly flocking to John McCain's campaign because I am totally dazzled by Caribou Barbie's ascension to the ticket. I am sickened by the very thought of those two being elected. Gene, please, please tell me that Americans are not this stupid?
Gene Weingarten: I have to believe that in the next two months, as she is shamed into exposing herself to questioning, we will wise up. I am looking for a conservative columnist with a concscience to concluded that a patriot cannot vote for this ticket because of Palin's unreadiness for the job. Krauthammer seems to be wavering. I appear to be in a pretty small minority of the media that didn't think her convention speech was good. It was delivered spunky, but it seemed small-minded, mean-spirited, sarcastic, and altumately dumbed down. I just loveed the online reaction that "Hey, Sarah. Jesus was a community activist. Pilate was a governor."
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Tampa, Fla.: If you could ask each of the presidential and vice presidential candidates one question, what would you ask?
Gene Weingarten: "What is the funniest thing about running for national office?"
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Husba, ND: I'm feeling a little sorry for Sarah Palin's husband. He's kind of hot -- and if, by some freakish happening he ends up being the VP's hubby -- he's gonna hate Washington. He looks like he hates the suit. He's a professional fisherman/snow machine person and he'll be stuck smiling and shaking hands with people who are looking over his shoulder for someone more important.
Gene Weingarten: This is the first such sentiment I've heard, and I agree with it. He's almost a tragic character.
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Dreams From My Father: ...is an awesome, honest, complex book. Which is why I was ready to help out the day Obama declared his candidacy.
The man can write. He has great talent and intelligence. There are still some of us in the world who believe that these are assets in a president.
Gene Weingarten: It is a little shocking how well this book is written. He writes better than I do, and, like, that's not the man's first career...
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Shopping cart: Dear god no, you heathen. You do NOT get to position your cart in line and then go back to finish your shopping. The ONLY time that's acceptable is on the rare occasion that you realize that you forgot something specific, and it will take you 30-60 seconds to run there, get it, and come back.
The validity of my stance is proven by imagining what would happen if everyone did it. Endless lines of driver-less carts. Yes, Safeway sucks, and it takes forever to check out. But that doesn't make you special. If you are making a regular habit of this, you are not nice.
Gene Weingarten: But this is exactly the scenario I described....
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Because I am guessing that the library in Wasilla, AK did not have, say "Lolita.": You are wrong. According to their online catalog, they have one copy, and it is not currently checked out.
Gene Weingarten: Ah. Thank you!
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Anonymous: Gah! My husband is shocked I haven't licked a 9 volt battery and insisting I try it. I'm pregnant! Gene, tell my husband that he's stupid. Please? I'll lick the damn battery after the baby comes if I must.
Gene Weingarten: I like your use of "shocked." If you google "9-volt battery" and tongue and miscarriage, you do not get any meaningful hits, though you do get an amusingly stupid British joke.
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Pal, IN: Gene: Last week you said you thought Sarah Palin was going to be a disaster for McCain. I thought so at the time, when all the crazy revelations were coming out. But now, she's energized the base. And all we really needed in this election was for the evangelicals to stay home. Now I'm terrified. Have you changed your mind, or do you still think she's a burden to the GOP ticket?
washingtonpost.com: Until she gets to Brooke Hogan, can we really call the base "energized?"
Gene Weingarten: I think her burdensomeness will become a problem once she starts to open her mouth in an unstaged setting. But I am less sure. In the last week, the simplemindedness of the public has been astonishing me. More than I thought I was capable of being astonished
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Jerry Springer, the Opera: I saw you and your wife Saturday night at the Studio Theater. Yikes, you weren't kidding about that voice of yours. People, it is far worse than you've been told. But your unique voice must actually be an asset when you do your beating up on the poor 800 number operators. It would add to your nitpicking "character."
Anyway, how did you like the play? I met some people who were there for a second or third time and was expecting something really good. It was disappointing. The music drowned out the words and it was freezing cold in there.
Gene Weingarten: Some of the lyrics were a little hard to hear, but overall, I loved it. I loved the enthusiasm and power of the whole thing, and I particularly loved the unapologetic iconoclasm.
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Springfield, Va.: Enjoyed the poll but how come there were no absolute yes answers? I KNOW the man I love the most is looking at porn and peeing in the sink!
Gene Weingarten: Several women sent in this idential question.
Gene Weingarten: Identical, not idential. Observation, not question. I think the rest of my response was without error.
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Inappropriate peeing: My ex-husband tells a story about his brother. His brother got drunk at a house party and felt the need to set free all that beer. He wandered around, hoping to find the bathroom, but couldn't. He did, however, find an alternative.
The host walked into the kitchen to find the brother letting loose a powerful jet of pee, not in a sink, but in the cat's litter box. The cat was looking on with horror and the dismissive disgust that only a cat can convey.
When questioned afterwards, the brother said it was the most logical thing his beer-fogged brain could come up with.
Gene Weingarten: Actually, under the circumstances, he did well!
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New York, N.Y.: I forget: did McCain answer your question in the column you wrote a while back about the funniest thing about running for office?
Gene Weingarten: He did. He was the top of the story! Liz, can you find this? From 2000, by me. Long story. Google me, McCain, Gore and Bill Bradley. My recollection (see if I am right) that whatever McCain responded wasn't all that funny on its own, but that the hilarious thing was that the entire one-question interview took place while he was peeing at a urinal.
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Rockville, Md.: "I am looking for a conservative columnist with a conscience to concluded that a patriot cannot vote for this ticket because of Palin's unreadiness for the job."
Thank you for sharing.
Gene Weingarten: Okay, conclude. But yes. I think someone is going to.
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Holding a place?: What about the husband standing in line, holding nothing, until the wife arrives with a loaded cart, now at the front of a long line of shoopers? Kind of like standing in a parking space while your partner whips a U-turn downtown for the precious spot, no?
Gene Weingarten: That is not acceptable behavior.
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Palin's popularity: Here's what I think. The conservative base isn't crazy about McCain. He's like an arranged marriage they are being forced into for the sake of tradition. Then along comes Palin. It's like they've been fixed up on a blind date and discover that she's HOT! And she loves guns! And her daughter is carrying the Messiah! Conservatives are in the first blush of young love. But give it a few weeks. She'll say a few stupid things, when she's finally released from her programming sessions and allowed to give interviews, and the bloom will be off the rose. Just you watch...
Gene Weingarten: I do expect that. But I didn't expect the extent of his bounce.
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Washington: "He is a brilliant writer. Magnificent. Like a good novelist."
You left out "shockingly racist." Or perhaps you're one who thinks minorities can't be racist?
I can't wait to write you when Hussein the Messiah flames out in November.
Gene Weingarten: If you think that book is racist, you do not understand the meaning of racism.
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Washington, D.C.: Perhaps instead of blithely dismissing all McCain voters as stupid, you should take a closer and genuine look into why they support him. You might be surprised to find you can't pigeonhole people so easily. For example, I'm a 32 year-old Asian woman who is very pro-life (anti-death penalty too), but also extremely pro-animal rights (as is no testing on them. Ever. Even for medical research. Obviously no eating of them either) and for gay rights, including full marriage. Pro-gun control but also economically more conservative. I'm not going to list the reasons here why I will support McCain this fall but I wish people would stop calling everyone who supports him idiots without realizing we're complex people who can think on our own.
Gene Weingarten: I don't think anyone who supports McCain is an idiot. I think anyone who is ready to vote for McCain, willing to risk Palin as a sudden president, is unpatriotic. There is a big difference. Okay, thank you all. Good chat. I will be updating through the week.
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Wasilla, AL: I don't pee in the sink, but my wife does.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you.
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UPDATED 9.10.08
Gene Weingarten: Okay, the first item is the definitive list of books that Palin tried to ban from the Wasilla library. It was sent to me by four different readers. It is a giant list that includes works by J. K. Rowling and Stephen King and Judy Blume! It is shocking! I would publish the list here so you can all see what an awful person Sarah Palin is, except that the list is an Internet lie. Totally bogus, yet very widely circulated. Shame on us. Speaking of which:
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Hoboken, N.J.: GW: "Have any of you read 'Dreams From My Father?' He is a brilliant writer. Magnificent. Like a good novelist."
You know he had a ghostwriter from the New Yorker, right?
Gene Weingarten: And three different people sent me this! Also, not true. Obama had no ghostwriter for that book.
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Cincinnati, Ohio: OK, so why does Chatwoman bother to filter comments and keep you from discussing certain topics, when the Post allows comments like some of those on this Trail item? Just scroll down and you'll see lots of questionable posts -- posts so questionable that when I tried to submit them to your ombudsman by cutting-and-pasting, her comment software rejected them as unsuitable.
Here's just one, expurgated, example: "I was watching Palin's speech again & it looks like she had some c-- on her face, did you see that?? How can we trust her to run the country if she can't even get a towel before going in public?"
How is allowing comments like that to go unchecked any different from running a store that has its windows and outside walls covered in graffiti? And what could you possibly discuss that would be as objectionable as that?
Gene Weingarten: As it happens, my column this Sunday is on this very subject.
washingtonpost.com: I can't speak to the Trail's comment threads, but would imagine they aren't closely monitored. But what I can speak for these discussions -- all of which are moderated by a post.com producer. Not one comment or question makes it online here which hasn't first been vetted by someone. It's a very different experience than a blog or article comment thread, which is more of a free-for-all.
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Peeing Contest: It's after the chat, but I just had to chime in with regards to this contest. On a camping trip in Yosemite my boyfriend and I conducted such a contest to see who (woman or man) could pee farther WITHOUT USING ANY HANDS. Thanks to all the Wild Turkey I drank, I was able to prove that I (the woman) was the superior contender. My technique (turning around with my heels on the line and some suave hip action) proved to be the deciding factor.
Gene Weingarten: Two other women have claimed they either won such a contest or saw another woman win. One claimed manual pressure was needed, to streamline the flow, as it were.
We remain skeptical.
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Fairfax, Va.: I've found "Little Dog Lost" rather underwhelming in the short time it's run in The Post, but Sunday's was notable for one reason: it got an expletive past the censors. (Check out the big sign, and pause when reading it out loud after the "O"...) Is this common? Do many (younger) comics writers see what they can sneak in, if only to be SOFA KING cool?
Gene Weingarten: Nah. This is not an expletive or even a profanity. It is a REFERENCE to an IMPLIED profanity first aired on SNL and since duplicated for some reason (it's not that funny) by dozens of youtubers. (Oooh, You Tubers!)
Anyway, here's one.
washingtonpost.com: Little Dog Lost, (Sept. 7)
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Washington, D.C.: Dear Gene,
Could you please explain to me why so many people in this country think it is a bad thing to have an education, and that our leaders should be "real folks" and "like us"? What? I'm not even close to being qualified to be president, and neither is anyone like me. I want somebody MUCH smarter for the job.
Gene Weingarten: I think Jon Stewart said it best:
"Doesn't elite mean good? Is that not something we're looking for in a president anymore? The job you're applying for, if you get it, and it goes well, they might carve your head into a mountain. If you don't actually think you are better than us, then what the f@*k are you doing? Not only do I want an elite president, I want someone who is embarrassingly superior to me. I want someone who speaks sixteen languages and sleeps two hours a night hanging upside down in a chamber they themselves designed."
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Submit to Next Week's Chat
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washingtonpost.com
September 9, 2008 Tuesday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post White House Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2140 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post White House reporter Michael Abramowitz was online live Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest news in politics.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Scotia, N.Y.: Vladimir Putin charges that the U.S. induced the Georgians to attack, and that we trained and armed their army. The Financial Times -- hardly a radical news source -- backs him up. Putin is an authoritarian and an anti-democratic leader, not at all a nice guy (as Bush once witlessly claimed), but I believe Putin more than I believe our own government. Every time Cheney opens his mouth, I believe Putin more. This was a U.S.-orchestrated "crisis." Who do you believe?
Michael Abramowitz: Good morning everybody: Thanks for all the questions that are already coming in.
I certainly don't bebleiev this was a US orchestrated crisis, though I think the general point you make is also correct--that the story is more complex than many have made it out to be. Georgia was the country that instigated this crisis by trying to regain South Ossetia and the Russians overreacted and used it as a pretext to hammer Georgia militarily. I think it will take some time and distance before we know the whole story.
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Richmond, Va.: Thank you very much for you work and taking our questions. If you had to pick one or two "up for grabs" states that McCain/Palin must win, what would they be?
Michael Abramowitz: How about three--Ohio, Colorado and Missouri. These are all states the GOP won last time, and it's hard to see McCain winning this time without winning these states.
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Reston, Va.: On "Meet the Press," Joe Biden said that the reason we are seeing success in Iraq is because we finally are implementing the Biden Plan (obviously not the "split Iraq into three areas" plan). When the vice presidential debates take place in October, will there be enough room on the stage for Biden, his ego and Sarah Palin? On a more serious note, any idea why the McCain camp picked Charles Gibson for the first Palin interview, and how do you think he'll do?
Michael Abramowitz: I did not see Biden on Meet the Press, but I am not sure what the basis for that statement is. The Biden plan was basically to partition Iraq, and that's not happening.
As for Palin, I think she is a very skilled politician from everything I have seen. She is helped by the fact that the collective media judgement is she is in overhead, so my guess is she will outperform low expectations every time she is out there.
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To Scotia, N.Y.: Just because two people say different things, it doesn't mean either is telling the whole truth. There's no need to trust Putin just because you utterly distrust Cheney.
Michael Abramowitz: Agreed.
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Williamsburg, Va.:"How about three -- Ohio, Colorado and Missouri. These are all states the GOP won last time, and it's hard to see McCain winning this time without winning these states." How about adding Virginia to the list? It is polling much closer than Ohio and Missouri. It seems that of Ohio, Colorado, Missouri, Florida and Virginia, McCain must win all of them.
Michael Abramowitz: Good point. If McCain doesnt win Virginia, it probably won't be a good year for Republicans.
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Rockville, Md.: What is your theory for the Teflon suit that Gov. Palin appears blessed to wear? None of the various charges against her seem to be sticking.
Michael Abramowitz: I am getting a lot of questions about Palin today, for obvious reasons.
I am not sure that some of this stuff won't stick. It's very early in the cycle since she was first picked, and there's been a blizzard of information that's starting to come out. So I think the public is right now trying to sort it all out.
Without delving into the substance, I would offer one political point: I think over the last few presidential campaigns, we have seen the emergence of governors on the national scene like Bush and Clinton. Governors often come from states (like Arkansas) where the politics are messy and dirty and charges fly around. So pehaps Americans are conditioned to take some of this stuff with a grain of salt.
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Arlington, Va.: Whose injury is likely to prove more consequential, Tom Brady's or Kim Jong-Il's?
washingtonpost.com: Kim Jong Il's Absence Raises Question on Health (Post, Sept. 9)
Michael Abramowitz: Ha!
Well I predict the Patriots won't win the Superbowl without Brady! And the North Koreans never had a chance to begin with.
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Crystal City, Va.: Sometime during the next administration, Social Security no longer will run a surplus and will need to start cashing some of the IOUs that the treasury has been writing for the past 50 years. Besides not addressing the long-term stability of Social Security, are both candidates ignoring the budget train wreck that will occur on the next watch? Have you asked them for their plans to deal with this?
Michael Abramowitz: You are right that neither candidate has offered a plausible long-term plan on Social Security. I suspect it will come up in the debates, and it's something reporters ought to be pressing the campaigns on.
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Sewickley, Pa.: The excerpt from Woodward's book indicates retired Gen. Jack Keane pulled an end-around on the Joint Chiefs with respect to formulating the surge policy. Earlier work by Woodward and other authors indicates this isn't the first time the national security apparatus was shoved aside in favor of a secret, ad hoc process. Do you expect either a McCain or Obama administration to reinstate the normal foreign policy structure? Thank you for taking questions.
washingtonpost.com: 'You're Not Accountable, Jack': How a Retired Officer Gained Influence at the White House and in Baghdad (Post, Sept. 8)
Michael Abramowitz: I am not sure that the big issue here is a process issue. The Iraq review, as Woodward reports, was run out of the National Security Council, which seems to me the appropriate place to conduct such a review. What's interesting is that Bush basically didn't like the advice he was getting from the uniformed military and he looked elsewhere for advice.
To me, the big question ought to be: Was Bush's ultimate judgement right? The success of the war falls on his shoulders, and it seems to me a president, any president, ought to be encouraged to look as widely as possible for advice. I suspect Obama and McCain will find they want to do this when they are elected.
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Mansfield, Ohio: As a Republican, I don't necessarily think the press is being unfair in most of the questions it is asking of Sarah Palin, but I do think there is a perception that the media has more "passion" for their investigative duties when it comes to digging into the past of a conservative candidate, whereas they appear more hesitant and lukewarm to going after the past lives of liberal candidates. (After all, how long did it take for most press outlets to report on John Edwards's long-rumored affair than it did to report on Gov. Palin's husband's 20-year-old DUI?) Any thoughts?
Michael Abramowitz: As someone who was around when Clinton was president, I am not sure I agree with your comparision here. The press certainly had a "passion" for investigating that politician.
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Edgartown, Mass.: I know that Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens have a few things on their minds these days -- but inasmuch as Sarah Palin is running, in part, on her record of beating those guys down, and given that they are all Republicans, what do you think is their opinion about her selection as the vice presidential nominee? Do you expect to hear any comments from them?
Michael Abramowitz: I am not sure they would be too happy about it, but they are loyal Republicans so I doubt you will be hearing that sentiment expressed.
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Washington: With four rent-stabalized aparments plus a zero-interest mortgage and his failure to pay taxes on rental income, how much trouble is Rangel in with the ethics committee?
washingtonpost.com: Rangel Says He Didn't Know of Loan Terms (Post, Sept. 6)
Michael Abramowitz: I would suspect he might be having a difficult fall!
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Arlington, Va.: I saw both McCain and Obama ads on TV this morning in the gym. Right now, in a nutshell the McCain strategy seems to be "Obama is inexperienced and will raise your taxes" while Obama's is apparently "McCain will continue Bush's policies and do nothing to help you." I am a little surprised that Sen. Obama hasn't countered McCain's charge that he will raise everyone's taxes. If my understanding of his proposal is correct, taxes will be raised only on people making more than $250,000 a year. I wonder why Obama is taking it on the chin and not responding?
Michael Abramowitz: My colleagues covering Obama on the trail say that he is, in fact, responding to McCain and saying he is lying about his proposals. As you say, Obama's stated plans would raise taxes only on those making more than $250,000 a year.
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Floris, Va.: In this morning's polling article your paper reports significant gains by McCain among white women. Assuming that this subset excludes Asian women, Hispanic women and black women, what percent of the voting electorate are white women? Also, what is the margin of error among this subset -- which I assume is higher than for the total universe of voters?
washingtonpost.com: In Poll, McCain Closes the Gap With Obama (Post, Sept. 9)
Michael Abramowitz: Our poll suggests that white women make up 40 percent of the elctorate, with a margin of error of five points in either direction for white women surveyed.
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College Park, Md.: Do you find it strange that after sounding so supportive of Obama at the Democratic convention, Hillary Clinton hasn't come forward with any reaction to the recent negative attacks from McCain's camp? Especially given McCain's choice for vice president, and his not-so-subtle attempt to woo disgruntled Hillary supporters? True, some of those supporters already have expressed their disgust with McCain's cheap tactic, but given the latest polls one could assume that some may be jumping ship. If Hillary truly is commited to "working her heart out" for Obama's campaign, isn't it time that she speak up, and loud, to prevent another flagrant case of "Swift-Boating"?
Michael Abramowitz: I agree with you that Senator Clinton seems to be having a relatvely low key, polite reaction to Palin, but so are Obama and Biden. I don't think the Democratic leaderss see it in their interest right now to be overtly bashing Palin; they would rather leave it to the media or other surrogates.
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Cambridge, Mass.: We would hope she would out perform low expectations, after it's been lowered so she can. But you didn't answer the other question -- why Gibson?
Michael Abramowitz: I don't truly know the answer to this question. I suspect it may have to do with his courtly style, which perhaps suggests to the McCain camp that he will be softer on Palin. I don't know that this is the correct assessment--he can be pretty tough.
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Madison, Wis.: Wanting to get this in before the hour's up -- is it just me, or is Obama low-energy these days? He seems off his A game. He has seemed this way for a while, but frankly I thought it would have gotten better by now. If the person who wins the presidency is the person who wants it most, Obama doesn't look these days like he wants to win it the most. Or am I expecting too much of the man?
Michael Abramowitz: I am not sure you are right here. I thought Obama was on his "A" game at the convention, but lately the news has been swallowed u[ by McCain and Palin. And there's no doubt McCain has had a good run in recent weeks. I think this is the normal cycle of politics. I suspect you will see Obama making a very strong run over the next two months.
That's all the time I have--sorry I wasn't able to get to all of your good questions.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
September 8, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
New Hampshire Race Focuses on the Pocketbook
BYLINE: By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE HOT SEAT; Pg. 18
LENGTH: 1330 words
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Senator John E. Sununu, Republican of New Hampshire, one of the most vulnerable incumbents up for re-election this year, has trailed in polls for months. And a brutal new advertisement by his opponent literally puts Mr. Sununu in a hole -- showing a man who resembles the senator shoveling dirt from deep inside a gaping ditch.
''George Bush put our economy in the hole,'' the Democratic challenger, former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, says in the commercial as the pseudo-Sununu keeps shoveling behind her. ''So why is John Sununu digging in the same failed direction?''
Mr. Sununu and his backers have their own spot just up deriding Mrs. Shaheen as a big spender who oversaw a doubling of the state budget in her six years as governor. ''Jeanne Shaheen and big-spending Washington?'' a voice-over grimly intones. ''She'll fit right in.''
With the fall campaign season now officially under way, Mr. Sununu and Mrs. Shaheen have come out slinging daggers. And like the presidential candidates, who are grappling for the mantle of change, the candidates down-ballot are doing so by clashing over practical kitchen-table issues -- the price of gasoline and home heating oil, health care costs, job security -- that make this race emblematic of Senate contests across the country.
The New Hampshire race reflects the national political climate that has many Republicans battling to keep their jobs as their opponents seek to tie them to President Bush and blame them for the ailing economy. It is an atmosphere so tough that several candidates, including Mr. Sununu, skipped the Republican convention in Minnesota last week to stay home and campaign.
''I am not a lawyer; I am not a career politician,'' Mr. Sununu said in a speech last week that underscored his need to distance himself from Washington-as-usual. ''I am an engineer by training. I have worked in small business.''
It was an interesting self-description by a man who worked in the private sector for about six years after graduate school but has spent twice as long -- nearly 12 years -- in Congress.
Still, the race here, a fierce rematch of a bruising contest six years ago, is also a near-perfect petri dish for how the issues, and the dynamics of the presidential contest, are shifting in ways that give Republicans hope. Mr. Sununu has already sought to seize the energy issue by portraying Mrs. Shaheen and the Democrats as obstacles to increased domestic oil drilling. He has also embraced the Republican nominee for president, Senator John McCain of Arizona, and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as the new, reform-minded faces of the party.
But Mr. Sununu is the incumbent, and as the race revved into high gear last week, there were also signs that Mrs. Shaheen's message about the economy was likely to find some resonance, a point underscored by the release on Friday of another report showing worsening national unemployment.
Recent polls show Mrs. Shaheen leading by double digits, as she has for most of the last year. And political analysts in the state say that in large part because of the economic circumstances, the race seems hers to lose -- a stark contrast from 2002, when Mr. Bush's popularity and the focus on national security and the war on terrorism strongly favored Mr. Sununu.
''On the economy, the bad news just keeps on coming,'' said Dante J. Scala, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. ''She doesn't need to do much more than point to the hole, as she does in the ad, and say, 'Do you want more of the same?' ''
Mrs. Shaheen hammers the message in two new advertisements and at virtually every campaign stop, as she did last week when she accused Mr. Sununu of endorsing Bush economic policies, favoring big oil companies over the middle class, seeking to cut Medicare benefits for the elderly, opposing tax credits for renewable energy and blindly supporting the war in Iraq. Her second new commercial, with Carole King's ''Where You Lead, I Will Follow'' in the background, shows pictures of Mr. Sununu in various settings with Mr. Bush.
On Friday, during a visit to the Stonyfield Farm yogurt factory in Londonderry for a tour of the company's efforts to improve energy efficiency, Mrs. Shaheen sought to draw the contrasts even clearer.
''This is a critical race,'' Mrs. Shaheen, 61, told a small gathering of employees. ''It's a race about whether the country is going to continue with the status quo, which is where John Sununu has been, voting with George Bush 90 percent of the time.''
But no one is counting out Mr. Sununu, who this week turns 44 and is the youngest member of the Senate. He has amassed a huge campaign war-chest of more than $5 million that he has only recently begun to tap, and he is campaigning with gusto, emphasizing achievements in the Senate that he says show how he stood up to the Bush administration, including his fight for changes to the Patriot Act to protect privacy rights.
''Energy, taxes, health care, national security -- I feel very comfortable debating any of these issues,'' Mr. Sununu said in an interview in Plymouth, where he attended a spaghetti dinner for the local Republican club.
The New Hampshire race is a huge priority for both parties and an array of outside advocacy groups.
Democrats view Mr. Sununu as a chief target in the effort to expand their 51-to-49 control of the Senate. They hope to capitalize on a remarkable demographic shift in New Hampshire that has erased a longtime Republican advantage. Each party can now claim roughly 31 percent of voters, with 38 percent unaffiliated.
Republicans, meanwhile, see Mr. Sununu's race as an acid test: If he can hold on in this toughest of years and turn the issues of energy and taxes to his advantage, it would bode well for Republican incumbents in Maine, Minnesota, Oregon and other states whose opponents are typically not as well known or well financed as Mrs. Shaheen.
Mr. Sununu sought to do just that in a speech to supporters at a restaurant in Wolfeboro, where his audience munched on Goldfish crackers and shrimp. ''Barack Obama and Jeanne Shaheen, when they talk about an energy policy, they begin by listing all the things they won't do,'' Mr. Sununu said. ''They won't do nuclear. They won't lift the ban on offshore drilling. They won't pursue oil shale. That's wrong.''
Mrs. Shaheen says that she supports some additional drilling but that it is not a longterm solution.
It is not clear yet what effect Ms. Palin's selection as the Republican nominee for vice president might have on the Senate race. Even if she drives Republican turnout, it may not help Mr. Sununu, who needs to attract independent voters.
Mr. Sununu said he was happy to share the Republican ticket with Ms. Palin and Mr. McCain, who won the presidential primary in New Hampshire this year and in 2000.
Some state political analysts say the pro-drilling position on energy offers Mr. Sununu his best policy argument, in a state where residents are dreading home heating costs this winter -- even as Mrs. Shaheen tries to blunt his efforts by urging that the federal government triple its spending on home heating subsidies.
''Energy is big,'' said Andy Seale, a software engineer from Milford who is supporting Mr. Sununu. ''Iraq has kind of dropped from the forefront.''
And though the unemployment rate in New Hampshire, at just under 4 percent, is the lowest in New England, economic unease is palpable. ''It's hard to tell people it's a shallow recession,'' said Grant Bosse, a Republican candidate for Congress. ''People are still hurting.''
Linda L. Fowler, a professor of government at Dartmouth College, said the overall climate, including the rise of Democrats throughout New England, seemed to favor Mrs. Shaheen even though Mr. Sununu had some basis for claiming independence. ''I just don't know how effective he is going to be at separating himself from Bush,'' Dr. Fowler said. ''Sununu is probably smart to stay home and tend his own garden.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: March 19, 2011
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER: The same parade in Milford also drew Mr. Sununu's opponent, former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, who has been leading him by double digits in recent polls.
REPUBLICAN INCUMBENT: Senator John E. Sununu, at the Labor Day parade in Milford, N.H., skipped his party's national convention last week to stay at home and campaign for re-election. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHERYL SENTER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)
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PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
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USA TODAY
September 8, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
Candidates take a licking;
Ad Track: New & Notable
BYLINE: Laura Petrecca, Theresa Howard and Bruce Horovitz
SECTION: MONEY; Pg. 3B
LENGTH: 607 words
With the summer ice cream season melting fast, the folks at Baskin-Robbins have concocted a new reason for political junkies to stop in for ice cream this fall: partisan flavor mixes.
For fans of Democrat Barack Obama, the chain is selling "Whirl of Change" (peanut nougat ice cream with chunks of chocolate-covered peanut brittle and caramel).
For fans of Republican John McCain, it's scooping "Straight Talk Crunch" (white chocolate ice cream with caramel, chocolate pieces, nuts and red candy).
No flavor for Ralph Nader yet.
Sawing real logs
Attention snoring lumberjacks: SnoreStop wants to hear from you.
The stunt-loving company -- which once was the top eBay bidder for ad space on a guy's forehead -- is asking lumberjacks to describe, in a single paragraph, both their work and their problems with "sawing logs" at night.
SnoreStop will select 25 submissions each month and send each of the winners a three-month supply of the natural, homeopathic snoring products (for more details, go to SnoreStop.com).
"Log sawing should be a daytime and not a nighttime activity," says Christian de Rivel, executive vice president of SnoreStop maker Green Pharmaceuticals.
The boys are back
Fictional Hollywood hottie Vincent Chase and his gang of friends from the sex-charged HBO show Entourage may not be virgins, but they were on hand last week to help Virgin America airlines launch a temporary class of service ("Entourage" class) and a new, permanent route from New York to Las Vegas.
The show's stars -- in real life, Adrian Grenier, Jerry Ferrara, Kevin Dillon and Kevin Connolly -- as well as Virgin Group founder Richard Branson -- were among partygoers at a fete in a hangar at New York's JFK Airport.
The party -- an element of a larger HBO/Virgin America deal brokered by Civic Entertainment Group -- cross-promoted the route and a month-long "Entourage-class" upgrade in first class (including Dom Perignon champagne, Entourage-theme blankets and Godiva treats) and Sunday's opening of the show's new season on HBO.
After hanging out in the hangar with the cast, about 130 media staff and members of Virgin America's top-tier loyalty program hopped a flight to Sin City for more partying at the Palms Casino Resort.
Pickup goes back to work
Chevrolet has gone back to basics to sell its Silverado pickup.
With sales of luxury versions to suburbanites stalled by high gas prices, its marketing strategy now "is to target the men who still need pickups for functionality and utility," says Kim Kosak, director of advertising and sales promotion for General Motors. "As we go forward, our message is to focus on those owners who need a truck."
New ads tout durability and affordability.
One features owners from Silverado's 200,000-mile club, including one guy who talks about his truck's 2 million miles.
The workhorse pitch, plus easing fuel costs and GM's promotion offering employee discounts, has revived sales: Silverado was the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. in August.
Chico's in the swim of things
Last month, the Ad Team reported that women's clothing retailer Chico's was courting multi-gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps' mom, Debbie, a longtime fan of the brand, as a paid endorser.
Last week, Chico's got its gal. Mama Phelps, who has been wearing Chico's garb for years, is now officially promoting the brand.
Chico's already is getting a return on the deal.
Debbie Phelps, who was seen on TV throughout the Olympics in Chico's wear, has worn the retailer's apparel in subsequent TV appearances, including on the morning network shows and in an Oprah appearance that was taped last week.
By Laura Petrecca, Theresa Howard and Bruce Horovitz
LOAD-DATE: September 8, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, B/W, General Motors
PHOTO, B/W, SnoreStop
PHOTO, B/W, Bob Riha Jr., AP
PUBLICATION-TYPE: NEWSPAPER
Copyright 2008 Gannett Company, Inc.
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509 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The Washington Post
September 8, 2008 Monday
Met 2 Edition
For the Republican Base, Palin Pick Is Energizing
BYLINE: Alec MacGillis; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1666 words
DATELINE: NORFOLK
Bill and Sandra Goode were so worried that John McCain might pick a running mate who favored abortion rights that Bill called McCain's presidential campaign headquarters to warn against it. They prayed. And when the Republican senator picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whom they had barely heard of but knew to be staunchly antiabortion, Sandra Goode said, "we knew our prayers had been answered."
The Goodes would have voted for McCain no matter what, but Palin lifted them to a new level of motivation. They called the volunteer McCain representative in their town of Surry, Va., offering any help they could.
"She's a real catalyst," said Bill Goode, 63, an electrician. "Sarah is the epitome of pro-life. You can tell how effective she is by the reaction she got. If she was someone who wasn't viewed as a threat to the abortionists, there wouldn't have been a response equivalent to this."
Palin's debut has invigorated the Republican base here in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, a battleground area in a top swing state, and one where GOP turnout depends heavily on evangelical Christians such as the Goodes, along with the many military families clustered around the Norfolk and Portsmouth bases.
The reaction has been remarkably instantaneous, with socially conservative voters who had barely heard of Palin electrified by the few facts they quickly learned: her longtime membership in the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination; her large family; her opposition to abortion even in cases of rape and incest; her decision to carry to term her fifth child after learning he has Down syndrome; and her belief in teaching creationism alongside evolution in public schools.
But the question facing Republicans here is whether their organization can match, and fully capitalize on, the enthusiasm provided by Palin with just two months left until Election Day. As Obama targets Virginia and its 13 electoral votes -- President Bush won the state with 54 percent of the vote in 2004 -- he has built a formidable organization, with 41 offices to McCain's nine, dozens more paid staff members, and far more time spent manning phone banks and going door to door.
GOP activists report with relief that socially conservative voters who might have stayed home on Election Day say they will turn out now, while others say they will campaign more actively for the ticket. Among those coming out of the woodwork, activists say, are some who have not been active before, such as parents of special-needs children who feel a bond with Palin. The reaction was slower for less-religious Republicans, including ones with military backgrounds who wondered about Palin's qualifications, but after her tough convention speech, many of them are also energized.
"Hearing her pro-life stance, her conservative values, her family orientation -- it has really resonated with the proletariat and caused people to say: 'Hey, I'm going to get involved here. This is someone I can relate with; this is someone that can win,' " said David Willis, an electrical engineer and GOP activist in Smithfield. "I don't want to imply the party's been limping this whole time, but with Sarah, McCain really emboldened it."
Interviews with Republican activists in the Hampton Roads area confirmed that the party is lagging in the organizational department, though most expressed confidence that, with the spark of Palin's debut, they have time to catch up. The deficit lies partly in the parties' differing approaches: Republicans generally invest less in get-out-the-vote efforts than Democrats, because they say they know who their base voters are and they know that those voters need less encouragement.
But this year the contrast is particularly sharp. Unlike Bush's 2004 campaign, which focused heavily on turnout operations, McCain has devoted most of his resources to ads, while Obama has emphasized organization as perhaps no Democrat before him.
Obama has made big gains in registering new Virginia voters, with 49,000 additions in August, 36 percent more than signed up in July. The campaign says it held 1,000 house parties in Virginia to watch Obama's convention speech, with many of the 13,000 attending also canvassing over the Labor Day weekend.
Because Virginia has been so reliably Republican in presidential elections for decades, Republicans here -- unlike in perennial swing states such as Ohio -- are unaccustomed to having to exert all that much effort. And until Palin burst on the scene, Republicans here said there just was not a lot of the energy needed to fuel a grass-roots operation, because of Bush's decline in popularity, lingering ambivalence about McCain and demoralization from recent GOP losses in the state.
"Everything was pretty lackluster," said Earl Hall, the volunteer representative for Surry, who is far more excited now that Palin's in the picture: "She's right good-looking -- that's all I need to know."
In Isle of Wight County, a GOP stronghold just west of Portsmouth and home to the ham capital of Smithfield -- Bush won 63 percent of the vote there in 2004 -- the county party had gone defunct until last month, when several previous members and several new arrivals decided that, with the election coming up, they ought to resurrect it.
They placed an ad in the paper and called 100 names on the old membership list. A dozen people expressed interest, and they now meet every other week. On Thursday, they organized a house party to watch McCain's speech. Thirteen people showed up to watch and dine on snacks with American-flag paper plates and napkins. Their reaction to McCain's speech was muted, with some of the loudest applause coming when he mentioned Palin.
They also plan to set up a table at the county fair, but otherwise their outreach has been limited -- a few sessions of phone-calling and a few door-to-door canvasses by a couple of core members, during which they distributed generic GOP literature because they have not yet received any McCain brochures. They have had trouble getting bumper stickers and have run out of lawn signs. They still need to assign captains for most of the county's dozen precincts, and will not expect anything from those volunteers except manning the polls on Election Day -- unlike the Obama campaign, which expects precinct captains to spend weeks finding ways to reach out to their neighbors.
John Brannis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and military contractor employee who volunteered for the Bush campaign in the county in 2004, was not concerned, saying that calling voters or knocking on their door was not worth the effort -- Republicans had done fine in 2004 despite doing little of that. It is more effective, he said, to chat with people on his daily rounds, like the older woman who asked him to pump her gas the other day.
"People here know that if you want to know about Republican Party, talk to J.B. Brannis," he said. "It needs to be about personal relationships."
Cristina Morris, who moved to Isle of Wight last year from Fairfax County with her husband, an officer with the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, was surprised that she has wound up as the chairwoman of the resurrected county party. "We didn't think we'd be running it, but someone has to do it," she said.
The picture is similar around the area. In Surry, Hall has not gone door to door yet, saying that "it's too expensive driving around." "If people can't get the information they need now with all the media floating around, then they've got a problem," he said. In Suffolk, Steve Trent, a salesman leading the volunteer effort, is holding off on canvassing until he has literature for all the GOP candidates on the ticket. But, he said, Palin's instant celebrity will overcome any delays.
"What woman do you know who could shoot a moose, field-dress it and serve it?" he said. "This has really energized the conservative side of the house."
Gail Gitcho, a McCain spokeswoman in Virginia, said that the campaign is satisfied with its progress and that Palin's selection was already having palpable effects, most visibly in an increase in the number of women volunteers turning out to make phone calls at the campaign's offices. "We have a lot more work to do but we're feeling very good about Virginia," she said.
How much evangelical Christian support McCain would have drawn without Palin is open to debate. It was in Virginia Beach, home to Pat Robertson's Regent University, that he gave his 2000 speech labeling Robertson and Jerry Falwell "agents of intolerance." But he later reconciled with them and impressed evangelical Christians with his performance at a forum at the Saddleback mega-church in California last month.
Palin's appeal among evangelical Christians may not be universal. Some may be put off by her overt religious references, as when she called the war in Iraq a "task that is from God" at an Alaska church and asked members of the congregation to pray for the natural gas pipeline she is trying to get built. Many younger evangelicals have elevated issues such as global warming, which Palin does not think is necessarily caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
But Charles W. Dunn, dean of the government school at Regent University, said that her stances on "family values" issues "trump the others" and that evangelical Christians have been "transformed into worker bees" as a result of her selection. "Early returns suggest an all-out embrace. She has created a buzz like I've never seen before," he said. "These folks felt hopeless, and all of a sudden they've been given hope overnight and beyond measure."
Peyton White, a McCain activist in Newport News, concurred, saying that she would feel much more comfortable now in approaching other members of her church to help campaign, because they identify with Palin and see her as paving the way for others like them. "People see her as one of them," she said. "There's a feeling that this is something all of us could be transformed into, because she's done it now."
LOAD-DATE: September 8, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Alex Wong -- Getty Images; On Feb. 12 in Alexandria, John McCain celebrated his victory in Virginia's Republican primary. Turnout among conservatives in Hampton Roads could be crucial in the swing state in November.
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Washingtonpost.com
September 8, 2008 Monday 3:00 PM EST
Outlook: Meet the New American Family;
The Picture-Perfect American Family? These Days, There's No Such Thing
BYLINE: Andrew J. Cherlin, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, Johns Hopkins University, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4339 words
HIGHLIGHT: "If the candidates wished to convince viewers that their families were just like ours, they were undone by a 21st-century reality: There is no typical family anymore -- at least not in terms of who lives in the household and how they are related. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin noted as much on Wednesday when, while introducing her clan to a cheering crowd of the Republican faithful, the GOP vice presidential nominee said: 'From the inside, no family ever seems typical. That's how it is with us.'"
"If the candidates wished to convince viewers that their families were just like ours, they were undone by a 21st-century reality: There is no typical family anymore -- at least not in terms of who lives in the household and how they are related. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin noted as much on Wednesday when, while introducing her clan to a cheering crowd of the Republican faithful, the GOP vice presidential nominee said: 'From the inside, no family ever seems typical. That's how it is with us.'"
Andrew J. Cherlin, professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University was online Monday, Sept. 8, at 3 p.m. ET to discuss his Outlook article about the new American family.
The transcript follows.
Archive: Transcripts of discussions with Outlook article authors
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Andrew J. Cherlin: Hi -- This is Andrew Cherlin. I'm pleased to chat with all of you and look forward to your questions.
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Virginia: Professor, do you have a family? With kids?
Andrew J. Cherlin: I'm in a second marriage, and my wife and I each have two children from our previous marriages. We have three grandchildren.
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Los Angeles: There's certainly no gay or lesbian American family as far as both parties and the "mainstream" press is concerned. We've been rendered invisible as far they're concerned -- like so many others. It's getting awfully crowded under the bus.
Andrew J. Cherlin: Yes, but there really has been progress over the past decade or two. The idea of civil unions, let alone marriage, for same-sex couples was unheard of until 25 years ago. I think the progress will continue.
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Dallas: Mr. Cherlin, thanks for the article, but let's get real -- the only reason conservatives are accepting Bristol Palin's pregnancy is because she is "on their team." Every other day of the week these same people are avidly condemning people from the "liberal left" who are in the same situation, no matter how supportive her parents may be. I think it best to just wait a few years and see the reaction when Obama's daughter, Biden's granddaughter or someone else of their ilk gets pregnant before marriage -- then we'll see how accepting everyone is. I am a proud sixth-generation Texan -- I know what's going on.
Andrew J. Cherlin: Well, no doubt conservatives are defending Gov. Palin because she is one of their own. (Similarly, it was interesting to see Republicans defending working mothers.) But there is a strain in social conservatism of "hate the sin, love the sinner," and many conservative protestant churches are happy to minister to the divorced or to those who have a child outside of marriage.
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Tromsø, Norway: Why do American politicians have to push their family in front of them when they want to get elected?
Andrew J. Cherlin: This must indeed seem odd to someone from Europe,where family matters are seen as much more private. All I can say is that American voters feel a great need to to like their candidates as individuals and to feel that the candidates share their values.
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Palin family: I believe the trend for the past several years has been for people to get married at later ages. What are the prospects, for employment and longevity of marriage, for the typical couple getting married at age 17? This is not the typical couple of course -- I suspect his employment chances will be a tad better than for the typical 17-year-old (high school graduate?).
Andrew J. Cherlin: Sadly, as you suggest, the statistics are not good. Teenage marriages have a substantially higher risk of divorce. Statistically, the young couple has a challenging future.
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Raleigh, N.C.: The "Picture Perfect" Political Family? Look no further than the Obamas! Both Barack and Michelle overcame many obstacles to gain a Harvard education. Both share a love for community and working to help others, and clearly love each other and their beautiful daughters. Now, contrast that with the adulterous McCain and his rich/elitist wife (who is on her second marriage too), and the controversial Palin clan that preaches the social practices of the religious far-right but has a underage and unwed pregnant daughter ... not to mention a mother in Sarah who clearly puts career ahead of family.
Andrew J. Cherlin: It is worthy of note, given all the criticisms of black families, that the Obamas have the family that most approximates the American ideal.
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Washington: Professor Cherlin, in your opinion piece yesterday you wrote that "the religious right's reaction to the news of Bristol Palin's pregnancy shows they are willing to embrace a family that deviates from their ideals if the parents are willing to support each other and their children through difficult times." Would you please enlighten me on what research/evidence/statistics that you have to support the conclusion stated above? You are a professor after all.
I submit to you that a more accurate statement would be that the religious right's reaction to the news of Bristol Palin's pregnancy shows that "some" are willing to embrace a "white" family that deviates from their ideals "when it is politically expeditious to do so." Also, I guess that I should not have been surprised that so many can not relate/identify with the Obama family after years of campaigning, but can people really identify with the Palin family after just one speech?
After all, Americans are bombarded with negative images of blacks via the media (only the underclass or the celebrities warrant any attention), while the black middle class remains invisible. Couple that with the outright prejudice and ignorant of some Americans, and it should be no surprise that the Obamas are too hard to decipher for some.
Andrew J. Cherlin: As I just said to another questioner, it is indeed ironic that the Obamas are the closest to being an old-style "typical" family. To be sure, conservatives are critical of teenage childbearing, but conservative churches do take in, and minister to, teenage moms or divorced moms. (Hate the sin, love the sinner.)
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Philadelphia: I noted, at least before the Democratic National Convention, that Sen. Obama seldom has mentioned that he was raised in a single-parent household. I am not sure of his reasoning, yet I should think that many would identify with that, and it would deflect the charge that he is an elitist. Why does it seem that some are afraid to discuss being raised by one parent?
Andrew J. Cherlin: Well, perhaps because he was raised by grandparents at least part of the time -- by an extended family rather than by married parents.
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New York: It's cool (by accident, I think) that the nominees have made such elaborate (but carefully orchestrated to look effortless and breezy) introductions of their families. The "accident" part is that I think nominees probably on some level would prefer to have a "traditional" family model, such that it's something no one raises an eyebrow about. The "cool" part is that in their doing so, it opens people's eyes (well, those that need opening) and helps make acceptance and tolerance more mainstream.
Andrew J. Cherlin: I do think that's the lesson of the convention: Our leaders have now made it okay to have a family that deviates from the traditional model.
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Stevens Point, Wis.: Hello, Dr. Cherlin. I am a family sociologist, and I just discussed your research on the deinstitutionalization of the American family with my undergraduate students. It's my impression than when couples marry today, they desire what I would characterize as an "uber-marriage" -- that the expectations of one's spouse to meet one's desire for companionship and personal fulfillment are incredibly intense. Many of the other functions of marriage have been stripped away, leaving emotional fulfillment as the major function. That is why the American marriage today rests on such a fragile base. Do you agree, or do you have another perspective?
Andrew J. Cherlin: Yes, I do agree. Marriage was not designed to fulfill our high emotional expectations. It was a way to subsist, to raise and feed your yourself and your kids. It is not optimized for personal fulfillment.
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Rockville, Md.: Andrew, great article. I think that women politicians are especially scrutinized on how well they are able to balance work and their family. Although Sen. Clinton and Speaker Pelosi ran for office when their children were "grown," the family challenges that Gov. Palin faces (pregnant teenage daughter) are too great for the vice president, and it makes me wonder "what is this woman thinking?"
She was unable to prevent her daughter from having premarital sex before marriage (which is against her religious beliefs and politics)? If your house is not in order then you have no business running for the second-highest office in the land. I know it is a double standard, but it's just the way the world works. When there is a family crisis, people often will look at the mother (not so much dad) for insight on what is going on with the family, especially when it contradicts her political beliefs. The Republicans are supposed to be the party of family values.
Andrew J. Cherlin: What was so interesting was that Republican speakers defended Gov. Palin's right to make the decision to work outside the home, even though conservatives were long in favor of mothers staying home. No longer will conservatives be able to convincingly oppose working mothers.
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Fairfax County, Va.: I was enormously offended by your piece, which mingled some genuine insight with smears, distortions, and racism. What a mess. Nothing could be more traditional than a man with young children remarrying and securing a new mother for them, years after the death of his wife. Such marriages occur in every culture and in every century, in the Bible, and even in fairy tales. Yet you use Joe Biden to anchor the caption "9.2 percent of men, like Biden, are in a second marriage." That's a classic smear, completely inverting the traditional family values he has lived.
Nothing could be more traditional or admirable than adopting an orphan, yet the McCain family anchors the caption "2.5 percent of American children, like John McCain's daughter Bridget, are adopted." Gee, what a weird, novel family arrangement! What really left a bad taste, however, was the ugly implication that dark skin makes a family less "perfect." (I'm referring to the headline, "The Picture Perfect Family? These Days, It Doesn't Exist".) Suggesting that an adopted Bangladeshi child makes a family less than "picture perfect" is appalling.
In the same way, your photo caption for Obama notes that "2.3 percent of Americans are biracial" and the article stress this (per the headline) less-than-perfect quality as well. To state the obvious, neither Bridget McCain's nor Barack Obama's skin color reflects adversely on them or their families. What were you thinking?
Andrew J. Cherlin: You are misinterpreting my piece. We college professors are called upon to describe and explain things. Sometimes, when I describe aspects of the American family that some people don't like, readers mistakenly think that I share that dislike. I do not necessarily share it. I'm one the 9.2 American males who are in a second marriage. In mentioning teen pregnancy, second marriages, etc., I am trying to help us understand the changes we have seen -- not criticize them.
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Indianapolis: I agree that there is no picture perfect family, but painting that false picture of perfection has been political bread-and-butter exploited by politicians for a long time. Even the term "soccer mom" implies the mother is perfect, and that's one reason some women buy into that silly stereotype. Anyway, I guess it's okay to be less than perfect now that Gov. Palin and her crew are on the political scene. Should American women send her a thank you note or something?
Andrew J. Cherlin: Whatever you think of Gov. Palin politically, what happened last week helped to bury the idea that mothers should stay home. Even the Republicans are now against that.
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Washington: I am utterly baffled by Sarah Palin's assertion that there is no singular-modal "American family" anymore. On the one hand, I fully understand the demographic facts -- the former two-parent, 2.3-child modal census description doesn't hold (and probably hasn't for years) -- but isn't the whole point of Palin's assertion to protect her own family, which otherwise criticizes (even condemns) those who aren't "2 + 2.3"?
Andrew J. Cherlin: Well, yes, she was trying to put her family in the best light, as were the other candidates. We'll see how judgmental she is of other kinds of families; she may not be. These days, just because you are pro-life doesn't mean you are judgmental of other people's divorces.
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Washington: What are the statistics about men who cheat on their first wives and marry the mistress? John McCain got the marriage license to marry his second wife, Cindy, while still married to his first wife. It is widely reported that John and Cindy were "dating" while John was still married. Admittedly this doesn't disqualify John from the presidency (see Ronald Reagan), but how unusual is this for an American family these days?
Andrew J. Cherlin: Unfortunately, there is no statistics on this!
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New York: Greetings. Under normal circumstances I never would cluck at out-of-wedlock children (as long as someone will be there to love and take care of them) or any other similar irregularities. However, I find it ironic that our newfound national tolerance for such things comes in response to a prominent Republican instance of its occurrence. The Republicans, after all, are the party that advertises itself as the party of family values, which usually translates as life as portrayed in "Leave It to Beaver." I cannot help feeling that if this were happening in the Obama or Clinton family the scene would not be as heartwarmingly portrayed. It's okay if you're a Republican?
Andrew J. Cherlin: I agree that it is ironic. What this past week or two has done is undercut the conservative critique of divorce and working mothers. Being a working mother -- even if you have an infant with a disability -- is now officially OK. And divorce, while not a good thing, is understandable, and one moves forward after it. An era of conservative critiques of working mothers is over. Divorce is now officially acceptable. And while teenage pregnancy is still viewed as unfortunate, the response is to support and embrace the young mother.
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Richmond, Va.: "But there is a strain in social conservatism of 'hate the sin, love the sinner,' and many conservative protestant churches are happy to minister to the divorced or to those who have a child outside of marriage." Yes, but unfortunately many of those churches also are preaching that the sinners are going to hell regardless -- and teaching their very young children that.
Andrew J. Cherlin: Actually, far fewer conservative Protestant churches have hellfire and damnation preaching than a generation or two ago. Many of the megachurches now preach that God is your friend, nonjudgmental, and He want you to succeed in life. Conservatives have bought into individualism and personal fulfillment, too.
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Seattle: Professor Cherlin, is it "hate the sin, love the sinner" or "love the sinner (for now)"? Some organizations and churches have outreach programs and support for people in Bristol Palin's situation; I don't find them hypocritical for condemning the sin but not the sinner. But a lot of other churches of the religious right have recently just adopted this attitude, all around the time that the pregnancy became news. Can you please explain how that is not hypocrisy?
Andrew J. Cherlin: See my previous answer. Yes, for some of the churches this is a recent change. But what's interesting is how widespread this new message is becoming. Religion in American, as an expert once said, may be conservative, but it's not traditional -- it's quite modern in some ways.
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Re: Rockville, Md.: I disagree with your answer to Rockville quite strongly. Conservatives still will oppose working and/or single mothers, while still defending the efficacy of "abstinence-only" sex education. The difference is that now they'll be openly hypocritical in doing so.
Andrew J. Cherlin: Some do, but the strong critics of working moms are now the minority. Go to the religious self-help section at your local Barnes & Noble, and you'll see books that say: it's better to stay home, but if you feel you have to work, you can do it, and God will cover you. True, these churches may be less flexible about comprehensive sex education.
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Upper Marlboro, Md.: I think the so-called ideal family is a construct of the racial majority. In other groups, unwed mothers, teen marriages, seniors living together, grandparents raising grandchildren, May-December weddings, adopting the neighbors kids after parents die or leave, etc., etc., etc., are not unusual. While the majority may be a family with a mother, father and children, I certainly can point to several different configurations all the way back to slavery in just our family. The ideal has not changed for many of us; welcome aboard.
Andrew J. Cherlin: I would say this to you and to "Philadelphia," who just asked in what sense is anything about the Obama family nontraditional: Isn't it interesting that the most "traditional"-seeming family in the group is the African American one? I think the events of the past two weeks will make it harder for whites to think of themselves as "traditional" and of African Americans as "nontraditional." Whites must now acknowledge their diversity, too.
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New York: What basis do you have for your statement that Republicans support mothers being away from the home? Because they support Palin, a tool to their continued occupation? Phyllis Schlafly tried this shtick before -- a woman carrying the mantle for repression of feminism. It didn't make her a feminist, and it didn't make her supporters feminist. Buy a vowel, please.
Andrew J. Cherlin: Some things are the same since Phyllis Schlafly's hey-day (the strong pro-life stand) but some things are different. And one of them is women working outside the home. Over the past decade, conservatives have been pushing marriage but slowing giving up on the idea that wives must stay home. Gov. Palin's nomination is pretty much the end of that older idea.
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Laurel, Md.: The Republican party talks about 1950-1965 as a kind of Golden Era of family life, and it did produce a record marriage rate and baby boom. They also deride its economic conditions based on labor unions and job security. Aren't the two inextricably intertwined? When a sensible person is considering starting a family, isn't the likelihood of steady income for 20 years a big part of the decision? Isn't the modern free-agent economy a big part of the lack of traditional families?
Andrew J. Cherlin: Yes it is. Most of the families that form outside of marriage are among people who haven't graduated from college. They are the people who have been most affected by the movement of jobs overseas and into computer chips. A successful marriage is harder for them to attain.
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Richmond again:"Actually, far fewer conservative Protestant churches have hellfire and damnation preaching than a generation or two ago." Far fewer, yes, but that doesn't mean the attitudes are gone, or that they don't exist -- my 4-year-old niece last year was told by her neighbor that her parents were going to hell because they weren't married and didn't go to church. Small-town Southern life hasn't changed that much, it's just better-hidden.
Andrew J. Cherlin: I agree that old attitudes still exist. But they are changing. We saw some of that change the past two weeks. It's still ongoing and incomplete -- a work in progress.
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Port Ewen, N.Y.: I have become increasingly fearful of the place religion has taken in our families and our politics. Years ago it was important that you marry someone of your own religion, or that someone convert to make the family more homogenous. Years softened that edge, and America became more divergent -- a positive to my mind. Now it seems we are going backward. Gov. Palin's quite divisive remarks have been plastered all over today, and now we hear of a plan for churches to unite and deliver endorsements from the pulpit. Aren't we modeling ourselves after the Middle East, with their aggressive religious policies? Thanks.
Andrew J. Cherlin: It is indeed relatively new for ministers to mix politics and preaching. But it is not only done on the right: just recall the Vietnam War years, when many liberal clergy led the opposition to the war. The conservatives are relatively new at the game -- last few decades.
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Philadelphia: In what sense is anything about the Obama family nontraditional? I'm 31 and had biracial friends growing up, as did my older and younger siblings. That certainly didn't raise eyebrows in my suburban-without-the-city neighborhood. The only one of these four families that would is the Palin one -- for many reasons (hypocrisy was harder to overcome than anything else, I think).
Andrew J. Cherlin: I hope you read my other answer that included a response to your good comment.
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New York: Republicans and religious conservatives remain opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment. Please explain this in the context of your curious spin re: Republicans and the religious right being more "open-minded."
Andrew J. Cherlin: They are conservative, to be sure. But they aren't as tradition-oriented as some think. Maybe they think the ERA isn't a good idea, but they increasingly accept working moms and they encourage men to be active fathers and supportive husbands. The real diving lines, the really divisive issues these days, are abortion and homosexuality. Lots of strong disagreement between conservative and liberal churches there. But less disagreement on other issues that used to divide them.
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gswaff: Before you make a sweeping statement that these families don't exist, you might look at the Romney family. They look a lot like the Cleavers to me.
Andrew J. Cherlin: I'm not saying there are no Cleavers today, but in the 1950s, half of all children were being raised by a working dad and stay-at-home mom; today it's about one quarter.
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Rockville, Md.: The Democratic and Republican presidential tickets want their families "off limits" to the media, but they trot them out like show ponies at the convention. Very hypocritical.
Andrew J. Cherlin: It's true that the Republicans have tried to protect Gov. Palin so far. And the Clintons tried to protect Chelsea until now. But the first ladies have long been very public figures. The first family is a little bit like the Royal Family in Britain, and lately the British have been obsessed with details about them.
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Falls Church, Va.: The national grassroots nonprofit organization Family and Home Network is calling on policy-makers to adopt principles of inclusion in family policy-making. We think it's time to design policies so that the ways in which families meet their income-earning and caregiving responsibilities do not determine their eligibility for support and services. For decades, politicians have focused on "working families" -- often an ill-defined term -- and the policies that result leave millions of families out. If it's time to acknowledge that there is no typical family anymore, isn't it time for inclusive family policies?
Andrew J. Cherlin: Work shouldn't be the only criterion for government aid. (And it isn't -- consider the tax deduction for having children in the home.) But Americans of all classes and races are so supportive of work as a value, and of personal responsibility, that I am reluctant to rule out program benefits that depend upon work.
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socrates3333: I think real conversation about the family is sorely needed right now. That there no longer exists one picture perfect family anymore (okay, there may be some -- I had one until my first husband's death), and that the landscape is changing rapidly and broadening to include many different forms of what now constitutes a "family" are incredibly important topics. Obama has been talking about family quite a bit. With Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy leaping onto the scene, the topic of "family" is in the spotlight ... exactly where it belongs.
Andrew J. Cherlin: It certainly has been in the spotlight over the past two weeks!
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Silver Spring, Md.: It's hard to talk about conservatives without talking about conservative churches. Women can work outside the home and be a vice presidential candidate, but are they allowed to be lead the service on Sunday? As an Episcopalian, the Baptists continue to mystify me.
Andrew J. Cherlin: I agree that in some conservative churches (and in Catholic churches, many of which are liberal on social issues other than abortion), women may be limited in their leadership roles. But there are many prominent women preachers on television and on the shelves at your local bookstore.
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Andrew J. Cherlin: Thanks for the interesting and stimulating comments! I am signing off. Regards, Andrew Cherlin
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September 8, 2008 Monday 12:00 PM EST
Critiquing the Press
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4335 words
HIGHLIGHT: Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War," "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."
Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War," "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."
He was online Monday, Sept. 8 at noon ET to take your questions and comments.
The transcript follows.
Media Backtalk transcripts archive
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San Diego: Good morning, Howard. I have a question about MSNBC dropping Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann as anchors for upcoming big political events. I understand that the network has a lot of infighting (both on- and off-camera) but given the timing, how is this going to be seen as anything but caving to the McCain campaign, or at least to its more Republican/conservative corporate ownership? Also, as a matter of appearance, I get why it's not great to have Olbermann anchoring; although he's not as over-the-top in that role, his bias is clear. Matthews, on the other hand, practically gushes about both McCain and Obama. Why is he a problem?
Howard Kurtz: I have no evidence that MSNBC's move is a caving in to the McCain campaign. There has been criticism for months (including from me) that opinionated talk show hosts could not be seen as fairly presiding over primary nights or conventions as neutral anchors. And there was a substantial push for a change from NBC News veterans who felt their reputation for fairness was being tarnished. Olbermann is the network's preeminent liberal symbol, but he and Matthews were co-anchors, so if MS was going to make a change, it had to affect both of them.
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New York: Howard, thanks for taking questions. I asked this in the politics chat, but its likely more up your alley: This morning at my local newsstand I saw Sarah Palin's face smiling up at me from the cover of the latest edition of the National Enquirer with the promise of the revelation of "dark secrets." Normally I'd roll my eyes and move on to get my newspaper, but after the Enquirer was right on the money with the John Edwards scandal (long before the mainstream media) and, if I recall distantly, was right about the Lewinsky saga back in the day, I have to wonder if there's something there. Is The Post going to follow up? Or did the Enquirer get lucky with Edwards but is off-base here. It's weird to consider the Enquirer a legitimate political news source, but these days I have to wonder. What's your take? Thanks.
Howard Kurtz: The Post ran an item by me last week in St. Paul, Minn., saying that the McCain campaign had denounced the Enquirer story about Sarah Palin as a vicious lie. The piece is pretty thinly sourced, so I don't know whether or not it's on target, despite what turned out to be the tabloid's accurate reporting on John Edwards.
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New York: Regarding Charlie Gibson's big interview with Sarah Palin, the AP reported that the it actually will be "multiple interviews with Gibson in Alaska over two days." Is it common to do it this way instead of one longer interview? Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but something seems fishy here.
Howard Kurtz: But that seems better to me, not worse, from a journalistic point of view. You can only get to so much if you're given 10 minutes. The more time, the more ground that Gibson can cover. And I'm sure ABC wants to run extended portions not just on "World News" but on programs like "Nightline" and "This Week."
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Washington: Your newspaper finds itself in the odd position today of excoriating Alberto Gonzales in an op-ed for his reported carelessness in handling sensitive records, while also offering excerpts from a book by Bob Woodward in which he seemingly obtained nonpublic, sensitive information orally or in documentary fashion outside the regulatory and statutory processes.
(Under the Presidential Records Act, outsiders such as Woodward cannot start requesting unclassified or classified records White House under the Freedom of Information Act until five years after an administration leaves office, so that option for accessing info is not yet available to Woodward or to any other reporter or researcher.)
Just to complete the trifecta, there also is a report by Christopher Lee today on a lawsuit to be filed today regarding the handling of vice presidential records under the Presidential Records Act. Doesn't The Post's promotion of Woodward's books undermine Fred Hiatt's ability to speak with credibility on issues related to the handling of sensitive information?
If Gonzales acted wrongly in placing information at risk, so did anyone who shared nonpublic information orally or in document form with Woodward. As someone familiar with the standards for handling archival materials with integrity, I find Woodward to be a terrible drag on your newspaper. Does the publisher realize how Woodward undermines some of the newspaper's op-eds, such as the one on Gonzales? I say officials must respect the rules -- period.
Howard Kurtz: I don't follow the analogy at all. There are laws that public officials must follow in the handling of classified material. Those laws don't apply to journalists, who don't have government security clearances. The only question for reporters obtaining sensitive material is whether national security secrets or confidential informants would be compromised by publishing the documents. Woodward's been doing this a long time, and it's interesting to note that President Bush granted him two interviews for this book, even though his last book, "State of Denial," was quite critical of the president and the administration.
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Washington: Sarah the Mysterious: Howard, I was troubled to read this morning that the McCain campaign expects the media to show Gov. Palin not only respect but deference (?!) before they will make her available for interviews. Give me a break! Do you think she is taking a lead from the current vice president's book? If so, she should be aware that the American public will draw their own conclusions about why she's reluctant to take questions (the way all other politicians do) -- and they won't be favorable to her.
Howard Kurtz: She'll get the same deference that every other politician gets -- basic respect and fairness -- but no more. We'll have to see whether Palin does more interviews after Gibson or even (gasp) holds a news conference.
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Washington: This pertains to both sides making the argument: Why does the media give voice to the people on both sides who try to denigrate it when it has does its job -- aka finding out the stuff about a candidate that they don't want to talk about? Instead of letting yourselves be the whipping boy, why not just ignore people who spew that kind of garbage?
Howard Kurtz: This is a free-for-all kinda forum. Let people have their say and you all can judge whether their arguments are valid.
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Baltimore: Howard, on multiple occasions you have made statements similar to this one in your column today: "She began by showcasing her five children. She can hardly turn around and argue, then, that her family ought to be totally off-limits." As if that's justification for the maniacal mauling of her and her family by the media. Haven't the Obama children been at the convention and in magazines? Aren't they rightfully treated as off-limits? It seems a cheap shot to claim that because the Palin children appeared in public, they're available for target practice. Should she have locked them in a closet and not let anyone see her family?
Howard Kurtz: If you read my column a little more closely, you'll see that I'm quite critical of the media's performance. The lead says she was "mauled, minimized and manhandled" by the media establishment. But it is an undeniable fact that Palin not only has trotted out her kids, but has made her role as a mother central to her political narrative. She can't then expect only positive coverage of her family. That does not justify many of the cheap shots we've seen, as I've made clear, and this whole how-can-she-be-a-mom-and-run-for-VP debate seems to me to be something out of the distant past.
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Akron, Ohio: When Tucker Carlson left MSNBC to the rude ones Matthews and Olbermann I found another station to watch. I think he and David Gregory, if he doesn't go back to his bully ways, would make a great team. What do you think? Also you don't seem to be on CNN as much Sunday morning, and I miss you!
washingtonpost.com: MSNBC Drops Olbermann, Matthews as News Anchors (Post, Sept. 8)
Howard Kurtz: Thanks. I was back on yesterday. We did only segments from Denver and St. Paul, Minn., the previous two weeks.
Tucker Carlson hasn't left MSNBC, but his role has been greatly diminished since his show was canceled in March. I think the chances of him being paired with David Gregory are basically nonexistent.
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The flip side of multiple interviews...: A problem could arise if the first interview goes in a direction the campaign doesn't want to go. Then suddenly Palin could be "unavailable" for round two, the campaign could leak a story about Gibson being unfair, and the "media is biased" story gets played out over the weekend again. Granted, it could be a huge gambit, but in picking a relative unknown, the McCain camp has shown they aren't afraid of gambling.
Howard Kurtz: Charlie has been doing this a long time. He has moderated presidential debates. I don't think he's going to pull any punches out of concern that the campaign might yank the subsequent interviews. And if that happened, wouldn't it look like Palin couldn't withstand tough questioning?
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Darien, Conn.: Can we attribute some of the chaos at MSNBC in their political coverage to the void left by Tim Russert?
Howard Kurtz: No, I don't think so. Some of these same tensions and complaints were raging while Tim was still alive.
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Parallel universe?: After the MSNBC removal of Matthews and Olbermann as unseemly news anchors, will Fox News follow suit by ditching their opinionated political analysts as anchors of election coverage?
Howard Kurtz: Fox did something interesting during the conventions -- it kept the "O'Reilly Factor" and "Hannity & Colmes" on, then had Brit Hume anchor the rest of the night, beginning a little before 10 p.m. eastern. So it got its most opinionated hosts on the air, but without labeling them "anchors."
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San Diego: Howard, are the journalistic expectations different for Fox than for MSNBC or the main networks? I ask that because you questioned some of the comments from the morning programs on Gov. Palin, yet those judgmental comments are run-of-the-mill for Fox morning shows. For the past few weeks I've been watching Fox, more to see the differences between them and MSNBC and wonder if the problem is that people expect MSNBC to play the news straight while Fox is, well, Fox, and and can be a GOP cheering squad?
Howard Kurtz: Expectations are in the eye of the beholder, I guess. I expect all the news networks to be fair, or at least make clear the difference between straight reporting and commentary.
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Trenton, N.J.: Hi Howard. Would you agree that a lot of this campaign is pure theater, and that we voters, however much we are aware of it, still just take it all in? The worst part is that it works -- and we all know it.
Howard Kurtz: When has American politics not had an element of theater? Television and the Internet make it a constant stage, but even the early pamphleteers, and the debaters in the Lincoln-Douglas mold, knew you had to entertain people to get them to pay attention.
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Rolla, Mo.: Thank you for calling the "Palin-opposing-the-Bridge-to-Nowhere" ad for what it is, a whopper. Now, can we expect The Washington Post's editorial board to pen something on Palin's earmarks history, just like they did today with her relationship with big oil?
washingtonpost.com: Ms. Palin's Pipeline (Post, Sept. 8)
Howard Kurtz: Dunno. The Post's editorial board is completely separate from the working-stiff reporters like me.
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Hampton Cove, Ala.: Howie, I am still waiting for your correction that Elisabeth Bumiller and Jake Tapper are not great reporters (as your proclaimed) and got it wrong that Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence Party. Seems you are very one-sided in who you give the benefit of the doubt. Most Americans realize Pulitzer Prizes are given out by left-wing professors who do not share their values, so using that to give credence to liberal mainstream media types is losing its luster.
Howard Kurtz: Left-wing professors? The prizes are given out by journalists.
Both Tapper and Bumiller did something quite reasonable: said Palin had once been a member of the Alaska Independence Party based on on-the-record comments by the chairwoman of the party. (Bumiller should have attributed the information, as she acknowledged in an ombudsman's column yesterday.) The chairwoman later said she was wrong and had given out erroneous information. That, too, was reported. It's why journalism is in fact a first draft of history.
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Washington: Howie, I am guessing that by putting David Gregory at the helm of MSNBC's political coverage for the last two months of this year's elections, that they are priming him to take over NBC's "Meet The Press," after Brokaw moves aside after November. Your thoughts on this?
Howard Kurtz: I honestly don't think that decision has been made. It certainly won't hurt Gregory if he's seen as doing a good job. The skills involved in anchoring a live event are very different from hosting a Sunday morning interview show; Russert, of course, was never an anchor. But it could boost Gregory in the stature department.
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Washington: On Sunday, I woke to read excerpts from Bob Woodward's latest book posted washingtonpost.com. Needless to say, Woodward is not very complimentary to Bush or his party. Then, continuing my browsing, I went to wsj.com and read an article with this excerpt: "According to Rasmussen, fully 68 percent of voters believe that 'most reporters try to help the candidate they want to win.' And -- no surprise -- 49 percent of those surveyed believe reporters are backing Barack Obama, while just 14 percent think the media is in the tank for Sen. McCain."Meanwhile, 51 percent of those surveyed thought the press was 'trying to hurt' Mrs. Palin with its coverage. Perhaps most troubling for the press corps, though, was this finding: '55 percent said media bias is a bigger problem for the electoral process than large campaign donations.' "
Would you like to take a shot at convincing me that posting Woodward's latest anti-Republican polemic in the middle of the presidential campaign was "just coincidence" and not part of a campaign to help the Democrats in the election? I mean that sincerely, because right now I am finding myself on the majority side of those who view the mainstream media as being in the tank for Obama. I'm finding it hard to see where washingtonpost.com draws the line between op-ed and news. Thank you.
washingtonpost.com: Political Diary: What Sarah Knows (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 7)
Howard Kurtz: Piece o' cake. The Woodward excerpts were published, beginning yesterday, for a pretty fundamental reason: the book is being published this week. Other publicity for the book (such as a "60 Minutes" interview yesterday) also have gotten under way. Woodward may or may not have decided to bring out the book during the election season to have a greater impact, but The Post has no control over that. You also might remember that Woodward's first book in this Bush-at-war series was quite positive for the president. That volume dealt with Afghanistan.
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Granger, Ind.: Thanks for taking questions. Help me out with something, will you? Why do so many in the media seem to regard the Palin pick as evidence of McCain's "maverick" personality? As I understand it, the person McCain wanted to pick, Joe Lieberman, essentially was vetoed by the Christian Right. Rather than stand up to such "agents of intolerance," McCain decided to bow before their wishes, choosing a committed social conservative. For this, he's hailed a maverick? What am I missing? Wouldn't a true "maverick" have told them where to stick it and made his own choice?
Howard Kurtz: Well, it's not quite right to say that anyone "vetoed" the choice of Lieberman. McCain weighed the pros and cons of picking a lifelong Democrat and concluded that his party would revolt. The maverick label that some have applied to the Palin pick is not about her staunchly conservative views. It's about the fact that she was virtually unknown in the other 49 states and has been a governor for just 20 months.
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Kansas City, Kan.: Campbell Brown of CNN in her interview with the McCain flak did the best job of television journalism I had witness in quite some time (deference to the great Tim Russert). She pinned him down and would not allow him a "non-answer." Looking flustered and outmatched, the young flak seemed to be saying to Campbell: "You're not playing by the rules! You ask your question and I get to answer whatever question I want based on my talking points." I shudder to think what would become of our lush political landscape if all journalist followed Mrs. Campbell's example. Perhaps we may have even avoided a war? Your thoughts?
Howard Kurtz: It was a good. solid interview in which Campbell tried to get Tucker Bounds to name one decision Palin has made as commander of the Alaska National Guard. It also resulted in the campaign canceling a McCain appearance on Larry King, which I found quite puzzling.
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New Orleans: Howard -- do you think the talking heads who gushed over Palin's speech were being genuine, or just overcompensating to counter the criticism over their treatment of her? It's hard to believe they really were so impressed by such a nasty, snide display.
Howard Kurtz: In my view, they genuinely believed it was a boffo speech. But I do think there's been a bit of a makeup call, to use a basketball term: some pundits feeling sheepish that they had jumped all over Palin initially while knowing very little about her. Whoa, they seemed to say, this woman has some political skills.
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El Paso, Texas: As a former Washingtonian I am grateful for The Washington Post online. As a supporter of another party's residential candidate, I was not emotionally involved with the recent Republican and Democratic conventions. When I heard of Gov. Palin's nomination, my first sympathy was for newsroom budgets in this difficult economic era for good newspapers: it can't be cheap to send reporters to Alaska. Good luck. Thanks for your daily work, and for the daily work of other Washington Post reporters.
Howard Kurtz: It will cost some bucks, no doubt about it. And I'm sure some journalists would have preferred a running mate from Hawaii.
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Wasilla, Alaska: You write: "Bumiller should have attributed the information, as she acknowledged in an ombudsman's column yesterday." Yet in your column today, you claim that the McCain camp was "deluged" by the press with personal questions about Palin's pregnancy. The claim is completely unsourced. "Sourcing for thee, but not for me" is your motto, Howee.
Howard Kurtz: If you look at the story I broke last week, Steve Schmidt, McCain's top strategist, told me that on the record as he ripped what he called the media's scurrilous reporting on Palin. So I was just summarizing something I had already reported and attributed.
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Seattle: Howard, I want your reaction to this. I found it quite insightful on why I am so disdainful of how the modern media operates: The media is incapable of admitting itself to be an actor. They shape the public's understanding of politics, but pretend they are a mode of transmission rather than an agent in control of information. That gets you the consistently confusing coverage where the very people who will decide how the public understands an event makes that decision by speculating how they think the public will understand an event.
It is the pretense of objectivity at the expense of honesty. But it reaches new heights of absurdity when the subject is not politics, but the media itself, and the media must answer questions about itself by asking how they imagine viewers are judging their coverage. And it is sad, too, watching people who once wanted to be Carl Bernstein reduced to moderating a focus group that exists only inside their heads.
Howard Kurtz: Anyone who covers politics knows full well that the media are a major player. I think there's more recognition of this, and the Internet's growing role, than there was 10 years ago. What are the stories about Palin's coverage (and not just by me) if not an explicit recognition that the fourth estate plays a huge role in shaping perceptions of candidates, especially those who were previously unknown to the vast majority of the country?
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Seattle: Howie, can I get your take on Peggy Noonan and her live-microphone slip? It seems to me that she was caught lying in her column, and that she should be fired. She will not be, unless I miss my guess. Won't this just abet in the general discrediting of the media?
washingtonpost.com: The Trail: Hot Mic Picks Up Noonan and Murphy Dishing on Palin (washingtonpost.com, Sept. 3)
Howard Kurtz: I don't think she was caught lying. She has not been an unabashed cheerleader for McCain in her Wall Street Journal column. She was caught saying something far blunter (and with what she called, in her subsequent explanation, a barnyard epithet) than she would have if she'd known the mike was on. Definitely embarrassing, no question about it.
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Washington: How do you think the press and pundits would have reacted if one of Obama's daughters was pregnant and unmarried. What about Biden?
Howard Kurtz: It would have been reported as a medical miracle, since Obama's daughters are only 10 and 7.
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Crestwood, N.Y.: So Mr. Woodward has confirmed what those of us who don't rely on the American media have known for months, namely, that the surge was one of many things that had an effect on diminishing violence in Iraq, including one factor that he doesn't mention -- the ethnic cleansing that our glorious "liberation" set off. Our successful bribery of the Sunnis, who have stopped fomenting violence for the present, actually pre-dated the surge. So what are the odds that the media will stop talking simplistically about how the surge "succeeded," a half or one-eighth truth that has given McCain an undeserved leg-up with the electorate? I'm not holding my breath on that one.
Howard Kurtz: Woodward or no Woodward, the media have reported before that the decrease in violence in Iraq is due not only to the increased number of troops but to cooperating with Sunni tribal leaders and other factors. Still, politics is about results. If Bush (and McCain) suffered politically when violence in Iraq was spiraling out of control, obviously they're going to claim some credit when the death toll declines.
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Nome, Alaska: Personally, I love the idea of a bunch of liberal East Coast journalists having to bundle up and head off to Alaska to dig through Sarah Palin's garbage. It gets cold in October in Alaska. Bundle up, liberals!
Howard Kurtz: Good -- they can see how the real America lives! Besides, it isn't exactly balmy in Iowa and New Hampshire at primary time, so we've already got the parkas.
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"The Daily Show":"The Daily Show" seemingly has patented a technique of finding old video clips of politicians directly contradicting themselves and highlighting those contradictions. It's especially illuminating to see the words coming out of their mouths -- that's harder to refute than a printed story. Why don't we see this more on actual news shows? Isn't that a good way of finding truth in a world of spin -- or at least of pointing directly at the spin and making it more obvious?
Howard Kurtz: We are starting to see more of that on actual news shows, which are taking a page from the "Daily Show" playbook. Jon Stewart didn't invent the technique, but he's used it to great effect. It helps to have a small army of TiVo researchers, as he does.
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Concord, N.H.: The McCain campaign's complaints about the media coverage of Gov. Palin are clearly intended to "work the refs", a successful Republican strategy in the past. Will members of the mainstream media allow themselves to be bullied by the right yet again? Or will they do their jobs and fully investigate and report Gov. Palin's background and public record, so that voters can make informed decisions about whether Gov. Palin is suited to be our next vice president (and possibly our 45th president)?
Howard Kurtz: You know, it is entirely possible that two things are true. One, that the McCain campaign is trying to work the refs (as every campaign does to some degree; the Hillary campaign complained vociferously about her coverage). Two, the coverage is sometimes flawed or unfair. We need to be able to examine what we're doing and correct our missteps and mistakes, even if campaign operatives are yelling at us at the same time.
Thanks for the chat, folks.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
September 7, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Some Chartmakers to Be: Metal Gods and Idols Past
BYLINE: By THE NEW YORK TIMES
SECTION: Section AR; Column 0; Arts and Leisure Desk; THE NEW SEASON POP LISTINGS; Pg. 62
LENGTH: 7720 words
Dates are subject to change.
SEPTEMBER
CARLA BLEY BIG BAND ''Appearing Nightly'' is the latest soulful big band effort from one of the wittiest composers in the genre. The album, recorded in Paris in 2006, retrofits an image of old-fashioned nightclub glamour with flickers of good-natured irony. Tuesday. ECM. (Nate Chinen)
ANAT COHEN For Ms. Cohen, an acclaimed young Israeli clarinetist and saxophonist, ''Notes From the Village'' is a resounding confirmation: yes, she is the real deal, and she's moving in the right direction. Equal credit belongs to her band, with Jason Lindner on piano, Omer Avital on bass and Daniel Freedman on drums. Tuesday. Anzic. (N.C.)
GYM CLASS HEROES Travis McCoy, the Gym Class Heroes' frontman, is a rapper fronting an emo group, so maybe it was only a matter of time before the band split the difference and became a soul group. On ''Cookie Jar,'' the first single from its third album, ''The Quilt,'' the band teams up with the Dream for a song-length metaphor that would do R. Kelly proud. Tuesday. Atlantic. (Jon Caramanica)
PAUL MOTIAN-JOE LOVANO-BILL FRISELL TRIO Each has a history and a discography as long as an airstrip, and they are at their most free in this great group -- Mr. Motian's severely edited drumming, inspired by Thelonious Monk's rhythm; Mr. Lovano's generous and smoky saxophone improvisations; Mr. Frisell's spacey guitar excursions, suddenly snapping into focus with harmonic acuity. You can think of their engagements at the Village Vanguard as jazz's version of the Allman Brothers' annual stand at the Beacon -- except that the music is a lot more flexible. Tuesday through Sept. 14, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com. (Ben Ratliff)
JOAN OSBORNE After many wanderings, including a stint with the Grateful Dead, Ms. Osborne has collaborated again with the songwriting and production team from her multimillion-selling 1995 album ''Relish.'' Their new songs on ''Little Wild One'' gleam with guitars and mandolin as Ms. Osborne pours her voice into lyrics about love, longing and New York City. Tuesday. Womanly Hips. (Jon Pareles)
OKKERVIL RIVER Okkervil River's leader, Will Sheff, gets all worked up as he sings: slurring, shouting, quivering, groaning. On its fifth album, ''The Stand Ins,'' the band is equally rambunctious, knocking around various kinds of roots-rock with just enough finesse. And none of that hubbub interferes with the deft, self-conscious way Mr. Sheff's words depict characters tangled in love and show business. (There are songs called ''Singer Songwriter'' and ''Pop Lie.'') He's literary -- nothing to be ashamed of. Tuesday. Jagjaguar. Performing Oct. 6-7, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600, bowerypresents.com (J. P.)
BOBO STENSON TRIO The great Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson has made another quiet but potent album, ''Cantando,'' weaving a flowing tapestry out of spacious improvisation and music by, among others, the jazz maverick Ornette Coleman, the tango paragon Astor Piazzolla and the Viennese School innovator Alban Berg. Tuesday. ECM. (N. C.)
TRICKY Trip-hop's innovative and elusive producer, songwriter and gruff-voiced talk-singer, Tricky, rematerializes after a five-year gap between albums with ''Knowle West Boy.'' The tracks dispel some of the old trip-hop haze and draw on Tricky's ex-girlfriends for guest vocals, as the lyrics dip into autobiography and the music reveals some roots in dance hall, electro and punk. Tuesday. Domino. (J. P.)
METALLICA ''Death Magnetic,'' the band's first album in five years, is a refresher in everything that has worked best for Metallica over the last 20 years: whiplash tempos, precise pummeling of guitar and drums, some dark blues boogies and lyrics apocalyptic and sneering (''Asphyxia, snuff reality,'' goes one track, ''incinerate celebrity''). What's absent are pop compromises; over the course of the 1990s those were tried, exploited and discarded. Sept. 16. Warner Brothers. (Ben Sisario)
PATRICIA BARBER Ms. Barber's verbosity and arch intellectualism are uncommon traits for a jazz singer, and she has sometimes been held at arm's length by wary traditionalists. ''The Cole Porter Mix'' may change the game a little, with its songbook conceit and a guest turn by the saxophonist Chris Potter. Sept. 16. Blue Note. (N. C.)
MARC BROUSSARD While a white-soul revival unfolds around him, Marc Broussard, from Louisiana, has been curiously overlooked. His rock and soul originals, as on his debut album, ''Carencro,'' were more intriguing than his covers (from last year's ''S.O.S.: Save Our Soul''). ''Keep Coming Back,'' his third album, sounds like a return to form. Sept. 16. Atlantic.
(J. C.)
BUCKCHERRY In the music of Buckcherry, the Sunset Strip of the 1980s is still alive and well (or, more accurately, alive and strung out). But in an age of wimpy rock frontmen flaunting their emotions, hearing this Los Angeles group tear through their odes to hard living (the new one is ''Too Drunk ... '') on ''Black Butterfly,'' its fourth album, is a refreshing slice of retrograde. Sept. 16. Atlantic. (J. C.)
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM Does anyone love his guitar collection as much as Mr. Buckingham does? This guitarist, the man behind Fleetwood Mac's hooks, has made another solo album, ''Gift of Screws,'' largely by himself with occasional help from Fleetwood Mac's rhythm section. The songs bounce along, contemplating love and eternity, as he layers intricately picked guitars (mostly acoustic) with loving attention to every choice of strings and amp settings. Sept. 16. Reprise. Performing Oct. 19 at Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street, (212) 930-1950, nokiatheatrenyc.com. (J. P.)
GEORGE CLINTON ''George Clinton and Some Gangsters of Love'' is a stroll through the funk czar's favorite oldies, by Barry White, the Impressions, Marvin Gaye and others; par for the course for this kind of guy/this kind of record/this kind of time, it's made with celebrity friends, including RZA, Carlos Santana and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sept 16. Shanachie. (B. R.)
DJ KHALED The idea that DJ Khaled, the incessantly-shrieking radio personality from Miami, would be a hip-hop force would have been unthinkable even five years ago. But now his hometown is the de facto home of new-money hip-hop, and his albums have featured some of the most invigorating posse cuts of the last few years. Expect more guests (including Kanye West and T-Pain), more attitude and more surprise on ''We Global.'' Sept. 16. Koch. (J. C.)
FUJIYA & MIYAGI Deadpan, near-whispered vocals and muted, metronomic dance beats add up to some epitome of hipster cool. Fujiya & Miyagi's second album, ''Lightbulbs,'' is full of knowing allusions in the lyrics and in music that fondly recalls the Kraut-rock and synth-pop of the analog era. Sept. 16. Deaf Dumb & Blind. (J. P.)
DAVE HOLLAND SEXTET New York jazz audiences have already had a taste of this strong new enterprise by the stalwart bassist and composer Dave Holland. ''Pass It On'' is his more formal unveiling of a lineup that includes the saxophonist Antonio Hart, the drummer Eric Harland and the pianist Mulgrew Miller. Sept. 23. Emarcy. (N. C.)
MUSIQ SOULCHILD Musiq Soulchild was the first singer to give neo-soul a bad name, thanks to his affectless vocals and dim lyrics. But he's perked up recently, particularly on last year's hit ''Teachme.'' His current single, ''Radio,'' from his fifth album, ''On My Radio,'' also shows signs of life. Sept. 16. Atlantic.
(J. C.)
NE-YO This elegant R&B singer-songwriter may not be allergic to fame, but fame certainly seems to be allergic to Ne-Yo. His disco-esque single ''Closer,'' from his third album, ''Year of the Gentleman,'' is among the best R&B songs of the year, but sometimes it seems as if the only people who notice are other musicians: New Kids on the Block tapped him to work on their comeback album. Sept. 16. Def Jam. (J. C.)
AMANDA PALMER Dark and furious as ever, Ms. Palmer -- the singing, songwriting, piano-playing half of the Dresden Dolls -- goes for full-blown orchestral impact on ''Who Killed Amanda Palmer,'' which was produced in Nashville by Ben Folds. The melodrama is intentional, as is the title's allusion to ''Twin Peaks.'' Sept. 16. Roadrunner. (N. C.)
DARIUS RUCKER On the album ''Learn to Live,'' the South Carolina-born Mr. Rucker, who led Hootie and the Blowfish, has switched format from rock to country. He works with Nashville songwriters for verbal twists and reassuring thoughts of family life while the music trades folk-rock strumming for pedal steel guitar and fiddle. It's a startlingly easy transition. Sept. 16. Capitol Nashville. (J. P.)
RAPHAEL SAADIQ The neo disappears from neo-soul on Raphael Saadiq's album ''The Way I See It.'' Mr. Saadiq, who sang in Tony! Toni! Tone! and went on to a busy career producing hip-hop and R&B, now aims straight for the tambourine-shaking, live-band sound of late-1960s Motown. He's after equal parts Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder and the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting and production team in a wholehearted homage. Sept. 16. Columbia. (J. P.)
AHMAD JAMAL A master of small-group control -- especially onstage, where he makes his rhythm sections double-time, vamp for ages or stop on a dime -- the pianist Mr. Jamal has been one of jazz's greatest performers for almost 60 years. Here he'll put on a series of major concerts with both his quartet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, playing big-band arrangements of his tunes. Sept. 18-20, Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th Street, (212) 721-6500, jalc.org. (B. R.)
GILBERTO GIL In the right circumstances, this Brazilian singer-songwriter is almost unbeatable: an energetic performer, a genius singer-songwriter, a wise presence -- someone you want to be around. Performing solo, as he will do here during two nights of the 10th-anniversary celebrations of Joe's Pub, is one of the right circumstances. Sept. 22-23, Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 539-8778, joespub.com. (B. R.)
COLD WAR KIDS Half of what this quartet from Long Beach, Calif., does is standard-issue, blog-era indie rock: wobbly rhythms, unhinged vocals, obtuse lyrics right out of a poetry seminar. But with its second album, ''Loyalty to Loyalty,'' the band continues to explore relatively new territory for the genre, wrapping songs of paranoia and delusion in a bluesy, echoey fog of piano and guitar. Sept. 23. Downtown. (B. S.)
COMMON Could Common finally be ready to throw his hands in the air and then in turn to wave them like he just does not care? Caring has always been a burden for this Chicago rapper, who has lived and died with his sincerity. The early indications about ''Invincible Summer,'' his eighth album, are that what he now cares about is having a good time and that maybe he should have arrived at that decision sooner. Sept. 23. Geffen.
(J. C.)
EVERLAST Ten years ago this former frontman of the rap group House of Pain released a shocking album, ''Whitey Ford Sings the Blues,'' that repositioned him as a (not quite) sensitive folkie. ''Love, War, and the Ghost of Whitey Ford'' is something of a sequel and includes a cover of ''Folsom Prison Blues'' that samples the beat from Cypress Hill's ''Insane in the Brain.'' Sept. 23. Martyr Inc. (J. C.)
KENNY GARRETT The initials in ''Sketches Of M. D.: Live at the Iridium'' refer to Miles Davis, one source of inspiration for the alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett. Other sources include John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter, whose styles lurk behind some of the compositions; and Pharoah Sanders, who plays forceful tenor throughout the album. Sept. 23. Mack Avenue. (N. C.)
CHARLIE HADEN FAMILY AND FRIENDS Revisiting music from a time when his father could announce him on the radio as a ''2-year-old yodeling cowboy,'' the jazz bassist Charlie Haden, 71, takes his own turn as patriarch on ''Rambling Boy'': the album enlists his son and three daughters, artists in their own right, along with guests like Vince Gill, Elvis Costello, Bruce Hornsby and Rosanne Cash. Sept. 23. Decca. (N.C.)
KINGS OF LEON ''Only by the Night'' is the fourth album by this Southern-rock band of brothers (and one cousin), and it reflects a strong push toward driving rhythm and yearning melody: a smart move, for reasons creative and commercial. Sept. 23. RCA. (N. C.)
JENNY LEWIS Ms. Lewis, the clear, warm voice and hard-headed lyricist for Rilo Kiley, has some promising collaborators on ''Acid Tongue,'' her second solo album. Among them are Elvis Costello, Chris Robinson from the Black Crowes and indie rock's quietly ubiquitous M. Ward. Sept. 23. Warner Brothers. Performing Oct. 4, Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street, Harlem, (212) 531-5300. (J. P.)
RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA A searingly intense alto saxophonist, Mr. Mahanthappa has explored his Indian heritage before, but never more directly than on ''Kinsmen,'' an ambitious and engaging collaboration with the Carnatic saxophone legend Kadri Gopalnath and a mixed ensemble of Indian and American musicians. Sept. 23. Pi. (N. C.)
EDGAR MEYER AND CHRIS THILE The self-titled debut album from this virtuoso duo -- a mutual admiration society, with Mr. Meyer on double bass and Mr. Thile on mandolin -- features a dozen original compositions, in a style rooted as much in Western classical music as in the folk traditions of Appalachia and thereabouts. Sept. 23. Nonesuch. (N. C.) PUSSYCAT DOLLS Quick: how many Pussycat Dolls can you identify? This neo-burlesque dance-pop act has staked a lot on name recognition, though its members have clearly worked harder developing stripper-style dance moves than individual personalities. Nicole Scherzinger, the lead singer, is reportedly calling her long-delayed solo album ''Her Name Is Nicole,'' and ''When I Grow Up,'' the first single from the group's second album, ''Doll Domination,'' is an ode to pop ambition that proclaims, ''You know what it's like to be nameless/Want them to know what your name is.'' But without looking, can you say who that lead singer is again? Sept. 23. A&M/Interscope. (B. S.)
OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW Old-timey acoustic instruments and down-home harmonies carry songs that don't always turn out to be old-fashioned on the album ''Tennessee Pusher.'' Old Crow Medicine Show has clearly heard Neil Young and Bob Dylan, along with the Carter Family and Bill Monroe. The band can be jaunty or mournful, and its fiddle, banjo and slide guitar accompany songs like ''Methamphetamine'' and ''Motel in Memphis,'' about the murder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sept. 23. Nettwerk. Performing Sept. 26-27, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village (212) 353-1600. (J. P.)
PLAIN WHITE T'S This genial Chicago band will spend the rest of its career trying to outrun ''Hey There Delilah,'' its gentle, lilting hit from last year. But the band was interesting before that song, and it'll hopefully remain so on its forthcoming ''Big Bad World.'' That the first single opens with the line ''She said she saw me on TV'' doesn't bode well, though. Sept. 23. Hollywood. (J. C.) PRETTY RICKY Since its last album, the underappreciated ''Late Night Special,'' this well-oiled R&B foursome parted ways with Pleasure P, its most visible member. If anything, though, that has only steeled the remaining members' resolve to be the best come-on artists they can be. The first single from the group's third album, ''Eighties Babies,'' is a remake of H-Town's seminal 1993 hit ''Knockin' Da Boots'' that is somehow more salacious than the original. Sept. 23. Atlantic.
(J. C.)
JAZMINE SULLIVAN This Philadelphia R&B singer is barely out of her teens and has already kicked around the record industry -- a failed deal with Jive, some songwriting for other singers. On her debut, ''Fearless,'' she collaborates with Missy Elliott, among others. Sept. 23. J.
(J. C.)
GAL COSTA AND ROMERO LUBAMBO It's a gluttonous time for fans of great Brazilian singers, especially those who prefer their great voices in simple contexts. Here Gal Costa performs alone with only the guitarist Romero Lubambo for a week at the Blue Note. Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592, bluenotejazz.com. (B. R.)
ANI DIFRANCO The songs on ''Red Letter Year'' are no less assertive or politically charged than others in Ms. DiFranco's restless, prolific career, but they do feel more accepting and relaxed. Some of this has to do with the producer Mike Napolitano; some of it involves the trust generated by her working band. Sept. 30. Righteous Babe. (N. C.)
JENNIFER HUDSON Since losing on ''American Idol'' four years ago, Ms. Hudson has proven that she has genuine star power, eclipsing no less than Beyonce Knowles in ''Dreamgirls'' to win an Oscar. But can she score a hit album? For her self-titled (and long-delayed) debut, her label, Arista, is pairing her with Timbaland, Stargate and other top producers to strike gold. Sept. 30. (B. S.)
JESUS AND MARY CHAIN When Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields recently claimed in an interview that the Jesus and Mary Chain's album ''Psychocandy,'' from 1985 -- the great morose-violent take on bubblegum-pop -- was ''the last significant event in pop music production,'' he was ... completely wrong. And yet he had a point. ''The Power of Negative Thinking'' collects four CDs of the band's B-sides and rarities, including ''Bo Diddley Is Jesus'' and ''Kill Surf City.'' Sept. 30. Rhino. (B. R.)
TAJ MAHAL This irrepressibly eclectic bluesman welcomes a handful of guest stars on ''Maestro'' -- Angelique Kidjo, Ben Harper and Jack Johnson among them -- but keeps a steady hand on the tiller. He's celebrating 40 years in the business and knows how to keep things moving. Sept. 30. Heads Up. (N. C.)
MILTON NASCIMENTO AND JOBIM TRIO On ''Novas Bossas,'' the Brazilian singer Mr. Nascimento is backed up by Paulo and Daniel Jobim -- son and grandson of Antonio Carlos Jobim -- on guitar and piano, playing songs from the Jobim and Nascimento books. Sept. 30. Blue Note. Performing Oct. 26, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, njpac.com. (B. R.)
KELLIE PICKLER This famously ditzy ''American Idol'' contestant figured to be a one-hit wonder after she signed her record deal. But after she had that hit, the sugary kiss-off ''Red High Heels,'' she became interesting. In November at the awards ceremony of the Country Music Association, she performed ''I Wonder,'' a song about her absentee mother, fighting off tears all the way. That offers hope that her follow-up album, ''Kellie Pickler,'' might have a heart after all. Sept. 30. BNA.
(J. C.)
TAKE 6 The vocal blend is characteristically sharp and seamless on ''The Standard,'' this a cappella group's new release, which focuses on standards, loosely defined. Some carefully chosen guests, like the trumpeter Roy Hargrove and the jazz singer Jon Hendricks, mostly manage to enhance rather than distract. Sept. 30. Heads Up. (N. C.)
ROBIN THICKE ''Magic,'' the first single from Mr. Thicke's third album, ''Something Else,'' is the most deliberately retro-sounding song he's made (if you don't count the blast of Beethoven on his debut single all those years ago). It's elegantly made and confidently delivered blaxploitation-era soul, never mind that the voice behind it belongs to the son of the TV personality Alan Thicke. Sept. 30. Interscope. (J. C.)
MERCURY REV Electronic pulses and echoes suffuse Mercury Rev's new album, ''Snowflake Midnight,'' a set of songs about impermanence and ecstasy that carries the band's blissed-out pop another step away from earthbound reality. A free instrumental album, ''Strange Attractor,'' will be released simultaneously on yeproc.com. Sept. 30. Yep Roc. (J. P.)
T.I. In July of last year, this Atlanta rap star released his most disappointing album. Then in October he was arrested on a range of weapons charges and eventually placed under a form of house arrest (though he's now free to travel). Neither experience has much changed his music, as seen on two recent singles: ''No Matter What,'' an ode to his own resilience, and ''Whatever You Like,'' a typically polite come-on. Expect ''Paper Trail,'' his sixth album, to be balanced between those two urges. Sept. 30. Grand Hustle/Atlantic. (J. C.)
OCTOBER
MADONNA At the opening of her ''Sticky and Sweet'' tour in Wales last month, one video interlude placed Senator John McCain alongside images of Hitler and Robert Mugabe; another montage put Senator Barack Obama in the company of Gandhi and John Lennon. That bit of propaganda aside, for the most part Madonna's new show is a time warp back to the 1980s heyday of club-banging electro-pop. It begins Oct. 4 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., and ends Nov. 26 in Miami Gardens, Fla., with a four-night stand at Madison Square Garden, Oct. 6, 7, 11 and 12. (212-307-7171, or ticketmaster.com.) (B. S.)
ANNUALS This Raleigh, N.C., group's debut album, ''Be He Me,'' released two years ago, was a lovely, wistful slice of modern art-folk. It returns with ''Such Fun,'' its major label debut, which is fuller and more eclectic than its debut but maintains the air of curiosity that is the band's strength. Oct. 7. Canvasback/Columbia.
(J. C.)
CALLE 13 Politically aware and wildly raunchy, proudly Puerto Rican and knowingly pan-American, the duo Calle 13 -- the rapper Residente and the producer Visitante -- is the most consistently startling group to emerge from reggaeton, a genre that has never confined it. On the duo's third album, ''Los de Atras Vienen Conmigo'' (''Those Left Behind Are Coming With Me''), they annex Argentine cumbia villera and Eastern European Gypsy music. Oct. 7. Sony. Performing Oct. 9, Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street, (212) 930-1950, nokiatheatrenyc.com. (J. P.)
THE CLASH ''The Clash at Shea Stadium'' captures this important London punk band at a ferocious peak and a point of high strain. (The guitarist Mick Jones was still on board but not for long, and the drummer Terry Chimes was back but only briefly.) The tension works, and so does the scale of the show: this album, never before released, packs the force of a depth charge. Oct. 7. Epic/Legacy. (N. C.)
DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES Daniel Rossen, who joined Grizzly Bear in 2004, had a previous band, Department of Eagles, with a college roommate. He has revived the partnership for the album ''In Ear Park.'' It's an elegy for his father and a reminiscence of childhood in a swirl of memories and reveries, sparse acoustic moments and lavishly layered pop -- gorgeous and suffused with mystery. Oct. 7. 4AD. (J. P.)
BOB DYLAN ''The shadowy past/Is so vague and so vast,'' Bob Dylan quips on ''Dreamin' of You,'' one of the previously unreleased songs on ''Tell Tale Signs,'' his newest title in Columbia/Legacy's popular Bootleg Series. But this odds-and-ends set spans a relatively recent stretch, from 1989 (the sessions for ''Oh Mercy'') to 2007 (''Huck's Tune,'' from the soundtrack to ''Lucky You''). The music is often dark and typically elusive; for Mr. Dylan, the near present can be shadowy, too. Oct. 7. (N. C.)
EL GUINCHO Pablo Diaz-Reixa, a musician from Barcelona who records as El Guincho, conjures a giddy world of noise and pop on his debut album, ''Allegranza,'' which has been available overseas since earlier this year but is being released worldwide by XL Recordings. Like Animal Collective and Ariel Pink, Mr. Diaz-Reixa makes convoluted but still tuneful sound collages -- drawing from Afrobeat, dub, tribal beats and swaggering old-fashioned rock -- that are blissfully aimless. Oct. 7. (B. S.)
KERI HILSON This R&B singer has done her best to keep busy while waiting for her repeatedly delayed solo debut, ''In a Perfect World,'' to arrive. As part of the Clutch songwriting collective, she's helped pen songs for Chris Brown, Amerie, Jennifer Lopez and Omarion, among others. She also sang on the grating Timbaland hit ''The Way I Are,'' though certainly she would like that not to be her most notable vocal performance. Oct. 7. Interscope. (J. C.)
LAMBCHOP ''OH (ohio)'' brings out a softer and less meta side of this Nashville band's singer-songwriter, Kurt Wagner. Its songs are mysterious and beautiful soundscapes; in lots of places, you don't know if this is R&B, folk, country or something weirder and more rarefied. Oct. 7. Merge. (B. R.)
THE PRETENDERS Chrissie Hynde and her latest band of Pretenders recorded the album ''Break Up the Concrete'' in 10 days. The briskness shows in lean, unfussy arrangements that head toward blues and country roots, leaving room for Ms. Hynde to ponder righteousness and romance. Oct. 7, Shangri-La Music. (J. P.)
OF MONTREAL Kevin Barnes, the songwriter behind this band from Athens, Ga., overstuffs his pop songs with structural twists, elaborate wordplay, vocal harmonies and hooks exploiting everything from harpsichords to funk vamps. With song titles like ''Beware Our Nubile Miscreants,'' the new album, ''Skeletal Lamping,'' plunges into thoughts of lust, love, pleasure and betrayal. Oct 7. Polyvinyl. (J. P.)
LOU REED ''Berlin,'' Mr. Reed's grim 1973 rock opera about drug addicts and lovers in Berlin, was belatedly staged in 2006, an event turned into a documentary film by Julian Schnabel. Now, along with the DVD release of the film, there's a live album. Oct. 7. Matador. (J. P.)
RISE AGAINST This Chicago punk band has the ability to turn political sloganeering into neat, catchy pop bursts. Not that it doesn't don't try to bum you out, though. The first single from its fifth album, ''Appeal to Reason,'' is the slightly dour ''Re-Education (Through Labor).'' The title of the album is taken from the Socialist newspaper at the turn of the 20th century best known for commissioning Upton Sinclair to write what would become ''The Jungle.'' Tres punk. Oct. 7. Geffen.
(J. C.)
RACHAEL YAMAGATA Ms. Yamagata broods first and rocks later on her album ''A Record in Two Parts ... Elephants and Teeth Sinking Into Heart.'' With production by Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, the album starts with doleful, intimate songs about loneliness and separation, then snaps out of it with a guitar-driven vengeance. Oct. 7, Warner Brothers. (J. P.)
YO MAJESTY A two-woman hip-hop duo from Florida, doing a mixture of past and future: crunk and funk and techno touches, all under fast-swinging rhymes about sex, nightclubbing and, as one of their song titles puts it, ''grindin' and shakin'.'' It's all-American grit, but they've got English beat-making teams behind their first album, ''Futuristically Speaking ... Never Be Afraid'': Hardfeelings UK, for most of the album, and Basement Jaxx on the great ''Booty Klap.'' Oct. 7. Domino. (B. R.)
SALSA MEETS JAZZ Now that the old Village Gate space has been revived as Le Poisson Rouge, so has one of the club's long-running Monday-night institutions: Salsa Meets Jazz, a night of dancing and experimentation that revs up leading Latin bands and then tosses a leading jazz musician into their clutches -- to ride the rhythm or else. The series begins Oct. 13, at 158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 505-3474, lepoissonrouge.com. (J. P.)
ANTHONY BRAXTON Nine long out-of-print records from the 1970s are collected on ''The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton,'' and if you consider him something like jazz's version of an academic avant-gardist, this boxed set may make you think more than twice. This music -- including ''Creative Orchestra Music 1976'' and records of quartets, trios, duos and solo saxophone -- is full of blood and fire and a billion bright ideas. Oct. 14. Mosaic. (B. R.)
KENNY CHESNEY This country star has slowly been putting himself out to pasture in recent years, tending toward songs about, or redolent of, island life. He filmed the video for his new single ''Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven'' in Jamaica, joined by the Wailers, two of whom sing on the album version of the song (though, curiously, not the radio version). ''Lucky Old Sun,'' the oft-barefoot Mr. Chesney's 11th album, will be released in two editions -- a bonus package with additional live tracks, and, a week later, the regular studio version. Deluxe edition, Oct. 14; regular release, Oct. 21. BNA. (J. C.)
THE CURE Fans of the Cure have already heard part of ''Dream 13,'' the band's 13th studio album, since the Cure has been releasing songs since May. They're on the band's extroverted, post-psychedelic side, full of wah-wah as the singer Robert Smith exults in both desperation and true love. Oct. 14, Suretone/Geffen. (J. P.)
ARETHA FRANKLIN Another major figure leaves the major labels behind: Aretha Franklin, now on her own, is releasing an album of Christmas songs, the first in her career. Oct. 14. DMI. (J. P.)
RAY LAMONTAGNE Much of ''Gossip in the Grain,'' the third record by this singer-songwriter, conveys a sense of soft-murmuring wonder: at nature, a lover or the bittersweet splendor of heartache. He also takes a moment to serenade the White Stripes drummer Meg White, with at least a hint of earnest humor. Oct. 14. RCA. (N. C.)
Q-TIP This summer Q-Tip joined his former brethren in A Tribe Called Quest, one of the definitive hip-hop groups of the 1990s, for a successful reunion tour. ''The Renaissance,'' his first official solo release since 1999 -- there have been several false starts in the interim -- mines a different strain of nostalgia, with its influence meter pointing straight toward the funky soul of the 1970s. Oct. 14. Motown. (N. C.)
J. D. SOUTHER In 1985 J. D. Souther stopped making albums and turned full-time to what was already a hugely successful songwriting career: for the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and, more recently, the Dixie Chicks and George Strait. After an EP last year, he has made a new studio album, ''If the World Was You,'' with songs that place his sweet, countryish tenor in arrangements newly tinged with jazz. Oct. 14. Slow Curve. (J. P.)
LUCINDA WILLIAMS Happiness hasn't exactly been plentiful in Lucinda Williams's catalog, but it bursts out on her album ''Little Honey,'' on which at least some of her love songs are joyful ones. Recorded with her road band, the songs set her voice drawling, sliding and rasping above raw-boned, bluesy roots-rock. Oct. 14. Lost Highway. (J. P.) AC/DC When AC/DC releases a new album, it's usually of the ain't-broke-not-fixed variety, hewing to its formula of lightning-bolt power chords by Angus Young and guttural squeals by Brian Johnson. But ''Black Ice,'' its first in eight years, innovates in at least one respect: following similar and successful deals by the Eagles and Journey, the album will be sold only at Wal-Mart stores. Oct. 20. Columbia. (B. S.)
LABELLE It's only been 30 or so years since Labelle -- Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash -- recorded an album of original material. But even though much of the quirkiness of their '70s material has been thoroughly mainstreamed, to expect ''Back to Now'' to be an exercise in anything other than tribute would be foolish, especially with production from the yesterday-obsessed Lenny Kravitz and Wyclef Jean, as well as the Philly soul legends Gamble and Huff. Oct. 21. Verve. (J. C.)
CRAIG MORGAN A few years ago Mr. Morgan, an amiable country singer, was a major-label refugee. But then a funny thing happened after he landed at the indie Broken Bow: he became a star, with a string of unironic and occasionally comic heartland anthems. ''That's Why,'' his fifth album, is his return to the majors. Oct. 21. BNA. (J. C.)
NIKKA COSTA ''Pebble to a Pearl'' is the next album by the funkiest and beltingest of the current blue-eyed female soul singers. She's not so current, to be truthful -- she's been making records on and off for more than 25 years, since she was a 7-year-old child star -- but she manages to seem surprising each time. Oct. 24. Stax. (B. R.)
CREATIVE MUSIC STUDIO CELEBRATION In the 1970s and '80s the vibraphonist Karl Berger, along with the vocalist Ingrid Sertso and the saxophonist Ornette Coleman, set up a rural retreat and school for jazz's experimentalists: the Creative Music Studio, in Woodstock, N.Y. This concert celebrates its achievements, its teachers and its pupils. It includes Anthony Braxton, Graham Haynes, John Zorn and Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, along with Mr. Berger and Ms. Sertso. Oct. 24, Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400, symphonyspace.org. (B. R.)
DEERHUNTER This Atlanta band conquered indieland with its debut album, ''Cryptograms,'' on which psychedelic clouds of guitar mixed with the spectral vocals of Bradford Cox to become nightmarish and violent. The follow-up, ''Microcastle,'' which has been floating around the Internet since it was leaked in May, tones down the ugly side of its sound a bit but never loses its sense of eerie confusion. Oct. 28. Kranky. (B. S.)
JOHN LEGEND The piano-playing songwriter Mr. Legend has veered between the programmed beats of hip-hop and the live musicianship of older soul and R&B. Preliminary signs are that he leans toward hip-hop again for the latest batch of love songs on his album ''Evolver,'' whose guests include Kanye West and Andre 3000 from OutKast. Oct. 28. Columbia. (J. P.) LUDACRIS Ludacris is many things: a fiery, kinetic rapper; an Obama supporter (even if the campaign would prefer he weren't quite so vulgar in so doing); a passable actor who prefers his given name (Chris Bridges) when gracing the screen. But despite several hits, he is not a music superstar, not just yet. The curiously named ''Theater of the Mind'' will be his latest attempt to rectify that. Oct. 28. Def Jam. (J. C.)
PINK She became a star seven years ago by affirming her party skills (''Get the Party Started''). On ''So What,'' the guitar-charged and aggressively bouncy first single from her fifth album, ''Funhouse,'' the singer born Alecia Moore makes the scene-causing rock-star lifestyle an antidote to the post-divorce blues: ''I'm still a rock star,'' she sings. ''I got my rock moves/And I don't need you.'' Oct. 28. (LaFace/Zomba). (Pink will perform ''So What'' at MTV's Video Music Awards on Sunday.) (B. S.)
SONNY ROLLINS Audiences well accustomed to the methods of Mr. Rollins, jazz's greatest tenor saxophonist and one of its most scrupulous improvisers, understand the gold-prospecting nature of his concerts. Extending the metaphor, ''Sonny Rollins in Vienne,'' a forthcoming DVD, captures one fruitful recent expedition, while ''Roadshows,'' an extraordinary compilation album, embodies Fort Knox. Oct. 28. Emarcy. (N. C.)
JENNY SCHEINMAN The work of this uniquely talented violinist and singer of jazz and folk is just beginning to break through to a wider audience; she'll be playing new music with a band including the pianist Jason Moran. Oct. 28-Nov. 2, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com. (B. R.)
ARTURO O'FARRILL'S AFRO-LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA A going concern since 2001, first in residence at Jazz at Lincoln Center and now at Symphony Space, this is a great and valuable repertory band, focusing on Latin jazz, like the New York-identified mambo of Machito and Tito Puente and music from Argentina, Brazil and Puerto Rico. Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400, symphonyspace.org. (B. R.)
CHRIS CORNELL Bye-bye, grunge -- well, almost. Mr. Cornell, a grunge pioneer as the lead singer of Soundgarden, worked with the producer Timbaland for his third solo album, ''Scream,'' and their collaboration places his brooding voice amid Timbaland's synthesizers and samples. The computerized tracks end up somewhere between Justin Timberlake and Gnarls Barkley, but his lyrics and his voice still hold that sullen grunge resentment. October. Interscope. (J. P.)
NOVEMBER
TOUMANI DIABATE A kora virtuoso from Mali, Toumani Diabate has carried his instrument into all sorts of contexts, traditionalist and hybrid. At this World Music Institute concert he performs ''Mande Variations,'' solo instrumentals that carry all he has learned and invented back to pieces that are not as traditional as they sound. Nov. 2, Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 La Guardia Place, at Washington Square South, Greenwich Village, (212) 992-8484 or (212) 545-7536, skirballcenter.nyu.edu. (J. P.)
DIDO This melancholy English singer and songwriter turns to an American producer for her third album, ''Safe Trip Home'': Jon Brion, who has abetted the brooding of Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann and Elliott Smith. Nov. 4. Arista. (J. P.)
FALL OUT BOY Emo stars do not have a great track record when it comes to growing up. (Do you wear skinny jeans forever? And what about mascara?) But on its new album, ''Folie a Deux,'' with the bassist and songwriter Pete Wentz now married (to Ashlee Simpson) and expecting a child, the band goes after the ultimate personal-transition topic: parenthood. Nov. 4. Island/Def Jam. (B. S.)
HINDER One of the last practitioners of the dying art of anthemic bar-rock, the Oklahoma band Hinder, remains dedicated to the lowest common denominator on its second album, ''Take It to the Limit.'' Some representative song titles (and potential lifestyle decisions): ''Use Me,'' ''Loaded & Alone.'' Nov. 4. Universal Republic. (J. C.)
CHRISTIAN SCOTT Mr. Scott, an intense young trumpeter, believes in the powers of showmanship, precision and a cohesive band. His third Concord album, ''Live at the Newport Jazz Festival,'' documents a set from August. Nov. 4. (N. C.)
BRAD PAISLEY No one does funny country quite like Mr. Paisley, who has turned sleights of lyric into a cottage industry. But now that his celebrity has been firmly established, he'd like another crack at being taken seriously, please. In country music, this means an instrumental album. ''Play'' features collaborations with Buck Owens, who died in 2006, and Keith Urban, among others, and also a song that features seven guitarists who have influenced Mr. Paisley. Its name: ''Cluster Pluck.'' Groan. Nov. 4. Arista Nashville. (J. C.)
T-PAIN He's spent most of the last year loudly complaining about those who have been appropriating his robotic, AutoTune-vocal style without clearing it with him first. (Kanye and Lil Wayne are off the hook.) ''Thr33 Ringz,'' his third album and first since becoming the most imitated man in R&B, is his chance to reassert his turf. Nov. 11.. Jive. (J. C.)
NEIL YOUNG For decades Mr. Young has been promising fans -- or warning them -- that he would open his overstuffed vaults of recordings and films once the technology to preserve them evolved to his satisfaction. That evolution has apparently happened with Blu-Ray, the high-definition DVD format, and this fall Mr. Young releases ''Archives Vol. 1 (1963-1972),'' the first of five enormous archival volumes on 10 Blu-Ray discs, filled with unbelievable treasures like video of the ''Harvest'' sessions from 1971 and unheard songs galore. (Also available on regular old DVDs for those of us not quite so up to date.) Nov. 11. Reprise. (B. S.)
ROBYN HITCHCOCK Since most of the great bands and musicians of the '80s have gotten in the habit of reprising entire albums onstage, it's good that this one wasn't left out: ''I Often Dream of Trains,'' from 1984, the third album by Robyn Hitchcock. It's a funny and fascinating acoustic record, like a long dream sequence with sturdy pop chord-changes. Mr. Hitchcock -- who is always best by his eccentric self -- will play the album in a solo performance from start to finish. Nov. 22, Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400, symphonyspace.org. (B. R.)
TRACE ADKINS Lately this burly country singer has become an expert at the sort of songs intended to make grown men feel vulnerable, and to feel O.K. about feeling vulnerable. ''Muddy Water,'' the first single from his as-yet-untitled eighth album, is penitent in all the right places. Whether he'll sing a tune about coming in second on ''The Celebrity Apprentice'' this year remains to be seen. Nov. 25. Capitol Nashville. (J. C.)
TINA TURNER When Madonna signed a 10-year recording and touring deal with Live Nation last year at age 49, the talk was all about the limitations of age: would she really be able to draw crowds at 60? We need only look to Ms. Turner for a model of longevity and indomitability. At 68 she has not only held onto her looks and incredible performing vigor but also made the idea of staying power a central part of her persona. Her North American tour begins in Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 1 and ends in Toronto on Dec. 12; she will be at the Prudential Center in Newark on Nov. 26 and 27, and the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., on Dec. 3 and 4 (212-307-7171 or ticketmaster.com). (B. S.)
BEYONCE While her husband, Jay-Z, works on his umpteenth comeback album, Beyonce will be doing what she always does: creating pneumatic-force R&B hits and smiling throughout, as if it's not impossibly hard work. This album, still untitled, will only be her third solo studio work, and yet she's already reached the level of inevitability. There are few sure things left -- ask Jay-Z -- but Beyonce is one. November. Columbia.
(J. C.)
DAVID COOK This winner of the most recent season of ''American Idol'' melted hearts, and possibly minds, with an unswerving commitment to '90s middlebrow rock, a la Collective Soul and Our Lady Peace. That he's working with members of those bands on his solo debut is cause for cheer among ''Idol'' viewers but possibly not for music fans. November. 19/Arista. (J. C.) MISSY ELLIOTT ''Block Party,'' the seventh album by Ms. Elliott, has been pushed back several times. Maybe it's politics, or maybe it's the whiff of the familiar. As heard on the singles ''Best Best'' and ''Ching-A-Ling,'' she's sticking with the whimsical, too-clever sounds that made her career, but those innovations don't seem so shocking anymore. November. Atlantic. (J. C.) THE KILLERS The brightest new hope of rock radio, this Las Vegas band showed from the start that writing catchy, adrenaline-drenched songs was no problem at all. After a disappointing second album two years ago (''Sam's Town''), Brandon Flowers, its lead singer and hype man, has sworn with the kind of determination known only to rock stars that the band is up to the challenge to deliver hits on Album No. 3, which does not yet have a title. ''Everything is at stake on this album,'' he told Rolling Stone. What responsibility! November. Island/Def Jam. (B. S.)
DECEMBER
WAYNE SHORTER 75TH BIRTHDAY CONCERT At Carnegie Hall, this great tenor saxophonist and his quartet -- with the pianist Danilo Perez, the bassist John Patitucci and the drummer Brian Blade -- will hold forth. The concert will also include the first New York performance of ''Terra Incognita,'' a new work by Mr. Shorter augmented with the wind quintet Imani Winds. Dec. 2, Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org. (B. R.)
PAQUITO D'RIVERA AND THE JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA Mr. D'Rivera, a virtuosic clarinetist and saxophonist, leads Jazz at Lincoln Center's house band through the Afro-Cuban big-band repertory. Dec. 5-6, Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway and 60th Street, Manhattan, jalc.org. (B. R.)
CIARA For Ciara, who is releasing her third album, ''Fantasy Ride,'' using Aaliyah as a template has had its up and downs. On the one hand, she's got a breathy sultriness and sinuous dance moves. On the other hand, she's known more for how she uses her body than her voice, and rightly so at that. Dec. 9. Jive. (J. C.)
THE JEWISH MUSIC PROJECT The trumpeter Steven Bernstein and saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum -- two bright rogues of jazz musicology -- configure new connections between Jewish identity and jazz, incorporating Latin music, classical music and the blues. Dec. 12, Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400, symphonyspace.org. (B. R.)
MENUDO You cannot stop them; you can only hope to replace them. More than 30 years after the first incarnation of this Latin boy band, it persists with five new fresh-faced teenage members. What comes as a surprise is that their songs, especially the new single ''Lost,'' don't seem unreasonably dated, especially to young fans with short memories. Dec. 23. Epic. (J. C.)
MAINO This Brooklyn rapper has been one of 2008's unexpected success stories. ''Hi Hater,'' a jubilant taunt to naysayers, has become a breakout hit, a catchphrase and, if he's lucky, a career maker. It all rests on ''If Tomorrow Comes,'' his long-awaited major-label debut. Dec. 30. Atlantic. (J. C.)
MY MORNING JACKET Of course: as the new kings of expand-your-mind, religious-experience rock, it makes sense that My Morning Jacket should play Madison Square Garden on New Year's Eve. It was hard to see this coming even a few years ago. We will say the same thing five years hence, when there will surely be Laser Jacket shows at the Hayden Planetarium. Dec. 31. Madison Square Garden. (212-307-7171, or ticketmaster.com.) (B.R.)
2009
FRANZ FERDINAND Not much is known about the forthcoming third album by this Scottish band, which did as much as any to popularize the dance-rock revival of the mid-'00s. There's no title yet, and representatives say there is no guarantee that a new song, ''Lucid Dreams'' -- available on the band's Web site, franzferdinand.co.uk -- would be on the album. But if that song is any indication, Franz Ferdinand's chops in joining perfectly melodic disco to antsy, dissonant punk haven't diminished one bit. January or February. Epic/Domino. (B. S.)
MARK OLSON AND GARY LOURIS For long-suffering fans of the Jayhawks, former standard-bearers of alt-country, ''Ready for the Flood'' marks a bittersweet moment: it revives a strong creative partnership but also suggests that Mr. Louris and Mr. Olson have indeed moved on. Good news for everyone: the songs are lovely, and the production, by Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, works just fine. January. Hacktone. (N. C.)
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Coming this month: The debut album of the Oscar winner and former ''American Idol'' contestant Jennifer Hudson, left. (PHOTOGRAPH BY MARIO ANZUONI/REUTERS) (pg.AR62)
T.I. will release his sixth album, ''Paper Trail,'' this month. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON DECROW/ASSOCIATED PRESS) (pg.AR64)
Columbia/Legacy's popular Bootleg Series will offer ''Tell Tale Signs,'' with music from Bob Dylan, right, next month. (PHOTOGRAPH BY KARL WALTER/GETTY IMAGES) (pg.AR66)
Ciara's new album, ''Fantasy Ride,'' is due in December. (PHOTOGRAPH BY MARIO ANZUONI/REUTERS) (pg.AR67)
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Late Edition - Final
MORTGAGE GIANT OVERSTATED SIZE OF CAPITAL BASE
BYLINE: By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and CHARLES DUHIGG; Reporting was contributed by Stephen Labaton and Edmund L. Andrews in Washington; Jeff Zeleny from Terre Haute, Ind.; and Elisabeth Bumiller from Colorado Springs.
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The government's planned takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, expected to be announced on Sunday, came together after advisers poring over the companies' books for the Treasury Department concluded that Freddie's accounting methods had overstated its capital cushion, according to regulatory officials briefed on the matter.
The proposal to place both companies, which own or back $5.3 trillion in mortgages, into a government-run conservatorship also grew out of deep concern among foreign investors that the companies' debt might not be repaid. Falling home prices, which are expected to lead to more defaults among the mortgages held or guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie, contributed to the urgency, regulators said.
Investors who own the companies' common and preferred stock will suffer. Holders of debt, including many foreign central banks, are expected to receive government backing. Top executives of both companies will be pushed out, according to those briefed on the plan.
The cost of the government's intervention could rise into tens of billions of dollars and will probably be among the most expensive rescues ever financed by taxpayers.
Both presidential nominees expressed support for the government's plans. Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, said as he campaigned in Indiana that not acting could place the housing market in further distress.
Senator John McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, said at a rally in Colorado Springs that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have become too big and too expensive .
The takeover comes on the heels of a rescue of the investment bank Bear Stearns, which was sold to JPMorgan Chase in a deal backed by taxpayers. Already, the housing crisis has cost investors and consumers hundreds of billions of dollars.
The big question now is whether the federal government's move to take over Fannie and Freddie will restore investor confidence in the nation's credit markets, help stabilize the stock market and keep loans flowing to creditworthy borrowers.
Fannie and Freddie, by buying mortgages, provide banks and other financial institutions with fresh money to make new loans, a vital lubricant for the housing and credit markets.
Under the plan, the Treasury Department itself will begin buying mortgage securities, providing crucial market support.
As a result of the government's intervention, the cost of borrowing for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should decline, because the government will be insuring their debts. Equally important, because the government is backing the companies, they will continue to buy and sell home loans.
But the plan will probably do little to stop home prices from falling further. And foreclosures are almost certain to rise.
Just a week ago, Treasury officials were still considering a wide variety of options for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ranging from doing nothing to taking over the companies completely, according to people with knowledge of those discussions.
The Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., who won authority from Congress last month to use taxpayer money to bolster the companies, always maintained that he hoped never to use that power. But, as the companies' stocks continued to languish and their borrowing costs rose, some within the Treasury Department began urging Mr. Paulson to intervene quickly.
Then, last week, advisers from Morgan Stanley hired by the Treasury Department to scrutinize the companies came to a troubling conclusion: Freddie Mac's capital position was worse than initially imagined, according to people briefed on those findings. The company had made decisions that, while not necessarily in violation of accounting rules, had the effect of overstating the companies' capital resources and financial stability.
Indeed, one person briefed on the company's finances said Freddie Mac had made accounting decisions that pushed losses into the future and postponed a capital shortfall until the fourth quarter of this year, which would not need to be disclosed until early 2009. Fannie Mae has used similar methods, but to a lesser degree, according to other people who have been briefed.
Representatives of both companies did not return calls or declined to comment. But officials who have been briefed on the plans said late Saturday that the companies had agreed to the takeover.
On Friday, executives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were ordered to appear in the offices of their regulator, James B. Lockhart, in separate meetings. They were told that regulators were exercising their authority to place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in conservatorship, which would allow for uninterrupted operation of the companies but would put them under the control of Mr. Lockhart.
The details of those plans continued to be worked out on Saturday, when the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, met with Mr. Paulson, Mr. Lockhart and key company executives in Washington.
While Freddie Mac's accounting woes make it easier for regulators to force the company into conservatorship, there was more resistance from Fannie Mae, according to people familiar with the discussions. Once the government took action against Freddie Mac, however, confidence in Fannie Mae would certainly waver. Given Fannie Mae's declining financial condition, the company has few options but to concede to the government's demands.
Accusations of questionable accounting are not new for either company. Earlier this decade, both companies paid large fines and ousted their top executives after accounting scandals.
Freddie Mac's current chief executive and chairman, Richard F. Syron, joined the company in 2003 after the former managers revealed that they had manipulated earnings by almost $5 billion. The next year, Fannie Mae's chief executive, Daniel H. Mudd, was promoted to the top spot after that company was accused of accounting errors totaling $6.3 billion.
The accounting issues that brought so much urgency to the bailout appear to center on Freddie Mac's capital cushion, the assets that regulators require them to keep on hand to cover losses.
The methods used to bolster that cushion have caused serious concerns among the companies' regulator, outside auditors and some investors. For example, while Freddie Mac's portfolio contains many securities backed by subprime loans, made to the riskiest borrowers, and alt-A loans, one step up on the risk ladder, the company has not written down the value of many of those loans to reflect current market prices.
Executives have said that they intend to hold the loans to maturity, meaning they will be worth more, and they need not write down their value. But other financial institutions have written down similar securities, to comply with ''mark-to-market'' accounting rules. Freddie Mac holds roughly twice as many of those securities as Fannie Mae.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have also inflated their financial positions by relying on deferred-tax assets -- credits accumulated over the years that can be used to offset future profits. Fannie maintains that its worth is increased by $36 billion through such credits, and Freddie argues that it has a $28 billion benefit.
But such credits have no value unless the companies generate profits. They have failed to do so over the last four quarters and seem increasingly unlikely to the next year. Moreover, even when the companies had soaring profits, such credits often could not be used. That is because the companies were already able to offset taxes with other credits for affordable housing.
Most financial institutions are not allowedto count such credits as assets. The credits cannot be sold and would disappear in a receivership. Removing those credits from assets would probably push both companies' capital below the regulatory requirements.
Regulators are also said to be scrutinizing whether the companies were trying to manage earnings by waiting to add to their reserves. Both companies have gradually increased their reserves for loan losses -- Fannie's reserves today stand at $8.9 billion, and Freddie's at $5.8 billion.
Other companies, like private mortgage insurers, have been quicker to identify large losses and have set aside much greater amounts. Fannie and Freddie have dribbled out bad news with each quarterly announcement, suggesting they may be trying to manage this process.
Finally, regulators are concerned that the companies may have mischaracterized their financial health by relaxing their accounting policies on losses, according to people familiar with the review. For years, both companies have effectively recognized losses whenever payments on a loan are 90 days past due. But, in recent months, the companies said they would wait until payments were two years late. As a result, tens of thousands of loans have not been marked down in value.
The companies have injected their own capital into pools of securities containing these loans, arguing that their new policies are helping more borrowers.
Under conservative accounting methods, changing these policies would not have any impact on the companies' books. However, people briefed on the accounting inquiry said that Freddie Mac may have delayed losses with the change.
''We have just had to nationalize the two largest financial institutions in the world because of policy makers' inaction,'' said Josh Rosner, an analyst at Graham Fisher, an independent research firm in New York, and a longtime critic of the government-sponsored enterprises. ''Since 2003, when these companies' accounting came under question, policy makers have done nothing.''
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GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Daniel Mudd, left, chief of Fannie Mae, and Richard Syron, chief of Freddie Mac, are expected to be forced out. (PHOTOGRAPH BY DENNIS BRACK/BLOOMBERG NEWS) (pg.A26)
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Late Edition - Final
The Maverick Ticket
BYLINE: By WILLIAM SAFIRE.
William Safire, a former Times Op-Ed columnist, is the author of a new edition of ''Safire's Political Dictionary.''
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SAMUEL Augustus Maverick, Texas rancher of the 1840s, is proudly sitting up in his grave. His name, which has become an eponymous American word, was cited repeatedly at last week's unexpectedly enthusiastic Republican convention.
''I've been called a maverick,'' John McCain told his rounded-up party. ''Sometimes it's meant as a compliment; sometimes it's not.'' True enough: old Sam Maverick's friends said he refused to brand his cattle because it was cruel to animals; competing ranchers said it let him round up and claim all the unbranded cattle in the neighborhood. In an era that has sophisticates displaying designers' initials, the Americanism maverick now means ''one who bears no man's brand,'' or in McCain's evocation of Thoreau's metaphor, ''marches to the beat of his own drum.''
The Op-Ed page editors yanked this former speechwriter back into harness to assess convention speeches, so here goes:
At the Democrats' gathering in Denver, the best burst of unremarked writing was the loving introduction of Senator Joe Biden by his son: powerful testimony to the lifelong fidelity of a father after family tragedy. The TV camera's reaction shot of Michelle Obama wiping authentic tears from her eyes and cheeks was to me the convention's most moving image.
As opined in this space last week, Barack Obama's speech the final night brought hosannas from the faithful, but -- encumbered by its pretentious stadium setting -- did not meet his high rhetorical standard. About the only member of the punditariat who agreed that this season's emperor of oratory was short on clothes that night was David Broder of The Washington Post, who had the unfair advantage of being objective.
Then came the maverick ticket with its takeover of the change game. Senator Joe Lieberman, avoiding Obama's error of playing to the multitude of partisans present, looked straight at the camera and spoke effectively to fellow Democrats and independents at home about McCain's coalition-building work in the Senate. Joe faces heavy punishment for his courage from a vindictive Democratic leader, Senator Harry Reid. Best delivery by a Republican male was by Senator Lindsey Graham, who focused on the wisdom of the ''surge'' McCain advocated. (Obama was later forced by Fox's persistent Bill O'Reilly to admit, at long last, that the surge ''succeeded.'')
Then the St. Paul convention was hit by Hurricane Sarah and her admirable family. The cliche is that -- faced by part of a party long troubled by McCain's different drumming -- the governor of Alaska was able to ''energize the base'' of social conservatives. The more salient fact is that her skillful speech and joyful demeanor was even more impressive than Obama's introduction to the Democratic Party four years ago. The establishment-shaking candidate was a happy warrior in the glare of major-league scrutiny. Most of the huge, uncommitted audience at home enjoyed this strong woman's national audition; the first test of McCain's gamble paid off.
Though her ''lipstick'' ad lib got the laugh (and may have offended pit-bull fanciers), she forcefully delivered a Sorensenesque line that crystallized the choice this year's voters face: ''There are those who use change to promote their careers. And then, there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.''
The McCain acceptance speech reads better than it was read. The straight talker never has been a smooth orator, but his homely, unprofessional speaking style has a way of underscoring his depth of character. The key word in this campaign is ''trust,'' and with McCain, what you see is what you get.
One purpose of a speech accepting nomination is to press a candidate's key strength. That called for McCain to set aside his longtime reluctance to recount publicly his wartime suffering. He was careful not to claim to be owed anything by his country; on the contrary, many viewers learned for the first time of how he was ''blessed because I served in the company of heroes,'' and was affected for the better by his searing wartime experience, which made him readier to command in the future.
The other purpose was to turn the tables on the early campaign ''narrative.'' Experience is a useful opening political argument -- but it looks backward. ''Experience Counts'' was Richard Nixon's static slogan in 1960, but ''let's get the country moving again'' -- John Kennedy's winning phrase -- looked ahead. That's the outlook McCain chose to adopt in his speech, which was strong on tomorrow's education needs.
In willingly taking up the two-edged sword of maverickism; in spelling out his frequent fights against the sclerotic, cozy two-party establishment; in zinging that ''big-spending, do-nothing, me-first-country-second Washington crowd''; in choosing an exciting new running mate even as Obama was splashing about in the news media adulation of his smoothly delivered acceptance extravaganza, McCain stiffly stole the clothes of change.
That last paragraph befits a speechwriter's peroration, not the soberly sage, almost bipartisan analysis I originally intended. Note the incidental pop at ''media adulation,'' a red flag to the arugula-munching ''panjandrums of the opinion media,'' in Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s phrase, gleefully waved by Sarah Palin and most other Republican convention speakers. McCain, who reveled in media-darlingism eight years ago, did not participate in such shooting at literate fish in a barrel.
As one whose only claim to coinage fame is in Spiro Agnew's 1970 nattering nabobs of negativism, I have an attack dog in that fight (though not a maligned pit bull).
But here's a question: In light of public opinion of most opinion journalists being down around that of Congress, is it smart politics to bash the news media?
Because Agnew, and later Nixon, ultimately were forced to resign, conventional wisdom now holds that their blast at ''elitism'' backfired; but it probably played a part in Nixon's 49-state re-election landslide in 1972. By curtailing the ''instant analysis'' and having elected opposition leaders on TV to answer presidential addresses, the press back then took much of the punch out of the administration attack.
However, by slamming back furiously today, some of those mainstreaming or blogging in the news media just might be helping to make their critics' point. We can hope that the winners in tomorrow's alliteration wars will be the pleasant Pollyannas of positivism.
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Late Edition - Final
Rival Tickets Are Redrawing Battlegrounds
BYLINE: By PATRICK HEALY and MICHAEL COOPER; Elisabeth Bumiller, Michael Luo and Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting.
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Fresh from the Republican convention, Senator John McCain's campaign sees evidence that his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate is energizing conservatives in the battleground of Ohio while improving its chances in Pennsylvania and some Western states that Senator Barack Obama has been counting on.
Mr. Obama's campaign intends to focus heavily on the economy, especially in light of the mounting job losses, and to keep up the effort to tie the McCain-Palin ticket to the policies of President Bush. It is banking on holding all the states Senator John Kerry won in 2004 and picking up the additional electoral votes it needs by flipping some combination of Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio or Virginia into the Democratic column.
With just over eight weeks left until Election Day, the two sides are settling into a set of state-by-state face-offs, with an increased focus on turning out supporters and tough decisions looming about where to invest time and advertising money.
Aides to Mr. Obama said the campaign was preparing advertisements tailored to issues important in specific states, like ones about the auto industry in Michigan and nuclear waste in Nevada, even as the Democrats pulled back advertising in Georgia, a Republican state he had sought to put in play by registering new Democratic voters.
Strategists say that Mr. McCain can now count on a more motivated social conservative base to help him in areas like southern Ohio, where the 2004 race was settled.
While fortified turnout from this base is probably not enough to assure victory for Mr. McCain, strategists said, it would be very difficult for him to win without it. In that sense, Ms. Palin's presence on the ticket -- depending on how her candidacy fares under the scrutiny it is receiving -- could be vital.
Mr. Obama has refrained from directly criticizing her, but on Saturday he shed the niceties. He said Ms. Palin embraced lawmakers' pet projects known as earmarks back home in Alaska but criticized them in her new role.
''She's a skillful politician, but when you've been taking all the earmarks when it's convenient and then suddenly you're the anti-earmark person, that's not change,'' Mr. Obama told a crowd in Indiana. ''Come on! Words mean something. You can't just make stuff up.''
Some McCain campaign officials hoped that Ms. Palin, an Alaskan, can broaden the ticket's appeal in the Northwest, possibly gaining traction in states like Oregon and Washington, as well as shore up Mr. McCain's standing with social conservatives who had, up to now, been lukewarm at best about his candidacy.
''Thursday morning our phones started ringing about how do we get involved, where are the phone banks, where is the literature to distribute,'' said Mike Gonidakis, executive director of Ohio Right to Life, explaining that many people had been motivated by Ms. Palin's convention speech on Wednesday night. ''It's amazing to see the attitude and enthusiasm -- especially compared with what it was about 10 days ago.''
Mr. Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, said that his team was not concerned that independents and undecided women might be drawn to Ms. Palin, and that the Obama camp did not plan to run hard against her.
''As the post-convention dust settles, we believe a lot of the battleground states will be close, and that this will remain a race between John McCain and Barack Obama,'' Mr. Plouffe said. ''She'll be out there promoting John McCain's economic message, which is fine by us because it is so bad for middle-class voters.''
Yet several Republican leaders, both moderates and conservatives, said they were comfortable with the economic message of their ticket, which is asserting in its advertising and campaigning that Mr. Obama would enact higher taxes and policies too liberal for most voters.
''Even in the face of job losses and the mortgage crisis,'' said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, ''the core Republican message is still appealing: no higher taxes, get government off your back, cut regulations and make us more competitive.''
McCain aides once believed that his appeal to independents might help him win a traditional Democratic state like New Jersey, and Obama aides thought their candidate's broad appeal could be a lift in traditionally Republican ones like Montana, but the emerging swing states picked by both campaigns so far resemble the Bush-Kerry map in 2004 and the Bush-Gore map in 2000.
But Democrats say that they will still have the advantage, thinking that Mr. Bush's unpopularity, economic discontent and lingering anger over the Iraq war will make it hard for Republicans to carry all the Bush states.
Republicans are hoping that positioning Mr. McCain as a maverick now could help them hold the Bush states and win some like New Hampshire, which Mr. Bush lost in 2004 but where Mr. McCain is popular.
In one indication of how Mr. McCain defines the battleground and the message he will emphasize to counter the Democratic strategy, the Republican National Committee recently bought television time in 14 states for an advertisement calling Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats ''ready to tax, ready to spend, but not ready to lead.''
That advertisement will be shown in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia (all Republican states in 2004 that Mr. Obama is contesting aggressively this time) and Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, (Democratic states four years ago that Mr. McCain is trying to win over).
A sign of the shifting battlegrounds can be found in the itineraries of both campaigns. Mr. Obama on Saturday warned voters in Indiana, a state where Democratic presidential candidates seldom plant their flag, to be wary of Republicans promising change. ''Don't be fooled,'' he told several hundred people at the fairgrounds in Terre Haute. ''These are the folks who have been in charge.''
For their part, Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin chose to remain in solid Republican territory. Thousands of enthusiastic supporters greeted them at an airport rally in Colorado Springs, where the crowd waved a sea of flags and chanted ''Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin.''
Ms. Palin took on Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Mr. Obama's running mate and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, as a personification of the status quo.
''When our opponent made his choice, he went for a fine man, a decent man,'' she said at the rally. ''Senator Biden can claim many chairmanships across many, many years in Washington, and certainly many friends in the Washington establishment. But even those admirers would not be able to call him an agent of change.''
Mr. Obama chose not to participate in the public financing system for presidential campaigns, freeing him to spend unlimited amounts on his political efforts in any state.
One indication of the Obama campaign's priorities can be found in a breakdown of how it is distributing large donations to a special fund-raising account it has set up for state parties. The breakdown, provided by an Obama fund-raiser, shows the campaign funneling money to traditional swing states like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, but also allocating substantial sums to normally solid Republican states like North Carolina.
Obama aides, while pulling back commercials in Georgia, are mulling new advertisements in other states that Mr. Bush carried, like Arizona and West Virginia, where the poor economy might help them somewhat.
Both sides are intensifying their efforts in a less visible but potentially more important aspect of presidential politics: identifying their likely supporters, household by household, and ensuring that they show up to vote on Election Day.
Mr. Obama has long been seen as having had a head start in that area, drawing on his campaign's vast army of volunteers to make phone calls, knock on doors and distribute literature.
Mr. Plouffe said the Obama campaign had recruited thousands of neighborhood and precinct captains to concentrate on voter turnout: The campaign has seven offices in Allegheny County alone, around Pittsburgh, and has teams devoted to turning out the estimated 600,000 black residents of Florida who were registered in 2004 but did not vote.
''You have a lot of sporadic Democratic voting in Florida and other states in different years,'' Mr. Plouffe said, ''but we believe the clear contrast between the candidates will drive Democrats out in record numbers this year.''
But the McCain campaign, after a slow start, is increasing its efforts as well, building on the sophisticated voter-targeting operation built for President Bush.
Mike DuHaime, the McCain campaign's political director, said that right after Ms. Palin was chosen, more than four times as many volunteers as usual showed up, even though it was Labor Day weekend.
Even before the pick, he said, the campaign had stepped up its efforts: Although it made only 20,000 volunteer phone calls and knocks on doors a week two months ago, the McCain campaign made 800,000 the week before Ms. Palin was selected.
The campaign is using technology to help identify likely voters, including having volunteers call supporters using Internet phones that can help collect data for the Republican National Committee.
''If the person you're calling says, 'Yes, I'm voting for Senator McCain,' you push a button on the phone and it automatically goes back to the R.N.C. database,'' Mr. DuHaime said. ''If the person says it's a wrong number, there's another button and it wipes that number out, so that nobody ever calls that again.''
''You can take all that data,'' he added, ''and analyze it, figure out things that are working and things that are not and how to allocate resources.''
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: DEMOCRATS IN INDIANA: Senator Barack Obama speaking at a town hall-style meeting on Friday at the fairgrounds in Terre Haute. (PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS CARLSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Senator John McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, at a rally in Colorado Springs on Saturday. (PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN CROWLEY/THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.A1)
Gov. Sarah Palin and Senator John McCain in Colorado, a state the Democrats hope to contest. (PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN CROWLEY/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Senator Barack Obama on Friday in Pennsylvania, a state the Republicans want in their column. (PHOTOGRAPH BY OZIER MUHAMMAD/THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.A24) CHARTS: TELEVISION ADVERTISING: Amount of money spent by the Obama and McCain campaigns, June 3 to Aug. 31. (Source: TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group) (pg.A24)
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The Washington Post
September 7, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
5;
Myths About Those Civic-Minded, Deeply Informed Voters
BYLINE: Rick Shenkman
SECTION: OUTLOOK; Pg. B05
LENGTH: 1063 words
One thing both Democrats and Republicans agreed about in their vastly different conventions: The American voter will not only decide but decide wisely. But does the electorate really know what it's talking about? Plenty of things are hurting American democracy -- gridlock, negative campaigning, special interests -- but one factor lies at the root of all the others, and nobody dares to discuss it. American voters, who are hiring the people who'll run a superpower democracy, are grossly ignorant. Here are a few particularly bogus claims about their supposed savvy.
1. Our voters are pretty smart.
You hear this one from politicians all the time, even John McCain, who promises straight talk, and Barack Obama, who claims that he's not a politician (by which he means that he'll tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear). But by every measure social scientists have devised, voters are spectacularly uninformed. They don't follow politics, and they don't know how their government works. According to an August 2006 Zogby poll, only two in five Americans know that we have three branches of government and can name them. A 2006 National Geographic poll showed that six in ten young people (aged 18 to 24) could not find Iraq on the map. The political scientists Michael Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter, surveying a wide variety of polls measuring knowledge of history, report that fewer than half of all Americans know who Karl Marx was or which war the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought in. Worse, they found that just 49 percent of Americans know that the only country ever to use a nuclear weapon in a war is their own.
True, many voters can tell you who's ahead and who's behind in the horse race. But most of what they know about the candidates' positions on the issues -- and remember, our candidates are running to make policy, not talk about their biographies -- derives from what voters learn from stupid and often misleading 30-second commercials, according to Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
2. Bill O'Reilly's viewers are dumber than Jon Stewart's.
Liberals wish. Democrats like to think that voters who sympathize with their views are smarter than those who vote Republican. But a 2007 Pew survey found that the knowledge level of viewers of the right-wing, blustery "The O'Reilly Factor" and the left-wing, snarky "The Daily Show" is comparable, with about 54 percent of the shows' politicized viewers scoring in the "high knowledge" category.
So what about conservative talk-radio titan Rush Limbaugh's audience? Surely the ditto-heads are dumb, right? Actually, according to a survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, Rush's listeners are better educated and "more knowledgeable about politics and social issues" than the average voter.
3. If you just give Americans the facts, they'll be able to draw the right conclusions.
Unfortunately, no. Many social scientists have long tried to downplay the ignorance of voters, arguing that the mental "short cuts" voters use to make up for their lack of information work pretty well. But the evidence from the past few years proves that a majority can easily be bamboozled.
Just before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, after months of unsubtle hinting from Bush administration officials, some 60 percent of Americans had come to believe that Iraq was behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, despite the absence of evidence for the claim, according to a series of surveys taken by the PIPA/Knowledge Networks poll. A year later, after the bipartisan, independent 9/11 Commission reported that Saddam Hussein had had nothing to do with al-Qaeda's assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, 50 percent of Americans still insisted that he did. In other words, the public was bluntly given the data by a group of officials generally believed to be credible -- and it still didn't absorb the most basic facts about the most important event of their time.
4. Voters today are smarter than they used to be.
Actually, by most measures, voters today possess the same level of political knowledge as their parents and grandparents, and in some categories, they score lower. In the 1950s, only 10 percent of voters were incapable of citing any ways in which the two major parties differed, according to Thomas E. Patterson of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, who leads the Pew-backed Vanishing Voter Project. By the 1970s, that number had jumped to nearly 30 percent.
Here's what makes these numbers deplorable -- and, in fact, almost incomprehensible: Education levels are far higher today than they were half a century ago, when social scientists first began surveying voter knowledge about politics. (In 1940, six in ten Americans hadn't made it past the eighth grade.) The moral of this story: Schooling alone doesn't translate into better educated voters.
5. Young voters are paying a lot of attention to the news.
Again, no. Despite all the hoopla about young voters -- the great hope of the future! -- only one news story in 2001 drew the attention of a majority of them: 9/11. Some 60 percent of young voters told Pew researchers that they were following news about the attack closely. (Er -- 40 percent weren't?) But none of the other stories that year seemed particularly interesting to them. Only 32 percent said that they followed the news about the anthrax attacks or the economy, then in recession. The capture of Kabul from the Taliban? Just 20 percent.
Six years later, Pew again measured public knowledge of current events and found that the young (aged 18 to 29) "know the least." A majority of young respondents scored in the "low knowledge" category -- the only demographic group to do so.
And some other statistics are even more alarming. How many young people read newspapers? Just 20 percent. (Worse, studies consistently show that people who do not pick up the newspaper-reading habit in their 20s rarely do so later.) But surely today's youth are getting their news from the Internet? Sorry. Only 11 percent of the young report that they regularly surf the Internet for news. Maybe Obama shouldn't be relying on savvy young voters after all.
rick@howstupidblog.com
Rick Shenkman is an associate professor of history at George Mason University and the author of "Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter."
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The New York Times
September 6, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
At Both Conventions, a Band Salutes Anarchy
BYLINE: By DAVID CARR
SECTION: Section B; Column 0; The Arts/Cultural Desk; Pg. 7
LENGTH: 1188 words
DATELINE: ST. PAUL
On Wednesday night, Republican delegates fresh off Gov. Sarah Palin's vice presidential nomination speech at the Xcel Energy Center here formed a conga line of taxis, buses and private cars to Minneapolis, where post-convention parties were firing up. At almost the same time, a huge crowd was emptying out of the Target Center after a political show of a different sort -- a concert by the band Rage Against the Machine.
A small fraction of those people, perhaps 200, decided to take over the intersection of First Avenue North and Seventh Street. Traffic snarled, and delegates watched in waiting traffic as riot-clad police pushed the spontaneous, vocal protest up Seventh Street. A delegate from Texas said, ''Those guys, again?''
Yes, again. For two weeks straight, both in Denver and in Minneapolis, Rage Against the Machine, a rap-metal band formed in 1991 and known for its big noise and ferocious politics, formed an ad-hoc convention in opposition to both major parties. Although the band has been a significant commercial success -- three of its albums in the 1990s attained multiplatinum status -- radical politics have always been baked into their music.
The band members' notoriety grew in 1996 when they tried to hang upside-down flags on their amps during a two-song set on ''Saturday Night Live'' -- a performance that was cut short, and became something of a theme. Shortly after a concert at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles in 2000 that ended in clashes with the police, the band broke up, then reunited in 2007 at the Coachella music festival.
At both the Democratic and Republican conventions this year, Rage led marches, performed through megaphones when prevented from taking their stage, and generally agitated against the politics of convention and the conventions themselves.
None of this would be especially noteworthy -- cause musicians reflexively congregate around political events -- but Rage has millions of fans whose ardor has not been diminished by the band's not putting out a record in eight years. The group's insistent calls to action, in song and from the stage, still fall on receptive ears. Some of its hard-core fans are less prone to buying T-shirts than engaging in the kind of civil disobedience that sometimes ends in tear gas.
The Democratic convention opened with a free Rage show at the Denver Coliseum in support of Iraq Veterans Against the War, with the band's lead singer, Zack de la Rocha, kicking into ''Guerilla Radio.'' ''It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime,'' he sang, ''What better place than here?''
The building all but tipped on its side and bucked throughout the frantic, politically framed set, which included a guest spot by Wayne Kramer of the MC5, reprising the song ''Kick Out the Jams'' from an appearance during the mayhem of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. When the band finished at the coliseum, most of the 9,000 people who were present followed a march led by the veterans down to the Pepsi Center.
Many contemporary musical acts have lined up behind the Democratic candidate for president, Senator Barack Obama, while the McCain campaign has put some country music firepower behind it, but Rage Against the Machine and its legions regard donkeys and elephants as the same species.
''The only difference between the two parties is marketing,'' said Adam Jung, a youth organizer who was interviewed during the Rage concert in Denver. ''Electing Democrats to end the war is like drinking light beer to lose weight.''
Still, Republican Party officials here and in Minneapolis this week reacted to various Rage endeavors as if a sleeper cell were in their midst. A concert sponsored by the Service Employees International Union at Harriet Island on Monday, the first day of the convention, had its permit revoked and then restored after Rage was placed first on and then off the bill.
On Tuesday a five-band protest concert was scheduled on the lawn of the State Capitol above St. Paul. Near the end of the day the four members of Rage pulled up and were immediately surrounded by the police. The band members were told that they were not going to take the stage because they were not on the bill -- but there were no bands listed on the permit. And so the four members of the band walked out into the crowd, which was chanting, ''Let them play!,'' and someone handed them a megaphone. With the guitarist Tom Morello vocalizing instrumental interludes, Mr. de la Rocha did two songs: ''Bulls on Parade'' and ''Killing in the Name.'' The crowd surged around the band and filled in the musical gaps.
After Mr. de la Rocha suggested that the assembled police were ''not afraid of four musicians from Los Angeles, they are afraid of you!,'' Mr. Morello took the megaphone.
He said: ''I suspect that the cops have much more in common with this band, with you people. Before this weekend is over, they may turn their batons, rubber bullets and their tear gas against us, but it is our hope that one day they turn those batons and rubber bullets and the tear gas against'' the people assembled at the Xcel Center, whom he described in colorful language.
It did not turn out that way after a few of the more fleet-footed protesters began running through the streets of St. Paul. Windows were broken, chemical agents were deployed, and arrests were made.
Later that night, Mr. Morello, who like Mr. Obama is the son of a Kenyan father and a white American mother (and who went to Harvard), stood in an alley behind the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis, tuning up for a hootenanny with Billy Bragg hosted by the Minneapolis musician and writer Jim Walsh. Neither he nor the other members of the band were granting interviews, however. Mr. Morello, who performs solo as the Nightwatchman, was talking to the songwriter Ike Reilly, and said the day had been a busy one.
''When we got to the capitol, we were surrounded by cops, and they asked, 'Are you in Rage Against the Machine?,' '' Mr. Morello said. ''And I didn't know what the right answer was, so I just said, 'I don't know.' They blocked us from even approaching the stage, saying they'd arrest us if we played. So we went into the middle of the crowd and began to improvise.''
The Rage show at the Target Center on Wednesday night was a commercial concert, not a protest rally, with proceeds going to benefit various antiwar causes, according to Mr. Morello. But the political backdrop had hardly disappeared. When the lights came up at the start of the set, the band was clad in orange jumpsuits and black hoods, with hands behind them, an image that seemed to shout ''Guantanamo Bay'' without ever saying the words. Still, the rhetoric from the stage was more nuanced than that of the previous shows.
''I hope you all leave peacefully, but you don't have to be passive,'' Mr. Morello said. ''Don't let anyone put their hands on you.''
Thousands took that advice, and a few took it a step further, refusing orders to disperse at Seventh Street and Second Avenue.
Arrests, a mainstay of the latest Rage shows, quickly ensued.
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: A protest after Rage Against the Machine played in Minneapolis. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT STOLARIK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)(B7)
Protesters facing off with the police in Minneapolis. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT STOLARIK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)(B13)
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The Washington Post
September 6, 2008 Saturday
Met 2 Edition
Jobless Rate In August Hit A 5-Year High
BYLINE: Neil Irwin; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1110 words
Businesses slashed jobs and the nation's unemployment rate hit a five-year high in August, the government reported yesterday, dashing hopes that the economy might stabilize in the second half of the year and showing that trouble has spread far beyond the housing and financial sectors.
As the economy weakened in the beginning of 2008, many economists held out hope that it would soon stabilize, or even improve. But with consumers spending less, the housing and stock markets dropping further, and a once-gradual decline in the job market turning into a steep slide, that doesn't appear to be happening.
The unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent, from 5.7 percent in July, according to the data released yesterday, making for the most severe four-month rise in joblessness since 1981. More people looked for second jobs to help make ends meet, with little apparent success.
Meanwhile the nation's employers cut 84,000 net jobs, the eighth consecutive month of declines. They have shed a combined 600,000 positions from their payrolls in 2008. Of major categories of employers, only the health-care industry and government added jobs in August.
"These are really ugly numbers," said Scott Anderson, a senior economist at Wells Fargo. "There's been optimism out there that we might be nearing an endpoint, that housing is stabilizing, that the stock market may have turned a corner. But this reinforces the view that things are going to get worse before they get better."
The new data immediately became fodder on the campaign trail, and further pushed the issue of the economy into the spotlight ahead of the presidential election. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), the Democratic nominee, seized on the numbers to link Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), to President Bush's economic policies, saying the Republican candidate would only cut taxes for big companies. McCain called for more job training and said that Obama's tax plan would stifle growth.
The dismal numbers released yesterday go beyond the job market. Mortgage foreclosures rose 1.2 percent in the second quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the sharpest rate of increase in the 29-year history of the group's survey. Earlier in the week, many of the nation's largest chain retailers announced disappointing August sales numbers, indicating that the back-to-school selling season was a bust. Automakers have been hurting, too. Ford said that it doesn't expect a rebound in vehicle sales this year and that it is cutting production by another 50,000 cars and trucks.
Even industries that have experienced little direct hit from the housing and financial crisis are now reeling; for example, Ciena, a Maryland-based maker of network equipment, said this week that telecommunications companies are becoming more cautious about investments, sending its profit down 59 percent. Overall, the stock market fell 3.4 percent this week, as measured by the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. Stocks were roughly flat Friday.
Economic data from the late spring and summer had been reasonably positive, partly because government stimulus payments went out during that period, and exports boomed. Further tax rebates are not likely this year, however, and the slowing European and Asian economies are likely to lessen demand for U.S. exports.
"We're seeing what the emperor looks like disrobed," said David Rosenberg, chief economist at Merrill Lynch. "We had the largest fiscal rebate package of all time in the second quarter, and it was big enough to keep GDP positive, but we're now entering the consumer leg of this economic downturn."
With those boosts gone, people are being hammered on multiple fronts. They're losing wealth as real estate and stock market values fall. Banks and other lenders have become more reluctant to approve loans, making it more difficult for consumers to borrow money to ride out the hard times, and as was made clear by yesterday's release, the job market has gone from mediocre to lousy since the spring.
The climate is akin to what the nation experienced during the recession almost 20 years ago, when Americans were confronted by a slow-moving set of interrelated crises. It started with a downturn in commercial real estate in 1988, spread to savings and loans in 1989 and 1990, causing lending to freeze up; the brunt of job losses and rising unemployment occurred in 1991.
Now, as then, there are feedback loops whereby problems in one segment of the economy and financial system affect the others. More conservative lending by banks causes higher unemployment, and the unemployed are more likely to default on their home-equity loans, causing banks to lose money and pull back even more.
There is some good news: Prices for oil and other commodities are dropping, which should lower what people pay for gasoline and other fuels in the months ahead. However, prices for energy and food remain well above what they were a year ago and consumers will face higher heating bills as the weather turns cold.
The unemployment rate in August rose most among women, to 5.3 percent from 4.7 percent; blacks, to 10.6 percent from 9.7 percent; and Hispanics, to 8 percent from 7.4 percent. There was one possible silver lining in the weaker jobless numbers: In August, unemployment benefits were extended over a longer span, which may have made people more inclined to wait before accepting a job offer.
The weak job market is hurting even those who still have jobs, in that workers have less leverage to negotiate raises. Average weekly pay for nonmanagerial workers rose 3.3 percent in the last year, which is likely to be less than inflation.
"What is worrisome is that more full-time workers have been laid off, more people are being forced to work part time who want to work full time and more people are trying to get multiple jobs to make ends meet," said Bruce Kasman, chief economist of J.P. Morgan Chase.
The cuts by employers were spread widely. Manufacturers cut 61,000 jobs, reflecting less demand for goods. Retailers, dealing with skittish consumers and some bankruptcies, slashed 20,000 jobs. Professional and business services firms cut 53,000 jobs, heavily concentrated in cuts in temporary help. Even the nation's hotels and restaurants, which had been strong, cut back, with the leisure and hospitality sector cutting 4,000 jobs.
One surprising statistic: The construction industry, which has steadily slashed jobs this year, cut only 8,000 positions in August. It has averaged a loss of 36,000 jobs a month over the past year. But last month's modest losses may indicate that the sector, which is at the epicenter of the downturn, simply doesn't have many more jobs to lose.
LOAD-DATE: September 6, 2008
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IMAGE; By Toby Talbot -- Associated Press; People apply for jobs at the Career Resource Center in Barre, Vt., yesterday. The nation's unemployment rate zoomed to a five-year high in August.
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The New York Times
September 5, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
The Resentment Strategy
BYLINE: By PAUL KRUGMAN
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 27
LENGTH: 816 words
Can the super-rich former governor of Massachusetts -- the son of a Fortune 500 C.E.O. who made a vast fortune in the leveraged-buyout business -- really keep a straight face while denouncing ''Eastern elites''?
Can the former mayor of New York City, a man who, as USA Today put it, ''marched in gay pride parades, dressed up in drag and lived temporarily with a gay couple and their Shih Tzu'' -- that was between his second and third marriages -- really get away with saying that Barack Obama doesn't think small towns are sufficiently ''cosmopolitan''?
Can the vice-presidential candidate of a party that has controlled the White House, Congress or both for 26 of the past 28 years, a party that, Borg-like, assimilated much of the D.C. lobbying industry into itself -- until Congress changed hands, high-paying lobbying jobs were reserved for loyal Republicans -- really portray herself as running against the ''Washington elite''?
Yes, they can.
On Tuesday, He Who Must Not Be Named -- Mitt Romney mentioned him just once, Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin not at all -- gave a video address to the Republican National Convention. John McCain, promised President Bush, would stand up to the ''angry left.'' That's no doubt true. But don't be fooled either by Mr. McCain's long-ago reputation as a maverick or by Ms. Palin's appealing persona: the Republican Party, now more than ever, is firmly in the hands of the angry right, which has always been much bigger, much more influential and much angrier than its counterpart on the other side.
What's the source of all that anger?
Some of it, of course, is driven by cultural and religious conflict: fundamentalist Christians are sincerely dismayed by Roe v. Wade and evolution in the curriculum. What struck me as I watched the convention speeches, however, is how much of the anger on the right is based not on the claim that Democrats have done bad things, but on the perception -- generally based on no evidence whatsoever -- that Democrats look down their noses at regular people.
Thus Mr. Giuliani asserted that Wasilla, Alaska, isn't ''flashy enough'' for Mr. Obama, who never said any such thing. And Ms. Palin asserted that Democrats ''look down'' on small-town mayors -- again, without any evidence.
What the G.O.P. is selling, in other words, is the pure politics of resentment; you're supposed to vote Republican to stick it to an elite that thinks it's better than you. Or to put it another way, the G.O.P. is still the party of Nixon.
One of the key insights in ''Nixonland,'' the new book by the historian Rick Perlstein, is that Nixon's political strategy throughout his career was inspired by his college experience, in which he got himself elected student body president by exploiting his classmates' resentment against the Franklins, the school's elite social club. There's a direct line from that student election to Spiro Agnew's attacks on the ''nattering nabobs of negativism'' as ''an effete corps of impudent snobs,'' and from there to the peculiar cult of personality that not long ago surrounded George W. Bush -- a cult that celebrated his anti-intellectualism and made much of the supposed fact that the ''misunderestimated'' C-average student had proved himself smarter than all the fancy-pants experts.
And when Mr. Bush turned out not to be that smart after all, and his presidency crashed and burned, the angry right -- the raging rajas of resentment? -- became, if anything, even angrier. Humiliation will do that.
Can Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin really ride Nixonian resentment into an upset election victory in what should be an overwhelmingly Democratic year? The answer is a definite maybe.
By selecting Barack Obama as their nominee, the Democrats may have given Republicans an opening: the very qualities that inspire many fervent Obama supporters -- the candidate's high-flown eloquence, his coolness factor -- have also laid him open to a Nixonian backlash. Unlike many observers, I wasn't surprised at the effectiveness of the McCain ''celebrity'' ad. It didn't make much sense intellectually, but it skillfully exploited the resentment some voters feel toward Mr. Obama's star quality.
That said, the experience of the years since 2000 -- the memory of what happened to working Americans when faux-populist Republicans controlled the government -- is still fairly fresh in voters' minds. Furthermore, while Democrats' supposed contempt for ordinary people is mainly a figment of Republican imagination, the G.O.P. really is the Gramm Old Party -- it really does believe that the economy is just fine, and the fact that most Americans disagree just shows that we're a nation of whiners.
But the Democrats can't afford to be complacent. Resentment, no matter how contrived, is a powerful force, and it's one that Republicans are very, very good at exploiting.
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USA TODAY
September 5, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
Sponsored-link ads play campaign role;
Google searches turn up paid ads for candidates
BYLINE: Byron Acohido
SECTION: MONEY; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 389 words
SEATTLE -- Those "sponsored-link" advertisements that appear near Internet search results and on many blogs are emerging as a factor in the race for the White House.
Google has seen "exponential growth" in sales of sponsored-link ads to the major presidential campaigns in 2008 vs. 2004, says Peter Greenberger, Google's head of elections and issues advocacy. And partisan groups are buying online ads to boost their candidates as never before.
"The Web has become the new battleground," says Kevin Lee, CEO of search advertising consultancy Didit.
Advertisers bid to post sponsored links next to the results for certain words typed at Google's main search page, or that crop up in blog posts. No one tracks this spending; online political ad campaigns can cost $100 to $1 million or more, depending on how many people the advertiser pays to reach, says Lee.
Terms associated with the election entered into Google's main search page are turning up sponsored links to material praising or criticizing Barack Obama and John McCain.
One such link, titled "Barack Obama Exposed," paid for by conservative magazine Human Events, opens a collection of essays lambasting Obama.
Another example: The women's rights group Emily's List bought search terms associated with Michelle Obama just prior to her speech at the Democratic National Convention. The link promoted a gala reception for Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- and videos critical of McCain.
Sponsored-link ads have enabled Emily's List to be "very strategic" about signing up new members and raising donations online, says Emily Lockwood, the group's Internet director.
At the request of USA TODAY, tech security firm Symantec reviewed political blogs put up via Google's free Blogger service. Symantec researcher Zulfikar Ramzan found sponsored links for anti-Obama reports, video documentaries, polls and books cropping up on pro-Obama blogs.
In a first-of-its-kind survey, Didit polled 1,438 respondents last week about political ads. About 3.3% said changing their vote, based on online information, was "somewhat likely," and 3.7% said it was "very likely." In many states, polls separate the candidates by a few percentage points, so online ads "may be the tipping point for the winning candidate," says Lee.
Contributing: Michael Bondi in San Francisco
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The Washington Post
September 5, 2008 Friday
Met 2 Edition
Red-Carpet Treatment;
'Access Hollywood's' Maria Menounos, Covering a Caucus of Politics and Celebrity
BYLINE: Libby Copeland; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A28
LENGTH: 1353 words
DATELINE: ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 4
There is no better view of the worlds of celebrity and politics converging than here, in an NBC box above the convention floor, where Maria Menounos is about to tape her daily report.
"I'm at the Republican National Convention, as all eyes focused on Sarah Palin -- her hair, her makeup, her campaign couture," Menounos says, looking down at her script, practicing out loud. " 'Access Hollywood' breaks down Sarah's style."
And why not? Everybody wants a piece of politics these days, including outlets traditionally associated with celebrity gossip. When OK! magazine offers a double-cover issue, with one side about Barack Obama ("Life With My Girls") and the other about Sarah Palin ("A Mother's Painful Choice"), and both those stories trump the first photos of Halle Berry's baby girl (!), you know something strange is happening. When Us Weekly's Web site poll about whether Palin would make a good vice president is right there with the poll about whether J. Lo should have more kids -- oh yeah, there is no going back.
It's best just to follow and see where Menounos is going. It's Wednesday and she looks red-carpet ready: Prada top, Chanel necklace. ("It's the little details," whispers her makeup guy, Bret, after he adjusts those strands for the camera.) Already Menounos has taped a segment about "a $60 white burp cloth" that 17-year-old celebrity mom Jamie Lynn Spears may or may not have sent to Palin's pregnant 17-year-old daughter. Menounos is the perfect vehicle for proving the convergence of political and celebrity reporting, because in addition to working for "Access," which lives on the red carpet, she also reports for two other NBC programs -- "Today" and "Nightly News." She does analysis of the Republican youth vote, and she does burp cloths.
Menounos, 30, has a sense of humor about the weird sphere she inhabits. At the Democratic convention, she says, looking up from her script, she did her live shots next to reporters who were doing traditional political coverage.
"They're talking about the foreclosure rates and I'm going, 'Michelle Obama's style -- was teal the right color?' " she says, grinning. She felt more than a little distracting. She kept apologizing to the other reporters.
* * *
It's everything: It's "Inside Edition" quoting Rudy Giuliani at the Republican convention, and it's "Entertainment Tonight's" Web site excerpting from Meghan McCain's blog. It's People magazine's Web site: "Barack Obama Reveals How He Popped the Question to Joe Biden." It's TMZ ambushing former senator Fred Thompson yesterday as if he were Hilary Duff and asking if it was a good thing that -- okay, follow this -- that Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter's boyfriend appeared onstage with the Palin family Wednesday night. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself," Thompson replied. (TMZ posted footage of his non-answer, along with non-answers from Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Florida Rep. Adam Putnam under the headline "Republicans to TMZ: We Can't Hear You!")
This political entertainment mash-up had long since started when, all those eons ago, John McCain's campaign ran an ad comparing Obama to Paris Hilton, in a move to inflate his image so much it might burst. And it grew when Hilton joined the conversation with her own ad, ostensibly talking about energy policy but really talking her way into more publicity.
It's everything: It's the entertainment outlets covering Bristol Palin like she's an up-and-coming reality TV star -- and there she is, five months pregnant, in a photo gallery called "Shocking Teen Pregnancies!" on Us Weekly's Web site, alongside Spears, of course, and the deceased onetime teen mom Anna Nicole Smith.
It's the broadening of the definition of "celebrity" to mean anyone in front of a camera, which means politicians and, yes, politicians' families. And it's all those Hollywood types flocking to Obama's campaign, luring the entertainment news outlets.
"Where Oprah goes, so must we," says Rob Silverstein, the executive producer of "Access Hollywood."
It's the very fact that this presidential race has featured so many 20-something candidate kids -- which was what led Menounos to do "Nightly News" interviews with, among others, Meghan McCain, Sarah Huckabee and Cate Edwards. And it's the fact that this campaign has been historic, featuring a woman and an African American vying for the Democratic nomination, and now a woman running as the Republicans' vice-presidential nominee, and -- well, entertainment news outlets would be fools not to grab a piece.
"They are following the very discernible fact this is an election of high interest," says Jonathan Wilcox, a former Republican speechwriter who now teaches communications at the University of Southern California. Celebrity news outlets are "the businesses that are most apt to understand what people want to read."
"The Obama family in our eyes is a rock-star family," Silverstein says. "There's just something sexy about it and it sells. His back story is amazing." Add in Michelle and the two cute kids, Silverstein says, and "especially if you're going after female readers or female viewers, it's right in your strike zone."
It was Menounos who nabbed the first interview with the entire Obama nuclear family, including the candidate's young girls. Menounos says she showed up expecting to interview the candidate and his wife, and maybe briefly get the girls on camera, but bonded with Sasha and Malia over dogs and the Jonas Brothers.
The candidate caught a lot of flak after that interview -- folks accused him of exploiting his children after insisting they be left alone by the media -- and he vowed he wouldn't again allow them to be interviewed. Which was quite all right with Menounos's boss. "That interview will go down in history," Silverstein says. He says he even got a call from a competitor -- Harvey Levin of TMZ. Levin congratulated him.
There are obvious reasons to go on "Access," as Hillary Clinton and Cindy McCain have, as well as on other shows of their ilk. Candidates and their families aren't going to get policy questions. They're more likely to be asked about the softer sides of their biographies.
"What the candidates are looking for when they allow themselves to be profiled on entertainment programs is they want to establish some intimacy with their audience," says Johanna Blakley, who studies the impact of entertainment on society at USC. And "they're looking to connect with an audience that may not seek out political programming."
But it isn't just celebrity outlets moving into political coverage; it's mainstream outlets chasing celebrity stories, too. We are awash in information about the "intricate details" of public figures' lives, as Menounos points out. Politics is "a pop culture phenomenon this year," she says. So if it seems natural now that people want to know whether, say, Heidi Klum does or doesn't pump her own gas, perhaps it's just as natural they should want to know whether Obama dresses kind of dorkily when he rides his bike. (For anyone who missed those photos, he does.)
Menounos is at the nexus of all this. During the Democratic convention, she interviewed John Legend and Ben Affleck about their Obama support. Here, she does stories on Palin, whose complicated family life and rock-star speechifying gives the McCain ticket sizzle.
Menounos herself is somewhere between covering-the-red-carpet and of-the-red-carpet. But why draw such distinctions? Everyone is a celebrity. She grew up as the child of working-class Greek immigrants in Medford, Mass., and from the age of 13, she says, she knew she wanted to live in Los Angeles and work in the news world somehow. She is a former pageant contestant, and she has acted, and has done Pantene commercials. On this day, she is tended to by Bret and her hair guy, Brad, who are dressed almost identically in white shirts, with short-cropped hair and German-looking glasses. Bret fusses over her like she's about to appear onstage to pick up an Oscar.
"Can I get a tighter shot?" Bret says, when he sees Menounos's face on-screen. The camera closes in on her face. "That looks gorgeous."
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; Photos By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post; Maria Menounos prepares for her "Access Hollywood" report from the Republican National Convention. On the celebrity news show's agenda: vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin's style.
IMAGE; Menounos with "Access Hollywood" producer Steve Harding.
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Late Edition - Final
On Center Stage, Palin Electrifies Convention
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DATELINE: ST. PAUL
Senator John McCain's Republican primary campaign looked all but hopeless. He had risked the wrath of his party to push for an immigration overhaul and now, just months before the Iowa caucuses, his grand compromise was falling apart on the Senate floor as well.
''Lindsey, my boy, this may bring us down,'' Mr. McCain said, turning to his friend Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. ''But wasn't it fun?''
By this spring, when Mr. McCain had astounded political handicappers by virtually locking up the nomination, the thrill of noble defeat had been replaced by an anxious discomfort about his own victory. ''I refuse to believe that this is possible,'' he said, curling up his face during an interview on his campaign plane. ''I tend to be fatalistic about these things.''
As he accepts the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday night in St. Paul, John Sidney McCain III, of Arizona, stands at the pinnacle of a career defined by a singular ambivalence about his own ambition, and success. Time and again, he lunges for the prize, then lashes himself for letting his pursuit get the better of him -- for doing favors for his patron Charles H. Keating Jr., for stooping to ugly attacks on George W. Bush during the 2000 primary, for outbursts of temper at lawmakers who get in his way.
It reflects what his brother, Joe McCain, calls a ''public dialectic'' between the senator's drive to succeed and his desire to serve a higher cause. For decades his outward display of that inner conflict has proved advantageous, helping advance his career by forging his image as the un-politician, the candidate with an almost reckless disregard for his own fortunes.
His critics assert that the McCain of 2008 is not the McCain of 2000, or even 2007. He has surrounded himself with former proteges of Karl Rove, whose tactics he once denounced, embraced positions he once repudiated and initiated a series of attacks on Senator Barack Obama's patriotism that some say resemble the rhetorical rough-housing he regretted eight years ago. ''Bring Back the Real McCain!'' the cover of The Economist magazine implored last week.
His loyalists, though, say such complaints hold Mr. McCain to the standard of a nostalgic mythology that grew up around his last campaign, overlooking the tough competitor that was there all along.
''He is same guy he has always been, wrestling with all the things he does trying to be the guy he believes he has to be,'' said Mark Salter, Mr. McCain's closest aide. ''But we are not just going to say, 'O.K., we'll just lose -- we will lose graciously -- maybe everybody will remember him fondly.' ''
It is his combination of lofty aspirations and hard jabs that has made him a political force.
''You can't be above it all and accomplish all that he has accomplished,'' said Bob Kerrey, a Democratic former Senate colleague of Mr. McCain and fellow Vietnam War veteran. ''It's a little like saying that Muhammad Ali was above boxing while he was doing the rope-a-dope. It's a tactic. It's not devious or anything. It is what it is.''
The Crowded Hour
Mr. McCain has always had contradictory impulses: he enjoys both boxing and bird watching, cites as favorite movies both ''Viva Zapata!'' and ''A Fish Called Wanda,'' and quotes his idols Henry Kissinger and Henny Youngman.
He wins admirers by boasting of the unpopularity of his views -- on campaign finance reform, on the Iraq war, on immigration. An avid gambler, he is drawn to big bets and long odds -- whether picking 1-against-99 fights with his fellow senators over their official perquisites, or defying convention by picking as his running mate a little-known Alaskan with a reputation as an irritant-reformer. He is the most disruptive figure in the Republican Party, and, as of Thursday night, its standard-bearer.
Until recently, Mr. McCain was one of the few United States senators who drove himself around Washington -- tailgating, dashboard-pounding and cellphone-taking. ''My philosophy is just to go like hell,'' Mr. McCain once explained. ''Full-bore.''
He often invokes ''the crowded hour,'' a term from his political hero, Theodore Roosevelt, referring to the assault on San Juan Hill. In the Roosevelt and McCain lexicon, the phrase equates to a moment of reckoning, when worthy men prove themselves.
Aboard his campaign plane in February, Mr. McCain caught his breath after the four months that transformed him from a principled loser to his party's contender for the highest office in the land. ''This has been a very crowded hour for me,'' he said.
The Self Critic
Few politicians have apologized as profusely or as fortuitously as Mr. McCain. He may be the only candidate-author whose editor cut back on the self-criticism in the first draft of his campaign memoirs. ''He was quite happy to lacerate himself,'' recalled the editor, Jonathan Karp.
Joe McCain attributes his brother's habit of public penitence to the example of their father, Adm. John S. McCain Jr. ''He would whack us on the rear end with these leather slippers that he had,'' Joe McCain recalled. ''Then he would come back out rubbing his hands together, and I could tell he felt so bad that I almost felt sorry for the guy.''
Their father expected them to live up to a military code of honor and atone for any lapses, teaching them that it was the only way to retain the respect of those around them.
''I think one of John's deepest needs is to be believed and trusted,'' Joe McCain said. After submitting to a forced ''confession'' statement as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, John McCain has said, he found relief from his shame by provoking his guards to beat him.
John McCain's aspirations were always grand. As a boy, he dreamed of an admiralty like his father's. As the Navy's liaison to the Senate, he set his sights on becoming a member. In Vietnam he had mused aloud to cellmates about becoming president, and as soon as he won his first Senate race in 1986 he ''felt an emotional need to envision some future goal,'' as he recalled in his 2002 memoir, ''Worth the Fighting For.''
But he exasperated himself with his own self-defeating behavior -- letting his barfly antics as a young pilot undercut his credibility as a Navy officer, or later jeopardizing his friendship with his patrons, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, by leaving his first wife for a glamorous beer heiress 20 years younger, Cindy McCain. ''He has always felt very guilty about it,'' his Navy colleague James McGovern recalled in an interview eight years ago. ''I have never talked with him for more than 40 minutes when he didn't bring it up.''
For most of his political career, Mr. McCain was a straight-ahead partisan. He voted along party lines, crushed his opponents by outspending them, and sought to run the Senate Republican Campaign Committee. His preferred public image -- the straight-talking maverick -- did not emerge until well after 1989, when he became one of five senators caught up in a scandal over meetings with savings and loan regulators on behalf of Mr. Keating, a wealthy donor. In a marathon news conference and nonstop media interviews, Mr. McCain became the foremost critic of his own poor judgment (any other accusations he called defamation).
''The national media was saying, 'John McCain is the only one who is talking about this, and sometimes it seems like he won't shut up,' '' recalled Jay Smith, a political consultant who advised Mr. McCain at the time. As the senator kept talking, ''the scandal seemed to improve markedly for him.'' Seeing that his openness was effective, Mr. McCain later wrote, he adopted it as a permanent ''public relations strategy.''
Repentance became a theme of his career. He wove his regret over decades of smoking Marlboros into his drive for a tobacco tax overhaul. Then he said he felt ashamed of his own party for neglecting children's health by blocking the bill. He even organized his best-selling 1999 memoir, ''Faith of My Fathers,'' as a confession. Written with Mr. Salter, his longtime aide, as a springboard to the 2000 presidential race, it catalogs his decades of misbehavior leading to the realization in a Vietnamese prison of the deeper satisfaction of ''a cause greater than myself.'' Soon he was turning the Keating episode into a similar parable of short-sighted self-interest.
In the 2000 Republican primary, Mr. McCain sometimes seemed to be battling his own impulses as much as he was his rival, Mr. Bush. He opened the year with a speech in New Hampshire denouncing contemporary politics as ''little more than a spectacle of selfish ambition'' and pledging to take the high ground. At the same event, however, his campaign passed out a news release falsely asserting that Mr. Bush's ''political'' tax plan would ''put Social Security in danger.'' Mr. McCain was apologizing by the end of the day.
Operatives on both sides say Mr. McCain gave as well as he got for most of the race. ''It was McCain on the stump fighting the 'Death Star,' '' -- his epithet for the Bush juggernaut, Mr. Salter recalled.
But when his opponents unleashed anonymous phone calls and fliers spreading rumors about his family before the South Carolina primary, Mr. McCain fired back with a commercial accusing Mr. Bush of lying like President Bill Clinton. Its tone backfired, hurting Mr. McCain more than his target. Advisers pushed for a better attack but acknowledged they could not win the state. Instead Mr. McCain insisted on publicly apologizing and pulling the commercials. ''So we died on higher ground,'' said John Weaver, a former aide.
A few months later, Mr. McCain was back in the state apologizing for holding his tongue about his disdain for the Confederate flag to try to win the race.
''I will be criticized by all sides for my late act of contrition,'' Mr. McCain declared. ''I accept it, all of it. I deserve it.''
His loss in South Carolina made him a martyr: the politician too good for politics. ''He came out of that primary the most popular politician in the country,'' Mr. Weaver recalled.
''Is he crazy like a fox?'' Mr. Weaver added. ''Listen, he is a very good intuitive politician, and he is a lot smarter politically than those of us around him or he wouldn't be where he is at.''
Former opponents marvel at Mr. McCain's political alchemy. ''He takes a past failing, hangs it around his neck, and wears it like a medal,'' said Kevin Madden, who worked for Mitt Romney in the primary.
The Candidate
There is a part of John McCain that revels in his failures. ''Sitting around, feeling sorry for myself'' after losing in 2000 was ''wonderful'' he sometimes says. ''Delicious,'' he recalls, with sarcasm but also a certain relish.
His 2007 stint as the Republican front-runner did not go well. ''I'm much better in this environment,'' he said in South Carolina after his campaign was nearly broke, he had spiraled in the polls and shed much of his staff.
And winning can be imprisoning, Mr. McCain has found. For much of the summer, he had seemed merely dutiful on the trail, going through the motions. His aides have since imposed a new discipline, shielding him from the news media, scripting a daily message and reining in his tendency to improvise.
''At heart, he's a maverick, and the maverick doesn't like the corral,'' said Mark McKinnon, a close aide to President Bush and Mr. McCain who is not involved in the campaign. ''But the corral is where he is. And it's working.''
Mr. McCain's advisers say he hoped to pick up his 2008 campaign where his 2000 race left off -- bucking convention, running against politics. He started his run against the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama, with an apology. Standing on the balcony of the Memphis hotel where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, he told a mostly black crowd that he had made a mistake years ago in opposing a federal holiday for King.
He toured the heavily black areas of the South, an unlikely trip for a Republican running against an African-American. And for awhile, he skipped over the attack lines against Mr. Obama that advisers had inserted into his speeches. When Mr. Obama declined his invitation to a series of town-hall-style meetings, Mr. McCain went solo, drawing scant attention from the news media.
''None of it got through -- nothing,'' Mr. Salter said of Mr. McCain's message.
By midsummer, Mr. McCain had put the campaign in the hands of Steve Schmidt, a former aide to President Bush (and a fan of Ultimate Fighting). The campaign began a barrage of advertisements that ridiculed Mr. Obama as a celebrity, accused him of indifference to wounded American soldiers, and asserted that he put politics ahead of victory in Iraq.
He stepped up his behind-the-scenes courtship of influential conservative leaders with whom he had clashed in the past. And he abandoned past calls for the party to moderate its opposition to abortion in order to let activists draft what many called the most conservative platform in the party's history.
If Mr. McCain has any ambivalence about the conduct of his campaign, he no longer displays it in public. Friends say he wants to become president and is learning how to get there.
''John has always seen politics as an adventure,'' his friend Mr. Graham said. ''I'm trying to get him to think of it as a business.''
The choice of Sarah Palin exemplified both. Her resolute opposition to abortion fired up conservative activists to get out the vote for Mr. McCain's election. But Mr. McCain's advisers say he sees her the way he sees himself--as an upstart outsider who shook up her state's corrupt Republican establishment. ''The 'old McCain' is still there -- look at the Palin pick,'' Mr. Salter said.
The surprise was also a glimpse of how Mr. McCain might govern. Mr. McCain promises in every speech that as president he would put country first, but his notions of honor and disregard for his popularity can make him an unpredictable patriot. He is a conservative committed to limited government, except when he sees a greater cause like global warming, campaign corruption or children's health. He boasts that he stood by the Iraq war long after the public turned against it, but also says he would never risk American troops abroad without deep public support.
His associates say Mr. McCain has come to see the presidential race in starkly moral terms, convinced that Mr. Obama's election would weaken America at a decisive moment for the security of the world. But Mr. McCain is also the first to confess that not all his drives are so selfless.
''I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism,'' he wrote in 2002. ''In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president.'' He added, ''I had had the ambition for a long time.''
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Gov. Sarah Palin accepting the vice-presidential nomination Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention.(PHOTOGRAPH BY TODD HEISLER/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
FEB. 4, 2008 The day before the biggest primary contest of the season, Senator John McCain campaigned in Boston on the turf of a rival, Mitt Romney.(PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN CROWLEY/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
JULY 14, 1961 Lieutenant McCain, with his parents, Roberta Wright McCain and Rear Admiral McCain, below a portrait of the first Admiral McCain.(PHOTOGRAPH BY ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FEB. 15, 2000 Mr. McCain in a debate in South Carolina with two of his Republican rivals, Alan Keyes and George W. Bush, moderated by Larry King.(PHOTOGRAPH BY POOL PHOTO BY ERIC DRAPER)
JAN. 4, 1991 Mr. McCain testifying before the Senate Ethics Committee on the savings and loan scandal.(PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREA MOHIN) (pg. A25)
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September 4, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
On Center Stage, Palin Electrifies Convention
BYLINE: By ELISABETH BUMILLER and MICHAEL COOPER
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1434 words
ST. PAUL -- Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska introduced herself to America before a roaring crowd at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night as ''just your average hockey mom'' who was as qualified as the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama, to be president of the United States.
An hour later Senator John McCain, a scrappy, rebellious former prisoner of war in Vietnam whose campaign was resurrected from near-death a year ago, was nominated by the Republican Party to be the 44th president of the United States after asking the cheering delegates, ''Do you think we made the right choice'' in picking Ms. Palin as the vice-presidential nominee?
The roll-call vote made Mr. McCain, 72, the first Republican presidential candidate to share the ticket with a woman and only the second presidential candidate from a major party to do so, after Walter F. Mondale selected Geraldine A. Ferraro as his running mate for the Democratic ticket in 1984.
But the nomination was a sideshow to the evening's main event, the speech by the little-known Ms. Palin, who was seeking to wrest back the narrative of her life and redefine herself to the American public after a rocky start that has put Mr. McCain's closest aides on edge. Ms. Palin's appearance electrified a convention that has been consumed by questions of whether she was up to the job, as she launched slashing attacks on Mr. Obama's claims of experience.
''Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown,'' Ms. Palin told the delegates in a speech that sought to eviscerate Mr. Obama, as delegates waved signs that said ''I love hockey moms.'' ''And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities.''
As the crowd cheered its approval, Ms. Palin went on: ''I might add that in small towns we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.''
Ms. Palin was referring to Mr. Obama's experience as a community organizer in Chicago before he served in the Illinois legislature and was elected to the United States Senate in 2004 as well as comments he made at a fundraiser in California about bitter rural voters who ''cling'' to guns and religion.
The address by Ms. Palin, 44, who stunned the political world last week as Mr. McCain's pick for a running mate, took place before a convention transformed from an orderly coronation into a messy, days-long drama since the McCain campaign's disclosure on Monday that Ms. Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was pregnant. Since then there have been a host of other distractions, including Hurricane Gustav, questions about how thoroughly Mr. McCain vetted what people close to his campaign have called the last-minute pick of Ms. Palin, and charges from Mr. McCain's top aides that the news media have launched a sexist smear campaign against his running mate.
''I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment,'' Ms. Palin said in her remarks, which took aim at the news media as the crowd began lustily booing the press. ''And I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion; I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country.''
Ms. Palin spent the first part of her speech introducing her family one by one to the crowd, including her husband, Todd. ''We met in high school, and two decades and five children later he's still my guy,'' Ms. Palin said.
Ms. Palin also displayed humor in one of her biggest lines of the night when she said that ''the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull'' was ''lipstick.''
Ms. Palin's speech was the big draw of a convention night notable for not a single mention from the stage of the unpopular president, George W. Bush, who addressed the delegates Tuesday via satellite from the White House after the hurricane forced him to cancel his appearance.
Ms. Palin's speech came after Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York launched a withering attack on Mr. Obama as part of a relentless assault by Republicans arguing that Ms. Palin, the former mayor of a town of less than 7,000 people who has been governor of Alaska for 20 months, had a more impressive resume than Mr. Obama.
''She already has more executive experience than the entire Democratic ticket,'' said Mr. Giuliani, one of three former rivals of Mr. McCain for the nomination, including former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, who took on Mr. Obama in speeches Wednesday evening.
''Barack Obama has never led anything, nothing, nada,'' Mr. Giuliani said, then launched an attack on people who have questioned whether Ms. Palin will have enough energy to focus on the vice presidency as the mother of five. ''How dare they question whether Sarah Palin has enough time to spend with her children and be vice president,'' Mr. Giuliani said. ''How dare they do that? When do they ever ask a man that question?''
The criticism of Mr. Obama reinforced new television commercials by the McCain campaign that similarly belittled the Democratic nominee's experience. The campaign and its surrogates also took on what they called biased and sexist coverage of Ms. Palin.
In her address, Ms. Palin criticized Mr. Obama on foreign policy and national security issues as she tried to display comfort on those areas. She also embraced one of Mr. McCain's favorite mantras this summer, ''drill now,'' a call for more offshore oil exploration as a solution to record-high gasoline prices.
''Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems, as if we all didn't know that already,'' Ms. Palin said. ''But the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all. Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines, build more nuclear plants, create jobs with clean coal and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal and other alternative sources.''
The speech was the first public emergence for Ms. Palin since arriving here Sunday, two days after Mr. McCain named her as his running mate. Ms. Palin has spent her time in a hotel suite with her husband, Todd, and their five children preparing for her speech and the questions on foreign policy, national security and family matters that she will face from the news media when the McCain campaign makes her available to reporters. Their son Track, 19, deploys overseas for the Army next month.
Democrats, who have held much of their fire this week as the Republican melodrama has played out in Minnesota, criticized the convention as failing so far to address the concerns of ordinary Americans.
''You did not hear a single word about the economy,'' Mr. Obama told an audience on in New Philadelphia, Ohio, before Ms. Palin's speech. ''Not once did they mention the hardships that people are going through.''
Mr. McCain landed in Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon and was greeted on the tarmac by Ms. Palin, her family and his family in a striking multigenerational tableau, 16 strong, with the youngest member Trig Palin, Sarah Palin's 4-month-old, who has Down syndrome. Later, in Mr. McCain's appearance at the convention, he praised the Palins as ''a beautiful family.''
Delegates said they were enthralled by Ms. Palin. ''I think she's great; she's giving it back to the Democrats for all the sorry things they've said about her and about America,'' said Anita Bargas, a delegate from Angleton, Tex. ''She's a conservative, and she has a great sense of humor.''
With Ms. Palin facing a torrent of inquiries from reporters, Mr. McCain joined other Republicans in assailing news outlets when he told ABC News in an interview on Wednesday that ''Sarah Palin has 24,000 employees in the state government'' and was ''responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply.'' He added that he was entertained by the comparison of her experience to that of Mr. Obama and that ''I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America.''
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GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Gov. Sarah Palin accepting the vice-presidential nomination Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention.(PHOTOGRAPH BY TODD HEISLER/THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg. A1)
Senator John McCain joined the Palins on stage. From left, they were Track Palin, Bristol Palin, Levi Johnston, Willow Palin, Todd Palin and his son Trig, Mr. McCain, Piper Palin and Sarah Palin.
Rudolph W. Giuliani addressed the Republican convention Wednesday night and praised the selection of Sarah Palin.(PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg. A23)
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USA TODAY
September 4, 2008 Thursday
FINAL EDITION
Convention guide;
On tap for Day 4
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 6A
LENGTH: 341 words
The Republican National Convention schedule for tonight.
The theme of tonight's session of the Republican National Convention is "Peace: A Safer and More Secure America." Among scheduled speakers:
*Cindy McCain
*Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty
*Sen. John McCain
On TV (all times Eastern)
*ABC, CBS, NBC: 10-11 p.m.
*PBS: 8-11 p.m.
*C-SPAN: 10 a.m.-midnight
*Fox News: 9:45-11:15 p.m.
*MSNBC: 7 p.m.-2 a.m.
Regular programming airing from the convention.
*CNN: 6 p.m.-midnight (Larry King Live, midnight-1 a.m.)
Convention newsmakers
Each day during the convention, USA TODAY hosts discussions with newsmakers. Taking part: reporters and editors from USA TODAY, USATODAY.com and Gannett News Service. Wednesday's guest, former House majority leader Dick Armey, says Barack Obama won't attract the "Bubba vote." See story, 8A
For complete coverage, including video clips, go to politics.usatoday.com
Convention coverage
*John McCain's keys to victory, Cover story
*Sarah Palin takes center stage, 1A
*Rudy Giuliani addresses the Republican convention in prime time, 2A
*Analyzing the themes of Wednesday's session, story at right
*Democrats stick to their talking points in St. Paul, 9A
*The eyes of the world are on Sarah Palin -- and her glasses, 1B
*Get Marco R. della Cava's take on the lighter side of the convention in his blog, The Political Party, excerpted in Life on page 3D and in full at politics.usatoday.com
At politics.usatoday.com
Visit us online for all the latest news of the convention, including:
*USA TODAY On Politics Blog. Read about the day's breaking news, big events and speeches.
*Photo galleries. See the day in pictures.
Four interactives
USA TODAY has four political interactives you can find online at politics.usatoday.com:
*Presidential poll tracker. See head-to-head polling numbers for all 50 states.
*Electoral vote tracker. Build your own general election scenario for 2008.
*Campaign ad tracker. Watch campaign ads and assessments of their accuracy and effectiveness.
*Candidate match game. Find out which candidate most reflects your political views.
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The Washington Post
September 4, 2008 Thursday
Regional Edition
In the Words of My Speechwriter . . .
BYLINE: David McGrath
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A15
LENGTH: 832 words
The year was 1972, and an ad in Chicago Today ("Wanted: Writers. Flexible hours.") led me to an upper floor of a building on LaSalle Street. I was 21, desperate for a job and wearing the Montgomery Ward suit I'd gotten for graduation. Before long, I was shaking hands with the president of Termpapers Inc., who hired me without bothering to look at the portfolio I brought along.
That day, I accepted orders for a 15-page paper on Bantu education in Africa and a 10-pager on the Attica prison riot. I earned $2 per page for the prison paper and $3 per page for the Bantu report, since it was for a graduate course.
Six weeks and approximately 50 term papers later, I showed up at LaSalle Street to collect another assignment, only to find a notice taped to the door: "Closed by order of the U.S. Marshal."
Government lawyers had gotten a cease-and-desist order on the basis of fraud, forgery, plagiarism and subversion of the educational system. Harvard University vowed to follow up with lawsuits against term-paper mills for breaking "an implicit educational contract" between colleges and students.
Standing before that sealed door, I was in mild shock. Yes, the work had felt nefarious at first, but I had been assured by the company president that it was all aboveboard. We writers were agreeing to let someone else use our words for fair compensation. "Just like political speechwriters," was his rationale.
Today, selling term papers to students to use as their own is still illegal, but selling speeches to politicians to use as their own remains a legitimate enterprise.
How can that be?
Consider how we react to college students who buy term papers, to author Alex Haley plagiarizing in "Roots" or to Sen. Joe Biden cribbing a few lines from a British politician in 1987. All are judged to be acting improperly because they used others' words without attribution. Yet those using the words of unacknowledged speechwriters get a free pass.
What's the difference?
The fact that the writers give permission to the speakers to pretend it's their own work does not make it okay. That's exactly what happens with term-paper mills. Just ask Jacksonville State University President William Meehan, who in 2007 was publicly embarrassed and officially denounced after it was discovered that his weekly column in a local paper had routinely been ghostwritten by the college's publicist.
Nor can second-party speechwriting be justified because it isn't journalism or scholastic scholarship. Some speechwriters have likened their profession to screenwriting, penning dialogue to be spoken by others. But in the entertainment world, the audience buys seats to witness a fiction. They know the actors don't write their own material, and authors are acknowledged in screen credits or theater programs.
When was the last time you saw or heard a writer credited at the end of a speech by John McCain or Barack Obama?
Nor can the difference be that political audiences are already aware that politicians employ speechwriters. Granted, it can be easy to determine when President Bush is reciting from someone else's script and when he is ad libbing in his own fractured English. But how can we know whether a line, or an entire speech, comes from the brains of McCain or Obama, or from hired staffers?
All those years ago, Harvard's lawyer referred to the implicit understanding between teachers and students. Isn't it even more important that there be a contract of honesty between candidates for high office and voters?
When Richard Nixon used to recite the essays of his speechwriter William Safire, you ended up knowing quite a bit about Safire and little or nothing about Nixon. Think how much more we might have known, and how history might even have been different, had Nixon spoken his mind from the start.
Can voters this year be sure they learned something about the real Sarah Palin from her GOP vice presidential nomination acceptance speech last night, considering news that it was originally written by speechwriter Matthew Scully over a week ago for an unknown male nominee? The commissioned draft was subsequently customized by Palin and a team of McCain staffers in the 48 hours leading up to its presentation.
Psychologists, composition teachers, college admissions officers and personnel directors all know that when it comes to extracting truth and character, there is no more reliable indicator than a person's original, written words. Why, then, as we watch two finalists compete for the most important job in the world, do we tolerate their lip-syncing of someone else's creation?
If contemporary political candidates cannot find time to write all their speeches, the way Teddy Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln did, they should at least craft the major ones. And when they must use speechwriters, they should credit the writer at the conclusion so the public knows the true source of the work.
David McGrath teaches English at the University of South Alabama. His e-mail address is dmcgrath@usouthal.edu
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September 4, 2008 Thursday
Met 2 Edition
A Multitude of 'My Friends';
For John McCain, a Tried-and-True Rhetorical Tic
BYLINE: Libby Copeland; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A21
LENGTH: 1279 words
John McCain is a man with many friends, and many more on the way.
"My friends," he says frequently in public appearances, to emphasize a point or buy time or forge a connection with his audience. Sometimes he says it to signal bad news he regrets having to share: "My friends, our borders are broken."
Other times, he uses it to make a vow. "If I'm president of the United States, my friends, if I have to follow him to the gates of hell, I will get Osama bin Laden," he announced last month at the Saddleback Church forum.
McCain's journey through the primaries was one big friend-fest, with town halls in which he'd use those two words upwards of 20 times.
"Any impersonation of John McCain these days begins with 'my friends,' " says Cary Pfeffer, a communications consultant in Phoenix who covered McCain as a TV reporter in the late '80s and early '90s. "Friends know that I covered him . . . so every once in a while I'll pick up a message and it'll be someone saying, 'my friends.' "
McCain's longtime aide Mark Salter says he's become so familiar with the senator's precise speech patterns that when he writes McCain's addresses, "I just kind of naturally know where the 'my friends' will go and I'll write 'em in." (And if he doesn't write them in, Salter says, McCain says them anyway, and those two words show up exactly "where I thought they'd be.")
Now that all of John McCain's friends have come together in St. Paul to watch his acceptance tonight of the Republican nomination, it seems useful to call up an old friend -- a real one, as opposed to a rhetorical one -- and ask what he thinks of McCain's favorite phrase.
"I definitely take absolutely no credit for 'my friends,' " says Grant Woods. In fact, "I want to separate myself from anything to do with 'my friends.' " Woods, who worked as chief of staff and adviser to McCain during the 1980s and is now a supporter of the campaign, is like the many McCain observers who occasionally experience my-friends overload. As he puts it, "I think it's a good phrase -- used minimally."
"My friends" is a window into McCain's rhetorical style, which -- as has been written ad nauseam -- is better suited to intimate events than the massive rallies that the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, prefers. McCain prefers conversations to speeches. When he says "my friends," he is trying to "form a personal connection with the people in the audience," says Dan Schnur, who served as the senator's communications director during his 2000 presidential run.
At least, some of the time he is.
"It's like 'aloha' in Hawaiian or 'shalom' in Hebrew -- 'my friends' can mean a lot of different things under different circumstances," Schnur says. "When he uses it one-on-one in conversation or to refer to a specific person, it takes on a much different meaning. Because in one-on-one interactions, the last thing you want from John McCain is a compliment. When John McCain likes you, he insults you."
The use of "my friends" is not uncommon in political discourse, especially for members of Congress, who spend their days paying homage to colleagues with such phrases as "my esteemed friend from Wisconsin." "My friends" is not partisan. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are fond of its sweeping statesmanishness. Sen. Joe Lieberman, the former Democrat from Connecticut who became an Independent and has campaigned extensively with McCain, is a major proponent of those two words, which might explain why he and the Arizona senator share such a bond. (Lieberman's Tuesday night convention speech tally: "friends," "my friends" or the even chummier "dear friends": 11.)
"You know what drives me crazy about McCain?" Bill O'Reilly asked on the air in August. "When he says 'my friends.' . . . If somebody says that to you, 'my friend,' it sounds condescending. You don't know me. You know?"
"If somebody turned the 'my friends' thing into a drinking game," replied his guest, Dennis Miller, "it would have killed Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton."
In fact, somebody has turned the phrase into a drinking game, although The Washington Post does not recommend playing it. The Post does not endorse anything that might cause alcohol poisoning. The day after O'Reilly's remarks, McCain achieved what may have been a personal best at a town hall gathering in Lima, Ohio, using the phrase or some variation exactly 30 times.
"My friends, just like on the energy bill, I've argued for reform and change in Washington for years," he told the crowd. "And it hasn't made me friends. It hasn't made me friends in Washington. My friends, I was not elected Miss Congeniality again this year."
For the way it conveys the air of a learned elder, McCain's favorite phrase can remind his listeners of those dads on '60s sitcoms, the ones who called their sons "son." (Incidentally, McCain's own father, Jack, a four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy, was fond of using "my friend" to punctuate a point, according to a Washington Post profile.)
People who study the words that politicians use are split on whether it works for McCain or comes off as creaky.
"It comes out from him in a way that -- at least to me -- comes across as sincere," says John Geer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University, who suggests the phrase reinforces McCain's accessibility. "You could see going up to shake his hand, maybe give him a brief hug."
"It reads as an age marker, because I don't think anybody under the age of 50 has ever used the term," says Roderick Hart, the dean of the college of communication at the University of Texas at Austin.
In some cases, says J. Brian Smith, a consultant on many of McCain's congressional races, "my friends" functions as a mere rhetorical tic, giving McCain a moment to gather his thoughts. You know, the way Ronald Reagan used to say "Well . . . ."
Obama, who frequently uses the professorial finger-on-temple stance when listening, has his own rhetorical tics when talking, including "uh," which appears to serve as a stalling tactic. He also does a little rhetorical dance, Hart says.
"I'm still trying to get used to Obama's speech patterns," he says. "I find them for the most part really quite formal or really informal. There's no middle ground."
McCain, on the other hand, uses "my friends" in loads of settings; it's only the meaning that changes.
"Sometimes he says it and he means it, and sometimes he means quite the opposite," says Pfeffer, the former TV reporter. When it's the latter, "it can come with him almost gritting teeth when he's saying it."
"It's important to draw a distinction between 'my friends' and 'my dear friends' and 'my dear, dear friends,' " suggests Schnur. "I remember, at one point in 2000, him referring to a newspaper reporter who had just done a very critical story as 'my dear, dear friend,' " he says. "The only other time I heard him use that was with Mitt Romney."
One thing that can be said about "my friends": for a candidate who prides himself on authenticity, the phrase seems truly to belong to John McCain. It does not read as something pretested, as the programmed stuff of presidential oratory.
"He's actually very hip in many ways," says his old friend Woods. (For instance, Woods says, McCain just adored "Borat.") "He has his old-school ways, and some of his phrases are old school. And that's okay, that's him."
Back in the '80s, Woods says, he tried to talk McCain out of his habit of using "pal" when he ran into someone whose name he couldn't remember.
Woods recalls: "I said, 'Look, this pal . . . it's like Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly and "Anchors Aweigh." No one says "pal." ' And his response, basically, was, 'Thanks for the input, pal.' "
LOAD-DATE: September 4, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Skip Peterson -- Associated Press; McCain, pictured in Ohio last month, uses "my friends" to "form a personal connection with the people in the audience," says Dan Schnur, the senator's former communications director.
IMAGE; By Mary Altaffer -- Associated Press; John McCain after a town hall meeting last month in Lima, Ohio, when he used "my friends" 30 times during his talk.
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The Washington Post
September 4, 2008 Thursday
Met 2 Edition
Palin Comes Out Fighting;
GOP Nominates McCain After Running Mate Attacks Obama on Experience
BYLINE: Michael D. Shear; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1488 words
DATELINE: ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 3
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin electrified the Republican convention Wednesday night, pitching herself as a champion of government reform, mocking Democratic candidate Barack Obama as an elitist and belittling media criticism of her experience.
In a speech that served as her introduction to most of the nation after Sen. John McCain's surprise decision to pick her as his vice presidential running mate, Palin pitched herself as the product of small-town America and laced her address with sarcastic digs at Sen. Obama. She said it is his experience, not hers, that is lacking, and she embraced the role of leading the attack against the Democratic ticket.
"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities," she deadpanned. "I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening."
Palin, who would be the first woman elected to the vice presidency, said she will ignore the "Washington elite" who do not consider her qualified for the post, and she served notice that she will not wilt in the face of critical coverage that followed McCain's announcement.
"Here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators," she told the convention delegates, who wagged their fingers toward the arena's media boxes as she delivered the punch line. "I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion -- I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country."
The 44-year-old wife and mother of five was greeted with thunderous applause after a fiery and rousing introduction by former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who called her a woman "who has no fear" and added: "This is a woman who stands up for what's right."
Palin focused on almost every tactical misstep Obama's campaign has made, painting a caricature of the Democrat as an out-of-touch elitist and a lightweight celebrity with no sense of what matters to average Americans.
"We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco," she said. Mocking the speech in which Obama accepted the Democratic nomination before a crowd of more than 84,000 at a Denver football stadium, she asked: "When the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot, what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?"
She leaned heavily on her own biography, introducing her husband, Todd, as a commercial fisherman, a union member, a world-champion snowmobile racer and an Eskimo. She described herself as a mom-turned-politician with the "same challenges and the same joys" as other families.
She also offered at least one apparent ad-lib: "The difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?" she asked. "Lipstick."
Palin pledged that she would join McCain in a crusade for change, promising to "govern with integrity, goodwill, clear convictions, and . . . a servant's heart." And she praised McCain's character, making it clear that Obama has not served his country the way McCain has.
"It's a long way from the fear and pain and squalor of a 6-by-4 cell in Hanoi to the Oval Office," she said of McCain's time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "But if Senator McCain is elected president, that is the journey he will have made."
McCain appeared onstage briefly after her speech, declaring her the "next vice president of the United States" before a screaming crowd. He is scheduled to appear Thursday evening to accept the party's presidential nomination, a victory that has taken almost a decade. Delegates awarded him the nomination in a roll call of states after Palin's speech.
For all of Palin's charm, however, it was three men who had tried to deny McCain that nomination who first delivered the searing attacks on liberalism, the media and Obama that the conservative crowd desperately craved.
Giuliani brought delegates to their feet repeatedly, turning out an energetic, biting assault on Obama's candidacy, mocking the Democrat as an inexperienced, overly ambitious, flip-flopping politician.
The former mayor could barely get through his speech as he described Obama's experience, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Obama worked as a community organizer, he told the crowd, before heading for the Illinois legislature.
"Where nearly 130 times he couldn't make a decision. He couldn't figure out whether to vote yes or no. It was too tough. He voted present," Giuliani intoned with mock surprise. "I didn't know about this vote -- present -- when I was mayor of New York City. For president of the United States, it's not good enough to be present. You have to make a decision."
Mocking Obama's change of position on Jerusalem, Giuliani said: "I hope for his sake, Joe Biden got that VP thing in writing."
Referring to Democratic questions about Palin's qualifications, Giuliani added: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that Barack Obama feels that her home town isn't cosmopolitan enough. I'm sorry, Barack, that it's not flashy enough. Maybe they cling to religion there."
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney -- McCain's chief nemesis throughout the GOP primary campaign -- repeatedly tapped into delegates' palpable anger about what many consider to be unfair coverage of their vice presidential nominee.
"For decades, the Washington sun has been rising in the East," home to "the Eastern elites, to the editorial pages of the Times and The Post," he said. "If America really wants change, it's time to look for the sun in the West, 'cause it's about to rise and shine from Arizona and Alaska."
The crowd erupted in applause, as it did again when Romney vowed to "stop the spread of government dependency to fight it like the poison it is. It's time for the party of big ideas, not the party of Big Brother."
Romney was followed by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who employed his trademark wit to deride Obama's foreign policy judgment and reject Democratic attacks on the GOP as the party of the wealthy.
"I really tire of hearing how the Democrats care about the working guy as if all Republicans grew up with silk stockings and silver spoons," he said, bringing delegates to their feet. "In my little home town of Hope, Arkansas, the three sacred heroes were Jesus, Elvis and FDR, not necessarily in that order."
Using some of the toughest language of the night, Huckabee predicted that Obama would "continue to give madmen the benefit of the doubt. If he's wrong just once, we will pay a heavy price."
McCain "will follow the fanatics to their caves in Pakistan or to the gates of hell," he said. "What Obama wants to do is give them a place setting at the table."
Anticipating the importance of Palin's debut before a national audience, McCain speechwriter Matthew Scully spent days working on the speech, and she rehearsed it repeatedly as McCain aides offered coaching. Before she delivered it, they began an all-out effort to defend her and take the offensive against her critics, mobilizing surrogates to tell her story and accusing journalists of creating a "faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee."
Earlier, Palin greeted McCain as he arrived in Minnesota, and the two posed for photographers on the tarmac with their families, a gathering that included a dozen children -- her five and his seven. Joining them was Levi Johnston, 18, the fiance of Palin's daughter Bristol and the father of the baby she is due to deliver in December, who had flown in from Alaska. McCain hugged Bristol and spoke to her at length, then greeted Johnston before putting his arms around both of them. The McCain family then went to the Minneapolis Convention Center to help pack hurricane relief supplies.
McCain campaign officials pushed back aggressively against media coverage of both Gov. Palin's background and Bristol Palin's pregnancy, declaring in a statement early Wednesday that they would no longer discuss how well or poorly they had vetted Palin's record.
"This nonsense is over. It is time to begin the debate about how to win the two wars this country is engaged in; how to make this country energy-independent; and how to create jobs for American families that are hurting," senior adviser Steve Schmidt wrote. "The American people get to do the vetting now on Election Day -- November 4th."
McCain also released a television ad titled "Alaska's Maverick" on Wednesday, touting Palin an "agent of reform." And a late-afternoon statement by the campaign took an unusual step by decrying the "smearing of the Palin family" and calling allegations in the tabloid National Enquirer that Palin had an affair "a vicious lie."
Staff writers Robert Barnes and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post; After accepting the Republican vice presidential nomination, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is joined onstage at the Xcel Energy Center by Sen. John McCain and members of her family, including, from left, daughter Bristol's fiance, Levi Johnston; daughters Willow and Piper; and husband Todd, holding 4-month-old son Trig.
IMAGE; By Toni L. Sandys -- The Washington Post; Delegates cheer during Sarah Palin's speech to the gathering. The Alaska governor was greeted by thunderous applause.
IMAGE; By Toni L. Sandys -- The Washington Post; Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy, with Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, rocks the Palins' 4-month-old son, Trig.
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Washingtonpost.com
September 4, 2008 Thursday 12:00 PM EST
Potomac Confidential;
Washington's Hour of Talk Power
BYLINE: Marc Fisher, Post Metro Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 8129 words
HIGHLIGHT: Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion by Metro columnist Marc Fisher who looks at the latest news with a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.
Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion by Metro columnist Marc Fisher who looks at the latest news with a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.
Today's Column: D.C. Benefits From Schwartz's Fight Against Corruption
Fisher was online Thursday, Sept. 4, at Noon ET to look at the Republicans' drive to win Virginia in November, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's expansion of police power to collect DNA from crime suspects and next week's primary elections in the District.
Check out Marc's blog, Raw Fisher.
Archives: Discussion Transcripts
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Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard, folks. So, did Sarah Palin's riveting home run of a speech last night put John McCain over the top in Virginia? The women I've been interviewing in northern Virginia, mainly from military families, who were deeply anti-Bush, who surprised themselves by becoming Hillary Clinton supporters, but who really don't get Barack Obama, were already feeling considerable sympathy for Palin before last night--despite and because of the intense media focus on how unprepared for higher office she might be. Now, after a remarkably confident, aggressive and charming speech, I imagine many of those women have pretty well fallen in love with Palin. One speech doesn't usually turn an election, but this one certainly laid to rest many assumptions and concerns. Or did you hear it otherwise?
Hardly anyone knows it, but next Tuesday is Election Day in the District, where primaries are being held in a number of D.C. Council seats. Today's column looks at longtime council member Carol Schwartz's surprisingly tough race to retain her spot as the only Republican in the city's elected government.
Turns out those two men who were killed in July while riding on a double-decker tourist bus on their way to a Nationals game were not only standing up on the open-air top level of the bus, but were also impaired by their own drinking when their heads hit a freeway overpass, according to today's Post story by Paul Duggan. Sadly, those buses are no longer deployed to shuttle fans from the parking lots at RFK Stadium to the Nats' park--but it now sounds as though this gruesome tragedy was hardly the bus company's fault, but rather that of the passengers themselves.
On to your many comments and questions, but first, let's call the Yay and Nay of the Day:
Yay to those persistent protesters who have fought the Intercounty Connector from Day One. Opponents of the highway now under construction between I-270 and I-95 through Montgomery County have been right all along about the spiraling cost of the project and about the slim-to-none prospects that the road will actually ease traffic on the Beltway or any other east-west roads. Now we learn that the cost is shooting up by 22 percent on one key segment of the road, a whopping $100 million-plus increase on a project that already costs a staggering $2.4 billion, even though the road is less than 19 miles long.
Nay to Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley for pushing the state's new DNA law too far. The law gives police the power to collect DNA samples not only from crooks who've already been convicted of crimes, not only from suspects who have been formally charged, but now from anyone who has merely been arrested. Civil liberties groups are ringing the alarm now that new state regulations appear not to explain exactly how DNA records for those who are found to be not guilty will be expunged. DNA is a great crime-fighting tool, a boon to prosecutors who often have a tough time convicting the obviously guilty. But there need to be limits on the collection and use of DNA, especially when innocent people are involved.
Your turn starts right now....
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Woodbridge, Va.: Three questions:
(1) If Sarah Palin's such a jock, maybe she can get people (in states other than Northern) interested in the NHL...
(2) How much money do you think Joe Biden's spent on Amtrak over the years? Does he get a volume discount? Do they give frequent rider miles?
(3) Finally, who would shoot an 8-month-old infant??
Marc Fisher:1) Good luck with that. Is hockey a better reflection of American interests and passions than soccer? Certainly hockey moms are more geographically limited than soccer moms, but hockey is also probably less of an elite pursuit than soccer (with the exception of immigrant groups that bring the game with them to these shores.) On the other hand, hockey has had the same problem ginning up any significant diversity in its fan base as the Republican Party has.
2) I was wondering about that. And do the taxpayers have to cover his fares? Or are senators comped? On some routes, Amtrak has gotten to be every bit as pricey as flying.
3) Hard to imagine that. Though the initial reports sound like the baby was not the intended target. But still. Crazy.
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20036: Is it just me, or do the Republican politicians/pundits seem to be making a bigger deal of Bristol Palin than the Democrats are? For a group of people who say "It's a family thing" or "It's a private matter", it sure seems like they're trying to keep the issue in the public light as much as possible.
The reporters should have reported on it, then moved on to other news. Of course, the only media members who will keep the story going and going and going will be the National Enquirer-type rags, and I'll bet they're already taking odds as to how long this shotgun marriage will last. I can see it now. After all, the rags already have Jamie Lynn Spears' husband-to-be cheating on her, and they aren't even married yet!
Marc Fisher: Certainly Obama put down his marker early on and has refrained from any comment on the Palin family drama. But that hasn't stopped a lot of Dems from freelancing with rumors and tales of their horror at the prospect of Palin rising to the presidency.
Still, I think last night's speech will go a long way toward dampening the Democratic glee over what they saw as a rushed and dumb pick. But to your point, yes, the Repos are trying to have it all ways--bashing the media for paying attention to the Palin family even as the McCain campaign uses the Palins' highly photogenic kids to the hilt. But that's been true of presidential candidate families for many , many years.
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Silver Spring, Md.: We know that virtually all politicians have speech writers, and there's no telling how much of last night's speech Gov. Palin wrote, but should journalists at least make some mention of this when talking the content of her speech? I saw no mention in news stories today of any actual policy content (i.e. things that would affect me should she and McCain be elected), but do not know if it was not there or reporters just concentrated on style.
Marc Fisher: Pardon me, but that's just a non-issue. Ever since Abe Lincoln scratched out the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope, presidents have relied heavily on speechwriters, and especially in the television age. And despite the early press about how the McCain staffers had a generic vice presidential acceptance speech ready to roll even before the VP pick was made, last night's Palin speech had a long and effective middle passage that was clearly personalized for Palin. I have no way of knowing whether she had any role in crafting any of those zingers, but she sure delivered them with good humor and great passion.
The only part of the speech where she seemed to be laboring to read the words and seemed to lack familiarity with the ideas was the last part, where she touched lightly on foreign affairs. If she was stumbling a bit even on reading about such matters, it will be interesting to see how she handles herself if she's ever permitted to speak extemporaneously on such stuff.
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washingtonpost.com: Today's Column: D.C. Benefits From Schwartz's Fight Against Corruption
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but hockey is also probably less of an elite pursuit than soccer: Thanks for this. Alaska is most decidedly NOT representative of the rest of the country because there is probably much much less income disparity there. Therefore, EVERYONE can play soccer. Alaska is also extremely homogeneous. Soccer and hockey -- apples and oranges. Let's move on.
Marc Fisher: Ok, let's...Here are some other topics....
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washingtonpost.com: Bus Accident Probe Finds 2 Killed Were Standing on Seats ( Post, Sept. 4)
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Southern Maryland: Great blog entry about Loraine Rudolph. As a longtime fan of classic soul, I love the U.K.-issued collections of Motown rarities, and it would be great to have Rudolph's hits in those collections and have her receive some royalties. Do you find it ironic that collectors and fans in England know more about Motown than radio listeners in America, who hear only a dozen of the label's hits over and over?
Also, thanks for the information about "Northern soul." I had assumed that the term was simply a categorization of Motown versus the grittier Southern soul such as Stax.
washingtonpost.com: Singer Thought Her Star Never Rose, but eBay Says Otherwise ( Post, Aug. 31)
Marc Fisher: Thanks very much--I've been getting calls and emails all week from people in similar situations as Loraine Rudolph, the singer I wrote about in Sunday's column. These are people who recorded R&B, gospel or pop songs in the 1960s, got cut out of royalties in unfair contracts with their agents or labels, and now find their decades-old work selling for big money on eBay and various collectors' sites. Of course, the folks selling those records have every right to trade and sell their records, but it's just sad that the artists get nothing out of it. Though a few of them have managed to resurrect their careers by going out to perform for, or just visit with, their new fans.
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Washington, D.C.: When did you become Carol Schwartz's campaign manager?
Marc Fisher: Oh, man, is the position open? I thought Schwartz had that pretty well in hand. You know, speaking of speechwriters, she actually writes most of her own ad copy and brochures. In fact, she's been holed up for weeks in her apartment writing her campaign pieces.
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Anonymous: Two men killed on double decker bus: Report today says alchohol was involved. They were STANDING on the seats on the top deck of a bus while it was moving. Do I feel sorry for their families? Of course, but they were stupid and alcohol-impaired. Will their families sue the bus company and get something? Yep.
washingtonpost.com: Bus Accident Probe Finds 2 Killed Were Standing on Seats ( Post, Sept. 4)
Marc Fisher: Sadly, you're probably right. I can't see where the bus company did anything wrong. At some point, people have to take responsibility for their own dumb moves.
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Culpeper, Va.: Marc, I'm a small town family lawyer, not some rich fancy-pants big city type, but I'm 1000 percent sure the Virginia law you wrote about re: claiming paernal rights is flat out unconstitutional. In fact I would be willing to take on a case pro bono (expenses only) if anyone would like to challenge it in the courts.
Marc Fisher: Well, you may get that chance. But tell me more--I think it's wrong for Virginia to ask fathers to register their sexual liaisons with the state, and wrong for the state to wash its hands of its responsibility to try to find fathers before kids are put up for adoption, but I don't see what's unconstitutional here.
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Washington, D.C.: How familiar are you with the situation in Tenley involving the public-private partnership designed to rebuild the library, modernize Janney Elementary, and build a 9-story apartment building? Normally I don't fall in with the NIMBY crowd that protests development around Metro stations. However, the community activists seem to have a point if, in the end, the school would lose their soccer field and/or PE space to the developers. Am I missing something? Is this really the "land grab" that the activists are making it out to be? Has DCPS taken a position on this? And is there a way for the library and the apartment building to be built without encroaching on school property?
Marc Fisher: The anti-development folks in Tenleytown latch on to any available reason to oppose making the best possible use of that corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Albemarle Street--immediately across the street from a Metro station. Sure, it's entirely likely that putting a residential and retail complex at that dead intersection might mean shaving away some of the outdoor space surrounding Janney Elementary School, but so what? There's way too much empty space surrounding the school as is. Wouldn't it be better for all involved if there was more street life there, as well as modern facilities for both the public library and the school? In addition to a field and a large outdoor play area, there's a wooded area on that plot that serves no purpose. Developing that whole block to the fullest possible extent is the right thing to do for the neighbors, the taxpayers and the students.
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Marc Fisher: Ok, ok! Back to Palin....
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Maryland: Are these people who appreciate Sarah Palin's life experience and gender actually planning on looking at where she stands on the... (gasp)... issues? She's as far-right on most all social issues as you can get.
Marc Fisher: True, she's a firm conservative on social issues, and an extremist on some--fought to ban certain books in her hometown, favors teaching creationism. But that seemed secondary to her positioning herself as a maverick in the McCain tradition. Now it's up to the Democrats to try to steer the debate back toward those specifics. But they face a hard road, especially as the Republicans make their traditional anti-tax pitch.
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We Love Sarah, Va.: It wasn't the speech that warmed hearts last night, although the speech was pretty great. It was the shots of the family, particularly the little girl holding Trig. She licked her palm and wet his hair with it! Priceless! Hearts melted across the country.
Marc Fisher: That was indeed the money shot of the night. Like something out of The Grapes of Wrath or some other American classic pioneers movie.
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Herndon, Va.: Mr. F: A hysterically funny couple of minutes from "The Daily Show" last night -- Jon Stewart first shows Karl Rowe dismissing VA's demo governor (when he was a possible VP candidate) as being a lightweight, noting that sure, he was Mayor of Richmond, but Richmond is really a small city, etc. Then, a tape of Rowe telling how qualified Palin is -- she's been a city mayor! Following those two tapes, it was Bill O'Reilly saying how the media had no business looking at the Palin daughter's pregnancy, it was a family matter; then showing O'Reilly a few months back noting Britney Spears's younger sister is pregnant and how and Britney and the sister's parents are "pinheads" for allowing this to happen Ouch!
Marc Fisher: You will search in vain for consistency on these issues, from either party.
We are unfortunately a populace that is wildly susceptible to appeals on these easy emotional issues, and while I imagine McCain will be a bit more devoted to actual content in his speech tonight, the fact is that both McCain and Obama are primarily selling their personal stories and their styles and manners.
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Arlington, Va.: Do facts even matter anymore? I keep reading about the home run Gov. Palin hit last night, and all I can think about is all the inaccurate statements (called lies for regular folk) in her "speech." The most egregious being the "bridge to nowhere" comment. You'd think the Gov. of the State of Pork would just stay away from it. Will she give me back all the money her state took from my taxes?
Marc Fisher: That was the one that leaped off the screen. Of course she was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. But I expect she will largely try to steer clear of discussion of the specifics of issues, and instead focus on exactly what she claims she doesn't want us to focus on--her family, her background, her style. Political candidates abuse their families and especially their children all the time--think back to the Cape Cod compound myth-making that permeated JFK's campaign. But the way Palin is using her poor little baby takes the cake.
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Richmond, Va.: HUCKABEE lied when he said Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 reelection race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.
Marc Fisher: Thanks for the numbers.
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Washington, D.C.: The only way Obama can win now is to examine the demographics, and to figure out in the key states if and how the demographics are different than they were in say 1984. Meaning if in the key states white Protestants are still a majority of voters, then McCain wins. If the demographics have changed though, and there are, for example, more foreign-born citizens (outside of Fla., of course) then there might be some hope for Obama. I don't mean more than white Protestants, but I mean more of them in the general population. Otherwise, this election is a done deal. Brilliant move on the part of McCain strategists. Brilliant.
Marc Fisher: I don't think it's nearly as simple as that. Obama continues to show strength in some parts of the country where the population is overwhelmingly white. Just yesterday, Time magazine reported polling data showing Obama with large leads in Iowa and Minnesota. If he can win in states like that, this election--regardless of Palin-mania--will come down to a handful of states--Ohio, of course, and Colorado, perhaps Indiana, perhaps even Virginia.
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Washington, DC: You said that Palin was in favor of banning certain books. Any info on which those were? Seems that if she was one of the anti-Harry Potter crowd that got so much press it would be a pretty easy weapon for the Dems to pick up on.
Marc Fisher: The reports on that incident in her hometown have been curiously light on details. They have Palin stating her desire to have certain books removed from the schools, but so far nothing on specifically which books were being discussed. If anyone has seen more detail on that, please come ahead.
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L' Enfant Plaza, D.C.: What would you take as the over/under on Mrs. Palin saying something on par with Dan Quayle? I say about 14 days. Maybe 15.
Of course, by Monday none of us will really care all that much as we'll have 2 if not 3 more hurricanes to deal with.
Marc Fisher: Remember that as much as the elites loved to laugh at Quayle, and as much as he became a target of the Saturday Night Live skits, there was then a backlash that very much benefited the Bush-Quayle ticket. I imagine the Dems are trying to remind themselves of that right now.
One word of warning on hurricane hysteria: Fizzle. Most big storms fizzle before they reach the places where media hysteria is at fever pitch.
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Arlington, Va.: So do the "sky is falling" people come our for tropical storms the same way they do for snow? It seems a little more warranted in this case because I have lost power at least 5 times during thuderstorms this summer alone. They kept mentioning I need an emergency kit on WAMU this morning. I'm just trying to get the cynics perspective.
Marc Fisher: There are few things in life that are more exciting and rewarding than living through a great big storm. If we do get a piece of any of these three storms, relish the moment. Sure, you might lose power for a bit, but mostly, it's a chance to watch fabulous winds at work and see all sorts of swirling wonder in the sky. I'd skip the emergency pack and instead stock up on good reading matter and your fave snacks.
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Germantown, Md.: Between the massive fare increase in January and the steady increase in ridership, Metro's financial picture must be looking pretty good right now. Do you have any information on this?
Marc Fisher: Haven't seen recent numbers, but in general, Metro is in a tough spot. It's not yet able to keep up with rising demand from riders--it takes years to get new rail cars built and online--and it has years of deferred maintenance to take care of, as anyone who has suffered through delays and broken escalators can attest to.
So yes, more riders is good for the bottom line, but Metro is in such a deep hole that it will take a long time to claw its way toward sunlight.
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Washington, D.C.: Have you noticed 94.7 has returned to an all "classic rock" format? A perfect illustration of what you've written about the growing specialization of radio stations.
Marc Fisher: Their effort to sell this market on a "green" philosophy flopped--I don't think listeners ever saw much of a connection between 30-year-old rock tunes and the issues of global warming and environmental stresses. Nor should they have. The fact remains that "classic rock" is a format that made a lot of sense one or two decades ago, but is having a tougher time now because younger listeners have little emotional connection to that music.
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Cleveland Park, Washington, D.C.: re: Amtrak
There's an Amtrak Rewards program in which you can earn points toward train travel and other stuff, based on how much you travel. There's also an Amtrak affinity credit card that allows you to earn mileage, etc.
Marc Fisher: Yes, but it's one of the worst rewards programs I've seen in the travel industry. Its blackout dates are vastly more restrictive than most airlines' and that's saying a lot. So while I'm sure a regular commuter like Biden could benefit from the rewards program, it's not enough to make that kind of daily use remotely affordable to most people.
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Washington, D.C.: I promise I will listen to this week's Raw Fisher Radio show on the state of the Nationals as soon as I can find the time, but can you drop any nuggets that might give me an incentive?
Marc Fisher: The great Phil Wood, one of the most knowledgeable experts on baseball in Washington, joined us for that show, along with D.C. Sports Bog impresario Dan Steinberg, and we delved into the eternal question of whether Washington sports fans are the ultimate fair weather fans, and whether the Lerners have botched baseball's return to the District by failing to make more of an effort to produce a winning team or to educate the fan base on a game that many simply do not know well.
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Penna Ave.: So it must be an election year . . . the (re)paving of Pennsylvania Ave. has started again. I drive parts of it regularly, and with the exception of a couple of rough spots it's in far better condition than probably 90 percent of the city's streets.
Why is any money going to it? Just so there are no bumps when the presidential limo trolls along at 5 mph in January?
Marc Fisher: It's an appalling waste of money--as you say, it's actually one of the best-maintained streets in the city, and to spruce it up every four years to such an extent is an insult to the rest of the city.
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Laurel, Md.: Marc, can we please not waste this great chat talking about Sarah Palin? There are two other chats going on if people want to discuss that....
Marc Fisher: I'm happy to shift gears, but the fact is that right now, more than 90 percent of the comments in the queue are Palin or election-related, so until that mix changes--and it could in just a few minutes--I'm afraid I'm going to have to go with what the people are clamoring for....
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My favorite part?: When Romney said: throw out the Washington big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Er, duh, conservative Republican George Bush has been president for nearly the last 8 years.
Marc Fisher: It never ceases to amaze me how hungrily so many people snarf up the rhetoric about smashing the Washington crowd and dissing the Washington fatcats and refusing to take part in the Washington wine and cheese parties and so on. Of course, John McCain is the ultimate creature of Washington, as integral a part of the politico-social scene as there is, even if that scene is far more boring and far less opulent than the Republicans make it out to be in their campaign rhetoric.
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NW, D.C.: I was a 17-year-old boy at one time. I felt doubly sorry for that kid. Was it right for him to be paraded in front of America too?
That kid was not even ready to be seen with the family last night, let alone be a father. Yes, he has a responsibility to that unborn child but this whole situation seems forced. If he were my son, I would not have allowed him to participate in that charade last night. If Palin is not elected how much are you willing to bet he does not marry the daughter.
Marc Fisher: My bet is that that is one wedding we never see happen. If the kid's MySpace page is to be believed, then he doesn't seem hugely interested in the whole family thing in the first place. There are so many sad aspects to this story, but the idea that these two teenagers might be forced into a marriage that otherwise might never have happened is appalling and ultimately about as cynical as it gets.
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Bowie, Md.: Marc Fisher:: The reports on that incident in her hometown have been curiously light on details. They have Palin stating her desire to have certain books removed from the schools, but so far nothing on specifically which books were being discussed. If anyone has seen more detail on that, please come ahead.
So why are you reporting this as fact? In an offhanded way, yes, but as an established fact just the same.
Marc Fisher: It was Time magazine that first reported the book-banning story, and it had direct quotations from Palin on the subject. I've not seen any reporting or objections that deny the story or counter it in any way. But I am frustrated that there isn't more detail, and I hope some editors somewhere are ordering up reporting that fleshes out that piece.
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Washington, D.C.: Another Amtrak clarification: Unlike the airlines, they actually have no fees and no capacity controls on awards. If the seat is there, it's yours. Joe Biden is doubtless a Select Plus (top elite) in the Guest Rewards program, and Amtrak does allow them to cash in additional points for travel during blackout periods.
I'd wager that he spends his own money on Amtrak Acela fares, which is probably cheaper than a mortgage on a nice Capitol Hill rowhouse. By the way, Amtrak's fares reflect the market (as well as government pressure to reduce losses).
Marc Fisher: I wouldn't worry terribly much about Joe Biden's ability to afford his nightly train ride. I merely note that the fares are such that such a commute would be out of reach for most Americans.
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Betterton, Md.: It struck me as positively creepy to allow a 5-year-old to tend a disabled 4-month-old on TV. I'm amazed that someone thought the head-licking thing was cute -- and certainly the GOP operatives pulled the visibly shell-shocked family out of the arena soon after it occurred...I'm a working mother myself but I think a woman who has a pregnant teenage daughter and a Down Syndrome infant should be stepping down from the governorship, not taking on a job with vastly MORE responsibility. She's already doing the mother part of the job very poorly...I think the male commentators -- who overwhelmingly predominate as pundits -- are missing the boat on how women will view this situation because they found the former beauty queen attractive.
Marc Fisher: Oh no, I don't think the stage managers had the slightest problem with the hair-licking bit--they, like most viewers I've heard from, adored that moment. If anything, we're more likely to see the little girl tending to the baby after that scene.
To the larger point, I too would think that a family that suddenly has to deal with a child with such severe needs would need at least a time out from its regular duties and routines, and running for vice president hardly counts as a time out. But while my own reaction is more like yours, I think that based on what I've heard while out reporting, many more people see Palin as a symbol of the strains that working mothers face, and see her apparent ability to juggle the two roles as inspirational.
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Mission Accomplished:90 percent of a Metro columnist's chat queue is filled with questions about Palin. I need a refresher, who is this guy Barak Obama? It seems I heard his name last week, but I can't put my finger on it this week. The story line that Palin is unknown outside of Alaska needs to be rewritten.
Marc Fisher: The convention weeks are, charmingly enough, still so focused on the party holding its big bash that the other candidate tends to vanish from public consciousness. So the real test begins next week, as the two sides begin having to jockey for public attention and as we roll toward the debates. Big questions: How long can the GOP keep Palin from the rough and tumble of exchanges with reporters and audiences of real people? And how easily will Dems fall into the trap of going after Palin as if she were Dan Quayle?
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Falls Church, Va.: You're right about classic rock when you say that "younger listeners have little emotional connection to that music." Increasingly, they know it as the theme music to TV commercials.
"Start Me Up": Microsoft
"Smile On Your Brother": Cola, diapers
"Mr. Blue Sky": Volkswagen
The list goes on....
Marc Fisher: Right, and that's why classic rock stations do get some younger listeners, but you may see even more of a move toward oldies in commercial radio because as the younger generation increasingly turns away from radio entirely as a music source, the commercial imperative will be to chase after those listeners who remain, which will be those on the higher end of the money demographic.
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Washington, D.C.: Dead intersection? Wisconsin and Albemarle? Are you nuts? Have you ever tried crossing the street there or tried making a left hand turn? I don't have a dog in the development fight, but that is hardly a dead intersection.
Marc Fisher: Compare that stretch to Friendship Heights a few blocks north, or to Woodley Park or Cleveland Park over on Connecticut Avenue, and you'll agree that Tenleytown is the District's most underdeveloped Metro station on the Red Line, a potential retail bonanza that has failed to develop because government has remained captive to a loud handful of residents who want to keep things artificially sparse.
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Bowie Baysox are in the playoffs!: The Baysox lost a 12 inning EPIC last night. I left with my kids at 11 p.m. and missed the end. Two rows behind the dugout for $14.00.
Only about 600 people showed up.
I am sure they could use the moral support tonight.
GO SOX!!!!
Marc Fisher: You heard the fan--get on out there! At least there's one local team with a winning way.
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re: Amtrak: They offer a monthly ride ticket, $1,062.00 between D.C. and Wilmington. A lot of money for a commute? Sure, but as someone mentioned, less than keeping a residence in D.C. Also, Biden isn't exactly rolling in the dough, but making over $100/yr,k you can probably afford $1/mok in transit costs.
Marc Fisher: Right, and if I recall his financial disclosure forms correctly, he's even better situated than his salary would indicate.
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Washington, D.C.:"If anything, we're more likely to see the little girl tending to the baby after that scene."
No. This is a case of a male trying to guess what females like. Me, and my women friends and family (Reps and Dems alike) didn't particularly dig that moment.
Marc Fisher: I'm merely passing along what I'm hearing from other women--my own reaction is more along the lines of yours.
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VP Debate:: Palin: Hillary Clinton cracked the glass ceiling and I'm here to break it.
Biden: Governor, I served with Hillary Clinton. I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is my friend. Governor, you're no Hillary Clinton.
Marc Fisher: If that exchange, or anything like it, were to occur, you'd see Palin's numbers shoot up and Biden's droop considerably. One of the really juicy things about this campaign is going to be watching both sides trying to navigate the sensitivities of an electorate that will be on the lookout for comments and tactics that smack of sexism, racism, and all the other offenses that this generation has taught itself to watch for so avidly.
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Ward 2: Since you mentioned the DC primaries, any thoughts on Evans and Silverman in Ward 2? I live on the "Silverman side" of the ward, but it isn't clear to me what Evans has done that my neighbors find so egregious.
Marc Fisher: It's good to see neighborhood activists like Cary Silverman stepping up and getting involved in city politics in a way that doesn't happen nearly enough in Washington. But my sense of Jack Evans is that while he is obviously very close to many business interests in the city and he's hardly the guy who's likely to stand up against developers in a radical way, he is nonetheless one of the two or three most well-informed members of the council, and is in many ways the financial brains of the council, and that's essential in a time when we have a mayor who is playing a lot of games with moving money around from agency to agency.
And from a purely parochial perspective, Ward 2 has done very, very well under Evans.
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Washington, DC: Marc, I've been gunning to vote against Carol Schwartz since she came out against the mayor taking over the school system -- now I've got my chance. Do you agree that Fenty/Rhee are doing amazing things re: improving D.C. schools; and, if so, how can you still support Schwartz?
Marc Fisher: I agree that Fenty and Rhee are taking some exciting and potentially important steps, and that the jury is still out on whether those steps will pay off in the long run. But yes, I'd far rather that they attempt to remake the school system than that we sit back and let kids be lost in those schools.
That said, I want the likes of Schwartz there because she's one of fewer than a handful of council members who really hold the city's administrators' feet to the fire. And while I wouldn't have voted as she did on the mayoral takeover, I very much want there to be smart, vocal dissenters on that council, and there really aren't many at all.
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Falls Church, Va.: MF: "the idea that these two teenagers might be forced into a marriage that otherwise might never have happened is appalling and ultimately about as cynical as it gets."
No, "as cynical as it gets" is assuming that just because they're making a choice differently than you would have necessarily means that they're being coerced.
Marc Fisher: Oh, so it's mere coincidence that the pregnancy and the wedding plans were announced as rumors about the family were peaking and the hours were ticking away before Palin's big speech?
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Petworth, D.C.: Hmph, there's no need to go to Bowie to see AA Orioles in the playoffs. Head out to middle-of-nowhere Virginia where the A Nationals are in the Carolina league playoffs. (Won in 15 innings last night!)
Marc Fisher: Does success trickle up to the big league level?
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Down Syndrome Babies Special Needs: are not different from any infant's special needs, as I recall from a family member with a Down Syndrome baby, unless they have a genetic heart defect. The special needs come more as the child becomes school-aged. So I'm not saying one way or another what Sarah Palin should be doing with Trig, but I don't think right now she views him as any different from her other children.
Marc Fisher: Good point, but I also keep hearing from mothers who are astonished both that Palin went back to work within a couple of days after giving birth and that that decision is now being greeted with cheers by the same social conservatives who have long argued that we should make it easier for women to be able to stay home with their babies.
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It struck me as positively creepy to allow a 5-year-old to tend a disabled 4-month-old on TV: I guess Betterton, Md. (where the heck is that place?) and you are from very small families, because in my very large family everyone helped out with the little ones, and if you're 5 years old you were old enough to hold your month-old-brother, disabled or not, and my younger brother is. Not a big deal to people in big families, so I'd back away from being so judgmental.
Marc Fisher: I didn't have any problem with that, and I agree that many five-year-olds can indeed take on some responsibilities with a baby. I do wonder how appropriate it is for the family to trot out the kids for the cameras over and over again and then complain that people are talking about the family.
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Anonymous: Is Moose tartare the red meat the GOP is looking for? Pretty gamey if you ask me!
Marc Fisher: I've not had the pleasure, but I hear mooseburgers are delish. Anyone know of anyplace in these parts that serve moose?
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Anonymous: Marc Please, what's the deal with the fees charged in these local high schools. Seems like they have been kind of an exclusive link to certain AP level classes. I can see a lab fee, but $100 for a book in public school?
Marc Fisher: Most of the fees in this week's story didn't seem all that outrageous. I certainly don't see any objection to charging kids extra for taking part in extracurricular programs, as long as there is a mechanism for taking care of those families that can't afford the fees. But I would definitely draw the line at books and AP course fees--money should not be a barrier for public school students to take advantage of any academic program that could help them push themselves to a higher level.
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Anonymous: I ride Metro in PG, is there any alternative in the works for Metro shuttles to the games from the subway? I always thought METRO was a quasi public-private partnership. Why can't they openly bid and compete for the contract against private operators? I volunteered at Redskin games. I literally left the game and was far from the last one to leave FEDEX after 1:30 a.m. on a Monday/Thursday night game. It's no way I was walking to Landover Mall or the subway that late at night.
Marc Fisher: The walk is a mile and while that's not a problem for most people, there ought to be alternatives for those who cannot make it all the way to the Metro. The ridiculous federal rule that prevents transit systems from having their buses used for a commercial purpose like this needs to be revisited--here, for once, is a local issue that Congress could and should get involved in.
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Anonymous: I still think FRESH FISHER sounds better!! Don't like it? Sashimi, I mean so sue me.
Marc Fisher: Hmm, I think we're heading to the end of the show here....
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Georgetown: What are your thoughts on Carol Schwartz's challenger, Patrick Mara?
Marc Fisher: I haven't seen much of him, and there's grumbling down at the Wilson Building about the fact that he doesn't appear to have been involved in city politics or government before mounting this challenge to Carol Schwartz. But he seems like a smart and committed guy. I just wish he had made his passion for D.C. politics evident before announcing his candidacy.
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Washington, D.C.: Running against the "Washington cocktail party circuit." What is so funny about this is that, according to a piece in Vanity Fair earlier this year, the last gasp of real Washington glitter occurred during the presidency of...Ronald Reagan. All of his well to do "California Kitchen Cabinet" pals and their dressed to the nines wives descended on D.C. and threw wingdings the likes of which had not been seen since the Kennedy Administration.
Marc Fisher: Quite right--there certainly was a time when elected officials and lobbyists and journalists traveled in similar social circles and had strong informal connections, but that time is largely a thing of the past and lives on mainly in the fantasies of the angry and the disenfranchised, and in the phony rhetoric of politicians on both sides of the aisle.
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Columbia, Md.: It isn't if D.C. fans are fair-weather or not. It's just that we know our loyalty won't be rewarded. Once the Nats start winning, ticket prices will shoot up. And the ownership will ignore the average fan even more, focusing on the high dollar folks.
Marc Fisher: Maybe, but the Nats announced yesterday that they are reducing ticket prices in large portions of the ballpark, probably in anticipation of the new stadium's sophomore slump, and, unfortunately, with the likelihood that next year's team will be almost as awful as this year's.
And my sense is that there is another round of ticket price slashing still to come--on the super-premium seats that never got much action this season.
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Stop now D.C.: Good God you are in the tank for Palin. She's new, she gave a speech, we are learning about her, and you've decreed that she's won Virginia and women are swooning. How come when Obama gave a great speech its "just words," but her speech put to bed all doubts about her and made her a star? I thought Richard Cohen's man-crush on McCain was embarrassing, but this is worse. And has nothing to do with local affairs, which is purportedly your beat.
Marc Fisher: I've hardly decreed that she's won Virginia--no, there's an actual campaign to be waged, and the Obama folks are pumping resources into Virginia in an unprecedented manner. And with the Mark Warner campaign running way ahead of the opposition, I expect Virginia to be much tighter than in any election since the 1960s.
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Atlanta, Ga.: Seems you were quite dismissive last week when discussion of 'community organizer' came up.
But what exactly did Mr. Obama organize? Who paid him? If he did such a great job, why is no one pointing to his successes? What exactly did he do? And in whose interest was it?
Marc Fisher: I loved the way the Repos jumped all over Obama's community organizing stint last night--they correctly deduced that many Americans look with considerable skepticism at that job description.
In fact, Obama was by all accounts doing idealistic and useful work in that period, and clearly, he honed his political skills through that work. But now it's up to him to sell that point--all in all, a fair and important exchange as the country tries to learn who he really is.
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Manassas, Va.: With regards to Palin (and the entire campaign), let's face it -- there's a certain script that the media and the public seem to follow every election now and we are at the stage that leads to the Republicans winning. Regardless of how bad things are, how much the public agrees with Democratic positions on the issues, somehow the spin favors the GOP and people vote on illusion, not reality.
Simply put, I think Palin's a joke, it's a farce to even consider her a VP contender, it's a bigger farce to think that McCain made this choice and wants to be considered a credible leader, yet today we are being told she hit a home run. Okay, whatever.
Marc Fisher: I don't see a contradiction there. Yes, she hit a home run--it was a delightful and revealing performance. But obviously there remain deep and essential questions about her preparation and credentials, and about McCain's process in picking her. And yes, there are indeed issues and people do care about them. So after the artificial atmosphere of the conventions lifts, there will be plenty of time for the country to focus on who will really be effective at turning around the economy and who will lead us toward a smart way to combat terrorism, and who will persuade Americans how we ought to present ourselves to the rest of the world.
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Des Moines, Iowa: Marc, I would like to back you up about white Protestants voting for Obama. Iowa is 93 percent white and 75 percent Protestant and we are overwhelmingly backing Obama over McCain. Do you sense any worry by voters that Palin has a good chance of being POTUS if McCain is elected? McCain is over 70 and the presidency seems to age people at an alarming rate. If I were a McCain supporter I would be very worried.
Marc Fisher: Even from those who were charmed by Palin last night, I continue to hear a lot of very deep doubts about her readiness to become president. So again, while Palin did what she had to do last night, there are still many questions out there, and properly so.
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NOVA: I think its telling that at the Dem convention, anytime Obama said anything against McCain, the crowd cheered. Last night, the crowed booed when Palin said anything against Obama. Just seems to me to me a different mindset ,
Marc Fisher: Interesting observation. I'd have to go back and watch the tapes to get a sense of what that means and if it's really the case. But I like the observation.
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Palin's speech: I didn't think it was that great(course, I was biased going in). And granted, I just listened to the first half, but she just seemed so aggressive and negative about Obama, very few positive points about where she wants the country to go. But the kicker for me was my Republican husband asking me during the speeches last night how he can change his affiliation to the Democratic party...
Marc Fisher: And here's another perspective....
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Hamilton, Va.: I was at a Curves (women's exercise place) this morning, and Sarah Palin wowed them. But it was all form over substance. How nice to see a woman in a skirt -- they were sooo tired of Hillary's pantsuits! I think emotions play a great deal in voting decisions, so as an Obama supporter, I don't like what I'm hearing.
Marc Fisher: Just a couple more and we have to go....
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Germantown, Md.: I am confused and upset. On the one hand, Senator Obama sells himself as the candidate who transcends race. On the other, I read several articles that tell me I have a chance to expiate my racist past by voting for him. I will not vote for Obama, and it has nothing to do with race. I will never vote for any candidate who thinks that more government is the answer to every problem we face. I realize there are racists -- of every color -- and am very upset by those who tell me if I don't vote for him I am a racist. I would vote for Colin Powell in a heartbeat, and DID vote for Michael Steele in 2006. I guess they aren't authentic enough.
Marc Fisher:...and one more...
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Baltimore, Md.: The first question I'd ask Sarah Palin: Why do you think hunting wolves from aircraft is a "sport?" I am sure that this grotesque exercise in blood lust will do wonders for Palin's image among soccer moms.
Marc Fisher: Ouch!
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Arlington, Va.: Regarding Sarah Palin -- her speech seemed like a lot of the same old, same old attack lines but not a lot of policy. However, since she's the VP candidate, maybe that's her role at a convention, so I didn't have a particular problem with it (although I did find her repeated references to "our opponent" very annoying and dehumanizing, and I continue to be irritated with the Republican meme that you're either with us or you are not a true American). I'm more interested in seeing how she responds to questions in a debate or in an interview.
Marc Fisher: Ok, have to wrap up for today. Thanks very much to all for coming along and ritual apologies to those I couldn't get to.
Back next week after the D.C. primary to chew over what happens there, and then we're into the meat of the campaign (a hard thing to say after a year and a half of campaigning, but you know what I mean)...
More on the blog every day, and in the column coming up on Sunday. Thanks again.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washingtonpost.com
September 4, 2008 Thursday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Paul Kane, Washington Post Congressional Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3441 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of politics.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of politics.
Washington Post congressional reporter Paul Kane was online live from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., on Thursday, Sept. 4 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest political news.
A transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Paul Kane: Good morning, Bloomington, Minn., yes, that's right -- home of the Mall of America. That's where the Washington Post and washingtonpost.com, as well as several other media outlets are stationed, and I'm doing today's chat from here before heading down to the workspace by the arena in St. Paul. It's been a crazy two weeks, from Denver to here. The news cycle keeps burning quicker and quicker. And it appears today is no different, with major interest continuing to focus on previously unknown Sarah Palin. On to the questions -- pk
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Falls Church, Va.: Now we've got a real great race for the White House! Fantastic speech by Gov. Palin last night. Can't wait to see how this all plays out with the voters in November -- this is the most exciting election in years.
Paul Kane: Yes, last night was exciting. I was on the convention floor next to the Alaska delegation, not far from the Palin family. Suffice it to say, Alaskans haven't had much to be proud about lately regarding politics and their state. Last night, Republicans, anyway, felt very proud of Palin. Her introduction to the ticket has added an energy level among conservative base voters that simply wasn't there beforehand, and I saw it live in person last night on that convention floor. A friend/source was backstage and saw McCain as the speech was happening. McCain called it "transcendent" or "transcendental" -- it was a little loud so my source wasn't 110% on the last sound out of McCain's mouth.
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Paul Bunyan country: We know Palin is misleading us on the Bridge to Nowhere and the Canadian pipeline. That said, my favorite line of the night was about selling the plane on E-Bay. Please tell me that one is true.
Paul Kane: From an old NYT news story: It grounded one governor and did not exactly fly off the shelf on eBay, but the jet that came to symbolize the troubles of the former Alaska governor Frank H. Murkowski has landed with a new owner. A businessman from Valdez, Alaska, Larry Reynolds, paid $2.1 million this week for the state-owned Westwind II jet that Mr. Murkowski's successor, Gov. Sarah S. Palin, promised to purge from the state inventory when she ran against Mr. Murkowski last fall in the Republican primary.
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Denver: The Obama campaign put out a very detailed rebuttal to Gov. Palin's speech last night. How will the press follow up? Will the press be reporting on details like that?
Paul Kane: The Sarah Palin story is not done yet, so yes, we'll be following up all sorts of leads and passageways into this story. Love her or hate her -- and at this very moment there does not seem to be much in between -- she's the biggest story of the moment.
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Northville, N.Y.: I'm no fan of McCain, so take this for what its worth, but isn't he sort of trying to follow The Beatles on stage today? The base absolutely ate up the governor, and now he has to top her. Or something. Before, he only had to measure up in some way to Obama. Now he's got to throw red meat to the faithful. How does that help him with the independent vote? Tough balance.
Paul Kane: OK, this is where I have to tell people to calm down just a bit. She's the best story of the moment, but I don't think many people watched last night and wanted to see her as president right now. She's over-shadowing McCain at the moment only in terms of the focus of news stories. This is still McCain's convention, and that's what the crowd is there for. I expect a very raucous crowd tonight.
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Dunn Loring, Va.: I understand that Post reporters rarely take questions with a conservative perspective but I'm hoping you can clarify your post yesterday that Gov. Palin slashed teen pregnancy funding. Could you give a true or false answer to the following question: Covenant House Alaska received more money from the State of Alaska in the 2009 budget than it did in the prior budget. If this is true (which it is), why did you characterize a "slash"?
washingtonpost.com: Covenant House Alaska Financial Information
Paul Kane: OK, this is the only question I'm taking on this subject, because it's a point of contention among conservatives. The legislature approved $5 million in funding for a group home that benefits single teen mothers and other troubled youths. Palin used her line item veto to reduce those funds to $3.9 million. Conservatives don't like the use of my word slash, because they contend that it was an actual increase in funds from the year before. I think if you simply read the entire post of that item it is abundantly clear in the reporting and writing what happened. My point is that we're arguing over the semantics -- "slashed" versus "reduced the intended increase". This is money that is going toward the construction of a new crisis center in Anchorage, fyi, which will benefit single teen mothers and other youths. Her action, knocking the funds down to $3.9 million, means it will take more time for the new crisis center to be built.
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Arlington, Va.: Last night Governor Palin told parents of special needs children that they would have an advocate in the White House with her. I hope someone will ask her what she means by that -- i.e. does she support a specific agenda related to children with special needs? If so, what is it? And was she in favor of it before the birth of her fifth child?
Paul Kane: This is something I spoke about with fellow reporters walking out last night. It's a key area of federal funding for local education issues -- special education. Republican and Democratic congresses alike have not come anywhere near the level they're supposed to; from a quick Google search, it looks like the federal gov't has only covered from anywhere to 8-16% of the costs of special education in our public schools, despite laws saying it will cover 40%. This has been a burning issue to some parents who have children with special needs. Will be interesting to see how that community responds to Palin.
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Southwest Nebraska: From out in this scarlet land, believe me, Palin's speech was transcendent and transcendental. Nothing bigger has happened since Christ rose from the grave. Not only was the experience card taken off the table with her nomination but so was the adulation card! Palinbots, anyone?
Paul Kane: Um, hey, Nebraska, calm down there buddy. A lot has happened in the last 2,000 years, you know, and I don't think the speech ended the experience questions at all. They're still going to be raised. If conservatives believe that her ability to deliver a "transcendent" speech at the highest level of pressure takes the experience card off the table, then it's also off the table with regard to Obama, because he's also delivered his share of transcendent speeches. Yet all I heard from Mayor Rudy last night was questions about Obama's lack of experience. Trust me, this speech last night did nothing to take the issue off the table, on either side.
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Alexandria, Va.: I have an idea for new regular feature for The Post: How about a "Hypocrisy Watch"? My goodness, there would be a treasure trove of materials just from this past week. Imagine all those "family values" advocates who previously condemned teenage pregnancies and now think its merely a "private matter." How about opposing earmarks unless their own community is helped by one? I'm sure that the Democrats also will fill a column or two, but this week truly has been stunning.
Paul Kane: In Palin's defense, I don't think having a 17-year-old pregnant daughter makes her a hypocrite. Indeed, I think conservatives see in that the opposite of hypocrisy -- they see the very embodiment of their values, someone taking what is an unplanned pregnancy and bringing the baby to term, marrying the father and raising the child in a warm and welcoming household. The earmark issue is quite a different tune, I'll give you that. McCain's campaign has been woeful at explaining the narrative of when exactly Palin became an opponent of the "good ol' boys" club, because in her years as Wasilla mayor and early years as oil-and-gas commissioner she was very much a part of that club, even if she wasn't a boy.
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Maple Glen, Pa.: Paul! Nice work! How much trouble will it be for Obama that Biden and Hillary (even though they're all now best buddies) both bashed his credibility when they were campaigning against him? Will the Republicans hammer on that mercilessly as the election draws near?
Paul Kane: Maple Glen, Pa. Gotta take a question from my hometown! I think you already saw ads up on the air the day Biden was announced as Obama's Veep, taking his words about how Obama wasn't qualified and then another ad (entitled "passed over", I think) criticizing him for not picking Clinton. This is a pretty standard tactic in campaigns when the nominee selects someone who he/she was running against in the primary. Had McCain selected Mitt Romney, Democrats surely had similar ads that they would have put on the air. By Columbus Day, however, I don't think we'll be focusing on these Biden statements.
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Atlanta: What would you say are McCain's chances of running in 2012 if he wins in November? I'm thinking he won't be ... would Gov. Palin run then? Just curious. ... Her speech was great. I did not think she was attacking or whatever. She came out strong. I was okay with the speeches before her -- but those CNN commentators must have been watching something else, as they were all over those speeches as being horrible. I saw no such thing. They sounded horribly out of touch.
Paul Kane: For what it's worth, the crowd on the floor couldn't get enough of Mayor Rudy. They loved him bashing Obama. Not watching on TV, it's hard to judge how the speeches looked and appeared on TV, but the crowd went nuts for Rudy because he really offered them the political red meat by slamming Obama so much. As for McCain, if he wins and his health allows him, he'll run in '12. We just don't ever have presidents bow out after 1 term. Doesn't happen in the modern era.
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Atlanta: You think that "Ze-ro! Ze-ro!" chant will catch on?
Paul Kane: Let me tell what chant to listen for tonight: N-B-C, N-B-C! Talking to folks who watched on TV, I don't think they heard that chant last night from the crowd. But when Rudy and Palin ripped the media, at least at one point, from some corners of the arena they started chanting NBC -- clearly, GOP voters feel that the coverage of NBC, more likely MSNBC, has crossed a line. True or not, it's an issue (and a chant) to keep your eyes and ears attuned to tonight.
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Special Education: This is the issue that caused Jim Jeffords to leave the Republican Party and give the Senate briefly to the Democrats. It has not been a Republican priority. How much has Alaska spent on special education under Palin?
Paul Kane: Wow, great memory from this questioner. You're right, Jeffords was chairman of the committee that funded/oversaw the Education Dept, and this was one of the issues that prompted him to walk across the aisle. Again, however, it's incumbent on me to repeat: this has been the law for 33 years now, and only 12 of those years have R's run Congress. And all of that time this has been an underfunded program, so it's been bipartisan neglect.
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New York: Paul, Mike Huckabee willfully lied when he claimed Palin's vote totals for mayor (combined 1,500) exceeded Biden's for President this year (77,000), but The Post ran Huckabee's quote without pointing out that it was a preposterous lie. Can't the newspaper do better than this?
Paul Kane: I'm actually on a guest computer here, so I don't have my regular access to Wash Post stories and blog items. But I believe if you go to our Trail blog on the campaign, you can find a post/story by Juliet Eilperin pointing this out. I know it was filed last night in the heat of the speeches. So, it's in our system. Did it make it into the print edition? No, because these speeches run right up till our deadline and we're just lucky to get any react to the speech into the story. Anyway, I'm not sure what to make of these numbers. Frankly, Biden only got a few thousand votes in Iowa, then dropped out. I guess his name stayed on some ballots in other states and he got more votes after dropping out. But it's just a moot point, it's rhetoric, people. All in all, they both come from small states -- the first and last states, essentially.
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Chattanooga, Tenn.: What's wrong with being a community organizer? I thought that government wasn't supposed to be the solution to all our problems.
Paul Kane: Hah, I see the point. Look, these conventions are filled with things that each side believes are outta bounds attacks. It's the job of the other side to counter them, or to launch another attack. Frequently, they decide on the latter. Speaking of which, here's a DSCC fund-raising letter/email that was sent out this morning under Joe Biden's name. Here's the first few paragraphs of it: These are no ordinary times. This is no ordinary election. After eight years of John McCain supporting George Bush's failed policies, you can feel the American Dream slipping away. Wages are shrinking. Groceries, health care, and filling up your car all cost more than ever. With every fiber of my being I know we cannot as a nation stand for four more years of this. Barack Obama is poised for a historic and transcendent presidency that will unite this country and lead us to a better future. I couldn't be more proud to join his ticket. But our victory in November will not be complete unless the DSCC can also deliver the filibuster-proof Senate majority that can end the obstruction and help us turn things around. This is the year we can pick-up at least 11 Republican-held Senate seats, more than enough for that overwhelming majority. It will not be easy, but I will do whatever I can to make sure the DSCC reaches their $4.4 million September goal and is ready for the last 61 days of this campaign. I'm coming to you for help, because I know it will take thousands of us - $5 at a time - coming together to meet this goal. Click here to make an immediate contribution of $5 or more to help the DSCC reach its $4.4 million September goal. Take action now and a group of our senators will match your gift 2-to-1, effectively tripling your impact on Senate races nationwide.
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New York: It seemed to me that, while the Democrats definitely beat up on McCain, they really focused on policy. Palin et al seemed to me mean-spirited at times, with very little substance. The parts of her speech where she defended her experience, though, were spot-on. But why denigrate Obama's resume when he hasn't criticized hers?
Paul Kane: Obama hasn't really had the chance to criticize her resume, but I'm sure he will. Hey, let's face it, I was at Invesco Field in Denver last Thursday, and I was kinda struck by how forceful Obama went after McCain and his experience/judgment. So, let's be fair on both sides, Democrats, mostly Obama actually, really went after McCain last week.
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Springfield, Va.: So, Obama is going on Fox with O'Reilly tonight, and the mayor of Detroit chooses today to plead guilty -- is this a plan to divert coverage away from McCain? Where will the unemployed mayor get the $1 million to pay his fine?
Paul Kane: Yep, the mayor's resigning. End of an era, and he was such a bounty of stories for the Detroit media. They'll miss him.
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Falls Church, Va.: So, is it now going to be standard practice at The Post to identify the speechwriters when a politician gives a speech, or just when the speaker is a woman? Or just for the Republicans?
washingtonpost.com: Palin Comes Out Fighting (Post, Sept. 4)
Paul Kane: Um, not sure where you've been getting your news for the past couple decades, but the speech writing story has been a staple of politics for a long time. http://www.newsweek.com/id/84756 That's the first hit you get when you Google "obama speech writer". After that there are more stories on Obama's speech writer. This goes back basically to the '60s and Ted Sorenson with JFK. Standard journalistic practice to write profiles and features about speech writers.
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Florida Right-Winger: Well, in one night I've gone from tepidly voting for McCain to embracing this ticket. I can see why the left is so afraid of Gov. Palin -- she's strong, smart and not afraid to say what needs to be said. Now, if we can only get the sexist liberals to stop making snarky comments about her hair, we could get back to the real issues, like who exactly pays a "community organizer," and whether it is taxpayer money.
Paul Kane: Well, let me just say this about the focus on her looks: Conservatives are even more focused on that part of her bio than anyone else. Best button I saw in the hall last night, proudly worn by many conservatives: THE HOTTEST VEEP FROM THE COOLEST STATE A pic of Palin sits smack in the middle of this.
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Evanston, Ill.: How do you think the "drill, baby, drill!" chants will play outside of the Republican National Convention bubble?
Paul Kane: I'm not sure this chant has legs, because it's kinda complicated. It sounds awkward, and, unless you're into the oil business, I'm not sure what people think it means. I think a simple "drill, drill, drill" would be more effective. But that's my own take.
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Bell Lane, Pa.: Your experience at the convention last night sounds incredible. As a mere TV viewer, I often wonder what it must be like to actually be present for a political convention. Perhaps a light-hearted question, but is it as fun as it looks, or is there a lot of standing around and waiting? What's going on up in the concourses? Is it like a big game, what with the wild selling of souvenirs, hot dogs, pop corn, and $8 beers? What goes on for you when TV land is exiled to commercials?
Paul Kane: Man, the home town crowd is reading this chat. Everything you just described -- a lot of standing around and waiting, a lot of excitement and energy like a big game, people out on the concourses -- yep, that's what it's like at these conventions. Except no beer sales, none. On the floor, it's always kinda crazy. Lots of pushing and very crowded and Secret Service ordering people in all sorts of different directions. But the GOP convention floor seems much better, less crowded, than the Dem convention.
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Paul Kane: Ok, folks, time for me to get moving to head down to the arena for tonight's big speech. Should be interesting to see how the crowd reacts to McCain, and, don't forget, it's the season debut of the National Football League. I think Eli and the NYG will handle the Redskins tonight, but then by midseason my Philadelphia Eagles will be in control of the division. PS -- Kickoff is 7:07 pm EDT, with the average game lasting 3 hours and 3 mins. What happens if it goes to overtime? Does NBC not show the speech? I don't know the answers to those questions. OK, see you in 2 weeks back here, when Congress will be back in session. -pk
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washingtonpost.com: Upcoming discussions from the Republican National Convention today: RedState editor Erick Erickson at noon, Post political theater critic Dana Milbank at 1 p.m., "The Conservative's Handbook" author Phil Valentine at 2 p.m. and "Los Republicanos" author Leslie Sanchez at 4 p.m.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
September 3, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
McCain and Palin, in a New Light
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; LETTERS; Pg. 24
LENGTH: 1343 words
To the Editor:
Re ''Palin Disclosures Spotlight McCain's Screening Process'' (front page, Sept. 2):
Ever since Gov. Sarah Palin was unveiled as John McCain's running mate, the press has had a field day in uncovering her foibles, personal and political. The real story, however, is Mr. McCain's lack of judgment.
Mr. McCain has already caused concern by his appalling ignorance of world geography and his tendency to oversimplify complex foreign policy issues. His choice of Ms. Palin makes it plain that he is not in the least concerned with America's stature in the world or the ability of the next vice president to step into the role of commander of chief.
The American people deserve better from the Republican Party.
John Jeffries Martin
Durham, N.C., Sept. 2, 2008
To the Editor:
Although discussion about families of candidates may be off limits, as both Barack Obama and John McCain have argued, the news that Bristol Palin, 17 and unmarried, is pregnant does raise two questions that should legitimately be part of the conversation about the candidates.
First, what does it say about the judgment of a parent -- father or mother -- who takes on tasks that will necessarily keep that parent away from family and preoccupied (at least I would hope preoccupied) with the state of our country, at a time when two of the five children in that family are in particular and poignant need of special attention? What does this say about Sarah Palin's raw ambition?
And second, what does it say about John McCain's judgment that he knowingly asked a parent in this situation to be his running mate, without apparent consideration for the effect that this would necessarily have on her family, and particularly on those members of her family most in need? What does this say about John McCain's cynicism?
What does all this say about the commitment to family values so loudly endorsed by so many McCain supporters?
Ginny Blanford
Hartsdale, N.Y., Sept. 2, 2008
To the Editor:
It was good that Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska and her husband, Todd, issued a statement that brought their daughter's pregnancy out in the open.
I am rather perturbed with those on the left who would try to use this information to attack Governor Palin.
I believe that families ought to be off limits in political campaigns. The reality is that all families face problems, including problems like teenage pregnancy.
I praise Ms. Palin and her husband for their love and support of their daughter in this difficult matter.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.
Glen Oaks Village, N.Y., Sept. 2, 2008
To the Editor:
I love how the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's daughter is, according to John McCain's campaign, ''a private family matter.'' This, after the Republican Party has spent 30 years making policy on women's bodies. Why can't Republicans recognize that reproductive decisions are private for all American women?
Claire Bushey
Chicago, Sept. 2, 2008
To the Editor:
In John McCain's first major decision as a presidential candidate, instead of appointing the running mate he wants, he caves in to the religious right and appoints someone he doesn't know and barely vetted.
This is not the action of a ''maverick,'' this is toadyism plain and simple.
If this decision represents how he will run the country, it tells me all I need to know about Mr. McCain. Pam Arnold
New York, Sept. 2, 2008
To the Editor:
Re ''In Political Realm, 'Family Problem' Emerges as Test and Distraction'' (news analysis, Sept. 2):
I agree with Barack Obama and John McCain that the news that the daughter of Gov. Sarah Palin is pregnant is not per se relevant to Governor Palin's credentials to be vice president.
But her lack of significant qualifications and experience with respect to national public policy, her relatively limited education, her lack of international engagement and her rejection of science in various arenas are.
Given that Governor Palin is willing to impose her views on private family matters on others, in terms of her opposition to abortion and her commitment to abstinence-only sex education, it is legitimate to question such a parent's responsibilities to her children.
In pursuing the vice-presidential nomination, was Ms. Palin willing to put her ambitions ahead of the interests of her daughter? Surely she knew that her nomination would bring worldwide attention to her daughter's pregnancy.
Is this a positive example of commitment to family values? Gayle Binion
Santa Barbara, Calif., Sept. 2, 2008
The writer is a professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
To the Editor:
Re ''A New Twist in the Debate Over Mothers'' (front page, Sept. 2):
As a 74-year-old mother of five children, including a special-needs child, I am uniquely qualified to evaluate Gov. Sarah Palin's ability to ''do it all.''
Ms. Palin's primary responsibility and moral obligation is to give all of her children the attention they deserve and only a mother can provide.
It is my belief that running for vice president of the United States does not serve this obligation well. I have read and listened to various political pundits marvel at her ability to ''do it all.'' The honest truth is she can't. Trust me, I know. Myrna Olsen
Garland, Tex., Sept. 2, 2008
To the Editor:
Mommy wars may seem like a hot story, but the media would serve us better by focusing on the debate over what parents need to manage work and family.
How Gov. Sarah Palin and her family handle these matters is their business. But it's the business of voters to know why Ms. Palin and Senator John McCain oppose every measure that would help working families: guaranteeing paid sick days, making family leave more accessible and affordable, ensuring equal pay, financing health insurance for needy kids.
Yes, many families have to deal with teenage pregnancy. Fewer would if schools provided comprehensive sex education.
Yet the McCain-Palin ticket supports abstinence-only education, despite Congressional reports documenting its ineffectiveness. Nearly $180 million in taxpayer dollars was wasted on such programs last year.
Our families and our country can't afford such extreme positions.
Ellen Bravo
Milwaukee, Sept. 2, 2008
The writer is an author and activist for working women.
To the Editor:
''A New Twist in the Debate Over Mothers'' includes comments by women who question Sarah Palin's ability to be an adequate mother of five children while serving as vice president of the United States. Haven't we had presidents and vice presidents before who raised children at the same time?
Bill Clinton was president while a parent of Chelsea, who was still young. Richard Nixon's girls were still young in the White House. This is not a rare event.
If Governor Palin is elected, her husband (a commercial fisherman) is unlikely to hold a job and thus it seems that Vice President Palin would not need to be an equal contributor to child care. Her husband could certainly be the primary parent.
Kathleen A. Carlsson
Sayville, N.Y., Sept. 2, 2008
The writer is the author of ''The Case Against Women Raising Children: Why the Mother Should Never Be the Primary Care-Giver.''
To the Editor:
Re ''Palin Daughter's Pregnancy Interrupts G.O.P. Convention Script'' (news article, Sept. 2):
Gov. Sarah Palin has said she decided to carry to term her child who has Down syndrome. Of her daughter's premarital pregnancy, she also says, ''We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby.''
But how can one claim to be anti-choice and twice speak about ''decisions''? A true pro-life candidate must believe that there is no choice but to bear the child, and that the law should bar any such decisions to the contrary.
Indeed, if the governor learned of her own child's Down syndrome from prenatal testing, is it not hypocrisy to ever have such a test since the fetus has a right to life regardless?
Perhaps Governor Palin is, in fact, a proponent of choice after all.
Lawrence Rosen
Princeton, N.J., Sept. 2, 2008
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: September 3, 2008
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PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
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The New York Times
September 3, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
INSIDE THE TIMES: September 3, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 2252 words
International
U.S. INQUIRY INTO AIRSTRIKE DEATHS
Is at Odds With Afghan Tally
An investigation by the American military found that 5 to 7 civilians and 30 to 35 Taliban were killed in an airstrike operation in western Afghanistan last month, many fewer than the 90 civilians that the Afghan government and the United Nations found in their preliminary investigations. PAGE A10
HARSH WORDS FOR GEORGIAN LEADER
President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia said that he no longer recognized Mikheil Saakashvili as the president of Georgia, calling him ''a political corpse'' in an interview on the Italian television channel RAI. They were the most lacerating words to date about a government Moscow wants to force from power. The Russian president made his comments a day after the European Union issued a statement strongly criticizing Russia for its military offensive in Georgia, but stopped short of imposing sanctions. PAGE A10
TYCOON CHARGED IN STAR'S KILLING
A wealthy Egyptian businessman and lawmaker was charged with paying $2 million for the contract killing of Suzanne Tamim, a well-known Lebanese pop star, who was found dead in her apartment in Dubai in July. The police said the tycoon, Hisham Talaat Moustafa, one of his nation's largest real estate developers and a member of President Hosni Mubarak's governing National Democratic Party, had sought Ms. Tamim's death as an act of revenge, but did not specify the source of his anger. PAGE A12
HALTING PLANT FOR CHEAPEST CAR
Tata Motors, the Indian automaker, said that political protests over land had compelled it to stop building a plant in eastern India for its much-awaited Nano model, which was intended to be the world's cheapest car. The car was set to cost about $2,250, but it was dogged from the beginning by one of India's most wrenching problems: how to create space for industry by moving farmers off their land and compensating them adequately. PAGE A9
3 CHARGED IN BOMBING PLOT
German prosecutors said that they had charged three men arrested last year on suspicion of planning what officials said was a major terrorist plot, aimed at locations in Germany frequented by Americans, with the potential to kill hundreds. The arrests shocked Germany, in part because two of the suspects were German converts to Islam. Officials said the men had visited terrorist training camps in the Waziristan region of Pakistan. PAGE A9
National
REPORT SAYS GONZALES MISHANDLED
Classified Material on Wiretapping
In a report by the Justice Department's inspector general, former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales was found to have mishandled highly classified information related to the National Security Agency's wiretapping program and the administration's prisoner interrogation program. The most delicate material among the documents was Mr. Gonzales's handwritten account of an emergency meeting held at the White House in March 2004 regarding the agency's wiretapping program, which investigators concluded he took home in his briefcase, in violation of security procedures. PAGE A15
GOVERNOR TO DECIDE MAYOR'S FATE
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit, who is charged with 10 felonies including perjury and assaulting a police officer, could know his fate in a matter of days. A judge ruled that Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan had the authority to remove Mr. Kilpatrick from office, and Ms. Granholm planned to begin a hearing on Wednesday morning, where she was to ask Mr. Kilpatrick to defend himself against charges of misconduct. PAGE A22
AN IMPASSE BOGS DOWN CALIFORNIA
California's state budget is now 64 days late -- the latest in its history. The haggling between the Legislature and the governor over how to make up for a $15 billion gap in the budget has tied up money for state services, forcing health care clinics to reduce their staffs, community college students to be denied tuition grants and at one high school, art classes to be moved to the lawn, because the school district cannot afford new portable classrooms. PAGE A15
WEIGHING REBUILDING OR LEAVING
Hurricane Katrina cut the population of tiny Pearlington, Miss. in half, to about 1,000. The school has not been rebuilt, nor have many homes, as post-hurricane aid has been concentrated in other areas. On Monday, Hurricane Gustav poured water into about 100 homes. And once again, residents of the town are faced with the a painful question: Is it worth it to rebuild? PAGE A20
REVIVING A FLOOD WARNING PLAN
Federal and state officials are revisiting a plan to install a warning system for the isolated Havasupai Indian Reservation in Arizona after a flood last month through a reservation campground at the bottom of the Grand Canyon sent hundreds of tourists scrambling for their lives. The warning system was originally proposed in 1995, but was set aside because of a lack of money. PAGE A15
BUSINESS
NEW ABU DHABI FUND TO SPEND
$1 Billion to Finance Films
The Abu Dhabi Media Company, an arm of the government in the city-state capital of the United Arab Emirates, is starting a new subsidiary that will spend about $1 billion to make feature-length films, in partnership with three American producers. The deal comes amid a flurry of partnerships between Hollywood studios and outfits in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. PAGE C1
BOEING AWAITS MACHINISTS' VOTE
Members of the machinists' union at the Boeing Company will cast two votes that will determine whether they accept a new contract or strike at a crucial moment for the aircraft maker in the development of its newest plane, the Dreamliner. If the contract is rejected, two-thirds of those voting must then agree to the walkout. PAGE C9
TEST-DRIVING GOOGLE'S NEW BROWSER
With no status bar, no menu bar and only a single toolbar, Chrome -- Google's new browser, which it developed in secrecy and released to the world on Tuesday -- is minimalist in the extreme. But it is full of smart features that seem to have been inspired by other browsers -- or ripped from them, depending on your cynicism factor. David Pogue, State of the Art. PAGE C1
GERMANY'S GENDER WAGE GAP
Millions of working mothers -- and sometimes fathers -- have to make often difficult trade-offs when it comes to work and family, but labor experts say the calculus is especially harsh in Germany, a country that despite having a female head of state and sitting at the center of supposedly liberal Europe, has one of the widest gender wage gaps on the Continent. PAGE C1
Emirates' Rivalry in Soccer Sale C4
METRO
PAKISTANI SCIENTIST'S NOTES HINT
At a 'Mass Casualty Attack'
A federal indictment said that Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist described by American officials as an Al Qaeda operative, was carrying handwritten notes when she was detained in Afghanistan that referred to a ''mass casualty attack'' and listed landmarks, like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. PAGE B3
THE I.R.S. AND THE ONLINE PULPIT
A watchdog group filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service against James David Manning, the pastor of a Harlem church who criticizes Senator Barack Obama in many of the sermons that he posts online. And with more churches posting their sermons on the Web, more cases of electioneering from the pulpit have come to the attention of the I.R.S., which bars tax-exempt institutions from openly endorsing candidates for political office. PAGE B1
Dining
HONEY, I SHRUNK YOUR ENTREE.
Belts Tighten at the Restaurant
The tiny gourmet entree is becoming the norm, and not out of some sense of avant garde dining. As the economy grinds along ever slower, restaurateurs are feeling the bite, and as a consequence, so are diners. Craving a steak? These days it's hanger, not sirloin. Page F3
STUFFED-CRUST DEEP-DISH, IT'S NOT
Can you cross Pizza Hut with anything and have it be good? Jim Lahey plans for a new Pizzeria in Chelsea is hinging a lot on the idea that he can. His intention is to cross it with Blue Hill and create a place with friendly prices and a welcoming atmosphere -- that's the Pizza Hut contribution -- that is also ingredient obsessed. Page F7
IF IT AIN'T BROKEN, RE-INVENT IT
Can't get much simpler than the hamburger, can it? Heat, meat and bun. But basic doesn't mean boring. At 5 Napkin Burger on Ninth Avenue, the 10-ounce sandwich that is the place's namesake, oozes cheese. 67 Burger in Fort Greene boasts grill guys who sometimes dance and a bun baked by Pechter's of Brooklyn. Oh, and don't forget Joy Burger in Harlem where if you're smart you'll lose your virtue all over again and order the Maxi Burger. Page F14
Arts
B-MOVIES, BOX OFFICE BOMBS
And a President's Forgotten Years
Ronald Reagan's acting career is usually not given much attention, in part because he was relegated to Hollywood's B-list and because so many of his 50 films remain so hard to find. In ''Reagan: The Hollywood Years,'' Marc Eliot takes a fresh look at that subject matter, which is well worth dusting off for a fresh examination. A review by Janet Maslin. PAGE E8
EMPATHIZING WITH A RIVAL
David Letterman and Jay Leno have long been rivals, fighting for the eyeballs of late night television watchers. But in a recent magazine interview, however, Mr. Letterman says he felt empathy for Jay Leno, who will be replaced as the host of ''The Tonight Show'' by Conan O'Brien. He also regrets never having bested Mr. Leno in the ratings. ''I wish that we -- and when I say 'we' I mean 'me' -- I wish I could have prevailed,'' he said. PAGE E1
AFTER THE SPOTLIGHT
In her new memoir, ''When I Grow Up,'' the intensely shy singer-songwriter Juliana Hatfield recounts battling depression and anorexia during a brief flirtation with mainstream success in the early 1990's, and the subsequent impact it had on her career. ''I don't have anything to prove anymore,'' said Ms. Hatfield. PAGE E3
Sports
FINALLY GETTING INVOLVED
In the Family Business
In his previous dalliances with getting involved in the world of professional tennis, John P. McEnroe, the patriarch of the tennis family, was shooed away by his ubiquitous sons, two of the most prominent figures in American tennis. But Mr. McEnroe is now openly angling to become the next executive chairman and president of the Association of Tennis Professionals, or ATP, the governing body of the men's tour. But this time, his sons are all for it. PAGE C17
HOARDING ALL THE BLUE CHIPS
Ben Dogra and Tom Condon make for an odd pair, but the two football agents have quietly become serious power brokers in professional football. They represent an impressive roster of N.F.L. players, including the Manning brothers, Matt Leinart and LaDainian Tomlinson, and snatching up 4 of the first 8 picks from April's draft, including the Miami Dolphins rookie tackle Jake Long, above. PAGE C15
ROUNDING OUT RYDER CUP SQUAD
When Paul Azinger, the United States captain, named his four picks for the United States Ryder Cup team, it was a marked contrast to the contentious announcement made by Nick Faldo, the European captain, over the weekend. His four selections -- Steve Stricker, Hunter Mahan, J. B. Holmes and Chad Campbell -- round out a squad that is only an injured Tiger Woods from being the most solid team over all that the United States has fielded in a decade. PAGE C18
WHO'S NO. 1? NO, REALLY. WHO?
The WTA is set to make major changes to next year's women's tour. Those include a shorter season that ends in October, more than $85 million in prize money, a reduction in the number of tournaments players are required to play. But what needs the most adjusting is the sport's confounding ranking system, in which a player can fail to win a Grand Slam event, fail to even reach a Grand Slam final and still end up as the world's number one player. William C. Rhoden, Sports of the Times. PAGE C16
Obituaries
DON LAFONTAINE, 68
His ubiquitous baritone was featured in thousands of television commercials and movie trailers, and he wrote most of his voiceovers. That includes his most famous phrase, ''In a world where. . .,'' which has become over-used and the subject of parody. PAGE A21
Editorial
CANDIDATE MCCAIN'S BIG DECISION
To address its many problems, this country needs a leader with sound judgment and strong leadership skills. Choosing Sarah Palin to be vice president raises serious questions about John McCain's qualifications. Page A22
MR. BUSH'S BLUE LEGACY
President Bush may be on the brink of doing something stunningly at odds with his record as one of the worst environmental stewards ever to inhabit the White House. He may set aside three vast, remote corners of the Pacific Ocean for protection. Page A22
THE REAL NUMBERS ON H.I.V.
It has been difficult over the years to get a good statistical handle on the size of the nation's AIDS problem. But the latest, most sophisticated measures indicate that the disease continues to frustrate government efforts to rein it in. Page A22
Op-Ed
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
In naming Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil. Page A23
HOW THE FED CAN FIX THE WORLD
A whole new regulatory framework is needed for the major financial borrowers, and it should be administered by the Federal Reserve, Roger C. Altman writes in an Op-Ed essay. Otherwise, it will become increasingly difficult for the Fed to protect the financial system. Page A23
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
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USA TODAY
September 3, 2008 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
Newest staff helps regain footing, focus;
A more disciplined candidate, message following shake-up
BYLINE: David Jackson
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 9A
LENGTH: 595 words
WASHINGTON -- For Republican John McCain, the group of advisers and staff trying to get him into the White House is his third campaign team in 14 months.
Unlike Democratic rival Barack Obama, who has had the same top aides since he started running for president early last year, McCain has had two staff shake-ups -- one in July 2007 sparked by money woes and another almost exactly one year later prompted by the need to regain focus. The latest team is centered on a core group of aides who directed a spartan effort to get McCain chosen as the Republican Party's presidential nominee.
The key advisers are strategist Steve Schmidt, 37, and longtime McCain loyalist Rick Davis, 51.
"This campaign is in a strong position heading into the fall," McCain communications director Jill Hazelbaker said. "The Davis/Schmidt management structure deserves more than a little bit of credit for bringing back our mojo."
McCain has pulled nearly even with Obama in public opinion polls.
The latest changes include a more disciplined candidate and message, more centralized decision-making from the McCain campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., and sharper contrasts with Obama, said Brian Jones, the McCain campaign communications director before the 2007 shake-up.
Schmidt's stamp is evident on the new team, Jones said: "It's focused. It's disciplined. It's on message. It's hard-hitting, with a pinch of levity as well."
Schmidt, a communications strategist for President Bush's 2004 campaign, runs the campaign's day-to-day operations. Davis handles long-range matters such as the convention, the campaign budget, the vice presidential selection, ad strategy and the upcoming debates with Obama.
In summer 2007, McCain was behind in public opinion polls and hampered by lackluster fundraising combined with a fast rate of spending. Davis, who managed the Arizona senator's campaign in 2000, took charge and said the campaign would emphasize McCain's efforts at reducing federal spending and "winning the war against Islamic extremists."
Thrust into the underdog's role, McCain scaled back his national operations, traveled on commercial flights and spent more time trying to win voters one-on-one. That strategy helped in New Hampshire, where he repeated his 2000 primary win. He bested Mike Huckabee in South Carolina, then handled Mitt Romney in Florida. Subsequent wins in California, Texas and Ohio enabled McCain to nail down the GOP nomination by March 4.
As the McCain team began planning for the fall, Davis organized a campaign around 10 regions, giving managers in those regions autonomy over their operations. Republican strategist Rich Galen said that as the months rolled on, the campaign seemed to lack a unifying theme and needed central direction from McCain's Virginia headquarters.
Enter Schmidt, a veteran of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2006 re-election campaign and the communications strategist for the Supreme Court nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.
Schmidt had originally joined the McCain team on a limited basis as a senior adviser but got elevated to run day-to-day operations so Davis could focus on big-picture strategy. Sometimes called "The Bullet" because of his shaved head and his aggressive style, Schmidt had been a frequent presence on the McCain campaign bus and plane before his new role.
Galen described the decision to put Schmidt in charge of daily operations as more an "addition" than a shake-up.
"Davis became the chairman of the board," Galen said. "Schmidt became the chief executive officer."
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The Washington Post
September 3, 2008 Wednesday
Met 2 Edition
The Trail
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A27
LENGTH: 854 words
COURTING JEWISH VOTERS
Biden Cites Obama's Support of Israel
DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. -- Joseph Biden called himself a "zadie" (grandfather) and emphasized the importance of "mishpuchah" (family) as he touted himself and the Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, as strong allies of Israel and the American Jewish community in a speech Tuesday.
Although polls show more than 60 percent of Jewish voters backing Obama, the campaign has worried that viral e-mails falsely asserting Obama is a Muslim and some sermons by Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, could dampen enthusiasm for the senator from Illinois.
Biden was introduced by a child of Holocaust survivors. The running mate emphasized his personal links to the late Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor who became a congressman from California. Lantos, who died this year, had served as a foreign policy aide to Biden before running for office.
Biden noted that his son's mother-in-law is Jewish and that the stepfather of one of his top foreign policy advisers was a Holocaust survivor. Biden talked about his first trip abroad as a senator, on which he met Golda Meir when she was prime minister of Israel. And he invoked several Yiddish terms to connect with an audience that included many older Jewish voters.
"I want to remind those of you who don't know me -- and those of you who do know me -- what my record has been. It has been unstinting in the defense and support of Israel," Biden told a crowd of several hundred at the Century Village retirement community.
Referring to the "scurrilous stuff going on in the Internet" about Obama, Biden said, "I promise you, the stuff you're getting on the Internet is simply not true."
"Not enough people know about Barack," Biden continued. "I promise you, Barack Obama, this man understands what is the driving energy in our community."
He went on to say, "Israel today is less secure than it was eight years ago."
"I promise you, we will make it more secure," Biden said to loud applause.
-- Perry Bacon Jr.
HOTEL ROOM ADS
Progressive Group Has Its Say
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Campaign for America's Future, a political organization that champions Democratic and progressive causes, is airing a TV ad this week that "thanks" conservatives and Republicans for the past eight years and promises, "We'll take it from here."
To the tune of "Thanks for the Memories," images of flood-ravaged post-Katrina New Orleans, gas-pump price dials, a foreclosure sign on a front lawn and President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" banner flash onscreen.
The ad started airing Sunday night in 365,000 hotel rooms nationwide -- including 5,000 in the Twin Cities area -- on the Hotel Networks, an in-room TV service used by hotel chains. (It's the channel offering pay-per-view movies that often air when you turn on a hotel room TV.)
The group said it wanted to make an ad buy for Twin Cities-area hotels only but could make only a nationwide buy.
-- Ed O'Keefe
ALASKA VETO
Palin Slashed Funding To Help Teenage Mothers
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, used her line-item veto this year to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.
After the legislature passed a spending bill in April, Palin went through the measure reducing and eliminating funds for programs she opposed. Writing her initials on the legislation, Palin reduced funding for Covenant House Alaska by more than 20 percent, cutting funds from $5 million to $3.9 million. Covenant House provides programs and shelters for troubled youths, including Passage House, which is a transitional home for teenage mothers.
According to the Passage House Web site, its purpose is to provide "young mothers a place to live with their babies for up to eighteen months while they gain the necessary skills and resources to change their lives" and help them "become productive, successful, independent adults who create and provide a stable environment for themselves and their families."
John McCain opposed funding to prevent teen pregnancies, a position that Palin also took as governor. "The explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support," she wrote in a 2006 questionnaire distributed among gubernatorial candidates.
It also emerged yesterday that Palin and her husband, Todd, each held a 20 percent stake in an Anchorage carwash that ran into trouble with Alaska's Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing after she became governor in 2006, according to state records.
A Feb. 11, 2007, letter to the governor's business partner advises that the carwash had "not filed its biennial report and/or paid its biennial fees," which were more than a year overdue. The warning was issued on state letterhead, which carried Palin's name at the top, next to the state seal.
On April 3, 2007, the state went further and issued a "certificate of involuntary dissolution" because of the carwash's failure to file its report and pay state licensing fees.
-- Paul Kane, Matthew Mosk and the Associated Press
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post; Vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden, shown last week in Denver, told an audience at a Florida retirement community that he and Barack Obama are strong allies of Israel.
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September 3, 2008 Wednesday
Met 2 Edition
The Spirit of $17.76;
Thousands of Ron Paul Supporters Are Happy to Pay a Price for His Own Grand Old Party
BYLINE: Libby Copeland; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A21
LENGTH: 1000 words
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 2
All day long, the crowd grows. It is thick with tricorn hats. A singer does a sound check of something called "The Ron Paul Song." The chorus goes "Ron! Paul! Ron! Paul!" A woman comes out and gives the invocation. She says, "Thank you, dear Heavenly Father, for Dr. Ron Paul."
The crowd cheers and waits for its man.
Up in the stands here at Target Center, a woman in Colonial costume is holding a hot dog. Her husband is wearing breeches and a lace collar, and her daughters are wearing lacy mobcaps. It's like the 1700s, sort of, except for the lights and the microphones and the concrete stands and the video screen. The woman, whose name is Charity Davis, says she believes in home schooling and small government and Ron Paul. She says her family would qualify for food stamps but they won't take 'em -- won't take a piece of that welfare state.
She is waiting for her man.
Ditto the kids who took the buses from -- well, God knows where they took the buses from. All over the place. The Paul kids are devoted. They'll sleep in YMCA camps and go without showers for him. (Everyone must sacrifice.) They call the buses the Ronvoys.
"What is there not to like about Ron Paul?" asks Emilie Eggleston, 24, a college student who took a Ronvoy from Austin. "I didn't know a whole lot about the gold standard," she recalls, but then she discovered Paul. She looked up his speeches from the old days: The guy hasn't changed his positions. That's integrity, she says. "He's my man!"
Forget that other convention. The Republicans wouldn't let Paul speak, so Paul decided to throw his own party, called the "Rally for the Republic." He invited speakers: conservative commentator Tucker Carlson to emcee, former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura to excite the crowd. Paul got Grover Norquist to talk about taxes and John McManus of the John Birch Society to talk about problems like "illegals." Paul sold 10,000 tickets at the liberty-loving price of $17.76 each.
And the supporters have come: young and old, hip and nerdy, talking mostly about their favorite topic, libertarian economic theory. They are utterly enthralled by a slight Republican congressman from Texas who sounds like Jimmy Stewart, a man who ran for president and failed and talks about the past and looks every inch his age. Which is . . .
"I just had a birthday," Paul says during a brief interview backstage. "What year is this?" He mulls the question. "I'm 73," he concludes.
But they haven't seen him yet. All day, they wait and cheer and take to their feet to shout "End the Fed! End the Fed!" Copies of a newspaper called USA Tomorrow are strewn about. Top headlines: "McCain's Mob Connections 'Swept' " and "Obama's Communist 'Cover-Up' Continues." An ad in the event program reads: "Say Goodbye to the IRS NOW!"
They wait as speakers talk about what's gone wrong with the nation. As Barb Davis White, who is running for Congress in Minnesota, says she's campaigning against "liberalism, fascism and socialism" and hopes one day "we can send the Fairness Doctrine back to the pits of Hell where it was born." As libertarian Lew Rockwell talks about gas prices and President Bush's "dangerous, Messianic" ambition. As Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus talks about the threat from the United Nations and the travesty of the "War of Northern Aggression."
The speakers talk about John McCain (booo) and about "Barack Hussein Obama" (more booo). They talk about "the Austrian theory of the business cycle." (Huge cheers.) They talk of how the Constitution has been trampled on.
"Dictatorship!" cries a man near the stage.
Meanwhile, backstage, at precisely 5:15 p.m. Central time, the gate above the loading dock opens and a white van drives past. Ron Paul is on the premises. He's in the passenger seat and looks as if he might be napping.
If he seems an unlikely vessel for so many hopes, Paul has one thing few in public life possess: nearly pure ideological consistency. In Congress, the OB-GYN is known as Dr. No. He's so old school that he's 18th-century old school. He doesn't like the federal government having power -- not over drugs, not over food, not over the environment, not over schools, not over citizens' money. He doesn't believe in Medicare and he doesn't believe in Social Security. He believes fervently in the free market.
During his presidential run, Paul attracted considerable amounts of money and support for his tiny operation, and maintained that he represented the true roots of the Republican Party, which might explain why he is persona non grata at the convention, which is going on in the other of the Twin Cities. (As one rally speaker puts it, "John McCain will be in St. Paul, but Saint Paul will be in Minneapolis!") During a news conference and a subsequent interview, Paul says he was given a "second-class" floor pass and was told that if he wanted to walk around on the floor, he'd be chaperoned. "It makes them look bad," he says of the convention officials, and adds that he hasn't yet decided if he'll visit the arena at all.
He doesn't seem too upset, though. He talks about balancing the budget and about how people have been writing songs for him about the Federal Reserve. He says, "One of the most exciting issues that we talk about with young people is monetary policy!" He says he's going to be on "The Colbert Report" soon.
As it gets later in the evening, the crowd gets more excited. Audience members toss "RON" balloons. When, at last, Paul walks to the podium, the applause is thunderous. He seems startled by a cloud of confetti exploding nearby.
"This is very amazing," he says, grinning in a grandfatherly way. He talks about how much better things were in the 1950s and then he gets into the meat of all that's bad with the nation. He says "even a 1 percent income tax is morally wrong." He warns of "dictatorship" and of "power gravitating to international governments" and a "new world order."
And then he starts in on the Federal Reserve. The crowd -- it just goes wild.
LOAD-DATE: September 3, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; Photos By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post; "Rally for the Republic," held at the Target Center in Minneapolis at the same time as the Republican convention in St. Paul, has drawn a crowd in support of onetime presidential candidate Ron Paul.
IMAGE; Minnesotan Gary Lentz, above, and Coloradan John Weins await an appearance by Paul, denied a speaking slot in St. Paul.
IMAGE
IMAGE; By Keith Bedford -- Bloomberg News; "This is very amazing": Not invited to speak at the convention, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) greets attendees at his "Rally for the Republic" in Minneapolis.
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September 3, 2008 Wednesday 10:30 PM EST
Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, Delivers Speech Accepting Vice Presidential Nomination
BYLINE: CQ Transcripts Wire, washingtonpost.com
LENGTH: 3025 words
HIGHLIGHT: SPEAKER: GOV. SARAH PALIN, R-ALASKA
SPEAKER: GOV. SARAH PALIN, R-ALASKA
[*] PALIN: Mr. Chairman, delegates, and fellow citizens, I will be honored to accept your nomination for vice president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
I accept the call to help our nominee for president to serve and defend America. And I accept the challenge of a tough fight in this election against confident opponents at a crucial hour for our country.
And I accept the privilege of serving with a man who has come through much harder missions, and met far graver challenges, and knows how tough fights are won, the next president of the United States, John S. McCain.
(APPLAUSE)
It was just a year ago when all the experts in Washington counted out our nominee because he refused to hedge his commitment to the security of the country he loves.
With their usual certitude, they told us that all was lost, there was no hope for this candidate, who said that he would rather lose an election than see his country lose a war. But the pollsters...
(APPLAUSE)
The pollsters and the pundits, they overlooked just one thing when they wrote him off. They overlooked the caliber of the man himself, the determination, and resolve, and the sheer guts of Senator John McCain.
(APPLAUSE)
The voters knew better, and maybe that's because they realized there's a time for politics and a time for leadership, a time to campaign and a time to put our country first.
(APPLAUSE)
Our nominee for president is a true profile in courage, and people like that are hard to come by. He's a man who wore the uniform of his country for 22 years and refused to break faith with those troops in Iraq who now have brought victory within sight.
(APPLAUSE)
And as the mother of one of those troops, that is exactly the kind of man I want as commander-in-chief.
(APPLAUSE)
PALIN: I'm just one of many moms who will say an extra prayer each night for our sons and daughters going into harm's way. Our son, Track, is 19. And one week from tomorrow, September 11th, he'll deploy to Iraq with the Army infantry in the service of his country.
My nephew, Casey (ph), also enlisted and serves on a carrier in the Persian Gulf.
My family is so proud of both of them and of all the fine men and women serving the country in uniform.
(APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
PALIN: So Track is the eldest of our five children. In our family, it's two boys and three girls in between, my strong and kind- hearted daughters, Bristol, and Willow, and Piper.
(APPLAUSE)
And we were so blessed in April. Todd and I welcomed our littlest one into the world, a perfectly beautiful baby boy named Trig.
You know, from the inside, no family ever seems typical, and that's how it is with us. Our family has the same ups and downs as any other, the same challenges and the same joys.
Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge. And children with special needs inspire a very, very special love. To the families of special-needs...
(APPLAUSE)
To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message for you: For years, you've sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. And I pledge to you that, if we're elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House.
(APPLAUSE)
And Todd is a story all by himself. He's a lifelong commercial fisherman and a production operator in the oil fields of Alaska's North Slope, and a proud member of the United Steelworkers union. And Todd is a world champion snow machine racer.
(APPLAUSE)
Throw in his Yup'ik Eskimo ancestry, and it all makes for quite a package. And we met in high school. And two decades and five children later, he's still my guy.
(APPLAUSE)
My mom and dad both worked at the elementary school in our small town. And among the many things I owe them is a simple lesson that I've learned, that this is America, and every woman can walk through every door of opportunity.
And my parents are here tonight.
(APPLAUSE)
PALIN: I am so proud to be the daughter of Chuck and Sally Heath (ph).
(APPLAUSE)
Long ago, a young farmer and a haberdasher from Missouri, he followed an unlikely path -- he followed an unlikely path to the vice presidency. And a writer observed, "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity," and I know just the kind of people that writer had in mind when he praised Harry Truman.
I grew up with those people. They're the ones who do some of the hardest work in America, who grow our food, and run our factories, and fight our wars. They love their country in good times and bad, and they're always proud of America.
(APPLAUSE)
I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom and signed up for the PTA.
(APPLAUSE)
I love those hockey moms. You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.
(APPLAUSE)
So I signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education even better. And when I ran for city council, I didn't need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and I knew their families, too.
Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska...
(APPLAUSE)
... I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involved.
(APPLAUSE)
I guess -- I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.
(APPLAUSE)
I might add that, in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they're listening and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.
(APPLAUSE)
No, we tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.
(APPLAUSE)
As for my running mate, you can be certain that wherever he goes and whoever is listening John McCain is the same man.
(APPLAUSE)
Well, I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. And...
(APPLAUSE)
... I've learned quickly these last few days that, if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.
(AUDIENCE BOOS)
PALIN: But -- now, here's a little newsflash. Here's a little newsflash for those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this great country.
(APPLAUSE)
Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reason and not just to mingle with the right people. Politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests. The right reason is to challenge the status quo, to serve the common good, and to leave this nation better than we found it.
(APPLAUSE)
No one expects us all to agree on everything, but we are expected to govern with integrity, and goodwill, and clear convictions, and a servant's heart.
And I pledge to all Americans that I will carry myself in this spirit as vice president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE) This was the spirit that brought me to the governor's office when I took on the old politics as usual in Juneau, when I stood up to the special interests, and the lobbyists, and the Big Oil companies, and the good-old boys.
Suddenly, I realized that sudden and relentless reform never sits well with entrenched interests and power-brokers. That's why true reform is so hard to achieve.
But with the support of the citizens of Alaska, we shook things up. And in short order, we put the government of our state back on the side of the people.
(APPLAUSE)
I came to office promising major ethics reform to end the culture of self-dealing. And today, that ethics reform is a law.
While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for. That luxury jet was over-the-top.
(APPLAUSE)
I put it on eBay.
(APPLAUSE)
I love to drive myself to work. And I thought we could muddle through without the governor's personal chef, although I got to admit that sometimes my kids sure miss her.
(APPLAUSE)
I came to office promising to control spending, by request if possible, but by veto, if necessary.
(APPLAUSE)
Senator McCain also -- he promises to use the power of veto in defense of the public interest. And as a chief executive, I can assure you it works.
(APPLAUSE)
Our state budget is under control. We have a surplus. And I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending, nearly $500 million in vetoes.
(APPLAUSE)
PALIN: We suspended the state fuel tax and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress, "Thanks, but no thanks," on that Bridge to Nowhere.
(APPLAUSE)
If our state wanted to build a bridge, we were going to build it ourselves.
(APPLAUSE)
When oil and gas prices went up dramatically and filled up the state treasury, I sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged: directly to the people of Alaska.
(APPLAUSE)
And despite fierce opposition from oil company lobbyists, who kind of liked things the way that they were, we broke their monopoly on power and resources. As governor, I insisted on competition and basic fairness to end their control of our state and return it to the people.
(APPLAUSE)
I fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history. And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.
(APPLAUSE)
That pipeline, when the last section is laid and its valves are open, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart.
The stakes for our nation could not be higher. When a hurricane strikes in the Gulf of Mexico, this country should not be so dependent on imported oil that we're forced to draw from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And families cannot throw more and more of their paychecks on gas and heating oil.
With Russia wanting to control a vital pipeline in the Caucasus and to divide and intimidate our European allies by using energy as a weapon, we cannot leave ourselves at the mercy of foreign suppliers.
(APPLAUSE)
To confront the threat that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of the world's energy supplies, or that terrorists might strike again at the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia, or that Venezuela might shut off its oil discoveries and its deliveries of that source, Americans, we need to produce more of our own oil and gas. And...
(APPLAUSE)
And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: We've got lots of both.
(APPLAUSE)
Our opponents say again and again that drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems, as if we didn't know that already.
(LAUGHTER)
But the fact that drilling, though, won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.
(APPLAUSE)
Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines, and build more nuclear plants, and create jobs with clean coal, and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources. We need...
(APPLAUSE)
We need American sources of resources. We need American energy brought to you by American ingenuity and produced by American workers.
(APPLAUSE)
And now, I've noticed a pattern with our opponent, and maybe you have, too. We've all heard his dramatic speeches before devoted followers, and there is much to like and admire about our opponent.
But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the State Senate.
(APPLAUSE)
PALIN: This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word "victory," except when he's talking about his own campaign.
(APPLAUSE)
But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot...
(APPLAUSE)
... when that happens, what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?
(APPLAUSE)
The answer -- the answer is to make government bigger, and take more of your money, and give you more orders from Washington, and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world.
(AUDIENCE BOOS)
America needs more energy; our opponent is against producing it. Victory in Iraq is finally in sight, and he wants to forfeit. Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay; he wants to meet them without preconditions.
Al Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America, and he's worried that someone won't read them their rights.
(APPLAUSE)
Government is too big; he wants to grow it. Congress spends too much money; he promises more. Taxes are too high, and he wants to raise them. His tax increases are the fine print in his economic plan.
And let me be specific: The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, and raise payroll taxes, and raise investment income taxes, and raise the death tax, and raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars. (AUDIENCE BOOS)
My sister, Heather, and her husband, they just built a service station that's now open for business, like millions of others who run small businesses. How are they...
(APPLAUSE)
How are they going to be better off if taxes go up? Or maybe you are trying to keep your job at a plant in Michigan or in Ohio...
(APPLAUSE)
... or you're trying -- you're trying to create jobs from clean coal, from Pennsylvania or West Virginia.
(APPLAUSE)
You're trying to keep a small farm in the family right here in Minnesota.
(APPLAUSE)
How are you -- how are you going to be better off if our opponent adds a massive tax burden to the American economy?
Here's how I look at the choice Americans face in this election: In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.
PALIN: They are the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners or on self-designed presidential seals.
(APPLAUSE)
Among politicians, there is the idealism of high-flown speech- making, in which crowds are stirringly summoned to support great things, and then there is the idealism of those leaders, like John McCain, who actually do great things.
(APPLAUSE)
They're the ones who are good for more than talk, the ones that we've always been able to count on to serve and to defend America.
Senator McCain's record of actual achievements and reform helps explain why so many special interests, and lobbyists, and comfortable committee chairmen in Congress have fought the prospect of a McCain presidency from the primary election of 2000 to this very day.
Our nominee doesn't run with the Washington herd. He's a man who's there to serve his country and not just his party, a leader who's not looking for a fight, but sure isn't afraid of one, either.
(APPLAUSE)
Harry Reid, the majority of the current do-nothing Senate...
(AUDIENCE BOOS)
... he not long ago summed up his feelings about our nominee. He said, quote, "I can't stand John McCain."
Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps no accolade we hear this week is better proof that we've chosen the right man.
(APPLAUSE)
Clearly, what the majority leader was driving at is that he can't stand up to John McCain and that is only...
(APPLAUSE)
... that's only one more reason to take the maverick out of the Senate, put him in the White House.
(APPLAUSE)
My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
This world of threats and dangers, it's not just a community and it doesn't just need an organizer. And though both Senator Obama and Senator Biden have been going on lately about how they're always, quote, "fighting for you," let us face the matter squarely: There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you.
(APPLAUSE)
There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you in places where winning means survival and defeat means death. And that man is John McCain.
(APPLAUSE)
You know, in our day, politicians have readily shared much lesser tales of adversity than the nightmare world, the nightmare world in which this man and others equally brave served and suffered for their country.
And it's a long way from the fear, and pain, and squalor of a six-by-four cell in Hanoi to the Oval Office. (APPLAUSE)
PALIN: But if Senator McCain is elected president, that is the journey he will have made. It's the journey of an upright and honorable man, the kind of fellow whose name you will find on war memorials in small towns across this great country, only he was among those who came home.
To the most powerful office on Earth, he would bring the compassion that comes from having once been powerless, the wisdom that comes even to the captives by the grace of God, the special confidence of those who have seen evil and have seen how evil is overcome. A fellow...
(APPLAUSE)
A fellow prisoner of war, a man named Tom Moe of Lancaster, Ohio...
(APPLAUSE)
... Tom Moe recalls looking through a pinhole in his cell door as Lieutenant Commander John McCain was led down the hallway by the guards, day after day.
And the story is told, when McCain shuffled back from torturous interrogations, he would turn towards Moe's door, and he'd flash a grin and a thumbs up, as if to say, "We're going to pull through this."
My fellow Americans, that is the kind of man America needs to see us through the next four years.
(APPLAUSE)
For a season, a gifted speaker can inspire with his words. But for a lifetime, John McCain has inspired with his deeds.
(APPLAUSE)
If character is the measure in this election, and hope the theme, and change the goal we share, then I ask you to join our cause. Join our cause and help America elect a great man as the next president of the United States.
Thank you, and God bless America. Thank you.
END
LOAD-DATE: September 7, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
September 3, 2008 Wednesday 1:00 PM EST
Real Life Politics
BYLINE: Ruth Marcus, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4357 words
HIGHLIGHT: Washington Post opinion columnist Ruth Marcus was online Wednesday, Sept. 3 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss her recent columns and the latest news.
Washington Post opinion columnist Ruth Marcus was online Wednesday, Sept. 3 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss her recent columns and the latest news.
A transcript follows.
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Ruth Marcus: Hi everyone. Wow, an incredible few weeks: two vice presidential nominees, one and a half-conventions, and a hurricane. Anything to talk about? I'm getting a bit of an early start because I need to leave a few minutes early.
_______________________
Kensington, Md.: I've watched in amazement as the journalists at the Post have tiptoed completely around the issue of Sarah Palin's abstinence-only crusade in the wake of her teenage child's pregnancy. Do you think they have been cowed by the McCain campaign's efforts to make anyone talking about Bristol seem like a bully? I guess it's none of our business if Palin wants to bring higher fertility rates to America's teens this way. "Handmaid's Tale," here we come.
Ruth Marcus: Can't speak for my colleagues, but I don't think I've exactly been on tip-toes. Please see yesterday's column,
and this blog post.
A few more thoughts about Sarah Palin and her daughter's pregnancy. "We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby," Todd and Sarah Palin said in their statement Monday. But of course, in the world according to Palin, Bristol would have had no "decision" to make: The choice of whether to continue with the pregnancy would not be hers to make.
Same with the governor's decision, after learning that her own baby had Down syndrome, not to have an abortion. That's a judgment I certainly respect, but it is not one that should be forced on any woman in that difficult circumstance. I had my children at ages 37 and 39, old enough that the risk of Down syndrome was elevated, as it was for Palin, and my doctor recommended amniocentesis. Had the results indicated any abnormality, I have little doubt that I would have made a different decision than did Palin. I have no doubt that such an agonizing choice should have been up to my husband and me, not to the government.
Which is where, of course, Palin would leave it. She opposes abortion in all circumstances, except to save the life of the mother. In other words, no exceptions for rape, for incest, for genetic abnormalities or in circumstances where the woman's health is seriously endangered. I respect the Palins' choices. I only wish they would show as much respect for others to exercise their own, free of government imposing it on them.
_______________________
Washington: This is from Bob Novak's column today: "On the one hand, she shares McCain's loathing for earmarks." This is demonstrably false. I hate to burden this campaign with facts, but does reality count for anything anymore?
Ruth Marcus: Well, now she does. Nothing like a reformed earmarker.
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Elmwood Park, N.J.: Now I get it -- when McCain ran that "Celebrity" ad, he wasn't ridiculing Obama by comparing him to airheads like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, he was paying him a compliment, because he's now gone right out and hired his own beauty-contest winner with a dysfunctional family to run with. I apologize to the campaign.
Ruth Marcus: I'm not a fan of the celebrity ad--I thought it beneath Sen. McCain--but I think this is a disrespectful comment, unnecessarily so. I've been pretty critical of Gov. Palin, but her looks have nothing to do with it, as far as I'm concerned.
_______________________
Alexandria, Va.: As a Hillary supporter, I was considering sitting out this election when she was not put on the ticket. However, the selection of Palin has turned me into an ardent Obama supporter and I will vote for him enthusiastically. The thought of Palin a heart beat away from the presidency is unfathomable to me.
Ruth Marcus: It will be interesting to see how your Hillary comrades-in-arms react. Initial polls suggest they share your response.
_______________________
Springfield, Mo.: John McCain wanted Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge as his running mate, and he was pressured into choosing Sarah Palin. If he can't call the shots in his campaign, how can he run the country?
Ruth Marcus: He called the shots. But he called them after listening to political advice. Not the first, or last, candidate to do so. Do you think Sen. Obama listened to political advice before he chose Joe Biden? I do.
_______________________
Williamsburg, Va.: When was the last time a sitting president and vice president failed to attend their party's presidential nominating convention?
Ruth Marcus: Don't know, but probably not in the modern convention era. In that sense, kind of a stroke of luck for GOP.
_______________________
Rochester, N.Y.: Good afternoon! Lots of chatter about the Palin pick, but Gallup and Rasmussen shows Obama getting 50 percent for the first time. Is there a cross-current between the media attention and how the public is reading the race at this point?
Ruth Marcus: I don't think we know yet. Is that Obama's convention bounce? Is it Palin related? I am trying not to spend too much time focusing on nightly tracking polls, and more time on the essentials of what the candidates are saying, and what their backgrounds tell us, because there are so many twists and turns between now and election day.
_______________________
Great Falls, Va.: Thanks for being a breath of fresh air on a male-dominated op-ed page. I agree on the surface that Bristol Palin shouldn't be a campaign issue -- but, it's her mother who has made her one. She's a teenager, and teenagers do things they regret. They don't all involve premarital sex, either. But after you've got first hand experience with your policies totally not working, what the heck are you thinking by wanting to impose your morals (or lack thereof) on the rest of us? If the schools don't have sex education, half the country probably won't get any at all, because most parents probably don't want to discuss it.
I don't have a problem with a super-mom running for high office -- really I don't. With those family issues, though, I'd expect her husband to be "Mr. Mom" 12 months of the year, not the month or two he's not working the oil fields or hunting. A man in her position with those family issues almost without a doubt would have a stay-at-home wife.
Ruth Marcus: I think that her husband has taken a leave from his job, since she became governor, I believe. So the first dud is Mr. Mom, also.
And thanks for the compliment!
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Princeton, N.J.: Recently I have disagreed with many of your position -- e.g. on Iraq, Social security, etc. -- but your answer to the first question was magnificent! Perhaps you also can comment on Palin's attitude toward science. After all, how can a person make reasonable decisions on energy, atomic weapons, global warming, etc., if they believe the earth is 6,000 years old?
Ruth Marcus: Please see today's editorial about her substantive positions. I don't know that she has said one way or another whether she believes in evolution, but she has talked about creationism being taught in schools. Not so different, as far as I can tell, from some of what McCain has had to say.
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Washington:"But her looks have nothing to do with it, as far as I'm concerned." I am pretty sure that Gov Palin's skin, highlights and glasses worked at least 40 percent in her favor to be selected as the vice presidential candidate. Image, anyone? Hello?
Ruth Marcus: Right but the commenter was suggesting that we should think less of her for her looks. Not buying that, and I do think it's sexist.
_______________________
Bronx, N.Y.: Have you read one single media report about Gov. Palin that has been sexist in any way whatsoever? Putting aside the dead-certain fact that she would not be in this position if she was a white male (okay, unless she was named "Kennedy" or "Bush"), I don't see any media bias at all. If anything, she's getting a free ride on all the other stuff that's popping up that has nothing at all to do with teenage abstinence, or lack thereof, such as her firing of "disloyal" employees and her questionable political affiliations, to name but two. So I don't see where they can complain, except as a political tactic. With Hillary, it was all about fashion, hair, crying, etc., etc. -- by some of the same people who are now complaining!
Ruth Marcus: I'm not sure I would use the word sexist, but I think the fact that the nominee is a mother with five children, as opposed to a father with five children, and two with particular needs at that, plays into our reaction to and discussion about the selection. Do we think differently about a mom who takes on this challenge than a dad? Should we? I think the answer to the first question is definitely yes. Palin's selection has sparked a vigorous national discussion about juggling work and family, and when/what should give way. Is that sexist to talk about? I don't know, but certainly it is a conversation we would not be having were she a man.
_______________________
Ann Arbor, Mich.: What is your take on the projections of the electoral college vote and the advantage Obama has at this point? Do those things usually play out, or are they like Super Bowl winners picked before the first game is played?
Ruth Marcus: I think it is going to be very close. The electoral map is different than previous years, the number of battleground states somewhat bigger and the possible permutations therefore more numerous. There are states up for grabs in the Rocky Mountain West as well as in the usual Midwestern corridor, and, as I said before, so many things could happen between now and then anyone who thinks this Superbowl is fixed in advance hasn't spent enough time in Vegas.
_______________________
St. Paul, Minn.: Okay, hard as it is, I'm going to ask for a completely objective opinion from you on the Palin vice presidential pick. Do you think Senator McCain had any idea what a firestorm he'd light off (I mean in volume of attention, not necessarily criticism)? I know he wanted to attract attention with a surprise pick, but do you think he had any idea just how huge the chatter would be?
Ruth Marcus: I'd guess he did expect a big hoopla about the pick and I'd suspect he's pretty happy with that. Has anyone been talking about Barack Obama in the last few days?
_______________________
Kingston, Ontario: Ms. Marcus, re: the uptick in funding for the McCain campaign after the Palin announcement -- doesn't this suggest that there are plenty of people out there who are keen to treat this election as a renewal of the culture war? These donors looked at Sarah Palin and saw a gun-owner, a fundamentalist Christian, a pro-lifer, a skeptic on climate change, and the rest of the shopping list. Because these people all hate government, the thinness of Palin's government experience is actually a plus for them, not a minus. So my question is, do you anticipate two months of culture wars?
Ruth Marcus: No. I don't think this is a GOP convention like Houston 1992, which launched a culture wars campaign. I think the McCain campaign is delighted to have energized the GOP base and unlocked their pocketbooks, but I don't think that will be the campaign message.
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Scotia, N.Y.: Palin, Palin, Palin. I don't care if she's the second coming of Eleanor Roosevelt, Madame Curie, Mother Theresa and Catherine the Great combined -- how does it help McCain that no one is talking about him? Isn't he the one running for president?
Ruth Marcus: But we're talking, among other things, about Sen. McCain's judgment. And there was a lot of McCain talk at the convention last night.
_______________________
New York: The FBI's chief spokesman, John Miller, says Rick Davis baldly lied to the Post's Editorial Board, of which you are a member, when he said Palin was subjected to an FBI Background Check. Will The Post report this prominently in the news sections of the print edition, or will Fred Hiatt block this in the interests of covering for McCain?
Ruth Marcus: Fred Hiatt, for whom I work, has nothing to do with the news sections of either the print or the on-line edition, so he could not block this "in the interests of covering for McCain" if he wanted to. Which he doesn't. Out of curiosity, did you think this editorial was "covering for McCain?"
Ruth Marcus: Fred Hiatt, for whom I work, has nothing to do with the news sections of either the print or the on-line edition, so he could not block this "in the interests of covering for McCain" if he wanted to. Which he doesn't. Out of curiosity, did you think this editorial was "covering for McCain?"
Ruth Marcus: Fred Hiatt, for whom I work, has nothing to do with the news sections of either the print or the on-line edition, so he could not block this "in the interests of covering for McCain" if he wanted to. Which he doesn't. Out of curiosity, did you think this editorial was "covering for McCain?"
Ruth Marcus: Fred Hiatt, for whom I work, does not control the news sections of the print or on-line editions, so he could not "block this in the interests of covering for McCain" even if he wanted to. Which he doesn't. Did you think this editorial was covering for McCain?
Continuing Deception
Mr. McCain's ads on taxes are just plain false.
Sunday, August 31, 2008; B06
THERE IS a serious debate to be had in this presidential campaign about the fundamentally different tax policies of Barack Obama and John McCain. Then there is the phony, misleading and at times outright dishonest debate that the McCain campaign has been waging -- most recently with a television ad.
The two candidates have very different positions on taxes. Mr. Obama wants to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and cut them substantially for low- and middle-income taxpayers. He would cut taxes for more households, and by a larger amount, than Mr. McCain, who would give the greatest benefits to wealthy households and corporations.
These are disagreements rooted in divergent views about the role of tax policy: the importance of reducing inequality versus the importance of encouraging investment. Mr. Obama has the wiser and more fiscally responsible of the plans, on balance, but this is by no means a one-sided debate between evil, tycoon-hugging Republicans and good-hearted Democrats. Higher taxes do have consequences for the behavior of both individuals and corporations. Listening to the candidates debate and defend their actual plans would be a useful exercise.
Instead, the McCain campaign insists on completely misrepresenting Mr. Obama's plan. The ad opens with the Obama-as-celebrity theme -- "Celebrities don't have to worry about family budgets, but we sure do," says the female announcer. "We're paying more for food and gas, making it harder to save for college, retirement." Then she sticks it to him: "Obama's solution? Higher taxes, called 'a recipe for economic disaster.' He's ready to raise your taxes but not ready to lead."
The facts? The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that the Obama plan would give households in the bottom fifth of the income distribution an average tax cut of 5.5 percent of income ($567) in 2009, while those in the middle fifth would get an average cut of 2.6 percent of income ($1,118). "Your taxes" would go up, yes -- but not if you're someone who is sweating higher gas prices. By contrast, Mr. McCain's tax plan would give those in the bottom fifth of income an average tax cut of $21 in 2009. The middle fifth would get $325 -- less than a third of the Obama cut. The wealthiest taxpayers make out terrifically.
The country can't afford the tax cuts either man is promising, although Mr. McCain's approach is by far the more costly. We don't expect either side to admit that. But neither side should get to outright lie about its opponent's positions, either.
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Charlottesville, Va.: I disagree that we wouldn't be having a discussion about some of Palin's personal choices if she were a man, or that other people's families weren't an issue. Gov. Mark Warner deferred his bid for the presidency because of his still school-aged children. No presidential or vice-presidential candidate that I know of (in recent times) has had a pregnant teenager in the family, but if there had been a pregnant teenager it definitely would have been discussed.
It was discussed (and whether it should have been discussed was briefly made an issue) that Cheney's adult daughter -- someone who had worked in public as an advocate for gay rights - was gay. Some of these facts were brought up in order to underline possible hypocrisy issues. I think it's fully fair to discuss the fact that Palin has certain policies regarding family issues that would require people all over the country to make the decisions that she has, and for us to question whether we would like to have the results that she has. I would prefer a different path, and I hope that I can hang on to the laws that allow me to take one.
Ruth Marcus: There might be a discussion, but nowhere near as anguished and animated.
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Fairfax, Va.: I think you may be taking Palin's comments the wrong way. I am pro-choice, but also pro-adoption. In response, I often am told that no one is really pro-abortion, it's just that they want to be able to have the difficult choice available. Palin has said she doesn't believe its right to ever choose abortion, but that does not mean she thinks they should be made illegal. It's two very different points.
Ruth Marcus: I'm sorry but I believe you're incorrect. She has said that abortion should be illegal except to save the life of the mother.
_______________________
Washington: Do you think the claim of Palin's "executive experience" is one that the McCain camp will continue to promote? It seems pretty flimsy that they equate her position on the city council and mayor of a small town with the type of experience required to be vice president or president. Governor of Alaska is indeed impressive, but let's be honest, it's not quite on par with California, Texas or Florida. Give me Obama's, Biden's or McCain's "non-executive" experience any day.
Ruth Marcus: Yes, they will continue to promote the executive experience argument. If not that, what? And being a governor is a big deal. You're right, though, that it's a small (population) state with some different issues, budgetary and otherwise. In addition, her tenure is pretty short. But I don't think that means we wont keep hearing about it.
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Virginia Beach, Va.: Ruth, as for thinking differently about men and women, family responsibilities and public life -- don't you think John Edwards's decision to continue to run for president after Elizabeth was diagnosed with incurable cancer provoked a similar firestorm of questioning and criticism?
Ruth Marcus: Well, I wrote a column criticizing it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032701720_pf.html
But the reaction was nowhere near what it would have been had it been the candidate herself who was will.
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Do we think differently about a mom who takes on this challenge than a dad?: But all the articles that I've seen address her role as a politician-mom have been written by women. The first thing that my wife and my mom told me when they heard the announcement last week was that they couldn't believe a mother would put her special needs 4-month-old in this position. Is that sexist?
Ruth Marcus: Well, as I said, I don't think sexist is necessarily the right word for it. How about: gender-implicated? And definitely I think it is women who are having the strongest reactions.
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Detroit: I'm sorry, but I believe you are incorrect. Gov. Palin has said that abortion should be illegal in all cases, including in cases of rape or when the mother's life may be at risk.
Ruth Marcus:
Exception for the life of the mother. Not for the health of the mother.
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Washington: I am a strong Democrat, but after last night's speech by Lieberman (and before that, the vice presidential pick) I am depressed and feel that it is pretty much over. Partisan Democrats may hate him, but Lieberman's speech was successful. I watched that and I thought "uh oh" ... if I found myself agreeing with what he was saying, imagine what everyone else thought. That place at that time was pretty much all that Lieberman had left, and he poured all of his energy into it, and it came off well. This -- along with the Palin pick -- was (at least in this "news cycle") the two master strokes. And if McCain wins, these two decisions (Palin as vice president; Lieberman to give the speech to sweep everyone in) partly will be why. It's a dumb game, I think, and the Democrats -- being somewhat thinking beings -- cannot win it.
Ruth Marcus: I think Lieberman's speech was definitely a watershed for Lieberman--it's hard to imagine him back in the Senate Democratic luncheon after that--and I thought it was a heartfelt plea for McCain, but I also don't think it was a game-changer.
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Kensington, Md.: Ruth, have you heard of this new business venture cropping up in strip malls? Drive-through vice presidential vetting. I just thought you'd want to know about it, and maybe pass the scoop along to your colleagues there.
washingtonpost.com: GOP Vetting Emporium (YouTube, Sept. 3)
Ruth Marcus: Ha ha ha. I'm responding this to flack for Dan Balz's excellent story this morning reporting that the McCain campaign learned about Bristol Palin's pregnancy just the day before the nomination was announced.
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washingtonpost.com: Aides Say Team Interviewed Palin Late in the Process (Post, Sept. 3)
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New York: Hi Ruth. The GOP has trotted out its favorite whipping boy (and girl) -- the press -- but I think it brought on its own problems. When the press questioned Gov. Palin's experience, her defenders issued a barrage of foolish talking points -- proximity to Russia, head of National Guard, etc. This wackiness rightly piqued even more questions. Last night, PBS's Gwen Ifill posed the experience questions to two GOP congresswomen, and they responded thoughtfully and intelligently -- without the idiotic spin. It was a breath of fresh air. Thanks.
Ruth Marcus: Good for them. I missed Gwen's interview--though I am a loyal NewsHour viewer back home--but I am really looking forward to her moderating the vice presidential debate. What a fortuitous choice! (Full disclosure--my friend since 1984, my first day as a Washington Post reporter, when I walked in the door of the Prince George's County bureau.)
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re: Palin's "experience": How are Republicans able to argue that Palin has more experience than Obama with a straight-face? I have heard the talking points, almost as if straight from a memo, but it has become a farce. If McCain picked a head of cabbage, we would be seeing similar arguments, I'd wager.
Ruth Marcus: I'd like to see the cabbage spin!
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Baltimore: Hi Ruth -- thanks for the chats. I am an independent voter who thought McCain went over the top when he criticized Obama for putting political ambition over what's best for the country and held himself up as someone who would never do that. Now he goes and picks what appears to be an unqualified running mate based on her appeal to the religious right and possibly to disaffected Clinton voters. Am I the only one who thinks McCain (who seemed great to me up to about 2002) put politics above country in this choice?
Ruth Marcus: Pretty confident you are not the only one :)
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Syracuse, N.Y.: I know the GOP can't show anxiety over Sarah Palin's so-called "Troopergate," but how much of a problem does it actually pose if Mr. Branchflower finds her to be at fault?
Ruth Marcus: It could be a big problem if she is found to have done something wrong, but (call me naive) I've got to believe that this one at least was vetted with some care.
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Minneapolis: Welcome to the Twin Cities! Do you think the McCain campaign is surprised to be in damage control mode this week, rather than getting their message out?
Ruth Marcus: Thanks! I like the Twin Cities, wish I was getting a little more chance to see more of it, rather than the inside of a hotel room/filing center. I think the McCain campaign is relieved to be having a convention at all, given Gustav. But, yes, probably more damage control, especially on the thoroughness of the vet, than expected.
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Minneapolis: Isn't there something to the criticism that Springfield raised, though? Last week in Denver, we saw folks in the media accusing the Democrats of "small tent" politics on abortion for the Bob Casey incident that happened 16 years ago! Now, you have McCain essentially being forced into picking a vice president by the Republicans playing "small tent" politics on abortion.
Ruth Marcus: I think the Democratic party learned a good lesson from the Casey incident. And the Republican party is in a different place, though I find it similarly incomprehensible to imagine an anti-choice Democratic vice presidential nominee.
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Re: Lieberman's Speech: View from the peanut gallery, but ... Lieberman gave a speech last night? Where? Also, was there any surprise or twist in his speech? My view has been that he said what everyone expected him to. How much impact can the expected really have?
Ruth Marcus: Hi peanut gallery. I think watching the former Democratic vice presidential nominee endorse the Republican presidential ticket eight years later is pretty dramatic. But again, not huge impact.
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Ruth Marcus: Everyone, this was a great chat. I need to cut it just a few minutes short, but I enjoyed all the questions, and look forward to the next time. Lord knows what could happen by then!
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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September 2, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
A well-timed rain delay;
Hurricane Gustav could do for the GOP ticket what John McCain could not: Put needed distance between it and President Bush.
BYLINE: Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 15A
LENGTH: 1132 words
Cal Thomas is a conservative columnist. Bob Beckel is a liberal Democratic strategist. But as longtime friends, they can often find common ground on issues that lawmakers in Washington cannot. This week, from St. Paul, they'll dispense bipartisan advice every day from the Republican National Convention.
Today: The Bush problem
Cal: What if Republicans held a convention and nobody came? President Bush and Vice President Cheney have canceled. There have even been questions as to whether John McCain and his running mate would arrive. I didn't think it possible for this campaign to take any more turns, but Hurricane Gustav proved me wrong.
Bob: Bush and Cheney not showing up here is a blessing in disguise for McCain because it robs Democrats of the picture of Bush and McCain as twins in the Twin Cities. On the other hand, I think McCain and the Republicans did the right thing by scaling back their Monday session. What they are missing, however, is valuable time to bash Obama. But give the Democrats credit, too: Their opposition team that was sent to St. Paul packed up and left Monday to avoid looking too political while people along the Gulf Coast faced a potential tragedy.
Cal: That's precisely the right common ground message: country over partisanship. The Republicans got it right. Good for the Democrats for leaving town. Too bad former Democratic National Committee chair Don Fowler misfired, getting caught on mike saying Gustav's timing shows "God is on our side." Outrageous.
Bob: As though God would get down into the gutter of politics!
Cal: But this unfortunate situation could benefit the Republican ticket. Sunday in St. Louis, McCain said, "It's time to take our Republican hats off and put our American hats on." That was a post-partisan statement. With McCain and Sarah Palin in the affected area trying to help and demonstrating leadership, this could be the ultimate campaign commercial. And McCain's convention slogan "Country First" might turn out to have been prescient.
Bob: There's also the little matter of McCain appearing to be the anti-Bush of disaster relief! Let's see if McCain will end up doing a heckuva job this time around. Yet as much as he and other politicians commit themselves to hurricane relief, many Americans will see it as a politically calculating move. But hey, McCain can use the extra day to help Palin bone up on national and international issues. I can see it now, "Ummm, Sarah, that's Iran -- not Iraq."
Cal: Very funny, Bob. It's been a long time since I've seen Republicans as excited by a nominee. For them she encompasses all of their values. She's smart, a reformer, a maverick within her party; she's resolutely pro-life. She's a church-going Christian whose pastor is the antithesis of Obama's preacher for 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. She hunts, she fishes, and for those who still care about such things, she wears skirts and heels. What's not to like?
Bob: She's also a "hail Sarah" pass by McCain. I'm not so sure all Republicans are enamored by this choice. After all, just two years ago, she was a small-town mayor. Now she's ready to be leader of the free world? That's a stretch, Cal. How's the National Security Party going to convince the folks in Middletown, USA, that Palin is ready to lead the troops? That's a tad more important than whether she can bait a hook.
Cal: Ordinarily I might agree with you that her lack of Washington experience might make the issue of Obama's inexperience a political wash, but not this time. There are two types of experience: one is based on how one lives one's life and the sorting out of good and evil in a complex world; the other is experience that comes from being in Washington. I think McCain has the edge here because most voters seem to believe -- correctly in my judgment -- that Washington experience is overvalued. They want someone to shake things up. McCain has done that in Washington, and Palin has done it -- over a short time -- in Juneau.
Bob: With the political currents running against Republicans this year, McCain's only chance to defeat Obama is to position Obama as too inexperienced and, thus, too much of a risk to be president. McCain said his first criteria for vice president was an ability to be president, which is a real issue given his age. The choice of Palin has put McCain's "risk strategy" at considerable risk.
Cal: You managed the Mondale campaign in 1984 when Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman on a national ticket. What did you learn from that experience and how Ferraro was treated that Palin should be aware of?
Bob: Ferraro was mercilessly attacked by the news media for lack of experience, and Palin can expect even more criticism. Indeed, she's already getting it. Despite Ferraro's years as a congresswoman and her intimate knowledge of national and international issues, even she required a crash course in policy. Palin has a steeper learning curve and has to debate 35-year Senate veteran Joe Biden in exactly one month. Our campaign was behind Ronald Reagan by 15 points when Ferraro was chosen, so her selection was as important for breaking the "glass ceiling" as it was a campaign tactic. In McCain's case, he's in a tight race, making Palin that much more of a risk.
Cal: Every campaign has to weigh the pros and cons, and I think McCain's considerable political gamble will pay off. But first he has to solidify the ticket's freedom from the pains of the last administration. We remember that when Hurricane Katrina hit three years ago, the Bush administration was roundly criticized for not doing enough in what became a defining moment in his second term. Factor in the struggles in Iraq at the time, and he never recovered.
Bob: Not to mention the economic misery of the past several years!
Cal: My point is, Gustav -- in keeping the president away from St. Paul -- is symbolically separating President Bush from the newly invigorated GOP ticket. Bush won't be standing on the podium as a supporter of McCain. It seems appropriate that despite Democrats' efforts to paint McCain as "just another four years of President Bush," the image this week is something new altogether.
Bob: Even I won't saddle McCain with the Katrina failures, but his real challenge is distancing himself from Bush on the issues, rather than just symbolically. When it comes to the economy, the war in Iraq, health care and gas prices, McCain-Palin will still feel like more of the same. The Bush presidency was a calamity that this country can't repeat.
Cal: By week's end, that "more of the same" bumper sticker will die a quick death -- and rightfully so. With the rains of Gustav receding, the GOP convention will come alive and show the nation that in the 2008 election, the Democrats no longer own the "change" mantle.
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FINAL EDITION
Convention guide;
On tap for Day 2
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The Republican National Convention Committee is taking a day-by-day approach to the schedule because of Hurricane Gustav. This is the originally scheduled lineup, which could change.
The scheduled theme of tonight's session of the Republican National Convention is "Country First: Reform." Among scheduled speakers:
*Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge
*Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin
*Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani
On TV (all times Eastern)
*ABC, CBS, NBC: 10-11 p.m.
*PBS: 8-11 p.m.
*C-SPAN: 10 a.m.-midnight.
*Fox News: 9:45-11:15 p.m.
*MSNBC: 7 p.m.-2 a.m.
Regular programming airing from the convention.
*CNN: 6 p.m.-midnight (Larry King Live midnight-1 a.m.)
Convention newsmakers
Each day during the convention, USA TODAY hosts discussions with newsmakers. Taking part: reporters and editors from USA TODAY, USATODAY.com and Gannett News Service. Monday's guests: Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House of Representatives, and Michael Steele, chairman of GOPAC, a political action committee that recruits and trains candidates, campaign staff and activists. Highlights:
Gingrich. "A large part of conservatism isn't ideology -- it's an attitude about power in Washington. We are fed up with a corrupt Congress. We are fed up with bureaucracies that don't work. We're fed up with an inside establishment that doesn't pay attention to the American people. So there's a populist streak here that (presumptive vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin) fits at least as much as she fits a conservative streak."
Steele. "I think it's good for the party that we start internally pushing the envelope and pushing back on some of the old structures that have just gotten, quite frankly, comfortable. You know, if you don't have to lift a finger, it's really easy not to. You can always say 'next cycle.' What I think is important for the party to think about is this cycle, right now. Who is the next generation within our party and what value-added will they bring?"
For complete coverage, including video clips, go to politics.usatoday.com
Convention coverage
*Reaction to news of the announcement that 17-year-old Bristol Palin is pregnant, 1A
*USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows convention bounce for Obama, 6A
*McCain's time as a POW in Vietnam takes the forefront in his campaign, Story at left
*Thousands protest; hundreds are arrested, 10A
*Get Marco R. della Cava's take on the lighter side of the convention in his blog, The Political Party, excerpted in Life on page 5D and in full at politics.usatoday.com
At politics.usatoday.com
Visit us online for all the latest news of the convention, including:
*USA TODAY On Politics Blog. Read about the day's breaking news, big events and speeches.
*Photo galleries. See the day in pictures.
Four interactives
USA TODAY has four political interactives you can find online at politics.usatoday.com:
*Campaign ad tracker. Watch campaign ads and assessments of their accuracy and effectiveness.
*Presidential poll tracker. See head-to-head polling numbers for all 50 states.
*Electoral vote tracker. Build your own general election scenario for 2008.
*Candidate match game. Find out which candidate most reflects your political views.
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September 2, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
McCain's POW past hits center stage;
Campaign using candidate's Navy service to boost his leadership credentials against Obama
BYLINE: Jill Lawrence
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 7A
LENGTH: 1101 words
ST. PAUL -- John McCain's captivity in a Vietnam prison is the defining narrative of his life. Now, as he prepares to accept the Republican presidential nomination here this week, it is an increasingly prominent part of his campaign.
No biography of the former Navy pilot would be complete without an account of his harrowing years as a prisoner of war, the permanent physical damage he suffered from torture and inadequate medical care after his plane was shot down in 1967. The only question is whether it is possible to overplay such a dramatic episode.
In recent weeks, McCain and his aides have invoked his POW years to address Democrat Barack Obama's national security credentials, fight back after McCain appeared uncertain about how many residences his family owns and crush the idea that he cheated by getting questions before a religious forum.
In the Twin Cities this week, the South Carolina GOP is sponsoring a cable TV ad that describes the "home" where McCain was "starved, beaten, tortured and maimed for life" from 1967 to 1973. "So the next time Barack Obama talks about one of John McCain's homes, remember this one."
Bill McInturff, a McCain pollster and strategist, says the POW experience "conveys something powerful" about the Arizona senator. "People recognize that he's been tested in a way that's really unique," McInturff says. "They see him as ... somebody they can count on to not quit."
Yet military service has little impact on most voters, and a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll last month suggests a POW ordeal is even less likely to affect their decisions. Three in five people said military service would make no difference in their vote. Four in five said the same about a POW experience.
McInturff and others say McCain's story has special resonance because he turned down early release from prison while his father was commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific, depriving the enemy of a major propaganda coup. Taking no chances, Democrats frequently preface attacks on McCain with praise for his service.
"John McCain has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect," Obama said in an otherwise aggressive acceptance speech Thursday.
Character display
When he ran in 2000, McCain's captivity was part of his stump speech and a video shown at fundraisers and other events. It is even more central now.
"They were formative experiences," McCain said this week on Fox News Sunday. "We don't know what's around the corner of history, and we have to judge people's character. And my character, a great part of the formation of that character took place in a prison camp."
Sometimes McCain brings up his POW years to devastating effect, such as in April, after Elizabeth Edwards criticized McCain's health care plan and said he'd had government health care all his life. McCain, who walks stiffly, cannot fully raise his arms and receives disability benefits from the Navy, shot back on ABC's This Week: "I did have a period of time where I didn't have very good health care. I had it from another government."
The POW experience also figures in several McCain TV ads. The script for one: "Summer of love -- half a world away, another kind of love. Of country. Shot down, bayoneted, tortured. Offered early release, he said no. He had sworn an oath."
GOP strategist Scott Reed says references to McCain's military service reinforce his seasoning and leadership qualities against a young opponent. "All of this is about drawing a good, sharp contrast with Obama," Reed says. "It appears to be working."
Liberal bloggers have been keeping tabs on the rising frequency of POW references. "Why, why, Sen. McCain, must you entangle the fact that you were a POW into almost every question that is asked to you?" Steve Everett wrote Sunday on Daily Kos in a post headlined "Senator John 'I was a POW' McCain." The Elkton, Ky., photographer said McCain should let others make the POW case when it's relevant.
McCain's wife did just that on Monday. "Someone said the other day how could he talk about his POW experience all the time," Cindy McCain said at a breakfast with Louisiana delegates. She said he talks about it because, along with his other experiences, "it's what makes him tick. It makes him who he is."
Better judgment?
Democrats are trying, with care, to hammer home two points about McCain and his POW past. One is that you can respect him without voting for him. The other is that McCain's military career doesn't necessarily qualify him for the White House.
"It's fair to claim that heroic military service shows character. It's another thing to then leap to the idea that you have better judgment about national security," says retired general Wesley Clark, a former NATO commander who made a brief run for the Democratic nomination in 2004.
Political scientist John Mueller, a military affairs expert at Ohio State University, is more blunt. "Exactly how much he learned about national policy while sitting in a prison in Hanoi is terribly limited," he says of McCain. Furthermore, he says, the "grueling experience ... might lead to questions about how healthy he is. The Hanoi Hilton logically could be expected to decrease your life expectancy."
Dan Schnur, McCain's communications director in his 2000 presidential campaign, says McCain is at his best when he relates his POW years to a larger theme. He recalls fretting back in 1999 that the young audience of NBC's Tonight Show With Jay Leno would not appreciate McCain's war stories.
But "he talked about being part of a cause greater than your own self-interest," Schnur says. The group "understood the broader concept. ... We saw that the lessons he learned were the more important part of the story."
Common refrain
A sample of recent POW references from Republican John McCain and his campaign:
*Aug. 18: "The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous."
--McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace to The New York Times, on McCain possibly knowing questions for the Saddleback Civil Forum in advance.
*Aug. 21: "This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years in prison."
-- McCain spokesman Brian Rogers in The Washington Post, on how many houses McCain's family owns.
*Aug. 25: "I spent 5 1/2 years in a prison cell without -- I didn't have a house. I didn't have a kitchen table. ... I didn't have a chair."
-- McCain on NBC's Tonight Show, on the houses.
*Aug. 26: "I missed a few years of the Cold War as a guest of one of our adversaries."
-- McCain to the American Legion.
Source: USA TODAY research
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September 2, 2008 Tuesday
Regional Edition
Rail-Riding Biden Is a Strong Backer Of Amtrak in Senate
BYLINE: Ben Pershing; washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A13
LENGTH: 526 words
By now, it's nearly impossible to have missed the fact that Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), the Democratic vice presidential nominee, is such a homebody and regular guy that he rides Amtrak between Washington and Delaware every day when Congress is in session.
But Biden isn't just one of the passenger rail system's most famous commuters -- he is also one of its biggest supporters in the Senate.
"He's right up there," said David Johnson, deputy director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers. "I'd say in the top five [in the Senate] for sure. I can definitely say he's the biggest user."
Amtrak is critical to Delaware's economy -- the state is the only one with no commercial air service -- so all three of its members of Congress are strong backers of government funding for rail. Fellow Delaware Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D) actually may play a bigger legislative role than Biden does, because Carper serves on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
But Biden certainly has done enough to win the hearts of Amtrak's supporters, even earning a "Champion of the Rails" award from Amtrak's president in 2001.
"Senator Biden's voting record is very clear in support of Amtrak," Johnson said. "Both his votes and his words have backed that up over the years, and we are certainly pleased that he was selected to be the vice presidential candidate."
Biden even has a family connection to Amtrak. His younger son, Hunter, is a lobbyist and the vice chairman of Amtrak's board of directors, having been nominated to a five-year term on the board by President Bush in 2006. (Biden's older son, Beau, is the Delaware attorney general and is viewed by some as a potential successor to his father, should the senator make it to the White House.)
Joe Biden is an original co-sponsor of the Amtrak reauthorization bill, known as the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2007, versions of which have passed both chambers and are now awaiting a conference committee. He also is a regular signatory to letters calling for increased funding for the rail service, a perennial target for cuts by conservatives and other critics, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Amtrak's federal subsidy, which topped $1.3 billion for fiscal 2008, has frequently drawn complaints from budget hawks who argue that the rail system is inefficient and should not continue to operate on little-used routes.
In its fiscal 2009 budget request, the Bush administration proposed what it called "a significant but necessary cut" of more than $500 million from the system's budget. The White House said the suggested reduction "reflects that Amtrak has taken few steps to align its business with the traveling public's demand for intercity rail service and that it consequently continues to hemorrhage taxpayer funds."
Johnson said an Obama-Biden victory wouldn't necessarily translate into an avalanche of federal funds for Amtrak. He noted that Al Gore was a big booster of passenger rail when he was in Congress "and yet some of the biggest cuts in service came during the Clinton-Gore administration."
"As Jerry Maguire said, 'Show me the money,' " Johnson said.
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September 2, 2008 Tuesday
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The Trail
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AIDES CREDIT PALIN
McCain Reports A Record Haul
John McCain's campaign has credited enthusiasm about his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate for its August fundraising total of more than $47 million -- a record for the senator from Arizona.
The Republican presidential candidate has raised $10 million since choosing Palin, according to campaign spokesman Brian Rogers. Palin may have succeeded in reaching a large number of conservative donors who had been sitting out the 2008 campaign because they considered the candidate too soft on core issues, but that won't become clear until McCain releases his finance reports for August to the Federal Election Commission later this month.
The fundraising haul is more than double what McCain had raised over the summer and puts him, for the first time, in the same league as Barack Obama. The Democratic nominee has collected more than $50 million in each of the past two months. An Obama spokesman said Monday that the campaign was not ready to release its August totals.
McCain is likely to finish this week with a considerable amount of money still in his primary campaign accounts. Because he will be accepting federal funds for the general election, he won't be able to spend primary funds once he formally accepts his party's nomination. But he is permitted under the law to transfer the remaining money to Republican Party accounts in key battleground states on a flexible timetable, his advisers said.
That means he can, for instance, send that money to state party officials in October, once he knows which states will be most critical to his electoral success. Obama will not have to worry about those bookkeeping measures. He has decided not to take federal matching money, and so he can continue to spend any money he raised during the primary as the campaign pushes ahead.
-- Matthew Mosk
PROTEST LARGELY PEACEFUL
Dozens Held From 'Splinter Group'
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- At least 50 people were arrested at protests outside the Republican National Convention on Monday, police said. Police estimated that between 5,000 and 8,000 people joined a rally to the Xcel Energy Center, where the convention is being held. Police said the main antiwar demonstration was largely peaceful but a separate group of self-described anarchists smashed windows and set a trash bin on fire.
"There was a splinter group that came here to cause trouble," said Tom Walsh, a spokesman for the St. Paul police.
The crowds gathered at the Capitol grounds in the morning, as speakers and dancers performed. As the protesters made their way toward the conference center, they waved homemade signs that said such things as "Bush/McCain = McSame" and "GOP -- Government, Oh Please."
A group of Iraq veterans pushed a coffin, covered in an American flag and Army fatigues, in memory of Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, who was killed in Iraq in 2004. The father of Army Spec. Juan M. Torres carried a photograph of his son, who died in Afghanistan. Jose Rodriguez, a Vietnam War veteran from Houston, said he considered voting for John McCain but could not after eight years of the Bush administration.
"Iraq is an unjustified war. Kids are dying for nothing," he said. "We've got too many old people running things already."
Many families said they were enjoying the carnival atmosphere. Suzannah Ciernia said she had come from Northfield, Minn., with her friend Cindy Robinson and was having fun: "We're a couple of moms for peace. My husband is over with the war veterans, and my son is over with the students group."
Mike and Sue Starr traveled from Anoka, Minn., to protest against Vice President Cheney's role in the war. "He is a five-time deferment and he is sending our son to war. Our son leaves in two weeks for 11 or 12 months," Mike Starr said.
The war in Iraq was not the only issue being highlighted. Activists championed same-sex marriage, legalization of marijuana, an end to homelessness and better access to health care.
Maria Morales of Racine, Wis., was coordinating Voces de la Frontera, a group that supports illegal immigrants. "It's exciting -- I hope something comes out of this," she said. "We need legalization of the 12 million."
Many waved "Obama '08" signs, and "I Back Barack" T-shirts were on sale for $10 each.
There was a strong police presence along the march, with many officers in full riot gear. Some demonstrators complained of strong-arm police tactics throughout the holiday weekend. Doante Davis, 31, traveled up with a group from Louisville and was staying at "Bushville," a camp set up outside the Asia Supermarket on Western Avenue. He said that police had tried to intimidate the protesters overnight.
"The police had nothing better to do," Davis said. "They made their dogs bark at us and flashed lights in our faces last night."
"Democracy Now" radio host Amy Goodman and two producers were arrested while covering the demonstrations. Goodman was released after being held for over three hours, but last night she was waiting to hear whether Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar would be released.
"I was down on the convention floor interviewing delegates when I heard that two of our producers had been arrested," said Goodman. "I ran down to Jackson and Seventh Street, where the police had moved in."
"Nicole told me that as they moved in on three sides, she asked them 'How do I get away from this?' and they jumped on her."
Goodman said that when she ran up to find out what was going on, she was also arrested: "They seriously manhandled me and handcuffed my hands behind my back. The top ID [at the convention] is to get on the floor, and the Secret Service ripped that off me. I had my 'Democracy Now' ID, too. I was clearly a reporter."
-- Holly Watt
'I AM HOME NOW'
Biden Campaigns In Scranton
SCRANTON, Pa. -- Describing his role in the Obama campaign, Joe Biden said on CBS's "60 Minutes" Sunday night: "The thing I can do is, hopefully, go into Scranton and Wilmington and Sacramento and other places and say, 'I know the guy.' "
The senator from Delaware didn't wait long to make good on that promise and laud his running mate in his home town. Biden, who lived in Scranton until his family moved to Wilmington when he was 10, launched his first solo campaign swing by returning to his boyhood home.
"A lot of people say to me, 'What's Barack like -- what's he like, what's the deal, Joe?' " Biden said. "I promise you, my word as a Biden: If Barack grew up in our neighborhood like he did Kansas . . . he would have been our friend."
Biden apparently forgetting that his running mate grew up in Hawaii, continued: "He would cover your back, he would be the guy who meets the standard . . . That's Barack Obama. I promise you, his value set is the same."
The Obama campaign hopes Biden can help win over the older, non-college-educated white voters in places such as Scranton who overwhelmingly favored Hillary Clinton over Obama in the race for the Democratic nomination. During the long run-up to the Pennsylvania primary, Clinton constantly touted her Scranton roots, noting that her father grew up in the city and that her family often vacationed here when she was a child. Biden echoed similar themes.
In an ad that Obama's campaign released on the eve of his visit, his running mate says: "Scranton is a place that never leaves you. It becomes part of your heart."
Upon arriving at 2446 N. Washington Ave., where his family lived during tough financial times in his childhood, Biden yelled "This is my mom!" and hugged 91-year-old Jean Finnegan Biden. Biden's mother lives with him in Wilmington but came to Scranton for the event.
"I am home now," Biden declared to a crowd of people standing in the street waving at him in this middle-class neighborhood, accompanied by his brother Jim, campaign aides, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., who also grew up in this neighborhood.
He then walked into the house, now inhabited by Anne Kearns, who has lived there since 1962. Kearns told the group that when she moved into the house, her family found the words "Joe Biden was here" written on the wall of the third-floor bedroom that had been occupied by Biden's great-aunt.
She told the senator she had painted over his message but would be honored if he'd go up and sign his name again. An aide handed him a marker. With it, he wrote: "I am home. Joe Biden. 9.1.08."
"If my father were here, he'd smack me," the candidate said.
"We won't paint over it this time," Kearns said.
-- Perry Bacon Jr.
LOAD-DATE: September 2, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Rich Schultz -- Associated Press; Joe Biden reminisces with his cousins Jean Finnegan, left, and Mary Gaffney as he visits his childhood home in Scranton, Pa.
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Washingtonpost.com
September 2, 2008 Tuesday 2:00 PM EST
Election 2008: Republicans in Hollywood
BYLINE: Andrew Klavan, Conservative Author and Screenwriter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4207 words
HIGHLIGHT: Conservative author and screenwriter Andrew Klavan was online Tuesday, Sept. 2 to discuss Hollywood's hidden Republicans and the 2008 election.
Conservative author and screenwriter Andrew Klavan was online Tuesday, Sept. 2 to discuss Hollywood's hidden Republicans and the 2008 election.
A transcript follows.
Klavan is author of the new thriller " Empire of Lies." Two of his books, "True Crime" and "Don't Say a Word," have been adapted into major studio films.
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Andrew Klavan: Hello from the west coast. It's nice to be here and I'll start answering questions now as fast as I can type.
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Washington: From the outside looking in, Hollywood appears to be anything but a meritocracy -- it seems like one of the ultimate "good ol' boy" networks. How does that, if it does, contribute to the seemingly overwhelming majority of big-name Hollywood types who align themselves with the left?
Andrew Klavan: Hollywood's no meritocracy, that's for sure. People repeatedly "fail up" and are frequently promoted for disastrous decisions, especially if they win "prestige" points from the media. That - and the internationalization of the markets - have helped liberals continue to turn out products America doesn't particularly want. They may not do well at the box office, but they win awards and praise, and get big audiences in Europe.
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Boston: Hello Mr. Klavan -- I thought it was really gutsy of you to write "Empire of Lies," and I loved it. I'm wondering if any secret Hollywood conservatives have reached out to you after reading it? If so, what did they say?
Andrew Klavan: Thanks for that. And yeah, Hollywood conservatives - and conservatives in the arts in general - get in touch with me a lot, often just to thank me for opening my big mouth. It's an odd situation, especially in a democracy, when the people in the majority feel they have to be careful what they say for fear of an elite minority.
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Gary Sinise's living room: Andrew, while many stars/directors/writers espouse liberal views, aren't many of the studio heads and entertainment executives Republican? If the head of Viacom is a conservative, wouldn't that level the playing field? It seems that they ultimately would greenlight projects based on the dollars raked in. With movies critical of U.S. foreign involvements bombing in the box office, would there maybe be a sea-change?
Andrew Klavan: I wish it worked that way but it doesn't. First of all, I believe most of the town's decision makers are on the left. But even if that's not so, they still have to contend with a massive leftist intellectual superstructure. Bring out a movie with openly conservative, or even just pro-American, views, and you will be slaughtered by the critics. Check out the reviews for flix like "Tears of the Sun" or "Not Without My Daughter." Rather than fight the critical tide, filmmakers prefer to either bury their opinions or make "prestige" leftist pictures that win praise.
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Virginia: Hello. I wondered why and how liberals can be rich if they are anti-capitalism and anti-business? And most actors/actresses in war movies tend to be Republicans, no?
Andrew Klavan: Well, I wish I knew. It does seem to me a lot of people earn a lot of money off our wonderful capitalist system, then start to attack it as unfair. Maybe it's a way of displaying what righteous folks they are - I just don't know. And I don't know the affiliation of the actresses in war movies, but it does seem to me that most recent war movies have been against our war efforts.
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Harrisburg, Pa.: I am very interested in screenwriting and wonder how you got into it. Did you find many political discussions among screenwriters, and did you ever detect any political pressures against conservatives in Hollywood?
Andrew Klavan: I was dragged into screenwriting against my will. I sold a novel, The Scarred Man, to the movies and a producer read it and said to me, "I'll pay you to write any movie you want." I didn't realize I'd just been struck by lightning, so I said, "Nah. I just wanna write books." Shocked, she asked me, "Is there anything you'd write?" And I said, "Yeah. I'd adapt Simon Brett's novel A Shock to The System." So she optioned it, I wrote it and they filmed it - and I thought, hey, this is easy!
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San Diego:"True Crime" and "Don't Say a Word" are two of the best thrillers I've ever read. Do you plan on writing any more novels of this nature?
Andrew Klavan: Thanks very much. And in fact, I feel "Empire of Lies," is in that mode. I got away from it for a while because I wanted to do the Weiss/Bishop detective stories, but now I hope to stick to the thriller form for a while.
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San Jose, Calif.: Isn't it wonderful to live among the liberals in Southern California and New York City and rail against their attitudes toward the people living in flyover country? If you want to live and work in Hollywood and keep criticizing the liberals there, doesn't that make you a hypocrite? Why don't you practice what you preach and move to Alabama or Mississippi? Wouldn't you be with people who share your values?
Andrew Klavan: I was unaware of the new laws that allow only people of certain political opinions to live on the coasts. Like most Conservatives, I prefer living among people of all kinds of views because I know if we argue, I'll win on the merits. I've never understood liberals' insistence that only they should get to speak - or live in California - or make movies - or do anything else.
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Madison, Wis.:"It's an odd situation, especially in a democracy, when the people in the majority feel they have to be careful what they say for fear of an elite minority." With all due respect, what are you fearful of? Losing your job? Being physically attacked?
Andrew Klavan: lol, well not being physically attacked - but thanks for asking. Many people in Hollywood are fearful because they want to work in the movie industry very badly and they feel they will not be hired if they're known to be conservative. The same is true in book publishing, where it's difficult to get conservative books, especially novels, published. And when you do, you get attacked. My novel "Empire of Lies" was deemed the work of "a right wing crackpot." That's the sort of thing that scares people.
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Baltimore: I've heard it said that being a good actor requires you to imagine yourself as someone else, to live inside their own skin -- and that once you develop the ability to do that, it's tough not to become your brother's keeper, and act politically liberal. What is the conservative philosophical response to this?
Andrew Klavan: Well, with all respect, I think it's nonsense. It's based on the assumption that conservatives don't care about their fellow man. When we see the way welfare destroys neighborhoods and families, when we see how a weak defense invites truly wicked people to attack the free, when we see how big government destroys liberties, we conservatives feel that liberalism is a way of feeling good without actually doing good. (Plus, I'm sorry, but the idea of actors as role models of caring... well, I'm not sure you've ever met any actors!)
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Washington: Mr. Klavan, what message does the Republican vice presidential nominee's family, lifestyle and role as an official send to the public when it addresses multiple marriages, kids having kids and shiesty politics within their party after being elected? It sounds very familiar to the "Wealthy Code of Conduct" to a middle-class-family member such as myself.
Andrew Klavan: I'm not sure exactly what you mean. I like Sarah Palin because of her history as a reformer and her principles in standing up to corruption in her own party. I admire her for sticking to her principles on abortion too when she found herself pregnant with a Down Syndrome child. It seems to me that both she and McCain are people of principle - and I don't believe that's true of Senator Obama who has kowtowed to the Chicago machine and followed a minister with a truly hateful philosophy. If you're referring to Governor Palin's daughter getting pregnant, well, I don't see that has much to do with anything frankly.
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New York: Movies are a global enterprise. Many films have about half their profits from outside the United States. Is it thus reasonable for the movie industry to consider its entire global market?
Andrew Klavan: Sure it is. And by the way, I don't want them to stop making liberal movies! I simply want them to make all kinds of viable movies. It seems to me only the left that wants to censor the opposition, bring back the Fairness Doctrine, shut down Fox News, etc. What I want is a free market of ideas. I do, however, believe that, while filmmakers are within their rights to make anti-war films, it is morally wrong to do so when American soldiers are at war and in harm's way.
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Eight Years: The Bush administration has been in power for eight years, and many people -- from both sides of the aisle -- are unhappy with the results. Adding to that, you have the opaque way in which they conduct office and the questionable things they've done re: torture policies and spying. And no amount of criticism, regardless of how much of the population is looking for something different, seems to affect the administration's decisions. How is it anything other than expected when movies are made to criticize the government? They're just not doing that great of a job. And by the way, "Not Without My Daughter" was just not a great movie.
Andrew Klavan:"Not Without My Daughter," was not a great movie, but a very good movie - as NY Times critic Vincent Canby admitted many years after he trashed it for its honest depiction of Islam. As for the Bush administration, it has done much I like and much I don't like and, as I say, it wouldn't bother me at all if there were movies taking both sides. I simply feel that Hollywood is a one party town. That's wrong when they are producing our most popular form of entertainment and the product that represents us to most of the world.
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The Market Speaks: It's interesting how many anti-war movies are released to the marketplace, never to be seen again. At what point do (or should) the Hollywood powers-that-be decide to listen to the people who actually buy tickets and stop with the polemics?
Andrew Klavan: LOL, well exactly. Listen, I'm sure those pictures make some of their money back overseas. But movies that told the truth - American soldiers are bravely defending the principles of liberty against the genuine evil of Islamo-fascism - would make fortunes both here and overseas, I would bet.
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New York: Did you just claim Hollywood is not motivated by commercial success? What a complete tool you are!
Andrew Klavan: Well, thanks for putting that so politely. But I'm sorry, while you may be right about me, you're wrong about Hollywood. Ideology, the desire to be loved by elites, the desire to win praise and prestige - all these things skew the profit motive. If not, you explain to me why close to a dozen disastrous anti-war on terror films have been made, and not one truly supporting America in the war on terror.
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Re: "Not Without My Daughter": I am a total left-leaning progressive, and I loved that movie! The story was intense and the acting was bonkers-good.
Andrew Klavan: Agreed - and I hope this is the beginning of your reformation! (Just kidding. Sort of.)
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Washington: Do great skin, excellent highlights, and suggestive glasses a good vice presidential choice make?
Andrew Klavan: LOL! No, if that were true, I'd've been in office years ago!
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Minneapolis How does one reconcile the notion that "big government destroys liberties" with support for today's so-called conservatives? They have done nothing but expand the government -- far more than Democrats did in the 1990s, and in far more intrusive ways as well. Today's conservatives have sold us fear and appealed to our basest instincts, instead of appealing to the best in us.
Andrew Klavan: I half agree with you. The expansion of government under the Bush administration has been a shame and, in my opinion, is chiefly to blame for GOP losses in congress. On the question of fear, no, I can't agree. It is not appealing to fear to honestly assess the threat from Islamo-fascism which, after all, has already taken a toll here greater than all IRA terrorism against England combined. Plus if you read Bush's speeches, he frequently appears to the very best in this country - including the courage required to defend it.
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Chaska, Minn.: I don't see a whole lot of "principle" in John McCain's flip-flops in recent years. Candidate McCain wouldn't vote today for the immigration bill Sen. McCain wrote. Why? Not because of "principle," but because of politics -- McCain was getting nailed for it and languishing in the presidential race. Candidate McCain favors the Bush tax cuts that Sen. McCain voted against, even though history has shown that Sen. McCain's criticism of the tax cuts were spot-on. McCain as the "principled maverick" makes for a good screenplay, but it's every bit a work of fiction.
Andrew Klavan: No, can't agree. First of all, the Bush tax cuts are responsible for a very long run of growth, jobs - and increased government revenues. If the administration hadn't spend a lot of that on increased entitlements, we'd be even better off. McCain was wrong on immigration and listened to the people, which is only right. On the economy, I'm not very happy with either McCain or Obama... but at least McCain doesn't talk about stealing people's profits to make things "fair," which is not the philosophy of free men and women but of envious children.
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I do, however, believe that, while filmmakers are within their rights to make anti-war films, it is morally wrong to do so when American soldiers are at war and in harm's way.: On the contrary, that is exactly the time to make such movies, to get them out of harms's way -- especially if the war itself is morally wrong.
Andrew Klavan: You can express your opinions without creating propaganda that helps the enemy. I was embedded with the troops in Afghanistan and saw how important the good will of the native people is to fighting these truly vicious insurgents. The best way to get the soldiers home is to win the war.
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Panned by critics: So then was "The X Files" a conservative-inspired movie? Seriously, I don't mind if people in Hollywood are conservatives or liberals. In fact, I just don't care. What does bother me is when people in a position of fame speak out with disrespect and flat-out disdain for our elected officials (Obama included ... I'm looking at you, Stephen Baldwin). I might have negative things to say, but I am a nobody -- my words aren't amplified. That doesn't mean that anyone should be muted or muzzled ... it's just that when you make your money off of your fame, be prepared to have people not wanting to spend their money "on" you.
Andrew Klavan: Well, I think everyone has a right to express his opinion. I think anyone who gives that opinion more weight because the speaker is a good actor or writer or is handsome or whatever, is making a serious mistake. And yes, of course you're right, the audience has the right to turn its collective back on anyone they disagree with. But if people are going to make movies expression political points of view - and how can they not - then let all pov's be expressed.
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"Tears of the Sun": I was about to mock you for such a dated film reference (along with "Not Without My Daughter"), until I realized that they truly were the ONLY movies lately with conservative viewpoints. "Black Hawk Down" was mostly apolitical -- it threw a glancing punch at the Clinton Administration, but that's a matter of historical record, not viewpoint. Other than "24," which gets a ton of flack from TV critics and leftist pundits, there really isn't anything out there.
Andrew Klavan: That's right. And look at 24 - it's gotten more and more liberal. Joel Surnow, the genius behind the original show, has been tossed out.
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Anonymous: Entertainment and Politics are now so closely wed that the next logical step is a President Clooney. The line between paparazzi and the press will no longer matter, and maybe things will finally get done on budget!
Andrew Klavan: Hollywood? On budget? Well, if you say so. But does it have to be Clooney. How about Clint Eastwood? As far as I'm concerned, he can be president any day.
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Southern Maryland: How does one criticize liberalism in Hollywood while avoiding the rhetoric that fundamentalist commentators use? Terms like "anti-Christian entertainment elite" sound like code for anti-Semitic myths, because books by Pat Robertson and Tim LaHaye traffic in such myths. Also, I had the impression that most studio executives were much more conservative than the actors and writers and producers. Is this your impression as well?
Andrew Klavan: Not really, no. People have this idea that rich people are conservatives - that doesn't seem true to me. The average contribution to the Dems is always much, much higher than the average contribution to the GOP. And in any case, the power wielded by stars in Hollywood really does counterbalance corporate power. And, you know, I despise anti-semitism and all forms of bigotry - but it seems to me there's a lot more bigotry against Christians in Hollywood than anything else.
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Minneapolis: Speeches are one thing, actions are quite another. One's words ring hollow when one says "we don't torture" and then it's found out that we do. Or when one says "we follow the law" and then it's found out that FISA law is ignored. Even if the law is wrong, that doesn't give you the right to break it. We told Bill Clinton that in the '90s, then turned away as Bush broke the law this decade.
Andrew Klavan: Hey, be critical of the government all you want. As I say, I want a free market of ideas. But I will say (and my novel Empire of Lies makes this point) that an action is not moral if it allows you to feel righteous but destroys others. It may feel like it's right not to torture someone, but if by torturing someone you can save a thousand lives... well, it's a more complex question.
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Sarah as Geena?: I read something this weekend (it was rainy here in Fla) that compared Gov. Palin to the Geena Davis character in that awful show where she wound up as a "great" president after the old man died. I woulda thought Hollywood would have been self-searching and introspective and would have seen the parallels. They're smarter than us, right?
Andrew Klavan: Smarter, richer, better looking... that's why they run their lives so well.
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Fairfax, Va.: I haven't read your book, only this chat. There have been dozens of small movies that went big seemingly because of nothing more than word of mouth. If -- as I think you are saying -- the right has stories that are being suppressed, why don't they take that route? Could it be that good movies are good movies regardless of the political persuasion of writer/director/actor? Could it be folks just want to see good movies regardless of who writes/directs/acts in them? It seems as if you're saying that Hollywood businesses aren't in it to make money, just to promote an ideology. I can see some folks willing to pony up their money for a movie that they think has to/needs to be made, but a whole industry? I think not.
Andrew Klavan: No, no, of course they're in it to make money - what I'm saying is that many things, including leftist ideology, sometimes skew that motive. And listen, making movies is a multi-million dollar proposition. You can't depend on word of mouth. You need a structure of promotion and distribution. Some of that's changing - and as it changes, you'll see more and more varied movies made. I look forward to the day.
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Take a human perspective: I think that movies can and should be made that look at more than boundaries of countries and see boundaries of class and gender. "Persepolis" was a very good movie that is critical of some of the more stifling aspects of Iranian culture. I find fire-breathing, preachy movies from either side to be unpalatable. I don't see how people wouldn't like something that is reasoned. Would you put "Hunt for Red October" and its like in the category of films not being made now because of the political climate?
Andrew Klavan: I don't like preaching either. And I'm happy to see movies about other cultures. But I find it galling that, for instance, a million and a half movies are made about McCarthyism, but barely one about the Gulags of the soviets. I find it absurd to compare American foreign policy - even at its worst - with an Islamo-fascism that seeks to destroy liberty and decency throughout the world. There are Christian anti-semites I know - but a Christian anti-semite is being a bad Christian, whereas an Islamist anti-semite is doing just what he should! These things matter and shouldn't be confused.
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Weekly Standard article: Mr. Klavan, did you read the Weekly Standard article about Jeff Zucker's right-wing spoof? It sounds like a painfully unfunny movie; plus, it's giving Robert Davi another paycheck. In all seriousness, I admire people trying to swim against the tide, but what else (realistically) can be done for conservatives to get their voices heard? More tolerant showrunners and studio heads?
Andrew Klavan: Actually, I saw a few scenes from the Zucker movie and they made me laugh... but I'm a sucker for his sort of thing. And to begin with, I think it would be helpful in Hollywood to recognize that certain "stars," (George Clooney comes to mind) aren't really stars at all - in the sense that people go to see their movies. Clooney's movies bomb repeatedly, unless he's surrounded by other big name actors, so why give him the power that he has to greenlight films? If Hollywood made economic sense, I think it would begin to make more political sense as well.
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Chaska, Minn.: Oh, come on -- now you're just making excuses. If McCain believed he was right on principle on immigration, he should have fought for it even if it was unpopular. Isn't that what you salute Bush for doing in the war on terror? And how can you honestly exalt the Bush record on the economy -- it's the worst recovery in the post-World War II period!
Andrew Klavan: Uh, the remark on the economy just doesn't fit the facts - it simply doesn't. And on McCain - look, you can pick and choose your points, but I think it's pretty clear he's lived a life of patriotism and principle. Flawed like everyone, but still... I simply don't think the same thing is true of the opposition. I don't always feel this way about the left, but I do this time. Obama's history is deeply troubling. McCain's is not.
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Bethesda, Md.: Gov. Palin's story would make a great movie, especially all of the drama of the past few days. I heard that somebody else is claiming they won Miss Congeniality, not Palin -- that is earth-shattering.
Andrew Klavan: I think it was McCain!
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Washington: If conservatives and Republicans hate government so much, why do they run for office? I'd much rather put someone in the job who at least believes in what they are doing. Put a Republican in office, and they're like a square peg in a round hole -- they have no idea why they are there.
Andrew Klavan: For me, the real problem is that they get in office - and suddenly forget that they want small government! If they stuck to their principles, they'd do a lot better at the polls.
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Washington: When will you right wing Hollywood buffoons admit that you're not good, and people just don't want to see your mediocre stuff? Did you see the "celebrities" who attended the McCain fundraiser? With the exception of Jon Voight, they all were third-rate actors -- some of them lucky to still be employed.
Andrew Klavan: This seems to me to be the argument of all people who want to exclude the opposition. We used to hear that blacks couldn't be baseball managers or football coaches - they just didn't have what it took. We used to hear women couldn't run businesses or whatever... no, in Hollywood, we hear that conservative principles magically strip you of your talent. We see conservatives repeatedly discouraged and excluded... and then wonder why all the big names are liberal. It's just not a good argument and never was.
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Andrew Klavan: Okay, folks, my fingers are tired and it's lunchtime out here. Thanks for stopping in. I hope you enjoy "Empire of Lies." Have a nice day.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
September 1, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
On the Trail, Adjusting to Life as a Couple
BYLINE: By JEFF ZELENY
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 860 words
DATELINE: TOLEDO, Ohio
The Democratic running mate was sitting on a wooden stool a few paces behind the man at the top of the ticket when he suddenly sat up straight and raised his microphone to say, ''Can I add one little quick thing to that, Barack?''
Senator Barack Obama had been answering a question here on Sunday about trade and America's place in the world when Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. chimed in. As he adapts to his new role as second fiddle -- akin to jumping into the passenger's seat after being behind the wheel for so many years -- the voluble Mr. Biden asks for permission before speaking.
A solo traveler for 19 months on the campaign circuit, Mr. Obama now has a companion, a man with an encyclopedic knowledge of foreign and domestic policies, not to mention an old story from most every city they passed through.
In their first weekend on the road together, with the Democratic convention behind them, Mr. Biden seemed to be easily adapting to opening his sentences with ''One of the things Barack talked about,'' before finishing his thought with an answer he might have given when he was challenging Mr. Obama in the primary only a year ago.
''We actually used to campaign against each other -- not against, but I was trying,'' Mr. Biden said in a dash of good humor. ''We were running in Iowa and New Hampshire. I don't know why the heck I didn't drop out earlier.''
Mr. Obama laughed, but offered no words of disagreement, as he crossed his arms and listened to Mr. Biden present an argument for why the few hundred voters on hand here at an outdoor meeting should support the Democratic ticket.
Settling In
The Obama-Biden tour, officially branded ''On the Road to Change,'' drew far less attention than the campaign had envisioned. Before their plane took off Friday from the Democratic convention in Denver, Senator John McCain dropped the bombshell news that he had chosen Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate. Then, as Hurricane Gustav churned toward the Gulf Coast, Mr. McCain turned up in Mississippi on Sunday.
Still, the weekend offered Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden one of their first opportunities to spend an extended period of time settling into their new marriage. At every stop, the two men greeted their audiences together. As Mr. Biden offered the opening remarks, Mr. Obama stood at his side and looked out into the audience, applauding and smiling.
If the introductory speech lingered, as it began to do on Saturday evening on a high school football field in Dublin, Ohio, Mr. Obama began shifting back and forth. Soon, his feet were moving in a small circle on the stage, while a cheering audience of nearly 20,000 people waited.
When a stopwatch of Mr. Biden's speech hit 8 minutes, 21 seconds, he turned to Mr. Obama and lowered his head. His words, intended to be a whisper, were caught by the open microphone.
''I think I should let you go and not do the rest of this, don't you think?'' asked Mr. Biden, who had several pages of a printed speech remaining to be read.
Mr. Obama nodded. Then, he inched closer to his running mate and offered a word of reassurance, ''It's always good when they are chanting.''
Developing Rapport
The association of the two senators began nearly four years ago, when Mr. Obama took his seat on the Foreign Relations Committee, where Mr. Biden served as the ranking Democrat. At the time, their relationship was polite, but little more.
But as their roles of strength inside the party essentially flipped, aides to both men said, their rapport gradually grew. And while Mr. Obama was occasionally exasperated by Mr. Biden's tendency for long-windedness, his associates said he believed the attributes of his new partner far outweighed any drawbacks.
''Everybody knows his policy chops,'' Mr. Obama said, praising a list of Mr. Biden's credentials, ''but what makes me feel good is that here's a guy who never forgot where he came from.''
Later, at a nighttime rally in Battle Creek, Mich., Mr. Obama led a baseball stadium crowd in a cry of: ''Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe!''
The two will spend most of the remaining 64 days of the election traveling separately, aides said, to cover more battleground territory. Before going their own ways on Sunday night, they collected moments that could be used in television commercials or in campaign brochures.
In a bus tour from Pennsylvania to Ohio to Michigan -- riding on separate luxury coaches -- the two shared breakfast at the Yankee Kitchen (Mr. Obama ordered two eggs over medium, a waffle and bacon; Mr. Biden had French toast). They bought sweet corn at a roadside stand (Mr. Biden beat Mr. Obama to the bill, saying, ''I'm loaded, I'm loaded,'' as he pressed down a $20 bill).
The images were intended to cast them more as buddies, not necessarily as a senior senator, age 65, traveling with a junior senator, age 47. But here in Toledo, when a woman praised Mr. Biden for his looks, he couldn't hide the fact that he was flattered.
''Hanging around with this lean young-looking guy is making me feel pretty old,'' Mr. Biden said. ''I thought I was in pretty good shape before I hung out with this guy, you know what I mean?''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: September 1, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: After this weekend's events, including one in Toledo, Ohio, Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Barack Obama will campaign separately. (PHOTOGRAPH BY OZIER MUHAMMAD/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
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The Washington Post
September 1, 2008 Monday
Suburban Edition
The Friend He Just Can't Shake
BYLINE: Robert G. Kaiser
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A15
LENGTH: 2078 words
Hurricane Gustav has spared Republicans one potential problem -- President Bush and Vice President Cheney are skipping tonight's first session of the Republican National Convention to remain on hurricane watch in Washington. Tying Bush, Cheney and their dreadful approval ratings around the neck of this year's Republican ticket has been the Democrats' dream all year.
But the president's decision to stay away from St. Paul this week won't solve John McCain's Bush problem. During their convention in Denver, the Democrats made perfectly clear their intention to run against "McSame" and "George W. Bush's third term." Republicans in St. Paul can't hide the fact that they are picking the person they hope will be Bush's successor.
Wait -- isn't McCain different from Bush? Tim Russert, the late moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press," asked McCain precisely that question three years ago. "No," McCain replied firmly, "no."
He elaborated: "The fact is that I have agreed with President Bush far more than I have disagreed. And on the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I've been totally in agreement and support of President Bush. . . . My support for President Bush has been active and very impassioned on issues that are important to the American people. And I'm particularly talking about the war on terror, the war in Iraq, national security, national defense, support of men and women in the military, fiscal discipline, a number of other issues. So I strongly disagree with any assertion that I've been more at odds with the president of the United States than I have been in agreement with him."
In politics, timing is often telling. When McCain gave this account of his political intimacy with the president in June 2005, nearly half the electorate approved of the Bush presidency, and only a quarter disapproved. Perhaps more relevant to McCain at the time, 84 percent of Republicans in a Washington Post-ABC News poll still held a favorable view of Bush. McCain was thinking hard about running for president. In the months that followed, he decided to run and decided initially at least to run as the heir to Bush, hoping to win the support of the Republican establishment still loyal to the president.
This was but one of many complicated moments in the McCain-Bush relationship since they ran against each other for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. Then, McCain told friendly colleagues in the Senate that he thought Bush was a "lightweight," an opinion that did not improve during the campaign. McCain lost his famous temper in South Carolina, where the Bush campaign and its allies derailed his upstart challenge, using aggressive tactics, including the spreading of false rumors about McCain.
Peace of a kind was made in a Pittsburgh hotel room in May 2000. McCain and Bush held a 90-minute meeting to bury the hatchet, both reading from scripts. Bush raised the subject of the vice presidency, but McCain said he wasn't interested. They had an awkward conversation. Afterward they gave a joint news conference in which McCain endorsed Bush. But no affection developed -- quite the contrary. Connie Bruck of the New Yorker quoted the McCains' good friends and Arizona neighbors, Sharon and Oliver Harper, recounting an August visit by Laura and George Bush to the McCain ranch. The Harpers said the McCains pleaded with them to change their own vacation plans to be with the McCains when this visit occurred. "John and Cindy said, '. . . We don't want to be left alone with them, this is going to be really difficult,' " Sharon Harper told Bruck.
But soon afterward (you may want to fasten your seat belt here), McCain was passing word to the Bush camp that he was willing to be the vice presidential candidate. Dick Cheney got the nod instead. McCain then spoke warmly of Bush from the podium of the 2000 GOP convention in Philadelphia: "If you believe patriotism is more than a sound bite and public service should be more than a photo op, then vote for Governor Bush," McCain said. "He wants to give you back a government that serves all the people no matter the circumstances of their birth. And he wants to lead a Republican Party that is as big as the country we serve."
Soon after the 2000 election, though, McCain told guests at a Los Angeles dinner party hosted by actress Candice Bergen that he had not voted for Bush -- according to Arianna Huffington, the liberal blogger and a guest at the party. McCain's aides sharply denied this. Then two other dinner guests, actors Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff, said they heard McCain say the same thing.
Back in Washington after Bush took office, McCain flirted with crossing the aisle of the Senate to vote with the Democrats and give them a majority, an idea that died when Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont did just that. McCain then established himself as an independent voice who opposed the new Bush administration on a series of high-profile issues, including stem cell research (which McCain favored), tax cuts (McCain opposed them), a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage (McCain against) and campaign finance reform (McCain favored it).
When the Democrats nominated his friend John Kerry as their 2004 standard bearer, McCain seriously considered Kerry's suggestion that he join the ticket as the candidate for a kind of super vice presidency. McCain decided against it. McCain did, however, defend Kerry repeatedly against Swift boat charges that he had misrepresented his Vietnam War record.
Karl Rove, Bush's political operator, then put out peace feelers to McCain. A new understanding was reached. McCain again agreed to support Bush in a convention speech, in New York in August 2004. "I salute his determination to make this world a better, safer, freer place," McCain said. "He has not wavered. He has not flinched from the hard choices. He will not yield. And neither will we."
In the subsequent campaign, McCain traveled with Bush and spoke on his behalf repeatedly. "His support was critical," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), McCain's close ally, said later to Bruck of the New Yorker. In March 2005, McCain joined Bush on one of his early trips around the country promoting the partial privatization of Social Security.
Soon after that, McCain was defending his closeness to Bush in that appearance on "Meet the Press." The film clip of this McCain testimonial to our unpopular leader has not yet appeared in a commercial for Sen. Barack Obama, McCain's Democratic rival, although the segment has been available on YouTube for months. Perhaps the Obama campaign is saving it for later.
The McCain camp says tying their man to Bush is unfair. Despite the back-and-forth -- and back-and-forth and back-and-forth -- relationship between the two men over the past decade, McCain seems to be ready to distance himself from Bush yet again. Graham signaled as much in an interview last week, quipping that "it would be news to Bush" to be told that he and McCain were politically close. Be that as it may, John McCain does have a George W. Bush problem.
History helps explain why. Robert G. Beckel, who managed Walter F. Mondale's thoroughly unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1984 and is now a Fox News commentator, summarized the record: Since 1960, candidates running on the ticket of the party that is completing two terms in the White House, hoping to win a third, usually lose. Richard M. Nixon in 1960, Hubert Humphrey in 1968, Gerald Ford in 1976 and Al Gore in 2000 are the cases in point. Only George H.W. Bush defied this rule in 1988, in the midst of an economic boom, "but nobody has ever been elected to a third term for the same party in bad economic times," Beckel noted. "No one's ever been elected to a third term when you have an unpopular war. And most importantly, no one has been elected to a third term with an unpopular incumbent president. . . . Yet McCain has all three of those problems."
Political scientists who try to reduce election prognostication to mathematical formulas agree that thanks largely to Bush, McCain's situation is grim. One is Alan Abramowitz of Emory University, who uses a complex mathematical formula based on the sitting president's approval rating on July 1 of the election year, the economic growth rate in the second quarter of that year and a "time for a change" factor based on the number of terms the incumbent party has held the White House. This year, Abramowitz's formula -- which has predicted the winner of the popular vote correctly in every election since 1988 -- says Obama will win easily in November.
So is McCain fated to lose? "As a nation we're due to break those precedents," Graham says. "Yes, the dynamics of this race are very much tilted toward the Democratic Party," partly because the country is eager for change, Graham said in an interview last week, but McCain offers change, too. "With John you can have the best of both worlds. You can have change -- John McCain has a long record of doing things that are nontraditional -- but you can have change that is safe and secure. . . . We have a good story to tell, that the next four years will be different and better than the last four. . . . The direction that we'll take the country in is going to be different than Bush and better than Obama."
"By sheer, dumb luck," observes Dan Schnur, director of communications in McCain's 2000 presidential campaign and now director of the Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California, "we [Republicans] ended up nominating the only candidate in the entire field who actually has a chance of winning the general election." How good a chance? "It's an uphill fight," Schnur replied, "if only because he's carrying so much baggage."
George W. Bush may have packed that baggage, but polls indicate that McCain really is carrying it. The latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll taken in mid-August asked voters if they thought a President McCain would "mainly lead the country in a new direction, or mainly continue in George W. Bush's direction?" Fifty-seven percent said they expect McCain to follow the Bush line, including 57 percent of independents. Within that group, more than 70 percent said they planned to vote for Obama.
Bush's approval rating -- 30 percent -- hasn't budged for months. And as speakers in Denver repeatedly noted, McCain sided with Bush on 90 percent of the votes taken in the Senate since 2001. Yet he also defied the president on such high-profile issues as stem cell research, treatment of prisoners and same-sex marriage. That happened often enough, said Steve Bell, longtime political aide to Sen. Pete Domenici (N.M.), that many in the conservative base will never be entirely comfortable with McCain.
McCain is hardly the only Republican with a Bush-induced problem this year. The party's political gurus all fear their brand has been tarnished. The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, has advised his candidates for election this fall to stay away from St. Paul -- better to stay home and campaign this week than be associated with the national party and its tribulations. Nine of the Republican senators seeking reelection have announced their intention to stay home during the convention.
Bush's scheduled moment in St. Paul tonight was canceled by Hurricane Gustav, and it's hard to find a Republican who thinks McCain will even mention him during the fall campaign. Optimists think, or hope, that because of his reputation as a maverick, McCain can ignore Bush while offering something new. "There's a general belief that John McCain is his own man," Graham says. "That's the only reason that we're 12 points ahead of the party in the polls." He was describing the gap between generic Republican support and McCain's higher numbers, measured in one recent Quinnipiac University poll.
Even Bush, says Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker, would probably encourage his on-again, off-again ally McCain to ignore the incumbent president during this campaign. "Bush is a reasonably good politician. He understands that given his current situation, the best thing is for McCain to be a unique personality." The best outcome for McCain, Gingrich says, is for Obama to become "so big" that he, not Bush or McCain, becomes the biggest issue of the campaign.
Research editor Alice Crites and polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
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IMAGE; By Joshua Roberts -- Bloomberg News; Demonstrators dressed as President Bush and Sen. John McCain take part in a rally in Minneapolis Sunday.
IMAGE; By Charles Dharapak -- Associated Press; While McCain received Bush's endorsement in March, insiders expect the Arizona senator to distance himself from the president, whose approval rating has plummeted to 30 percent.
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August 31, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Campaigns Shift As McCain Choice Alters the Race
BYLINE: By ADAM NAGOURNEY, JIM RUTENBERG and JEFF ZELENY; David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting from Washington, and Patrick Healy from St. Paul.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1826 words
DENVER -- Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have begun recalibrating their strategies for the presidential campaign -- and reconsidering some of their basic assumptions about which states and voters are in play -- in a contest recast by Mr. McCain's unexpected selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate.
A day after Mr. McCain announced his decision, catching almost everyone but his inner circle by surprise, both sides were trying to gauge the risks and opportunities of having a young, relatively inexperienced, socially conservative woman on the Republican ticket.
The Obama campaign and the Democratic Party had prepared advertisements and lines of attack directed at the two men who had been most prominently mentioned as vice-presidential possibilities for Mr. McCain -- former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota -- but had not considered Ms. Palin a likely enough choice to do the same for her. A new advertisement linking President Bush to Mr. McCain was quickly put together, but it contained only a fleeting mention of Ms. Palin.
That tentativeness reflected what Mr. Obama's advisers said was their struggle to figure out how to challenge the credentials and the ideology of a woman whose candidacy could be embraced by many women as a historic milestone. Once formally nominated at the Republican convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul this week, Ms. Palin, who was elected governor two years ago, will be the second woman chosen by a major party as a vice-presidential candidate.
Mr. Obama's campaign does not plan to go directly after Ms. Palin in the days ahead. Instead, it is planning to increase its attacks on Mr. McCain for his opposition to pay equity legislation and abortion rights -- two issues of paramount concern to many women -- as it tries to head off his effort to use Ms. Palin to draw Democratic and independent women who had supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Mr. McCain's advisers said that rallying wavering women would be one of Ms. Palin's main jobs in the weeks ahead. They said her campaign schedule would take her to areas in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania where there were pockets of women who had supported Mrs. Clinton in the primaries.
At the same time, they suggested, Ms. Palin would also be given the task of appealing to evangelical voters, who have long been unenthusiastic about Mr. McCain. In many ways, the choice of Ms. Palin may prove to have been as much an effort to drive up turnout among the Republican base as it was a move to compete for women.
''We had a solid Republican and evangelical base,'' said Charlie Black, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain. ''But now it's going to be very intense.''
James C. Dobson, the influential conservative Christian leader who said in the primaries that he could never vote for Mr. McCain, said the selection of Ms. Palin had won him over. If he went into the voting booth today, Mr. Dobson told the talk radio host Dennis Prager on Friday, ''I would pull that lever.''
If Ms. Palin motivates evangelicals to rally behind the Republican ticket as they did for Mr. Bush in 2004, it could prove significant in states like Iowa and Ohio, where Republicans won by slim margins in 2004. It could also have an effect in North Carolina, a solidly Republican state that Mr. Obama is trying to win by appealing to black voters and new residents.
Republican leaders in North Carolina, who had been increasingly anxious over Mr. Obama's intensive efforts there, said they were heartened by the selection of Ms. Palin.
''Our people are excited,'' said Linda Daves, the chairwoman of the North Carolina Republican Party. ''The social conservatives are one area where she is going to resonate.''
Mr. McCain's choice of a running mate comes at a pivotal time in the campaign. It follows what even Republicans said was a successful convention here by Mr. Obama. And it comes on the eve of Mr. McCain's convention, with Republicans nervously watching Hurricane Gustav as it heads into the Gulf of Mexico, an unwelcome reminder of how the Bush White House's halting response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 hurt the president and his party politically.
Mr. McCain, in an interview taped for ''Fox News Sunday,'' said the convention program might be reduced or suspended for a day or two if the storm turned out to be destructive.
Aides to Mr. McCain, who has frequently criticized Mr. Bush's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, said Saturday he would go to Mississippi on Sunday for an inspection of storm preparations.
With both presidential candidates having filled out their tickets -- Mr. Obama traveled Saturday across Ohio with his running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware -- their campaigns have now shifted into high gear.
Mr. Obama's aides said that they were confident of holding on to all the states Senator John Kerry won against Mr. Bush in 2004 and that they were already well positioned to pick up Iowa and New Mexico, both of which narrowly went to Mr. Bush. The Obama campaign is investing heavily to compete on more challenging terrain for Democrats, including Florida and Virginia.
But Mr. McCain is focusing heavily on taking two big states away from the Democrats: Michigan and Pennsylvania. Both have blocs of white, working-class voters who are anxious about the economy, a group that has given Mr. Obama difficulty and could be receptive to Ms. Palin's support for gun rights and the portrayal of her as a churchgoing mother of five who shares their values.
Mr. Obama intends to campaign throughout the Republican convention, visiting Indiana, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
At a stop on Friday in western Pennsylvania, one of Mr. Obama's biggest applause lines was reprised from his Denver speech, mocking Mr. McCain for pledging to follow Osama bin Laden to the ''gates of hell'' but not, in the view of Democrats, supporting sufficient military force in Afghanistan to capture him.
Mr. Obama this weekend began running the advertisement invoking Ms. Palin and linking Mr. McCain and Mr. Bush. In the advertisement, as images of Mr. McCain with Ms. Palin and then with Mr. Bush are shown, an announcer says, ''While this may be his running mate, America knows this is John McCain's agenda.''
But the campaign is about to turn to state-specific commercials tailored to local issues, possibly including one on a proposed national relief fund for hurricane insurance that is popular in Florida, said David Plouffe, Mr. Obama's campaign manager.
Mr. Obama's advisers said that compared with the mountains of data they had gathered on Mr. Pawlenty and Mr. Romney, they had far less information on Ms. Palin. Their dossier consisted of a thin document based mainly on her run for governor and newspaper clips.
Aides said the party staff members and allies in Alaska would sort through public documents relating to Ms. Palin's time in the governor's mansion, her two terms as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and her two terms as a member of the Wasilla City Council.
Democrats were not the only regrouping. Republican officials said that though they had time to collect surface-level material on Ms. Palin and her husband, they had done no examination of the rest of her family.
Beyond that, Republican organizers said the convention aides in charge of reviewing every speech delivered from the lectern are now on the watch for blunt attacks on Mr. Obama's readiness to lead, and reviewing how much to emphasize what had been the convention theme: ''Not Ready '08.'' They are aware that such criticism in a high-profile setting would provide an opportunity for Democrats to make the same charge against Ms. Palin, who has almost no foreign policy experience and has been governor for just 20 months.
Several Republican delegates said they too were shocked by the selection of Ms. Palin and, while they wished her well, were deeply concerned that she did not have the experience in foreign policy or national security to be commander in chief.
''We've been told for the last few months that experience is what matters most in the next White House,'' said John Scates, a delegate from St. Louis. ''But McCain is picking someone whose experience is little to nothing or, at best, unknown.''
In the days ahead, Mr. Obama's advisers said they would not just seek to define Ms. Palin as extremely conservative on issues like abortion and raise questions about her credentials as part of a larger effort to challenge Mr. McCain's judgment. They will also argue that Mr. McCain's decision would prove to be a mistake in terms of appealing to women and that it would hurt him in important battlegrounds like the Philadelphia suburbs.
''In terms of the classic suburbs, it's a bomb,'' said Marcel L. Groen, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Montgomery County, outside Philadelphia. ''So far as suburban woman go, this will not help McCain at all: they're pro-choice and anti-gun.''
It is complicated terrain, aides to Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain acknowledged. Any perception that Mr. Obama or his supporters were trying to tear down Ms. Palin could renew anger among supporters of Mrs. Clinton.
''I can't imagine the Obama team will spend their time on Palin; they'll spend their time with their negative ads attacking McCain and Bush,'' said Mandy Grunwald, Mrs. Clinton's chief advertising strategist. ''You always have to be careful not to rally people to her side by attacking too much.''
Republicans said Ms. Palin would provide an outlet for women angered at what they said was the poor treatment of Mrs. Clinton by the Obama campaign, the Democratic Party leadership and the news media. Nicolle Wallace, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain, said: ''I think the public pretty much accepts the fact that they played pretty dirty and that sexism played a role in the primary.''
Mr. Obama's campaign has moved on a variety of fronts to increase his appeal to women. Leading women in battleground states are being mobilized, and a disproportionate number of female surrogates are being sent to argue for him on television. They are being asked to focus on abortion rights and pay equity, aides said, and to steer clear of criticizing Ms. Palin as having limited experience in elected politics and government.
And Mrs. Clinton is likely to play an even more active role on behalf of Mr. Obama in the fall campaign, her aides said, because of Ms. Palin. She is expected to participate in television appearances, fund-raisers and conference calls with reporters to rebut efforts by the McCain campaign to court her supporters.
Mr. Obama's campaign said there were now about 18 states in play, including Alaska. In interviews, campaign officials said they would compete there, despite the fact that the name of its very popular governor will appear on the ballot.
Mr. McCain's advisers laughed at that. ''We're scared to death about Alaska,'' Mr. Black said.
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin visited Washington, Pa., a state where Ms. Palin is expected to spend more time. (PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN CROWLEY/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Senator Barack Obama stopped to buy corn at a farm stand on Saturday in Marengo, Ohio. To his right is Gov. Ted Strickland. (PHOTOGRAPH BY OZIER MUHAMMAD/THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.A26) CHART: KEY STATES: States in play in the coming national election(Sources: Polls conducted this month before the Democratic convention from Quinnipiac University (Pa., Ohio, Colo., Fla.), EPIC/MRA (Mich.), Research 2000 (Nev.), Mason-Dixon (N.M.)
2004 vote from Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections) (pg.A26)
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August 31, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Vice In Go-Go Boots?
BYLINE: By MAUREEN DOWD
SECTION: Section WK; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 11
LENGTH: 822 words
DATELINE: PITTSBURGH
The guilty pleasure I miss most when I'm out slogging on the campaign trail is the chance to sprawl on the chaise and watch a vacuously spunky and generically sassy chick flick.
So imagine my delight, my absolute astonishment, when the hokey chick flick came out on the trail, a Cinderella story so preposterous it's hard to believe it's not premiering on Lifetime. Instead of going home and watching ''Miss Congeniality'' with Sandra Bullock, I get to stay here and watch ''Miss Congeniality'' with Sarah Palin.
Sheer heaven.
It's easy to see where this movie is going. It begins, of course, with a cute, cool unknown from Alaska who has never even been on ''Meet the Press'' triumphing over a cute, cool unknowable from Hawaii who has been on ''Meet the Press'' a lot.
Americans, suspicious that the Obamas have benefited from affirmative action without being properly grateful, and skeptical that Michelle really likes ''The Brady Bunch'' and ''The Dick Van Dyke Show,'' reject the 47-year-old black contender as too uppity and untested.
Instead, they embrace 72-year-old John McCain and 44-year-old Sarah Palin, whose average age is 58, a mere two years older than the average age of the Obama-Biden ticket. Enthusiastic Republicans don't see the choice of Palin as affirmative action, despite her thin resume and gaping absence of foreign policy knowledge, because they expect Republicans to put an underqualified ''babe,'' as Rush Limbaugh calls her, on the ticket. They have a tradition of nominating fun, bantamweight cheerleaders from the West, like the previous Miss Congeniality types Dan Quayle and W., and then letting them learn on the job. So they crash into the globe a few times while they're learning to drive, what's the big deal?
Obama may have been president of The Harvard Law Review, but Palin graduated from the University of Idaho with a minor in poli-sci and worked briefly as a TV sports reporter. And she was tougher on the basketball court than the ethereal Obama, earning the nickname ''Sarah Barracuda.''
The legacy of Geraldine Ferraro was supposed to be that no one would ever go on a blind date with history again. But that crazy maverick and gambler McCain does it, and conservatives and evangelicals rally around him in admiration of his refreshingly cynical choice of Sarah, an evangelical Protestant and anti-abortion crusader who became a hero when she decided to have her baby, who has Down syndrome, and when she urged schools to debate creationism as well as that stuffy old evolution thing.
Palinistas, as they are called, love Sarah's spunky, relentlessly quirky ''Northern Exposure'' story from being a Miss Alaska runner-up, and winning Miss Congeniality, to being mayor and hockey mom in Wasilla, a rural Alaskan town of 6,715, to being governor for two years to being the first woman ever to run on a national Republican ticket. (Why do men only pick women as running mates when they need a Hail Mary pass? It's a little insulting.)
Sarah is a zealot, but she's a fun zealot. She has a beehive and sexy shoes, and the day she's named she goes shopping with McCain in Ohio for a cheerleader outfit for her daughter.
As she once told Vogue, she's learned the hard way to deal with press comments about her looks. ''I wish they'd stick with the issues instead of discussing my black go-go boots,'' she said. ''A reporter once asked me about it during the campaign, and I assured him I was trying to be as frumpy as I could by wearing my hair on top of my head and these schoolmarm glasses.''
This chick flick, naturally, features a wild stroke of fate, when the two-year governor of an oversized igloo becomes commander in chief after the president-elect chokes on a pretzel on day one.
The movie ends with the former beauty queen shaking out her pinned-up hair, taking off her glasses, slipping on ruby red peep-toe platform heels that reveal a pink French-style pedicure, and facing down Vladimir Putin in an island in the Bering Strait. Putting away her breast pump, she points her rifle and informs him frostily that she has some expertise in Russia because it's close to Alaska. ''Back off, Commie dude,'' she says. ''I'm a much better shot than Cheney.''
Then she takes off in her seaplane and lands on the White House lawn, near the new ice fishing hole and hockey rink. The ''First Dude,'' as she calls the hunky Eskimo in the East Wing, waits on his snowmobile with the kids -- Track (named after high school track meets), Bristol (after Bristol Bay where they did commercial fishing), Willow (after a community in Alaska), Piper (just a cool name) and Trig (Norse for ''strength.'')
''The P.T.A. is great preparation for dealing with the K.G.B.,'' President Palin murmurs to Todd, as they kiss in the final scene while she changes Trig's diaper. ''Now that Georgia's safe, how 'bout I cook you up some caribou hot dogs and moose stew for dinner, babe?''
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August 31, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Can You Cross Out 'Hillary' and Write 'Sarah'?
BYLINE: By KATE ZERNIKE
SECTION: Section WK; Column 0; Week in Review Desk; UNITY DEFERRED; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1550 words
It was an awfully complicated week to be a Hillary supporter.
Her voters headed into the Democratic National Convention in Denver with anger, with threats to reprise 1968. Then came the swelling of pride, as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton gave what many considered the speech of her life. But, oh, the regret: if only she had campaigned with that kind of oratory!
By the time Mrs. Clinton graciously called for the convention to nominate Senator Barack Obama by acclamation, some of her supporters were working their way toward acceptance, wiping tears but nodding as she declared that the party had to unite behind him. Yet how could they not feel at least envy, watching the Obamas and the Bidens stroll out in triumph, and thinking that their candidate could have been in either role, at the top or bottom of that ticket. Not even vetted for V.P.!!
Then, of course, came Friday: ''It turns out the women of America aren't finished yet!'' That was Sarah Palin, the Republican governor of Alaska, as Senator John McCain introduced her to the country as his vice-presidential nominee. ''We can shatter that glass ceiling!'' she proclaimed.
What's a woman to do? Or at least, the woman who so badly wanted to see a woman in the White House?
Democrats, who make up the party that has long claimed the bigger pool of up-and-coming women, were quick to dismiss Ms. Palin as not experienced enough to be a heartbeat from the presidency. Mrs. Clinton's supporters will never back her, they insisted, because she is against abortion rights.
Not. So. Fast.
That underestimated, or at least underappreciated, the raw feelings of many Clinton supporters, and particularly the women among them, despite the almost flawless display of harmony in Denver.
At the very least, Ms. Palin's selection unleashes gender as a live issue again, just when Democrats thought they had it under control. (This might not be a bad time for Mr. Obama to reconsider that question of retiring Mrs. Clinton's campaign debt.)
''This puts the issue back on center stage,'' said Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. ''There are going to be some really fascinating conversations that are going to come up around gender, in some ways that nobody expected.''
Lynn Hackney and Kim Hoover might perfectly illustrate the emotions of those whom Ms. Palin counts as ''not finished yet.'' They had gathered 20 equally passionate Hillary supporters at their home in Washington on Tuesday to watch Mrs. Clinton's speech. ''The Kleenex was flowing,'' said Ms. Hackney, who declared the speech ''brilliant.''
Thursday, when 38 million Americans watched Mr. Obama's speech, they watched a movie, ''The Squid and the Whale.''
No matter what Mrs. Clinton urged, they cannot support Mr. Obama.
''To go against Hillary is not easy for us,'' Ms. Hackney said. ''We don't take that lightly. We just don't think he has a message. We don't think he's good for women.''
''It's not about being bitter for Hillary,'' she said. Still, ''I think the Democratic Party took women for granted in the primary, they didn't step on sexism when they should have, and I can't support them.''
Her phone, she said, began ''burning up'' when Mr. McCain announced Ms. Palin as his choice. ''The fact that he went out on a limb to pick a woman, I'm very impressed by that.'' She says she is not sure she can vote for a Republican, and will most likely stick to her plan to write in Mrs. Clinton. But, she said, ''It's opened my eyes to at least pay attention.''
Yes, they said, they were troubled by Ms. Palin's opposition to abortion rights. But Ms. Hoover said she felt betrayed by pro-choice groups, and in particular politicians like Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who were helped into office by pro-choice groups like Emily's List but came out early to support Mr. Obama over Mrs. Clinton, despite her being the first viable pro-choice woman to run for president.
Ms. Hoover has stopped giving to Emily's List as a result. ''It doesn't make sense to me that, frankly, Emily's List didn't hold them accountable for having been elected on that platform but then not supporting that platform,'' she said. ''The setback for the pro-choice movement is almost deserved.''
Karen O'Connor, the director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University, said the convention's constant repetition about the ''18 million cracks in the glass ceiling'' had left many people depressed. ''If 18 million votes is not enough, what does it take in the Democratic Party to get a woman on the ticket?''
Healing may have come easier to those Clinton supporters who went to the convention, with all its women's caucus meetings, the Emily's List luncheon, and Mrs. Clinton's meeting with her delegates, where she released them to vote as they pleased. It was hard to stand in a stadium of 80,000 listening to Mr. Obama and not be moved.
Lanny Davis, who was special counsel to President Bill Clinton and who came to exemplify the die-hard Hillary Clinton supporter so much that he was barely speaking to a son who supports Mr. Obama, said he was riding such a roller coaster of emotion that he finally Googled Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's five stages of grief.
''Denial, yes,'' he said. ''Anger, definitely. Bargaining, well, O.K. And depression, that's definitely what I was going through.'' He struggled to get to five: acceptance. ''Even after we had our little Kumbaya meeting with Senator Obama I wasn't doing well,'' he said. But after the speeches, and Mr. Obama's graceful acknowledgment of Mrs. Clinton in his speech accepting the nomination on Thursday night, Mr. Davis said, ''O.K., I'm there.''
For supporters who saw the speeches only from home, said Ms. Walsh, it may have been harder, particularly with Mrs. Clinton coming off so forcefully.
''I think that makes it doubly hard for some of these women, because she really did look presidential.''
Mr. McCain's choice, she said, ''is a move for the women who weren't at the convention.''
And even there, some women were not appeased. Ms. Walsh sat two seats away from an African-American woman who was crying during Mrs. Clinton's speech. When the convention staff handed out ''Unity'' placards, the woman refused it.
The Palin nomination complicates the gender question in many ways.
Susie Tompkins-Buell, the Democratic fundraiser who declared herself the ''poster child'' for the ''Hillary holdouts,'' announced on Thursday that after her convention conversion she would transform Women Count, the organization she founded to support Mrs. Clinton in the final days of the primaries, into an organization to help protect women like Michelle Obama against misogyny.
But what will happen if the misogyny extends to Ms. Palin? There were hints of that on Friday, with Web sites showing photographs of her bare-shouldered in the days when she was runner-up for Miss Alaska, or as one caption read, ''showing off her legs.'' ''Sarah Palin -- Alaska Gov., McCain's V.P. Pick, Kind of a Babe,'' read one Internet headline.
The nomination promises to test the argument made during the primary that it wasn't about sexism, it was about Hillary.
And, as Ruth B. Mandel, one of the founders of the Rutgers center, said, ''this raises the question of when, where and how often women vote out of anger because there's sexism.''
Republicans were stoking the gender wars before the Palin announcement.
Alex Castellanos, a Republican media strategist, revived the ''Fatal Attraction'' analogy in a television discussion about whether Mrs. Clinton would be able to gracefully cede the convention to her former rival.
Mr. McCain's campaign ran an ad called ''Passed Over,'' highlighting the fact that she had not been seriously examined for the vice-presidential slot.
At the same time, the move is such a bald bid for the women's vote that it might backfire. It seems likely that most Clinton supporters backed their candidate for her experience, not her gender. They may resent being reduced to the sum of their hormones.
When a Republican woman has run in the past, Ms. Mandel said, ''we did not see a big benefit for her from the gender gap.'' And Geraldine Ferraro did not prevent a landslide for Ronald Reagan, when she was on the ticket with Walter Mondale in 1984. But, as Ms. Mandel said, ''It's a different moment.''
The general election comes off a primary season of division, if not anger. And the country has been closely split in the last several elections.
Few people claim to understand the dynamics of the Clinton vote. In the most recent New York Times/CBS News poll, conducted Aug. 15-20, 22 percent of voters who said they had voted for Mrs. Clinton in the primaries say they now support Mr. McCain, while 61 percent back Mr. Obama. Among the women who voted for Mrs. Clinton, 17 percent say they support Mr. McCain, and 63 percent Mr. Obama. (The rest were undecided.)
''This says again, you can't take these women for granted,'' Ms. Walsh said. ''There's going to be a need to really reach out to them, to highlight the difference between John McCain and Barack Obama on the issues women care about.''
For all the emotion of the week, she said, the lesson is clear: ''We matter.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: August 31, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: WALK TALL AND SEETHE: In Denver with a purpose. (PHOTOGRAPH BY DAMON WINTER/THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.WK1)
ONE WEEK, THREE WOMEN: Michelle Obama owned Monday night, and Hillary Clinton grabbed Tuesday. By Friday, there was a party crasher. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAMON WINTER / THE NEW YORK TIMES)
ABOUT THAT GLASS: Sarah Palin joins the Republican ticket and enters the very confusing fray. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JIM WILSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.WK7)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
548 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The New York Times
August 31, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
The Final Days
BYLINE: By PETER BAKER.
Peter Baker, a contributing writer, covered the White House and is working on a book on the Bush presidency. This is his first article for the magazine.
SECTION: Section MM; Column 0; Magazine Desk; Pg. 26
LENGTH: 7948 words
The armored black limousine rolled to a halt near the foot of Air Force One. Secret Service agents opened the doors simultaneously, and from opposite sides emerged President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain. They circled around to stand side by side and, for the next 14 seconds, smiled and waved at the assembled cameras -- 14 seconds of ritual demanded by political convention. Bush pecked the senator's wife, Cindy, on the cheek, shook McCain's hand and sprinted up the stairs. At the top of the landing, he waved again and disappeared into the plane. That was May. As of late this month, the president and the would-be successor from his own party have not spoken since.
A relationship fraught with bitter resentment, grudging respect and mutual dependence takes center stage this week as the Republican Party gathers in St. Paul to pass the mantle of leadership. As at that May photo opportunity in Phoenix, which followed a fund-raiser, Bush will be ushered out of the spotlight as quickly as possible -- if not in 14 seconds, then not all that much longer. After an opening-night speech tomorrow, he will leave town with none of the celebratory rock-star attention Bill Clinton commanded at Al Gore's convention and retreat to Camp David before McCain even arrives at the Xcel Energy Center for his coronation.
No matter how careful the orchestration, though, a rivalry seared in the brutal lowlands of South Carolina circles around to this moment. Eight years after their epic Republican primary battle of 2000, the first-place finisher desperately needs the second-place finisher to win in order to validate his own legacy. And the runner-up now finds himself saddled with the baggage of a man he never much liked to begin with, forced to live with a record he personally considers deeply lacking and portrayed as if he were a clone of his longtime adversary. As John Weaver, McCain's former chief strategist told me, ''I'm sure McCain is thinking, Is Bush going to beat me twice?''
Anxious denizens of Bushworld worry that McCain will beat himself and in the process take down their best chance for deliverance when it comes to the verdict of history. One former Bush aide who spends his days publicly bashing Barack Obama sat down for lunch with me recently and before the appetizers even arrived lamented that the Democrat will probably crush McCain. He ruefully called Obama one of the three most talented political figures of his lifetime, along with John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Bush's political guru, Karl Rove, in conversations with friends this summer, could hardly restrain his exasperation at what he saw as the McCain team's dysfunctional organization and sclerotic message. And the president himself, according to friends and prominent Republicans, privately rails about what he considers McCain's undisciplined approach to the campaign and grouses about McCain's efforts to distance himself from the administration. A new McCain ad this month declared, ''We're worse off than we were four years ago.'' That's the sort of stinging indictment a candidate usually issues when the other party is in the White House.
The president understands the treacherous political environment facing Republicans and agrees that McCain cannot run as another George Bush, advisers say, but he also seems to think that the senator risks going too far because he needs the party base that still supports Bush and remains unenthusiastic about McCain. ''The idea that people could think he and Bush are at all alike probably drives him crazy,'' Dan Bartlett, the former Bush White House counselor, says of McCain. ''But if they wake up every morning thinking George W. Bush is a bigger problem than Barack Obama, they're going to lose.''
McCain has not called the president for advice, so Bush vents his frustrations and criticisms of Obama during phone calls and get-togethers with current and former advisers. (He and Rove still meet for lunch every few weeks.) They say that the elevation of some veterans from their team, like Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace, to key positions within the campaign is making a difference, and there have been signs lately that more order has been imposed on the operation. People in both the McCain and Bush camps take heart in polls showing a closer race than many initially expected. But longstanding suspicions are hard to overcome. ''You've got a lot of people in that campaign who really dislike the president,'' a McCain insider said. ''There's still a lot of people who carry a torch for the 2000 campaign.'' Among them, members of the McCain camp say, is the candidate's wife, Cindy, who remains bitter over the personal attacks on her family eight years ago.
The Arizona senator has hardly been subtle in his efforts to keep a distance from the president. The Phoenix event was originally scheduled as an open fund-raiser at the city's convention center, only to be moved to private residences behind closed doors at the last minute, which had the effect of drawing even more attention to the awkward, abbreviated encounter on the tarmac afterward. McCain's ''On the Trail'' photo album on his campaign Web site features pictures of him with Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, Rudy Giuliani, Bill O'Reilly, Jon Stewart, Chris Matthews, Regis Philbin, even the ladies from ''The View'' -- in short, everyone but Bush. And senior Republicans say no joint appearances are planned this fall.
''We're trying to get the guy elected,'' Mark Salter, perhaps McCain's closest adviser, told me with a what-can-you-do shrug. ''We're obviously mindful of the president's'' -- and here he paused for a moment to think of a diplomatic way of making his point -- ''less-than-comfortable position in the country. You feel bad for the guy, if you think about it.''
George Bush does not want anyone feeling bad for him. Hates the idea, in fact. Why should anyone feel bad for him? He knew what he was getting into, and he is doing what he thinks is right. But as he enters the twilight of his presidency, he finds it both a liberating and a deeply frustrating time.
With the war in Iraq finally going better, the dark cloud that dominated the White House for the past few years has lifted. The overnight reports Bush finds on his Oval Office desk each morning now list fewer casualties in Iraq, easing a burden friends say has weighed on him. It now looks as if the surge, one of the riskiest presidential decisions in a generation, has been vindicated. And Bush seems to be making progress getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons while winning a string of Congressional battles that would under other circumstances be seen as legacy victories -- a bipartisan deal on wiretapping, war financing without strings, expansion of his global AIDS program.
As a result, friends say that Bush, who just turned 62, has been looser lately, more relaxed, more willing to joke around and even do a little dance for the cameras from time to time. He sees the end and has been thinking about life after the White House back down at the ranch and a in new home in Dallas. ''You can hear his Texas accent creeping back into his voice, rather than the I'm-the-president, no-accent kind of voice,'' observed an old friend from Texas.
Yet there are no valedictory days for Bush. For years, he got no credit for a long-running economic recovery, in part because of popular anger over Iraq. Now, it seems, he gets no credit for the improvements in Iraq because of deep discontent over the tattered economy. Housing and energy crises have only deepened public disaffection. While Iraq stabilizes, Afghanistan seems to be unraveling. Russia has been rampaging through its neighbor Georgia, undeterred by Bush's consternation. As John Weaver told me, ''They look better on Iraq, but they look worse on everything else.'' So many onetime loyalists have turned on the president that when the former White House press secretary Scott McClellan came out with his break-with-the-boss book in May, Bush sighed and told an aide to find a way to forgive him or risk being consumed with anger.
While Bush publicly commits to ''sprinting to the finish'' and eschews talk of legacy, even friends say how he will be judged and remembered seems to be on his mind these days. ''When I was there, that legacy talk was strictly discouraged,'' says David Frum, a White House speechwriter in Bush's first term. ''It was considered very destructive, and we'd all seen what it had done to Clinton in his last year. That seems to have changed obviously lately. From what I hear now, he takes it very, very seriously. He doesn't joke about it like he used to.''
Bush's place in history depends on alternate narratives that are hard to reconcile. To critics, he is the man who misled the country into a disastrous war, ruined U.S. relations around the world, wrecked the economy, squandered a budget surplus to give tax cuts to fat-cat friends, played the guitar while New Orleans drowned, politicized the Justice Department, cozied up to oil companies and betrayed American values by promoting torture, warrantless eavesdropping and a modern-day gulag at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for people never even charged with a crime. To admirers, he is the man who freed 60 million people from tyranny in Afghanistan and Iraq and planted a seed that may yet spread democracy in a vital region, while at home he reduced taxes, introduced more accountability to public schools through No Child Left Behind, expanded Medicare to cover prescription drugs, installed two new conservative Supreme Court justices and, most of all, kept America safe after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Whatever the president's virtues, they remain unappreciated in his own time. To say that Bush is unpopular only begins to capture the historic depths of his estrangement from the American public. He is arguably the most disliked president in seven decades. Sixty-nine percent of Americans disapproved of his performance in office in a Gallup poll in April, the highest negative rate ever recorded for any president since the firm began asking the question in 1938. And while Harry Truman and Richard Nixon at their worst had even fewer supporters -- Truman once fell to 22 percent in his job approval rating and Nixon to 24 percent, compared with Bush's low of 28 percent -- no president has endured such a prolonged period of public rejection. Bush has not enjoyed the support of a majority of Americans since March 2005, meaning he will go through virtually his entire second term without most of the public behind him.
Bush has been so far down for so long that his aides long ago gave up any hope that the numbers would change while he is still in office. ''There's kind of a liberating aspect to it,'' Dan Bartlett told me over lunch in July, at a homey steak joint in Austin, where he returned after leaving the White House last year. ''It's not that you chase polls, but you're cognizant of them. So if you know they're not going to change, you can just do what you think is right.''
If anything, it may be that the low numbers have become almost a badge of honor for Bush. Not that he wants to be unpopular, but he sees leadership as a test. ''Calcium'' is a favorite term he uses with aides to describe the backbone he admires. ''He does make a lot of references to Truman as the model of his late presidency, and the Truman model is unrewarded heroism -- or 'heroism' is not the right word: unrewarded courage,'' Michael Gerson, another former senior adviser to the president, told me. ''It fits very much his approach and his self-conception. His view of leadership is defined as doing the right thing against pressure.''
Donald Ensenat, a friend of Bush's for more than 40 years who worked as his chief of protocol before stepping down last year, said that the president's view, as he paraphrased it, has come down to this: ''I've already taken my last licks for being unpopular, so these last two years I do what's right -- that's my job, not with my finger in the air.''
If Bush ever wonders why he is not doing better, he does not do so in public. Stoicism has been a hallmark of his second term. At a Black Music Month concert in the East Room earlier this summer, a precocious 15-year-old girl with a powerful voice fixed her gaze on the president to offer her own reassurances in the form of a gospel number called ''Hold On.''
''I am sure that there have been many times where you have felt like all hope was gone, you felt like you wanted to give up or you couldn't make it,'' the rising young gospel star, Spensha Baker, said to the president as the audience watched. ''But the reason why this country is such a strong country is because you held on. And so I wanted to thank you for that.''
And then she sang.
I know just what it feels like to be on your own,
And I know just what it feels like when there's no place to go.
And I know just what it feels like to not belong.
Yes, I know just what it feels like. Do you know? Do you know?
When the bottom falls out, feels like you're losing ground,
Hold on.
When you're lost in the dark and you can't see no way out,
Hold on.
You gotta know it's going to get better,
He can put it back together,
If you just hold on.
Bush swayed to the music and jumped up to give her a kiss on the cheek when she was done. ''He gets a lot of flak,'' Baker told me later, ''but I don't think people know how hard it is to be president of the United States, and I wanted to come in and encourage him.'' But did the president relate to the lyrics? Has he felt lost in the dark? Does he ever experience moments of doubt or despair?
Bush gives little indication that he does. He can flash anger over what he considers unfounded criticism or at something on his schedule he does not like, but he does not wrestle with his inner demons, at least not out loud. ''He doesn't second-guess himself,'' Jim Francis, a longtime friend from Texas, told me. ''I second-guess myself all the time -- 'Maybe I shouldn't have done this or that.' He just doesn't have that in him. I have never seen him do that. I think it gives him a comfort level in that office that others have not had.'' As Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Texas pastor who gave the benediction at both of Bush's inaugurations and officiated at Jenna Bush's wedding, told me, ''Assuming the fetal position is just not in his vocabulary.''
Friends and advisers usually cite what some call ''the three Fs'' to explain Bush's seeming serenity in the face of so much tumult -- faith, family and friends. ''It's his deep-seated faith in God,'' says Mike Conaway, who once worked for Bush and now serves as a Republican congressman from Texas. ''He's rooted in his walk with Christ. He believes he's got a role and he's doing what God wants him to do.''
And then there is his near-fanatical dedication to his workout regimen, which friends credit for keeping him on an even keel. When Bush is in town during the week, schedulers know to leave enough time in the afternoon for him to slip out for a workout. On the weekends, he favors two-hour bicycle rides at a Secret Service training facility outside Washington, where he sometimes asks companions and agents to ride behind him so that he can have the illusion of riding alone.
The president makes bicycling an exercise not just in sweat but also in survival, particularly at his Texas ranch. Tony Snow, his onetime press secretary, who died in July, once made the mistake of telling Bush that he would enjoy riding with him sometime. ''I was just, you know, trying to make nice,'' Snow recounted in a commencement address at the Catholic University of America last year. ''I was trying to kiss up to the boss.''
But Bush took him seriously. ''Snow, you ready to ride?'' he called out the first time Snow went down to the ranch.
Not really, as it turned out. ''You go off-road,'' Snow recalled, ''and there's a drop of about 15 or 20 feet. It rises up again and then goes around the curve. The president goes down and goes, 'Woo hoo!' Person behind him goes down and goes, 'Woo hoo!' I'm in the back and I go, 'Waaaah.' ''
Right into a tree.
''Snow, you O.K. back there?'' Bush called out.
''Yes, sir. Just hit a tree.''
''O.K., well, come on, then.''
The devotion to exercise and schedules seems to stem from the same discipline Bush summoned to quit drinking at age 40. ''He's the first one to admit that he has an addictive personality, and he has to channel this addictiveness to constructive things,'' Dan Bartlett told me. ''He likes systems; he likes structure. It's interesting -- for a personality that's so free-form, he does like structure.''
He also likes to look ahead rather than back. ''When you're working for the president,'' Bartlett says, ''you've always got to give him something to look forward to.''
Bush refers to his time in office as ''a joyous experience,'' a phrase that seems jarring. A satisfying experience, pursuing important goals, maybe, or a vital experience, to be at the center of so many historic moments. But joyous? With all the heartache, the wars, the political attacks? ''You know, obviously, there's some good days and some bad days,'' Bush tried to explain at a forum in Missouri in May. ''I feel so strongly about my principles and my values, and I'm an optimistic guy.''
For better or worse, Bush's legacy will start with Iraq. And that's where his fortunes are tied most closely to McCain's.
The war looked lost and most of the country had abandoned faith in Bush when the Arizona senator sat down to write the president a letter on Dec. 12, 2006. In the aftermath of what Bush called the ''thumpin' '' his party took in the elections that ousted the Republican Congress the month before, the president had finally dumped the much-criticized defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his failing strategy in Iraq. In the private three-page letter, which was given to me last month, McCain warned the president bluntly that he would lose the war without an increase in U.S. forces. He argued that the administration's approach had it backward -- instead of hoping that a political settlement among warring sectarian groups would reduce violence, the administration needed to establish security to create space for an eventual political reconciliation. McCain cited an American Enterprise Institute study suggesting an additional 30,000 troops. ''Without a basic level of security, there will be no political solution, and our mission will fail,'' McCain wrote.
A month later, Bush announced just such a plan, overruling the objections or concerns of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, his outgoing field commanders, the Iraq Study Group (led by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Representative Lee Hamilton), the new Democratic majorities in Congress and a sizable number of his fellow Republicans -- all part of a Washington consensus that, to varying degrees, wanted him to pull troops out, not send more in. McCain, for once, was impressed that Bush stood up to the pressure. In his mind, that was real leadership.
''He could have done the easy thing,'' says Terry Nelson, a political strategist who worked for both Bush and McCain. ''He could have taken the Baker-Hamilton report, and everyone would have said that was good. And instead, he took a gigantic political risk, which today seems to be paying enormous benefits in terms of security in Iraq and political progress. And he gets no credit. None.''
That was a moment of real turnabout for the rocky relationship between Bush and McCain. Or perhaps ''relationship'' is not quite the right word. ''There's never really been that much of a relationship,'' Mark Salter told me. ''They kept their distance.''
Bush and McCain were both born to elite families, one the son of a president and grandson of a senator, the other the son and grandson of Navy admirals. They both have a certain irreverent, rebellious streak; they both grew up spending a lot of time on the party circuit, and not the political kind. And they both overcame youthful immaturity through their own personal trials -- Bush's decision to quit drinking and McCain's obviously more extreme experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
But in many other ways, they could hardly be more different. Bush is an early-to-bed, early-to-rise man. He rarely veers off his talking points. He absolutely hates it when someone forgets to turn a cellphone off during an event and once half-jokingly locked his secretary of state out of a cabinet meeting for being tardy. McCain adheres to scripts only under protest, relishing a more free-for-all approach to politics and life. He seems most at ease during the take-on-all-comers town-hall meetings and sessions with reporters. He orders his campaign plane at night to keep going to the next day's stop no matter how late it gets in, then stays up until midnight watching sports. Mark McKinnon, a media strategist for both men at different points, once told me that working for Bush was like serving in the British Royal Navy, while working for McCain was more like sailing with the Pirates of the Caribbean.
Over the years, the two have become ''frenemies,'' as Time magazine put it; not quite friends, not quite enemies. ''They're friendly,'' said Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican and McCain ally who has watched the two men up close. ''They don't hang out together. I don't think John's ever been to Camp David. I think it's respectful. President Bush respects Senator McCain, and I think Senator McCain respects the office of the presidency.''
Neither man knew much about the other as they both geared up for the 2000 race. Bush did not take McCain seriously at first, predicting he ''will wear thin,'' as he told his friend Doug Wead in a conversation that Wead secretly taped and later made public. The scale of that misjudgment became clear when McCain thrashed Bush in the New Hampshire primary. Bush was gracious in the concession call that night, but the spirit of civil competition between the two men would not last. ''We said goodbye as friends,'' McCain later recalled in a memoir. ''We would soon be friends no more.''
The crucible came in South Carolina, where the tone took a decidedly low turn. Bush stood by as a surrogate at a campaign event accused McCain of forgetting fellow veterans when he returned after five and a half years of captivity in North Vietnam. At McCain headquarters, reports kept pouring in about flyers and phone calls insinuating all manner of scurrilous things about the senator -- he had fathered a black child out of wedlock, he beat his wife, he was mentally unstable, he had a secret Vietnamese family, he was a Manchurian candidate, he was gay, his wife was a drug addict and so forth. Bush denied any involvement in the whisper campaign, but for his own part took umbrage at a McCain ad saying the Texas governor ''twists the truth like Clinton.''
''Stuff happened in South Carolina that none of us liked,'' Mark Salter, McCain's alter ego, told me over a beer in a hotel bar during a campaign swing in New England last month. ''But you never knew how much'' was orchestrated by Bush or his people. McCain's campaign was crushed in South Carolina, and McCain did little to hide his anger, calling Bush ''a combination of the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow'' -- in other words, a man with no courage, no heart and no brain. Cindy McCain stewed over the attacks, particularly the ''illegitimate black child'' allegation, a vicious reference to their adopted daughter Bridget, a baby she brought home from an orphanage in Bangladesh run by Mother Teresa. The night of the primary, Cindy cried in the candidate's hotel suite.
McCain backed Bush for the general election, but without enthusiasm. He grew testy at reporters parsing his words, at one point blurting out, ''I endorse Governor Bush, I endorse Governor Bush, I endorse Governor Bush,'' repeating it seven times as if he were a delinquent scrawling his penance on a chalkboard. To this day, there is a debate about whether McCain actually voted for Bush against Gore. The liberal blogger Arianna Huffington and a couple of Hollywood actors say he told them at a dinner before the January 2001 inauguration that he did not. McCain denies that.
Either way, he quickly set about making clear he was no Bush man. Although he rejected Democratic entreaties to bolt his party, McCain opposed the new president's tax cuts because, he said, they favored the rich, and he pushed through campaign finance legislation over White House reservations. ''It wasn't intended to annoy the White House,'' Salter said. ''He had his own ideas, his own national following.'' Bush signed the campaign-finance bill into law but, in a snub, held no public ceremony.
Through the worst of it, McCain, the old Navy man, always stood when talking with Bush on the telephone. And after the Sept. 11 attacks, he rallied behind his commander in chief all the way through the invasion of Iraq. But he soon soured on the president's handling of the war, and by 2004 even entertained a discussion with John Kerry about becoming his running mate on the Democratic ticket. ''There was some argument about it,'' a top official from Bush's re-election campaign recalled. ''We asked ourselves: 'Were they really talking? Was he really serious?' It was a general, 'Why won't they shut it down?' That's when Weaver called Karl.''
Underlying much of the rivalry between the two camps were aides who openly feuded, most notably Karl Rove and John Weaver, two Texas strategists who had a falling out over money during a 1988 campaign that left them bitter enemies. Weaver finally decided it was time to end their dispute and asked Mark McKinnon, then working for Bush, to set up a meeting. With McKinnon chaperoning, Weaver and Rove sat down at a Caribou Coffee shop a block from the White House and agreed to put the past behind them.
McCain then joined the Bush re-election effort with zeal, stumping for the president across the country. But in private he could still be scornful. At the Republican National Convention in New York, McCain ran into the Democratic chairman, Terry McAuliffe, who was on hand to provide rebuttal. As they rode up an escalator, McAuliffe wrote in his memoir, McCain put his arm around the Democrat's shoulder and whispered in his ear that Kerry needed to be more aggressive. ''My guy is no great shakes,'' McCain said of Bush, ''but your guy looks like a wimp.''
When he was with Bush, McCain kept trying to pump the president up, sometimes to extremes. In the green room before an Arizona debate with Kerry, according to aides for both men, McCain kept egging Bush on, telling him, ''You're going to be great'' and ''This is how you've got to hit him back.'' Bush, looking for calm before the televised clash, found McCain's hyper, boxing-coach performance off-putting. ''Man, is he spun up,'' Bush marveled to aides afterward.
Through the second term, McCain walked a delicate line. He and Bush had come to an uneasy detente. McCain admired Bush's political operation, and as he began entertaining another run at the White House, he tried to co-opt it by recruiting Bush strategists and fund-raisers. He also reversed himself on key Bush policies like the tax cuts. At the same time, McCain grew increasingly disgruntled over the course of the war and the administration's policies on detention and interrogation of suspected terrorists. His discussions about torture with Vice President Dick Cheney grew so testy that Bush pulled Cheney out and sent in the more diplomatic national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, instead.
In some ways, the more Bush got into trouble, the more McCain gravitated to him. The establishment figure from 2000 had become a lonely maverick in his own right, and McCain began to see Bush with more empathy. The Republican strategist Terry Nelson told me: ''He would say: 'They're a smart group. Why aren't they doing better?' ''
That's pretty much the question Bush now asks about McCain. As the senator began his second bid for the White House, Bush stayed out of the contest. But close advisers say he harbored a certain admiration for Mitt Romney, seeing more of himself in the former Massachusetts governor -- another son of a politician from a patrician political family who took a businesslike approach to politics and was a reformer at the state level. Bush's sister, Doro Bush Koch, openly backed Romney, and his brother Jeb, the former governor of Florida, sent the campaign several key advisers. George H. W. Bush hosted one of Romney's most important speeches. The president never counted McCain out, though, and he was not entirely surprised when his onetime rival managed a come-from-behind victory to capture the nomination.
Democrats and their allies are now trying to brand a McCain presidency as ''Bush's third term,'' but the McCain campaign has not exactly been running like a smooth extension of the Bush machine. The last time the party that held the White House nominated someone other than the incumbent president or vice president was 1952, and so for the first time in decades the incumbent party's nominee does not have his own people sitting in on all the meetings at the White House every day.
Although McCain and Bush both want McCain to win the presidency, the two have different institutional priorities in the near term. While Bush seeks to close on a high note by setting out a ''time horizon'' to bring troops home from Iraq and finding a compromise with North Korea and maybe even Iran over their nuclear programs, in the process his efforts at times have left McCain hanging out alone in more hard-line stances.
Barry Jackson, the chief White House political strategist, convenes a conference call every evening with McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, to coordinate efforts. Yet each side has felt burned by the other. The first miscommunication came the very day Bush was slated to endorse McCain following his primary victories. A misunderstanding among advance staffs sent Bush out to the North Portico of the White House several long minutes before McCain's car was actually due to arrive, leaving the hates-to-wait president just standing there in front of the assembled reporters. Bush kept his humor with the cameras on, even doing a little tap dance, but aides got an earful afterward.
Bush advisers later said McCain was not to blame for the mix-up, but they were not so forgiving of what happened the next month in New Orleans. Bush brought the president of Mexico and prime minister of Canada to New Orleans in April for a meeting. Hurricane Katrina is such a black mark on Bush's record that he hoped to demonstrate how much he has done to rebuild what was lost. But just two days after Bush left town, McCain flew in to visit the Lower Ninth Ward, the hardest-hit section of New Orleans, and condemned the administration's response to the hurricane as ''disgraceful.'' White House officials recognize that any candidate must promise to do better after Katrina, but they seethed at both the timing and the tone of McCain's remarks. McCain aides tried to soothe the Bush team by telling them that the word ''disgraceful'' was not in the prepared text but came out spontaneously.
The grievances nursed by both sides have only grown from there. Not only was Bush kept under wraps at the Phoenix fund-raiser, it also came just hours after McCain gave a speech separating himself from the president's nuclear-arms-control policies. For its part, the McCain team was aggravated that Bush's address to Israeli lawmakers in May condemning appeasement of America's enemies, a comment interpreted as a slap at Obama, stepped on their candidate's speech the same day envisioning what a first McCain term would look like. The campaign was equally perturbed when McCain called for lifting restrictions on offshore drilling only to have Bush agree the next day, giving Democrats an opening to trash the senator as a Bush replica. Later that same week, Bush and McCain separately went to Iowa to inspect flood damage just 30 miles apart, each effectively distracting from the other's effort to show compassion.
The crossed connections have left some political veterans scratching their heads. ''I don't think they've quite figured out how to do this,'' John Weaver, the former McCain strategist, told me. ''If they're going to distance themselves from the president, they need to either do it or not do it.''
A Republican involved in keeping the two camps working in tandem said that coordination had improved, but, he added, Bush's liabilities cannot be ignored. ''It's almost never a good thing to put them together,'' he told me. Asked if there was a risk of looking too eager to keep Bush in the closet, the strategist said, ''I don't want to be unkind here, but when you're at 29 percent, I think the answer is probably no.''
So McCain picks his Bush moments with care. If the current president is too radioactive, then he will seek out the former one. In late July, at the rocky oceanfront Walker's Point homestead in Kennebunkport, George H. W. Bush drove McCain in a golf cart up to a gaggle of reporters to talk about the campaign. No mystery about why they would spend more than 14 seconds together. ''He's the popular one,'' a McCain aide explained.
After the news conference overlooking the water on an overcast but lovely Maine day, McCain left for his next event while a few reporters stayed to chat with the 84-year-old former president. Someone noted to him that Obama had recently said nice things about his foreign policy. ''Has he said anything nice about my son's foreign policy?'' the elder Bush asked, recognizing that any praise for him was meant as a dig at the current president. He did not seem surprised when told no.
But the father said the son could handle the heat. ''He's fine,'' he said. ''We talk all the time. It's been a tough run in terms of criticism. But that's all right. He's strong.'' The elder Bush shook his head. ''A bad break on the economy,'' he added ruefully. ''But who knows?''
We got into a discussion about his handling of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and how history looks more favorably on the restraint he showed at the time, seeing it now, as he did then, as a prudent decision not to rub it in the face of the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and risk provoking a reaction. I asked if he thought his own experience with this sort of historical revisionism offered a lesson for his son. He said he did. But he added, ''I don't pass it along.''
Why not?
''Well, why?'' he asked. ''I'm 84. He doesn't need any advice from an old guy.''
He added: ''I got confidence in him. Every.''
Will history look on Iraq in a better light 10 years from now?
''I hope so,'' he said softly. And then after a slight pause, he made sure to add, ''And think so.''
With time winding down, advisers say Bush has turned surprisingly wistful. The president has thrown aside the meticulous schedule to halt his motorcade during several recent out-of-town trips -- to chat with children who had set up a lemonade stand outside a North Carolina fund-raiser or to pose for a birthday picture in Ohio with a 91-year-old woman whose family hoisted a sign asking him to stop. By one count, Bush has held 19 sports-related events already this year -- from hosting bass fishermen at the White House to presiding over a T-ball game in Ghana -- and that was before he attended the Olympics in Beijing.
In late June, the president traveled to a Washington hotel to address a conference of people involved in the faith-based social services he has provided federal money for, introduced by a homeless mother of two who was helped back onto her feet by one of the programs. For Bush, it was a moment to savor part of his legacy. But only three television cameras were on the riser in the back of the room to capture it, and two of them were owned by the government. Nothing about the conference appeared on the broadcast news that night or in the pages of the major papers the next day.
A month later, I went to another speech billed as major by the White House, this time celebrating Bush's ''freedom agenda'' to an audience of diplomats, officials and others at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington. Bush traced the philosophical origins of his policy to Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and Reagan. And he introduced a few dissidents from Cuba, Belarus, North Korea and Iran. ''I know there are moments when it feels like you're alone in your struggle,'' he said, seemingly channeling Spensha Baker. ''And you're not alone. America hears you.''
But in fact, America that day was hearing Barack Obama, who hours later delivered his speech in Berlin, carried live on television. Bush's speech the next day received an article in The Washington Times, but none in The Washington Post and only a one-and-a-half-paragraph mention in The New York Times account of the Obama address. Even the venerable Associated Press, dutiful chronicler of nearly everything any president ever says, filed no story. No surprise, then, that statistics compiled by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University found that the man Jon Stewart calls ''Still President Bush'' gets less than 40 percent of the coverage on the three big broadcast newscasts that he did in his first seven years in office.
The news media is not the only institution that has essentially moved on. The Democratic Congress, with even lower approval ratings than the president's, has all but washed its hands of him. The Congressional leadership has decided not to send him spending bills for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 and instead will pass temporary spending bills to keep the government running until the next president arrives. Representative Rahm Emanuel, the House Democratic Caucus chairman, complained to me that Bush and his aides want to fight, not cut deals. ''They think being stubborn is tough,'' he said. ''Stubborn is not tough; it's stubborn.''
The success of the surge has heartened Bush's allies and advisers, offering a measure of redemption before he leaves office. In truth, they admit, it worked out better than they ever really hoped. The initial uproar in January 2007 over Bush's announcement that he was sending more troops was so fierce, from both parties, that Peter Wehner, then the White House director of strategic initiatives, sent an e-mail message to Rove, Bartlett and the White House chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, warning that ''the presidency is on the line.'' In the end, Bush was right, Wehner told me recently, calling it ''the most admirable, impressive decision the president made.''
''Bush will not have lost Iraq,'' he went on to say. ''We almost did. It was slipping out of our fingers. Or to use another metaphor, the place was heading for the cliff, and we pulled it out at the last minute. He's going to hand over an Iraq that is much better than it was two years ago.'' Still, Wehner said, the cost of the war to Bush's presidency proved enormous. ''It was mishandled for too long, and we deserve blame for this. If Iraq had gone well, Bush would be a political colossus, and the Republican Party would bear his imprint in every way. But it didn't.''
While relieved at the changing fortunes in Iraq, many Bush advisers cannot help now wondering why it took so long to change strategy. Many blame it on Rumsfeld and the president's reluctance to remove him. Without Iraq sucking the energy out of Bush's second term, they reason, maybe he would have had a better chance of pushing through the big domestic achievements he sought, like overhauling Social Security, rewriting the tax code and liberalizing immigration laws. ''For some of us who were there, the frustration is, Could this have happened earlier?'' Gerson asked. Bartlett had the same question when I went to see him in Texas. ''The hard part for everybody is to say how different would it have been if that decision had been made 12 or 16 months before,'' he said.
In this final season for the Bush presidency, the battle for legacy is being waged on several fronts -- including in the Oval Office itself. When Bush invited a group of conservative scholars and writers for an off-the-record, 90-minute talk at the end of June, he found himself under fire for supposedly abandoning principle in the pursuit of posterity.
The presidential pique flared when Max Boot, a military historian at the Council on Foreign Relations and an informal adviser to McCain, spoke up to question what he, like many of his fellow neoconservatives, see as a shifting and softening of policies, according to several people in the room.
A lot of people think you've changed from your first term to your second term, Boot began.
''That's ridiculous,'' Bush interrupted.
Undaunted, Boot continued with the bill of particulars: on Iran, on North Korea, on Egypt, on Middle East democracy. Some of his supporters thought Bush was not pushing as hard as he once did, that he was too willing to accept less than he once demanded.
Bush retorted sharply. ''That's not true,'' he said, leaning forward in his wingback chair and glaring straight at Boot. Bush seemed most angry at the implication that he was not as committed to what he calls his freedom agenda, which he considers the centerpiece of his presidency. ''I've been fighting for this from Day 1,'' he said. ''It's part of everything I do.''
Boot remained unimpressed. He cited a column in that morning's Wall Street Journal by John Bolton, who was Bush's ambassador to the United Nations, lacerating the administration for betraying its own principles by lifting some sanctions on North Korea in exchange for an incomplete accounting of Pyongyang's nuclear program. ''Nothing can erase the ineffable sadness of an American presidency, like this one, in total intellectual collapse,'' Bolton wrote.
Bush grew more agitated at the mention of his own former senior diplomat. ''Let me just say from the outset that I don't consider Bolton credible,'' the president said bitterly. Bush had brought Bolton into the top ranks of his administration, fought for Senate confirmation and, when lawmakers balked, defied critics to give the hawkish aide a recess appointment. ''I spent political capital for him,'' Bush said, and look what he got in return. The president went on to defend his North Korea decision, saying his ''action for action'' approach held out the most hope of getting rid of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons.
(When I reached Boot later, he declined to describe his discussion with Bush. Bolton, on the other hand, scoffed at Bush's assertion that he has been consistent on North Korea. ''It's just divorced from reality,'' Bolton told me. ''Of course it's a different policy than the first term. He says we haven't changed a bit, and that's just not accurate.'')
As he wraps up his presidency, Bush has grown increasingly combative in defending his record on all fronts, unwilling to let others define him through their own prisms. He often quarrels with the premise of an interviewer's question that casts his tenure in a way he does not agree with. When he conducted a series of sit-down sessions with foreign journalists before his last Middle East trip, he kept disputing their perception of reality.
''No, that's not an accurate statement,'' he chided an Israeli reporter who said the president had waited seven years to become actively involved in the peace process.
''Well, I don't think it's an accurate description,'' he complained a half-hour later when an Arab reporter suggested that Lebanon's embattled prime minister had been abandoned.
And while disclaiming any interest in legacy, the president has begun laying out what he seems to hope his will be. Speaking to an Egyptian interviewer in May, the president said: ''I think history will say George Bush clearly saw the threats that keep the Middle East in turmoil and was willing to do something about it, was willing to lead and had this great faith in the capacity of democracies and great faith in the capacity of people to decide the fate of their countries and that the democracy movement gained impetus and gained movement in the Middle East.'' To a Thai journalist this month, he described his epitaph this way, ''Somebody who took on tough challenges and didn't shy away from doing what he thought was right.''
That, at least, will be the case he makes aided by the future George W. Bush Presidential Library at Southern Methodist University and a planned freedom institute. Bush's advisers say he intends to use the institute as a catalyst for democracy movements around the world, inviting prominent dissidents and activists for conferences or fellowships. Although they say he does not plan to travel the world intervening in foreign disputes as Jimmy Carter does or sponsoring health initiatives as Bill Clinton does, he hopes his institute will encourage opposition leaders in places like Zimbabwe, Belarus, Cuba, Iran and other repressive states that he focused on during his administration.
Beyond the library, Bush plans to write a book and is settling on a ghostwriter. During a private gathering for House Republican leaders in the White House residence this summer, he mused about using the book to set the record straight as he sees it. ''He has a number of pivotal points in his presidency that he's willing to sit down and reflect on,'' Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the House minority whip, told me afterward. ''He believes that history is on his side. And if it's not, he's never going to know.''
Bush, the former Texas Rangers co-owner, does not plan to go back into sports but will earn money through paid speeches, friends say. While keeping the ranch in Crawford, Bush is also buying a house in Dallas to be near the library and the institute. He talked about it during a recent fund-raiser in Houston that was closed to reporters but was surreptitiously videotaped by a guest who slipped it to a local television station.
''We've got a housing issue,'' Bush told the donors before adding mischievously, ''evidently not in Dallas, because Laura's over there trying to buy a house today.''
The crowd laughed. ''What about Crawford?'' someone shouted.
''I like Crawford,'' Bush replied. ''Unfortunately, after eight years of asking her to sacrifice, I am now no longer the decision maker. She'll be deciding, thanks for the suggestion. I suggest you don't yell it out when she's here. I did tell her, I said: 'Honey, we've been on government pay now for 14 years. Go slow!' ''
For now, his role in the campaign is relegated mainly to closed-door fund-raisers for party committees and Congressional candidates. He has raised $138 million so far this two-year cycle, still shy of the $194 million he pulled in during the 2005-06 campaign, according to the Republican National Committee. Before heading to Houston last month, Bush stopped in Tucson to headline yet another fund-raiser for a little-known House candidate. Although he was in McCain's home state, the presidential candidate was nowhere around. Bush did his thing at the $1,000-a-head event, giving a talk and posing for photographs, the 33rd time he had done so this year.
When the motorcade left the event, it made its way through Tucson, passing by people gathered to watch. A few held up signs.
''History will be your judge,'' one read.
On that, at least, everyone agrees.
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Continuing Deception;
Mr. McCain's ads on taxes are just plain false.
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THERE IS a serious debate to be had in this presidential campaign about the fundamentally different tax policies of Barack Obama and John McCain. Then there is the phony, misleading and at times outright dishonest debate that the McCain campaign has been waging -- most recently with a television ad.
The two candidates have very different positions on taxes. Mr. Obama wants to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and cut them substantially for low- and middle-income taxpayers. He would cut taxes for more households, and by a larger amount, than Mr. McCain, who would give the greatest benefits to wealthy households and corporations.
These are disagreements rooted in divergent views about the role of tax policy: the importance of reducing inequality versus the importance of encouraging investment. Mr. Obama has the wiser and more fiscally responsible of the plans, on balance, but this is by no means a one-sided debate between evil, tycoon-hugging Republicans and good-hearted Democrats. Higher taxes do have consequences for the behavior of both individuals and corporations. Listening to the candidates debate and defend their actual plans would be a useful exercise.
Instead, the McCain campaign insists on completely misrepresenting Mr. Obama's plan. The ad opens with the Obama-as-celebrity theme -- "Celebrities don't have to worry about family budgets, but we sure do," says the female announcer. "We're paying more for food and gas, making it harder to save for college, retirement." Then she sticks it to him: "Obama's solution? Higher taxes, called 'a recipe for economic disaster.' He's ready to raise your taxes but not ready to lead."
The facts? The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that the Obama plan would give households in the bottom fifth of the income distribution an average tax cut of 5.5 percent of income ($567) in 2009, while those in the middle fifth would get an average cut of 2.6 percent of income ($1,118). "Your taxes" would go up, yes -- but not if you're someone who is sweating higher gas prices. By contrast, Mr. McCain's tax plan would give those in the bottom fifth of income an average tax cut of $21 in 2009. The middle fifth would get $325 -- less than a third of the Obama cut. The wealthiest taxpayers make out terrifically.
The country can't afford the tax cuts either man is promising, although Mr. McCain's approach is by far the more costly. We don't expect either side to admit that. But neither side should get to outright lie about its opponent's positions, either.
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August 31, 2008 Sunday
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Grand Old Book Party
BYLINE: Christopher Beam
SECTION: OUTLOOK; Pg. B02
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If you're just gearing up for the GOP convention, here's a rundown of the best literature on John McCain and the future of the Republican Party.
McCain himself has written several autobiographical works with Mark Salter over the years, which explains why we don't see that many other McCain biographies. But they do exist. Some are even worth reading. For juicy anecdotes about young McCain, see Robert Timberg's "The Nightingale's Song," published in 1995 but since chopped and repackaged as "John McCain: An American Odyssey." (Read the original; it's got Jim Webb.) Demerits, Brazilian model girlfriends, run-ins with the cops -- McCain was not, as Rudy Giuliani might say, an altar boy. At the Naval Academy, he dressed sloppily. "What do you think your grandfather would say?" an officer once asked him. "Frankly, Commander, I don't think he'd give a rat's ass," came the reply. Timberg, a vet himself, clearly adores the man.
And he's not the only one, according to "Free Ride: John McCain and the Media," by David Brock and Paul Waldman. The Media Matters duo set out to indict the MSM for its too-friendly coverage of McCain, but their work often reads like an unintentional ode to the senator's media savvy. They're not wrong, though. Squarely in Camp McCain is Elizabeth Drew's well-intentioned snorer "Citizen McCain," chronicling the senator's campaign-finance crusade. Paul Alexander's "Man of the People: The Maverick Life and Career of John McCain" should likewise be sold with pom-poms.
But McCain skepticism is alive and well. Take Matt Welch's "McCain: The Myth of a Maverick," a meticulous upending of the candidate's public identity. Oddly enough, it mirrors McCain's latest line of attack against Obama, only painting McCain as the lightweight celebrity snob. Welch argues that McCain "elevates his own self-interest over what's good for the country."
The authenticity conundrum also gets heavy treatment in a slim volume by David Foster Wallace, "McCain's Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express With John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters, Thinking About Hope." Elements of McCain's campaign, Wallace writes, "indicate that some very shrewd, clever marketers are trying to market this candidate's rejection of shrewd, clever marketing." Wallace would know: The article first appeared in Rolling Stone in 2000, then as a download-only e-book, then in a collection of Wallace's work and finally as its own paperback.
Wallace also has the best account of the most famous episode of McCain's life -- his capture by the North Vietnamese, his torture, his refusal of release "with all his basic primal human self-interest howling at him." Wallace retells the story with the pathos of someone relating it for the first time, unlike McCain himself, whose personal accounts, starting with a 1973 article in U.S. News & World Report, have tended toward the laconic. Wallace reminds the reader just how selfless -- not to mention plain freaking crazy, by any pragmatic measure -- McCain's actions were.
If you like your campaign propaganda undistilled, check out Michael Goldfarb's on-message blog, the McCain Report (www.johnmccain.com/McCainReport/). McCain's YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/JohnMcCaindotcom) has all the speeches and ads you'll ever need. And if you want to see how much (or how little) has changed, watch this ad from McCain's 1982 congressional campaign (http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/08/22/mccain-campaign-video-exhumed.aspx).
In "Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream," Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam predict that the GOP's future depends on its ability to win "Sam's Club voters" -- working-class, non-college-educated Americans. Their unorthodox prescription: government investment (yikes!) that fosters independence and upward mobility (phew!).
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, has proposed nine steps of "real change" that the party must implement in order to avoid "real disaster." An anti-Obama campaign isn't enough; the GOP must repeal the gas tax, open the national petroleum reserve, declare a year-long earmark moratorium and make English the official national language, among other policy tweaks.
Neither plan has much to do with McCain, who is too anomalous to represent the party's past and too old to represent its future. But with the GOP struggling nationwide, that might actually help him.
jcbeam@gmail.com
Christopher Beam is a Slate political reporter.
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August 31, 2008 Sunday
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My Old Boss, the Man Dems Love to Loathe
BYLINE: Bill Andresen
SECTION: OUTLOOK; Pg. B04
LENGTH: 1001 words
I won't have floor seats this time. But that's not the only thing that will have changed when my former boss, Sen. Joe Lieberman, addresses the nominating convention of a major political party this week.
He'll be at a different party entirely.
While some of his Democratic colleagues have expressed anger at this switch, my vantage is a little different. I keep remembering another time when he took a convention stage.
For 10 years, I had the privilege of serving as Lieberman's chief of staff, until I left his office in 2003. Thinking about what the senator will do this week when he speaks in support of his friend Sen. John McCain, I've been running through some of the senator's greatest hits during that decade.
I'm remembering that hot day in August 2000 when a small group of Lieberman staffers joined a cheering crowd of thousands in Nashville to watch Vice President Gore and Sen. Lieberman appear together for the first time as a ticket. Rather than recycle the usual political attacks and rhetoric, my boss used his speech that day to talk about his faith and give thanks for the opportunity to serve his country. He expressed his gratitude toward Al Gore for making history by choosing him.
After a whirlwind week, we found ourselves at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Sitting in the Staples Center that Wednesday night, I was surrounded by a sea of signs reading only, "Hadassah." The look on the senator's wife's face and the emotion in the auditorium that night brought me to tears. Imagine: the daughter of Holocaust survivors addressing the entire world. "Only in America," as Joe Lieberman often says.
Because the senator will be addressing Republicans this week, I've also been thinking about another time he squared off against a Republican: His vice presidential debate with Dick Cheney. Conventional wisdom now sees that debate as somehow a victory for Cheney, but no one much other than Cheney staffers expressed that view that night. Rather than engage in pointless and ad hominem attacks on each other or their respective presidential candidates, the two candidates had done what most Americans hope their leaders will do when they sit down to debate -- they'd conducted themselves like adults and had a respectful, wide-ranging conversation about the challenges facing our nation.
We lost that election, of course, but after the final Supreme Court decision in December, Sen. Lieberman was one of the most popular elected officials in the United States. He couldn't walk through an airport without being mobbed. Once, as we were walking from our gate in the San Francisco airport, autograph seekers surrounded him. Just a few feet away, football star Joe Montana passed by alone, unrecognized by the throng.
Since that trip, I've left Capitol Hill, and Sen. Lieberman has run two difficult campaigns. His 2004 presidential bid didn't get far. And in 2006, under the unrelenting attacks of left-wing bloggers and a liberal, novice opponent with essentially unlimited personal money to spend attacking him, the Democratic voters of Connecticut narrowly denied the senator renomination to the Senate from the state that he had served essentially his entire adult life. This blow to such a decent man and capable senator was deeply disappointing.
While the Internet has had many positive effects on the political process -- most notably this election season, when Sen. Barack Obama has used it to raise millions of dollars from small donors -- the anger and vitriol that too often characterize the politics of the online community have had much to do with the decline in civil political rhetoric. Because elected officials feel compelled to cater to one side, and its online echo chamber, they all too often say only what their online world wants to hear.
That's a difficult thing to do when you're Joe Lieberman, a man who doesn't fit into anyone's neat categories. As a result, in recent weeks, he has found himself attacked by both the liberal blog DailyKos and the conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. Not only is this brand of politics shrill, it's also ineffective. As is almost always the case, the bloggers' candidate lost the general election in 2006, and Sen. Lieberman was reelected by a substantial majority.
Which brings us to this week.
The senator who just eight years ago had played a critical role in helping Al Gore close a double-digit gap in the polls, in a campaign that won the popular vote, will be speaking at the Republican convention on behalf of John McCain. This same senator who couldn't walk though an airport without being mobbed by Democratic supporters is now less popular in my party than a former Democratic senator who had a high-profile affair. When a reporter asked Democratic convention-goers who would be less welcome in Denver, Joe Lieberman or John Edwards, the unanimous conclusion was my former boss. The notion that his transgressions were somehow more egregious than Edwards's speaks volumes about today's political culture.
The people who are angrier at Lieberman see his sins as policy- and party-related. They're outraged that he's working so hard for the candidate of the opposing political party. In a deeply divided, red-vs.-blue town such as today's Washington, his transformation is tough to take. It isn't seen as a sign of a postpartisan, cooperative future that's good for everyone. It's seen as a betrayal.
Let's remember, though, that the Joe Lieberman who'll speak on Monday night is doing what he has always done in public office -- following the path he believes is in the best interests of the United States, regardless of the political cost.
I won't be in the audience on Monday night, and I regret that. I haven't made the same political journey as my former boss. I will be voting for Obama in November. But I still hope that Sen. Lieberman gives a good speech on behalf of Obama's opponent. I just hope it's not a home run.
Bill Andresen served as Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's chief of staff from 1993 to 2003.
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CORRECTION: · An Aug. 31 Outlook article on Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) incorrectly said that he won reelection in 2006 by "a substantial majority." Lieberman won with 50 percent of the vote, outpacing his nearest rival by 10 percentage points, or more than 100,000 votes.
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August 30, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
An Outsider Who Charms
BYLINE: By WILLIAM YARDLEY; Christopher Drew, Michael Luo and Bill Loftus contributed reporting.
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This article was reported by William Yardley, Jo Becker, Mike McIntire and David D. Kirkpatrick, and was written by Mr. Yardley.
Her father shot the grizzly bear whose hide is now draped over the sofa in her office. She, too, hunts and fishes. She runs marathons. She delivered her fifth child during her first term as governor. They call her husband, the reigning champion in the annual Iron Dog snowmachine race, First Dude.
Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain's surprising selection to be his vice-presidential running mate, took Alaska by surprise, too, not long ago. Though indisputably Alaskan, she rose to prominence by bucking the state's rigid Republican hierarchy, impressing voters more with gumption, warmth and charm than an established record in government.
It was a combination that dumbfounded her rivals.
''She wouldn't have articulated one coherent policy and people would just be fawning all over her,'' said Andrew Halcro, a Republican turned independent, who along with Tony Knowles, a Democrat, ran against Ms. Palin for governor in 2006. ''Tony and I looked at each other and it was, like, this isn't about policy or Alaska issues, this is about people's most basic instincts: 'I like you, and you make me feel good.' ''
''You know,'' said Mr. Halcro, invoking the Democratic presidential nominee, ''that's kind of like Obama.''
Before Ms. Palin, 44, became Alaska's first female governor, in 2006, the top line on her political resume was her tenure as mayor of Wasilla, a growing suburb of Anchorage with fewer than 7,000 residents. But even before a wide-ranging federal investigation began rattling through the Republican-controlled State Legislature over lawmakers' links to an oil services company, Ms. Palin jumped into the governor's race as an outsider calling for reform.
She already had challenged the state Republican Party's chairman, accusing him of abusing his role on a state oil and gas commission to do political work. And by the summer of 2006, Ms. Palin was taking on the governor, Frank H. Murkowski, a Republican lion of Alaska politics whose bluster and closed-door dealing had finally worn thin in the state.
Ms. Palin (pronounced PAY-lin), youthful and sympathetic with voters but bluntly critical of her party's leadership, said state government was broken, that it needed to be transparent and responsive. Stunningly, she won in a landslide, trouncing Mr. Murkowski by more than 30 points in the Republican primary that summer and rolling through the general election.
Defying Expectations
Now, after barely 20 months in office in a state that has rarely played much of a role in national politics, Ms. Palin is again challenging expectations, including those of her own party.
''Did I wake up in a parallel universe?'' said Mr. Halcro, who writes a blog that is frequently critical of the governor. ''I am absolutely shocked.''
Whatever similarities Ms. Palin and Senator Barack Obama may have in personal appeal, they seem to have little else in common. She is a conservative Protestant and has also been a member since 2006 of Feminists for Life, an anti-abortion group. She has supported the teaching of intelligent design in public schools, alongside evolution.
She is a member of the National Rifle Association, and has said Alaska's economic future depends on aggressively extracting its vast natural resources, from oil to natural gas and minerals.
Ms. Palin said she supported Alaska's decision to amend its Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. But she used her first veto as governor to block a bill that would have prohibited the state from granting health benefits to same-sex partners of public employees. Ms. Palin said she vetoed the bill because it was unconstitutional, but raised the possibility of amending the state Constitution so the ban could pass muster.
''I don't think a Hillary person would ever move to her, based on the issues,'' said Jean Craciun, a strategic research and planning consultant in Alaska who has done political polling for Democrats and Republicans. ''I don't think before today I would have ever heard someone call her a feminist.''
This month, Ms. Palin issued a last-minute statement of opposition to a ballot measure that would have provided added protections for salmon from potential contamination from mining, an action seen as crucial to its defeat. Her intense pursuit of a pipeline to deliver natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska to market in the Lower 48 led to what her administration has claimed as a major triumph: the Legislature this summer approved her plan to give a $500 million subsidy to TransCanada, a Canadian company, to help build the project.
The State Senate president, Lyda Green, a Republican who is also from Wasilla, has repeatedly sparred with Ms. Palin in the 20 months since she became governor. Like Mr. Halcro, Ms. Green called the governor's economic policies ''liberal,'' and said, ''I'd have concerns that she'd have the same negative impact on the nation that she has on Alaska.''
Ms. Green disagreed with the governor's decision to award a license and $500 million in subsidies to the Canadian company, saying there was no guarantee that even with the subsidies a gas pipeline would be built.
Ms. Green said the governor was difficult for her to deal with, a state of affairs she traces to Ms. Green's decision to remain neutral in Ms. Palin's race against former Governor Murkowski.
''There was some resentment there that some of us didn't come out and support her during the primary, and it never really got any better,'' Ms. Green said. ''I found that if you disagreed with her or tried to amend or change something, that was sort of off-limits. She did not like being told no or to change it.''
Commitment to Pipeline
Rebuffing criticism of the pipeline subsidy, Ms. Palin has cast the pipeline as a way for Alaska to ''end our dependence on foreign oil.'' She has said she hopes the pipeline effort will show that Alaska can contribute to a new energy economy, rather than be known as the state that receives more per capita federal spending than any other.
Critics in the state complained that Ms. Palin had undercut her clean-government image by appointing as her chief adviser on the pipeline a former lobbyist for TransCanada. The adviser, Marty Rutherford, her deputy commissioner of natural resources, earned about $40,000 lobbying the state government for a TransCanada subsidiary in 2003.
Asked recently whether Mr. Rutherford's past work for TransCanada presented a conflict of interest, Ms. Palin told The Anchorage Daily News, ''Going on five years later, no.''
One of her most significant accomplishments as governor was passing a major tax increase on state oil production, angering oil companies but raising billions of dollars in new revenue. She said the oil companies had previously bribed legislators to keep the taxes low. She subsequently championed legislation that would give some of that money back to Alaskans: Soon, every Alaskan will receive a $1,200 check.
Appointed in 2003 to the state board that settles drilling disputes, the Alaskan Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, she became an outspoken critic of one of her fellow commissioners, Randy Ruedrich, for soliciting political contributions from the oil industry in his capacity as chairman of the state's Republican Party.
Ms. Palin's introduction to a national audience comes as little good news has come out of Republican politics in Alaska. The same corruption investigation that was brewing when she ran for office in 2006 has led to the convictions of three Republican state lawmakers, charges against still more and, most recently, the indictment of the most established and revered Alaska politician of all, Senator Ted Stevens.
The continuing trouble has made Ms. Palin's calls for reform appear all the more prescient, yet she now is facing an investigation herself. The Republican-controlled Legislature has hired an independent investigator to determine whether Ms. Palin improperly pressured the former state public safety commissioner to resign this year.
The former commissioner, Walt Monegan, has said he felt pressure from Ms. Palin's administration, and her husband, Todd, to fire a state trooper, Mike Wooten, who was going through a bitter divorce with the governor's sister. The trooper was not fired.
Mr. Monegan told The Anchorage Daily News that Mr. Palin had showed him some of the findings of a private investigator the family had hired and accused the trooper of a variety of misdeeds, including drunken driving and child abuse.
Mr. Palin told the newspaper he feared for his wife's safety and said Trooper Wooten had made threats against her and her family. The governor has acknowledged inquiries by her staff to the Public Safety Department but said she played no role in them. To demonstrate she welcomed the inquiry, Mrs. Palin asked the state attorney general to look into the accusations as well.
Born on Feb. 11, 1964, in Sandpoint, Idaho, Sarah Heath Palin was still an infant when her parents moved the family to Skagway, in southeast Alaska, after accepting teaching positions there. The family moved to Wasilla, a small, conservative and growing suburb of Anchorage where, as Mr. McCain noted, Ms. Palin was a ''standout high school point guard.''
The governor met her husband in high school, and she was later voted ''Miss Wasilla'' in a local beauty contest. In 1987, she received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho. A year later, she and Mr. Palin eloped.
The governor said Friday that she ''never really set out to be involved in public affairs, much less to run for this office,'' referring to the vice presidency, but she rose quickly once she entered political life. ''A P.T.A. mom who got involved,'' is how the current mayor of Wasilla, Dianne M. Keller, described Ms. Palin.
She was elected to the Wasilla City Council in 1992, then ran for mayor in 1996, she has said, because she was concerned that revenue from a new sales tax would not be spent wisely. She served two terms, through 2002.
As mayor, she oversaw the Police Department, which has 25 officers, and the city's public works projects. Garbage collection is done by private companies, and a borough government oversees firefighting and public schools.
''This is really rural America,'' said the deputy city clerk, Jamie Newman, who added that town residents were still reeling from the news that the woman who just six years ago served as their mayor could now be vice president of the United States. ''Frankly, everyone is in shock.''
Ms. Keller said that Ms. Palin had three major achievements as mayor: She cut property taxes, increased the city sales tax by half a percent to support construction of an indoor ice rink and sports complex, and put more money into public safety, winning a grant to build a police dispatch center in town.
Although she would later criticize Congressional earmarks like Alaska's infamous ''Bridge to Nowhere,'' proposed for the town of Ketchikan at a cost of about $400 million, as mayor she began the practice of making annual trips to Washington to press for them on behalf of their town.
A Fresh Family Tableau
Ms. Palin's family presents Mr. McCain, who turned 72 on Friday, with fresh and wholesome campaign imagery. It also presents some potentially delicate issues. Mr. Palin, in addition to being a champion snowmobile racer, is an oil production operator on the North Slope, working for BP, a company that has had to make major repairs since a spill on the slope temporarily shut down production there in 2006.
In addition to Ms. Palin's $125,000 state salary, Mr. Palin earned $93,000 last year running his own commercial fishing business and working part-time at BP's oil production facility, according to her public financial disclosure reports.
Although Ms. Palin once said that her husband would quit his job at BP if she were elected governor, she later backed away from that. He took a leave from the company after she won, but went back to work there last year, saying his family needed the money. And the governor now says that because Mr. Palin is not in management, it poses no conflict with her own dealings with the petroleum industry, a major force in Alaska's politics and economy.
Mr. Palin, who is part Yu'pik Eskimo, also received a few hundred dollars in dividends as a shareholder in two benefit corporations representing Alaskan Natives and $10,500 from the Iron Dog snowmobile race, which he has won several times. The Palins reported no debts other than the mortgage on their home.
The couple have five children -- Track, 19; Bristol, 17; Willow, 14; Piper, 7; and Trig, 4 months. Track joined the Army last year, a fact Ms. Palin mentioned in her introduction to the Republican ticket on Friday. Trig, who was born in April, has Down syndrome, which Ms. Palin seemed to allude to only obliquely on Friday, after she described him as a ''beautiful baby boy'' then shifted from there to her selection as Mr. McCain's running mate.
''Some of life's greatest opportunities,'' the governor said, ''come unexpectedly.''
Ms. Palin and her husband knew during her pregnancy that there were complications, though the boy's condition was not revealed publicly until after he was born. Anti-abortion groups have praised Ms. Palin and her family.
''It speaks volumes about her personally and about how she walked her talk,'' said Serrin M. Foster, president of Feminists for Life, an anti-abortion group.
Three days after giving birth, Ms. Palin was back at work.
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NAME: Sarah Heath Palin
LOAD-DATE: September 7, 2008
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Senator John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his choice for vice president at a rally Friday in Dayton, Ohio.(PHOTOGRAPH BY JIM WILSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Gov. Sarah Palin in the Governor's Mansion in Juneau with her daughters, from left, Bristol, Piper and Willow in 2006.(PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN WALLACE/JUNEAU EMPIRE, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Ms. Palin in her downtown Anchorage office in 2007, which has a decidedly Alaskan touch to the decor.(PHOTOGRAPH BY ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS/MCT -- LANDOV)
The governor greeting her husband, Todd Palin, at the finish line of the 2007 Tesoro Iron Dog snowmobile race in Fairbanks.(PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES MARSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Sarah Palin in a 1984 studio portrait as Miss Wasilla.(PHOTOGRAPH BY ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS/MCT -- LANDOV)(pg. A12) CHARTS: Where She Stands: ABORTION Supported bills to outlaw late-term abortions and to require parental consent for abortions in Alaska. She gave birth this year to a son with Down syndrome, her fifth child, saying that she had known about the disability beforehand but would not abort the pregnancy. She is a member of an anti-abortion organization called Feminists for Life. DEATH PENALTY On her campaign Web site, she said: ''If the Legislature passed a death penalty law, I would sign it. We have a right to know that someone who rapes and murders a child or kills an innocent person in a drive-by shooting will never be able to do that again.'' ENERGY Favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, saying that Alaska was brought into the United States for its resources
Senator John McCain has opposed drilling there. She signed into law a bill to create a Renewable Energy Fund in Alaska, where residents are heavily dependent on fossil fuels. SAME-SEX MARRIAGE Supported a 1998 Alaska constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. GUN CONTROL Is an avowed supporter of the right to bear arms, a member of the National Rifle Association and a rifle hunter of Alaskan game. HEALTH CARE Supports competition in health care, and laws allowing patients access to better information about prices. In 2008, she said she was considering incentives for employers to provide insurance, based on the free market. She said reform must also include ''Alaskans' choosing to take more personal responsibility'' to be healthier. TAXES Is a fiscal conservative. She proposed suspending the state's gasoline tax this year. She also proposed giving every Alaskan a $1,200 check from state accounts that were bulging with windfall revenues from the state's tax on oil production.(pg. A12)
Key Milestones: For Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. Chart details timeline for Palin. (pg. A12)
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The Washington Post
August 30, 2008 Saturday
Suburban Edition
Candidates' Web Sites Get to Know the Voters;
Presidential Campaigns Tailor, Target Ads Based on Visitors' Online Habits
BYLINE: Peter Whoriskey; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: FINANCIAL; Pg. D01
LENGTH: 1217 words
Any two people interested in whether Amanda Beard is dating fellow Olympian Michael Phelps, and who clicked on the Boston Herald tidbit that raced around the Web last week, got the same piece of gossip.
Rumored galpal Amanda Beard on Phelps: No Thanks!
What was different was the political ads that appeared -- or didn't -- beside the story.
Readers who had visited Barack Obama's Web site received as many as three Obama ads alongside the gossip. "Help Elect Barack Obama President of the United States" and "Visit the Barack Obama Website," the ads said.
Readers who hadn't visited his site didn't see a single Obama pitch.
How did the campaign know which readers to send ads to? Although both the Obama and John McCain campaigns are reluctant to discuss details, the ability to identify sympathetic voters based on their Internet habits, and then to target them with ads as they move across the Web, is one of the defining aspects of the 2008 presidential campaign.
Digital advertising networks and large Web companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft are using Web behavior -- which news articles people read, which blogs they visit or what search terms they enter -- to target voters who may be sympathetic to a certain cause. Using a method known as "sentiment detection," some companies even boast that they can tell whether the blog you go to is for or against the Iraq war.
"During a get-out-the-vote drive, you don't want to get out the wrong vote," said Diane Rinaldo, political advertising director at Yahoo, which has worked with both campaigns. With these techniques, the candidates "can reach who they want to reach without wasting their incredibly valuable media dollars, and reach them with the right message."
The advertising techniques, known as "behavioral targeting" and "retargeting," have raised alarms from some privacy advocates, who say no one should unwittingly have their political leanings analyzed as they use the Web, or be tracked for the delivery of political ads. Congress has begun looking into the use of such techniques for commercial advertisers.
"The Web has been hailed for creating new opportunities for political expression, but there is this dark underside to it," said Jeffrey Chester with the Center for Digital Democracy. "Yes, you can reach everyone -- but you can track, target and profile them as well, and none of this is disclosed."
Advocates of the practice, which is common in commercial marketing, say its use in the political world is comparable to traditional direct-mail campaign practices. Direct mail efforts, they note, combine voter registration and other records to identify targets. They then send tailored pitches to their homes.
By contrast, most of the online targeting is directed to a Web browser, and the name and home address of the target is unnecessary.
"Both campaigns are embracing online targeting ad technologies," said Michael Bassik, vice president of interactive marketing at MSHC Partners, a leading Democratic communications firm. "It sounds scarier, but it's less intrusive than direct mail ever was."
Guessing how a person might vote -- and whether they might be receptive to a pitch -- has long been part of the science of political marketing.
But the Internet creates many new ways for campaigns to gather data about potential voters, and then to reach out to them.
Both presidential campaigns are using "retargeting" to send ads to people who visited their Web sites but who didn't leave their name or e-mail address.
To track those visitors even after they've left, the site places a small file, known as a cookie, on the visitor's Web browser. When that person visits another site, an advertising system can send a tailored ad after detecting the cookie, which indicates that the person is a potential voter for the given candidate.
That's how the Obama campaign can send an ad to a person long after they've visited the Obama site, even when their mind is on something far afield from politics -- like Phelps and Beard.
The cookie might even indicate a user's interests, allowing the campaign to further tailor an ad. For example, looking at the cookies from McCain's site reveals that a person who visits looking for information about gas prices is tagged that way.
Using that information, the campaign could send the user an ad about McCain's energy policy.
"If you responded to a certain kind of ad, we could hit you with a similarly themed ad at another time," said Michael Palmer, the eCampaign director for McCain. "Without violating any privacy concerns, we try to know as much about our users as possible."
Identifying potential supporters is also increasingly easier with the Internet, because what a person reads or browses on the Internet can reveal their political leanings.
Specific Media, a company that has worked with both sides in the presidential race, combines data about users -- some of which it buys and some of which it receives from partners -- to create profiles on about 175 million people, according to the company's senior vice president David Jakubowski.
The data it collects includes information about what articles the person has read on some newspaper sites, what blogs and forums the person attends and what other sites are visited.
Using sentiment detection, Specific Media can judge whether a blog about the Iraq War or tax cuts is generally in favor or opposed to those policies. That helps them determine the political leanings of a visitor.
Gathering data on all the Web visits people make, the company can then present a political campaign with "buckets" of voters described as Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, and by what specific issues the person -- identified by a cookie on their browser -- may be interested in.
"You look at the patterns -- you take known Democrats and say, 'How do they behave on the Web?' " Jakubowski said. "One data point doesn't put you in a data bucket. If you read a lot of U.S. politics, whether it's blogs or news or opinion, and you tend to read more of the stuff about conservative policies, you will then end up in a more conservative bucket."
He said that when the company identifies someone's party affiliation, the information proves to be nearly 100 percent accurate.
Similarly, Yahoo collects information about the 140 million unique monthly visitors to its sites. The company records what kinds of stories a user has read at Yahoo News -- one of the most popular news sites, as well as what search terms a person has entered in the company's search engine.
Yahoo began a year and a half ago, creating sets of Web behaviors that matched any of the potential candidates -- even former vice president Al Gore, who never entered the race but was a long-rumored possibility.
The "buckets" that Yahoo offers to candidates indicate a voter's interests. There are categories for the Iraq war, energy and the economy and also whether they are "Obama-interested" or "McCain-interested."
"To see the two presidential campaigns using behavioral targeting is very telling of how powerful a marketing tool it is," said Mike Zaneis, vice president of policy at the Interactive Advertising Bureau. "There is a growing level of awareness that there is a certain level of tracking going on online. But they may be surprised how prevalent its use is in political campaigns."
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The New York Times
August 29, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
McCain Ad Is Valentine To Obama On Big Day
BYLINE: By MICHAEL COOPER and ELISABETH BUMILLER
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 16
LENGTH: 684 words
DATELINE: DAYTON, Ohio
The Obama campaign was already nervous that Senator John McCain might try to steal the show from their big night by letting the name of his running mate selection slip out, and when the McCain campaign announced Thursday that it would run a new television commercial during their convention, those fears intensified.
But when it was finally broadcast, the television advertisement that they had feared would be a knife in their back turned out to be something of a Valentine.
''Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America,'' Mr. McCain said, talking straight to the camera, in a striking departure from some of the pointed advertisements he has run of late. ''Too often the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed. So I wanted to stop and say, Congratulations. How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight, Senator, job well done.''
It was just a blip in a day of fevered speculation about just whom Mr. McCain would tap as his running mate, a day in which there were tea leaves to read everywhere but few hard and fast facts. McCain campaign officials said the campaign had no intention of letting their closely held secret out Thursday.
Mr. McCain, who had settled on his selection, was less than forthcoming here Thursday night when reporters shouted questions about his pick. ''Wilford Brimley,'' he responded, invoking the actor and oatmeal pitch man who had campaigned with him in New Hampshire. In recent days Mr. McCain, who will turn 72 on Friday, has joked that he is attracted to Mr. Brimley because he is a former marine -- and is older than he is.
There was lots of frenzied speculation about some of the leading candidates.
The buzz around Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota rose to a clamor when he suddenly canceled his appearances as a surrogate for Mr. McCain at the Democratic National Convention in Denver and flew home on short notice.
''Obviously this is Senator McCain's decision, and his announcement, and we all want to be respectful of his desire to have the chance to announce it himself,'' Mr. Pawlenty told KSTP-TV when he arrived at the airport in Minnesota.
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, began the day raising money in San Diego; then his associates grew a bit cagey about his whereabouts. As of 7:26 p.m. Eastern time, though, Mr. Romney had yet to hear any news, according to a close Romney associate.
And Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor and homeland security secretary, found a photographer for The Associated Press waiting as he took out the trash at his home in suburban Washington. Several Republicans said the idea that Mr. McCain would tap his friend Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2000, was fading. Mr. Ridge and Mr. Lieberman support abortion rights, and the consideration of both has alarmed conservatives.
In the end, reporters on the McCain campaign spent the night working their phones and BlackBerries, and trying to pry out the news while sitting in the bar of a hotel in Dayton, where they gathered to watch Mr. Obama address the Democratic convention.
Of course, Mr. Obama's selection of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware leaked overnight, after many of the next day's newspapers had already been printed.
Meanwhile, worried Republicans were monitoring the progress of Tropical Storm Gustav, which is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane and hit land early next week, as the Republicans meet for their nominating convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The prospect of a major hurricane raised fears that some prominent speakers, including Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, could have to cancel or delay their speeches.
And the potential image of Republicans celebrating in Minnesota as a hurricane raged the Gulf of Mexico could be damaging for a party still tarred by President Bush's slow response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A senior McCain campaign official said that while they were monitoring the situation, it was unlikely that the convention would be delayed.
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The New York Times
August 29, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
Russia Deal May Fall, A Casualty Of Conflict
BYLINE: By PETER BAKER; Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Foreign Desk; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 1059 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
Just three months ago, President Bush reached a long-sought agreement with Russia intended to open a new era of civilian nuclear cooperation and sent it to Congress for review. Now, according to administration officials, Mr. Bush is preparing to scrap his own deal.
The imminent collapse of the nuclear deal, once a top Bush priority, represents the most tangible casualty so far of the deteriorating relations with Russia following its brief war with neighboring Georgia. With Vice President Dick Cheney heading to Georgia next week, Mr. Bush is also poised to announce about $1 billion in economic aid to the country, the officials said.
Unlike more symbolic actions being discussed in Washington, like throwing Russia out of the Group of 8 industrialized nations, canceling the nuclear pact would involve concrete consequences potentially worth billions of dollars to Russia. Yet it also would mean unraveling an initiative that was critical to Mr. Bush's vision of safely spreading civilian nuclear energy around the world, a program that relied in part on Russian involvement.
The agreement would have reversed decades of bipartisan policy and allowed extensive commercial nuclear trade, technology transfers and joint research between Russia and the United States. It also would have cleared the way for Russia to import, store and possibly reprocess spent nuclear fuel from American-supplied reactors around the world -- a lucrative business for Russia and a way for the United States to build nuclear plants while keeping radioactive waste out of less reliable hands.
The pact already faced deep skepticism in Congress because of Russia's resistance to tougher action against Iran over its nuclear program. But it might have cleared the legislative review process if not for the clash between Russia and Georgia. Now Bush administration officials have concluded it will not survive a Congressional vote, and say that withdrawing it would send a signal to Moscow yet preserve the possibility of resubmitting it to Congress next year if tensions ease.
''The administration is just about at the point of making a decision to pull it,'' said a senior administration official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. ''We're getting pretty close to that.'' The official added that an announcement by the president ''could happen any time soon.''
Other officials cautioned that Mr. Bush had made no final decision and might wait to see what came out of a meeting of European Union heads of state on Monday. The White House press secretary, Dana M. Perino, said there would be consequences for Russia but declined to discuss them. ''We just aren't there yet,'' she said. ''It's premature to say.''
But some experts on Russia and on nuclear proliferation said Mr. Bush had few options. ''This agreement is probably going to be the first casualty of Georgia,'' said Robert Nurick, a nonproliferation specialist at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. ''Whatever you may think of the merits, there's no point in bashing your head against the wall.''
While Mr. Bush ponders his options, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the Democratic presidential nominee, and his running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, met separately on Thursday with a Georgian delegation visiting the party convention in Denver.
''He wanted to show solidarity and show that he's engaged on this very important foreign policy issue,'' said Michael McFaul, an Obama adviser.
Meanwhile, Cindy McCain, the wife of Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, visited Georgia this week as part of a humanitarian mission.
At the White House, the nuclear pact and the economic package are at the top of a menu of options being debated by senior officials. Officials said they were still finalizing the aid package, which they estimated would be in the $1 billion range. Other ideas include rebuilding the shattered Georgian military and aggressively investigating Russian business transactions in the West in search of corrupt practices, officials said.
John P. Hannah, the vice president's national security adviser, would not discuss administration plans, but told reporters on Thursday that in Georgia Mr. Cheney would deliver ''a clear and simple message that the United States has a deep and abiding interest in the well-being and security of this part of the world.''
The nuclear deal was broached by Mr. Bush during a July 2006 visit to Russia, and the two governments spent two years shaping a formal agreement before signing it in Moscow in May on the day before Vladimir V. Putin, who is now prime minister, stepped down as president. The United States already has similar agreements with Europe, China, Japan and other countries.
The pact does not require Congressional approval but must be reviewed on Capitol Hill for 90 legislative days before it can go into effect. Congress could block the deal with majority votes in both houses or it could proactively approve it without waiting for the clock to expire.
Senator Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had introduced a bipartisan measure to approve the deal, and his House counterpart, Representative Howard L. Berman of California, had pushed through committee a measure approving it with conditions. But now neither predicts it will pass. ''Even before Georgia, there were real issues,'' Mr. Berman said. ''This came along, and there's just no appetite for it now.''
The issue prompted an intense debate within the administration, with some advocates of the agreement arguing for just leaving it alone because the 90-day period would probably not be completed this year, anyway, requiring the clock to restart next year.
''At the moment, people are worried that the current crisis in Georgia will make it harder to insulate the nonproliferation cooperation from the wider difficulties in the relationship,'' said Robert J. Einhorn, a former assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation.
Critics of the agreement, though, said the president should not only withdraw it but also vow not to resubmit it next year. ''Without taking these actions, the administration's tough talk should be viewed as white noise,'' said Henry D. Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, based in Washington.
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The New York Times
August 29, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
On the Small Screen, Intimacy and Welcome Silence for Obama's Big Rally
BYLINE: By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE TV WATCH; Pg. 15
LENGTH: 750 words
It wasn't a rock concert or a revival meeting. And despite the fireworks and the neo-Classical columns lining the stage and giant television screens, Senator Barack Obama did not look like the lead in ''Oedipus at Colonus.''
Mr. Obama, wearing a flag pin and a confident mien, looked like a presidential candidate accepting the nomination of the Democratic Party.
The speech was draped in American flags and weighted with symbolism -- the timing coincided with the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s ''I Have A Dream'' speech, and the place echoed John F. Kennedy's acceptance speech in 1960 in an outdoor stadium in Los Angeles.
Mr. Obama quoted President Kennedy but waited until the end to allude to Dr. King. And he presented himself as a postracial candidate running on the content of his character by mentioning the civil rights leader only once, and not by name, but as ''a young preacher from Georgia'' who taught Americans that ''all together, our dreams can be one.''
The finale of a political convention is a little like a wedding: the bride is always radiant, and the nominee is always stirring. In an unusual turn, even Senator John McCain, the expected Republican nominee, felt compelled to pay tribute to Mr. Obama's historic milestone with a television advertisement congratulating his opponent on ''a job well done.'' (No good ad goes unpunished: after Mr. McCain's spot on CNN came a Mutual of Omaha commercial about retirement plans for the elderly, and another promising to reverse baldness.)
Critics worried and commentators warned that the stadium rally would look too grandiose or gaudy. But television forces intimacy on even the largest gatherings. It was only when the cameras pulled back to a wide overhead shot that viewers could fathom the vastness of the crowd. Mostly, they saw Mr. Obama's face and close-ups of his supporters in the audience, especially African-Americans moved to tears by the moment.
The prime-time portion of the spectacle was devised to play down race and highlight Mr. Obama's presidential stature: Stevie Wonder sang ''Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours,'' but a group of retired generals and Susan Eisenhower, a Russian affairs expert who is the granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, waxed lyrical about the senator's readiness for the Oval Office.
Mr. Obama brought the crowd to its feet many times to cheer and applaud, but perhaps just as importantly for audiences back home, for almost 50 minutes he silenced the ceaseless chatter of television anchors and commentators who had insistently put their own stamp and faces on one of the most exciting political conventions in modern times.
People do want to watch: the audience for cable news coverage this week was about double what it was in 2004. Yet despite the huge public fascination, the three major networks limited their coverage to an hour a night, a prime-time patchwork of highlight reels, catchup snippets of live speeches, and commentary.
Anchors at conventions used to serve as omniscient narrators; at this convention, they mostly served as human V-chips blocking live speeches with their own palaver and predictions.
The broadcast networks long ago ceded gavel-to-gavel coverage to cable and, more recently, to the Internet and news Web sites. Concerned citizens have more ways than ever to follow political events, but it requires ingenuity and patience to cobble together a coherent narrative.
And even the 24-hour cable news channels proved unreliable at times, giving too much screen time to their gassiest anchors.
Of the three cable news networks, CNN was the least intrusive: Wolf Blitzer and his colleagues were willing to let speakers speak for themselves. When Martin Luther King III spoke on Thursday, so did Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, who chose to entertain his viewers with a Doonesbury cartoon about Mr. Obama and the Clintons that also featured Mr. Olbermann and his co-host, Chris Matthews. (Fox News mostly focused on Mr. McCain's possible choice for a running mate, but raced back to the convention when Sheryl Crow took the stage.)
It's a bad reading of the audience. For most of the convention, CNN -- staid, stable and anchored by fewer egomaniacs -- won higher ratings than the other cable news channels, as well as ABC and CBS. And Wednesday, CNN was neck and neck with NBC, and for a while even ahead, suggesting that when a political event is this interesting, television commentators are less so.
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The New York Times
August 29, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
Sense And Reality On Energy
BYLINE: By FLOYD NORRIS.
Floyd Norris's blog on finance and economics is at nytimes.com/norris
SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; HIGH & LOW FINANCE; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1067 words
High oil prices have helped to bring down the American economy and to devastate Detroit. Politicians are talking about energy policy, although they seem to be talking past each other.
So it is now, and so it was in 1974, after the price shock that arrived after the Arab oil exporters started an embargo in retaliation for America's support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War, and learned that they could sell oil for a lot more than they had thought.
From the perspective of 2008, what is most remarkable is that in 1975, the country had a president who actually wanted to confront the issue. The answers he proposed seem highly relevant now, even if the steps needed are much larger than would have been necessary if action had been taken back then.
The president, Gerald R. Ford, proposed to deal with the damage from rising oil prices by ... raising oil prices. That sounded radical then, and it sounds radical now. It also makes economic sense.
Can you imagine hearing the following statements from either Senator John McCain or Senator Barack Obama?
''To provide the critical stability for our domestic energy production in the face of world price uncertainty, I will request legislation to authorize and require tariffs, import quotas or price floors to protect our energy prices at levels which will achieve energy independence.''
''Increasing energy supplies is not enough. We must take additional steps to cut long-term consumption.''
''Obviously, voluntary conservation continues to be essential, but tougher programs are needed, and needed now.''
Those are excerpts from President Ford's State of the Union address in 1975.
He wanted more oil drilling, and more use of nuclear power and coal, but he also wanted to hold down consumption. The man who had been a Michigan representative for a quarter of a century wanted to force Detroit to raise the fuel efficiency of cars. He wanted Congress to impose taxes to assure that the price of gasoline did not fall, and to pass a windfall profits tax to assure that the oil companies did not become too rich.
Instead of that, the campaign so far this year has featured partisan wrangling: Drill more. Conserve more. Tax the oil companies. Subsidize their exploration.
The candidates seem to agree on only one point, that the price of gasoline ought to go down. Senator McCain favored a temporary repeal of the federal gasoline tax. Senator Obama opposed that, but would like to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
There is a good chance that oil prices will fall for a while, although they are likely to remain well above the levels that seemed high a couple of years ago. A worldwide slowdown will bring down prices, as one did a generation ago. And the politicians will move on to other issues, leaving the United States without an effective energy policy, perhaps for another generation.
Frank G. Zarb has a better idea. You may remember that he was President Ford's energy czar, and a man who had a role in formulating the proposals in 1975.
''If I were a candidate, I would take the high ground on this issue,'' Mr. Zarb said this week. He would announce a goal of cutting oil imports in half. ''I would say, 'I have a series of ideas on policies, but I am not stuck on them. If someone else has other ideas, we can consider them, so long as they are designed to meet the same goal.' ''
The set of possible policies is not that different from what it was in 1975. There must be a combination of increasing the supply of energy and reducing the demand for oil. That can include more drilling, and it can involve alternative energy sources.
One of the lessons that Mr. Ford understood was that it also needed to involve high prices. In recent decades there was far too little investment in energy, either in the search for more oil or in alternative sources, and too little effort devoted to conservation. Neither suppliers nor consumers acted as if they believed prices would stay high.
Mr. Ford understood that weak economic times were hardly ideal for raising taxes, and proposed offsetting the energy taxes with rebates and income tax cuts. That would leave the money in the economy, but still propel the needed conservation and investment.
His proposals were buried on Capitol Hill, and in due course the lessons of that era were forgotten.
''Scoop Jackson told me, 'We're not going to have an energy policy unless you can arrange another embargo,' '' said Mr. Zarb, referring to Senator Henry M. Jackson, then the chairman of the Senate committee that handled energy legislation. ''And he was right.''
Had we taken the steps Mr. Ford pushed 33 years ago, we would have paid more for gasoline, for a time. The 1980s boom, as gasoline prices collapsed, might have been more muted.
But with consumption down, we would have been in a far better position in this decade, when the growth of India and China pushed up demand for energy. Detroit would be producing vehicles more in tune with current customer needs, rather than asking for loan guarantees. Oil prices would almost certainly be lower, providing less money for the countries that export oil, among them Russia and Iran.
One sign of the progress, or lack of it, since 1975 is that Mr. Ford wanted to cut imports in half with a reduction of two million barrels of oil a day. Now it would take a cut of five million barrels a day.
Mr. Zarb says his proposal would be good politics for the first candidate to embrace it. ''That candidate would take the high ground and make it a bipartisan effort,'' he said. ''The other side would be really short-breathed and wouldn't be able to respond.''
My suspicion is that the other candidate would gleefully respond, particularly if the candidate discussed the need to raise energy taxes. The response ads would say something like: ''My opponent thinks you are not paying enough for gasoline. If you agree, then vote for him. But if you think gasoline costs too much, and it is time for Washington to bring down the price, vote for me.''
I assume that both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain know that such an ad would be unfair, but think they dare not advocate long-term solutions that would involve short-term pain.
Perhaps they remember that a generation before Mr. Ford's brief term as president, Adlai E. Stevenson sought the office, promising to ''talk sense to the American people.''
He lost. Twice.
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The New York Times
August 29, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
Cable, Quietly, Introduces an Anytime Elections Channel
BYLINE: By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; ADVERTISING; Pg. 7
LENGTH: 1153 words
THE cable industry, aiming to prevent Internet companies like Yahoo and YouTube from snatching away its ad revenue, has introduced an experimental political channel that gives advertisers a uniform way to buy time and measure the number of people watching.
The channel, called Elections '08 On Demand, lets people watch videos whenever they want, much the way they can on YouTube or the Web sites of television networks. Depending on where they live, people can tune into the channel to see an infomercial for Barack Obama, coverage of the Democratic National Convention, or historical clips like Lyndon B. Johnson's ''Daisy'' ad.
So far the nascent channel offers only about eight hours of programming. But the participating cable companies, many of which joined a consortium this year called Canoe Ventures, say this effort shows that they can work together well. Canoe Ventures is trying to make cable television a more attractive place for advertisers; Elections '08 is the first product it has worked on.
The channel is available in 32 million households, primarily the ones served by the six partners of Canoe Ventures: Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cablevision Systems, Charter Communications, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks. Most subscribers probably have not noticed it, because it is not particularly easy to find: On Time Warner, for example, it is Channel 1279; on Cablevision, Channel 500.
Though Elections '08 has been available since January, only 500,000 segments have been viewed, said David Porter, vice president for marketing and new media at the Cox Media division of Cox Communications. And that is even after all the local markets of the participating cable companies pledged to run at least 100 spots a week promoting it.
''What we've accomplished with Elections '08 may not feel and sound like a huge success story to the layperson, but behind the curtain, we've laid the foundation for the cable operators working together in an unprecedented manner,'' Mr. Porter said. ''Trends now are causing us to stop and look at these individual cable operators to say, 'How can we compete in the world of the Internet?' ''
Canoe Ventures aims to make cable a more desirable place for advertisers by standardizing the way ads are bought and measured, and the way that technology is used. It is also working on longer-term projects, like placing ads in on-demand content, asking viewers to vote or answer polling questions with their remote controls, and aiming television ads to specific households.
Some media professors said that while this effort represented a step forward for the cable industry, it lagged behind the Web portals and TV networks that have already made plenty of similar -- and better -- content available online.
''If you are a high interest voter or an activist, you can find everything on YouTube, and it's very simple to do,'' said Tobe Berkovitz, the associate dean of the college of communication at Boston University. He adds that Mr. Obama's campaign in particular has been active in driving young voters to its Web site.
Neither traffic nor advertising on the election channel has been particularly strong. Mr. Obama is the first major candidate to buy time on it, but only in 15 states; his seven-minute segment is running Aug. 18 through Sept. 3.
Other than Mr. Obama, only a handful of local politicians -- and the Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who is promoting wind energy -- have bought ad time. Mr. Porter of Cox said he expected more interest as Election Day neared, adding that the sales team for the channel was trying to get Senator John McCain to advertise.
The pitch to politicians is that they can have a longer time to talk to voters than during the standard 30-second TV spot. With the On Demand feature, the voters, in turn, can choose to watch the messages at their own convenience and on a big screen.
Bill Perkins, who is handling media buying for Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. of Indiana, the Republican incumbent, spent $10,000 for 30-minute segments to appear on the election channel in September and October in the Chicago market, which covers a few Indiana counties. ''It's an interesting experiment,'' he said.
''One of the discussions was, 'Why don't we put it on the Web site and let people look at it up there?' '' said Mr. Perkins, of the firm Perkins Nichols Media in Indianapolis. ''It's not quite the same environment looking at your home computer as it is looking at a 50-inch screen.''
Mr. Porter of Cox emphasized that the medium was new and still in the trial-and-error phase. ''It certainly is not mainstream and part of every candidate's media plan yet,'' he said. ''To the extent they've participated, it's still to try to learn and test.''
While the cable companies' coordination on Elections '08 may represent a technological innovation, Internet companies are far faster at reaching audiences with new messages.
For example, while Mr. Obama's campaign Web site had videos from the Sunday night opening of the Democratic National Convention available within hours, Mr. Porter said many of the cable operators would take a week to put convention coverage on Elections '08 because of technical constraints.
''That's one of the hurdles that we expect to improve upon,'' Mr. Porter said, adding that the consortium was hoping to have segments from the Republican National Convention up more quickly.
The most polished pieces on Elections '08 are short documentaries produced by the History Channel. One tells of how Theodore Roosevelt's third-party run in 1912 earned his party the nickname ''Bull Moose''; another spotlights the well-known tank ride by Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis in 1988. There are items about Richard M. Nixon's Checkers speech, John F. Kennedy's speech on Catholicism in politics, and Lloyd Bentsen's line to Dan Quayle in a 1988 vice-presidential debate: ''Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.''
Some of the other content, though, seems to have lower production values. There are six short voter-education segments on topics like absentee voting, reminiscent of the videos shown to jury pools. The Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network has contributed clips on issues affecting Latino voters; other content offers a sort of telenovela that stars Rosario Dawson and Wilmer Valderrama as a couple sparring over voter registration.
So far it looks doubtful that the Canoe Ventures channel will take off the way YouTube has, for example.
''In terms of this being any sort of persuasive tool, I don't think it will have any impact, for the simple reason that people will have to self-select to watch the show,'' said Ken Goldstein, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. People who are already interested in Mr. Obama might like to see more of him, but people who are apathetic about politics are unlikely to tune in, he said.
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USA TODAY
August 29, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
Convention guide;
Convention newsmakers
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 288 words
Each day during the convention, USA TODAY hosts discussions with newsmakers. Taking part: reporters and editors from USA TODAY, USATODAY.com and Gannett News Service. Thursday's guests were Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, and David Plouffe, Barack Obama's campaign manager. Highlights:
Emanuel. "One of McCain's biggest problems is a guy who had a career based on authenticity, the voters are now going to smell he doesn't believe what he's saying. He doesn't believe what he's saying on tax cuts. He does not believe other parts of his economic agenda, mainly around the taxes or deficit spending, because he has basically put that in hock."
Plouffe. "Volunteerism in politics is kind of a dying thing, and to see this level of activism makes our campaign the art of the possible. I've certainly never been involved in anything like it before. And it's a really wonderful asset. It's good for democracy, I think, but selfishly, it's good for our campaign, too."
For complete coverage, including video clips, go to politics.usatoday.com
At politics.usatoday.com
Visit us online for all the latest news of the convention, including:
*USA TODAY On Politics Blog. Read about the day's breaking news, big events and speeches.
*Photo galleries. See the day in pictures.
Four interactives
USA TODAY has four political interactives you can find online at politics.usatoday.com:
*Campaign ad tracker: Watch campaign ads and assessments of their accuracy and effectiveness.
*Presidential poll tracker: See head-to-head polling numbers for all 50 states.
*Electoral vote tracker: Build your own general election scenario for 2008.
*Candidate match game: Find out which candidate most reflects your political views.
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USA TODAY
August 29, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
6 things Obama must do between now and Nov. 4;
The keys: Get tough, inspire confidence
BYLINE: Kathy Kiely
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1958 words
DENVER -- Barack Obama's acceptance of his party's presidential nomination here Thursday night, just four years after his national debut at the last Democratic convention, is a reflection of the political skills that brought the freshman senator to this historic moment -- and the challenges that lie ahead.
It took four years for Obama, the first African American ever to win the presidential nomination of a major party, to complete an odyssey so meteoric and improbable that former president Jimmy Carter termed it "almost a miracle" in a Thursday interview with USA TODAY.
Now Obama has 67 days to convince voters that a politician who arrived at the 2004 Democratic convention as a little-known state legislator from Illinois is ready for the Oval Office.
Part of his strategy will be "to shift the focus from me to the American people," he told USA TODAY last week, "to let them know that we've got a fundamental choice we've got to make and the decision we make in this election is going to set the course for this country."
For Obama, who has made freshness, youth and an unconventional approach to politics his calling cards, the fall campaign represents a tricky balancing act: The 47-year-old U.S. senator must appear new but not too inexperienced, charismatic but not too superficial. He must demonstrate that he's tough enough to answer his Republican critics without turning into the type of negative campaigner he wants to avoid. He needs to show he's different from other politicians, without seeming too far out.
Democrats leave their convention here on an emotional high, created by a sense of having pulled their party together and having made history after a bruising primary battle between Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"To nominate Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention -- who may not even have been seated here 45 years ago -- this is big and I am very moved by it," former vice president Walter Mondale said in an interview.
Heading out of Denver, however, the Democrats and their nominee face a more complicated political landscape. Although history says Republicans will have a hard time holding onto the White House after eight years in charge and polls say Americans prefer Democrats' positions on issues ranging from health care to the war in Iraq, the race between Obama and Republican John McCain remains dead even.
Outside analysts and some Democrats here -- including Carter -- believe that's because of the historic nature of Obama's campaign.
"It's amazing it's still competitive," said James Thurber, a political scientist at American University. "It's not only a bad economy but an unpopular party and an unpopular war. But you go to the battleground states, and there are a whole lot of people who are uncomfortable voting for an African American."
Race has diminished as a political drag in elections, Carter said, but it remains a "subterranean issue." Carter said Obama's political calculus will have to account for "white people who have a prejudice against black people but won't admit it."
Overcoming that in November could require the highest voter turnout in U.S. history.
Obama's deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, said the campaign hopes to break historic records for participation by African-American and young voters. It also will require attracting Republicans, independents and working-class voters who supported Clinton in the primaries.
Here are six things that Democratic lawmakers and delegates in battleground states believe Obama must do to pull it off:
1. Reintroduce himself
Even though a mocking McCain campaign ad describes him as "the biggest celebrity in the world," Obama said in the USA TODAY interview he needs "to tell my story once again."
At this convention, there's been less emphasis on the father from Africa and childhood in Indonesia -- and more on what ties him to the struggles of average middle-class Americans: his single mother, grandparents from Kansas and his efforts to work his way through college.
Obama's getting-to-know-me offensive is partly a defense.
Former Democratic National Committee chairman Don Fowler said that in key states such as South Carolina, where he lives, McCain's efforts to portray Obama as an empty celebrity have had an effect.
"Anybody who knows him knows it's not true," Fowler said, "but that impression has been planted and it's going to take a real hard pushback to neutralize it."
In interviews at the convention here, politicians representing battleground states all said they hope Obama will spend more time on their turf. Obama better pack his bags for the duration, said George McGovern, the party's 1972 presidential nominee.
"He's just got to work day and night from now until Election Day, take advantage of his youth and health," he said.
2. Get foreign policy chops
Obama spent a week in July traveling to Afghanistan, Iraq and Europe, where he was received warmly by world leaders.
It was an attempt to shore up the weakest link in his resume, though Obama insists he doesn't feel uncertain about his ability to handle the foreign policy requirements of the presidency.
"Look at the judgments I've made and the judgments John McCain has made," Obama said last week.
On the Iraq war, which McCain supported and Obama said he would have voted against had he been in the Senate at the time, "he was wrong and I was right," Obama said.
His running-mate choice of Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a veteran on global disputes, has earned him praise -- including from some undecided voters.
"It certainly complements the ticket," said Joe Klinger of Springfield, Ill.
McCain and his supporters are citing Biden's selection as an admission Obama needs help on one of the key tasks of a president.
On Wednesday, McCain unveiled an ad saying Obama is "dangerously unprepared to be president."
3. Run against McBush
Obama and his allies are doing their best to tie McCain to President Bush, emphasizing that the Arizonan voted with Bush 95% of the time in 2007, according to an analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Quarterly.
What's not stressed by the Obama team is that McCain's score for last year was unusually high: He backed Bush 89% of the time in 2006 and 77% of the time in 2005.
Obama frequently highlights that McCain has been one of the staunchest supporters of Bush's recent Iraq policy, without noting that McCain criticized the early conduct of the war.
Another key talking point: McCain's change of heart on Bush's tax cuts.
McCain opposed them when they were passed in 2001 and 2003, but now says it would be a mistake to roll them back because it would amount to a tax hike for some Americans. Obama argues that the Bush tax cuts benefit the affluent at the expense of the middle class.
Last week in Virginia, Obama borrowed a line from President Reagan to attack what he calls "McCain-Bush" economics.
"Are you better off now than you were eight years ago?" Obama asked a Lynchburg crowd that roared back an emphatic, "No-o-o!"
The Obama campaign began airing a new ad Monday that shows McCain and Bush embracing and says McCain's economic plans would amount to "four more years of the same old tune."
Democrats say it's vital for Obama to link McCain with Bush.
"He's up against a candidate who has got a very appealing personal history," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., citing McCain's service as a Navy fighter pilot and five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
"The challenge will be to focus on the issues ... and what an Obama administration will bring to average American families."
4. Learn to bowl
Obama's attempts to be a regular Joe by taking up this pastime bombed in Pennsylvania -- both on the bowling lanes, where he threw gutter balls, and in the primary, which he lost to Clinton.
In the fall, Obama needs to connect with the working-class voters who flocked to Clinton. Many voters "haven't been convinced he relates to people like them," said Martin Dunleavy, a Democratic National Committee member from Connecticut, co-founder of a group called Ethnic Democrats.
"They're skittish about his experience," Dunleavy said, adding "the angst, quite honestly, some of it's about race, and we shouldn't lose sight of that."
Obama's emphasis on his middle-class background will help, he said, but not as much as his choice of a running mate born in Scranton, Pa., where Clinton won more than 70% of the vote in Pennsylvania's primary.
"Biden is the classic, middle-class Irish success story," he said.
Obama, who has hit lunch-bucket themes before blue-collar crowds during the past week, plans a bus trip with Biden through western Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, beginning Friday after the convention ends.
"This election will be decided on the fundamentals, not how many houses somebody has or who's elitist," said Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, referring to Obama's mockery of McCain's multiple residences and McCain's suggestions that Obama is out of touch.
That list, he said, includes the economy, health care, jobs, education and getting out of Iraq.
5. Court the women
The latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows Obama doing better among women voters than McCain, 48%-42%.
However, he "has some missionary work to do" to mobilize Clinton activists, said Ruth Harkin, the Iowa senator's wife and a strong Clinton supporter during the primaries.
Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman T. J. Rooney, a self-described "dyed-in-the-wool Clinton supporter" now backing Obama, said a message that focuses on McCain's opposition to abortion rights will help win independent female voters in suburban Philadelphia counties that often decide elections in his state.
Rooney recommends that Obama "talk to women about the Supreme Court," because recent rulings on the increasingly conservative court shaped by Bush have limited abortion rights.
Anne Gannon, tax collector of Palm Beach County, Fla., who came to the convention floor sporting a "Clinton Delegate and Obama Supporter" button, said she's angry that Democratic Party officials "failed to speak out about sexist comments" made by some television and radio commentators against Clinton.
Even so, Gannon believes Obama can win the support of older women -- and her state -- if he and Clinton can convey the message that "her vision of America is his vision of America."
6. Keep 'em fired up
Obama strategists are counting on a record turnout of black voters and voters under 30 to tip several key states -- especially some in the South that haven't backed a Democratic presidential candidate in years.
Obama has 16 offices in North Carolina, where 300,000 new voters have been registered since the beginning of the year, said state Rep. Dan Blue.
In Georgia, the campaign has 27 field offices, including one in Forsyth County, where 90% of the voters are Republican, said state Sen. Horacena Tate.
Virginia state Sen. John Miller said officials in the predominantly Democratic city of Hampton, where blacks make up about 47% of the more than 146,000 residents, told him they are registering 1,000 new voters a week.
Ohio Democratic Party chairman Chris Redfern said the party has 400 paid staffers in his state, compared with 60 when John Kerry ran four years ago. They're gearing up for a six-day period next month when Ohio allows people to register and cast early votes on the same day.
Redfern sees it as a prime time to corral the state's 490,000 college students for Obama.
"I'm going to take them by the hand from the dormitory to the central polling place," he said.
In South Carolina, Fowler said Obama needs to register 50,000 to 60,000 more African Americans to win.
Asked whether he thought the Democrats could take his state, Fowler said: "If you had $1,000 and you had to bet, you'd probably bet no. But it is definitely doable."
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USA TODAY
August 29, 2008 Friday
CHASE EDITION
McCain, VP pick to hit ground running on way to St. Paul
BYLINE: David Jackson
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 10A
LENGTH: 451 words
DAYTON, Ohio -- Republican John McCain will appear with his running mate today and kick off a weekend tour of battleground states that leads into the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
"He has made his selection," campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin said. "I can't tell you who it is yet."
Griffin and other McCain campaign officials declined further comment about who the vice presidential pick will be and when the name will be announced.
When reporters asked McCain who he had picked, he replied, "Wilford Brimley." Brimley is an actor who played the manager of a baseball team in The Natural.
McCain and his running mate are scheduled to appear at a midday rally at the Wright State University basketball arena here. Today is also McCain's 72nd birthday.
The duo will then take a bus tour en route to Pittsburgh and rally at a ballpark Saturday evening in Washington, Pa., about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh.
One potential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, appeared Thursday at the site of the Democratic convention in Denver but abruptly canceled some scheduled appearances. Pawlenty spokesman Alex Carey confirmed that the Minnesota governor canceled an afternoon "slate of interviews" but would not comment further.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, one of McCain's rivals for the GOP nomination, was already scheduled to appear with McCain at a "road to the convention" rally on Sunday near St. Louis. That rally is also set to feature another former GOP rival, ex-Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
On the day of Democrat Barack Obama's acceptance speech, McCain unveiled a television ad in which he speaks directly to the camera to congratulate his opponent on his nomination. McCain also makes a reference to the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" civil rights address.
"How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day," McCain tells the nation's first black presidential nominee of a major party. "Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight, senator, job well done."
Obama aides are preparing for the GOP vice presidential pick.
"It won't make a lick of difference to struggling American families who John McCain chooses to be the next Dick Cheney if he continues to insist on being the next George Bush," Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said.
Ken Duberstein, former chief of staff to President Reagan, said McCain needs to pick a running mate whom Americans can automatically see as presidential material. McCain should also have been looking for "a strong partnership and chemistry" with his vice presidential candidate.
"He needs to be viewed by the American people as credible," Duberstein said. "This is not the time for on-the-job training."
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USA TODAY
August 29, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
Nine weeks to go;
Which John McCain will show up in St. Paul?
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 16A
LENGTH: 571 words
Barack Obama's blistering critique of John McCain's record Thursday night followed a summer in which McCain spent much of his ad budget suggesting that Obama is a celebrity without substance, is responsible for high gas prices, and isn't ready to lead at a time of rising international threats.
Such negative advertising is a tried-and-true campaign tactic, and sometimes a useful one. It can effectively raise doubts about whether a candidate is out of touch or unequal to the office.
But, by itself, it's never enough. As the traveling circus of American politics moves to St. Paul for the Republican National Convention, McCain faces an interesting challenge. He needs to meld his long-standing maverick record and his more recent GOP orthodoxy into a consistent whole.
That's not a natural fit.
The fiscal conservative who once staunchly opposed President Bush's tax cuts now supports them -- and vows to veto any tax increases, regardless of economic conditions or budget-busting consequences. And the man who helped broker a bipartisan compromise on judicial appointments now promises to toe the social conservatives' line on the people he nominates to the Supreme Court and lower courts.
All this raises a question in voters' minds: Who is the real John McCain?
In St. Paul, McCain's challenge is to more clearly spell out what his presidency would look like -- and how it would differ from the Bush-Cheney administration, which will be in the limelight Monday as the president and vice president both take the podium. The Democrats have been in overdrive this week linking the two, often effectively.
Defining his presidency does not mean McCain has to put out another bullet-pointed plan on the economy. Both candidates' websites have detailed, and often unrealistic, plans on this and other issues.
It means McCain needs to start shaping a compelling narrative about a President McCain. Unlike Obama, McCain -- a war hero and Senate veteran -- doesn't have to convince voters he's experienced and ready to lead. But like his rival, he has to define how and where he would lead.
As with Obama, we'd hope to see more pragmatic centrism, simply because none of the country's most daunting domestic problems -- energy, immigration, rising and unaffordable health care costs, wanton neglect of fiscal responsibility -- can be solved by either party alone.
We'd like to see more of the straight-talking McCain of yore, the one who would tell Republicans they need to address global warming and tell both parties that the U.S. cannot continue to mortgage its future. We'd like to see a Republican alternative to the Democrats' expensive health industry reforms, one based on cost containment and on market principles. And we'd like to see a big-picture plan on energy, one that recognizes that America can't continue funneling billions of dollars a day to hostile foreign oil producers.
Between now and Election Day, McCain should clarify the conflicting images and start writing his own script. While forcefully debating Obama on the issues, he should steer clear of the more trivial attacks on his opponent, which only muddy McCain's image as a high-minded politician willing to work across party lines.
Perhaps previewing a pivot in that direction, McCain aired a gracious ad Thursday night congratulating Obama on winning his party's nomination. For both candidates, the attack-dog role is better left to surrogates and running mates.
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USA TODAY
August 29, 2008 Friday
FIRST EDITION
'Time to change America';
Obama offers details on taxes, energy and defense
BYLINE: Kathy Kiely and William M. Welch
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 484 words
DENVER -- Barack Obama began his historic campaign as the Democratic Party's nominee for president Thursday promising to fix Washington's "broken politics" and declaring, "America, we are better than these last eight years."
Following an example set by John Kennedy, Obama accepted the nomination outdoors in a football stadium and opened the final night of his party's convention to tens of thousands of campaign volunteers in a traditionally Republican state he's hoping to win this November.
Obama became the first African American to capture a major party's presidential nomination 45 years to the day after civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. outlined his vision of racial equality in a famous speech delivered when many blacks were denied the right to vote.
The coincidence was acknowledged by presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in a TV ad hailing his rival: "How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day."
There was an early indication that the convention helped Obama, who began the week even with McCain in the Gallup daily tracking poll but who would leave Denver with a six-point lead.
Obama appeared shortly after 10 p.m. ET to a thunderous roar from an estimated 84,000 people on an elaborate stage in the middle of Invesco Field. Obama made his case that he and running mate Joe Biden, the Delaware senator, are more in tune with the needs of average Americans than McCain.
"We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage," Obama told the crowd amid cheers and banners.
His speech outlined plans to cut taxes for middle-income earners and small businesses, promote alternative energy sources, including nuclear power, and help the auto industry revamp its assembly lines "so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America."
Describing himself as the product of a "brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well off or well known," Obama said his ascent to the threshold of the White House symbolizes "that promise that has always set this country apart -- that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams."
Obama also was to pay tribute to McCain's record as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, saying he served "with bravery and distinction." But he argued that after President Bush's two terms, McCain was asking Americans to give the GOP a third term.
"On Nov. 4th, we must stand up and say: 'Eight is enough,'" Obama said.
Obama's moment came as McCain was preparing to unveil his vice presidential pick and considering whether to postpone next week's GOP national convention because of a hurricane bearing down on New Orleans -- almost three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city and the slow federal response damaged Bush's popularity. "We are monitoring the situation very closely," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said.
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August 29, 2008 Friday
Suburban Edition
Tanker Bid Moves Toward Endgame;
Boeing, Northrop Maneuver for Pentagon Deal
BYLINE: Dana Hedgpeth; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: FINANCIAL; Pg. D01
LENGTH: 1197 words
Score another one for Boeing.
The defense and aerospace giant has been clawing its way back into the competition to build a new generation of aerial refueling planes for the Air Force in an unusually public way. After losing the recent Air Force decision to award the $40 billion program to rival Northrop Grumman and its partner, European Aeronautic Defence & Space, Boeing managed to get the contract overturned and re-bid.
Now Boeing has said it might drop out of the competition if it doesn't get more time, a move analysts are calling shrewd in a very Washingtonian game of chess, as major corporations and their political allies jockey for a program that could be worth as much as $100 billion in the coming decades.
Boeing and Northrop leaders have each had three meetings in the past three weeks behind closed doors with Pentagon officials at Wright Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio, to air their concerns and grievances about the latest request for offers to build 179 tankers. Few will discuss details, but observers say the Pentagon is trying to avoid another round of protests from the two teams.
After Boeing threatened to pull out of the competition last week, Northrop and its foreign partner fired back with e-mail blasts and newspaper and radio ads to try to get the Pentagon to pick its plane as the winner.
The bickering has left the Air Force in a bind. If Boeing were to drop out, having only one bidder would be a major blow for the Pentagon's top weapons buyer John J. Young Jr., whose mantra is to have more competition in multibillion-dollar programs to ensure U.S. taxpayers get the best deal.
"This is becoming more bizarre than even a classic Washington story," said Robbin F. Laird, a defense industry consultant. "It's like a soap opera. We're looking at 'As Washington Turns' here. You've got politics, big money and a much needed aircraft and possibly even more delays."
The tanker deal has a long, checkered past.
The Air Force initially tried to lease tankers from Boeing in 2003 but canceled the deal after a procurement scandal sent a Boeing executive and a Pentagon official to prison. Last year, the Air Force set out again to find a contractor to replace its aging fleet of tankers, which Boeing started building nearly 50 years ago. The Air Force selected Northrop and EADS in February.
Chicago-based Boeing protested and in June won a major decision from the Government Accountability Office, which said Boeing was indeed treated unfairly. The Pentagon agreed to rebid the deal. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates -- in an unusual move -- put Young, the undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, in charge of running the new tanker competition, taking the power from the Air Force to select what its leaders have called its "number one acquisition" program in decades.
Pentagon leaders have said they want to pick a winner by year's end but are already behind schedule, having missed a mid-August deadline to put out the final request for proposals. Analysts say the decision is likely to be punted to the next administration.
The Pentagon has said bidders would likely have 45 to 60 days to place their bids from the date of the request for proposals.
But Aug. 21 two of Boeing's top executives -- Jim McNerney, the company's chairman, president and chief executive, and Jim Albaugh, president and chief executive of Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems, its $32.1 billion division that includes the tanker and other weapons programs -- appealed to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England in a meeting at the Pentagon to give them another four months to put together a new proposal for a bigger plane that will carry more fuel. One of Boeing's lobbyists is former Congressman Bill Paxon (R-N.Y.) of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and the company has gotten support from its labor unions in Washington state, where it has major operations.
"We certainly don't want to walk away," said Daniel Beck, a Boeing spokesman, "but we need to make sure we have enough time."
Some experts say Boeing is bluffing. The company is threatening to pull out to "see if the Defense Department blinks" and gives it more time, said David J. Berteau, a senior defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
A Boeing pullout would open the door for its biggest rival -- Airbus, which is owned by EADS -- to set up shop in the United States at a plant proposed for Mobile, Ala. "It isn't just tankers that will be built in Alabama. It will be Airbus commercial planes," said Loren Thompson, a defense consultant for several major firms. Jacques Gansler, who served as the Pentagon's top weapons buyer under Bill Clinton, said "Congress would raise a stink if Boeing pulls out.
"They've been defending their districts over the jobs involved in this and are trying to influence the decision," Gansler, who said he participated in a paid study two years ago for Northrop on its proposed tanker. "The companies now have tremendous lobbying power, but politics should not be the basis for deciding on national security needs."
Some analysts and executives at competing defense firms say the outcome of the presidential election could be critical for Boeing. The handicapping goes like this: Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, helped kill the previous leasing deal, and some of his advisers once worked as lobbyists for Airbus. Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama, on the other hand, is from Boeing's home state of Illinois.
Northrop is trying to hold its position as the winner. The Los Angeles-based company spent about $8 million this year on its own internal lobbyists and hired such big names as the lobbying firm of former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) and Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), according to recent lobbying reports. Northrop lists about 20 lobbyists and executives who have recently meet with Congressional leaders on the tanker and other issues, and it has gotten support from groups like Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonprofit group.
Northrop sends out daily e-mails that usually slam its competitor, and a recent full-page ad in The Washington Post castigated Boeing for trying to stall for time. "And should Boeing not prevail after its latest delay," the ad said, "what is to stop the company from demanding yet another and another until it is guaranteed a win?"
One thing both sides agree on is that the deal puts the spotlight on Young, the Pentagon's decision-maker, who will face political fallout from the losers no matter which side wins. Spokesman Chris Isleib said Young was in Italy this week and unavailable for comment, but said his office expected to have a final request for proposals out next week.
"Both companies are playing hardball, and their political backers are providing virtually unlimited support," said Richard Aboulafia, an aeronautics analyst at Teal Group in Fairfax. "If you're Young, you're in a weak position. Ideally, you want to make neutral decisions purely for best value for your money without fear of being second-guessed and overruled by politicians. But he is very definitely not in that position."
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
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August 29, 2008 Friday
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CAMPAIGN SLOG 67 Days to Go!
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On the way to Election Day 2008, the following has happened:
The best way to distract attention from your opponent's big day? Leak your own really, really big news sloooowly. Reporters covering the final days of Barack Obama's nominating convention kept getting diverted by -- Hey, what's that smell? Is that fresh meat? It was reminiscent of July, when sources "close to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign" told columnist Robert Novak that the Arizona senator might choose his running mate -- just as Obama was drawing oodles of press attention for that big trip abroad.
· Thursday morning, on the day Obama was to accept his party's nomination, the Drudge Report posted this about McCain's veep pick: SOURCE: NAME MAY LEAK AT 6 PM ET . . . WITH SOME SORT OF CONFIRMATION AT 8 PM."
· During a radio interview that aired in the morning, McCain was pressed on his decision. He joked that he was considering that guy from the Quaker Oatmeal ads, Wilford Brimley. "He's older than I am, so that might work," he said.
· Meanwhile, a McCain spokeswoman told MSNBC that the campaign would be airing "a historic ad" on Thursday evening. Whoa! What would it say? "It's going to be very exciting," spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said. "I think that a lot of people are going to focus on it."
· And then the campaign released the ad, which involves McCain looking into the camera while soft, uplifting music plays. "Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America," McCain says. "I wanted to stop and say, 'Congratulations.' "
Head-fake!
-- Libby Copeland
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The Washington Post
August 29, 2008 Friday
Suburban Edition
McCain Prepares to Announce His Running Mate
BYLINE: Michael D. Shear; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A21
LENGTH: 955 words
Sen. John McCain will hold a noontime rally with his running mate today in Dayton, Ohio, kicking off his "Road to the Convention" tour in front of thousands of supporters at Wright State University.
The identity of McCain's partner remained secret last night even as McCain's campaign arrived in the crucial battleground state in advance of the rally, which will be followed by appearances at minor league baseball stadiums in Pennsylvania and Missouri.
McCain aides have said they hope to use the announcement of the GOP vice presidential candidate to help slow the political momentum from the Democratic convention, which ended last night.
As the secret held, furious speculation about McCain's choice for a running mate centered yesterday on two conservative Republicans: Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Pawlenty abruptly canceled his schedule yesterday afternoon, while reports of Secret Service sweeps of a Romney family member's home in Michigan suggested it was him instead.
A senior Republican operative said there was no evidence of an effort to reach out and soothe conservatives, a move that would probably be vital if McCain picked a candidate who favored abortion rights, such as former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge or Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.).
"There's no battle plan to talk to conservatives," the operative said. "That's pretty dispositive in my mind."
Top advisers said late Wednesday night that McCain had made his decision and planned to tell the lucky partner the next day. But in a Pittsburgh radio interview taped Wednesday and made public yesterday, McCain said he had not yet made up his mind.
"I haven't decided yet, so I can't tell you," he told KDKA NewsRadio.
As the day progressed, the top handful of McCain aides who are privy to the decision went "radio silent," in the words of one top Republican. That left reporters and most Republicans speculating and reading tea leaves.
One national reporter mused on his newspaper's blog that a 6 p.m. McCain rally tomorrow -- the Jewish Sabbath -- might portend good news for Lieberman, since observant Jews do not work before sundown on Saturdays. But a senior GOP official later warned: "There are two sides to every leaf."
Early yesterday, McCain advisers teased that they would air an "exciting" and "historic" ad just at the moment that Sen. Barack Obama takes to the stage for his speech. Speculation swirled that McCain might use the airwaves to announce his running mate.
But hours later, the campaign revealed the campaign ad to be a congratulatory statement from McCain to Obama, offering kudos for becoming the first African American to win the nomination of a major party.
In front of a simple black background, McCain declares to the camera, "Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America. Too often the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed. So I wanted to stop and say congratulations."
Alluding to the fact that yesterday was the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, the presumptive GOP nominee continues: "How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight, Senator, job well done."
Without real news on a running mate, Internet sites were left to offer screaming headlines with the latest rumors.
The Drudge Report blasted the headline: NAME MAY LEAK AT 6 PM ET . . . WITH SOME SORT OF CONFIRMATION AT 8 PM . . . DEVELOPING . . ."
Time magazine's "The Page" offered a lead headline about a TV report that Pawlenty had canceled all appearances, only to follow it moments later with another headline that said he planned to be at the Minnesota state fair today, not with McCain.
McCain flew to Dayton yesterday evening, landing just a couple of hours before Obama's speech. He arrived to news reports that free tickets are still available to his rally today at Wright State's 12,000-seat basketball arena.
On Wednesday, McCain huddled with advisers in his compound outside of Sedona, Ariz. Last week, he spent several days there, leaving only for a cup of coffee in the morning and to do what his campaign merely labeled as "filming" amid the majestic red rocks of the area.
McCain will celebrate his 72nd birthday today, a milestone that his campaign aims to play down. But the Democratic party promised to throw him birthday parties at every stop along his pre-convention tour of battleground states.
Some lobbyists, consultants and Republicans on Capitol Hill said they think Romney is the most likely pick for McCain, in part because he would be a do-no-harm candidate.
"Mitt by far and away is the most logical pick," one GOP consultant said. "Look at the polling nationwide. The only guy that helps at all is Romney."
Karl Rove, President Bush's former top political adviser, was queried on Fox News about reports that he had gone to Lieberman to urge him to withdraw from consideration for the good of the party.
Rove declined to answer the direct question but also did not deny it, saying only that the report was "inaccurate."
"I'm gonna leave it where I left it," Rove said after being asked the question several times. In an interview with The Washington Post later, Rove again declined to comment.
Asked by Fox's Chris Wallace whether Lieberman would be a good running mate, Rove said that "he would be great for the country" but added that Lieberman would create political problems for McCain at the convention and in the campaign to come.
One senior Republican who had talked personally with Romney, Ridge and Pawlenty during the past two days said, "All of them believe that it's not them."
Staff writers Robert Barnes in Dayton and Juliet Eilperin in Washington contributed to this report.
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post; Sen. John McCain and his wife, Cindy, arrive in Dayton, Ohio, where a rally with the Republican running mate is scheduled for noon today.
IMAGE; By Jim Mone -- Associated Press; Speculation has been swirling around Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, greeting constituents Wednesday at the state fair in Falcon Heights.
IMAGE; By Denis Poroy -- Associated Press; Mitt Romney, in San Diego yesterday with his son Matt, has been described by Republicans on Capitol Hill as a do-no-harm candidate.
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August 29, 2008 Friday
Met 2 Edition
Obama's Big Fat Greek Setting
BYLINE: Dana Milbank
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A18
LENGTH: 951 words
DATELINE: DENVER, Aug. 28
It was a ceremony fit for the gods.
Fireworks exploded overhead. A skycam soared through the air the way it does during "Monday Night Football." Strobe lights flashed, spotlights circled. Eighty-four thousand adoring fans, after waiting hours to enter Invesco Field at Mile High, waved flags, tossed beach balls and undulated in a massive human wave.
And, in the middle of it all, stood Barack Obama, accepting the Democratic presidential nomination with "great humility." On a stage with an ancient Greek colonnade.
Well, maybe not so ancient: On closer inspection, the columns turned out to be made of drywall and laminated plywood, giving an overall effect that was more Cheesecake Factory than Parthenon. The 14 pillars, connected by a classical frieze, towered over the delegates, lending the impression that Obama was speaking in front of another classical structure -- like, say, the White House.
From the columns, garnished with two dozen American flags, a royal-blue peninsula led to the podium, tiered like a wedding cake. All that was missing were the laurel crown, the eunuchs and the sacrifice of the white oxen.
Republicans gleefully called it the "Barackopolis." (Technically, the columns were Doric, so a better name might have been the "Barackenon.") The McCain campaign sent out a memo advising people about "proper attire for the Temple of Obama," complete with pictures of togas and robes.
Calling it a temple was a bit over the top. But, then again, it was a night of excess all around.
The fireworks -- literally -- began when smoke and fire shot above the Jumbotron the moment Jennifer Hudson belted out the "rockets' red glare" line of the national anthem. Oprah Winfrey, Susan Sarandon and Anne Hathaway worked the crowd. Stevie Wonder and Sheryl Crow performed. High rollers sipped Stolichnaya in skyboxes. And many of the concession stands ran out of food and drink. Said the cashier at Mile High Pizza on the first level: "These Democrats are hungry."
They certainly are. Ravenous in their desire to reclaim the White House, they took a gamble by moving the last night of the convention to the massive stadium -- and a further gamble by creating the Olympian backdrop for Obama's acceptance speech. John McCain had already drawn blood with his ad likening Obama to a Britney Spears-style celebrity. Obama had invited the problem with a showy overseas trip and such displays of hubris as a faux presidential seal on his lectern. Since then, the Democrat has been laboring to prove that he is a common man.
"I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine," he said last night as he described his family and his modest upbringing. The conventioneers jumped to their feet.
But Obama's everyman efforts are unlikely to be aided by accepting the nomination in front of Greek-style columns in the middle of a football stadium. Privately, Democrats cringed. They had no John Ashcroft to cover the offending pillars with his famous blue curtains. Luckily, Democrats had the foresight to remove the Air Force One model, the presidential limousine, the full-size replica of the Oval Office and the inauguration gowns that had been on exhibit earlier in the week.
In the end, the stadium and the setting were probably unnecessary, as Obama's acceptance speech, coming on the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, would have been an epic moment even if it had been held in a trailer. On this, even McCain agreed. He put out a magnanimous ad saying to Obama: "How perfect that your nomination [acceptance] would come on this historic day."
But instead of savoring the history-making, Obama aides found themselves answering questions about the columns and the stadium from anxious Democrats and from journalists -- as when Obama campaign manager David Plouffe was asked Thursday in an interview with Washington Post reporters and editors whether he was concerned about the "Grecian columns" and a "carnival atmosphere."
"Not one bit," he replied. "The backdrop is about exactly what President Bush used in 2004."
Well, yes, there were images of pillars behind Bush four years ago. But Bush is also the guy who landed in a flight suit on an aircraft carrier to declare victory in Iraq beneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner.
The football-stadium option also meant that the Democrats had to contend with the daunting logistics of putting more than 84,000 people through security, and the effort teetered on disaster. Attendees waited upward of three hours in lines estimated to extend for miles; empty seats near the top of the stadium suggested that some gave up.
After nightfall, the nominee emerged between the columns, walked out to the wedding cake and waved skyward. He delivered a speech that soared to the heights of Mount Olympus.
"Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and independents across this great land: Enough!" he thundered.
Before he finished, Obama served up some Greek mythology. "They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values," he said. "If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things."
He didn't say whether he had the Barackopolis in mind.
The speech ended, the nominee gazed heavenward, and red, white and blue fireworks poured from the tops of the columns. Streamers hung over the Doric frieze. Triumphant orchestral music played, and Obama, his running mate, and his family departed through the still-smoking Pillars of Hercules.
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The New York Times
August 28, 2008 Thursday
The New York Times on the Web
Obama Campaign Wages Fight Against Conservative Group's Ads
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG
SECTION: Section ; Column 0; National Desk; Pg.
LENGTH: 851 words
DATELINE: DENVER
As Senator Obama's campaign makes its argument for his candidacy before a national audience here this week, it is waging a separate, forceful campaign against a new conservative group running millions of dollars of ads linking him to the 1960s radical William Ayers Jr.
Lawyers for the campaign have asked the Justice Department to investigate the group -- which is operating under rules governing non-profit corporations -- calling on television stations to cease airing the spot, and, campaign officials said, planning to pressure advertisers on stations that refuse to do so. The ad is running in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
On Monday, the Obama campaign also began running a rotation of advertisements countering the spot where it is running and not-so-subtly implying it is the product of the McCain campaign, with a narrator who says, ''With all of our problems, why is John McCain talking about the '60s, trying to link Barack Obama to radical Bill Ayers? McCain knows Obama denounced Ayers' crimes.''
A former aide to Mr. McCain's campaign, Ed Failor Jr., is a leader of the group; Mr. McCain's campaign has said it has nothing do with the group. It is being backed by a $2.9 million donation from the billionaire investor Harold Simmons, who was also a major funder of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that in 2004 ran a disputed campaign questioning Senator John Kerry's record as a Swift Boat commander in Vietnam. Mr. Simmons is also a major fundraiser for Mr. McCain.
The group's activities are being closely watched by Mr. Obama's campaign, which is on the lookout for groups that might damage his electoral chances the same way the Swift Boat veterans are widely believed to have damaged Mr. Kerry's. The group emerged late last week, as Mr. Obama's campaign, and political reporters, were acutely focused on Mr. Obama's choice of a running mate and convention here.
Its formation followed the recent release of a book by Jerome Corsi -- who co-authored a book containing the Swift Boat group's claims against Mr. Kerry -- that contained various factual errors and unsubstantiated claims against Mr. Obama.
Mr. Obama's campaign ultimately responded by releasing a thick dossier of bullet points disputing the book's claims -- a move in part intended to telegraph that it would aggressively meet attacks in a way Democrats accused Mr. Kerry's campaign of failing to do quickly enough against the Swift Boat group's charges.
In its fight against the American Issues Project, Mr. Obama's campaign is essentially arguing that the group should fall under more strict election laws because its sole purpose seems to be to defeat Mr. Obama at the polls; issue groups are allowed to run some political advertising so long as affecting an election is not their primary purpose. Under election laws, Mr. Simmons would not be able to exceed a donation of $42,000 to the group and others like it. In a second letter about the group sent to the Justice Department in the past week, Robert F. Bauer, Mr. Obama's election lawyer, accused the group of flouting ''all legal obligations attendant upon political committee status.''
In a statement, a leader of the group, Ed Martin, said, ''These over-the-top bullying tactics are reminiscent of the kind of censorship one would see in a Stalinist dictatorship, with the only difference being that those guys generally had to wait until they were in power to throw people who disagreed with them into jail.''
The group has said it is following proper guidelines and operating legally, and Mr. Martin said it represented ''a coalition of conservative activists committed to raising important issues that deserve deeper examination given their impact on policy and politics.''
Mr. Ayers, now a professor of education in Chicago, was a founder of the Weather Underground, which bombed government buildings in the early 1970s. He was indicted on conspiracy charges that were thrown out for prosecutorial misconduct.
He served with Mr. Obama on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a charitable organization, and, along with his wife, the former Weather Underground member Bernardine Dohrn, hosted Mr. Obama at his home in 1995 when he was running for state office.
Mr. Obama has called Mr. Ayers '''somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old.''
Fox News Channel and CNN declined to run the spot amid legal questions. But the commercial, a minute long, has run at least 100 times since Saturday, heavily in East Lansing and Pittsburgh.
Saying that Mr. Obama's supporters had sent 93,000 e-mails to the Sinclair broadcasting company for carrying the advertisement, Tommy, a campaign spokesman, said, ''Other stations that follow Sinclair's lead should expect a similar response from people who don't want the political discourse cheapened with these false, negative attacks.''
The fight may move to another front this week.
The University of Illinois at Chicago is in the process or releasing documents detailing Mr. Obama's involvement with a non-profit education project started by Mr. Ayers.
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USA TODAY
August 28, 2008 Thursday
FIRST EDITION
Biden sinks his teeth into new role;
VP pick positioned as campaign's 'attack dog' and link to middle class
BYLINE: Susan Page
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 756 words
DENVER -- Barack Obama presents himself as a new kind of presidential candidate, but Joe Biden is likely to spend this campaign as the most traditional of vice presidential nominees: leading the attack against the opposition.
He started that job with his speech to the Democratic convention Wednesday night.
"The choice in this election is clear," Biden was to say, making an unmistakable reference to Republican John McCain. "These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader."
The speech stressed Biden's middle-class roots, boosted Obama as a credible commander in chief and blasted McCain. That's something critics say the Obama campaign has been slow to do.
"Part of his portfolio is to be the attack dog," says Ron Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, who is watching the convention. He has heard "grumbling" that the convention had spent too much time introducing Obama in a positive way and too little defining McCain in a negative one.
When Biden took the stage last night, he targeted McCain's judgment and tied him to President Bush, whose approval rating is a dismal 29% in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. A series of speakers through the evening, including former president Bill Clinton, had done the same.
"The Bush-McCain foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out," Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was to say, according to prepared remarks. "Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he says there can be no timelines to draw down our troops from Iraq, that we must stay indefinitely? Or should we listen to Barack Obama, who says shift responsibility to the Iraqis and set a time to bring our combat troops home?"
When it comes to Iraq, he was to say, "John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right."
With characteristic bravado, Biden had told reporters beforehand that his speech was "going to be wonderful."
He visited the hall before the convention delegates began to arrive for the roll-call vote that would nominate Obama. Dressed in shirtsleeves, looking relaxed, Biden walked from one end of the stage to the other and then stood at the lectern for a moment, locating the teleprompters and looking into the empty seats.
At 65, Biden was seeing the culmination of a dream. He sought the presidential nomination in 1988 and again this year, finally winning a spot on Obama's ticket because of his foreign-policy expertise and his ability to connect with blue-collar workers such as those he grew up with in Scranton, Pa.
Aides said he had been working on the speech since Sunday, writing in longhand on yellow legal pads and getting advice from his son, Beau. The younger Biden, attorney general of Delaware, is due to be shipped to Iraq in October with his National Guard unit.
Beau Biden was to introduce his father with an emotional account of the car accident when he was 4 that killed his mother and sister and injured him and his brother. "One of my earliest memories was being in that hospital, Dad always at our side," he was to say.
Joe Biden also was to discuss his personal history, especially his understanding of the lives of workers who find themselves struggling to make ends meet. He recalled his father, "who fell on hard economic times, but who always told me, 'Champ, when you get knocked down, get up.' ... We were told that anyone can make it if they try. That was America's promise. For those of us who grew up in middle-class neighborhoods like Scranton and Wilmington, that was the American dream -- and we knew it."
The big applause lines in his speech text were the ones bashing McCain.
On Wednesday, the McCain campaign released a TV ad targeting Obama as "dangerously unprepared to be president."
Responding forcefully to accusations such as that one will be Biden's mission, predicts Joel Goldstein, a St. Louis University law professor and author of The American Vice Presidency.
"If the presidential candidate can stay above the battle and not have to sully himself by making partisan attacks, that's to their advantage," he says. That may be particularly true for a candidate like Obama, who portrays himself as above old partisan divides.
It's about time, says Stan Greenberg, a pollster who advised Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. "If you ask me why Obama lost steam in the three weeks going into the convention, a big one was the failure of this campaign to define McCain and to define the choice. Every day, every minute ought to be focused on the choice."
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USA TODAY
August 28, 2008 Thursday
CHASE EDITION
Biden sinks his teeth into new role;
Obama's VP pick assumes position as 'attack dog' and link to middle class
BYLINE: Susan Page
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DENVER -- Barack Obama portrays himself as a new kind of presidential candidate, but Joe Biden is likely to spend this campaign as the most traditional of vice presidential nominees: leading the attack on the opposition.
He started that job with a rambling, emotional address to the Democratic convention Wednesday night.
"The choice in this election is clear," Biden said in an unmistakable reference to Republican John McCain, a former Navy pilot and Vietnam POW. "These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader."
Biden told of his middle-class roots, praised Obama's judgment and blasted McCain as having more experience than wisdom, and as being inextricably linked to President Bush. That sort of attack is something critics say Obama has been slow to press.
"Part of his portfolio is to be the attack dog," says Ron Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, who has heard "grumbling" that the convention has spent too much time introducing Obama in a positive way and too little defining McCain in a negative one.
Biden capped a series of speakers Wednesday, including former President Bill Clinton and 2004 nominee John Kerry, who targeted McCain as having lost his standing as a maverick and as offering in effect a third Bush term.
At one point, he referred to McCain as "George" before catching himself. "Freudian slip," he said as the audience laughed.
"The Bush-McCain foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out," said Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he says there can be no timelines to draw down our troops from Iraq, that we must stay indefinitely? Or should we listen to Barack Obama, who says shift responsibility to the Iraqis and set a time to bring our combat troops home?"
When it comes to Iraq and other issues, Biden said repeatedly: "John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right."
Earlier, Biden had visited the hall before the delegates arrived for the afternoon roll call vote that would nominate Obama. Looking relaxed and delighted, Biden walked from one end of the stage to the other and then stood at the lectern for a moment, eyeing the teleprompters and looking into the empty seats.
At 65, Biden was seeing the culmination of a dream. He sought the presidential nomination in 1988 and again this year, finally winning a spot on Obama's ticket because of his foreign-policy expertise and his ability to connect with blue-collar workers such as those he grew up with in Scranton, Pa.
Aides say he had been working on the speech since Sunday, writing in longhand on yellow legal pads and getting advice from his son, Beau. The younger Biden, the attorney general of Delaware, is due to be shipped to Iraq in October with his National Guard unit.
Beau Biden introduced his father with an emotional account of the car accident when he was 4 that killed his mother and sister and injured him and his brother. "One of my earliest memories was being in that hospital, Dad always at our side," he said.
Joe Biden also recalled his personal history, portraying himself as more a regular guy than a six-term senator. "Those of us who grew up in middle-class neighborhoods like Scranton and Wilmington" who know what it is to struggle to make ends meet. His father "fell on hard economic times, but ... always told me, 'Champ, when you get knocked down, get up.' ... We were told that anyone can make it if they try. That was America's promise."
Now, he said, that promise "is in jeopardy," adding, "I know it. You know. But John McCain doesn't get it."
The speech's big applause lines were the ones bashing McCain.
The McCain campaign also was bashing Obama Wednesday, releasing a TV ad that described the Illinois senator as "dangerously unprepared to be president."
Responding forcefully in exchanges such as that will be Biden's mission, predicts Joel Goldstein, a St. Louis University law professor and author of The American Vice Presidency.
"If the presidential candidate can stay above the battle and not have to sully himself by making partisan attacks, that's to their advantage," he says.
It's about time for fiercer and more consistent engagement, says Stan Greenberg, a Democratic pollster who advised Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992. "If you ask me why Obama lost steam in the three weeks going into the convention, a big one was the failure of this campaign to define McCain and to define the choice," he said. "Every day, every minute ought to be focused on the choice."
LOAD-DATE: August 29, 2008
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D.C. Voting Rights Plight Drowned Out by Din in Denver
BYLINE: David Nakamura; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A24
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DATELINE: DENVER, Aug. 27
The day did not start well for the activists from the District.
Armed with buttons, bumper stickers and postcards, they took to the downtown streets here to sign up compatriots in their fight to win the District a seat in Congress.
"Here, have a wooden nickel," said D.C. resident John Capozzi, pressing a coin stamped "Taxation Without Representation" into a woman's hand.
She looked confused. "Do I need this for the bus?" she asked.
As the D.C. delegation attends yet another convention hoping to draw attention to the long and so far fruitless cause, members have found that their message of democracy and equality for the colony known as the District of Columbia is as much of an afterthought, curiosity or nuisance as ever.
During an action-packed week, the D.C. contingent is being drowned out not just by the official convention activities but also by dozens of other protest movements, Hollywood celebrities and advertisers competing for air time.
When Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) gave an address on voting rights Tuesday, the 19,000-seat Pepsi Center was largely empty. When the delegation rallied Wednesday at the U.S. Mint, the passers-by were outnumbered by security guards.
The situation has been frustrating for a group that thinks it is on the verge of success. Last year, the House approved a bill that would give a House seat to the majority-Democratic District and one to predominantly Republican Utah. But the bill fell three votes short of reaching the Senate floor.
Denver resident Joanna Fletchall was riding her bicycle past the mint when she stopped to watch the gathering. Like many who saw the D.C. activists, Fletchall said she had never considered the city's plight.
"I'm astounded," she said. "It's a city, they're people, they should have a vote." But Fletchall said she wasn't sure how well the message was getting out. A bigger protest involving Code Pink and other national groups had taken place a block away the day before.
Even D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) appeared preoccupied, arriving 15 minutes late. He is staying at a different hotel from the rest of the city's delegation and spent the morning on a 45-minute bike ride, angering some delegates when he failed to show up at their planning breakfast.
Fenty marched with the group from the mint, holding a "Taxation Without Representation" banner. But he was not as fiery as Norton, and he uncharacteristically preached patience.
"The best thing we can do for D.C. voting rights is to get Barack Obama elected," the mayor said, "and get as many seats in the Senate and House as humanly possible. This bill will not be moved until next year, so between the elections and the inaugural, that's our real time to get something done."
All over Denver, small victories were met with setbacks. After Norton's speech Tuesday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) drew high marks for her prime-time address -- except perhaps from the District's delegates, who said they were stung by her failure to mention the city when she said: "I will always be grateful to everyone from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the territories who joined our campaign on behalf of all those people left out and left behind by the Bush administration."
"She left us out on purpose," said Michael D. Brown, the District's shadow senator.
On the streets, the half-dozen canvassers were having mixed success finding people to sign their voting rights petitions.
"I just signed up three McCain supporters!" said Janis Davis, second vice president of the National Federation of Democratic Women. She frowned. "But they asked me if I supported the right to bear arms first."
Making their way along an outdoor pedestrian mall, the group tried to hand out its literature only to be handed fliers from people stumping for other causes, such as Free Speech TV.
"Speaking of free speech . . . " said Eli Zigas, program coordinator for DC Vote, an advocacy group. He sported a beard sans mustache and had dressed up in a tux and top hat to resemble Abraham Lincoln.
But a man with Free Speech TV wasn't interested in Zigas's voting rights spiel. "Hey, sister, what's up?" the man said with a smile to Ekua Boateng, a DC Vote intern standing next to Zigas. Without saying a word, Boateng slapped a sticker with George Washington's silhouette over the words "Let Washington Vote!" on the man's T-shirt.
He signed the petition.
"Some people just say, 'Oh, you're cute, can I take your picture?' " said Zigas, who said he poses for as many as 100 pictures a day as Lincoln. "But the next time people see or hear something about this, they'll be like, 'Oh, yeah, I remember that issue.' It plants a seed, and maybe they'll go looking for more information."
Finally, the D.C. group came upon the Mexican Grill, where workers were handing out free "Burritos for Obama" T-shirts and asking passers-by to sign forms to be in a commercial.
The voting rights volunteers stopped and thrust their petitions into the hands of the burrito fans.
LOAD-DATE: August 28, 2008
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The Trail
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THE NEW GOP PLAN
Republicans Adopt Platform That Plays to Conservatives
Republicans adopted a slimmed-down, conservative-leaning platform Wednesday night in a unanimous committee vote, peppering it with provisions that mesh with John McCain's political objectives. The platform will come before the full convention for a vote on Monday.
GOP delegates devoted a significant amount of time to crafting an energy section that addresses environmental issues, such as global warming, in greater detail compared with past platforms.
While the platform advocates expanded oil and gas drilling to meet the nation's energy needs, the 112-person committee agreed to omit language calling for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a plank in the party's 2004 platform. McCain has voted both ways on the question of drilling in ANWR, but has said this year he believes it should remain off-limits to energy exploration.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), who co-chairs the platform committee, said the delegates sought to match the document's energy provisions with the presumptive GOP nominee's rhetoric.
"We are proud to have passed the most aggressive and innovative energy platform in Republican Party history," McCarthy said in a statement. "Increasing America's energy independence is an issue of critical importance to our nation, and it's an issue on which John McCain has demonstrated strong and continued leadership with his 'all of the above' approach."
Aside from the energy section, the rest of the platform largely adheres to traditional Republican positions. It calls for constitutional amendments banning abortion and same-sex marriage -- two changes McCain has disavowed -- and opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Above all, the platform asserts presidential authority. The document makes it clear that the president, not Congress, should determine how war is waged in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also calls for an end to all "earmarks," provisions in which lawmakers specify federal funding for specific projects -- a position McCain has championed. In one controversial vote, the platform committee approved a total ban on embryonic stem cell research.
The platform's energy section breaks with the past on several fronts. For the first time, it acknowledges that human activity has contributed to climate change.
"The same human activity that has brought freedom and opportunity to billions has also increased the amount of carbon in the atmosphere," the document reads. "Increased atmospheric carbon has a warming effect on the earth."
But the platform sidesteps the question of whether to cap carbon emissions on the federal level, an approach McCain endorses.
Throughout the day, the delegates discussed an endless string of amendments to the platform, most of which were aimed at making the document more conservative. Adrienne Wing, a delegate from Hawaii, tried to change the heading for a section on Social Security from "entitlement reform" to "benefit reform," on the grounds that Americans should not see Social Security as a basic right.
"If we really are sincere about changing -- not changing, improving -- Social Security," she said, then Republicans need to "change the mind-set" about such federal programs.
But other Republicans voted down Wing's proposal, arguing that it could become a political liability if Democrats sought to exploit the issue. Tony O'Donnell, a delegate from Maryland, warned against triggering "unintended consequences for us in future elections," adding: "This becomes our platform, not just McCain's platform."
McCain did weigh in on one relatively obscure issue, demanding that delegates insert language pledging the party's commitment to maintaining a special U.S. envoy for Northern Ireland. His Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, recently said he would review whether such an envoy was still necessary.
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said the senator wanted the envoy commitment "enshrined in the 2008 Republican platform" to underscore how strongly he feels about the issue.
"The special U.S. envoy was first appointed by President Clinton and has been critical to fostering peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland," Rogers said. "That Senator Obama would be willing to toss aside one of the signature diplomatic accomplishments of the Clinton administration and put the progress in Northern Ireland at risk is only further evidence that he is simply not ready to lead."
But Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor pointed out that McCain had frequently criticized Clinton's foreign policy during the mid-1990s, including the former president's decision to grant a visa to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. In a June 1996 Foreign Policy article, McCain wrote of Clinton, "With his credibility now substantially at risk in Northern Ireland, the President finds himself stuck in a conflict that has frustrated the best efforts of many a skilled statesman."
-- Juliet Eilperin
DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
'Easy Wasn't in the Cards,' Michelle Obama Tells Crowd
DENVER -- All the talk of anxiety among Democratic delegates about Barack Obama's chances this fall may have gotten to his wife, Michelle. Addressing several hundred members of the convention's black caucus at the Colorado Convention Center on Wednesday, she appeared to be referring to those worrying about the closeness of the race when she seemed to break off her train of thought before pausing and declaring in a serious and gently upbraiding tone: "This is not going to be easy. There's nothing about electing Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States that could ever be easy."
The crowd laughed knowingly.
"Easy wasn't in the cards."
The crowd laughed again.
"I always tease Barack. I say, 'You just don't do things easy, do you?' But just because it's not easy doesn't mean it's not possible."
The crowd broke into loud applause.
-- Alec MacGillis
REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
Democrats to Use Image Of McCain Embracing Bush
SEDONA, Ariz. -- Democrats are planning to use images of John McCain embracing President Bush on billboards and in bus stops around Minneapolis and St. Paul during the Republican National Convention next week, part of an effort to drive home their message that McCain represents "more of the same" in Washington.
The images show McCain and Bush in a hearty embrace against a black background. The words "More politics as usual" and "Does this look like change to you?" are written above and below the image.
The ad will run in more than 20 bus shelters, Democratic sources say, including four that serve the Xcel Center, where the convention is being held. It will also run on a mobile billboard that will follow McCain from Dayton, Ohio, to the convention.
-- Michael D. Shear
LOAD-DATE: August 28, 2008
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McCain Steps Up Attacks on His Opponent's Foreign Policy Credentials
BYLINE: Michael Abramowitz; Washington Post Staff Writer
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Borrowing a familiar theme from past GOP presidential campaigns, Sen. John McCain is sharpening his efforts to portray Sen. Barack Obama as naive and inexperienced on foreign policy, rolling out an ad that accuses the Democrat of not taking Iran seriously and ridiculing his explanation for the end of the Cold War.
The efforts amounted to a preemptive GOP strike on the Democratic nominee's foreign policy credentials. But as their party's convention shifted its focus yesterday to national security, leading Democrats sought to turn the tables by questioning McCain's judgment on Iraq and accusing Republicans of making America less secure.
"Our position in the world has been weakened by too much unilateralism and too little cooperation," former president Bill Clinton told delegates last night.
The debate evokes past presidential contests, in which Republicans lacerated Democratic nominees as weak on national security. This year, however, polls suggest that Democrats have been closing the gap in public perceptions over which party is most capable of dealing with external threats.
"In some way, the McCain people would love to see this as a repeat of Reagan versus Carter in 1980, where Reagan got to run as the candidate of America and Carter was the candidate of complexity and no answers," said Walter Russell Mead, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The latest attempt to frame the issue that way came yesterday with a new McCain television ad quoting Obama as describing Iran as a "tiny" country that "doesn't pose a serious threat." The Obama campaign said his words were taken out of context.
The quote came from a May 18 speech in which Obama talked about the importance of U.S. presidents talking to their adversaries, as they did during the Cold War. "Iran, Cuba, Venezuela -- these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, 'We're going to wipe you off the planet,' " Obama said.
Susan Rice, an Obama foreign policy adviser, called the McCain ad "another dishonest and desperate attack that bears zero relationship to reality," adding that Iran poses more of a threat now than eight years ago because "failed Bush-McCain policies have let that threat grow."
Jeremy Rosner, a Democratic pollster and former foreign policy aide in the Clinton White House, said the McCain attacks are unlikely to succeed because voters have been soured by the "toxic and dangerous effects of a neocon unilateralist style that has nearly shattered our alliances and made Americans weaker."
"I don't think it has the same resonance and intellectual honesty that it had in an earlier era," Rosner said. "The public feels the Republicans have been quite reckless on these things."
Republicans have proved effective in painting the Democrats as feckless on foreign policy, seizing on particular comments to make a broader point. During the 2004 campaign, for instance, President Bush denounced his Democratic rival, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), for suggesting that the United States would have to pass a "global test" for preemptive military action. Bush said Kerry was ceding national security decisions to other countries. Kerry's campaign said Bush was distorting his words.
A similar dispute unfolded this week, after McCain went after Obama's recent comments about the end of the Cold War. During a speech in Berlin last month, Obama said, "People of the world -- look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one."
McCain, in a speech before the American Legion's convention in Phoenix, disputed what he said was Obama's conclusion. "The Cold War ended not because the world stood 'as one' but because the great democracies came together, bound together by sustained and decisive American leadership," McCain said.
Supporters of McCain said he was raising a fair point. "For a lot of people who lived through the '80s, Obama's version does not ring quite right, and I do think it says something about his view of the world," said Robert Kagan, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and informal adviser to the McCain campaign. "It does fit into a certain way of looking at the world that takes the view that all you ever need to do is get everyone in the same room and have a nice, pleasant chat and work everything out."
But Obama backers bristled at the criticism, saying McCain was caricaturing his rival's explanation for the end of the Cold War. "I don't understand the McCain criticism," Rosner said. "He's saying we prevailed because we had allies working together. Barack Obama is saying the same thing. . . . Obviously, the whole world didn't stand as one. It's obviously figurative."
Reginald Dale of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the debate touches on a larger theme of recent years.
"Historically . . . the Democrats as a whole, including Obama, have tended to look at the world more like Europeans. They think that things can be settled by negotiation and signing new treaties," Dale said. "Republicans tend to be more skeptical of the influence of a united Europe and [want to] protect American sovereignty against the encroachment of treaties, multinational organizations and international agreements."
Staff writer Jonathan Weisman in Denver and staff researcher Madonna Lebling in Washington contributed to this report.
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McCain Is Said to Be Set to Unveil Running Mate Tomorrow;
Poll Shows That Choice of an Abortion Rights Backer Would Be Risky
BYLINE: Robert Barnes, Chris Cillizza and Jon Cohen; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A34
LENGTH: 897 words
DATELINE: SEDONA, Ariz., Aug. 27
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has settled on a running mate, and the pair will appear together on Friday at a rally in Dayton, Ohio, according to Republican sources outside the campaign.
McCain will notify his choice on Thursday, one source said. The decision is closely held among just a handful of the senator's top advisers.
Speculation has centered on several candidates, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.).
Choosing Lieberman or someone else who supports abortion rights, such as former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, would be risky for a candidate who has worked hard to rally conservatives to his side, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey indicates that 20 percent of McCain's supporters would be less likely to vote for him if he selects a running mate who supports abortion rights. In a recent interview, McCain told the conservative Weekly Standard that supporting abortion rights would not be an immediate disqualifier in his choice.
McCain, hunkered down at his ranch in Sedona, is planning to campaign with his vice presidential pick in a three-day tour of contested battlegrounds in Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania. "Special Guest TBA" is how his campaign Web site advertises the Friday event at Wright State University.
Republicans may pass Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), on their way to next week's GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn. The Democrats have scheduled a bus trip through Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania at the same time.
The senator from Arizona dropped from public view after a fundraiser Tuesday night in San Diego, not even leaving his ranch on Wednesday for his routine trip to Starbucks. He conducted phone interviews with local reporters in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The McCain camp's silence did not stop speculation, with pundits and Web sites throughout the day mentioning rarely mentioned possible candidates -- including Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (Tex.), for instance, who opposes an abortion ban but votes consistently for antiabortion legislation -- and debating whether recent events helped or hurt Romney's chances.
But the most controversial candidate remains Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, who was reelected to the Senate as an independent after losing the Democratic primary and has infuriated his former party with his embrace of McCain, a longtime friend.
"You keep hearing that he really wants Lieberman," said a Republican source who talks frequently with McCain's advisers. The source added that McCain "can be stubborn."
Another senior GOP adviser said picking Lieberman would be a way to say that McCain is a "transformational politician," but it was unlikely that the benefit of that would offset the angst it would cause among party conservatives.
Republican antiabortion forces have made it known that the outrage that would be felt at next week's party convention over a Lieberman selection would dwarf any disunity on display at the Democratic gathering in Denver. And while some conservative activists love to hear Lieberman accuse Obama of being inexperienced, they have drawn the line at the notion that the party's vice presidential nominee could be someone who voted against the confirmations of conservative Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
McCain is solidly opposed to abortion rights, and nearly six in 10 of his supporters polled said abortion should be illegal in most or all cases.
In the telephone survey of 1,108 registered voters taken Aug. 19 to Aug. 22, which tested six possible vice presidential candidates, most said the choice of a running mate would not change their vote for president. That was especially true of lesser-known candidates: Pawlenty (86 percent); Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (83 percent); Sen. John Thune (S.D.) (81 percent) and Ridge (80 percent).
Of the six, Romney would generate the largest following -- 20 percent say adding the former Massachusetts governor would make them more likely to support McCain. But nearly as many -- 16 percent -- said they would be less apt to vote GOP with Romney on the ticket.
Lieberman would appear to do the most damage. Overall, about one in five voters said choosing the former Democrat would make them less likely to back McCain, more than the 12 percent who would be more inclined to support the GOP nominee. And perhaps more tellingly, among those currently supporting McCain, 22 percent said they would be less apt to support the GOP nominee if he picks Lieberman. Just 9 percent of those backing Obama would be more interested in voting Republican with Lieberman as the No. 2.
Democrats are already gearing up to attack McCain's vice presidential pick, no matter whom it might be. Progressive Accountability, a left-leaning advocacy group, has prepared a dossier on five contenders: Romney, Lieberman, Pawlenty, former Ohio congressman Rob Portman and Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.).
Each of the opposition research documents uses the identical header, naming the McCain ally in question next to the phrase "McSame as Bush."
Cillizza reported from Denver, Cohen from Washington. Staff writers Michael D. Shear in Sedona and Juliet Eilperin in Washington and polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta in Washington contributed to this report.
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Clinton, Thinking About Tomorrow
BYLINE: David Maraniss; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 810 words
DATELINE: DENVER, Aug. 27
At first, it seemed, it might be all about Bill Clinton and yesteryear. The former president strode onto the stage Wednesday night to his old campaign theme song, "Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)," and bathed in the glow of a standing ovation that went on so long and loud that he had to finally confess, "I love this." But it turned out to be not about him at all, with Clinton delivering a speech that framed the case for Sen. Barack Obama and against the Republicans in a way that no one at this convention had done before.
Only a day earlier, when there was some unease among Clinton's associates about whether he was being straitjacketed in what he could say in his speech, Obama tried to defuse the situation by saying Clinton could say whatever he wanted. Good call, as it turned out. Perhaps not even Obama himself could have conjured up an oration so powerful on his behalf. Not only did Clinton utter the words "Barack Obama" 15 times, they came in his first sentence and his last, and there were long riffs about the candidate in between.
At the start of the speech, Clinton joked that it seemed unfair that he had to follow the previous night's address by his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who many believed had delivered the most flowing and soulful speech of her failed campaign. Fat chance. Clinton is always competitive, even in some ways with his wife, and the praise she received seemed almost to prod him to find ways to top her.
The orchestration of his speech came in four parts.
First was the unscripted ode to himself, which amounted to nothing more than him joyously trying to get the audience to sit down. He started and stopped three times before the crowd quieted enough to let him speak, and those several minutes, while eating up the time allotted to him -- which he was destined to ignore in any case -- served to remind everyone that for all of the controversy that seems to swirl around him, in and out of office, in and out of the campaigns, he still holds an uncommon place in the modern Democratic pantheon as the party's only two-term president of the postwar era.
Then came an ode to Obama, which, if not overly warm, was indisputably lengthy and strong, filling the one void of his wife's largely Obama-less speech the night before. Saying he is convinced that Obama is "the man for this job," he praised the nominee's "remarkable ability to inspire people," his "intelligence and curiosity," his "clear grasp" of foreign policy, the strength he gained from the "long, hard primary" against Hillary and the judgment he showed in choosing Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. as his running mate.
If this was all about Obama, there were also intimations of the Clinton years here. In 1992, Clinton gained momentum going into his convention by choosing Sen. Al Gore to run with him; and Obama, he said, in selecting Biden, "hit it out of the park."
Next came the case against Sen. John McCain and the GOP. Here Clinton went into his professorial mode, biting his lip, jabbing his finger to make a point and throwing wide his hands as a means of inviting the audience in on his wisdom as he cited a litany of Republican failings in domestic and foreign policy. The longest ovation of his speech came after a slap at the Bush administration's foreign policy propensities to go it alone and rely on force first. "People the world over," Clinton said, "have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of power."
At the end of this riff, Clinton paused, gathered in the audience and said, "They actually want us to reward them for the last eight years by giving them four more," a bewildered expression crossing his tanned face. "Let's send them a message that will echo from the Rockies all across America: Thanks, but no thanks. In this case, the third time is not the charm."
And finally Clinton brought it all together by linking his presidency to the prospect of a "President Obama" -- and in putting those two words together, it was as though he were finally, after months of reserve and hotheadedness, giving the new kid his blessing. Long gone was the Hillary Clinton campaign ad asking whom people might trust when the phone rang in the White House at 3 in the morning. Sixteen years ago, Bill Clinton said, the Republicans tried to diminish him by "saying I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief. Sound familiar? It didn't work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won't work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history."
It is the most repetitive theme of Clinton's political life: that he always finds a path to redemption when he is down, and in many ways he proved that again with this speech. And he might also have accomplished something larger and less self-centered -- by doing all he could to bring Obama up at the same time.
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Robert Miller -- The Washington Post; Former president Bill Clinton appeared to pass the torch to Barack Obama.
IMAGE; By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post; Former president Bill Clinton praised Barack Obama's "intelligence and curiosity" and his "clear grasp" of foreign policy, and he linked his own rise in 1992, over criticism that he was too inexperienced, to Obama's.
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For Veteran Speaker, the Challenge of a Lifetime;
Before a Huge Crowd, on a Historic Date, Obama Will Accept the Nomination in a Highly Anticipated Address
BYLINE: Eli Saslow; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A21
LENGTH: 1070 words
DATELINE: DENVER, Aug. 27
Sen. Barack Obama will step onto a stage bordered by Greek columns and walk down a runway that dead-ends at a lectern on an island. There, alone at the center of Colorado's biggest stadium, he will stare out at 2,000 lawn chairs pressed toward the stage, 80,000 people crammed into three levels of seats and 450 stadium spotlights pointed directly at him.
Even for Obama, a veteran speechmaker, the setup at Invesco Field makes for the most intimidating venue of his career. On the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Obama will become the first African American to accept a major party's nomination for president when he addresses the crowd Thursday night.
His campaign has gambled on the historic moment by creating a stage that will magnify his performance. Succeed here, in front of the largest Democratic National Convention crowd in nearly 50 years, and Obama's speech will be remembered as one of the most powerful moments in modern politics, a perfect launch into the final stage of the general election. Fail, and Obama risks fueling Republicans' criticism that he is an aloof celebrity, fond of speaking to big crowds but incapable of forming genuine connections.
Obama wrote the speech last week in his customary manner, crafting a first draft by hand on yellow legal paper. He studied past convention speeches and found inspiration in remarks by Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy, advisers said. Then he sequestered himself in a Chicago hotel room, preferring it to the chaos of his house or campaign headquarters.
His speechwriters have traveled with him, helping trim and edit -- a process that continued Wednesday afternoon as Obama flew into Denver. The longtime aides have learned to leave the essential elements of Obama's speeches intact, those close to the candidate said. Advisers often say Obama is his own best speechwriter. It surprised nobody in his campaign when he seized control of writing Thursday's address and shaping its message.
"I think I have to do two things," Obama said this week. "I want to make the choice between myself and John McCain as clear as possible. I don't want people to be confused. And I also hope that the convention conveys who I am. You know, during the course of a 19-month campaign, I think that you, you're on the television screen, you're in big auditoriums, but sometimes who you are may get lost. And I want people to come away saying, 'Whether I'm voting for or against the guy, I know what he stands for.' "
Obama said he expects his acceptance speech to be "workmanlike," which would mark a major departure from the formula he has relied on during key public moments in his life. In his 1990 speech as incoming president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama told a story of his mixed-race biography that drew the venue's cooks from the kitchen and caused waiters to stop serving, friends who were there recalled. Early this year, he wrote a major speech about race at a moment when his past association with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. threatened to derail his campaign, and delivered it in Philadelphia against the instincts of his closest advisers.
At the last Democratic convention, in Boston in 2004, Obama cemented his reputation as a talented public speaker by delivering a 17-minute keynote address that focused thematically on the country's divisiveness. His speech contained few new ideas, but it transformed him overnight from a little-known Illinois state senator into a national figure.
Thursday's speech, Obama said, will have few similarities to his 2004 address. He has become sensitive to the criticism that his speeches are lacking in content, friends said, and he is expected to outline the ways he will try to address the nation's problems.
But changing his style carries some risks. "You can talk all you want about policies and programs, but that's not what people respond to," said Martin Medhurst, a professor of rhetoric at Baylor University. "People respond when they are touched emotionally, and that's what he's so good at. It's going to be very important in his speech tomorrow night that people get excited emotionally. That's what they want from him."
Obama will step to the lectern under the burden of tremendous expectation. Not since Kennedy spoke to 80,000 people in Los Angeles at the 1960 Democratic convention has a nomination-acceptance speech generated so much anticipation. Public tickets, given away online, disappeared in just more than a day. Some scalpers now sell single tickets for more than $1,000.
At 5 p.m. Thursday, convention officials will close down the Pepsi Center, and the assembled delegates and journalists will migrate one mile west to the football stadium. Traffic officials will close Denver's main highway. A major musical act -- maybe Bon Jovi -- will play a brief set. Confetti and fireworks will shoot into the sky at the end of Obama's speech.
On Wednesday, dozens of workers hurried around Invesco Field to finish the stage. One woman scrubbed dirt off the hollow Greek columns. Another cleaned the wooden lectern. Obama's image will be beamed onto the stadium scoreboard and two other screens behind him, officials said, but vendors also plan to make binoculars available for rent to those in the upper deck.
Obama turned up Wednesday night to familiarize himself with the stage, also using the opportunity to regard the stadium from different vantage points.
The last time Obama delivered a major speech -- to 200,000 people in Berlin -- images from the event ended up in the background of a John McCain ad, which referred to Obama as "the biggest celebrity in the world." On Wednesday, the McCain campaign e-mailed reporters descriptions of the Greek columns as more proof of its portrayal of Obama as egotistical and out of touch.
Friends said Obama rarely gets nervous before appearing in public anymore, but few speeches have mattered as much as this one. As he walks down the 20-yard runway toward the lectern, he will have plenty to contemplate. Can he deliver a speech rich in both policy and passion? Can he stand out and yet not stand apart?
"Here's the thing about Barack," said Marty Nesbitt, Obama's closest friend in Chicago. "I keep thinking that maybe he's getting in over his head, and this is too hard and it's going to get to him. But he surprises me and delivers every time."
Staff writer Anne E. Kornblut contributed to this report.
LOAD-DATE: August 28, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post; Sen. Barack Obama addresses a gathering Wednesday in Billings, Mont. Tonight, he will speak to 80,000 in Denver, the largest crowd at a Democratic convention since the party's 1960 meeting, which nominated John F. Kennedy.
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Washingtonpost.com
August 28, 2008 Thursday 11:00 PM EST
Analysis: Obama's Acceptance Speech
BYLINE: Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post Associate Editor, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4685 words
HIGHLIGHT: Washington Post associate editor Robert G. Kaiser was online Thursday, Aug. 28 at 11 p.m. ET to examine Sen. Barack Obama's speech tonight in accepting the Democratic nomination for president.
Washington Post associate editor Robert G. Kaiser was online Thursday, Aug. 28 at 11 p.m. ET to examine Sen. Barack Obama's speech tonight in accepting the Democratic nomination for president.
The transcript follows.
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Robert G. Kaiser: Good evening. On an unusual night in American political history (to say the least), we'll spend an hour or so discussing Barack Obama's acceptance speech and the presidential campaign. I would also like to post the commentaries of readers who would like to share their reactions to the speech. If this interests you, prepare a coherent paragraph or two or three and send it in as a question. I'll post them, often without any comment of my own.
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Helena, Mont.: I cannot understand why being able to communicate ideas to the electorate is considered to be a weakness on Obama's part. The "yes he can give a good speech, but there's no substance" theme is pretty lame, as far as I'm concerned. How else can a president lead in a democracy, if not by the ability to persuade people to follow him/her? Obama has proven that he has the ability to persuade people, which means he does have leadership qualities. I became a supporter because he talks to the American people as adults -- not some stereotype that I never recognize. I guess being popular and having capability to communicate complex ideas -- not 30-second sound bites that mean little -- are not any indication of leadership in this day and age?
Robert G. Kaiser: Coming at the end of that quite remarkable speech, your comments resonate with me. I've always found the best political rhetoric to be engaging and provocative in the best sense. Odd perhaps but true, some of the best rhetoric I've heard in modern times came from George W. Bush, particularly in his first term, when he had brilliant speechwriters. Good rhetoric helped him mobilize the country after 9/11 in ways I don't think he could have done it without that rhetoric.
Anyhow, thanks for posting. You sent in your comment before you'd heard Obama's entire speech, but it turned out to be entirely apt.
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Baltimore: Wow. I'd say if the goal was to show his toughness and look presidential he hit the nail on the head. Thoughts?
Robert G. Kaiser: I agree with you. I honestly think, at first blush, that this was one of the very best speeches I have heard in 45 years in the newspaper business.
However, I know from too much experience that my own reactions are often quite different than those of others--one reason I'm hoping for some good comments from all of you tonight.
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Stockholm, Sweden: Mr. Kaiser, thanks, as always, for these chats. Yours are one of the few I still read since moving here. I have read the text of the speech but had no chance to view it being delivered by Senator Obama. What was your overall impression?
Robert G. Kaiser: I too read the speech before hearing it. You'll be able to watch it later here on our website, on YouTube or somewhere else, and I strongly recommend that you do so. I thought the speech was much more powerful as delivered, because he seemed so very forceful.
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Williamsburg, Va.: I thought three things: Firstly, Obama was very, very negative -- he attacked McCain early and often. That surprised me. Secondly, he finally got into some specifics on his plans. Some of it was misleading, like tax cuts for more than 95 percent of American workers -- I'm pretty sure that his definition of "worker" doesn't include me. But he had some meat on the bone. Thirdly, from the media descriptions of his oratory skills, I expected the love child of William Jennings Bryan and Martin Luther King Jr. He was kinda, I don't know, good ... but nothing really magical. But I'm an independent, and naturally suspicious of politicians.
Robert G. Kaiser: Thanks for an interesting and thoughtful post.
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Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thank you, Bob for doing this. I love your insight. My two cents: I loved the speech -- especially about the Republicans owning their failure. I also loved when he said he would look at the budget line by line and begin to strip the unnecessary spending. I also loved the direct answers to the McCain attacks. Two thumbs up -- I'm so excited.
Robert G. Kaiser: thanks.
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Arlington, Va.: Is it unusual for a nominee in his acceptance speech to call out (as it were) his opponent so specifically? I rather liked the directness, but don't recall that being done very frequently. Thanks.
Robert G. Kaiser: I wish I had the sort of memory that would allow me to answer this concretely. I have a distinct recollection of Michael Dukakis's speech in Atlanta in 1988 in which, I think, he did a real number on eight years of Republican rule (the two Reagan administrations). I may be wrong. I do remember Reagan in Detroit in 1980 giving a very strong speech attacking Democrats and Carter, but again I don't have details in my head. Let's both look it up tomorrow.
I think the strength of the speech was unusual.
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Newark, N.J.: The stadium venue worked like a charm. There was a sense of real energy there -- and it was clearly a break from tired old political convention. But ... I'm not sure his message was really much of a break with the past. Starting with his video intro where we're told he had a "childhood like any other" ... uh, a mixed race child of a black African and white Kansan, abandoned by his father, grew up in Indonesia before being shipped off to Hawaii to live with his grandparents? That's the new normal? And the policies really were pretty standard fare for the left. Higher pay for teachers, punish the wealthy and corporations, end the war, blah blah blah.
Robert G. Kaiser: Thanks for this. I too cringed at the childhood like any other. Don't know who made that film--does anyone know who it was?
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San Francisco: I've heard Obama writes his own speeches. Did Obama write that speech himself?
Robert G. Kaiser: He did, and I can't tell you how impressive that is to cynical old reporters like me. Washington has very few personalities left who read their own books, do their own thinking, write their own speeches. But Obama not only reads the books, he writes them--and his speeches.
Chuck Hagel is another senator who does this; it can happen on either side of the aisle, but I wish it happened a lot more often!
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Detroit: What do you think were Obama's most salient points?
Robert G. Kaiser: I think you should decide that for yourself. Sorry.
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Silver Spring, Md.: One thing struck me tonight as a big difference between the candidates. When McCain attacks Obama, it comes off as petty and angry, but Obama somehow was able to go right at McCain, challenge him and still come off as above-the-fray and presidential. I think it is very tough for any candidate to criticize an opponent and still seem noble. What did you think?
Robert G. Kaiser: thanks for this. Obviously, your predilections color your conclusions--I mean this in general, not just in your case. But I'm not surprised at your reaction.
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New York: I feel like this speech was almost a direct challenge to McCain next week ... and I think McCain is awfully awkward in delivery. How does McCain compete?
Robert G. Kaiser: Mark Salter, McCain's alter ego and co-author (at least) of his books and speeches, has been working on McCain's acceptance speech literally for weeks, knowing it was extremely important. I suspect McCain has spent much of this week getting ready for his big moment next week. Lots of people will have low expectations like yours, because McCain has no history of great speechmaking. But I've never seen a bad acceptance speech; the Dukakis speech I referred to earlier, in 1988, was quite terrific, even though Dukakis proved to be an utterly ineffectual candidate. Personally I expect McCain to do quite well.
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Helena, Mont.: One of the things that makes Obama such a good speaker is his cadence. His words and delivery have a rhythm that is pleasing to the ear -- it just makes it easier to listen to him. I think we would find him reading the telephone directory to be easy listenin'.
Robert G. Kaiser: Well, let's not test your hypothesis! But thanks for posting.
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Minneapolis: Robert, I was struck by the omission of the Rev. King's name from the speech. Do you believe Sen. Obama deliberately was avoiding having the press frame his candidacy through the lens of civil rights?
Robert G. Kaiser: I interpreted that as a literary device. We all knew who the preacher from Georgia was. I don't think much of your theory.
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Re: Williamsburg, Va.: I think you need to go watch Obama's earlier speeches (especially the one on race) for your William Jennings Bryan oratory. That wasn't the point of tonight -- the people who love those talks already love Obama. Tonight was about making him less scary, apparently to the people in this country who don't think or get nuance, or that there are two sides to every issues and very rarely are things absolutely right or wrong
Robert G. Kaiser: thanks for the comment.
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Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia: What kind of advantage will Sen. Obama's volunteer network give him over McCain's? will it make him be able to counterattack faster than McCain could, etc.?
Robert G. Kaiser: The volunteer network is most relevant to registering and then turning out the vote in November. And it looks today as though Obama will have a very big advantage because his organization is so big and so effective.
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Miami: What did you think of his "energy independence in 10 years"? That seems just wildly optimistic. Is there a plan behind it, or are we all walking to work now?
Robert G. Kaiser: I think this was an echo of JFK: A man on the moon in ten years. I am not an engineer or scientist, I don't know how realistic the idea is. I do think we are in for real and meaningful changes in the way we live over the next decade. In Miami you'll probably have to give up air conditioning.
Just kidding.
I hope. For your sake!
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Salem, Ore.: The really surprising thing about this election so far is that McCain -- who was written off early as computer-illiterate, is running circles around Obama by launching quick-response YouTube ads. I remember months ago that the media lauded Obama for his Internet fundraising savvy, but I haven't heard mention of McCain's surprising turnaround. Which points did Obama make tonight that you think will appear in the next McCain ad? I think there are a few treasures in there that McCain wouldn't mind repeated.
Robert G. Kaiser: Geez, I don't see those circles. Obama has been ahead in polls for months. In the daily Gallup tracking poll he opened up a six point lead as of yesterday. Do you think this is all about attacks? IS that all that matters?
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Vistancia, Ariz.: The issue of temperament is interesting and is going to spark a lot of heat. How should McCain respond?
Robert G. Kaiser: Sorry, no advice to candidates will be given here.
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Atlanta: I thought it was a strong speech, but not as inspiring as the Iowa or New Hampshire speeches -- but that was not the point. The willingness to address gay marriage, guns and abortion was striking -- as was his decision to call out McCain on negative campaigning. Most of all, though, I am glad he tied the night back to the Rev. King; I was afraid he'd avoid that as "too black." But the Republican post-speech comment was sad at best, and if McCain's news is another rich white guy, then I do not envy him his task in St. Paul, Minn.
Robert G. Kaiser: Thanks. I missed the post-speech Republican comment, but I'll try to find it.
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Wilmington Del.:"Looking at the budget and stripping unnecessary spending" would be a good line of attack for McCain. After all, Obama soaks up earmarks like Ted Stevens on a bender. McCain doesn't do earmarks. Couldn't McCain make an ad saying "hey Obama -- I know where you can find some unnecessary spending ... start with yours."
Robert G. Kaiser: Don't think you have your facts straight. Obama's earmarks are modest, a tiny fraction of Ted Stevens'. But any earmarks are an opening for McCain, to be sure.
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These guys know what they're doing: Robert: Beyond the brilliance of the speech both in content and delivery, the one thing I take away from tonight is that Obama and the people working for him have a clear understanding of how they want to run this campaign, and the skill to execute it properly. Think of the many "problems" and "challenges" he faced going into this convention: Clinton and her PUMAs, his "celebrity" status, his declining momentum, the arrogance of holding the final speech in a stadium, and add to it the "Temple of Obama" stage set. Were any of those problems in the end?
If he hasn't destroyed the myth of celebrity status, he has weakened it badly, and the setting looked great and the stadium gamble paid off. Finally, while all of this was happening, his campaign is busy registering voters and opening campaign offices all across the country (and, oh yeah, raising millions of dollars). At some point the media must recognize this is a different breed of Democratic animal, and so far it's working.
Robert G. Kaiser: I think serious journalists long ago recognized how good the Obama operation is. Experienced political reporters--our wonderful Dan Balz, for example--have been writing about this for months. It's the best-run campaign we've seen in a long time.
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Los Angeles: Robert, were you surprised at how much criticism of McCain was included in the speech? It was quite a contrast with Kerry's speech in 2004, which was quite positive.
Robert G. Kaiser: And Kerry lost. I see repeated indications that the Obama campaign considers Kerry's shortcomings in 2004 are a kind of guidebook of things NOT to do. Giving a predominantly positive acceptance speech may have been one of them.
Remember how that speech began? With Kerry's silly salute, saying "reporting for duty"? Oy.
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Toronto: Too much anti-McCain too early, and then too definitive on things like ending oil dependence in 10 years (really, really misleading). Failed from that perspective. Lots of things the GOP can rip into, and some of it will be valid.
Robert G. Kaiser: thanks.
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Washington: I am a cynical long-time Washington resident, Washington Post reader, and consider politics theater and no more ... but this guy is unbelievable. I am 39 and never have seen anyone like him -- he's better than Clinton. It is truly remarkable to me that he is not running away with this election already.
Robert G. Kaiser: and thanks to you too.
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Burke, Va.: I'm an independent who generally votes Republican but who is looking at Obama very closely. A few thoughts I would appreciate your feedback on. One, his rhetoric (no negativity intended) was excellent, but does he have the specifics to back it up? Every politician at every level of government says they will cut waste, but "waste" is hard to find, and so much of the budget is taken over by entitlement programs that no one wants to touch. Also, keeping jobs in the U.S. is a great idea, but how? Will we just end up being disappointed when it's time to turn words into actions?My heart was stirred by his words at times, but he also seemed to lack some critical judgment that keeps this from being a great speech. For example, the line "guess what, John McCain, we all put America first" was a wet blanket over the previous words, which were quite beautiful and stirring. And using words at the end referring to hope in Jesus Christ and applying them to hope in a political process I thought personally (as a Christian) fell flat. Just my thoughts ... it was at least a solid B-plus!
Robert G. Kaiser: Thanks. I don't think I can provide "feedback" to your reactions, which are entirely legitimate, and are entirely yours. On the specifics, in my opinion the federal budget is filled with silly expenditures and waste, all of them favored by various interest groups and hard, but not impossible, to cut. There are features of the tax code that encourage shipping jobs overseas in some situations; they could be changed.
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Austin, Texas: Apart from the speech, what did you think of the convention overall? I thought it was strong.
Robert G. Kaiser: The convention certainly helped Obama. Remember all the drama (much of it utterly phony) about the "split" in the party? The anxieties about the Clintons? all that has been dealt with now. Biden seemed to go down very well with the Dems, and that's important--McCain will not be able to make as popular a choice for Republicans, because he doesn't have such a beloved figure available to him. Women I have talked to thought, as I did, that Michelle Obama did a strong job on Monday night. Yes, a good convention for the Dems--not decisive, not the last words, but a big help at this stage.
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Pittsburgh: I was not an Obama supporter at first, but I've watched this convention all week. After the acceptance speech tonight, I am convinced that Obama is exactly what this country needs at this point, on many levels.
Robert G. Kaiser: Interesting. Thanks.
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Utah: I am very impressed - the man can really deliver (and write!) a speech. But I have to admit that I was most impressed by the diversity of the audience, as seen from the TV cameras. I assume there was some manipulation of audience shots ... but I don't think I've ever seen an audience at a political event that so genuinely looked like a crowd on an everyday American city street.
Robert G. Kaiser: Far as I know the networks are totally free to make the pictures, they aren't manipulated -- at least not by the organizers of the convention.
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Not Energy Independence: Obama said that the U.S. will not use oil from the Middle East in 10 years, not be free of foreign oil -- two very different things.
Robert G. Kaiser: thanks.
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San Jose, Calif.: Obama took the gloves off tonight. He attacked McCain and basically called him an out-of-touch coward -- but you can bet he'll cry like a girl when he gets hit back, like he did with the Ayers ad.
Robert G. Kaiser:"cry like a girl?"
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U.S.: Great resource for past nomination acceptance speeches Reagan mentioned Carter quite a bit, and Clinton did a number of times with Bush.
Robert G. Kaiser: I don't have time to check your link, but really appreciate this. thanks.
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Reston, Va.: Sure, it was a well delivered speech -- but it's meant for the people that are already sold on him. Me? I'm not. Sen. Obama wasn't selling to me. I saw good execution in the speech, but I'm in the boat that there was no content to sway someone. And what do all those people with the signs ("CHANGE" above "www.barackobama.com")want to change Sen. Obama's Web site to? Seems like a sensible Web address, no?
Robert G. Kaiser: thanks.
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Kansas: Sooo interesting to watch this speech with our 16-year-old son, then to quickly catch the brilliant "Daily Show" parody of the intro video, which ended with Obama as the face of Pangea! Us Baby Boomers were cynical but impressed. Our son's reaction was that this was the guy I wanted -- he was the one him. He didn't care anything about his race -- to him he was capable. Much as I love Springsteen, my son shook his head at the convention's closing song -- "that's so '80s." The youth vote will be generate formidable energy from tonight.
Robert G. Kaiser: thanks.
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Washington: After seeing the shots of Obama's daughters in the stands, watching their father and watching themselves on the jumbotron, I can't help but think their adorableness will win the election for him. That is one beautiful family!
Robert G. Kaiser: Geez I hope you're wrong! Is that a basis for winning an election?
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Newport News, Va.:"New politics for a new time"? He spent half the speech trashing McCain and the Republicans, and now he's post-partisan? I think this speech was thrilling to Democrats and annoying to Republicans. Did it really move the bar with those of us in the middle who frankly are disappointed with both parties? I think it opened my eyes to Obama, but I'm just starting to pay attention to this race. It ain't over...
Robert G. Kaiser: thanks for this.
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Arlington, Va.: How do you think McCain will respond to Obama's speech? And what do you make of the ad McCain ran tonight? My first thought after seeing it was that Democrats will say McCain was being smarmy and patronizing. On the other hand, Republicans will say he was being gracious. Which is it?
Robert G. Kaiser: Wasn't it obviously, palpably gracious?
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Boston: How does Obama's campaign organization differ from Bush's much-lauded operation? You say that it's the best you've seen in a while -- what has Obama improved upon (not in policy details obviously, just the organization)?
Robert G. Kaiser: Bush's operation was good, but primitive compared to Obama's, which involves, thanks to its mastery of the new technology and the enthusiasm Obama has generated, hundreds of thousands of volunteers already.
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Stone Mountain, Ga.: I just stumbled on this site -- a lovely idea! I found McCain's congratulatory ad and Obama's declaration that he would criticize policies not character rather novel for a presidential election. Everyone's tone seems to be more focused on the big issues than in any election I've been alive for. Do you political analyst types now have a new yardstick for measuring campaign successes with, or are you too cynical?
Robert G. Kaiser: Thanks for this. I'm not sure what you mean by "new measures." I think the basic measure of success is unchanged and unchangeable--who wins. Politics in America has included nasty negative stuff from the very beginning. Like you, I certainly prefer the substantive, but it's a free country.
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Cincinnati: As a Democrat, I loved it, but I did cringe at all the attacks on McCain. Now it's kinda hard to complain about McCain's attacks. Obviously Obama has decided he won't be John Kerry -- just taking the Republican hits -- but my dad always said: "Don't mud-wrestle a pig. You'll just end up getting dirty, and the pig likes it." In this case, are the Democrats sure they can go toe-to-toe in a gutter fight? It certainly looked like Obama picked a fight tonight, particularly the line about McCain being afraid to find Osama bin Laden in his cave.
Robert G. Kaiser: thanks for posting.
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Columbia, Md.: I am black. I watched the speech with many friends and relatives, including my 92-year-old mother. Most of us had tears streaming down our faces at the end. Mom said through her tears "I am just so thankful I have lived to see this day." The rest of us said "amen." Hokey but true. It was amazing.
Robert G. Kaiser: I'm sure you had a lot of company in the wet-cheeks department. I talked to a lot of distinguished black historians at the time Obama clinched the nomination last spring and wrote a piece about their belief that history had been made, as it obviously had. I covered the March on Washington for The Post--I was a summer intern that year. What an amazing story of progress black America has been able to write since then!
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St. Paul, Minn.: What are Obama's credentials for executive leadership? He appears to have had lots of opportunities but no achievements for those opportunities, except for the nomination tonight. I'm not a Hillary Clinton supporter, but it occurred to me during the Democratic primaries that if Clinton had as slim a resume as Obama, she would have been laughed out of the primaries early on. I have to conclude that the Democrats spotted a good-looking guy with an exotic background who could speak well, and decided to rush him to the top.
Robert G. Kaiser: Obviously Obama has a relatively thin resume, but I urge you to ask people in politics you may know about his executive skills. In my experience, politicians of both parties are extremely impressed with the campaign Obama has run: no leaks ever, no backbiting among the staff, quiet purposefulness, sticking to their plan even when arm-chair critics assail them for this or that failure or shortcoming , etc etc. To me this is relevant experience for a president. So many of the chief executives I have covered--most of them, actually--could no sooner have run a campaign this well than they could have pitched for the Yankees.
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Washington: Some readers seem to believe that Obama was "trashing" McCain; I wonder if others who are just tuning in to the campaign believe the same. For me, I saw someone disagreeing on the issues and defending himself from some truly ridiculous charges -- but then again, I watch the cable news shows...
Robert G. Kaiser: My condolences. Thanks for posting.
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Roanoke, Va.: I watched this man accept the nomination while thinking of the five or six black children whose parents sent them to my (otherwise white) sixth-grade class in the 1960s in Virginia -- they called it "freedom of choice" ... I call it courage. I'm so glad I lived to see this. And I want this man representing us on the world stage. As for the speech, I like it when he gets tough -- anybody questions Democratic patriotism gets their nose bloodied, damn it.
Robert G. Kaiser: Thanks.
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San Luis Obispo, Calif.: What changes would you like to see made in national media coverage for this historic election?
Robert G. Kaiser: I wish I could spend half an hour answering this one! The quality of coverage of politics has not risen in recent years. The opinionated bloviating on Fox and MSNBC is sad for an old school guy like me. And sad is a diplomatic adjective! The networks' evening news shows are much weaker than they were 10 and 20 years ago, as are the correspondents (many fewer now) who cover the campaigns. I was on the McCain campaign for two days last month and there were no staff correspondents on the plane from any of the three major networks. Each had a young producer on board, a serious person but not one who will ever be on the air. And many of the big papers that used to cover elections have given it up or cut way back for economic reasons.
There are some good new online outlets, but few have serious resource to really cover an election.
It's not a pretty picture. And it will probably get worse.
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New York: I will vote for him, but frankly I was surprised at how flat his speech and delivery was. I read he was trying to play down his great presentation skills, but I felt that he played it down too much. I know he can give a rousing speech; tonight's was not it.
Robert G. Kaiser: People are wonderful, they can react so very differently to the same event. Thanks for this. I've been listening out of one ear to the commentary on television, and there is remarkably broad consensus among the talking heads that this was a great speech. But their reaction is no more valid than yours, it's just theirs.
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Robert G. Kaiser: This was a great exchange. Thanks to all who took up my invitation to craft your own comments. I'm signing off now because it is late, and I'm sorry I wasn't able to post them all, but I gave you a good cross-section.
I'll be back in a week after McCain's speech. Please come back then.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: September 3, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
August 28, 2008 Thursday 12:00 PM EST
Potomac Confidential;
Washington's Hour of Talk Power
BYLINE: Marc Fisher, Post Metro Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 7489 words
HIGHLIGHT: Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion by Metro columnist Marc Fisher who looks at the latest news with a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.
Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion by Metro columnist Marc Fisher who looks at the latest news with a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.
Today's Column: In N.Va., It's the Candidate, Not the Party, That Counts
Fisher was online Thursday, Aug. 28, at Noon ET to look at Virginia's new role as a presidential swing state, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett's about-face on slots, and the challenges facing D.C. chancellor Michelle Rhee as the new school year begins.
Check out Marc's blog, Raw Fisher.
Archives: Discussion Transcripts
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Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard, folks--After four days of convention overload, perhaps we've been numbed into submission, as most of your early comments and questions for today's show are keyed to the presidential campaign. That's fine, and we'll certainly get into that and into today's column, which looks at a Fairfax precinct that may be the most evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans in all of northern Virginia.
But feel free to stretch us beyond politics as we head into the Labor Day weekend and the prospect of school reopening (or, for some, the end of the first week of school.) Can and will D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee break the teacher's union and eliminate tenure and seniority rights in exchange for hefty pay increases? Will the downturn in the economy mean the end of the gravy train for Fairfax and Montgomery schools--or, in Maryland's case, will voters turn to slots this November in hopes of averting tax increases to maintain the quality of local schools?
How dreadful is it that Metro will no longer run shuttle buses to the Redskins' stadium, starting with tonight's preseason game?
Why is it that every Wootton High School kid I've seen or heard interviewed about their teacher who stands accused of providing cocaine to her students says that teacher is the coolest person on the planet? Was she hawking a pro-drug line in class? Was she merely a charismatic person with an ability to connect to teenagers? What exactly might her thought process have been when she decided that giving drugs to kids was a great idea?
On to your many comments and questions, but first, let's call the Yay and Nay of the Day:
Yay to both John McCain and Barack Obama for reasonable success in keeping their vice presidential picks something of a surprise until the day they announced their decision. It's a little bit hypocritical for a news guy to applaud any politician for his ability to keep a secret, but I just can't help myself: In this era in which speed seems to be the driving force in all media, it's stirring to see anyone who manages to pull something off on his own time schedule.
Nay to the continuing and disturbing pattern of police shootings in Prince George's County, where, as The Post's Aaron Davis reports today, officers have shot and killed more than twice as many people this year as in all of last year. The fact that the Prince George's numbers are much higher even than those in the District makes clear that something is amiss in the county, even after all these years of federal investigations and local reforms. The shooting of an unarmed man this month in Langley Park is shocking enough; add in all the other incidents and there remain powerful questions about the culture and approach of the county police.
Your turn starts right now....
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washingtonpost.com: Police Shootings Cause Alarm ( Post, Aug. 28)
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Herndon, Va.: Mr F: Great article today on that Fairfax County "swing" neighborhood. One factor in the race I can't figure out -- you have "x" amount of Hillary supporters saying they won't vote for Obama, but for McCain. Now, if the only reason they were supporting Hillary was because she was a woman, that might make sense, but if they were supporting her and the platform she espoused (which wasn't that different from Obama's) I just can't see how they can justify the switch. Of course, going waaay back, I remember a survey after Bobby Kennedy was assassinated which noted that a fair percentage of his blue collar supporters' next choice was George Wallace (I guess because he was also viewed as being for the "little man.")
washingtonpost.com: In N.Va., It's the Candidate, Not the Party, That Counts ( Post, Aug. 28)
Marc Fisher: Thanks--I don't think it's her positions or her party that won over the voters I spoke to, but rather it was a matter of personality and character, the sense these voters--most but not all of them women--had that Clinton somehow understood their lives better than either Obama or McCain. I don't quite get what it was about her campaign that communicated that to people--after all, she's every bit as rich and detached from anything remotely like normal life as either of those other candidates--but that's what the voters I talked to kept coming back to.
If you believe in the "regular guy" theory of voting--that, especially in presidential races, many people choose the candidate who seems most human, most grounded, most likely to be capable of sitting down and having a beer and connecting with people who aren't politics-obsessed, then it does make sense that those who were for Clinton might turn next to McCain.
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No, it's the party:"I vote for the man, not the party" may be the single dumbest cliche in American political life.
No president governs alone. And the pool of people from which he will select the hundreds of political appointees, staffers, and judicial nominees is (with token exceptions) limited to his party.
A Democratic administration for the last eight years would not have included, John Yoo, Monica Goodling, John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, David Addington, Joseph Alito, Donald Rumsfeld, and the hundreds of others who have formulated and carried out the Bush administration's policies.
The ideological beliefs and policy preferences of the people who would fill a Democratic administration are vastly different than those who would staff a Republican administation. Anyone who ignores this reality is a fool.
Marc Fisher: To some extent, you're right. Certainly on the nomination of Supreme Court justices or the appointment of top advisors, party matters.
But it's also true that there's a good argument to be made that divided government protects us from excesses, and for those who believe that it ought to be difficult for any president or leader to move through any agenda, it makes senses to split a ticket at the polling booth.
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Falls Church, Va.: Actually, for me over the years (and I've been a northern Virginia independent voter since 1972) it's increasingly become the party, not the candidate that counts. I acknowledge that it is a very special moment in U.S. history to see Obama become the Democratic Party nominee for president, but as I settle further in my ways I'll be voting Republican anyway because of the traditional appeal of that party's platform to me.
Marc Fisher: Interesting point, and I think you are far from alone in deciding that it's one thing to admire and take pride in the fact that Obama is a nominee of a major party for president, and another thing entirely to choose to vote for him. Race has played and will continue to play an important and probably somewhat hidden role in this election, but to win, Obama has to find a way to take that sense of pride Americans have in what his candidacy says about our ability to change and turn it into a more substantive, positive reason to vote for him.
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Franconia, Va.: What's exciting for me as a local Obama volunteer is that we are a real battleground state in Virginia, and yet we never have been before. In a place like Ohio there must be massive ground operations that never really go away and that rev up (on both sides) every four years, so everyone involved, though excited, has been there, done that. For us in Virginia, though, it's all new, like "welcome to the NFL!"
Your interview with the swimming pool moms tells me that there are still plenty of doors to knock on and plenty of interested, persuadable voters to reach. Do you ever regret not having the chance to jump in and volunteer yourself (on either side)? We are having the most fun and I assume that as a journalist you just can't do it.
washingtonpost.com: In N.Va., It's the Candidate, Not the Party, That Counts ( Post, Aug. 28)
Marc Fisher: I'm glad you and campaign workers on both sides will get the chance to take on a far more energized and important effort in Virginia this year than in any other election in the past 44 years. To each his own, of course, but for my money, I've got the best view of the show--I love wandering around with candidates and campaign workers on both sides, and then wading back in on my own to probe people's minds and beliefs. Candidates often tell me they wish they could do what I do, so they could hear voters' views unvarnished, rather than the partisan responses they tend to get as soon as the voter realizes with whom they are speaking.
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Upper Marlboro, Md.: Is D.C. Mayor Fenty at the Democratic Convention? I expected to see him present at the District Roll Call yesterday evening. Eleanor Holmes Norton continues to do a good job bringing awareness about D.C. voting rights, but I thought Mayor Fenty world be on hand to mention something about D.C. statehood.
Marc Fisher: Fenty is in Denver, still defending himself against those who are miffed that he's not staying at the same hotel as the rest of the D.C. delegation. And there was an additional ruffling of feathers when Fenty didn't show up to the roll call vote for president--not a good move by the mayor.
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Arlington, Va.: Marc, Does Obama's over the top response to a minor ad buy concerning his well documented, but minor relationship with Bill Ayers indicate he's trying to cover up something that could be damamging? Annenberg Papers: Putting On Ayers? ( Investors Business Daily
I, and I'm sure you do too, get very nervous when political leaders of any party call on the Justice Dpartment to prosecute free speech and theaten the broadcasting licenses of radio and TV stations that air advertisements they disagree with. Why isn't The Post reporting on this conflict in any print stories?
Marc Fisher: The McCain ad ripping Obama for his ties to former Weather Underground radical Bill Ayers seems over the top, but I've never understood why the news media generally seems so willing to accept Ayers as a mainstream figure, whitewashing his past as a leader of a violent terrorist group. Obama's connections with Ayers seems to me a legitimate topic for exploration by both an opposing campaign and the press.
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Rockville, Md.: I disagree with you often, but your work does have my respect. I especially liked your reporting from Northern Virginia. How do you feel about having so many critics on purely partisan lines?
Marc Fisher: Thanks very much--it's disappointing that we live in a time when so many people choose to filter the information they receive about the world around them through partisan screens. That's certainly a change in our media landscape and I think it has very harmful potential in diminishing our ability as a nation to reach consensus and make progress on a great many fronts. For those who read and consume a lot of information, it's really not a problem at all--they'll pick up stuff by osmosis. But for those who have only a very glancing familiarity with what's going on in their community, country or world, it's dangerous indeed.
On a personal level, I enjoy being slammed from both sides. If the vitriol came only from one direction, I'd be concerned, but luckily, it comes in even amounts from left, right and center.
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Alexandria, Va.: I know its off-topic, but isn't it weird that the guy who wrote "100 places you need to visit before you die" died this week at age 47 and only did about 50 of the things listed?
washingtonpost.com: Dave Freeman, 47; Wrote Travel, Adventure Guide ( Post, Aug. 27)
Marc Fisher: He was too busy writing and pushing his book.
No, I think it would be rather sad to structure your life as the guy who knows which 100 things you ought to do in a given lifetime, and then go out and finish off all 100 of those things. Where would that leave you? Wouldn't you always want at least a few of those places or activities hanging out there, just beyond your reach?
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MoCo: Marc...
You never miss a chance to rail on the Montgomery County Council for being out of touch and overbearing nannies. I appreciate it. But then you turn around and take that stance with slots, saying we have to protect people from themselves. I don't get it.
Most of my life I haven't made a lot of money, and I'm still paid well below the median income of a state resident, and probably well below the median income of the county. Hence, I'm pretty sure I won't be spending my money on slots machines all that often, if at all. A little self-control and personal responsibility is what I call it, not to say I don't like making the occasional wager or partaking in other vices. But still, people should have the option. And if people can't control themselves, in this instance at least, it's not the government's job to protect them from themselves.
I'll hang up and listen now.
Marc Fisher: Good question. But I don't think a failure to set up giant casinos for the enrichment of huge corporations represents protecting people from themselves. There is no shortage of easy opportunities for those who want to gamble away their money to do so. Indeed, the advent of online gaming creates yet another argument against state-sponsored slots: It is now not entirely clear that there will always be a growing audience for visits to slots casinos and other such facilities.
I would have no objection if states chose to legalize the casino industry and just let everybody go out and do their thing. My objection is to the state sponsoring and encouraging citizens to go out and flush their money into slot machines as an alternative to fairly taxing all citizens for necessary government spending.
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Can and will D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee break the teacher's union and eliminate tenure and seniority rights in exchange for hefty pay increases?: I asked last week but you didn't get to it. That sounds great, but what happens to teachers in the arts, i.e., music and art teachers. My fiance is a 3rd year music teacher in a D.C. elementary school. She would love to get more money BUT her kids don't take exams, therefore under this plan she would lose future seniority rights and also not gain pay increases. Lose lose for her and all teachers in the arts. I've not seen this aspect of the proposed deal discussed by you, the media or Rhee. Thanks.
Marc Fisher: Rhee says that all teachers, not just regular classroom teachers, would be eligible for the extra-big pay increases, and she has vaguely said that there will be measures devised to determine what all teachers are accomplishing, much as you'd find at any workplace. The fact that the standardized tests don't align with every teacher's job description is apparently not a barrier to a merit pay plan for all.
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22101: I really enjoyed your article today. This November will be my first time to the polls in a presidential election, and I've spent considerable time weighing the candidates. When asking one of my mentors about the race, he said that as a young woman I shouldn't even be thinking about who to vote for (this was before Clinton dropped out) because either Democrat would shift the old-white-man paradigm.
But then I got to thinking, is this a good reason to choose a president? Simply to shift status quo? Or is it racist on some level, voting for someone irrespective of what they stand for, simply because of biological factors?
What do you think? Your article got me thinking about this, since it seems as if my vote may actually count in the race to become blue or red!
Marc Fisher: As stirring as it may be that someone who considers himself black has been nominated to the highest office in the land, your obligation is to vote for the candidate or party that you 've decided can best handle the challenges facing the country. As today's Post Poll indicates, most Americans seem up to the task of separating the race issue from the choice they must make on Election Day.
In the poll, 32 percent of whites and 64 percent of blacks said Obama's nomination makes them more proud to be an American, and 71 percent of whites and 76 percent of blacks said it represents progress for all blacks in America.
But of course the vote for president will be much closer to 50-50, which is evidence that many, if not most, people are factoring other issues and concerns into their voting decision.
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Burke, Va.: Fairfax County has a lot of voters 55 years old and older. Now they may tell pollsters they voted for Obama but when they have to submit their vote many will have second thoughts about voing for an African American more than say a woman. Since those 55 year olds and older are more likely to vote this will be a significant factor.
Even more interesting will be the reprecussions if Obama loses a close election for race relations.
Obama needs to ensure he gets out the vote and all those new and young voters get to the polls.
Marc Fisher: Obama consistently fared poorly among older voters this primary season, so yes, he has a lot of work there, and the big Hillary and Bill Clinton show this week was designed to ease concerns about Obama among both women and older voters. Will it work? That depends in good part on how both Obama and McCain do in the coming weeks. Obama, for all his obvious rhetorical skill and charisma, is still largely an unknown to many people, so he has a real sales job ahead of him. McCain, far better known from all his years in the spotlight and from his dramatic Vietnam story, has a different kind of challenge--trying to thread a persuasive path between his support for the widely-loathed Bush administration and his own past as a guy with a thick independent streak.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Would Marc get excited enough to go out and volunteer for a candidate and knock on doors this fall? Well, his vocation as a journalist makes that unlikely and don't forget, he lives in D.C. That means Marc doesn't enjoy the thrill of thinking about how his vote might tip the scales in November (at least in my lifetime).
Marc Fisher: Good point--maybe that's why so many journalists choose to live in the District: They're living in a city where everyone is an observer, and participants are the people we have to travel to go watch.
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Baltimore, Md.: If Americans have always decided the presidency on who they would rather have a beer with, then thank heavens FDR got to run against Herbert Hoover in '32 instead of, say, Will Rogers.
I'm not denying this is true, but if it is true, it points up the superiority of the parliamentary system of government. If you have to fight your way up through the ranks of a party, serve apprenticeships in other cabinet posts (or shadow cabinet posts if your party is out of power), make deals and cement alliances all along, you are far better prepared to do the tough and complicated work of governing.
Marc Fisher: I don't think the American system really favored empty suits and charismatic morons until very recently, when the supremacy of TV changed the elections process so severely that we began to vote for lots of people who had not yet served the apprenticeship that you describe. And that change is happening in countries with parliamentary systems just as much as it's happened here. Half a century ago, you would not have had people like Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Franken and Ronald Reagan rising to positions of such prominence in politics, but you wouldn't have seen Silvio Berlusconi becoming prime minister of Italy, either.
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Washington, D.C.: If Obama does not win, do you think people will say that our country has not, in fact, made progress in terms of race relations?
Marc Fisher: Of course some people will blame an Obama loss on race, but I think for most people, and certainly for the history books, this year's election will be remembered, no matter what the outcome, as an extraordinary moment, a dramatic and unexpected illustration of how quickly social change can happen in this still-remarkably flexible political system.
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Atlanta, Ga.: Actually, I think Obama, with regards to the VEEP, is one huge reason why I really don't like him. He himself was acting like a teenaged girl (and I was one, a while ago). Oh, I'm going to text those 'in the know.' I'm making a big deal over nothing. I'm creating so much drama, it's so cool, isn't it? As in, with most of what he does -- all clouds, no substance.
It solidifies my idea that I would never, could never vote for him. TWO guys who have never done anything BUT work for govt (what is a 'community organizer' anyway? What does it pay that one can afford a million dollar home? I've never seen a job description). So they both know nothing about running a company, why their ideas are so counter to economics, why they won't work, why it's a horrible idea.
At least McCainhas experience OUTSIDE of govt -- I really respect the military -- AND his wife has run a company. So she understands economics. And most on his short list of VPs have done something other than work for govt. Yes, it's nice to have policy experience, but seriously, unless you know something about business, you don't know anything and you pass laws that really stifle growth of our economy.
Marc Fisher: Well, since being president is really very little like running a company--didn't the Bush notion that he would be the nation's CEO provide some evidence that that's the wrong model?--it doesn't bother me that both Obama and McCain have spent most of their working lives in government. Yes, in a perfect world, governors are probably better suited to the presidency than senators, who, after all, have tiny, tiny staffs. But running a presidential campaign is a more reasonable test of executive skills akin to those used in the presidency, and both Obama and McCain have surprised many by how well they've done this time around (McCain in particular is legendary for not running his campaigns smoothly, very much including this one in its early phase.)
And if you're going to judge these guys' executive skills by their wives' experience, then you should consider Michelle Obama's position at the University of Chicago as much as you consider Cindy McCain's heritage in the beer distributorship biz.
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Berwyn Heights Update?: Someone told me that an arrest had been made, a couple of guys who were sending marijuana to random addresses and were then picking the packages up when it looked the coast was clear. I can't find any info about it. Do you know anything?
Marc Fisher: Yes, the deliverman and another man were arrested in a conspiracy to collect more than 400 pounds of marijuana that had been sent from Arizona to the Berwyn Heights' mayor's house and other locations.
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Prince George's : Thanks for the story about the Prince George's County Police (I know you didn't write it). I live in a small town near Berwyn Heights that also has a very involved local police force. It was a wake-up call to all of us that our police force can't protect us from the thuggish behavior of the County Police, as we had previously believed. Not everyone in Prince George's County is a criminal, but thank you local FOP and county police for implying that we all are.
Marc Fisher: The relationships between county and small-town police are always fraught with tension and jealousies, but in this case, the failure of the county authorities to check in with the local police had catastrophic results.
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Anonymous: Marc: with all do respect, wasn't it a PG officer that tracked the unarmed kid that went to Howard University across county and state lines and shot him in Virginia? Wasn't he found not guilty or not negligent in his duty though the kid had no known drug involvement, criminal record, was not part of any known drug investigation, etc.? What about the Marlo delivery men? If it were not for the profile of that case, that would be another. PG county is well into 4 decades of this type of policing. Throw out the race of the victims and the Justice Dept. would have taken this police force over long ago.
Marc Fisher: Well, actually the feds did move on the Prince George's department years ago, and the Justice Department did force a whole bunch of reforms on the police department, and new leadership was brought in, and of course the police excesses have played an important role in the last several county elections. But in the end, it doesn't appear that the problem has been solved. Is there a role for the state here? Should authority over the county police be taken to a higher level? I'm not entirely persuaded that that would necessarily make the difference that's required, but clearly, the reforms so far have not done the trick.
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Female Vote: A woman on NPR today said she's not going to vote since she's so upset that she won't be able to vote for a woman. This is just a reverse sort of sexism -- not voting for Obama just because he's a man.
Marc Fisher: I do hear that from some voters, and it's hard to take seriously. I still haven't heard from anyone just what it is that Hillary Clinton would have brought to the job because of her sex that none of the male candidates would have had.
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Re Atlanta: Please tell Atlanta that no, community organizing doesn't pay squat, but writing two bestselling books -- the first long before he was a senator -- will pay for a million dollar house. Maybe all that fancy readin' and writin' isn't as honest a living as, say inheriting it -- or, even better, marrying someone who inherited it.
Marc Fisher: You just told him yourself. And despite the success of those books, Obama still has vastly less money than McCain--to really get stinking rich off books, you have to have a string of bestsellers. The first one rarely makes you much money at all; its main impact is to vastly increase what you'll be paid for the second one. And so on....
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Anonymous: MF: Half a century ago, you would not have had people like Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Franken and Ronald Reagan rising to positions of such prominence in politics.
Reagan was elected governor of California 40 years ago.
Marc Fisher: Right, and a decade earlier, hardly anyone in the country had a TV. That decade made an enormous, almost unfathomable difference in the culture, in the fabric of our daily lives, and yes, in our attitudes toward politics and politicians.
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Community Organizer and Cindy McCain: Let's not act like Cindy McCain is a great business woman because she inherited a business from her dad and sits on the board.
Also for the commenter asking what a community organizer is, its pretty far from working for the government.
Marc Fisher: There are about 20 comments saying exactly this one, so I will let this one make the point and hope that the rest of you who submitted on this let this reader speak for you.
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D.C. native: Am I the only one who heard these words in Hillary's speech: "all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the territories." Didn't she forget something?
Marc Fisher: She sure did. Mayor Fenty told reporters that that omission did indeed come off as a slap against the District, and of course, Bill Clinton was no friend of D.C. voting rights, choosing not to lift a finger for the District in his eight years in office.
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Richmond, Va.: Sure, vote for the candidate who you think will be the best president. That being said, electing Obama WILL improve society forever; challenging bigotry and increasing juding people by their acts rather than their skin color. THAT in and of itself will improve America and is justification enough.
Marc Fisher: If he wins, you're absolutely right--it will be at least as much in spite of his skin color as because of it. But even if he doesn't win, I'd argue that he has changed the nation by altering our perception of ourselves. Among both whites and blacks, you had large majorities who until this year contended that this country's political parties were not ready to nominate a black man for president.
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Washington, D.C.: FYI, Marc: The Ayers ad that started it all is not from McCain. It's from an organization called the American Issues Project. The Obama campaign complained to the Justice Department because it believes AIP isn't following the guidelines that it is supposed to follow re: political involvement (I can't remember what it's registered as, but it's definitely not a charity).
Of course, we could have a long discussion about the role of outside interest groups in election campaigns, but it's Thursday! The long weekend's almost here!
Marc Fisher: Good points--thanks for the clarification.
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Washington, D.C.: What is a 'community organizer?' I love rich people. please.
Community organizers go into struggling communities and build groups within that community to help empower the entire community. (wow, that's a lot of 'community'!) A good example of a high profile one? Erin Brockovich. Rich people don't need organizers, they already have power and influence. What does it pay? Not a lot. How'd he buy a house? Well, he was a U.S. senator ($175K). His wife was the VP of a hospital system, AND he'd written two bestselling books.
As for Cindy McCain, she never 'ran a business.' Her FATHER ran a business and sold it. The only thing she runs is the staff on her estates.
But hey, if the early 00's were good for you, go for McCain.
Marc Fisher: Rich people already have community organizers; we call them lobbyists.
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Woodbridge, Va.: To follow up on your piece last week about lowering the drinking age. Here is a article about how England's culture of teenage drinking has led to "responsible" behavior. Some Britons Too Unruly for Resorts in Europe ( The New York Times, Aug. 23)
Marc Fisher: The idea that any drinking age policy--leaving it alone, or moving it higher or lower--might eliminate the problems of alcohol abuse or public drunkenness is just silly. Of course lowering the drinking age won't stop some teens from getting blitzed and endangering others, not here and not in countries with much tougher approaches to drinking and driving.
But a lower drinking age might well encourage far more young people to learn to drink in moderation, rather than bingeing in underground, furtive settings. And that larger good is far more important than debates over the small number of people who are killed in drunk driving incidents--a problem that should be taken very seriously by adopting the policies of zero tolerance for drinking and driving that have worked so well in many other countries.
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Bill Clinton was no friend of D.C. voting rights, choosing not to lift a finger for the District in his eight years in office. : What did you want him to do exactly? It's in Article One of the Consitution provides for a Federal City distinct from the States. Get over it already, you knew about D.C.'s status when you moved here. Stop pretending it's such a civil rights issue.
Marc Fisher: There's nothing in the Constitution that prevents the District's residents from being granted the right to vote for legislators. And just as the nation recognized the problem when it gave D.C. residents the right to vote in presidential elections, the same process can fix the problem with our inability to vote for lawmakers.
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Half a century ago, you would not have had people like Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Franken and Ronald Reagan rising to positions of such prominence in politics. : You say it about Reagan, fine, I'll say it about JFK. He did NOTHING while in the House and Senate except put his name on a best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning book that his aide wrote. Without his good hair and smile on TV, Nixon would have won in '60.
Marc Fisher: That's partly right--no question, Kennedy's superior performance skills made the difference in the outcome of that tight race. But whatever you think of his legislative record, the point the earlier poster made was that we are better off when our candidates for national office have done some apprenticeship in government or elective office, and both Kennedy and Nixon had a good deal of such experience.
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Race relations question : I was more asking if it will be seen even more as a step back if Obama doesn't win. As in, many in the nation think this has shown huge progress by nominating him -- but he didn't go all the way -- so really have we made any progress? And is the fact that people now are assuming that progress was made when he actually couldn't go all the way even more of a detriment?
Hope that made sense. Couldn't even re-read it...it was so jumbled in my head!
Marc Fisher: I think your original comment was quite clear, as is this one: And no, I cannot see how an Obama loss would be honestly seen as a step back in racial progress, unless he were to lose in a landslide in which race played a major role in turning voters against him. But I think it is clear by now that that is anything but the case.
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Olney, Md.: We should admit that when looking for "the candidate who seems most human, most grounded, most likely to be capable of sitting down and having a beer and connecting with people who aren't politics-obsessed," it seems fairly obvious that for many people, comfort level is affected by race, much more so than gender. Unfortunately, I feel in my gut that the majority of the Clinton-to-McCain switchers are merely those who manage to keep their prejudice mostly hidden.
Marc Fisher: Some, sure. Today's Post Poll takes a stab at getting at that issue, and obviously any poll asking people about their racial attitudes is limited by the fact that most folks aren't going to step up and say 'Hey, I'm a latent racist and I intend to let that alter my decision-making process!' but here's what the poll found anyway:
Sixty nine percent of whites and 77 percent of blacks said they are "entirely comfortable" with the idea that Obama would be the first black president. So what do you make of the 18 percent of whites and 14 percent of blacks who say they are only "somewhat comfortable" with that prospect? Even the 12 percent of whites and 7 percent of blacks who declare themselves "uncomfortable" aren't necessarily going to vote against him because of their discomfort. But is there enough of a red flag in that "somewhat comfortable" group to mean that Obama will falter and fall short of John Kerry's vote totals? I don't think we can know that answer, except in each of our hearts.
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Rich people already have community organizers; we call them lobbyists. : Oh shut it already. I'm a registered lobbyist and I lobby for teachers, that means I work for the rich? Your comment and the many others like it during this political season are a real slap in the face to those in D.C. who work hard for nonprofit causes, make very little, and are disparaged by ignorant people like you.
Marc Fisher: Sure, lots of folks have lobbyists, rich and others who are well-organized and powerful. To argue that teachers and old folks and others who have very effective Washington lobbies are somehow the little guy doesn't really hold water. When a large portion of Americans feels that there's no one in the current system who represents and fights for their interests, that's proof enough that the lobbying system is a protection racket for interests who would otherwise not get their way if they didn't distort the system with boatloads of money. But as the Founders said, this is endemic to any remotely democratic political system. It's likely not possible to eliminate the evil impact of lobbyists; some European countries have tried, with very checkered results. But it is possible to regulate the heck out of lobbyists, and that's something we've done only tepidly.
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Anonymous: Was Strauss (the DC "Senator") at the convention?
Next to the Vice-President, this has got to be the easiest job in America!
Marc Fisher: Those shadow jobs are the height of silliness--what a waste. They--and our non-voting House delegate--ought to be abolished. The District should take a stand: The real thing, or nothing.
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Rhee and the schools: Based on my news consumption, the WTU looks like it will vote down the contract.
Do you have any idea of the real content and nuts and bolts of "Plan B". Does she have authority to just start firing people?
Marc Fisher: Plan B is indeed a mystery. Sounds like bluster and intent more than a specific plan to impose the merit pay system on teachers who vote it down.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Clinton dissed D.C.? Well, D.C. should just show them by only giving the Democrats only 85 percent of the vote in November. LOL
Marc Fisher: Ha! Yes, a whole lot of leverage there, huh?
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NW, D.C.: Not to make you an education expert, but what evidence is out there that any of the DCPS proposals work, particularly in an urban predominantly low-income school system?
I understand money motivation, but do we really want our school system and instruction based on money motivation. I would easily side with solid pay, but evidence of results. Maybe I am the cynical American. But with all the corruption and abuse in our government, particularly city government, I don't feel warm and fuzzy with a former $50K teacher making $100K plus. There will be a way to beat the system.
Marc Fisher: It's hard to imagine how a large pay increase would miraculously change the quality and energy of D.C. school teachers. That said, there's no question that the quality of students who go into teaching has, in general, declined in recent decades, especially as other opportunities opened up for women who once found teaching to be one of the few fields truly open to them (and one of the very few offering a schedule that's reasonably friendly to working mothers.) So raising the pay schedule for teachers might help attract some people who are otherwise going into more lucrative fields to pay off college debt.
But that said, the concept of merit pay makes sense for the same reasons it does in virtually every other field of work in our society--it provides both incentive and reward, and it allows managers to play a firmer role in aligning the talent pool to the job at hand.
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Nixon '08: Nixon did win in 1960. His dad bought the votes for him in Chicago. Unlike the babies who still believe Gore won the election, Nixon let the results go.
Marc Fisher: Nixon did a lot of things in his life--both awful and decent. But letting things go was not one of them. The grudge he bore from the 1960 outcome was, according to several of his biographers, absolutely key to his descent into the deeply resentful, dysfunctional nutball he became in his final years in office.
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Anonymous: Full voting rights for D.C.?, why not have all the voters sign up as Republicans? Wouldn't that get D.C. full rights?
Marc Fisher: Hardly--the Democrats do a better job of pretending to be for D.C. voting rights, but in the end, they take every bit as much glee as the Republicans do in dancing on democracy's grave in the District. Look at who's leading the current charge to nullify the District's right to write its own gun law: Democrats.
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Washington DC:"I still haven't heard from anyone just what it is that Hillary Clinton would have brought to the job because of her sex that none of the male candidates would have had."
Well, since we've only had white males, how about the knowledge of what it's like to be an outsider who has to be twice as smart to be considered half as good, what's it's like to be slurred to your face and have others think it's funny, what it's like to know that whether or not you're "nice" (see Richard Cohen column) is of the utmost importance...those types of things. Obama shares many of these traits -- would you suggest that are meaningful for him but not for her?
Marc Fisher: Everything you describe is an experience common to just about every human being I've ever known.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Teaching is the only job where without any control over your starting material you have to make EVERY kid, including every psychotic kid, every unmedicated kid, every kid who is being beaten up by his parents every day...
EVERY kid get to the same level of competence.
If my pay depended on reaching two kids who come to school hungry and three homeless kids and two kids who have been beaten up to the point where they think they are stupid...
I'd try like hell, but I am just not doing the same job as someone who has a passel of safe, smart, middle-class kids.
Marc Fisher: And if you were held to the same standard as the teacher in a comfortable suburban setting, that would be an unfair and stupid system of determining pay. The only way a merit pay system works is if everyone agrees on the measures used to determine who gets the bonuses.
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Rolling Valley (one with the Obama sign): Marc -- I think you got the name of the pool incorrect. I live off Rolling Road in West Springfield and am a member of Village West Pool.
I have been here for a year and I agree it's a mixed bag when it comes to politics. I think it's leaning more and more Democratic as younger couples move in (we moved here a year ago from the Ditrict). During the state senate election, there were several Olesznek signs, but none for Cuccinelli. Had she run a better campaign, she definitely would have won by a lot more.
Regardless of how this neighborhood votes (I think it will be close), I suspect Northern Virginia will heavily favor Obama in November. Hopefully, it will be enough for him to win the state.
Marc Fisher: The question is by how much Obama would need to win NoVa to counter McCain's strength elsewhere in Virginia. Those who say he would need 60 percent or more in NoVa make a good argument that Virginia is therefore still out of reach for Democrats. But if Obama is able to win anything close to Mark Warner numbers in Southside, Southwest and Hampton Roads, then Obama stands a real chance.
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Eastern Shore, Md.: A once in a lifetime an accident occurs on the Bay Bridge and the Maryland Transportation Authority goes into bureaucratic overreaction mode to fix bridge barriers engineers have said are in fine shape. Sitting in traffic for an hour isn't fun and I have been toting beer for the wait. It's going to be fun tomorrow, especially if we have rain. Heads should roll. And the governor should discontinue his music career and concentrate on being governor.
Marc Fisher: What if he comes onto the bridge to serenade those who are sitting in traffic? Would that be of assistance?
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Washington, D.C.: Marc, is there any hope for our Shaw library? While I don't love the revised design, I'd rather have a library than no library, and I fear that more complaining is just going to delay it even longer.
Marc Fisher: Libraries director Ginnie Cooper seems determined to get that library built on schedule, and she seems flexible about design--there's already been a move to restore the glass exterior to the new plans.
The only one of the new branches that seems to be tied up beyond Cooper's control is the Tenleytown branch, where the mayor's office and the library director are at odds over the private-public partnership that the mayor has endorsed.
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Kensington, Md.: Welcome back Marc. Steve Hendrix was fun, but I missed the focus on actual, you know, issues.
Marc Fisher: Many thanks--and thanks to Steve, who did a bang-up job on the blog while I was away.
Thanks to all of you for coming along--and apologies to those I couldn't get to. Back next week to look at the Republicans and the many other issues bouncing around these parts.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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August 28, 2008 Thursday 11:30 AM EST
Election 2008: Rachel Maddow
BYLINE: Rachel Maddow, Host, "The Rachel Maddow Show," Air America Radio; Future Show Host, MSNBC, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 1797 words
HIGHLIGHT: Air America Radio host and future MSNBC show host Rachel Maddow will be online live from Denver on Thursday, Aug. 28 at 11:30 a.m. ET to take readers' questions about progressive Democrats in the 2008 election and at the convention.
Air America Radio host and future MSNBC show host Rachel Maddow will be online live from Denver on Thursday, Aug. 28 at 11:30 a.m. ET to take readers' questions about progressive Democrats in the 2008 election and at the convention.
Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.
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Rachel Maddow: Hey howdy everybody -- thanks for having me -- looking forward to this chat.
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Philadelphia: You are listed here as a future MSNBC show host. When does your show begin and what will you be doing on your show?
Rachel Maddow: Hi Philadelphia -- my show starts on September 8th -- a week from Monday -- at 9PM Eastern, on MSNBC. Boy, that's soon.
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Baltimore: As a progressive and an activist, are you disappointed or surprised that there hasn't been more discussion in the Democratic Party this year about AIDS?
Rachel Maddow: There hasn't been a ton of conversation about HIV/AIDS in mainstream electoral politics for a while. Particularly on the domestic side. President Clinton's emphatic emphasis in his speech last night on the American HIV/AIDS epidemic was heartening.
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Fearful in Virginia: I'm very proud to be a Democrat today, but I'm fearful of a Dukakis repeat. Can you say something to reassure me and other progressives and Democrats that Obama will be able to effectively counter the Rove clones who apparently are running the McCain campaign? On the flip side, how many Americans want a 72-year-old, whomever his is, running the country? I have to hope that the contrast between Obama and McCain when they are on stage together will be striking and positive for Barack.
Rachel Maddow: Hi Fearful -- on your first question, the answer is "no". You've got two choices -- wait and see, or get involved with the campaign to try to encourage them to do things in ways that you think that will be more effective. On your second question -- the age issue -- I think concerns/prejudice about McCain's age will be important to some voters -- just as concerns/prejudice about Obama's race will be to others. I don't believe there's much that either candidate can do to fully alleviate those concerns -- Obama can't get less African-American and McCain can't get younger (though boy howdy he'd be even richer if he figured that out). McCain's self-deprecating humor on the subject is probably his best strategy.
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Prescott, Ariz.: Rachel, congratulations on your new gig. Hey, your co-worker Norah O'Donnell thought the Democrats were too soft on Day 1, and she was wondering why they didn't let someone like Claire McCaskill go up there and "throw some red meat" to the crowd. Well McCaskill actually spoke on Day 1, and actually threw some "red meat" to the crowd -- MSNBC just happened to cut away from the speeches to deal with more superficial issues. Would you mind letting O'Donnell know she is free to issue a correction (unless she prefers to operate as a walking metaphor)?
Rachel Maddow: Hi Prescott -- don't be mean, hey? Although come to think of it, I'm not sure what a "walking metaphor" is, so maybe that wasn't an insult. It's true that a lot of the most interesting speeches haven't been on primetime TV -- I played Brian Schweitzer's speech on my radio show yesterday, for example.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Hey Rachel -- congrats on the new show. I enjoy seeing you on MSNBC, even though we'd probably disagree on many issues. My question for you is this: After Mark Warner's keynote address on Tuesday, you criticized his message -- of being united as Americans around good ideas and not by the "D" or the "R" by our name -- as being something extremely unrealistic, saying that in reality, Washington is a harsh place where political identity is required. However, isn't this a central component of Barack Obama's approach to governance? You have seemed to be supportive of many of his positions, and this one seems to be a key part of his idealism, so your attitude towards Warner's speech was surprising to me.
Rachel Maddow: Hi Silver Spring -- thanks for the question. I credit my colleague Norah O'Donnell, actually, for pointing out what was unrealistic about the Warner speech: what he said makes a lot of sense if you are talking about governing -- but it doesn't make a lot of sense in terms of getting Barack Obama elected. Obama has pledged to run a different kind of campaign -- but I don't think anyone would contest the idea that to win an election, the voters have to have a good sense of the contrast between their choices. That means contrast between Obama and McCain -- and it also means contrast between the Democratic and Republican parties. It's weird and counterproductive for a keynote speech at a Democratic Convention to argue, essentially, that the Democratic party is obsolete.
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Boston: Are you keeping the radio show (sadly for us in Boston, only available as a podcast)? Are you keeping "Ask Dr. Maddow?"
Rachel Maddow: Hi Boston! I hope that Boston's going to get a new Air America affiliate sometime soon. I am indeed keeping my radio show -- and we do intend to keep doing Ask Dr. Maddow. I guess I'm sort of doing a version of it right now!
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Washington: You told Howie Kurtz that you're not that pretty. Don't be ridiculous. Of course you are, but maybe in a less conventional way. Have you noticed a difference in debating with men between the way they treat you and the way they treat the more traditional long-haired women pundits?
Rachel Maddow: Washington, that's very nice of you to say. I don't really watch other pundits, so I'm not sure how the extra-pretty people get treated on TV. If I'm getting the short end of the stick, I hope you'll let me know...
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Alexandria, Va.: Rachel, congratulations on your new show! I read in The Post that you may have some conservative guests on the show, and I was curious if you had anyone in mind. I'd like to see more "small c" conservatives rather than the partisan operatives you see so often on the airwaves. In other words, I'd like there to be potential for the conservative to agree with you (or vice versa), instead of playing the role of opposition regardless of the story. Your thoughts?
washingtonpost.com: Rachel Maddow, MSNBC's Newest Left Hand (Post, Aug. 27)
Rachel Maddow: I enjoy both arguing with conservatives -- and talking substantively with them about stuff on which there isn't a clear partisan divide. Pat Buchanan and I enjoy raging against Guantanamo together, for example. I'd be happy to hear some suggestions of conservatives you'd like to see me host... you could post them here, or at my radio show blog, at airamerica.com. thanks!
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New York: I wonder why the Democrats have not mentioned much about Roe v. Wade being overturned if McCain gets elected...
Rachel Maddow: I wonder that, too, New York. Particularly given the reports this week that the former Hillary Clinton delegate appearing in the John McCain campaign ad... was supporting McCain in part because she (mistakenly) believed that McCain was against overturning Roe v. Wade. Old McCain might have believed that at one point -- but New McCain (Candidate McCain? 2008 McCain?) certainly does not.
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Washington: First of all, congratulations on your new show. You are a most welcome addition to the world of TV political punditry! My question is this -- some convention speakers have referenced "equal rights" for "all Americans," but overall I'm not getting the impression that gay rights are an important issue for the Obama campaign or Democrats in general this year. With the landmark decision on gay marriage in California, I'm wondering why we're not hearing more about this issue. What are your thoughts on this? Thanks! (And thanks for calling out Pat Buchanan the other day!)
Rachel Maddow: Hi Washington -- I have actually heard quite a few references to non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation at the Democrats' convention this week. Not to mention more than a couple openly-gay speakers. John McCain is a vituperative opponent of gay rights -- his stated position that he's in favor of gay people being "allowed" to enter into legal agreements is frankly insulting. Gay people are supposed to be delighted that Senator McCain doesn't want to ban them from participating in American contract law? On the other hand -- it's not like gay rights advocates have had much presidential leadership from the Democrats either. Obama and Biden are against gay marriage, too -- but at least they're in favor of the second-class citizenship of civil unions, rather than McCain's wish to demote gay Americans even below that.
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Florissant Valley, Mo.: Good morning, Rachel. I can't wait for your prime-time extravaganza. I've loved you on "Hardball" and Olbermann and all that other MSNBC folderol. (They need a female face, incidentally.) Do you think the lineup will undergo another major shift after Nov. 4? Won't we all be burned out on politics? Thanks.
Rachel Maddow: Hi Florissant Valley! I've got no idea, sadly -- but I'm sure my bosses at MSNBC would be delighted if you stayed tuned in to find out!
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Portland, Ore.: Rachel, you are wonderful! Why do Democrats insist on prefacing every criticism of McCain with "he's a great man and a hero but..." The Republicans proved four years ago that it's perfectly acceptable in American politics to impugn the service of a war hero, even going so far at their convention as to denigrate the sacrifice of every Purple Heart winner this nation has every had. Why the double standard?
Rachel Maddow: It may be acceptable to Republicans to impugn the service of a war hero (even, as you say, "going so far at their convention as to denigrate the sacrifice of every Purple Heart winner this nation has ever had) -- Democrats are showing in this campaign season, to their credit, that it's not acceptable to them, and they don't think it should be acceptable in the country at large. Clear advantage to the Democrats on this issue, in my opinion.
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Rachel Maddow: All right, everybody -- this has been a hoot. Thanks for coming and for the thoughtful questions. Hope to do it again sometime!
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washingtonpost.com: The Post Politics Hour discussion is live following a delay, and Al From and Dana Milbank are coming right up.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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August 28, 2008 Thursday 10:30 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Alec MacGillis, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3458 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Alec MacGillis was online live from the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Thursday, August 28 to discuss the latest in political news.
Submit your questions and comments before or during today's discussion.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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washingtonpost.com: Looks like Alec isn't going to be able to make it this morning, but we should still have Shailagh Murray at 11 a.m. ET.
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washingtonpost.com: Looks like both Shailagh and Alec are having trouble getting to the workspace this morning, but we should get going a little after 11:30 a.m. with Alec MacGillis. Sorry for the delays.
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washingtonpost.com: Alec will be on as soon as he gets set up at Invesco Field.
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Friendship Heights, Md.: So why didn't Senator Kerry give that speech he gave last night four years ago? Somehow I wonder whether he would be speaking last at this year's convention if he had.
Alec MacGillis: Greetings, everyone, Alec MacGillis from the Post campaign team here in Denver. Let's start with Kerry, who did seem to make more of a mark last night between Bill Clinton and Biden than many might have expected. But the fact is, Kerry's been speaking out stronger against the Republicans all year since his endorsement of Obama the day after the NH primary. Who knows, maybe it's the liberation of a presidential race loss -- see Al Gore. Kerry's hard words were particularly notable of course given that he was briefly considering McCain as a possible running mate in '04.
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Washington: Bill Clinton's speech, while good, made me wide-eyed in amazement sometimes. I still think that he believes this is the '90s, before Sept. 11, when people only watched network news and read the New York Times, The Washington Post, etc. Every time he opened his mouth about global warming, I thought, when he was president, what did he do? He didn't even bring the Kyoto treat up for a vote! One of many examples. It's almost like Democrats sometimes think the movies they help create -- "An Inconvenient Truth," "Fahrenheit 9/11," etc. -- are 100 percent fact, and policy should be based of it. Scary.
Alec MacGillis: This is a very good point, which is often overlooked in all the Democrats' huffing about the Bush administration's failures on global warming. The truth is, even with Al Gore as his vice president, Clinton opted not to press ahead on serious action against carbon emissions. There was the flirtation with a BTU tax, which ran into stiff opposition, but that was it. We tend to forget that the great boom in SUV's happened in the cheap-gasoline 1990s. Now, granted, there was less of a scientific consensus then than now when it came to warming, but Gore knew enough to make the case to Clinton, and clearly failed.
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Annandale, Va.: Every time Obama makes a decision or statement, the media rush to the McCain campaign for a reaction. (I'm sure there will be more of this in reverse once McCain does or says something). My question is, why? It's like the Redskins executing a pass play and the sportscasters going to the Cowboy's bench for their thoughts on the play. Are they going to say: "Brilliant! We never saw it coming?" Why do you keep doing it?
Alec MacGillis: Some smart media criticism here. The media is very concerned about seeming balanced, so there's always the call to get the reaction to the ping pong hit. Back and forth, across the net. The problem, one might argue, is when one side or the other clearly has a valid point, and instead of declaring it as such, the media offers the counter from the other side, which in this case may be less valid, and doesn't take it upon itself simply to tell the reader or viewer who is right in this case. Sometimes it becomes stenographer instead of referee.
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What I Want To See: Michelle and Biden dumping Gatorade on top of Barack when he finishes his speech. That is an image the working white man understands!
Alec MacGillis: Great idea. It would certainly help to undercut the grandeur the already-lampooned grandeur that the classical columns on stage seem to be striving for. Unless they used ambrosia instead of Gatorade...
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New York: Hello! I know that the Clinton sturm und drang made for good headlines, and their speeches were the stem-winders people have been longing for at this convention, but come on. Couldn't they both have confirmed their full-throated support of Obama two weeks ago, saving everybody the drama and anxiety, and perhaps even undercutting the GOP attack ads? Seems like a lot of time wasted in navel-gazing at a crucial time for the party. Thanks.
Alec MacGillis: This gets to the heart of this convention, and could be argued two ways. Did the Clinton drama distract from the Democrats' themes and issues and Obama himself? Or did it draw interest and viewers to a convention that would otherwise seem as predictable and stage-managed as conventions usually tend to be? Had either Clinton given that full-throated support a few weeks ago, would it have had the impact that it being delivered in this setting. Now, stepping back even further, it could certainly be argued that there would have been no full endorsement needed at all from them had the final bitter months of the primary not caused such damage--the fanning of the Michigan-Florida flames, etc.
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Austin, Texas: Have you been to a Republican convention? Is the "vibe" very different?
Alec MacGillis: It most certainly is different. It's more ordered, less rambunctious. And, there's no getting around it: the crowd is much, much less racially diverse.
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Fairfax County, Va.: What did you think of Joe Biden's speech? I was sorry not to see a little more about it in your story. After Saturday, I was expecting a bouncy "happy warrior," but the tone was much more serious and urgent. In a way, it was a reminder that the catastrophe of the past eight years isn't a punchline, and that the stakes at hand are really high. I liked what he said about the people's homes you see from the train, where they are worrying about losing the house, declining home values, how to afford college and so on. I have taken that train many time,s and it's true, you do think about the people who live along the tracks as you travel by. In my opinion this would make a great ad. Just for fun, though, I also enjoyed Obama mingling with seemingly countless Bidens on stage after the speech.
Alec MacGillis: My sense is that there was some pressure on Biden to deliver a more serious, tough speech rather than a happy warrior one because most of the week's previous major speakers -- Teddy, Michelle, Warner -- had for various reasons not been in position to aggressively go after the Republicans. Clearly Biden's role is both to be that aggressor while also mixing in as much of the VFW-hall Happy Warrior. I think you'll see him going back and forth. And good observation on the train trip -- we had a nice piece about his train-riding in yesterday's paper, and it's really worth thinking about, how taking that trip every day may have influenced him as a politician. Instead of driving in from McLean, Va. every morning like the other senators, he rides past the sad blight of East and West Baltimore. That has to have some effect.
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Biden's vetting not full and complete?: Thanks for great chats! Have you seen the Los Angeles Times article today about Biden and his son and potential conflicts of interest? Business dealings of the Biden family could be problematic for him ... his brother and sons have close ties to a law firm that has benefited from the senator's congressional votes. How do you think the Republicans will use this? And as to the convention being not very well managed for TV, do you think the Democrats blew a lot of chances to remind the voters of why they want/need/deserve change after eight years of incompetence and bankrupting the nation?
washingtonpost.com: Business dealings of Biden family could be problematic for him (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 28)
Alec MacGillis: There are definitely some questions being raised about Hunter Biden, and it's interesting that the Obama campaign, with all its emphasis on new politics and ethics, decided to go ahead and pick Biden despite surely knowing about all this conflict stuff. From what I've read in the Post and elsewhere so far, the most relevant questions seem to involve the retainer that Hunter was on from MBNA at the same time as his father was involved in crafting controversial bankruptcy reform legislation.
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Charlottesville, Va.: Just a thought -- maybe the classical columns are not meant to evoke grandeur, but are meant to evoke the memory of the Lincoln Memorial and Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech?
Alec MacGillis: Very good point. We're getting some word here that that may in fact have been the goal. Today is after all the 45th anniversary of King's "I have a dream" speech, and there is probably no one Obama models himself on more closely than Lincoln -- the other skinny former lawyer and former state legislator from Illinois who also served only briefly in Washington before the White House.
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Tampa, Fla.: Does John McCain have the guts to pick Lieberman as is running mate? I keep reading that McCain really likes Lieberman and wants him on the ticket, but that McCain's handlers tell him the religious right will go ballistic. Do you think this might only encourage McCain to pick Lieberman?
Alec MacGillis: Good point. If ever there was someone who might be tempted to spurn the advice, one would think, it's McCain. But then again, Democrats would probably argue that McCain has so far been perfectly willing to go along with his advisers' instructions so far when it comes to employing some tough tactics of a sort that many did not expect from McCain. But maybe the veep pick is a more personal matter for him where he sticks with his own instincts.
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Cleveland: How do you guys cover the convention? Do you watch all the speeches the whole night, or are you interviewing people, or both? I wonder because I've been turned off by how the networks are covering it. I switched to C-SPAN because I wanted to actually watch the convention, and not spend hours listening to strategists and pundits criticize and discuss something they actually aren't watching because they're too busy talking to each other. I would've missed what was a really fiery and passionate speech by John Kerry if I'd been watching the other networks.
Alec MacGillis: We're doing a bit of everything. We have quite a few reporters here, so you'll have some of us in the hall watching the speeches from the press box, others down on the floor getting reaction from delegates, others in the hallways trying to get tips and insight from the strategist types or important governors/congressmen, others back in the media filing tent pulling together feeds as they come in. It's a remarkably big effort for a production that is not exactly bursting with true news -- whether there's as big an effort in four years, we'll see.
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Fairfax, Va.: If for just a minute you had to think about the themes of the convention -- as opposed to the moving Kennedy tribute, Michelle Obama's speech with adorable Obama daughters, eruption onstage of limitless yet likable Biden family members, and the Clintons (and oh yes, that smart, capable guy, Malia and Sasha's dad, I'll remember his name in a minute) -- what would they be? Do you think that the themes still got out there, if only subliminally, or were buried by all the personalities? And does it matter?
What I keep seeing that's different from other years is a really big outreach to Republicans and independents (e.g. the person who nominated Obama was a Republican Iraq veteran, Mark Warner gave a post-partisan keynote, etc.), plus an emphasis on pretty much everybody's working-class origins, creating a focus on the middle-class squeeze re: housing, health care, jobs, etc.
Alec MacGillis: You're right, the themes have been somewhat submerged in the grand drama of the Clintons' return to the fold and the emergence of these two new families to replace them. I suppose we won't really know what the themes were supposed to be until after Obama's speech tonight, whether he goes with the basic outlines in Bill Clinton's speech -- restoring the American dream and America's leadership abroad -- or whether he goes with something more along the lines of his '04 speech, around national reconciliation.
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Prescott, Ariz.: So a bunch of Focus on the Family Republicans were praying for bad weather for Obama's speech; it looks like the weather is going to be good tonight. I see that Hurricane Gustav is scheduled to hit New Orleans at the exact same moment that the Republican Convention is scheduled to start. Is this proof that God has a sense of humor?
Alec MacGillis: Going to put this one up without comment -- it's a question many will be asking, but I can't presume to know the answer -- as Obama would say, it's above my pay grade.
All I can say is that you know they're running out of hurricane names when they resort to Gustav. And yes, the weather here today looks pretty much perfect.
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New York: Bill Clinton did something important last night by reminding Americans that he too was derided in 1992 as being too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief, which to all but a few die-hard wingnuts, looks pretty ridiculous in retrospect. In doing that he laid the mantle of his own credibility as president on Obama, which despite the cable babblers who've never gotten it, is substantial to the American public. Is he really going to be campaigning alongside Barack in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania? If so, smart! Say what you will about Bill, he's still a helluva politician.
Alec MacGillis: That was indeed a key moment in his speech. He finally offered up the same rationalization for Obama's experience, comparing it to the criticism he got in '92, that many of Obama's supporters had been offering up all along, especially after that Charlie Rose interview last winter where Clinton flat out suggested that he didn't think Obama was ready.
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Arlington, Va.: The media seems to repeat the Democrats economy-bashing without any critical thought or analysis. Is that because the newspaper industry in particular really is in a depression, and you're projecting your own pocketbook issues onto the rest of us?
Alec MacGillis: Boy, the media critics are out in full force today! But you have a point - there's no doubt that our own doldrums in the newspaper business affect the way we view the broader economy. That said...there seems to be plenty of evidence out there that things aren't going so hot.
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Maplewood, N.J.: It is often said that the way a candidate runs his campaign tells you a lot about how they'll govern. McCain has eschewed his history as a decent and honorable person/politician (a rarity) and gone hook, line and sinker with the "whatever works" Rove theory. Is it fair to ask which McCain will govern, the guy that the press and a lot of the country have come to like or this evidently new one? (Please, no excuses such as how the Official Campaign isn't responsible for the rest of the apparatus. If he's the leader, can't he at least decry the tactics and the practitioners?)
Alec MacGillis: That is indeed a valid question to ask, particularly since one of McCain's main selling points has been his proven ability to work across the aisle in the past -- McCain Feingold, judicial appointments, etc. If his campaign has adopted more of the hard-edged Bush/Rove model, provoking such negative reactions from formerly friendly colleagues like Biden and Kerry, can he pivot back to the old model, assuming that's what he would want to do?
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Hampton, Va.: Listening to Bill Clinton describe the plight of the American people last night, you'd think we were all living like Barack Obama's half-brother in mud huts in Kenya on a dollar a day. But the latest economic data says that the American economy grew at a robust 3.3 percent in the second quarter. Why can't the Democrats let go of their Carter-esque malaise? They already have locked up the votes of the poorest Americans. Why keep beating this drum?
Alec MacGillis: Smart question, which gets to something that Peggy Noonan wrote today in her Wall Street Journal column, about the Democrats' tendency to overemphasize the plight of the neediest, perhaps to the exclusion of the broader number of voters who aren't completely in the pits but still have their own worries and concerns. (She also argued that the Republicans tend to do the opposite, appealing to the latter at the expense of the former.) But I think that the reason Democrats are beating the economic plight drum this week is a bit different than it's been in the past -- they're doing it now precisely because they are NOT so sure that they've got the vote of the neediest Americans locked up. They are very worried that Obama will not get as many votes as one might expect from lower-income white voters in places like western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. In fact, Democrats for the past decade or so have not owned these voters nearly as much as one might think they would judging by their programs' appeal to them.
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San Diego: I hate to bring policy into what has been a lovely process discussion but ... apparently, John Goodman (not the actor, but the McCain health care policy advisor) said that we shouldn't call people "uninsured" because everyone with access to an emergency room basically has insurance. Huh? Is this McCain's health care plan? Send everyone to the ER?
Alec MacGillis: Always glad to get a policy question. I hadn't seen this comment reported, thanks for bringing it to my attention. It's reminiscent of something Bush said in the past year or two extolling the emergency room option. My hunch is we'll be hearing a lot more about the contrasts in health care approaches in the next two months -- it's been oddly overlooked so far in the general election.
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washingtonpost.com: The Master Has Arrived (Wall Street Journal, Aug. 28)
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Raleigh, N.C.: Good morning! I understand the Republican tactic of attacking Obama's strength -- his charisma -- by implying that he's a celebrity, an empty suit. That makes sense. However, the specifics of some of the attacks seem to rely on inertia and a lack of memory. For example, the kerfuffle about the Greek columns -- do the pros in the McCain campaign not remember that Bush had the same kind of backdrop in 2004? If they don't remember, are they aware of Google image searches? It just seems like they could make the same point more intelligently, rather than rely on the media to not provide context. Have you or anyone getting this spin asked how Obama's backdrop is qualitatively different from Bush's in 2004?
Alec MacGillis: True, Bush had his own columns in 2004, which should undercut the Republican scorn somewhat. But then one might ask: since when is following Bush's example a positive for the Obama campaign to invoke?
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Alec MacGillis: Alright, folks, that's all for now, need to start getting ourselves over to the football stadium to fight our way through the heavy, heavy security. Thanks to all for the great questions.
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washingtonpost.com: Thanks for sticking out the delays -- come back after Sen. Obama's speech tonight to get analysis and answers from Washington Post associate editor Bob Kaiser. We'll also have live Web casts on our site from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to the end -- our anchors and guests will take your questions during that as well.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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August 27, 2008 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
Hot air in the Mile High City;
Bob and Cal wonder: Will Bill Clinton or Joe Biden stop talking? Will family values rise again? Is age the new political weapon? Can Biden reach across the aisle?
BYLINE: Cal Thomas; Bob Beckel
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 13A
LENGTH: 1284 words
Cal Thomas is a conservative columnist. Bob Beckel is a liberal Democratic strategist. But as longtime friends, they can often find common ground on issues that lawmakers in Washington cannot. This week, in Denver, they'll dispense bipartisan advice every day from the Democratic National Convention.
Today: The dish in Denver.
Cal: So if Tuesday night was the night to recognize Hillary Clinton and the achievement of women, tonight will be an ode to verbosity. Bill Clinton -- who in his 33-minute 1988 DNC speech got his biggest applause line when he said, "In conclusion" -- and veep nominee Joe Biden, who speaks in paragraphs rather than sentences, will own the night. I can already sense the tension here and expectation that Bill won't give the enthusiastic endorsement Obama covets. It's like telling your wife you love her. There are two ways to say it: one without a lot of emotion and the other with conviction.
Bob: Tuesday morning, I had a good conversation with Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico. He not only ran against Hillary for president, but incurred the wrath of Bill when he dropped out and endorsed Obama. Lest we forget, Richardson was Bill's Energy secretary and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He said those who think Bill Clinton will upset the apple cart tonight will be disappointed. After all, he reminded me, no man exceeds expectations better than Bill Clinton.
Cal: So are you saying that the rift between Hillary and Obama is over? You can't be sure with the Clintons. What's striking is that the limelight is and will be theirs all week. I wonder, too, whether there will be a smattering of boos tonight when Bill takes the stage. He may still be steaming over allegations that he used the race card during the South Carolina primary campaign, but Obama delegates might also recall the former president's hardball tactics. If boos emerge amid the cheers, now that's a story.
Bob: Won't happen, Cal. Just as you and I try to find common ground, the Democrats -- and yes, Barack, Joe, Hillary and Bill are all Democrats! -- will be speaking from the same page. As such, Biden's mouth won't get him into trouble tonight.
**********
Cal: Bob, the Democrats' emphasis on faith and family values is the biggest cross-dressing show since La Cage aux Folles! Who are they trying to kid? Democrats have not foresworn their liberal agenda of support for abortion and same-sex marriage. To use a word Democrats love when investigating Republicans, it's a giant coverup.
Bob: Democrats are trying to broaden family values beyond the narrow definition invoked by Republicans. Isn't that a common ground approach you and I would endorse? The point is, the Dems won't be throwing in the white towel on social issues this time around. Gay marriage was used to rally the GOP voters in 2004, and the abortion club has been a favorite weapon of the GOP.
Cal: But even through moderate eyes, doesn't Obama appear as an extremist on these social touchstones, especially on abortion?
Bob: I won't say these aren't important issues, but they're side issues. The Democrats don't like abortion, and the party has looked for ways to reduce abortions rather than outlaw them. Even so, economic issues and national security are what voters care about most. And that's where the focus will, and should, be. Besides, does the GOP really want to trot out family values this time around? David Vitter? Larry Craig?
Cal: True enough, scoundrels wear red ties (or dresses) as well as blue ones. Oops. Sorry, Bill. John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer would attest to that, too.
**********
Cal: As you know, Ted Kennedy has been a longtime friend of mine, which has nothing to do with his politics, or mine. I was thrilled to see him on the platform with his wife, Vicki, and invoking the phrase his brother Jack used more than four decades ago: that the torch has been passed to a new generation. It pains me, though, to see age used as a weapon in this election to divide the generations. Kennedy -- McCain's senior by four years -- illustrates that age can carry wisdom and strength.
Bob: Fair points. Just as with gender politics and the barriers Hillary saw erected during her run, ageism is also a real barrier -- at a time when American seniors are often just hitting their stride in their 60s and 70s. As you said, Kennedy -- whether you like his politics or not -- has the political grace that younger politicians would kill to have. I was met in my hotel lobby by a Clinton delegate from Oregon who told me, "Kennedy reminded me of what it means to be a Democrat."
Cal: I only hope that that new generation will see John McCain as the experienced leader the country needs and not indulge itself in the arrogance of youth. Age does not disqualify the young nor entitle the old. Nor does it disqualify the old while entitling the young.
**********
Cal: So what would this country get from Joe Biden? He'll introduce himself tonight to millions of Americans who know his name but little else. I suspect Biden will be told to stick to his script and not wander off into rhetorical dark alleys, like "Barack America" and references to his "drop-dead gorgeous wife," words he spoke at his introduction as Obama's veep pick. That wasn't Joe at his best.
Bob: If anything, Biden is a team player, and that's surely one of the reasons Obama picked him. Tonight's theme is national security, and it's been written ad nauseum that Biden has the foreign policy credentials that Obama doesn't. But as to his common ground credentials, he can be a thorn in the side of Republicans, and a real hammer as a committee chairman, but there's a reason he and McCain have been good friends. They both have bipartisan blood running through their veins.
Cal: We'll see. As National Journal has noted, Biden has the third-most-liberal voting record in the Senate, with Obama being No. 1. That doesn't seem to bode well for a common ground approach to governing, especially with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sending out fundraising letters about a 60-vote majority they need to enact the entire Democratic legislative agenda.
Bob: Oh, and the Republicans wouldn't like a 60-vote majority? Look, McCain voted with Bush 95% of the time, too. So is he just a hack? Several months ago, we rated all the presidential candidates on a 1-10 common ground index. We gave Biden a 6. The reasons were that as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he didn't have to listen to many people and his voting record was often partisan. But now he's running for vice president behind a guy who believes in common ground. I would bump Biden up to a 9 now. I think you'll find Obama is more like the cable guy than a doctrinaire liberal. His and Biden's view will be whatever it takes to "git 'r done."
**********
Cal: The parties no longer cede the stage during their respective conventions. I saw a plane with a banner that said: "Biden is Right: Obama is Not Ready." And a GOP war room in Denver characterizes the Democratic convention as "A mile high, an inch deep."
Bob: Speaking of right-wing invasions, conservative radio talk show host and Fox News personality Sean Hannity -- public enemy No. 2 to Democrats behind Rush Limbaugh -- is broadcasting from the rafters inside the Pepsi Center. Hannity takes the freight elevator when he leaves for fear of confronting Democrats. If you think the air is thin in the Mile High City, Hannity's radio booth needs some oxygen tanks.
Cal: Democrats have treated me just fine here, though perhaps it's because I'm a common grounder! I suppose it's just coincidence, though, that a sprinkler system misfired Monday in the Pepsi Center. And where, you ask? In the Fox News skybox!
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August 27, 2008 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
'3 A.M.' McCain ad uses Clinton clips
BYLINE: Mark Memmott
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 7A
LENGTH: 435 words
Republican John McCain's campaign released a TV ad Tuesday that uses part of an ad that Hillary Rodham Clinton deployed against Barack Obama during the Democratic primaries. It reprises a question Clinton posed: "Who do you want answering the phone" in the White House at 3 a.m.?
The McCain campaign says the ad, called 3 A.M., will air in key battleground states.
The script
Clinton ad audio: "It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?"
Narrator: "Uncertainty. Dangerous aggression. Rogue nations. Radicalism."
Clinton: "I know Sen. McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And, Sen. Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."
Narrator: "Hillary's right. John McCain for president."
The images
At the opening, the ad does something provocative. It uses several seconds of Clinton's own ad. A parent is seen looking in on sleeping children. Then it reminds voters of the conflict between Russia and Georgia, with images of tanks. Images follow of a missile being launched as the narrator speaks of "rogue nations."
Clinton reappears, delivering the line about McCain's experience vs. the anti-Iraq war speech that Obama gave in 2002. It finishes as the words "Hillary's right" come onscreen.
Reality check
Ads such as this are a fixture of presidential politics. During primary battles, candidates say harsh things about others in their party. Later, those words come back to haunt the nominee.
But since the primary season ended, Clinton has endorsed Obama, her former opponent and the party's presumptive nominee. She also has said that the policy differences she had with him are minor compared with the differences they both have with McCain. And speaking about a similar McCain ad called Passed Over, she said, "I'm Hillary Clinton, and I do not approve that message."
It's also true that if the Obama campaign wanted to produce such an ad, it could remind voters of harsh things that Republican candidates such as Mitt Romney had to say about McCain during the GOP's primary season.
McCain's ad may be designed more for generating attention than for putting on TV. Evan Tracey, who tracks political advertising for the Campaign Media Analysis Group, said Tuesday that the McCain campaign has spent very little money so far airing the Passed Over ad, which it released Sunday. Instead, the campaign is focusing its efforts on ads that paint Obama as a celebrity and McCain as a maverick.
Tracey predicted 3 A.M. will mostly be seen "on cable systems and in hotels around Denver" to get the attention of reporters and Democratic convention delegates.
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August 27, 2008 Wednesday
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FINAL EDITION
In speech, Obama refines his goal
BYLINE: Jill Lawrence
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1267 words
DENVER -- Barack Obama has written speeches on notepads, paper scraps and computer screens, in settings that include planes, cars and a men's room at the Illinois Capitol in Springfield.
For the speech he'll give Thursday to accept the Democratic nomination for president, Obama wrote into the night last weekend in a hotel room 15 minutes from his Chicago home. There were no distractions there. And in 2004 he had holed up at a different hotel to draft the wildly successful convention speech that catapulted him into national politics.
"Superstition," he says.
Introspective, inspirational, by turns pointed or biblical, and always tailored to the political moment, Obama's speeches have been a defining feature of his historic ascent. This week, with the eyes of millions upon him, the Illinois senator says he won't attempt a reprise of his exhilarating debut four years ago.
"I don't think you can duplicate that kind of moment," Obama said this week.
Besides, he says, he's no longer part of a supporting cast for another standard-bearer. Now he needs to lay out exactly who he is and how an Obama presidency would differ from an administration headed by Republican John McCain.
Thursday is the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech and Obama, who will be the nation's first black nominee of a major party, says he will note how far the nation has come. But nuts and bolts are his top priority.
"I'm not aiming for a lot of high rhetoric," Obama said. "I'm much more concerned with communicating how I intend to help middle-class families live their lives. I want people to come away saying, 'Whether I'm voting for the guy or against the guy, I know what he stands for. I know what he believes.'"
Obama's lofty language has been an irresistible target for his rivals, from Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton's charge during the primaries that he's "just words" to McCain's attempts to cast his opponent's oratory as a sign that Obama is a vacuous celebrity and/or an arrogant messiah wannabe.
Obama's defenders scoff at the idea that giving a good speech is a weakness.
"Did Ronald Reagan seem less down-to-earth because he was inspiring in his speeches? Was John Kennedy less down-to-earth because he asked us to put our country ahead of ourselves?" asks Robert Gibbs, a senior strategist for Obama.
Emphasizing 'personal input'
As Obama prepared for Thursday night, spokeswoman Linda Douglass said, he reviewed acceptance speeches by more than a half-dozen presidents -- from Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to Democrats Franklin Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and John Kerry. He wrote his own in pencil on a legal pad, typing his words onto a computer. He's been editing it on the road this week with top aides.
Obama, the author of two best-selling memoirs, is a rarity among national political figures in that he has long been intimately involved in preparing the precise words to be used in his speeches.
When he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2000, recalls his former media adviser Chris Sautter, Obama rewrote the announcement speech aides gave him and tweaked scripts for radio ads even as he was walking into a studio to record them.
Gibbs and others who have worked for the Illinois senator say Obama is the best speechwriter on the staff.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., says Obama's level of involvement is unusual. "There aren't a lot of people in public life who do this personally," he says. "He likes to have personal input."
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., also a best-selling author, says he writes his own speeches and understands why Obama does so.
"When you live in the world of words, specific words are important," he says. "The impact of his words is so strong because they are so personal."
At the 2004 convention, as a state senator running for U.S. Senate, Obama told Democrats that America was not red states and blue states but "one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes." He was asked to remove a line that talked of "one America, red, white and blue" because a similar one was in Kerry's acceptance speech, says Bob Shrum, then Kerry's top adviser. Yet who recalls Kerry delivering that line?
Obama's impact as a speaker and the resonance of his calls to bridge divides are rooted largely in who he is: the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, a man who grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia and has a half sister who is half-white, half-Indonesian. As Obama said in 2004 and many times since, "In no other country on Earth is my story even possible."
Wayne Fields, author of Union of Words: A History of Presidential Eloquence, says Obama has a "special" voice fusing youth, artistry, a commitment to American values and "the complexity of the cultural change he represents."
Obama offers elegance, strong themes, "tremendous dignity" and relevance to the moment, says Clark Judge, once a speechwriter for Reagan.
However, "it's humorless," Judge says. "He doesn't make jokes. There's no sense of bounce there."
Should Obama lighten up? "I didn't say that. It works for him."
It's working, Judge says, because most people interpret Obama's more downbeat rhetoric as "we need a course correction." But some could hear it as an indictment of a "deeply fallen and deeply troubled society," he says, and that could wind up hurting Obama among voters.
Obama 'reeks hope'
Shrum, a veteran speechwriter, counters that Obama "embodies what Americans would like to believe is best about their country. His message is not a scolding message. It's a hopeful message. He reeks hope."
Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., says the substance of Obama's speeches often is overlooked amid the focus on his stirring language and delivery, and shouldn't be.
"He is very good at analyzing a situation and making a concise and accessible argument," Emanuel says.
McCain is skewering Obama for his words and the huge crowds they attract. One TV ad shows Obama's speech last month at a park in Berlin, which drew an estimated 200,000, and scorns him as "the biggest celebrity in the world" but not "ready to lead."
In an ad dubbed The One, McCain's team uses Obama's words to mock him as a self-anointed messiah. The ad cuts from a pumped Obama on the night he clinched the nomination ("This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow, and our planet began to heal") to Charlton Heston as Moses, booming, "Behold his mighty hand" as the Red Sea parts.
Fields calls put-downs of Obama's eloquence the refuge of those who aren't so eloquent. Their argument amounts to "you can trust our guy because ... he's not eloquent enough to mislead you," he says.
For Clinton and now McCain, Obama's speeches have served as foils for them to portray themselves as straight-talking realists.
Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin, Clinton's top strategist at the end of her campaign, now calls Obama's skills "an enormous asset."
They complement his recent attention to "nitty-gritty" economic concerns, Garin says, and "his ability to inspire people through his speeches has put a much sharper focus on McCain's inability to do that."
The GOP attacks haven't kept Obama from seeking huge crowds. He'll give his acceptance speech to about 75,000 people at Invesco Field at Mile High stadium, home of the Denver Broncos.
For the Berlin speech, Gibbs says, Obama could have spoken at a think tank or university. But he wanted "to stand in front of the people of Europe" and tell them they should have more troops in Afghanistan. Likewise, here in Denver, "he didn't want to be in a convention hall with just the elected delegates. ... He wants to speak to the country."
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CORRECTION: Sen. John Kerry was misidentified in a story Wednesday about Barack Obama's speeches. Kerry was the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee.
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The Washington Post
August 27, 2008 Wednesday
Met 2 Edition
Obama's Response Ad Reflects Lessons of 2004
BYLINE: Jonathan Weisman; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1178 words
DATELINE: DENVER, Aug. 26
Sen. Barack Obama's campaign and its allies, mindful of the lessons of the Swift boat attacks of 2004, have begun an aggressive, multi-pronged attack on an advertisement running in swing states that seeks to link the Democratic presidential candidate to former domestic terrorist William Ayers.
With threats of legal action, boycotts and a response ad launched quietly to avoid publicity, the Obama campaign has put conservative donors and television stations on notice that 2008 will not be 2004, when Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic nominee, waited weeks to respond to attacks on his Vietnam War record and ultimately did so ineffectively. Christian Pinkston, a spokesman for the American Issues Project, which is airing the anti-Obama ad, called the response intimidation and harassment.
Obama campaign lawyer Robert F. Bauer replied: "If someone rides up to a convenience store with a sawed-off shotgun and a prior record, I'm not intimidating anybody by calling the cops. . . . If this [Republican] campaign is going to be run in McCarthyite fashion by lawbreakers in an illegal way, they are going to pay a price."
Ayers was a member of the Weather Underground, a radical organization that claimed responsibility for a dozen bombings between 1970 and 1974. He is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an expert on public school reform.
The ad, financed with a $2.9 million donation from Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, a fundraising bundler for Sen. John McCain's Republican campaign, says that Obama has defended Ayers as "respectable" and "mainstream" and that he launched his political career from Ayers's home. The Obama campaign says the assertions are demonstrably false.
"Why would Barack Obama be friends with somebody who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it?" intones a voice on the ad, which is running in conservative areas of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. "Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?"
The ad is no video stunt, said Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political advertising. It began running last Thursday, and as of Tuesday, $360,000 had been spent on 264 showings, 52 of them in the Grand Rapids, Mich., media market, just under 40 around Cincinnati, 18 in Norfolk, and half a dozen around Pittsburgh, a corner of Pennsylvania that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton dominated in the spring Democratic primary battle.
"Certainly it connects with base voters," Tracey said. "If you can't get excited about voting for McCain, these are the kinds of ads that get them excited about voting against Obama."
The television spot has left Obama with the same dilemma that Kerry faced four years ago: Respond and risk pushing the issue onto the political talk shows and front pages of newspapers, or ignore it and hope the attack will not sink in. Kerry, convinced that few would believe that a decorated Vietnam combat veteran would fabricate his war record, chose to ignore the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. When he finally responded, his national advertisement stoked the issue all over again.
Obama campaign officials are taking a different tack. They are running an ad to counter the Ayers spot in the same media markets, but they did so with no national media announcement or news conference. The ad itself blames McCain for the independent Ayers campaign, accusing him of "talking about the '60s" and crimes Ayers committed when Obama was 8 years old, instead of war spending, economic crisis and tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas.
Simmons, who helped finance the 2004 Swift boat campaign, has raised $50,000 to $100,000 for McCain's bid, according to the campaign's Web site. Ed Failor Jr., who sits on the American Issues Project board, was an adviser and paid consultant for the McCain campaign. A news release announcing Failor's joining of the McCain presidential exploratory committee was recently removed from the candidate's Web site.
The counter ad is only part of the Obama team's response. Bauer has written legal letters to television stations, asserting that the Ayers ad is illegal and false, and that its airing is subject to a Federal Election Commission penalty. Obama did not call Ayers "respectable" and "mainstream," Bauer said. Those words were used by a journalist in an article that was posted along with many others on the Obama campaign Web site.
McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers called it "100 percent misleading" to blame the Republican for an ad he had nothing to do with. He said the campaign has had no discussions with Simmons about the ad, the issue or the organization. Failor has not been involved in the McCain campaign for more than a year, Rogers said.
But Rogers made no effort to distance McCain from the Ayers issue. "If he thinks his long association with an unrepentant domestic terrorist is nothing the American people should be concerned about, he's delusional or naive," Rogers said of Obama. "The guy's running for president. It's an issue."
Ayers did hold a gathering for him in 1995 when Obama first ran for the Illinois Senate, and he later contributed $200 to his reelection campaign. But Bauer said that hardly constitutes launching the political career of a University of Chicago Law School lecturer and the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, who had just published his first memoir, "Dreams From My Father."
A Bauer letter to Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Keeney challenges him to make good on a promise to vigorously act in the face of "a knowing and willful attempt to evade the strictures of federal election law."
More than 93,000 pro-Obama e-mails have flooded Sinclair Broadcasting Group stations that are running the ad, many of them threatening to boycott the stations and their advertisers. Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor warned that other stations that accept the ad can expect the same response.
Efforts to stop the Ayers ad have not come only from the Obama campaign. A film company in Berkeley, Calif., that made an Oscar-nominated documentary in 2004 on the Weather Underground group has issued a cease-and-desist letter to the American Issues Project, saying that it illegally appropriated copyright images from the film for the ad. Brook Dooley, an attorney for the Free History Project, said shots of Ayers speaking into a camera in an interview and the aftermath of a Weather Underground bombing were copyrighted. The group has informed about 150 stations in Ohio and Michigan of its objection, but Dooley said no decisions have been made about legal action.
Separately, a new effort by Democratic strategist Tom Matzzie, called Accountable America, is aimed at warning conservative donors of the legal thicket they may be entering by financing independent attack ads like the Ayers spot. He said his group's first target is Simmons.
Pinkston said his group and his donors are undaunted.
"The Obama campaign has raised this to front-page news, frankly, with this response ad, with these legal attacks, with their outreach to reporters," he said.
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August 27, 2008 Wednesday
Met 2 Edition
'Barack Obama Is My Candidate';
Clinton Urges Support, Calls for Party Unity
BYLINE: Dan Balz; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1757 words
DATELINE: DENVER, Aug. 26
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton roused the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night with sharp criticism of Sen. John McCain and a full-throated endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama, her former rival for the party's nomination, urging Democrats to put the long and bitter battle behind them and unite to take back the White House in November.
"You haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership," Clinton told an audience packed to overflowing at Denver's Pepsi Center. "No way. No how. No McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president."
With some Clinton supporters still voicing reluctance to back the senator from Illinois, the former first lady's address was the most highly anticipated of the convention, short of Obama's acceptance speech on Thursday night. Her appearance was designed to signal the final transition from leader of her own historic campaign, which drew 18 million votes and pushed Obama to the limit, to unabashed supporter of the party's presumptive nominee.
Introduced as "my hero" by her daughter, Chelsea, Clinton received a thunderous welcome when she walked onstage to a sea of white placards with her familiar "Hillary" signature in blue. Before her entrance, delegates watched a video, narrated by her daughter, that not only paid tribute to her campaign but also gently mocked her well-known laugh and her inability to carry a tune.
Clinton described the passions that drove her to seek the presidency, including a desire to rebuild the economy, enact universal health care, end the war in Iraq and stand up for what she called "invisible" Americans. "Those are the reasons I ran for president. These are the reasons I support Barack Obama. And those are the reasons you should, too," she told an audience that included her husband, former president Bill Clinton, and Obama's running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.).
When she finished, the white placards that had greeted her gave way to narrow blue-and-white signs that said "Obama" on one side and "Unity" on the other, as well as signs that said "Hillary" and "Unity."
Clinton called McCain "a colleague and a friend who has served his country with honor." But she told the delegates, "We don't need four more years of the last eight years," and she drew a huge cheer when she described McCain as a virtual clone of President Bush who would continue the administration's policies.
"It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities," she said, referring to the site of the Republican National Convention in Minnesota. "Because these days, they're awfully hard to tell apart."
Obama aides said he called Clinton after watching her speech at a house in Billings, Mont., and thanked her for her support. He also called Bill Clinton and congratulated him on his wife's performance.
Before Hillary Clinton arrived at the convention, former Virginia governor Mark Warner, delivering the keynote address, described Obama as the candidate best equipped to put the United States on course to win "the race for the future" in an increasingly competitive global economy.
Arguing that the status quo "just won't cut it," Warner said McCain would explode the deficit, ignore the nation's infrastructure needs and continue spending $10 billion a month on the Iraq war. "That's four more years that we just can't afford," he said to cheers. "Barack Obama has a different vision and a different plan."
The election, Warner said, is about not left vs. right but future vs. past. He said Obama would not govern as a partisan Democrat but would reach out to the opposition to get things done. "We need leaders who will appeal to us not as Republicans or Democrats but first and foremost as Americans," he said.
As convention delegates looked toward the evening program, top Democratic elected officials continued to raise questions about Obama's campaign strategy and worried aloud that he must do more to overcome the doubts that voters in their states have about his readiness to be president. Their concerns came as McCain blasted Obama in a speech to the American Legion convention in Phoenix.
Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell, a prominent Clinton supporter, said that Obama is still struggling to connect with working-class voters and that the presumptive nominee reminded him of Adlai Stevenson, the brainy Illinoisan who lost the presidential campaigns of 1952 and 1956.
"You ask him a question, and he gives you a six-minute answer," Rendell told Washington Post reporters and editors. "And the six-minute answer is smart as all get-out. It's intellectual. It's well framed. It takes care of all the contingencies. But it's a lousy sound bite."
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) said Obama's campaign must demonstrate its willingness to engage against a Republican Party that he said is well skilled in political combat.
"The only thing they're going to do is, in old Brooklyn terms, rabbit-punch every day, and Obama has to show the American people that he can rabbit-punch, that he can be in that street fight," he told The Post. "I think there was a reluctance initially in the Obama campaign to engage in that. I think they now realize they have to."
If Monday night's convention program lacked a fighting spirit, Obama brought his to the campaign trail on Tuesday -- fiercely laying out the case for his candidacy and the contrast with McCain. Obama even mentioned McCain's prisoner-of-war status in Vietnam in a way that suggested he will begin to challenge that as a credential for being president.
"John McCain has a great biography, has been a POW," Obama told a small group gathered at an aircraft maintenance facility in Kansas City, Mo. "I have a funny name." He said the Republicans are arguing "that you don't know whether I can be trusted to lead."
"But I'm just going to remind everyone here: This election is not about me," he said. "It's about you. It's about who's going to be fighting for you."
McCain, meanwhile, continued to pound away at Obama in his speech to the American Legion. He accused the senator from Illinois of failing to stand up to criticism of the United States elsewhere in the world and ridiculed his rival's words during a speech in Berlin last month, in which Obama said "the world stands as one" as it looks to the future.
"The Cold War ended not because the world stood 'as one' but because the great democracies came together, bound together by sustained and decisive American leadership," McCain said.
That Republican effort continued with a new McCain ad that uses Clinton's words about her rival during the Democratic primary campaign in an ad about a 3 a.m. phone call to the White House: "I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002." A narrator in the McCain ad continues: "Hillary's right. John McCain for president."
And even after Clinton's speech Tuesday night, McCain's campaign made it clear that it would not hesitate to continue invoking her rhetoric from the primary season.
"Senator Clinton ran her presidential campaign making clear that Barack Obama is not prepared to lead as commander in chief," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said. "Nowhere tonight did she alter that assessment. Nowhere tonight did she say that Barack Obama is ready to lead. Millions of Hillary Clinton supporters and millions of Americans remain concerned about whether Barack Obama is ready to be president."
As Democrats looked to day two of their convention, they were still debating what had happened on opening night. An ailing Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) electrified the crowd with a speech urging the party to rally behind Obama, and the candidate's wife, Michelle, in the final speech of the night, made a powerful case that her husband's biography and values are widely shared by the American people.
But the general absence of criticism of McCain or Bush left some Democrats wondering whether they had sacrificed an opportunity to fire back at Republicans at a moment when one of the largest audiences of the campaign may be tuning in.
Obama officials defended the scripting of Monday's program as necessary to begin filling in Obama's profile but said that as the week goes forward, the GOP will receive plenty of tough criticism.
In contrast to Monday's opening program, Tuesday's speakers criticized McCain and Bush. Democrats cast McCain as a clone of the president, out of touch with the lives of ordinary Americans and an advocate of economic policies that would widen the income gap between rich and poor.
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, in whose state Obama's mother was born, called McCain a candidate who "believes in country-club economics," who would privatize Social Security, and who has supported tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.
She also mocked McCain for the number of houses that he and his wife, Cindy, own. "Barack Obama has a plan to save the dream of homeownership for families who've lost their homes or fear they can never afford one -- unlike John McCain, who has so many he can't keep track of them all," she said.
Rendell, whose unscripted remarks earlier Tuesday may have created some heartburn for the Obama team, was fully on script when he appeared onstage in Denver, attacking McCain on energy policy.
"If you look past the speeches to his record, it's clear: John McCain has never believed in renewable energy, and he won't make it part of America's future," Rendell said. "For all his talk, here's the truth: John McCain voted against establishing a national renewable-energy standard. He voted against tax incentives for renewable-energy companies. And for all his talk of drilling, he refused to endorse a bipartisan effort to expand domestic oil production because that bipartisan proposal would end tax breaks for Big Oil."
The night's speakers also included Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.), a prominent Obama supporter during the Democratic primaries. Sixteen years ago, his father, then governor of Pennsylvania, was denied a speaking slot in part because he opposed abortion rights.
"Barack Obama and I have an honest disagreement over the issue of abortion," Casey said Tuesday night. "But the fact that I'm speaking here tonight is testament to Barack's ability to show respect for the views of people who may disagree with him."
Staff writers Shailagh Murray in Denver, Anne E. Kornblut with Obama and Michael D. Shear with McCain contributed to this report.
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post; "He must be our president," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said of Sen. Barack Obama.
IMAGE; By Robert Miller -- The Washington Post; "We don't need four more years of the last eight years," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told convention attendees.
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August 27, 2008 Wednesday
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Mr. Obama and the Clintons;
Beyond political differences, a legacy the Democratic nominee can build on
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NO DOUBT, when Sen. Barack Obama pictured the ideal nominating convention, he did not cast his wife and himself as bookends for Hillary and Bill Clinton. But that, at least from a scheduling perspective, is how things have turned out. Despite Mrs. Clinton's stirring appeal for Democratic unity last night, which the former president is likely to echo tonight, the focus on them and the persistent questions about party divisions are, if nothing else, a distraction from the story Mr. Obama would like to be presenting.
Nonetheless, the media focus on the continuing Clinton drama may distort reality in a couple of ways, overstating the political significance of any party rift -- and obscuring the potential value of the Clinton legacy to an Obama campaign and presidency. As to the former, most Democrats probably will agree by Election Day with Mrs. Clinton's argument that electing one of their own matters far more than nursing any bruises remaining from the primary campaign. Republican candidate John McCain's professed admiration for Supreme Court justices John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. alone is likely to be enough to bring most Clinton voters around.
As to the value of the legacy, the calculation is admittedly more complex. Bill Clinton's performance during the primary campaign, and the prospect of more during the next four years, probably explains more than any other factor why Mr. Obama did not even consider putting Hillary Clinton on his ticket. But Mr. Clinton is the only Democratic president to serve two full terms in the past 64 years, and his accomplishments could point a President Obama in some useful directions.
We're thinking here, as a prime example, of Mr. Clinton's understanding that America's future prosperity depends on a deepening economic and commercial engagement with the world. As president, Mr. Clinton communicated an understanding of the stresses globalization was placing on U.S. workers. But he insisted, and had fair success in bringing the country along with him, that the answer was not to turn inward but to improve education, expand research and in other ways enhance America's ability to compete.
Neither Mr. Obama nor Hillary Clinton embraced that theme this year, and without question, the economic challenges the next president faces will differ from those that greeted Mr. Clinton in 1993. Wages have stagnated and inequality has worsened under President Bush; China's economy has continued its extraordinary growth; rising commodity prices and falling home values have stoked anxiety. Any comprehensive response to global challenges will have to include reform of pensions and health care as well as schools and worker training.
But to respond to today's anxiety by regressing on open trade and investment would guarantee more stagnation for American workers and continued poverty for hundreds of millions overseas. Mr. Clinton sought and often managed to convince Americans that the global economy was an opportunity and not a threat. Whatever his legacy from this campaign, that legacy of his presidency should be built upon.
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August 27, 2008 Wednesday 7:41 PM EST
In Historic Vote, Obama Officially Claims Democratic Nomination
BYLINE: Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
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HIGHLIGHT: DENVER -- Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) was formally nominated as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate today, making him the first African American to be placed one step from the White House.
DENVER -- Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) was formally nominated as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate today, making him the first African American to be placed one step from the White House.
And in an extraordinary piece of theater, Obama made a surprise appearance before the convention tonight immediately following vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden's acceptance speech. An energized Obama bounded onto the stage, kissed Biden's wife, Jill, on the lips and then hugged Biden.
"I want everybody to understand why I'm so proud to have Joe Biden" on his ticket "to take America back," Obama said to thunderous applause.
The historic moment came after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), who narrowly lost to the Illinois senator, asked the cheering delegates to unanimously throw their support to Obama.
Several hours later, former President Bill Clinton vigorously embraced Obama's candidacy, making the case that the party's nominee is ready to be commander-in-chief and ratifying his choice of Biden as his running mate, even if it was not Clinton's wife.
"Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world," the former two-term president said. "Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States."
With a theatrical flourish, the roll call vote was rushed to allow Hillary Clinton suspend the vote and "in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory," declare Obama the nominee by aclaimation.
"With eyes firmly fixed on the future, and in the spirit of unity with the goal of victory," Hillary Clinton said, "with faith in our party and our country, let's declare together with one voice right here, right now that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president."
The move seemed to melt away the tension and divisions of the past two days and prepare the way for Obama to take firm control of his own convention.
Biden accepted his nomination tonight with a broadside speech linking Republican John McCain, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, to the deeply unpopular foreign policies of President Bush.
"John McCain is my friend," Biden said. "But I profoundly disagree with the direction that John wants to take the country. For example, John thinks that during the Bush years 'we've made great progress economically.' I think it's been abysmal."
"And in the Senate, John sided with President Bush 95 percent of the time," he added. "Give me a break."
Biden also sought to put the convention firmly into the control of the Obama-Biden campaign, after two days of sharing the limelight with Hillary and Bill Clinton.
"The choice in this election is clear," the Delaware senator said. "These times require more than a good solider; they require a wise leader, a leader who can deliver change -- the change everybody knows we need."
Bill Clinton followed the lead of his wife in backing Obama, and took her criticism of McCain still further.
Obama campaign officials were pleased with Hillary Clinton's performance. Obama called both Clintons to congratulate them.
But Republicans continued to foment division this morning, saying Hillary Clinton did not rebut the central attack she lodged against Obama in the primary fight, that he is not ready for the White House. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani took up the cudgel today, declaring Obama "dangerously" inexperienced for a job that involves life-and-death decisions on the international stage.
Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) replied that those were the kinds of unfair attacks that would turn voters off in a climate in which fears of external threats are taking a back seat to anxieties over the economy. With his background, growing up the son of a struggling single mother, Obama "can relate to the kind of struggles that people in America and in Colorado are feeling right now," said Salazar, who will formally nominate Obama for the presidency tonight.
Ritter said those struggles must be the focus of both Biden's speech tonight and Obama's tomorrow at Invesco Field.
"Hillary Clinton could not have delivered a more genuine and impassioned message as to why this country needs Barack Obama as president of the United States," he said.
But Obama's plans for middle-class tax cuts, the development of a clean-energy economy and universal health care has been lost in the media's fascination with Obama's rhetoric and image, the governor said.
"He's a brilliant speaker. His rhetoric is fabulous. He really is inspirational," Ritter said, but that is not enough. "He has to convince people he has a plan for the economy. He has to get in the weeds."
And with early voting starting in Colorado Oct. 5, Obama does not have much time, he added.
Biden, tapped as a running mate in part because of his experience as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will cap a night dedicated to national and homeland security.
But he was also tapped because of his ability to hit back at McCain, who he counts as a friend, colleague and sometime rival from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Susan Rice, a senior Obama adviser on foreign policy, would not comment on Biden's speech, but she did lash out at McCain's newest attack ad, which accuses Obama of dimissing Iran as a "tiny" threat to the United States.
The quote cited by the ad came from a speech in which Obama said nations like Iran, Cuba and Venezuela do not pose the same kind of threat as Russia, which could have annihilated the country.
Obama said that "strong countries and strong presidents talk to their adversaries," on May 18 in Oregon. "That's what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That's what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That's what Nixon did with Mao. I mean think about it.
Iran, Cuba, Venezuela -- these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, 'We're going to wipe you off the planet.'"
"John McCain's ad is another dishonest and desperate attack that bears zero relationship to reality," Rice said, adding that Iran poses more of a threat now than eight years ago because the "failed Bush-McCain policies have let that threat grow."
The real drama is building for tomorrow night, when Obama accepts the nomination before 80,000 supporters at Invesco Field. Campaign spokesman Bill Burton confirmed he will be flanked by a row of Roman-looking columns, a design he called "simple and sober" -- and similar to the platform George W. Bush stood on at his 2004 convention. Republicans mocked the design as a Greek temple, suitable for the "celebrity" they portray Obama as.
Before the speech, Rep. John Lewis, the last survivor of the 10 people who spoke 45 years ago tomorrow alongside Martin Luther King at the civil rights march on Washington, will introduce a film on King's "I Have A Dream" speech, and put Obama into the pantheon of civil rights leaders.
"Fate, history and everything else will be on the line," an emotional Lewis said today, indicating just how much pressure Obama will be under. "It's on his shoulders. It's important for Barack Obama to take it to John McCain."
A convention program that this far has shied away from too much red meat tonight targeted McCain's biggest strength with the electorate, his foreign policy experience. Democrats will try to turn that experience against him, painting him as a bellicose, trigger-happy heir to the Bush White House. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today said McCain "doesn't have the temperament to be president."
"Together, Vice President Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and John McCain brought more than a century of experience to our foreign policy challenges. And what did that get us? One international debacle after another," former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said.
"We deserve better than John McCain's jokes about bombing Iran or his denials that Iraq has distracted us from Afghanistan," Daschle said.
"We deserve better than a foreign policy that's more confrontational than George W. Bush, and fails to address the complex challenges of a changing world. We need leaders who recognize both our national interest and our shared challenges, who will pay attention to both allies and enemies, and who will truly make America safer and stronger. I can think of none better than Barack Obama and Joe Biden."
After the convention closes, Obama, Biden and their wives Michelle and Jill will embark on a joint bus tour through the Midwestern battleground, with stops in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. The team hopes to hammer home their economic message on the eve of the GOP convention, which begins in St. Paul, Minn., on Monday.
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August 27, 2008 Wednesday 2:00 PM EST
Election 2008: MTV News at the Convention
BYLINE: Sway Calloway, Correspondent, MTV News, washingtonpost.com
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LENGTH: 3500 words
HIGHLIGHT: MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway was online live from the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Monday, Aug. 27 at 2 p.m. ET to take readers' questions about MTV's Choose or Lose youth voter registration campaign, how this year's Democratic National Convention compares to the one he covered in 2004, the goals of MTV news, and more.
MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway was online live from the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Monday, Aug. 27 at 2 p.m. ET to take readers' questions about MTV's Choose or Lose youth voter registration campaign, how this year's Democratic National Convention compares to the one he covered in 2004, the goals of MTV news, and more.
Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.
Sway came up from the hip-hop scene in Oakland Calif., becoming a record producer and radio host before joining MTV News in 2000.
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washingtonpost.com: Sway is stuck in security right now but should join us shortly.
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Sway Calloway: Hey, I'm Sway Calloway -- I'm a correspondent with MTV News and work with the Choose or Lose campaign. I'm here in Denver to serve as a conduit, relay messages about issues important to younger questions, and I'm looking forward to your questions about Choose or Lose or Denver or whatever.
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Harrisburg, Pa.: The young read newspapers and watch TV news at lower rates than all previous generations. They also tend to get their political news from TV comedy shows and the Internet more than older generations. Do you feel that MTV has a greater responsibility to incorporate more hard political news in order to educate this major block of voters?
Sway Calloway: Absolutely, which is why I work for the Choose or Lose campaign. It's not MTV's main goal to become a political news organization, but as the largest youth television network in the world, we absolutely have a responsibility. That's why we're here in Denver and will be in St. Paul as well, and why we put together our 51-person street team that is reporting from every state. That's when we've had certain programming and coverage of the candidates. We had dialogues with candidates in the primaries with Edwards, Huckabee, Clinton, Obama, where they fielded questions directly with the audience; we've done roundtable discussions about returning veterans from Iraq, where they talked directly with Clinton and Obama. I was on the road with Sen. McCain and relayed questions directly from our audience. If you go to our Choose or Lose Web site, we have five members of our street team here reporting what's going on behind the scenes. We're just creating a platform where youth concerns can be heard. And it's had an effect -- a lot of other news organizations have created youth teams, and I think we've spearheaded a trend with that. To see it, go to www.chooseorlose.com.
If I had it my way, we'd have even more hard news on MTV -- give us time.
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New York: I remember years ago meeting one of the MTV video jockeys and asking for his autograph on a program. He signed the program and then walked off with it. I realized it was my mistake: I didn't ask him to sign it and return it to me. This leads into my question: Given that many young people are not finally attuned to the outside world, how do we get young people to pay attention to issues, develop their own positions on issues, and then determine which candidates are the ones they wish to elect?
Sway Calloway: I like -- and I make a lot of analogies to the music industry because that's where I come from. In anything you put forth to the public, you have to market it to the demographic you're targeting. For example, both campaigns now are pretty Internet-savvy, but early in the primaries you saw certain camps that targeted to youth vote by going onto Facebook, MySpace, using text messages, and I think in order to get young Americans more interested in politics and researching policies and candidates and so forth, we have to present it in an appealing way. MTV is using our profile to present politics in a more engaging way. That's why we hired our citizen journalists, gave them cameras and let them upload videos to chooseorlose.com. I also believe that celebrity exposure gives politics a certain appeal. During the acceptance speeches, we'll have celebrity bloggers talking about the issues, and we hope that will get young people more involved -- not that we want to change the way they vote. That's what they do in music at least. When you're marketing music or videos, you learn the demographic, you learn their lifestyles and what they do day-to-day and market to that. Politics has to become a little more sexy, if you will, without devaluing the importance. You can't market to an 18-year-old the same way you do a 48-year-old. I think what we're doing with chooseorlose.com is one way to wake up young Americans.
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Baltimore: There seem to be a lot of questions about "will the youth vote?" comparing this election to 2004's election. I'd like to point out a couple of things -- in 2004, many people were voting Anybody but Bush. It seemed that people weren't necessarily excited about Kerry except that he wasn't Bush. We voted, sure, but we weren't too excited about it. This election, there's more reason to get excited, more reason to get mobilized.
There's a sense of hopelessness to politics for me, a feeling that whatever I do, it doesn't matter anyhow. Parties and faces may change, but overall, government is the same. (I think this might also be the reason for the government having difficulty hiring younger people to replace the retiring Baby Boomers -- it's bureaucratic, nothing changes and there's nothing you can do to fix/help/change things). I feel like Obama has changed that perception somewhat. Now, whether or not he and the voters can/will deliver, well, that's up in the air.
Sway Calloway: Let me add to this. Someone I was speaking with -- someone from Fox News, and we were talking about the history of Choose or Lose and how we fueled some of the highest turnout in history -- in the last election we registered 22 million between 18 and 30, and he said that the numbers showed that a lot of those voters still didn't vote. I told him it takes time. What we found was that 81 percent of our audience right now is interested in election, up from 58 percent earlier this year. 70 percent of our audience knows someone who has fought in Iraq. A lot of people are concerned about gas prices right now -- it directly relates to their lives. They're starting to feel and see how global warming is affecting our planet. I believe these issues will bring more people to the polls, but I do think it takes time. From my personal experience, up until I joined Choose or Lose, I felt disenfranchised from the process -- felt no one represented my concerns. Our goal is to bring the candidates' attention to these concerns. As time progresses you do start to see change. The mere fact that Obama has come as far as he has, same with Hillary Clinton, even John McCain being in the position he is -- the maverick for so long in his own party seen as not performing to the conservative ways 100 percent, even that is a sign of change.
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Arlington, Va.: Why do we do this every year? Obama is different? Once we get into the campaign and traditional debates and Obama appeals to the large middle that actually votes, the young kids will think that he isn't so different, and something else will have their attention away on Election Day -- like a shiny new iPod.
Sway Calloway: Well, we only hope that doesn't happen. Don't know how to respond to that. I feel like that attitude, that belief right there is defeatist. I like to believe that the more we get involved and infiltrate this dysfunctional system and represent youth concerns ... it's a slow process, you won't reinvent the wheel overnight. Just the way this race has gone so far, in my lifetime I've never seen anything quite like it. I've never known candidates to be so Internet-savvy or to speak so directly to your concerns. Progress is a slow turn. Maybe this person from Arlington will find public office, getting us an inch closer to our goals. But if you feel like nothing changes, that's not going to help progress. If you want something to change, change it. If you don't try to make change, it won't. We want to make sure young Americans' concerns are being addressed as much as older voters', and if younger voters show up at the polls, that's tangibility there. If we can show up in large enough numbers, we'll make a difference and force our concerns to be heard. That's how I see it. Maybe I'm a dreamer.
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Detroit, Mich.: Obviously, MTV's choose or lose initiative is aimed to a younger demographic, one that is in tune with MTV culture. And it seems like a great and worthy cause, but I wonder why does MTV not do more to promote a diverse musical universe that appends a long-term message to the choose or lose programming?
Artists like Common, The Roots, Onebelo, Decompoze, JDilla, Finale, etc: They have a message that extends way beyond those normally portrayed on MTV. You, Sway, were a beacon for this during your early years on the Wake Up Show (vol.2 is off the chains by the way, I still rock it on audio tape). Have you, or why haven't you, pushed for a culture change at MTV? Might I suggest something similar to Radio 1, Gilles Peterson. Something that again, espouses a message to a voting initiative.
Sway Calloway: The way I got to MTV, really the radio was through the "Wake Up Show," about hip-hop culture, politics and lifestyle. It's noted for bringing the underground to life -- those who carried not just messages of fun and monetary advancement, but also political awareness. It's the longest running show on commercial radio. At any given moment you might here original break beats with Chuck D, Farrakhan, Malcolm X over it, anything we felt addressed our audience. When I came to MTV, a lot of those listeners viewed it as a sellout, because of what it represents and doesn't. The reason I decided to work here was because someone told me that by the time you're 18, if you're not a part of a movement against the establishment, you have no heart, but if you aren't a part of that establishment by 25, you have no mind. So I came to MTV to represent the background I came from, but also to understand the business of it. And MTV's not about any particular musical genre, but it's also about revenue, ratings, soliciting advertisers to keep the business going. Because we have to service everyone and their likes and desires for music culture. What I've been able to do and what they've let me do is create programming that directly addresses that genre I come from and educate listeners who didn't know Common, KRS-One, Public Enemy, Dead Presidents, so on and so forth. It's been a slow process, but MTV definitely has provided a platform to do shows dealing with social consciousness in the hip-hop community. Even in Choose or Lose we've done shows with certain artists and interviewed them about their political views. It's a slow process but it's not the only goal of the company. We've created MTV2 and MTV News to serve some of those smaller audiences. I understand where you're coming from, but have you ever seen Common more successful? Mos Def? The Roots? Talib Kweli? Whether you love it or hate it, if you want to reach that level of success or appeal, you've got to learn to play the game a little. MTV has opened its doors as much as it can to get those artists in the game, but it never will be just that. It's a big business. I feel that initially I was a little skeptical when I got there, but once I understood the business, I thought we've made gigantic strides. A lot of things I've aired I've been extremely proud of. We still do the wake up show -- wakeupshow.com. We're broadcast on the internet. We still bring up the political and lifestyle questions of the day. So I really appreciate that question.
And thanks for buying volume 2, but we're already up to volume 8 -- what's up with that? (Laughs) And I'll tell Tech you said hi -- that's my partner.
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Washington, DC: Despite MTV saying that it is 'non-partisan' and is not political, I find that it leans heavily left and that the reporting is pretty biased. While I applaud the station's efforts to get young people involved and educated about the importance of voting, I think it's also important that they are allowed to make up their own minds about parties, candidates and issues. Courting young people to think that only one party is 'good' is as bad as them not voting in the first place. For what it's worth, I'm a registered Independent that has major issues with both parties; I just feel that it is the responsibility of any group trying to educate people about the importance of voting to remain fair, balanced and unbiased.
Sway Calloway: I agree. And that's what we attempt to do. This Choose or Lose movement is nonpartisan and always has been. Maybe some of he reporting you've read, maybe you interpreted it as partisan, but that's not our goal. We just want to bring to surface the issues we find doing our polls, traveling the country, issues that seem to be top-of-mind for young Americans. Sometimes when you go out and do coverage, you may find a young person with a bias, but that's not representing our opinion. Our general efforts are very nonpartisan. Everything we offer to one party we offer to the others. The Green Party, we've given exposure to -- we don't close our doors to anybody. Whether or not they respond, we have no control. We create programming like the roundtable discussion with Hillary and Clinton; we offered that to the Republican candidates as well, but they weren't able to participate. But when we were doing the college town halls, Sen. McCain participated.
So if it's being interpreted as partisan, that's not correct. When we do research, we don't break it down by party, we break it down by what concerns young voters across the board. Regarding polling, we'd like to have an even balance across the political arena, but sometimes that's not possible. If that's what it's coming across as, it's not intentional. But I agree with what you're saying.
Everything we're doing in Denver we're doing in St. Paul. At 7 p.m. Friday, we've got a show called Obama Decoded, in which we're determining whether or not he addressed youth concerns, and we're doing the same thing with McCain on Sept. 5. We don't make a decision for you, we just want to put out as much information as possible to help you make your own. I'm working hands-on with this campaign, and I try to make sure everyone is represented evenly as much as possible.
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Portland, Oregon: There's a lot of discussion about the accuracy of polls that don't take into account the fact that much of the "Youth Vote" has no land-line and relies on cell-phones. What do you think, true?
Sway Calloway: I love this audience. A agree with that as well. What we try to do to compensate for that, I'm in the field -- we don't do this by phone or text or online. A lot of us are actually speaking directly to people without a landline or a cell phone and just getting their response. I don't think every poll is perfectly accurate, but I think ours are closer in our target demographic than anyone else's. What topic is more important than the war, the economy, gas prices, global warming for people between 18 and 30? If you go out in the streets, these are the things people are talking about. You always have a margin of error, but I think our polls get the closest of representing what our audience things. The results we have from our polls are accurate to what we find in the streets, and I've traveled to every state in the country in the past two years. I can't speak to other polls -- when it comes to the youth vote I think they're slightly bogus, I'll be honest.
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Baltimore, MD: Does the influence of celebrities in political campaigns help or hurt the systematic ideals of voting?
Sway Calloway: I don't think it hurts. It depends on how it's being done. Not every celebrity is pushing people to go out and vote -- I know some who don't vote, think it doesn't make a difference. I think we all should be interested in anything that can affect our lives personally, and government policy does that directly. It would behoove people to be a part of this political process, and celebrities bring attention to people that hey, they should be voting. I don't think it sways people by saying "hey you should go vote for this person." We did a show with Kanye West for example, a nonpartisan one, and we found through our research that a lot of veterans of Iraq are struggling in returning to civilian life, aren't receiving the benefits they were promised, are returning with PTSD or traumatic brain injuries and weren't being helped, and we wanted to bring that to the forefront and make the candidates deal with it. Kanye West took interest in this cause, and in this show we went and surprised three young veterans, sat down and listened to their stories, hung out with them and provided them with things that would help them get back on their feet -- college tuition, money management classes, bought one guy studio time. They represented hundreds of thousands of veterans still serving and at home. That was an example of how celebrities can bring important issues to light, and now maybe some young people are paying attention to the acceptance speeches to see if the candidates address these issues.
I also think that's been a widespread discussion -- does celebrity status help or hurt. It's been used as a tool by both campaigns to hurt the other candidate. But celebrities are all people. It's just a status of your occupation, but they still get opinions and have to live in this society. Everyone has the right to express their views, and you have the choice to decide what to do with it.
And by the way I don't consider myself a celebrity.
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Ashburn, Va: There's a lot of talk about changing the minimum age to drink to 18. There's also a lot of talk of not being able to get young voters 18-24 out to the polls. Do you think putting the minimum drinking age on the polls for legislation would be a good "incentive" to get young voters out to the polls in record numbers? -Khari
Sway Calloway: Are you serious?
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Sway Calloway: I don't think drinking should have anything to do with what inspires you to go out to vote.
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I wish MTV: still played music videos.
Sway Calloway: Let me ask you a question -- we do still play the videos, but if we played them around the clock, would you come to MTV to watch them, or would you go to YouTube. We do still play videos, but it's not the only game in town. There are thousands of video outlets now, and people have so many ways to view videos, as a business you have to find ways to make programming unique to your brand, that brings people to your channel exclusively, and music videos won't do that. We do still play videos -- it was the reason for creating MTV2. We also created FNMTV, a show every Friday that premieres videos. But if you want to stay afloat ... there are just too many other options now. It's unfortunate, but it's a sign of the times.
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Chicago, Illinois: Hey Sway, I'm a long time fan. Is there any young talent out there along the lines of Chino xl, Eminem, Canibus, Pharaohe Monch, Ras Kass, Killah Priest? I don't have my ears to the streets like I once did. Charles Hamilton is decent, any others?
Sway Calloway: Mickey Factz, Roscoe Umali, Crooked Eye, The Hux Family, for now. And go to wakeupshow.com and you'll find a lot of these artists premiered on the show -- we've got video of them freestyling, plus Biggie's last freestyle, Cee-Lo before Gnarls Barkley, etc.
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Sway Calloway: I'm really excited about how concerned and immersed in the political arena everyone here is. It's relatively new to me. I've only been doing Choose or Lose coverage for a couple of years, and prior to that I didn't really have any interest and nor did candidates seem to speak to me. But through Choose or Lose I found I could make a difference, and I think my purpose is to get your concerns and issues out. Our political system isn't perfect, but if you want to make change, you have to change something. That's why I'm here. I don't claim to be an expert in politics -- I'm learning as you guys are learning, and I'm learning from you guys. But as long as I'm affiliated with Choose or Lose it will be fair and balanced, and whether you agree with us or not, pay attention, stay involved, visit us at chooseorlose.com to find programming coming up, and know that we're not robots -- we're real people trying to make a difference and help your voices to be heard.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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August 27, 2008 Wednesday 12:00 PM EST
The Root: Michelle Obama and the Democratic Convention
BYLINE: Marjorie Valbrun, Contributor to The Root, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 1696 words
HIGHLIGHT: Writing for The Root about Michelle Obama's address to the Democratic Convention, journalist Marjorie Valbrun says: "Michelle's speech represented a conscious shedding of any attributes that could be even remotely suggestive of an 'angry black woman.' It represented the debunking of stereotypes attached to her by some in the media who portrayed her as sassy, pushy and overly opinionated.
Writing for The Root about Michelle Obama's address to the Democratic Convention, journalist Marjorie Valbrun says: "Michelle's speech represented a conscious shedding of any attributes that could be even remotely suggestive of an 'angry black woman.' It represented the debunking of stereotypes attached to her by some in the media who portrayed her as sassy, pushy and overly opinionated.
"I got it. Watching her speak to the enthusiastic crowd that packed Denver's Pepsi Center, I recognized that careful calibration that accomplished women, especially black women, have to work into their dealings with people uncomfortable with their talents, achievements and self-assurance."
Valbrun was online Wednesday, August 27 to discuss her articles for The Root on Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and other speakers at this week's Democratic Convention.
A transcript follows.
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Marjorie Valbrun: Hello Everyone,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Marjorie
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washingtonpost.com: We're having a few technical difficulties but will be with you soon. Thanks for your patience.
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Hampton: During Hillary's speech, they frequently cut to Michelle Obama. She looked like she was staring daggers at Hillary. Is that just how Michelle looks, or is there bad blood there?
Marjorie Valbrun: I didn't notice any evil eye or invisible daggers coming from Michelle Obama. In fact, I think she was careful not to reveal any emotion in her facial expressions so as to not have viewers, and especially reporters, try to read too much into her supposed thoughts. Her face did soften into a smile though when Clinton referred to her as a great mom and future first lady.
I don't know if there is any specific bad blood between them but given the well-publicized tensions between the two campaigns, there might be some "issues."
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Norfolk: I'm beginning to worry about Thursday night. Hillary looked serious last night. But with the rock star stadium, the celebrities, and the unrelenting media hype, doesn't Obama risk coming off as less serious? And isn't the bar set impossibly high? If Obama comes out with a version of his stump speech, he'll be panned because it'll bore the media who've seen it a thousand times. If he just uses soaring rhetoric, he's risking a "where's the beef?" complaint. But if he comes out with anything new, he's a flip-flopper. How does he thread the needle? I know the media will praise him for his speaking skills, but it's a given now that he'll perform flawlessly. Doesn't he need more than great TelePrompter skills to get the gold on Thursday?
Marjorie Valbrun: The bar is set very high but you can bet that he and his handlers have been preparing and practicing relentlessly. He is a smart guy and has smart people working for him, I'm sure they understand that speech will be among his most important, if not the most important of his political career, and that they will make sure it strikes a balance between being inspirational and substantive. He writes a lot of his own speeches and is a big thinker, I'm willing to bet the speech won't be rehash of old stuff.
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Alexandria, VA: Hi there. I'm a 46-year-old, white female Democrat. I was so inspired, so proud, so impressed with Hillary's speech last night, many moments in the privacy of my home I stood, I clapped, I cheered and whooped, I think I even cried. I just kept thinking WOW. WOW, is she good. WOW what a great climax to an exciting run, an honorable exit in one sense and revving up to a new, higher objective on the other. Well done!
Then this morning I'm reading skepticism, sour grapes, of "sadness and anger." WHAT?! Somebody says she will work as hard for McCain as she had for Hillary. WHAT?! Some people are leaving early, will not even stay to hear Obama out. Unfathomable.
Gimme a break! This is why Republicans so often win. I believe we are right, again and again, on the issues, crucial issues about which we are supposedly impassioned, but this lack of fortitude, discipline and maturity is our Achilles heel.
We cannot always get our way, yet as Hillary said we must push, persevere, keep going. Democrats should celebrate and be grateful for this dramatic amazing campaign and throw all kinds of positive energy now into getting Obama elected.
I adore Hillary Clinton yet am electrified by Obama. He speaks my language too. I am ranting but really don't understand this weird polarization of our party into two camps. It is very distressing. How do you explain it?
Marjorie Valbrun: That's how politics works, people on different sides of issues tend to have strong feelings about their positions and to think that the other side's position is just wrong.
Close elections, especially one that involves two historic firsts, tend to bring out the best and worst in voters.
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Alexandria, VA: For what it's worth, I remember thinking more than once during Hillary's phenomenal speech how Michelle Obama seemed to be looking on admiringly and gratefully. I in turn was relieved and grateful for that. I am stunned this morning at how people watching and listening to the same event have come away with such completely different impressions, as is so often the case.
I saw no daggers. I saw warmth, and a 1st-class act by both.
Marjorie Valbrun: I agree with you.
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Boston MA: Obviously the idea of Michelle as "angry black woman" is ridiculous. At the same time however, her facial expression at neutral is not a small smile, which is what people seem to expect. I understand, because mine isn't either and people constantly ask why I'm upset.
She's probably going to need to learn to be actively smiling while in public.
Marjorie Valbrun: Isn't it silly what first ladies and other women in the public eye have to worry about? If it isn't their hair, it's their clothes or sense of style, their body language, or way of speaking. Now they have to worry about emotionally revealing smiles/frowns too?
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Washington, DC: Hi Marjorie, I'm looking at the comments in the stories about Clinton's speech last night and there are a depressingly significant number castigating Michelle Obama for looking too serious. Can she ever win?
Marjorie Valbrun: She can't win, and imagine, she's not even the first lady yet.
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Jack, Washington DC: Recently John McCain has released an an featuring a woman who claims to be a former Clinton supporter saying it's ok for Democrats to vote for John McCain. What should Obama's response ad look like? Should the Obama campaign just run a commercial featuring Sen. Clinton's "No Way, No How" remark? I'm all for the Obama campaign just sampling Hillary's speech for the next few weeks.
Marjorie Valbrun: I hear the campaign is already working on ads showcasing McCain's Republican opponents, most notably Romney, saying terrible things about McCain during the primaries.
Whatever happens you can bet the ads are going to become increasingly nasty in the next few months.
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Chicago, Illinois: I loved Michelle Obama's mother on Monday. She had a great narration to the video. And of course the girls are adorable. What's the line between advertising your family and exploiting them?
Marjorie Valbrun: I guess the bar is set by the individuals involved and their feelings about sharing with the public.
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Boston MA: This is a bit backdated, but it still makes me angry. I didn't see a single commentator during the whole Michelle/Cindy "proud of American" kerfuffle mention the seeming obvious fact that it's just possible that growing up as a pampered rich white woman gives one a much different perspective on America then growing up black on the southside of Chicago.
Marjorie Valbrun: I agree and I know that wealth and poverty does indeed influence how people think, behave, and see the world.
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Malia and Sasha: I thought perhaps the most "humanizing" aspect of Michelle's speech was the appearance of their daughters afterward, especially the way little Sasha kept piping right up. I assume they'll be onstage tomorrow night again when their dad speaks. What do you think of these little stars in the making?
Marjorie Valbrun: The girls are darling and cute, they were definitely a hit.
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Reston, VA: I'm new to this. Maybe it's been vetted out, but is she pro-White Sox or pro-Cubs?
Marjorie Valbrun: I have no idea. Check out her website.
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Elkridge, Maryland: Hi. I was surprised to read that Hillary's campaign was so badly run, given that her husband's campaigns were run well. What would have helped her campaign? Did she need help in choosing the right people for the jobs in the campaign? A leader is supposed to identify her own areas of weakness and then compensate for them by finding people who have strengths in those areas.
Marjorie Valbrun: You answered your own question, she obviously didn't do most of those things. A lot of people believe she was blinded by her own arrogance and thought the primaries were going to be a cakewalk.
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Floris, Va.: Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic is reporting that the Obama campaign ran focus groups in 18 battleground states on Michelle's speech and she came across as a winner. Can you confirm this or add to it?
washingtonpost.com: Obama Camp's Data On Michelle's Speech (TheAtlantic.com, Aug. 26)
Marjorie Valbrun: I can neither confirm nor deny. I hadn't heard this bit of info, but it sounds plausible.
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Marjorie Valbrun: Readers,
Thanks for your great comments and observations. Unfortunately I have to sign off now because we are experiencing technical problems. Sorry, I could not get to all of you. Please keep reading TheRoot.com, we love hearing from you.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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August 27, 2008 Wednesday 10:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Michael Shear, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3104 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 10 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 10 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Michael Shear, on the trail with the McCain campaign as it moves toward the Republican National Convention, will be online Wednesday, August 27 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
Submit your questions and comments before or during today's discussion.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Michael D. Shear: Good morning, everyone.
It's bright and sunny here in Sedona, Arizona where Sen. John McCain is doing some campaign filming, according to his advisers. Meanwhile, in Colorado, his Democratic rival is only one day away from the big speech.
So here we go. Ask away.
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Richmond, Va.: Perhaps you can explain how this works. Hillary Clinton last night urged party unity, to put aside the feelings left over from the primary battle. And while Hillary might be able to do this because it is in her interest to do so if she wants either to run in 2012 if Obama loses, or she doesn't want to get blamed for hindering his win. However it doesn't seem from the reports at the convention that many of her supporters so easily can give up the feelings that she so intensely engendered, even to the eve of the convention. In short, Hillary has a political agenda to encourage unity, but it appears it is much harder for her supporters to let go.
washingtonpost.com: 'Barack Obama Is My Candidate': Clinton Urges Support, Calls for Party Unity (Post, Aug. 27)
Michael D. Shear: Let's start here. Lot's of questions about Hillary Clinton and her delegates.
The reporting from the convention floor would indeed suggest that her supporters are having a tough time putting the past in the past. But remember two things:
1) the people at the convention are the hardest core supporters, the ones who are so committed that they get elected to be delegates to the national convention. They may not be that reflective of the 18 million voters who cast ballots for her.
2) This is the moment of most intense disappointment for all of Clinton's supporters. You would expect her fans to feel sad/bitter at this moment -- the one they envisioned in such a different way. But as in poker, nothing matters except for what happens at the end. And it's likely that this day will fade as the intensity of the competition between Obama and McCain heats up. Then we shall see whether the hard feelings persist or not.
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Baltimore: I watched all the speeches last night, and was struck by the number of really great one-liners I heard. What's your favorite one-liner/sound bite of the convention so far?
Michael D. Shear: As our McCain reporter, I've missed most of the smaller speeches. (Our travel schedule over the last 48 hours has been: Sedona-Phoenix-Sacramento-Burbank-Phoenix-San Diego-Flagstaff-Sedona)
But I can say I like a one-line you probably missed. McCain saying on Jay Leno's show that he is so old: "My Social Security number is 8"
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Yorktown, Va.: Barack Obama's lawyers say the Ayers ad is "false, despicable and outrageous" and have called on the Justice Department to investigate the nonprofit group that produced it. But all the ad says is that Obama is friends with Ayers and that they sat on a left-wing board together. Which part is a lie? I haven't seen any actual refutation of the facts from Obama. Obama's heavy-handed approach is troubling -- he doesn't want to be linked to an unrepentant terrorist, which I understand, but using cops and lawyers to intimidate people for exercising their free speech rights? Scary.
Michael D. Shear: Here's a paragraph from my colleague, Jonathan Weisman, who has a very good story today on our front page about this ad.
The ad, financed with a $2.9 million donation from Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, a fundraising bundler for Sen. John McCain's Republican campaign, says that Obama has defended Ayers as "respectable" and "mainstream" and that he launched his political career from Ayers's home. The Obama campaign says the assertions are demonstrably false.
and another:
Ayers did hold a gathering for him in 1995 when Obama first ran for the Illinois Senate, and he later contributed $200 to his reelection campaign. But Bauer said that hardly constitutes launching the political career of a University of Chicago Law School lecturer and the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, who had just published his first memoir, "Dreams From My Father."
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Arlington, Va.: I'm very befuddled at John McCain's attack ad of how Barack Obama will raise taxes. The way I see it, in our current economy, we need to raise taxes in order to help set things right. Does John McCain think our intelligence factor is so low as to not understand this?
Michael D. Shear: Sen. McCain would argue strongly that you are wrong, Arlington.
He would point to economic theories and practical examples which say that lowering tax rates stimulates the kind of growth in the economy that produces more tax revenue, not less. And he would say that raising taxes, especially in an economic slowdown, depresses growth and leads to a downward spiral that is not good for the country.
Of course, that is a position that can fairly be debated, and has for many years.
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Fortaleza, Brazil: The Dems do not seem to have been all that successful so far in identifying McCain with Bush's economic or even foreign policies the public opposes. These policies are unpopular, yet the Republicans do not seem to arouse a cohesive response when using their usual "we will spend less" line in the face of the more than $10 billion a month spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. And while there is a legitimate debate about who is more prepared to be commander and chief, just what policies each would implement, and which would be different from Bush, seems to get lost. Is is too late for the Democrats, as it usually is?
Michael D. Shear: A question from far away.
There seems to be some agreement among top Democrats, even, that their message out of this convention is somewhat muddled. I heard James Carville say on TV yesterday that if there is a message out of the convention he doesn't know what it is. Of course, as a top Clinton supporter, you might want to take what he says with a grain of salt.
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Lewisburg, W.Va.: Sen. McCain touts the benefits of nuclear power. I would really like someone to do ask follow-up question about where he proposes we build such plants, and what we do with the waste? There is much NIMBY around this issue -- how would he handle that?
Michael D. Shear: Good questions.
As to where we build the plants, Sen. McCain does not say. He says only that the permitting process should be speeded up, which presumably means that it would be easier for the electric utilities to pick locations without so much of the opposition.
As to the waste, he says frequently that the U.S. should reprocess spent nuclear waste, something that is controversial here but is done in other places, like France
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Reading, Pa.: Michael, is it your sense that McCain has chosen his running mate, or is vetting still going on ?
Michael D. Shear: At some level, the vetting goes on until the moment that the pick is announced. Having said that, my sense is that McCain has settled on a pick, though he has said publicly a few days ago that he's not yet made the decision. I expect it will happen this Friday.
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Fairfax, Va.: So how about Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer? Rocking out with the bolo tie. He even had President Clinton impressed when they cut away.
Michael D. Shear: Gov. Schweitzer offered a dynamic speech and has now become the talk of the blogs. That, in a nutshell, is what a prime-time speech can do, if you make the most of it.
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In order to form a more perfect bumper sticker?: Barack (six letters) Obama (five letters); (six letters) Biden (five letters). John (four letters) McCain (six letters); Mitt (four letters) Romney (six letters)
Michael D. Shear: I'm not sure what this is saying, but maybe our crack Live Online readers can crack the code...
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Baltimore: Is it realistic to expect that Obama will receive a poll bounce from the Democratic convention? Given the protracted primary season, 24-hour cable channels, the Internet, and the seven(!) hagiographic Newsweek cover articles on Obama in the past year, we can't say that the convention is the first time the public has heard about Obama. If anything, the public is starting to get tired of the media's constant Obamarama, as the Pew poll indicated. Kerry didn't receive a bounce; what's your prediction for Obama?
Michael D. Shear: While it's true that Obama has received record coverage on television and in papers, it's also true that many Americans pay little attention to that coverage until the election is closer. So the conventions are often the first real time that millions of voters tune in.
As for a "bounce" in the polls, this year may be difficult for Obama because the GOP convention comes immediately after the conclusion of his own. And Sen. McCain is expected to announce his vice presidential nominee on Friday.
McCain aides, in a bid to ratchet up expectations, suggested they thought Obama would get a 15-point bounce in the polls. (The idea being that anything less would be a disappointment.) I suspect it will be less.
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Youngstown, Ohio: My favorite part of the night was Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC pushing a 79-year-old woman who already had said she was supporting Obama into telling Andrea how sad she was that Hillary had lost. Andrea's plaintive "why are you crying?" was touching. I thought Hillary's speech was a pretty ringing endorsement, but the media is going to keep pushing this Democratic rift meme aren't they?
Michael D. Shear: See my prior response about last night being the moment of disappointment for many Hillary Clinton fans.
I think the media will very quickly move on to other issues once this convention is over.
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Quick reviews: I've been listening to the convention on the radio. Mark Warner was what I expected -- he never will light the world on fire with his oratory, but he was smart to pick a topic that focused on the future, given his entrepreneurial background. Still, I suspect people who do not know much about Warner may have been disappointed. On the other hand, Brian Schweitzer was a complete, welcome surprise. Finally, while I think that both Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton gave wonderful speeches, Kathleen Sebelius was somewhat disappointing. She has a nice, "soothing" voice, but she seemed a bit overwhelmed by the floor noise, and I wonder if her speaking style is suited better for smaller events.
Michael D. Shear: Thanks for the analysis.
As a former Virginia reporter who covered Warner for four years, I was not surprised by his speech. He has never been an attack machine. It's just not in him. In some ways, it's too bad for him that the convention developed in a way that Democrats were looking for red meat just at the time that he spoke.
But for his own political future in Virginia, it was probably a very good speech. Remember, his shtick is being the centrist Democrat who can reach out to and work with Republicans. If he were to stray from that and look like a typical, partisan Democrat, it would complicate his chances to win the Senate seat.
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Newark, N.J.: So let me get this straight: Obama wants the Justice Department to investigate because -- and I'm trying not to laugh here -- the ad said he launched his career at Ayers house when all he did was hold his first campaign launch party at Ayers house? Man, talk about splitting hairs. Won't this just make more people aware of the close personal relationship between the two? And the fact that Obama (or his surrogates) are blocking access to the records of their time working together? Everyone knows those records are locked up in the Richard Daley library, which means they're about as safe as a drunk girl at a frat party.
Michael D. Shear: Here's a comment that's representative of a few that we've gotten this morning.
I suspect we will be hearing more about Ayers in the months ahead.
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Boston: Does John McCain team realize that we are a celebrity-addicted culture and love our celebs for any and all causes, or is he jealous that he's not the biggest celebrity in the race? He has a history of being quite the camera hog.
Michael D. Shear: Yes, McCain's attack on Obama for being a celebrity is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. McCain has appeared on Leno 13 times, by his own count. That's more than a lot of Hollywood celebrities, I would venture.
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Columbia, Md.: Obviously, the Post has assigned various reporting staff members to cover the different campaigns, including sending you to cover McCain, and others to carry Obama and Clinton. How much input did each of you have into who you cover? I respect that reporters try to be objective, but there's a part of me that wonders if the selected assignments have any basis in the reporter's own views.
Michael D. Shear: Its a good and valid question, Columbia.
I had very little input, actually. I was chosen to cover the Republicans in February of 2007. At the time, my colleague Anne Kornblut had been hired to cover the Democrats from the NY Times, in part because of her experience covering Sen. Clinton at that paper for more than a year.
In the succeeding months, we've added people to each side, but I can assure you the assignments have nothing to do with our personal views about one side or the other and everything to do with logistics and schedules and trying desperately to keep up with the amount of time it takes to cover these candidates.
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Washington: Oh, to heck with national politics! How much fun is it to be mentioned in an Onion story!? Hope you're recovering from the skunk spraying.
washingtonpost.com: Obama's Hillbilly Half-Brother Threatening To Derail Campaign (The Onion, Aug. 13)
Michael D. Shear: Ok, I have to answer this one.
I was indeed mentioned in the Onion, a satirical newspaper that pokes fun of the news by writing fake articles. For some reason, they pulled my name out of a hat and decided to use me as the butt of a joke.
It's depressing because I got more email from old college friends when my name appeared in the Onion than I have received as a reporter for the Post for almost 16 years.
Oh well.
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Re: Ayers Ad: Is Obama damned if he does, damned if he doesn't in this case? If he does respond forcefully, he risks drawing bigger attention to it. If he doesn't, he risks being "Swift-Boated." Given that the McCain campaign and its allies have no problem with running fast and loose with the truth (as exhibit A, see the newest McCain ad attacking Obama regarding Iran), I think he's making the right choice in not letting the lies and distortions gain deep traction without response.
Michael D. Shear: This is certainly the opinion of the Obama advisers, who are mindful that Sen. John Kerry's advisers took the opposite approach with the Swift Boat ads, hoping that they would go away since they were being played in very few markets and not wanting to give them free publicity by making a big deal about them.
We'll see whether this approach works any better than that one
_______________________
More McCain Coverage Please: Over and over I read Kurtz and the ombudswoman saying The Post is unfair to McCain in terms of amount of coverage. I agree -- if Barack Obama was at 45 percent in his home state and had to spend resources campaigning there, it would be a front-page story for a week!
Michael D. Shear: As the McCain reporter for the Post, I can tell you I'm working very hard to get as much coverage for you as I can.
Stay tuned.
_______________________
Charles Town, W.Va.: Why is it that the right wing swifties get covered so much by the MSM, but we hear nothing about the "Vets against McCain"? How many people know that McCain was ordered not to take his early release from Hanoi, that it was a standard policy of first in, first out?
Michael D. Shear: Part of the answer, I think, is that the McCain campaign has not responded in any way to the Vets against McCain. In fact, when I've asked McCain whether he worries about them, he says that he does not. If the McCain campaign signals that they are taking the group seriously, and produces response ads to counter them, I suspect you will hear a lot more.
As to the question of McCain's refusal to take early release, that is definitely part of his bio, and people who have been listening to his stump speech recently would certainly know it. But that will be part of McCain's mission at the convention -- to tell that story to a wider audience.
_______________________
Obviously, the Post has assigned various reporting staff members to cover the different campaigns: Even assuming the utmost professional journalistic objectivity with respect to their own political leanings, don't reporters sometimes come to respect or disrespect the candidate they follow based on that person's ethics or personal decency (or lack thereof)?
Michael D. Shear: I suspect they do. But our job is to put aside whatever opinions we have about the people we cover and write as objectively as we can. That's always our goal.
Thanks everyone. Time to get back on the trail. See you in a couple of weeks.
Mike
_______________________
washingtonpost.com: Upcoming conventions discussions today include a chat with three D.C. region delegates (11:15 a.m.), a Reliable Source take on the party scene (noon), a writer for The Root on Michelle Obama's and Sen. Clinton's speeches (noon), a look at the Democrats and National Security (1 p.m.), and an MTV News convention correspondent (2 p.m.).
_______________________
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
August 26, 2008 Tuesday
The New York Times on the Web
Clinton Tells Her Supporters to Back Obama
BYLINE: By JEREMY W. PETERS
SECTION: Section ; Column 0; National Desk; Pg.
LENGTH: 618 words
DENVER In a ballroom overflowing with many of her most diehard supporters, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday implored New York Democrats to work as hard to elect Senator Barack Obama as they worked for her.
Mrs. Clinton, while acknowledging that true party unity may take time, repeatedly told them it would be disastrous for the country to endure four more years of a Republican in the White House. Despite news reports of lingering tensions between her campaign and Mr. Obama's, Mrs. Clinton sought to dispel those notions in her remarks.
''We were not all on the same side as Democrats, but we are now,'' the senator said. Mrs. Clinton also took issue with a just-released ad from the John McCain campaign that questioned why Mr. Obama did not select her as his running mate, and used footage of her criticizing the Illinois senator during the primary campaign.
''Let me state what I think about their tactics and these ads,'' she said a bit mischievously. ''I'm Hillary Rodham Clinton and I do not approve of that message.''
The crowd rose to its feet and started shouting, ''Hillary! Hillary!''
The event was emotional at times, and members of the audience interrupted her frequently with hearty applause and numerous standing ovations. People pressed a rope line to greet and hug her, some with tears in their eyes.
Mrs. Clinton's appearance reflected how she appears to be framing her message this week: celebrating the achievement of her breakthrough campaign, preserving the bonds she built with her supporters, while emphasizing the importance of electing Mr. Obama.
The seats were covered with blue and white posters that read: ''Hillary Made History'' and the room buzzed throughout the warm-up speakers about when she might arrive. And when she did appear, shouts of ''You go girl'' and ''Hillary thank you!'' erupted from the audience.
In her 9-minute speech, Mrs. Clinton used the word unity at least a half dozen times.
''Let there be no mistake about it. We are united. We are united for change. We are, after all, Democrats. So it may take a while, but we're not the fall-in-line party,'' she said.
At a press conference after her speech, Mrs. Clinton was asked about recurring reports about tensions between the two camps. Monday morning, for instance, the Politco reported that both sides were irked at each other over a variety of grievances. Mrs. Clinton responded, ''We have a very good working relationship.''
Mrs. Clinton has asked Representative Charles B. Rangel, the dean of the New York delegation, to encourage New York delegates to vote for Mr. Obama on Thursday night. At the request of her campaign, her name will be read during the roll call vote.
Even amid the warm embrace, there were indications that some have already moved on. One woman handed out little silver tins with the words ''Yes We Can,'' the slogan of the Obama campaign, printed on them.
One man gamely tried to start a ''Yes We Can'' chant, but it did not catch on.
Many delegates appeared to take her words to heart. ''I can assure you the message was received loud and clear,'' said Daniel J. O'Donnell, a state assemblyman who described himself as a diehard Clinton supporter during the primaries. ''I'm ready to go wherever she wants me to go.''
Mrs. Clinton, an Illinois native who has fought the image that she is not a true New Yorker, appears to have put much of that criticism behind her. Still there are moments.
She joked about the frustrations of living through the presidency of George W. Bush, saying at one point, ''Honest to goodness, how many times can you yell at the TV screen?''
A man near the front of the ballroom cracked, ''Obviously she's not a Bills fan.''
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The New York Times
August 26, 2008 Tuesday
The New York Times on the Web
Fighting Cancer, Kennedy Adds an Opening Spark
BYLINE: By ADAM NAGOURNEY; Reporting was contributed by Jeff Zeleny in Davenport, Iowa; Michael Cooper in Los Angeles; and John M. Broder, Janet Elder, Patrick Healy and Jeremy W. Peters in Denver.
SECTION: Section ; Column 0; National Desk; Pg.
LENGTH: 1246 words
DATELINE: DENVER
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, struggling with terminal brain cancer, arrived on Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in a triumphant appearance that provided an emotional start for the event as the party turned to a new era and gathered to nominate Senator Barack Obama for president.
Mr. Kennedy arrived at the convention center here shortly before dusk, accompanied by a flock of family members. He walked a few halting steps to a waiting golf cart, which drove him into the hall where Democrats are meeting this week.
Mr. Kennedy walked out with his wife, Vicki, who kissed him and left him at the lectern. The crowd, many of them wiping tears from their eyes, would not stop cheering until he settled them down
''My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, it is so wonderful to be here,'' Mr. Kennedy said. ''And nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight.''
''I have come here tonight,'' he continued, ''to stand with you to change America to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals and to elect Barack Obama president of the United States.''
Every sentence was greeted by loud applause. And while Mr. Kennedy spoke slowly, he was firm and energetic, gesturing with a hand and sounding very much like the man who enraptured the party's convention 28 years ago.
In a moment that captured the generational arc of the night -- and the Kennedy family's connection to Mr. Obama, whom Mr. Kennedy endorsed in a turning point of his campaign -- a video tribute to the Massachusetts senator was introduced by Caroline Kennedy, his niece and the daughter of President John F. Kennedy. Her tribute was as much to her uncle as to the man who brought her into national politics.
''I have never had someone inspire me the way people tell me my father inspired them, but I do now: Barack Obama,'' Ms. Kennedy said inside the Pepsi Center. ''And I know someone else who's been inspired all over again by Senator Obama. In our family, he's known as Uncle Teddy. More than any senator of his generation, or perhaps any generation, Teddy has made life better for people in this country and around the world.''
''For 46 years, he has been so much more than just a senator for the people of Massachusetts; he's been a senator for all who believe in a dream that's never died,'' she said, invoking Mr. Kennedy's speech to the Democratic convention in 1980.
The Democrats' 2008 convention was gaveled to order with a stream of opening speakers who began laying the foundation for the tasks that Mr. Obama and his advisers hope to accomplish during the four-day event. Throughout the day, aides to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Mr. Obama, of Illinois, worked to ease tensions over the Clintons' roles at the convention in what was amounting to a decidedly strained passing of the generational torch.
In a speech to the New York delegation earlier in the day, Mrs. Clinton strongly urged her supporters to vote for Mr. Obama at the convention. And Mr. Obama, campaigning in Davenport, Iowa, said he had spoken to former President Bill Clinton earlier in the week and made clear that he welcomed Mr. Clinton's role at the convention.
Even before the sun set here, speakers were assailing the presumed Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, in a way that made clear the convention would not be a replay of the Democrats' genteel gathering in 2004. Speaker after speaker, reading speeches that had been carefully vetted by a team of Obama advisers, denounced Mr. McCain for his ties to President Bush, his positions on the economy and his stand on abortion.
''John McCain has spent more than 25 years in Washington voting against women's freedom,'' said Nancy Keenan, the head of NARAL-Pro-Choice America, ''and has pledged to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who will overturn Roe v. Wade.''
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who is chairwoman of the convention, said: ''Republicans say John McCain has experience. We say John McCain has the experience of being wrong.''
But while some speakers took the rough road, others -- starting with old friends and associates of the Obamas and scheduled to culminate with Michelle Obama's anticipated address -- offered a warm picture of Mr. Obama and his family. If one big task for Mr. Obama this week was to try to paint a critical picture of Mr. McCain and his policies, another was to try to present a fuller portrait of Mr. Obama and push back against Republicans' efforts to paint him as culturally and politically distant from mainstream America.
Mr. Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, talked about growing up in a family with little money, raised by a mother who was ''an eternal optimist who understood that parents are our first and best teachers.''
In remarks prepared for delivery later on Monday night, Mrs. Obama is to speak of her own family's blue-collar past and spoke of her husband's life as ''a great American story.''
She is to add in her prepared remarks: ''Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them. And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values and pass them on to the next generation.''
And Mrs. Obama's portrait of her life growing up on the South Side of Chicago, living in a modest house, is expected to offer a contrast with speakers who offered a mocking reminder of how Mr. McCain was unable to say last week how many homes he owned.
''About the only guy who seems to have done really well these last eight years,'' said Andy Tobias, the Democratic treasurer, ''is a guy with a private jet and so many homes that he loses count.''
Yet for all the planning by Mr. Obama's aides, the appearance by Mr. Kennedy was the most anticipated event of the day. The convention hall included many delegates who remembered when he stilled Madison Square Garden in New York as he yielded the party's 1980 nomination to President Jimmy Carter, declaring the ''dream will never die.''
As the convention roared to life, Mr. McCain was hardly passive. He taped an appearance on the NBC program ''Tonight,'' where he poked fun at Mr. Obama's choice for running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, alluding to his verbosity and the risks that trait posed during a debate.
''The problem for any of them might be getting a word in edgewise,'' Mr. McCain said, before adding, ''I take that back.''
Mrs. Clinton, preparing for her own speech on Tuesday, appeared before distraught members of her home-state delegation. She criticized a commercial from the McCain campaign that sought to foster divisions between her supporters and those of Mr. Obama.
''Let me state what I think about their tactics and these ads,'' she said. ''I'm Hillary Rodham Clinton and I do not approve of that message.''
Aides to Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama were negotiating a plan that would allow delegates from some states to vote for either candidate during the roll call for the nomination, but then end the voting relatively early with the declaration of unanimous consent for Mr. Obama. One idea, according to a Democrat involved in the process, is to have New York delegates cast their votes and then have Mrs. Clinton make a motion for the hall to unanimously endorse Mr. Obama.
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The New York Times
August 26, 2008 Tuesday
Late Edition - Final
The Good Fighter
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Senator Edward M. Kennedy is proof that F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong when he declared that there are no second acts in American life. Mr. Kennedy -- who is struggling against cancer and whose career was celebrated at the Democratic convention Monday night -- has had so many acts that we've lost count.
He was the baddest of the Capitol's bad boys who had the nerve to run against a sitting Democrat, President Jimmy Carter, in 1980. Now he is the principled voice of a fading generation.
As the Bush administration steamrolled Congressional Democrats -- on the Iraq war, illegal wiretapping, military tribunals -- Mr. Kennedy has stood his ground. He has also known when it was time to compromise, working with many Republicans to become one of the most effective Senators in modern history.
What seems especially important right now is Mr. Kennedy's ability to concede defeat gracefully and rearm himself for another good fight. That is a strength we hope Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton can emulate.
Mrs. Clinton will not be nominated this week, and we know that is a great disappointment to her many supporters. But she has a long political future ahead of her, most immediately as the junior senator from New York, and a responsibility to her party to concede defeat gracefully and rearm for another good fight.
Many of her die-hard supporters -- starting with her husband, former President Bill Clinton -- have clearly not learned that lesson.
The Politico Web site reported the other day that Mr. Clinton was complaining about being assigned -- as part of the convention's Wednesday night program -- to help make the case for Mr. Obama as a commander in chief. Mr. Clinton, Politico reported, wanted instead to talk about how great his own presidency had been; a point he believes Mr. Obama has not made with sufficient enthusiasm.
We have long argued that this country has too many problems for candidates, from either party, to waste the voters' time. Senator John McCain's campaign is already trying to exploit such frictions, running an ad with a former Clinton supporter saying she will vote for Mr. McCain. Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton's insistence on having her name placed in nomination and voted on by the delegates in Denver is turning into a pointless distraction. After all, she has already released her delegates, and her spokesman says she plans to vote for Mr. Obama.
In an appearance on Monday morning before the New York delegation, she seemed to be trying to put an end to the backstage fighting. She urged her supporters to ''work as hard for Barack Obama and Joe Biden as you did for me.''
If she really means that, she has a lot more to contribute, starting with her speech at the convention on Tuesday night. She can argue -- persuasively -- that Mr. Obama is more likely than Mr. McCain to deliver on all the issues she and her backers care about most: universal health care, Supreme Court appointments, ending the war in Iraq, fighting global warming, rolling back the Bush tax cuts.
Then all Mr. Obama will have to do is emerge from the formidable shadow of the Kennedy dynasty and the dubious embrace of the Clinton machine and leave Denver on his own terms.
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USA TODAY
August 26, 2008 Tuesday
FIRST EDITION
Companies stump their stuff in Denver;
Coke, GM, Kraft, more join the party
BYLINE: Laura Petrecca
SECTION: MONEY; Pg. 3B
LENGTH: 923 words
The political partying has started.
The Democratic National Convention opened Monday in Denver. Next week, the Republicans get underway in St. Paul. And marketers -- seeing a chance to reach tens of thousands of delegates, government and party officials, volunteers and spectators -- are putting on their party hats, too.
General Motors, for instance, will provide hundreds of cars to both parties. GM, a convention car donor since 1980, is providing for the first time this year all gas-electric hybrids or E85 flex-fuel vehicles (85% ethanol fuel). The goal: highlight GM's more eco-friendly technology.
"If you look at the makeup of convention attendees and delegates ... these are some of the most influential people in the country. They are opinion and thought leaders in their community," spokesman Greg Martin says. "You rarely get (access to) such a high level of people."
Golden, Colo.-based Molson Coors Brewing is joining in as well. It is providing ethanol it makes from "beer waste" for the GM cars in Denver.
Also polishing its green credentials is Coca-Cola Recycling. A unit of bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises, it will work with Waste Management on recycling at both conventions. Among its plans: recycling bins with the Coke logo that read, "Give it back."
On Thursday, Coca-Cola North America will hold its largest-ever sampling event at Invesco Field at Mile High for nominee Barack Obama's acceptance speech. Coke will dole out samples of VitaminWater, Coke Zero, Simply Lemonade, Nestea and Gold Peak tea, as well as bottles of Dasani water to those in security lines. It plans sampling in St. Paul, too
Capitalizing on a passionate convention crowd can be smart, as long as it's bipartisan, says Joe Erwin, president of ad agency Erwin-Penland and former head of the South Carolina Democratic Party. "If you start picking favorites then you're going to limit the growth of your brand."
While Coke and GM are "official providers" for each convention, brands don't need a formal affiliation to vie for attendee attention.
Condom-maker Trojan teamed with Rolling Stone magazine to put on a "condomvention" Monday night that was hosted by comedian and HBO star Bill Maher. That event and other activities are intended to raise awareness about issues such as sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancy, marketing Vice President Jim Daniels says.
"The Republican and Democratic conventions are appropriate forums" to highlight the importance of sexual education, he says.
Other brands in attendance:
*Kraft. "Convention editions" of its Macaroni & Cheese dinners include a "Democrats in 2008" package with donkey- and star-shaped pasta and a "Republicans in 2008" edition with elephant- and star-shaped pasta. Kraft will deliver more than 20,000 boxes to each convention.
*Papa John's. To promote its whole-wheat crust, it created a giant, pizza-shaped crop display in a 6-acre wheat field in Commerce City, Colo., visible from planes arriving at the Denver airport. A pizza image cut into the wheat has red mulch "pepperoni" and black mulch "olive" toppings. The chain is working on promotions for St. Paul.
*Lionsgate. The studio is using the conventions to promote upcoming movies W. and Religulous.
Outdoor ads will tout the Oct. 17 release of the Oliver Stone film W. about George W. Bush's life.
Lionsgate will distribute postcards to hype the Oct. 3 release of Religulous, which follows Maher as he interviews people about religion.
*CNN. For the 2004 Republican convention in New York City, the cable network and marketing agency Civic Entertainment Group set up a "CNN Diner." It redecorated an existing diner with CNN material, created a special menu and also used it as a programming set.
This year, it's back with a "CNN Grill" at both conventions that will be used for both production and socializing. The grill will serve "CNN Brew" beer and food, such as burgers and BLTs. It'll be open to a range of attendees, including CNN staff, current on-air guests, past guests, advertisers and sponsors.
The network wanted to "create an atmosphere you'd have at a place like Cheers -- a good feeling and everyone knows who you are," says Scot Safon, chief marketing officer for CNN Worldwide.
Not to miss out, rival Fox News has set up its own production/hospitality facility at each event called "The Fox Experience."
Coffee cup politics
How coffee drinkers at these establishments responded when asked: "If the presidential election were held today, who would you vote for?"
Starbucks McDonald's Dunkin' Donuts
John McCain 37.8% 45.4% 32.8%
Barack Obama 44.0% 29.2% 42.5%
Undecided 15.0% 21.0% 22.0%
Coffee drinkers defined as people who say they purchase most of their coffee at fast-food restaurants or coffee shops. Source: BIGresearch, Consumer Intentions and Actions online survey of 8,582 people in August. Margin of error is +/- 1.0 percentage point. Total doesn't equal 100% due to other candidates.
Shopping for votes
More Wal-Mart, Kohl's and J.C. Penney shoppers like McCain, while Macy's and Target shoppers favor Obama. Who regular shoppers at these stores say they would vote for if the presidential election were held today:
Wal-Mart Kohl's J.C. Penney Macy's Target
McCain 41.4% 43.8% 42.8% 34.2% 32.6%
Obama 33.3% 31.0% 32.4% 47.2% 41.5%
Undecided 21.1% 21.5% 21.6% 16.0% 21.8%
Regular shoppers are defined as "customers who shop most often at the specific retailer for at least one major merchandise category." Source: BIGresearch, August Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey
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USA TODAY
August 26, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
Convention guide
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 539 words
On tap for Day 2
The theme of tonight's session of the Democratic National Convention is "Renewing America's Promise."
Some scheduled speakers:
*Pay-equity pioneer Lilly Ledbetter
*Former Virginia governor Mark Warner
*Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
On TV (all times Eastern)
*ABC, CBS, NBC: 10-11 p.m.
*PBS: 7-11 p.m.
*C-SPAN: 5-11 p.m.
*Fox News: 9:45-11 p.m.
*MSNBC: 7-11 p.m. Regular programming airing from convention.
*CNN: 6-11 p.m.
Convention newsmakers
Each day during the convention, USA TODAY hosts discussions with newsmakers. Taking part: reporters and editors from USA TODAY,
USATODAY.com and Gannett News Service. Monday's guests were Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; Eric Holder, who with Caroline Kennedy screened prospective vice presidential candidates; and New York Gov. David Paterson. Highlights:
Van Hollen. "We have as of last month about $58 million cash on hand, compared to about $12 million on the other side. ... We have cautioned our members not just to look at our fundraising advantage, one committee against the other, but to remember that there are all these other players out there that can come in anytime with no accountability."
Holder. "We took our direction from Sen. Obama, and what he emphasized -- and I mean really emphasized -- was that we had to come up with somebody who could step in and be president. ... Then we also talked about somebody who would share his values, his desire to change Washington to the extent that's possible. These were all the kinds of things we kept in mind."
Paterson. "By the time we get to the first presidential debates, and you see the stark difference between Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain, you will see Democrats and even Republicans and independents flocking to support Sen. Obama, and at the same time recognizing that we will elect a woman president in this country very soon."
For complete coverage, including video clips, go to politics.usatoday.com
Convention coverage
*Clinton-watching, the 2008 Democratic convention's favorite sideshow, Cover story
*GOP operatives huddle in Denver, 2A
*Michelle Obama taking center stage on opening night, 4A
*Democrats honor Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, 5A
*Conservatives step up efforts to turn a 1960s radical with ties to Barack Obama into a political liability, 7A
*Marketers join the parties, 3B
*Each would-be first lady has her own style, 3D
*Get Marco R. della Cava's take on the lighter side of the convention in his blog, The Political Party, excerpted in Life on page 3D and in full at politics.usatoday.com
At politics.usatoday.com
Visit us online for all the latest news of the convention, including:
*USA TODAY On Politics Blog. Read about the day's breaking news, big events and speeches.
*Photo galleries. See the day in pictures.
Four interactives
USA TODAY has four political interactives you can find online at politics.usatoday.com:
*Presidential poll tracker: See head-to-head polling numbers for all 50 states.
*Electoral vote tracker: Build your own general election scenario for 2008.
*Candidate match game: Find out which candidate most reflects your political views.
*Campaign ad tracker: Watch campaign ads and assessments of their accuracy and effectiveness.
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USA TODAY
August 26, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
Groups play up Obama link to '60s radical;
Conservatives say Weatherman Bill Ayers influenced candidate
BYLINE: Judy Keen
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 7A
LENGTH: 1033 words
CHICAGO -- Conservatives are stepping up efforts to turn 1960s radical Bill Ayers into a political liability for Barack Obama.
This spring, Obama's links to Ayers briefly became a campaign controversy. Now the American Issues Project is spending $2.8 million to air a TV ad highlighting links between Obama and Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground Organization, which opposed the Vietnam War and was responsible for several bombings.
Obama released a rebuttal TV ad Monday. "With all our problems, why is John McCain talking about the '60s, trying to link Barack Obama to radical Bill Ayers?" a narrator asks.
A movie, Hype: The Obama Effect, was first shown Sunday in Denver. It was made by Citizens United, another conservative group, and explores the Ayers-Obama connection and questions whether Obama can unite the country.
Documents released today by the University of Illinois-Chicago will be scrutinized for clues to the relationship. Ayers was a founder of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school-reform group. Obama chaired its board from 1995 to 1999. National Review reported last week that UIC said records detailing meetings and other business were public, then reversed itself. UIC said Friday that there was a misunderstanding.
Obama and Ayers, now a professor and author, live a few blocks apart in this city's Hyde Park neighborhood. Conservative activists say their relationship is evidence that Ayers' radical politics helped mold Obama's views.
"Ayers is clearly a relevant issue as it relates to Obama's pattern of relationships," David Bossie of Citizens United says.
American Issues Project spokesman Christian Pinkston says Ayers' influence is an open question, but "it's hard to see how one actually could resolve having any sort of relationship with an admitted, remorseless domestic terrorist."
The ad notes that Weathermen bombed the Capitol and asks why Obama would "be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it?"
Ed Failor, an American Issues Project founder, worked for John McCain's Iowa campaign.
The Obama campaign on Monday released a letter sent to the Justice Department last week asserting that the American Issues Project ad violates federal rules that bar tax-exempt political groups from advocating a candidate's election or defeat. Pinkston called it "a sad ploy to circumvent the First Amendment." The campaign also released a letter sent last week to TV stations disputing the ad's truthfulness.
Campaign officials say the 47-year-old candidate and the 63-year-old UIC education professor have only a casual relationship.
"The last time Obama saw Ayers was about a year ago when he crossed paths with him while biking in the neighborhood," says Ben LaBolt, a campaign spokesman. "The suggestion that Ayers was a political adviser to Obama or someone who shaped his political views is patently false."
How their paths crossed
When Obama was asked about Ayers in an April debate, he said, "the notion that ... me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."
After that debate, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley released a statement saying he doesn't condone what Ayers did in the 1960s. "It was a difficult time, but those days are long over," he said.
Ayers and Obama have moved in some of the same circles:
*In 1995, Ayers hosted a brunch for Obama, who was running for the Illinois Senate.
The ad says this meeting launched Obama's political career. Quentin Young, a physician who was there, says it was a typical Hyde Park event and to imply otherwise is "guilt by simultaneously being in the same place."
*In 1997, they were on a juvenile justice panel sponsored by the University of Chicago. They were on a 2002 panel on intellectualism that was co-sponsored by the Chicago Public Library.
*In 1997, the Chicago Tribune published a blurb from Obama about books he was reading. Obama said he was reading Ayers' A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court.
*From 1999 to 2002, both men were on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a foundation that makes grants to arts and civic groups. Obama left the board in 2002; Ayers remains on it. Laura Washington, chairwoman of the Woods Fund board, says suggestions of close ties are "an attempt to demonize Bill as a way of damaging Barack Obama."
*Ayers gave $200 to Obama's 2001 state Senate campaign.
No regrets or apologies?
Ayers did not respond to interview requests. Federal charges for crossing state lines to incite riots and conspiracy were dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct. He was in hiding for years after three Weathermen died in 1970 when bombs they were making exploded.
In a New York Times story published by coincidence on Sept. 11, 2001, about his memoirs, Fugitive Days, he said, "I don't regret setting bombs. ... I feel we didn't do enough." After that comment was raised in the April debate, Ayers posted his 2001 reply to the New York Times story on his blog. "I said I had a thousand regrets, but no regrets for opposing the war with every ounce of my strength," he wrote.
In March, Ayers wrote on his blog about demands that he apologize for his past: "In some part, apologizing is rejecting."
Ayers is married to Bernardine Dohrn, who was once on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List for inciting a riot and conspiracy. She is an associate law professor at Northwestern University.
Tom Hayden, an anti-war activist who met Ayers in the 1960s and later was elected to the California Legislature, says Ayers' past should be forgiven.
"I have met and like John McCain, but he bombed, and presumably killed, many people in a war I opposed," Hayden says. "If I can set all that aside, I would hope that Americans will accept" that Ayers has changed, too.
McCain asked after April's debate how Obama can "countenance someone who was engaged in bombings." In May, McCain said his campaign "is not going to be about" Ayers nor other Obama associates.
Cass Sunstein, a University of Chicago law professor who knows both men, is "very disturbed by (Ayers') past and by his refusal to disavow what he did." Still, he says, "I think the implications of this for Obama are zero."
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FINAL EDITION
Alaska underscores GOP troubles;
Legal woes for Stevens adds to probability of Democratic gains
BYLINE: Matt Kelley
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 7A
LENGTH: 858 words
WASHINGTON -- The Senate's longest-serving Republican, Alaska's Ted Stevens, heads into a primary election today at a time when he is fighting for his political life and his party is struggling to hold onto its Senate seats.
Stevens, who was indicted last month on federal charges of failing to report gifts he got from a wealthy constituent, is likely to survive the GOP primary over six lesser-known challengers. But he's trailing by 13 percentage points in a recent statewide poll by Rasmussen Reports against Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. The Democrat is Stevens' likely fall opponent.
The possibility of a solidly Republican state going to the Democrats underscores the party's precarious position in the Senate this year. Republicans have a little more than half the money and nearly twice as many Senate seats to defend than the Democrats, who are expected by non-partisan experts, such as The Cook Political Report, to increase their one-vote majority.
Cook Political Report senior editor Jennifer Duffy predicts Democrats will gain five to seven seats -- including possibly in Alaska, which the Cook report rates as leaning Democratic. "I don't dismiss the possibility that it could be higher, but that's the very likely scenario," Duffy said.
The stress on the Republican side showed last week, when the head of the GOP Senate fundraising committee lashed out at his colleagues for not raising enough money. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said in a statement Friday that he had to cut the National Republican Senatorial Committee's advertising budget because his pleas for support have "gone largely unanswered."
Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said the party has "a lot of strong candidates" for Senate. He also said presumptive GOP nominee John McCain will help boost Republican chances in races across the country, as will the party's push to increase domestic oil production. "You need to look state by state," Conant said. "These are all individual races."
The challenges the GOP faces in Senate races this year include:
*Numbers. Republicans are defending 23 seats, including five in which incumbents are retiring and two in which newly appointed senators are running in special elections. Democrats have 12 seats to defend. That gives Democrats an advantage, says Paul Herrnson, head of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship at the University of Maryland.
*Image. Democrats consistently will try to link Republicans to President Bush and his policies. Republicans in tight races have downplayed their ties to Bush -- and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., ran a television ad touting his work on fuel economy standards with presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama.
*Money. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had $43 million on hand at the end of July, compared with $25.4million for its Republican counterpart, according to their campaign-finance reports. "Donors recognize that this is a good year for Democrats, and this financial advantage will be used to solidify their position," University of Michigan political scientist Vincent Hutchings says.
Democrats are using that fundraising advantage to help candidates in traditionally Republican states such as Mississippi, Kentucky and North Carolina. The strategy mirrors Republican tactics when the GOP had more campaign money, Herrnson says.
"The fact that the Republican Party will not be able to bury the Democrats in money this time will make a difference," he says.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., head of the Democrats' Senate fundraising committee, agrees. "It's kind of like a giant chess game. Doing well in certain states gives you the opportunity to move into other ones."
Democrats need to gain nine seats to reach the 60 needed to prevent the Republicans from using filibusters to block Democratic bills, assuming that Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent who backs McCain, will continue to caucus with the Democrats. Schumer says a filibuster-proof majority is "unlikely, but it's not totally out of the question."
In Alaska, voters may have a jury's verdict to consider: Jury selection begins Sept. 22. Hutchings says a guilty verdict might doom Stevens' re-election bid, but it would not have much effect outside Alaska because most voters won't know much about it.
Contributing: Richard Wolf in Denver
The non-partisan Cook Political Report has identified eight Senate seats that are most likely to change parties. All are held by Republicans: (Colorado, Mississippi and Virginia have incumbent Republicans who have retired or resigned.)
State Democrat Republican Cook outlook
Alaska Mark Begich Sen. Ted Stevens Leans Democratic
Colorado Rep. Mark Udall Bob Schaffer Tossup
Minnesota Al Franken Sen. Norm Coleman Tossup
Mississippi Ronnie Musgrove Sen. Roger Wicker Tossup-1
New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen Sen. John Sununu Tossup
New Mexico Rep. Tom Udall Rep. Steve Pearce Leans Democratic
Oregon Jeff Merkley Sen. Gordon Smith Tossup
Virginia Jim Gilmore Mark Warner Likely Democratic
1 -- Special election; Roger Wicker was appointed to replace Trent Lott, who retired.
Sources: House Press Gallery, The Cook Political Report
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Correction Appended
FINAL EDITION
Pelosi: Time to get off 'failed Republican path'
BYLINE: Ken Dilanian
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 362 words
DENVER -- The Democrat-controlled Congress has set the country on a better path, but the renewal won't be complete without Barack Obama in the White House, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told convention delegates Monday night.
Although congressional job-approval ratings are at a record low, the country's first female speaker used her address to recount what she believes are the accomplishments of the 110th Congress, from increasing the minimum wage to expanding college aid.
She also sharply attacked Republican presidential nominee John McCain, saying the war in Iraq, which McCain supported and Obama opposed, was "a catastrophic mistake that has cost thousands of lives ... and over a trillion dollars." She said the war "has weakened our standing in the world and our capability to protect the American people."
Since Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, they passed the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, sent billions in aid to the hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast, funded economic stimulus checks to 130 million families and toughened standards on toxic toys, said Pelosi, who is from San Francisco.
"But our journey to take our nation in a new direction cannot be complete without new leadership in the White House," she said. "Democrats know we can't afford any more of the same failed Republican path. ... Republicans say John McCain has experience. We say, John McCain has the experience of being wrong."
Five times, she repeated the refrain: "Barack Obama is right and John McCain is wrong."
Pelosi, 68, has won high marks for her speakership from analysts such as congressional scholar Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. But among the public she is not popular. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found that 38% of Americans had a favorable opinion of her, down from 45% last April.
As she began her speech, Pelosi thanked Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying, "Our party and our country are strengthened by her candidacy."
Later, Pelosi also seemed to speak to voters who have expressed concerns to pollsters and journalists about Obama's faith, background and patriotism.
"Barack Obama's values," Pelosi said, "are enduring American values."
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CORRECTION: In a story about Nancy Pelosi in some editions Tuesday, the date the Democrats took control of Congress was incorrect. It was January 2007.
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FINAL EDITION
Denver's not their party, but Clintons still a focus;
Their words and actions could endure beyond '08
BYLINE: Susan Page
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 2158 words
DENVER -- This is not the convention the Clintons had planned.
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is playing a supporting role, not the starring one. Former president Bill Clinton won't even be speaking in prime time.
Even so, Clinton-watching has become the mesmerizing sideshow of the Democratic National Convention that will nominate Barack Obama. Their words, actions, even body language are being parsed for clues about how aggressively they'll help the rival who shattered their dreams of moving back into the White House.
The Clintons still matter, certainly, but one key question is how much? And another: What do they want?
"Sometimes dealing with the Clintons is like dealing with Brett Favre," says Leon Panetta, Clinton's former White House chief of staff, referring to the Green Bay football legend whose on-again, off-again decision on whether to retire was a big story this summer.
"They're very good players and they've got a great record, but sometimes you're not sure what they really want."
In a procession of Democratic conventions over nearly three decades, the Clintons have been rising stars, prevailing powerhouses and breakthrough figures. He is the only Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to win two terms in the White House. She was the most competitive female presidential contender in American history.
But Obama's nomination this week will mark "a changing of the guard," says former Democratic national chairman Don Fowler, who supported Clinton in the primaries.
In age, mind-set and technological innovation, it is a generational shift for a party now led by the junior senator from Illinois.
Associates say Bill Clinton is still steaming about his wife's loss and the damage done during the campaign to his own reputation, especially among African-American voters who had been a base of his support. He drew fire by calling Obama's meteoric rise a "fairy tale" and minimizing his South Carolina victory by likening it to those of Jesse Jackson in 1984 and 1988.
Bill Clinton is "taking it a little harder ... because he wanted his wife to succeed and also because he wants a good Clinton legacy," says New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who was a member of Clinton's Cabinet but enraged the former president by endorsing Obama. "He's probably still upset."
Hillary Clinton, the convention's featured speaker tonight, told a New York state delegation breakfast Monday that "we are united and we are together" behind Obama's candidacy.
During a reception Wednesday, she plans to release her delegates from their commitments to vote for her at the convention.
She referred to a TV ad Republican John McCain is airing that quotes a former Clinton convention delegate as endorsing him, part of a concerted GOP effort to reach out to disaffected Clinton supporters.
"I'm Hillary Clinton," she quipped to laughter and applause, "and I do not approve that message."
She and her aides complain she isn't being given credit for how much she's done, and how quickly she moved after their rivalry ended at the close of the Democratic primaries.
"I've probably done more for Sen. Obama than anybody in my position has ever done by this time," she told reporters Friday, her exasperation apparent.
There is exasperation among the Obama team, too, and a debate over how to deploy the Clintons, especially the former president. Some Obama partisans are annoyed by Bill Clinton's notably tepid praise for Obama so far.
Both Clintons declined requests for interviews.
"I can't imagine he will continue to bum-rap Barack Obama, which is what he's been doing up until now, unfortunately," says Abner Mikva, 82, a political mentor to Obama who also served as Clinton's White House counsel.
Mikva predicts Bill Clinton is likely to deliver some speeches but will "probably be less of a factor" in this campaign than in recent ones.
'We will not be silenced'
Hillary Clinton's campaign role is more problematic and more important for Obama, given that only half of the voters who supported her say in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll that they definitely will vote for him.
Obama needs their support, especially in the key states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida where she won primaries.
There also is a debate within the Clinton camp over what her future role might be in the Senate, in an Obama administration or even on the Supreme Court.
Some of her supporters haven't given up on the White House, either.
Three of four Democrats say they hope she runs for president again, the USA TODAY poll found. That view was nearly universal -- 94% -- among those who supported her this time.
"We would love to see her in the White House," says Blaine Whitford, an artist from St. Petersburg, Fla., who helps lead a pro-Clinton convention group, 18 Million Voices. "This time, next time or the time after that."
At issue at the convention, of course, is not only what Clinton says but what her delegates do.
Heidi Li Feldman, a Georgetown University law professor who helped organize the ad hoc The Denver Group, is among those who demanded that Clinton's name be placed in nomination and a roll-call vote taken.
A move to declare Obama the nominee by acclamation is not what they have in mind -- even if that's what Clinton proposes in her speech after a few states have cast their ballots.
"When someone tries to ram a vote by acclamation, you can walk out of the convention," Feldman says. "If you stay in that hall, you can stand up and say, 'We will not be silenced.' I tell them to stand up and sing, 'We Shall Not Be Overcome.'"
End of the 'Clinton era'?
To try to ensure order on the convention floor, the Clinton team has taken the unusual step of deputizing 40 floor whips. Allida Black, a Clinton delegate from Virginia, is one of them.
"We have a moral obligation to count the votes of the woman who achieved what no other woman in American politics has done and who in fact got 18 million votes" in the primaries, Black says.
"I will vote for Obama. But I will not vote for Obama on the first ballot" at the convention.
She scoffs at the suggestion a "Clinton era" is coming to a close.
"Lyndon Johnson became president of the United States and Bobby Kennedy did not. Did that mean the end of Kennedy politics in this country?" Black says. "No."
She says Hillary Clinton is "the de facto legislative leader of the Democratic Party and the voice of the party on the Hill."
Many of Clinton's backers see her as the natural heir to the ailing Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy as a liberal voice and legislative dealmaker.
Returning to health care
One possible goal for Sen. Clinton: shape an overhaul of the nation's health care system, the issue that undid her when she tackled it as first lady 15 years ago.
(Ironically, her effort faltered in part because she kept congressional leaders who had worked on the issue at arm's length.)
She told those at Monday's breakfast that she looks forward to a day when she would watch a President Obama sign that bill.
As a result of her presidential campaign, Clinton has more fully emerged from her husband's shadow to become a distinctive political force with a constituency of her own.
In the USA TODAY poll, 75% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they wanted her to be a "major national spokesman" for the party; 21% said they preferred she take "a less prominent role within the Democratic Party."
"She has a world of choices before her," says Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin, who stepped in as a Clinton strategist after a campaign shake-up.
"Her range of options is probably more if Barack Obama wins. I don't think John McCain will consider her for a Cabinet position or the Supreme Court, but Barack Obama may well."
Others suggest that an Obama loss opens another option.
"If she wants another shot (at the White House), obviously it makes it easier if Obama doesn't win," says Lori Cox Han, a political scientist at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and co-editor of Rethinking Madam President: Is America Really Ready for a Woman in the White House? "But that doesn't help her with the Democratic Party if she doesn't actively help him."
For Bill Clinton, too, there could be complicated repercussions from an Obama presidency.
With expanded Democratic majorities in Congress and formidable political skills, Obama "has the real potential to surpass the Clinton legacy," Han says.
Some close to Clinton were dismayed by what they saw as Obama's failure, in pressing a message of change, to acknowledge the achievements of Clinton's presidency.
What exactly about the Clinton era of the '90s don't you want to go back to?" asks Lanny Davis, a Clinton loyalist who now supports Obama. "One of the most prosperous economies in the country's history and ... international relations where Bill Clinton was one of the most popular figures in the world?"
A return to New York issues
On the day before the Senate recessed at the end of July, Hillary Clinton's national ambitions seemed a distant memory.
No longer the would-be president crisscrossing the country on a chartered plane, she was instead the junior senator from New York, tending home-state fires.
First she waited to testify before a Senate energy subcommittee on behalf of a bill that would authorize a guidebook and road signs linking sites in Upstate New York that were significant in the fight for women's suffrage.
Then she chaired a Senate Environment Committee hearing on the nomination of a New Yorker, Thomas Madison, to head the Federal Highway Administration.
The audience included, in its entirety, Madison's entourage, two reporters from Upstate New York newspapers and one from USA TODAY, and a dozen visiting students from Dali University in China on a tour of Capitol Hill.
When Clinton walked over to shake hands with Madison, a reporter from Buffalo asked her about the long-delayed construction of a new "Peace Bridge" linking the United States and Canada at the east end of Lake Erie.
The Chinese students, who were participating in an exchange program with Benedict College in South Carolina, snapped photos of Clinton with their cellphones.
"We know she was first lady and ran for president," Lili Liu, 20, said in careful English.
"She is very graceful, very beautiful, very nice," added Chen Yu Junj, 22.
Escorting the students was Stacey Jones, a vice president at Benedict who had volunteered and helped raise money for Clinton's primary campaign in South Carolina. Clinton greeted Jones by name and gave her a hug.
"It's a little different than we thought," Jones said quietly.
Clinton nodded.
"Yes," she replied. "It is."
Contributing: Kathy Kiely
The Clintons and conventions
For two decades, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton have appeared at Democratic national conventions in a variety of roles. Some highlights:
Bill Clinton
Convention site
His role
Memorable quote
1988
Atlanta
Arkansas governor
"In closing . . . ." It was his biggest applause line after he had spoken for more than a half-hour in nominating Michael Dukakis.
1992
New York
Democratic nominee
"In the name of the hard-working Americans who make up our forgotten middle class, I proudly accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States."
1996
Chicago
President seeking re-election
"My fellow Americans, after these four, good, hard years, I still believe in a place called Hope, a place called America."
2000
Los Angeles
Outgoing president
"Now my hair is a little grayer, my wrinkles are a little deeper, but with the same optimism and hope I brought to
the work I loved so eight years ago, I want you to know my heart is filled with gratitude."
2004
Boston
Former president
"My friends, after three conventions as a candidate or a president, tonight I come to you as a citizen, returning to the role that I have played for most of my life -- as a foot soldier in our fight for the future."
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Convention site
His role
Memorable quote
1992
New York
Nominee's spouse
"Some of us (women in politics) are going to take hard knocks. . . . I know that already, and I've only been at
this a few months," she told the Democratic Women's Caucus. She didn't speak to the full convention.
1996
Chicago
First lady
"To raise a happy, healthy and hopeful child, it takes a family. It takes teachers. It takes clergy. It takes business people. It takes community leaders. It takes those who protect our health and safety. It takes all of us. Yes, it takes a village. And it takes a president."
2000
Los Angeles
New York Senate candidate
"Bill and I are closing one chapter of our lives, and soon we'll be starting a new one. For me, it will be up to the
people of New York to decide whether I'll have the privilege of serving them in the United States Senate."
2004
Boston
New York senator
"I think I know a great leader when I see one, and so does America. In 1992 and 1996, Americans chose a president who left our country in better shape than when he took office. . . . He showed Democrats how to win again, and so will John Kerry."
Source: Research by Susan Page and Bruce Rosenstein, USA TODAY
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Met 2 Edition
CAMPAIGN SLOG 70 Days to Go!
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LENGTH: 242 words
On the way to Election Day 2008, the following has happened:
Is there such a thing as toxic love? In recent days, Republicans have been loving them some Hillary Rodham Clinton, calling her wise and prescient and all sorts of things they presumably wouldn't be calling her if she'd won the Democratic nomination. After releasing an ad suggesting that Clinton was "passed over" as Barack Obama's veep pick because she told "the truth" and Obama didn't like it, McCain's camp released another ad yesterday featuring Debra Bartoshevich, a "proud Hillary Clinton Democrat" (but no longer Wisconsin delegate) who praises Clinton's "experience and judgment" and then announces that for the first time in her life, she's decided to support a Republican. (Guess who?)
Joe Wineke, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, offered few loving words for the turncoat.
"The people I think that are most angry at Ms. Bartoshevich are Clinton delegates because it puts a pox on all of them," Wineke said yesterday from Denver. He added: "She can do what she wants. She was stripped of her status."
Meanwhile, the RNC just released an ad featuring clips of Clinton praising McCain's experience -- and dissing Obama's lack of it. "Was she right?" the ad asks ominously.
Hillary Clinton = oracle? (Or, Hillary Clinton = perfect foil?)
Clinton spurned her suitors yesterday in Denver.
"I am Hillary Clinton, and I do not approve that message," she said.
-- Libby Copeland
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Met 2 Edition
For Those From Swing States, The Watchword Is . . . Worry
BYLINE: Alec MacGillis and Paul Kane; Washington Post Staff Writers
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DATELINE: DENVER, Aug. 25
The anxiety comes in several forms, but particularly common is the pained look, followed by the quick glance away and the lengthy pause, in the face of a simple question: How is Barack Obama doing?
"Ahhh . . .," said Barry Bogarde, political director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that the senator from Illinois needs to win. "Better," he finally said. "He's doing better."
Asked how things are going for Democrats in New Hampshire, another swing state that the party carried in 2004, the state party chairman, Ray Buckley, did not even mention Obama's race against Sen. John McCain. He talked instead about efforts to win a Senate race and hold two congressional seats.
Jim Beasley, the commissioner of Ohio's Department of Transportation, did not have high hopes for Obama in his area of southern Ohio. "Ahhh, well. Rural Ohio will be difficult," he said. "Rural areas are difficult for him."
As the Democrats kicked off a convention designed to unite support behind Obama, interviews with several dozen delegates pointed to an undercurrent of anxiety among many from key swing states who will be charged with leading the push in their communities. They expressed doubts bordering on bewilderment: Why, in a year that had been shaping up as a watershed for Democrats, amid an economic downturn and an unpopular Republican presidency, is the race so tight?
The sentiment is strongest among former supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, though it is not limited to them. While many say they now back Obama -- a New York Times-CBS poll of delegates showed widespread support -- they are candid about the challenges they say he faces in their states.
Some have also shown signs of still being focused on the Democratic primaries and not being fully invested in the general-election effort. On Sunday night, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland echoed recent comments by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell that media coverage during the primaries had been biased in Obama's favor. And several top Clinton advisers will not be staying in Denver to see Obama accept the nomination, according to sources familiar with their schedules.
A CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll of registered voters released Sunday found that roughly two-thirds of self-identified Clinton supporters are now backing Obama, while 27 percent said they will vote for McCain. Other polls have shown Obama receiving less support from Clinton backers.
To be sure, many delegates here confidently shared the campaign's assurance that all is going according to plan. They argued that polls understate Obama's strength because they miss many of his younger supporters who use cellphones, and that many voters are only now tuning in to the election. Judy Byrne Riley, a delegate from Niceville, Fla., said she is impressed by the excitement about Obama in her mostly Republican area. "He can carry the state," she said.
Delegates were interviewed at state get-togethers, at targeted events such as rural and African American caucuses, and on the street. They largely represented the swing states where the last few elections were decided -- Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, as well as New Hampshire and others.
The delegates offered plenty of advice, such as urging Obama to deliver a more visceral message on the economy to win over stressed working-class voters.
"He's got to kick [butt] a little more about it," said Bill George, a former steelworker from western Pennsylvania who is the president of the state chapter of the AFL-CIO. Acknowledging that Obama's style may be too cerebral for that, George said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Obama's pick for running mate, could serve that role. "He's going to go run across this state and kick John McCain from one side to the other," George said.
But for some delegates, the concern is a more fundamental one: They do not share Obama's confidence that he can overcome the resistance many voters may have to electing a black president with an unusual background and name.
Some, such as Rendell, worry aloud about the "Bradley effect" -- the theory, disputed by some political scientists, that voters are likely to tell pollsters they will support a black candidate even though they don't intend to. With a little more than two months to go until Election Day, some of these most ardent and veteran Democrats have not bought into the idealism that has driven the campaign from the start and are unsure whether their neighbors and co-workers are ready for Obama.
"You don't want to play the race card, but it's out there," Bogarde said. He, like others, said he hopes Obama's selection of Biden would help get wary voters over the hump, with Biden acting as an emissary to communities like his native Scranton, Pa. "I just think the trade and labor movement was not ready for some of the major changes we're looking at" in Obama, Bogarde said. "Biden's close to the trades, and it plays better with him."
Bogarde's superior, AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee, was more blunt. "It shouldn't be as close as it is now. It just seems to me it shouldn't be that close. It should be a no-brainer," he said.
The union spent heavily on Clinton's campaign before lining up behind Obama, but McEntee insisted that his concern about the closeness of the race is not meant as an "I told you so." Other Clinton supporters here also sought to put their apprehension in context, saying that it was possible that had the senator from New York won the primaries, she would be facing her own tough fights in key states because of her polarizing effect on many voters.
Sarah Hamilton, a Clinton supporter who works for the Ohio Federation of Teachers, linked Obama's challenges in the state to the resistance that other Democratic presidential candidates have faced in trying to trump social issues with economic ones. "I really think it still has to do with 'Gods, guns and gays.' You bring in his race, and the Muslim rumor, all these things are factors that are easy to play out in the rural areas," she said.
One of Obama's most senior advisers acknowledged the angst among Democratic insiders that the race has remained so close, but suggested that it is normal for a party on the cusp of winning the White House after eight years of the Bush administration. "In politics, only the paranoid survive," said former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.). "At the end of the day, even though I'm anxious, I'm still confident we're going to win."
Daschle emphasized the need to pull off a smooth convention, then have Obama judged the winner of the debates. After that, he said, a superior get-out-the-vote effort by Obama's campaign should translate into an Election Day victory.
But Joe Turnham, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, said Democrats are still mired in a period in which they have to "make everybody feel affirmed, especially the Hillary people." This has left the Obama campaign too focused on appeasing Democrats rather than focusing on independents and Republicans who have grown disaffected by the Bush administration. "We need to be talking to each other, but we also need to be talking to America," Turnham said.
Worry extends to some rank-and-file Obama supporters, such as John Crenshaw, a real estate investor from Birmingham, Ala.
"We're all anxious," he said. The last month of political coverage in the media, he said, has centered on "tabloid" issues of the extramarital affair of former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.), charges from the McCain campaign that Obama is an elitist and the run-up to Biden's selection. All this has knocked the Obama campaign from focusing the debate on the issues of ending the Iraq war and turning around the economy. "We're not talking about any of that -- and it's crazy," Crenshaw said.
At the same time, the anxiety about racial resistance to Obama rankles some African American delegates here. They note that he has already made it much further than most expected him to, and warn against using worries about his race as an excuse not to work all- out in trying to win over undecided voters. Tony Hill, a state senator from Jacksonville, said he understands that delegates do not want to be overconfident, but noted that the campaign has registered hundreds of thousands of voters in Florida alone, and has far outpaced McCain in fundraising.
Lynette Bryant, a physician from Little Rock, said delegates are not keeping up the idealism that drove the campaign this far. "We're going to win. They should take a deep breath," she said. "Faith is a belief that will carry us through what needs to be done. And it must be done."
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Rick Wilking -- Reuters; "It is so wonderful to be here," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who has brain cancer, said in his speech to the convention.
IMAGE; By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post; Colorado delegate Julia Hicks wears her sentiments freely at the Democratic convention.
IMAGE; By John Moore -- Getty Images; Delegates hold pro-Obama signs at the Pepsi Center. The candidate will speak Thursday.
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The Washington Post
August 26, 2008 Tuesday
Met 2 Edition
Obama's Family Night Out;
After Kennedy Electrifies Crowd, the Would-Be First Lady Calls on Democrats to 'Stop Doubting' and 'Start Dreaming'
BYLINE: Jonathan Weisman; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1361 words
DATELINE: DENVER Aug. 25
After an emotional speech by an ailing Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the face of the Democratic Party shifted on Monday night to a new generation of leaders, as Michelle Obama opened the Democratic National Convention with a tribute to her husband and a call to the country to listen "to our hopes instead of our fears," and "to stop doubting and to start dreaming."
Seeking to ground Sen. Barack Obama in the experience of America's working class while recapturing the lofty ideals that propelled him toward his party's presidential nomination, Michelle Obama's family-themed speech was the climax of a dramatic opening day for a political party confident of its chances of capturing the White House but still struggling to lay aside its own divisions. A weak economy and a war in Iraq now in its sixth year have offered Democrats and their young candidate an ideal political environment in which to push for widespread change. But Obama has yet to close the deal with the electorate, or even some of the Democrats who backed his primary opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).
But once the curtain raised on a raucous Pepsi Center, the party appeared poised to come together. The delegates cheered every mention of Clinton and gave the same treatment to Obama's running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), and the party's 2004 nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.). Kennedy, who has a brain tumor but appeared spry in a surprise appearance, offered a poignant moment of reflection on the last time a youthful Democrat won the White House. To thunderous applause, he promised to be present in the Senate in January to greet a new Democratic president.
"The work begins anew. The hope rises again, and the dream lives on," he said, echoing his speech from the 1980 Democratic convention, in which he was denied the party's nomination.
Michelle Obama also did her part to try to heal the lingering wounds of the long struggle for the nomination when she recognized Clinton, "who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, so that our daughters -- and our sons -- can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher."
But the stream of new faces -- including Michelle Obama's brother, Craig Robinson, and freshman Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), one of the candidate's fiercest supporters -- and a rousing anthem from John Legend, who helped craft the viral music videos that have powered the Obama movement, signaled that the torch is changing hands. Caroline Kennedy tried to bridge that generational shift when she told the crowd, "I have never had someone inspire me the way people tell me my father inspired them, but I do now: Barack Obama."
When Michelle Obama took to the podium, she was greeted with sustained applause and a sea of blue "Michelle" placards.
"Barack doesn't care where you're from, or what your background is, or what party -- if any -- you belong to. That's not how he sees the world," she said. "He knows that thread that connects us -- our belief in America's promise, our commitment to our children's future -- is strong enough to hold us together as one nation."
After she finished, daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, met her onstage, where they were soon joined by her husband via a video link from Kansas City, Mo., where he watched the speech at the home of Jim and Alicia Girardeau. "You were unbelievable," he said, "and you look pretty cute," to which Sasha replied, "Thanks."
Michelle Obama's task was to reintroduce her husband to the nation as the candidate most capable of responding to the struggles of ordinary Americans, weary of war and beset by debt, division and fears of decline.
"Even though he had this funny name, even though he'd grown up all the way across the continent, in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine," she recalled of the man who courted her as a young lawyer. "He was raised by grandparents who were working-class folks just like my parents, and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did. And like my family, they scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities they never had themselves. And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them."
Standing "where the current of history meets this new tide of hope," the woman who would be the first African American first lady looked ahead to an evening when her daughters would tell their children about the 2008 election, and "how this time, in this great country -- where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House -- we committed ourselves to building the world as it should be."
Indeed, the anti-Republican red meat was left for an unlikely source, soft-spoken former GOP congressman Jim Leach of Iowa, who hailed Obama as "a transcendent candidate" as he criticized his own party.
"The party that once emphasized individual rights has gravitated in recent years toward regulating values," Leach said. "The party of military responsibility has taken us to war with a country that did not attack us. The party that formerly led the world in arms control has moved to undercut treaties crucial to the defense of the Earth. The party that prides itself on conservation has abdicated its responsibilities in the face of global warming. And the party historically anchored in fiscal restraint has nearly doubled the national debt, squandering our precious resources in an undisciplined and unprecedented effort to finance a war with tax cuts."
Campaigning in Iowa, Obama tried to ease his party's divisions, conceding that "there are going to be some of Senator Clinton's supporters who we're going to have to work hard to persuade to come on board -- that's not surprising." But, he added: "If you take a look this week, I am absolutely convinced that both Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton understand the stakes."
But the nerves were not easily calmed ahead of Hillary Clinton's speech on Tuesday and Bill Clinton's appearance on Wednesday. Hillary Clinton addressed the New York delegation at a breakfast in the morning. But while supporters waved signs declaring "Hillary Made History," the senator's focus was on the future.
"We were not all on the same side as Democrats, but we are now," she said. "We are united and we are together and we are determined."
Clinton is expected to release her delegates to Obama on Tuesday. That symbolic gesture reduces the prospects for major disruptions when the roll is called to nominate the senator from Illinois -- a historic moment when Obama will become the first black politician to head a major party's national ticket.
Divisions clearly remain, however, and the campaign of Republican Sen. John McCain did its best to foment unrest. It released a new advertisement featuring Wisconsin delegate Debra Bartoshevich declaring herself "a proud Hillary Clinton Democrat" who for the first time is supporting a Republican, McCain.
"A lot of Democrats will vote McCain," she says in the spot. "It's okay, really."
Clinton repudiated the ad in her appearance before the New York delegation, saying: "I'm Hillary Clinton, and I do not approve that message." But Howard Wolfson, who was her communications director, went public with the grievances her husband is still nursing. Writing in the New Republic, Wolfson said the former president "feels like the Obama campaign ran against and systematically dismissed his administration's accomplishments. And he feels like he was painted as a racist during the primary process."
Wolfson made it clear that he thinks it is Obama who needs to make amends.
"Senator Obama would go a long way towards healing these wounds if he were to specifically praise the accomplishments of the Clinton presidency in a line or two during his speech on Thursday," he concluded. "That should be painless."
Staff writers Shailagh Murray in Denver and Anne E. Kornblut, traveling with Obama, contributed to this report.
LOAD-DATE: August 26, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post; In her address to the convention, Michelle Obama, shown with daughters Malia, left, and Sasha, said of her husband: "He knows that thread that connects us -- our belief in America's promise, our commitment to our children's future -- is strong enough to hold us together as one nation."
IMAGE; By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post; Michelle Obama prepares to speak at the convention after an introduction from her brother, Craig Robinson.
IMAGE; By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post; Barack Obama watches his wife's speech with Jim and Alicia Girardeau and their 10-year-old daughter, Grace, in Kansas City, Mo. Also on hand were daughters Hanna, 18, and Lindsay, 15.
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Washingtonpost.com
August 26, 2008 Tuesday 9:13 PM EST
Obama Delivers Remarks in Kansas City, Mo.
BYLINE: CQ Transcripts Wire, washingtonpost.com
LENGTH: 2537 words
HIGHLIGHT: SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-Ill.): Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-Ill.): Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
Thank you. Thank you. Please, everybody, have a seat. Relax.
I'm going to take off my jacket, get a little less formal here.
Thank you so much.
A couple of people I want to acknowledge. First of all, can everybody please give Ron a big round of applause for the outstanding introduction. Thank you so much. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
You wouldn't know it from looking at us, but Ron and I have a couple of things in common. First of all, my grandmother worked on a bomber assembly line in World War II. She was an inspector. And so, when I hear Ron's stories about his family working in the industry, I can relate to that.
More importantly, we both have two daughters. And Ron was bragging about them, as fathers are supposed to do with their daughters. And he's got a daughter who is a singer-songwriter in Nashville, and had a number one hit with the Wreckers. Is that right?
So, I'm going to have to pick up that CD. I recommend all of you go out and buy it.
(LAUGHTER)
He's got a daughter who's studying journalism at Mizzou. So, he is a great father, as well as a great co-worker. And we appreciate him.
(APPLAUSE)
I want to thank Reverend Jim Gordon for the invocation and pledge. I want to thank Gordon Clark, president of Transport Workers Union. They were just great supporters of mine in the primary, and I'm so thankful to all of you...
(APPLAUSE)
... for standing up with me.
(APPLAUSE)
And I want to acknowledge somebody who's very special to this facility, as well as to this city. When she was mayor, she helped to negotiate the agreement with American Airlines, that ensured that this facility stayed open. She has always been looking out for working families all throughout Kansas City.
She is no longer the mayor, but she's soon going to be the congresswoman from the 6th Congressional District -- Kay Barnes.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
Give Kay a big round of applause.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
So, first of all, what did you all think about my wife last night?
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
She was good. Wasn't she good?
(APPLAUSE)
Puts a little pressure on me.
(LAUGHTER)
But I've always said, I am not the star of the Obama family. I rank fourth after Malia, Sasha and Michelle.
But I could not have been more proud of her. And as I said on television last night, she also looked cute.
(LAUGHTER)
Which doesn't hurt.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
It does not hurt.
And Michelle and I have been on this journey for almost 19 months now. And that's a long time. That means there are babies that have been born, and are now walking and talking since I started this campaign.
And so, people have asked me, well, what have you learned about America in traveling these last 19 months?
And I say, well, number one, America is big.
When you travel to all 48 states in the continental United States, and then, you know, you're crisscrossing -- East Coast, West Coast, North, South -- you realize what a magnificent country this is. From sea to shining sea, we've got spectacular mountains and spectacular oceans, and deserts and -- it's just an amazing land that we have. It's a true blessing from God.
The second thing that you learn is how wonderful the American people are. I mean, you know, any politician is going to say that. But I have special credentials, because I have talked to people from every walk of life, all across America.
And what you realize is the American people are decent. They are generous. They are hard-working. They are sacrificing for their families. They are contributing to their communities.
They are self-reliant. They take pride in their work. It just -- it makes you optimistic when you meet the American people.
And we have a set of common values as Americans. Regardless of race or age or station in life, everybody believes in some core things -- in liberty, in opportunity and community and responsibility, in hard work and honesty.
So, it makes you feel encouraged meeting the American people.
The third thing, though -- and that's part of what I want to talk about briefly, before we turn to questions -- the third thing you learn from traveling across the country is that people are anxious.
People are scared about the future. And you know something about this in this facility.
We had a meeting before we came in here with some of the officials from the airlines, as well as the union. And American Airlines is the only U.S. carrier that still does its maintenance work right here in the United States. And this is...
(APPLAUSE)
You know, they have forged a cooperative effort with labor to keep this facility open, and to try to make sure that the good-paying union jobs, with benefits, are still here for the future.
But the fact is, is that the airlines are getting clobbered. They're having a tough time, because of rising fuel rises, because of the same things that are creating a tough time for individual families who are trying to fill up their gas tank or buy groceries.
The truth is that this economy is not working for ordinary Americans. And we just had some statistics today that were issued, that show you what's been going on. Now, I just want to read a couple of these to you.
Since 2000, since George Bush took office, the average, typical family income has gone down $2,000. Typical family income has gone down $2,000. When Bill Clinton was president, the typical family income went up $6,200.
Up under Democrats, down under this administration.
(APPLAUSE)
Eight hundred and sixteen thousand new people fell into poverty in 2007, including 500,000 more children.
Under this president, more than seven million people are newly uninsured, don't have health benefits.
And those are the statistics. Those are the facts. And that's before you start realizing that we have more home foreclosures than at any time since the Great Depression.
Housing prices have gone down 15 percent, so that even if you didn't lose your home, you're seeing your wealth, your equity that you've built up, diminished under this president, partly because nobody was minding the store when the financial institutions were giving out predatory loans and teaser interest rates that shot up, and people couldn't afford to pay.
I don't have to tell you about gas prices. If you work here at this facility, you know what the rising cost of oil has done, and the fact that we still do not have an energy policy in this country.
And for the individual family, not only does that mean that you can't fill up the gas tank, it means everything's gone up. You go shop in the grocery store, eggs are up 20 percent, bread is up 30 percent.
Home heating oil, when winter comes, is going to be sky-high. And if you're on a fixed income, if you're a senior citizen, how do you make that up?
Not only have people lost health insurance, but if you've got health insurance, what's happened? Your premiums and your co-payments and deductibles have gone up and up and up. And that's not just affecting workers, it's affecting businesses as well, because they're less competitive now than they used to be.
And meanwhile, we keep on seeing more and more American jobs being shipped overseas.
That's the record of the last eight years.
So, you'd think that both parties would be scrambling to try to figure out how do we move in a new direction.
But that's not what John McCain's doing.
He said that this economy under George Bush had made great progress economically. That's what he said. That's a quote.
One of his top economic advisers said that the economy is doing fine. It's -- the American people are in a mental recession, he said.
And he said that Americans had become a nation of whiners, had to stop whining.
This is a guy who's got the inside track to be secretary of the Treasury.
Then, John McCain just last week said that the fundamentals of the economy were sound.
The fundamentals of the economy were sound.
And this is when we also heard that John McCain's definition of middle class is anybody making under $5 million a year. So, if you're making $4 million, you know, you're struggling.
(LAUGHTER) And this, of course, is before we found out that John McCain didn't know how many houses he had.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
You know, if you don't know how many houses you have, then no wonder you think we've made great progress economically.
(LAUGHTER)
No wonder you think that the economy is sound.
I don't think John McCain says these things because he's a bad person. I just don't think he gets it. He is out of touch.
I don't think he realizes what ordinary American families are going through.
(APPLAUSE)
I don't think the Bush administration understands what ordinary Americans are going through.
(APPLAUSE)
But I do, and that's why I'm running for president of the United States of America...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
... to move this country in a new direction.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
Now, it's not going to be easy to dig ourselves out of the hole we're in. And one of the things I try to do is not make promises that I can't keep.
But I am absolutely convinced that, if we start getting some leadership in the White House, that we can begin the process of restoring the American Dream to families here in Kansas City, here in Missouri, and all across America. I am convinced of that.
(APPLAUSE)
So, here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to do.
We're going to change our tax code. We're going to stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, and give them to companies that invest right here in the United States of America.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
We're going to make sure that we close tax loopholes and tax havens going to corporations that are making billions of dollars, like ExxonMobil, and we're going to give a tax break to 95 percent of American families.
The average family sitting here would get an additional $1,000 a year in tax relief that they could spend on saving for their kids' college education...
(APPLAUSE)
... or buying groceries, or buying the new coat, or buying a computer for the child who is about to go to school.
Now, this is a very different deal than you're going to be getting under John McCain. John McCain proposes $300 billion in tax cuts, including making -- in addition to renewing the Bush tax cuts, he wants to give $300 billion in new tax cuts to companies and the wealthy that don't need it.
He leaves 100 million people out of tax relief. So, when you see those commercials saying Barack Obama is going to raise your taxes, just look at the independent analysts who say that middle class families would get three times the amount of tax relief under Barack Obama's tax plan than with John McCain.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
But we're not going to stop there. We're not going to stop there. We're going to finally have an energy policy that's worth of American innovation.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
I saw some signs on the way in here, some McCain people were standing outside. They said, "Drill Here, Drill Now."
Listen. I don't know if there are any oilfields right out there.
(LAUGHTER)
But, I think we need to increase domestic production. There are untapped oil reserves here in the United States, we should tap them.
But here's the truth. Some of you have seen this ad from T. Boone Pickens. You know, he and I don't agree on a lot of things, but we agree on one thing. If you've got three percent of the world's oil reserves and you use 25 percent of the world's oil, then you can't drill your way out of the problem.
So, we want to do everything. But the main way that we are going to solve this energy crisis -- and that is the main thing that is going to keep this airplane flying, and keep these jobs right here in the United States -- is if we start developing a whole series of plans to create a clean energy future.
It means that we are investing in solar and wind...
(APPLAUSE)
... and tapping nuclear energy and natural gas.
(APPLAUSE)
It means that we're making our cars more fuel efficient. If we increased our fuel efficiency on cars, that's 30 percent of oil is used in the transportation sector.
If we just made our trucking fleets more efficient, that could save enormous amounts. That drives down world oil prices and puts this airplane back in the air.
And that's why I've consistently supported higher fuel efficiency standards on cars, and tax credits for industries that are developing solar and wind and biodiesel.
And that's why I have said that we are going to put $15 billion a year, every single year, in developing these new alternative energies.
We're going to have an Apollo project. Just like Kennedy said we're going to go to the moon in 10 years, we are going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil in 10 years' time, so that we don't have to import oil from the Middle East.
(APPLAUSE)
That is the kind of goal that America needs right now. That's what I'm going to do when I'm president of the United States of America.
(APPLAUSE)
I want to make sure that our trade agreements are fair.
I believe in competition.
(APPLAUSE)
I believe that the U.S. worker is the best worker on earth. There's no country that can compete with us on an even playing field.
But I don't want a situation where we only send 4,000 cars into South Korea, while they're sending hundreds of thousands of cars here into the United States of America.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
We want to make sure that there are no barriers to us being able to sell American products and American goods into the United States of America.
I want to have a health care system that works for all Americans.
Look, if you've got health care through your employer, keep it. I'm going to work with your employer to lower your premiums by $2,000, $2,500 a year.
If you don't have health insurance...
(APPLAUSE)
... if you're one of those millions of people who have lost health insurance since George Bush went into office, you're going to be able to buy a health insurance plan similar to the plan I have as a member of Congress.
And if you can't afford it, we're going to subsidize you, because we want to make sure that everybody's getting regular check-ups and regular screenings.
If we put more money into prevention, the whole system saves money. Employers save money. Workers save money.
(APPLAUSE)
The American people are healthier. That's common sense that we need in the White House. And that's what I'm going to do when I'm president of the United States.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
I want to make our education system work for every child. Invest in early childhood education. Pay our teachers more.
Make sure that college is affordable for every young person who wants to go, by giving them -- saying to them -- if you provide community service or national service, we will guarantee that you can go to college, that you can afford it. We will provide the money that you need.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERS)
Because we want the next generation of engineers that are building jet planes, we want them to be building them here. And that means our kids are going to have to learn math and science.
And I want to make sure that we're reinvesting in our infrastructure here in America -- our roads, our bridges, broadband lines, a new electricity grid, sewer systems, levees.
Look, with all the people that have been laid off from construction industries, imagine if we put people back to work right now...
(END AUDIO FEED)
END
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Washingtonpost.com
August 26, 2008 Tuesday 2:00 PM EST
Freedom Rock
BYLINE: J. Freedom du Lac, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3357 words
HIGHLIGHT: Washington Post music critic J. Freedom du Lac is online every Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET to talk about the latest on the music scene: alternative, country, alt-country, pop, hyphy, harp-rock, reggae, reggaeton, R and B and whatever it is that Clay Aiken does.
Washington Post music critic J. Freedom du Lac is online every Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET to talk about the latest on the music scene: alternative, country, alt-country, pop, hyphy, harp-rock, reggae, reggaeton, R and B and whatever it is that Clay Aiken does.
The transcript follows.
____________________
Denver!: So Springsteen is allegedly going to do a solo acoustic performance after Obama's speech on Thursday night. What song do you think it'll be? A lot of the Democrats have used The Rising, but that doesn't seem to lend itself to an acoustic performance. The stuff off of The Ghost of Tom Joad isn't well-known enough (Youngstown does play into the struggles of working class America) and Devils & Dust seems too overtly political, even for a political convention.
J. Freedom du Lac: Not happening, as reported on Post Rock this morning.
Bon Jovi might be there, though. If they're looking to make it an all-Jersey bill, maybe the Jonas Brothers will show - though I suspect they're McCain guys.
Or maybe it'll be (ulp) will.i.am!
So ... welcome one and all.
It's convention week. Can you feel the excitement?
_______________________
Just out of curiosity: Why was James Hunter reviewed and not Chris Isaak?
J. Freedom du Lac: Because Chris Isaak hasn't released a studio album in forever (and he's been reviewed during that period, too), whereas James Hunter has. And it's a damn fine one, too.
_______________________
Annandale, Va.: After Bo Bice and the "40 Years Ago Today" Beatles tour for Sgt Pepper, can we expect to see Clay Aiken perform a 10 year retrospective of the Flaming Lips "The Soft Bulletin" next year?
J. Freedom du Lac: Did you just use "Clay Aiken" and "Flaming Lips" in the same sentence? That's hilarious on at least two levels.
_______________________
Current Rock Fashion: I'm not sure what bothers me more:
The uber tight, tapered pants worn by the kids or their hair that is manicured and shaped for hours to make it look like they just rolled out of bed.
Who started the tight pants thing, think Jonas Bros, Metro Station, other forgettable bands on MTVU etc
J. Freedom du Lac: Umm.... the Ramones?
It's taken off again recently, though. I blame the residents of Williamsburg.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.: David, you're cute and all, but go eat a sandwich or something!
J. Freedom du Lac: You should see the sandwiches Malitz eats. Plain turkey. He's the least adventurous eater I know.
_______________________
washingtonpost.com: Post Rock!
_______________________
Obligatory Springsteen Question: First, NBC reports that Springsteen dedicates Born in the USA to Michael Phelps, which doesn't even make sense (the later dedication of Thunder Road in St. Louis seemed more like he was making fun of Bob Costas for starting the rumor). Then, various papers and journalists start reporting that he's going to show up at the DNC, which has now been denied (but is still being reported in some places as something that will happen). Then there's the ongoing rumor that he will play the Super Bowl halftime show, which has neither been confirmed nor denied in the two or three months of its existence.
My question is this. Has Bruce Springsteen (and/or possibly Jon Landau) taken on a personal mission to slowly and subtly destroy what's left of the mainstream media's credibility? I've never thought of him as the conniving sort, but maybe he hates cable news just that much?
J. Freedom du Lac: That's an interesting theory. (Speaking of Springsteen and sports and St. Louis, The Big Lead thinks the show there was held up until Tony LaRussa was in the building, as the lights apparently went down moments after he was brought to his seat.)
Anyway, yeah, much speculation/rumor-reporting about Springsteen performing at the convention on Thursday, but as I reported on Post Rock this morning: It ain't happening.
I think the Super Bowl thing would be a possibility, though I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't happen and, like, the Eagles played instead.
_______________________
St. Louis, Mo.: Ok, 41 y/o black chick attends her first (maybe) Nine Inch Nails concert. Was very impressed, even the mosh pit was tame. Though some of that instrumental stuff in the middle was weird and not what I was expecting. I had suite tickets so I didn't get the full NIN experience. I liked it enough to download their free CD "Still", though I did add the instrumental stuff to my dogs' iPod. Yes, my dogs have their own iPod. Don't judge.
J. Freedom du Lac: I didn't love the instrumental section at Virgin Festival, either. It sounded great, thanks to the mix. But it just felt flat, in a sucking-the-air-out-of-the-audience kinda way. But I was pretty much already on my way to Kanye's stage at that point. Maybe it would've been more effective if I'd been paying close attention.
What do the dogs think of the instrumentals?
_______________________
Mt. Vernon, Va.: Your opinion on the "band" She and Him. I've heard a few songs and really like it...but I'm wondering if I'm being swayed by the wonderfulness of Zooey Deschantel.
J. Freedom du Lac: I can see why you'd be so swayed.
I like them just fine, though after listening to the album a second time, I decided it was more anodyne than anything else. M. Ward is great, though.
_______________________
???: When is new Metallicas
J. Freedom du Lac: Sept 12, I think. A Friday.
At least officially. Who knows when the leak will land.
_______________________
San Diego, Calif.: Eagles no good. Not superbowl for Eagles.
J. Freedom du Lac: I still maintain that they should've retired the Super Bowl half-time show after Prince performed. Nobody's gonna top that, though Bruce and the ESB have a chance to tie.
_______________________
FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM du Lac: Just wanted to let you know that your follow up on the Jonas Brothers (the one with the comments) provided for loads of hilarity in the office. I mean after all ten spins with a guitar is a lot.
Seriously though: What do you think of Jakob Dylan's Solo CD and does it sound any different then him sans band? (FWIW I did love the Wallflowers)
J. Freedom du Lac: The public humiliation was rough, but I survived.
My favorite email was the one that concluded thusly: "So please stop hating on him. I thought only teenagers did that, but you're a grown man. GROW UP!"
The correspondence was so great that Harper's Magazine is considering publishing some of the emails that didn't make it into print/online here.
Now hang on, I have to finish getting Woodward's scrapbook together...
_______________________
!!!: Metallica yay!
J. Freedom du Lac: Thoughts on the new single? At first pass, it sounds sort of stale. Metallica covering Metallica.
_______________________
McLean, Va.: Hey J - Did you see Jimmy Page on the Olympics? How lame was that? Waaaaay out of sync with the tape! He did look pretty good though; not as pasty as recent photos.
J. Freedom du Lac: No, I missed the pomp and pageantry. In fact, I missed most of NBC's broadcasts, besides some of the live events. I watched quite a bit of track (not field) online, though. Didn't feel like waiting 12 hours for NBC to getting around to it...
_______________________
Backstage Riders: J-Free: what's the least-justified concert rider you've ever seen? I don't mean the "no brown m&m's" thing, 'cuz if you're Van Halen in 1984, you can pretty much demand anything. I mean what's the most ridiculous demand made by someone who has no right to expect anything more than a clean bathroom?
Hey, by the way: Bon Flowbee, for that feathered hair the Jersey chicks love.
J. Freedom du Lac: Haven't really spent much time studying concert riders, though I always enjoy them when I happen to find one on TheSmokingGun. I think Solomon Burke has a large throne-like chair in his rider. But that's easy to justify. The dude is the king of rock and soul.
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Fairfax, Va.: I know we've done the obligatory Springsteen question today, but awhile back there were rumors about another CD since there was a lot of material left over from Magic. Any word on that, or has the loss of Danny Federici changed things and is this concert run it for the gang down on E Street?
J. Freedom du Lac: Nils was sort of noncommittal about the future for Bruce and the ESB when I interviewed him last week. I don't remember what he said exactly, but it was something cryptic about this chapter (the "Magic" album/tour) coming to a close and who really knows what's ahead.
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Chattanooga, Tenn.: When the Jonas Brother spins 10 times with a guitar (which IS a lot) is that spinning the guitar like ZZ Top or spinning himself around like in the hokey pokey. Because 10 ZZ Top-style spins really WOULD be impressive.
J. Freedom du Lac: It WOULD be impressive! But no, the young, sharped-dressed man spins in a circle, like a Deadhead without the psychotropics.
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Arlington, Va.: Any word on the date for the new Jenny Lewis?
J. Freedom du Lac: Klimek asks me that question daily, though usually it's: When can you get me a date with Jenny Lewis?
The album is out Sept 23, I think.
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L' Enfant Plaza, D.C.: The new Metallica?
Musically, a bunch of ideas that seem to be fighting with each other a bit. Lyrically, hunh? What's he saying? Hopefully the live version will pull the bits together better.
Heard their new cover of an Iron Maiden song? That is really awesome.
I also disagree about the instrumental NIN stuff at V Fest. A bit unexpected, but I thought it was beautiful.
J. Freedom du Lac: Yeah, I think there's a pretty good chance I would've liked it more if it had my undivided attention. Kanye was coming on, plus deadline was just around the corner. My mind was already wandering across the field.
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Decades-old complaint: What bothers me about radio stations playing "Paper Planes" is that the MIA song is just as good now as it was 18 months ago, when it was completely ignored by commercial radio (along with all her other output).
I often think that a programmer at a popular radio station could make any decent song a hit just by playing it a few times, and without being deserted by listeners and advertisers. Variety hasn't killed commercial radio in Europe.
It bothers me that they're still so unadventurous here.
J. Freedom du Lac: It's quite possible that a lot of programmers never actually heard the song - or any of MIA's music, for that matter - before the "Pineapple Express" campaign.
Frustrating, sure.
But personally, I'd rather have people discover MIA late than never at all. This just in: She's been great for a while now!
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Tulsa, Okla.: Home of Cains Ballroom
Best concert rider - Chuck Berry - his car must be parked right at the back door - money in cash in one paper sack - another sack of BBQ and a loaf of bread.
J. Freedom du Lac: That's great.
Apparently, he was in a car, on his way out of Pimlico before his VFest appearance. Hated the idea of playing with the Silver Beats so much that he was going, going, gone before they got it all sorted out.
Speaking of cars parked by the back door: As I was leaving Tipitina's after the 30th anniv concert, I saw a sweet old Rolls parked next to the door, with "PIANO" on the plates. Allen Toussaint's ride. Awesome.
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Bethesda Blood Bank: Re: Jonas Brother Photo - Please pass on to Producer David that selling plasma should be limited to just two days a week
J. Freedom du Lac: He's gotta make rent somehow. Hope he gets a raise before he disappears into the ether...
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Norfolk, Va.: Hope I didn't miss the review but how was that last Solomon Burke anyway?
J. Freedom du Lac: You missed the review. The album is just okay, which I blame on the material/producers. Too mellow. I like King Solomon sound sing with a belly full of fire and ache, as with that killer "Nashville" album he put out a couple of years ago.
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Washington, D.C.: J.Free, what are your thoughts on Rage? I take it you don't agree with Malitz.
J. Freedom du Lac: Right, I completely disagree with Malitz here. RATM spoke to my meathead sensibilities. Plus, I think they're in a completely different category than Limp Bizkit and the rest of the rap-rockers. (Actually, early-era Deftones would be in with RATM, too, only they weren't really political. And they didn't really sound similar. I mean from a qualitative standpoint.)
I really just liked the raw power of RATM's performances. Subtle? No. Lyrically/thematically sophisticated? Not necessarily. But cripes - they absolutely lowered the boom live. Did exactly what that brand of agit-rock is supposed to do. Seeing them at the Fillmore, which was wayyyy too small to contain their sound and energy, was really something else. I thought the place was going to explode.
Also, Malitz says he likes guitars to sound like guitars, but what does that really mean? Thurston Moore's guitarwork sounds nothing like Thao Nguyen's sounds nothing like Prince's.
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Spoonerized Band Names: Chuck Berry. Buck Cherry. Any others? Jon Bovi (not really). The Efferson Jairplane (not really again). Jeter, Pjorn and Bohn (not really again). Stupid question, sorry.
J. Freedom du Lac: Apology accepted.
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Backstreets: There's no great mystery to why Springsteen isn't playing the convention (and taking this week off between concerts): He's taking his oldest kid, Evan, to college this week. Simple as that. Seriously.
J. Freedom du Lac: And sometimes fans have to be stalkers!
Oh, just kidding. (Sort of.)
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Tulsa, Okla.: any review of the Sgt Peppers tribute show?
Thanks
washingtonpost.com: Here ya go.
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22205: I am having an existential crisis. After attending 4 shows in one week (Rattler, Rancid, The Hold Steady, The Faint), the idea of listening to new music exhausts me. I have seriously reverted back to the bands that I listened to when I was a teen because its familiar and I don't have to think about my opinion on the stuff. This funk has lasted 2 weeks now, and unfortunately its only getting worse. I am now listening to young teen bands because, well, the music just isn't all that deep. And last night I actually checked out MTV.com to find new harmless music that doesn't make me feel like I should be thinking about it.
J Free, have you ever been burnt out of new music? And more importantly, how can I get out of it? The shame I feel knowing that Paramore (seriously. Paramore.) now has a significant place in my Zune library is almost too much to bear.
J. Freedom du Lac: Nah, but I do burn on bad music.
When I'm on a new-music binge, plowing through a bin of new releases, and nothing's sounding good, I usually listen to an old standby to kind of recalibrate my ears. Though lately, when that happens, I find myself returning to James McMurtry's catalogue. And, oddly, that Dixie Chicks song, "Travelin' Soldier."
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Bon Jovi Cover Band Made Up of of Obamamaniacs: Obama Jovi...
J. Freedom du Lac: Marginal, but okay....
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New York: Speaking of MIA, in "American Boy", is Estelle singing "No, I ain't been to MIA" or "no, I ain't in to MIA"?
I really hope it's the latter. Nothing like a battle between two successful female Brit hip-hop artists. Dizzee Rascal could referee.
J. Freedom du Lac: Definitely singing that she hasn't been to M-I-A.
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Plain turkey. He's the least adventurous eater I know. : My husband does this. Bread and turkey. No mayo, no tomato, no nothing. But he does it out of laziness, believe or not. I mean, how much effort does it take to slap a little mayo down? Does David actually LIKE his sandwich so plain and boring? Or does he eat it that way to "save time."
J. Freedom du Lac: Went to lunch near his office one time, and he ordered a plain turkey sandwich. Definitely a choice.
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Re: Bo Bice: In your Six Questions, he claimed that the Beatles were less of an influence than the Allman Brothers, Skynyrd, and "Marshall Crenshaw." I'm willing to bet he said "Marshall Tucker" and you guys weren't paying attention because you were trying to imagine him in that satiny Sgt. Pepper's coat. By the way, how bad was that concert, anyway?
J. Freedom du Lac: Hahahahaha!!!!! Man, you say Marshall, I hear Crenshaw...
No-touch editing in action.
Dave McKenna reviewed the Baltimore stop of that tour and kinda hated it.
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Alexandria, Va.: A friend just got the WKRP in Cincinnati box set but it was lame -- no original music on any of the TV shows on the DVDs. Sigh...
J. Freedom du Lac: Huh, weird.
I'd be more excited if I got a copy of this book in the mail, I think: "Brocabulary: The New Man-i-festo of Dude Talk."
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Taylor Swift: so, I know you are a quasi-fan. I'm trying to sell my boyfriend on Taylor Swift. I tried "she's like a country Kelly Clarkson." I tried "She sings about what high school girls care about, and does it well." But neither has worked. What say you? How do I sell a man on her music?
J. Freedom du Lac: I'm just not sure Taylor's somebody you can sell him on. But don't compare her to Clarkson; very different singers. Don't think, for instance, that Taylor could hit a home run with a cover of Patty Griffin's "Up to the Mountain" the way KC did on American Idol a year or two ago.
Try telling him that her phrasing is influenced by rappers. Though that might not work, either.
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Sgt Pepper tribute at Wolf Trap: two words: train wreck
J. Freedom du Lac: Sounds like it.
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And, oddly, that Dixie Chicks song, "Travelin' Soldier." : J. Free: Once again, you prove yourself to be a genius. That is a great song, a sad tale of innocent wartime love and loss, and ironically, the Chicks' single at the time their career was butchered because of their George Bush comments. And your James McMurtry decision was also a good one (how about the songs "Levelland," "Where's Johnny" and "Storekeeper"?). The man's awesome.
J. Freedom du Lac: That is, indeed, one of the great ironies about the backlash. It's covered pretty well in "Shut Up and Sing," Barbara Kopple's great documentary about that whole period of the DC's career.
"Choctaw Bingo" - pure genius.
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Re: The Sgt. Pepper's thing: So, why do people do things like this? Does Christopher Cross need the money? He sold 90 gazillion songs way back when. Do they think it gives them artistic credibility (I laughed when I typed that, by the way)? Wouldn't they get just as much attention singing their own hits?
J. Freedom du Lac: He tours on his own, too. But money might be a motivating factor for CC, as well as maybe just being a big Beatles fan. Or maybe wanting to be in front bigger crowds than he'd otherwise draw.
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The new Sugarland is awesome: There. I've said it. Never thought I would about a country band but I just did.
J. Freedom du Lac: Say it about somebody who's super-twangy, like Ashton Shepherd, and I'll really be impressed.
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re: How do I sell a man on her music?: You can't succeed at trying to force the issue, you will just make him dislike her even more. The only way to get him to like her is to just play the music when he's over without saying who it is, maybe mix her stuff in with some other artists. Eventually he will get used to it and start to like it.
J. Freedom du Lac: Carolyn Hax, get in here!
Actually, I think I'll ask Carolyn this question, since variations on it come up in the chat every now and again.
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Big Boss on Campus: Springsteen's OLDEST son is starting college?
I feel so... so... young.
J. Freedom du Lac: Let the lobbying begin now: Your Class of 2012 commencement speaker ... Bruce Springsteen!
Thanks for stopping by today, folks. Nils Lofgren interview going live on the blog later this week.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: September 5, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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All Rights Reserved
605 of 972 DOCUMENTS
Washingtonpost.com
August 26, 2008 Tuesday 12:00 PM EST
Critiquing the Press
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2354 words
HIGHLIGHT: Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War," "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."
Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War," "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."
He was online live from the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Tuesday, August 26 at noon ET to describe the media scene there and take your questions and comments.
The transcript follows.
Media Backtalk transcripts archive
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Baltimore: You know, I tire of all the continuous hype that claims that "the media" is positively rooting for Obama ... but when a National Public Radio affiliate here in Baltimore advised its listeners on Saturday that its later programming schedule would be delayed for/pre-empted by -- and I quote the announcer precisely -- "a very special press conference" by Obama ... I have to say that they have a point. What's next, an "After-School Special"? Also, can we trust that all these newspapers publishing special "Convention 2008" sections -- such as a certain Post in your city -- also will publish similarly-sized/detailed coverage for the Republican convention?
Howard Kurtz: On the last point, absolutely. We're all moving on to St. Paul, if we survive the week in Denver, and pubishing the same number of special sections. As The Post does every four years.
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Anonymous: Good afternoon. Why do journalists all adopt a couple of cliches and then beat them to death before moving on? "Game-changer." Ugh.
Howard Kurtz: Because we're not convinced Barack Obama has the fire in the belly and can close the deal during the fog of war.
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Chicago: Why did you let an official Fox spokesperson get away with anonymously slamming Jon Stewart? What about The Post's own policy on attributions and sources that says "sources who want to take a shot at someone in our columns should do so in their own names"? And the part of the policy that says you should explain why sources aren't being named?
washingtonpost.com: No Joke: Jon Stewart Takes Aim At 24-Hour Cable News 'Beast' (Post, Aug. 26)
Howard Kurtz: The esteemed Jim Romenesko, who does such a good job, is wrong about this. First of all, I push as hard as any reporter to get everything on the record. In recent years I've basically gotten out of the business of quoting people on background except in rare instances.
Second: While the spokesman I quoted responding to Jon Stewart did not want to be named, this was not some anonymous source. This was not "one Fox executive said," which could be anyone who felt like popping off. This was the spokesman delivering the official response for the network, a person in the PR department who is authorized to speak for Fox News. That, in my book, is different than just quoting some random person who is speaking for himself or herself. I had several discussions with my editors about this. It's hardly unusual for us to say, for example, "a Pentagon spokesman said" without naming the person.
Finally, while it would have been better if the person had agreed to be named, Fox was authorizing the comments in response to a pretty hard slam from Stewart, rather than initiating an attack.
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Arlington, Va.: Why have Democrats declared war on the traditional mainstream media? One example was issuing the Biden announcement at 3 a.m., after deadlines for most papers are past and TV networks don't have an audience, and using new media to disseminate it by e-mail (who was the idiot who felt they would reach people with a 3 a.m. e-mail?).
Obama's campaign also has been openly hostile and unhelpful to reporters covering him, with quotes I read from spokesmen who say they know nothing. As an outsider, I think this is a historically big mistake. Since when has the media not been kind to Democrats? Unnecessarily alienating reporters traditionally has been how Republicans operate their campaigns, in my humble opinion, because GOP voters like their candidates to take on the "powerful press."
It also didn't work because the dead-tree mainstream media got the Biden call first, and New York Times columnist David Brooks (normally Republican-leaning) wrote a marvelously prescient piece wishing Biden would be the choice. So what's the new politics behind why is the Obama campaign doing this? And will there be payback?
Howard Kurtz: I've written frequently about the tensions between the Obama campaign and the press corps, but you're way overstating the case. No "war" has been declared on the media. Some reporters were definitely ticked by the 3 a.m. announcement, but a campaign has the right to stage-manage a veep rollout any way it wants. It is true that Obama aides often don't help us out on what they consider "process" stories, but they're absolutely not "hostile," and again, their job is to win the election, not make the press happy. Perhaps the biggest sticking point is the lack of regular access to the candidate. That, I think, is a mistake, if only because Obama is skilled at fielding questions. But as I wrote a few weeks ago, the McCain campaign has scrapped the Straight Talk Express model that worked so well for him in the past and is increasingly keeping their man away from national reporters. He did do Leno last night, though.
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Henly, Texas: It seems that the folks wringing their hands the most over whether Clinton (and "her people") ultimately will support Obama are mostly the Republican talking heads. The Pat Buchanans et al constantly are pointing out how "mistreated" Hillary has been (without identifying such mistreatment) and pontificating about how impossible it will be for the party to unite. In the meantime, strident Hillary backers like Rep.. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who said last night that she had "rocketed through the five stages of grief" and was now fully on board with Obama, seem to be much more typical of "Hillary's people". Seems to me that the "party split" is primarly wishful thinking promoted by the Republicans. No?
Howard Kurtz: No. I happen to think that story line may be overblown, but even the Obama camp concedes that there are tensions. As I wrote this morning, it was a piece in Politico that set off a day of Web and cable chatter about lingering bitterness between the Hillary and Obama forces. So the MSM is definitely pursuing this line.
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washingtonpost.com: Link correction: No Joke: Jon Stewart Takes Aim At 24-Hour Cable News 'Beast' (Post, Aug. 26)
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Pittsburgh: Doesn't the new commercial blasting Obama for not picking Hillary for running mate (because she garnered so many votes during the primary season) sort of paint McCain into a corner to choose Romney?
Howard Kurtz: Well, but the earlier McCain ad recycling some of Joe Biden's criticism of Obama could just as soon be read as opening the door to similar ads against McCain if he picks Romney after their bitter primary battle. I don't think that will affect his decision, and I don't think such ads are very effective. Voters understand that harsh things get said in primaries and that poiticians know how to bury the hatchet afterwards, preferably not in each other's backs.
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Washington: Do you know who wrote Michelle Obama's speech (I mean who really wrote it, as opposed to getting credit for writing it)? Thanks.
Howard Kurtz: I've got no inside scoop on that. It was reported that Michelle wrote the basic draft and that her husband's speechwriters helped polish it. Given the personal nature of the speech, I have no trouble believing that.
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Tampa, Fla.: Do you know how many media/press have been credentialed for the convention? With all those folks in town, along with the delegates, speakers, etc., where are all those people staying? How easy/hard is it to get around? What has been your favorite part of the convention so far? The worst? Sorry for the glut of questions, but inquiring minds want to know.
Howard Kurtz:15,000 media types are here. They are scattered at hotels across the area (my hotel, for instance, is in Outer Mongolia, with the downtown skyline looking as far away as the Rocky Mountains). It is extremely difficult to get around, with not enough taxis and so many roads blocked off. Worst feature by far: the waste-filled port-o-potties outside the dark and depressing tent we work in. You don't want to know the details.
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Chesapeake Beach, Md.: It was a big deal four years ago when barely-a-Democrat Zell Miller blasted the Democrats from the podium at the GOP convention. Last night a well-respected Republican -- former Rep. Jim Leach, did a similar (though more soft-spoken) number on the GOP. Why was one notable, and the other buried deep in Jonathan Weisman's story this morning, without even a sidebar of its own?
washingtonpost.com: Obama's Family Night Out (Post, Aug. 26)
Howard Kurtz: Mainly because it wasn't one of the speeches featured on television. Zell Miller was the keynote speaker at the GOP.
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New York: Speaking of "ads," the past two McCain "ads" were curious for the campaign being unable to name a single time they bought air time for either. Isn't the corporate media breaking election law by running these ads for free for McCain as though they were "news" items?
Howard Kurtz: I don't know if it's breaking the law but we are totally being hosed, and this is true of ads on both sides. I have complained about this on the air. Television news outfits should not give free air time to campaign ads, or Web ads, where there's no real bad.
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Somerdale, N.J.: Howie, the GOP is doing everything it can to distract attention from the convention. Was always like this, or was there a gentleman's agreement not to step on the other party's convention? John McCain's possible announcement of his vice president on the day of Obama's acceptance speech seems a little low-class to me, but I may be wrong.
Howard Kurtz: Four years ago, both parties did the same thing, sending contingents to Boston and New York to try to get ink and air time. The Dems are planning a similar offensive in St. Paul. As for McCain, he plans to announce his running mate the day AFTER Obama's speech -- unless he leaks it! -- but in fairness, his convention starts the following Monday, so he's running out of time.
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Arlington, Va.: I agree with Stewart that virtually all of the people who opine, both right and left, seem to be falling into their version of the conventional wisdom. All I can discern is that they read and listen to each other and regurgitate without attribution.
Howard Kurtz: There are way too many talking-point debates on cable. I think everyone is sick of them. Sometimes I think even the debaters are sick of them.
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Brooklyn, N.Y.: Why is there a need for four members of the press for every delegate at the convention? This is a predetermined event, and there are no surprises at all. It's like sending thousands of sports reporters to cover a pep rally.
Howard Kurtz: There isn't. We're here for the parties.
(My column yesterday addresses this very subject.)
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washingtonpost.com: Not Much News, but Journalists Can't Make Themselves Scarce (Post, Aug. 25)
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Re: When Fox News Attacks!: I thought the Fox News spokesman's response was petty. Why go to a personal level (a response of "he's a comedian" would have been much more effective)? Why respond to Stewart at all? It's not like he's the first person to refer to Fox News as less than fair and balanced
Howard Kurtz: Well, Jon wasn't exactly playing pattycake either. I reported that he called the fair-and-balanced claim an insult to people with brains. What he actually said was that it was "a [blank] you to people with brains."
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Yardley, Pa.: Gov. Ed Rendell's excoriation of MSNBC as openly biased toward Obama seems to have brought he issue of MSNBC's glaring partisanship to critical mass. MSNBC continues to allow Olbermann and Matthews to anchor political event coverage, and they continue to wear their partisanship on their sleeve. All journalists have their political views and their prejudices, but we "old school" types were trained to lean over backwards to compensate when on the job. Doesn't NBC News management deserve condemnation for abandoning a basic jouranlistic principle of "first, be fair"?
Howard Kurtz: I and others have certainly questioned how Keith Olbermann can rip McCain on his show and then co-anchor the coverage on primary nights and at the conventions. Olbermann says, and MSNBC says, that he puts aside his commentary role during news events. I guess viewers will have to decide whether that's a problem. But it's worth noting that Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity were part of Fox's coverage last night.
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New York: When Howard Wolfson lets it be known that Bill Clinton is miffed at his assigned task at the Democratic convention, does it not occur to those who report it (Politico) that Wolfson is now employed by Fox, which have interest in fomenting discord among Democrats? This is but one example of the mainstream media (yes, Politico couldn't be more mainstream) never questioning the motives of those who spin. Honestly, I think the MSM is worse than ever.
Howard Kurtz: Howard Wolfson may have worked for Fox for a few weeks, but he's worked for Hillary far longer. I think it's fair to assume he's saying what he thinks from the perspective of a longtime Clinton loyalist, not because of his new TV role.
Gotta run - thanks for the chat, folks.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: September 5, 2008
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606 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The New York Times
August 25, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
America's Commercials at the Olympics
BYLINE: By STUART ELLIOTT
SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; ADVERTISING; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 1029 words
AFTER two weeks of watching Olympic commercials on ''the networks of NBC Universal,'' as the employees of General Electric so grandly put it, it is time -- at long last -- to present imaginary medals in a post-Games advertising review.
Most of the thousands of spots that ran on networks like CNBC, NBC, MSNBC and USA expressed sentiments familiar to viewers of so-called big events on television. Patriotism is good. Striving for athletic achievement is noble. The world would be a better place if we all drank the same beverages, drove the same cars, shopped at the same stores and bought things with the same credit cards.
And too many commercials relied on predictable images to evoke China for Western consumers: dragons, pandas, ninjas, the Great Wall and homages to (or parodies of) ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.''
Still, there were spots that stood out because they expressed familiar thoughts in a new fashion or they actually offered, as the Monty Python folks would say, something completely different.
Make-believe gold medals go to commercials that were actually worth watching. Some dreadful commercials are receiving lead medals, for base (and debased) performance. Some spots that fell short or rang false are getting tin medals.
Here are some examples, in alphabetical order, of how advertisers fared:
ANHEUSER-BUSCH It was nice to see again a delightful Super Bowl commercial about a Clydesdale training to make the Budweiser team. Gold. But spots that tried to rebrand Michelob as a craft beer from the ''Michelob Brewing Company'' seemed strained. Tin.
AT&T ''We will shatter records,'' a commercial for AT&T proclaimed. ''We will pull off miracles. We will make history.'' To paraphrase the punch line of an old joke, what do you mean ''we,'' couch potato? In another spot, a gymnast is covered with butterflies, which disappear as she performs a brilliant routine. Alas, it was too evocative of the playoff game in Cleveland when the midges attacked the Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain. Tin.
COCA-COLA More hits than misses as the Coca-Cola Company celebrated ''the Coke side of life'' with commercials infused with eye-catching animation. In one, birds use soda straws to make a replica of the Beijing stadium known as the Bird's Nest. In another, members of the Chinese and United States basketball teams pause amid their rivalry to refresh together. Gold.
DIRECTV The comedian Jimmy Kimmel -- minus his sense of humor -- berated viewers without DirecTV as losers because they do not watch enough football each fall. No wonder Sarah Silverman broke up with him. Lead.
EXXON MOBIL Employees of Exxon Mobil fight malaria. And they help schoolchildren learn math and science. When did the company sell its oil and gas holdings and become a philanthropic organization? Tin.
GENERAL ELECTRIC A toga-clad hunk whose discus toss goes terribly awry led a memorable cast of characters in spots for G.E. Others included a Chinese couple who, as they say in Hollywood, meet cute: He's a klutz and she's an X-ray technician. Gold.
GENERAL MOTORS An imaginative commercial for the coming Chevrolet Volt, showing how a corner gas station changed through the decades, was worth watching every time it ran. And it ran a lot, as General Motors seeks to change its image as a purveyor of outdated gas guzzlers. Gold.
LENOVO A spot featuring dozens of sumo wrestlers who improbably transform into an airplane and take flight, demonstrating the light weight of the Lenovo ThinkPad, was charming. Gold. (But perhaps the commercial should have been saved for the next Olympics held in Japan.)
JOHN MCCAIN A commercial that attacked John McCain's opponent, Barack Obama, misfired badly because it was out of place amid the myriad upbeat spots that came before and after. Worse yet, the first time the commercial appeared was during the feel-good Parade of Nations in the opening ceremony. A subsequent McCain commercial was also negative, but more subtly; it bashed President Bush by asserting that ''we're worse off than we were four years ago.'' Lead.
MCDONALD'S Which were more peculiar, the commercials that compared workers at McDonald's making sandwiches to athletes competing in Olympic sports or the commercials that presented athletes talking about McDonald's sandwiches as if they were medals? It is hard to believe a fast feeder wants to liken eating its menu items to exercise. Lead.
MOVIES What possessed film studios like Universal and Warner Brothers to run commercials during the Olympics for dark, violent movies with harsh names like ''Body of Lies,'' ''Death Race,'' ''Righteous Kill'' and ''Traitor''? The spots were even more out of place than the McCain commercials. Lead.
NBC Promotions for series like ''America's Got Talent,'' ''America's Toughest Jobs'' and ''America's Most American Americans'' -- just kidding on that last one -- were more over the top than the NBC announcers who screamed their narrations of Michael Phelps's races. And it seemed opportunistic that in the first commercial break after Mr. Phelps won his eighth gold medal, the network ran a spot peddling its own DVD set, ''Michael Phelps: Greatest Olympic Champion ... The Inside Story.'' Tin.
NISSAN MOTOR A sedan and a sports car, side by side on a highway, fuse into a single vehicle to prove the 2009 Nissan Maxima is a ''four-door sports car.'' Shades of the vintage Certs spots that chirped, ''It's two, two, two mints in one!'' Tin.
UNITED AIRLINES Some of the best Olympic commercials were for the struggling United Airlines unit of UAL. Exceptional animation made them lovely to watch, and lush versions of ''Rhapsody in Blue'' made them a pleasure to listen to. A spot featuring an orchestra of sea creatures was superb. Gold.
VISA Uplifting tales of Olympians past and present, delivered in a plummy voice by the actor Morgan Freeman, were accompanied by gauzy images in formulaic spots for Visa International. They seemed to be clones of the puffy, bathetic profiles of athletes that NBC typically inflicts upon Olympic viewers, which may be the reason the network ran so few of those vignettes. For that, Visa deserves a medal. Gold.
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International
AYATOLLAH COMES TO DEFENSE
Of Iranian President
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme religious leader, came to the defense of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has faced mounting criticism from senior clerics and politicians over Iran's worsening economic conditions, including the country's 26 percent inflation rate. He said that he and the president were in ideological accord, praising Mr. Ahmadinejad's internal policies and his dogged defense of the country's nuclear program. PAGE A6
MANILA FACES TOUGH CHOICES
A planned agreement between the government of the Philippines to cede part of the main island in the south to Muslim separatists was aborted by officials of Christian-dominated provinces. The separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, responded with two days of violence. Now the country's president must decide whether to try to salvage the peace negotiations or rely on force to combat the rebels. There are political risks, either way. PAGE A11
AFGHANS LOSE POSTS OVER ATTACK
After a commando operation in western Afghanistan killed 90, according to Afghan officials, President Hamid Karzai dismissed an Afghan Army general and another officer for their roles. Afghan officials said that mostly women and children died and that they were killed when a joint patrol of Afghan Army commandos and American Special Forces trainers called in airstrikes on a compound in the village of Azizabad. PAGE A7
A CITY'S HEIGHTENED TENSIONS
Sevastapol, a Ukrainian port city populated by ethnic Russians, serves as a base for some of Russia's Black Sea fleet. Though it is in Ukraine's southern Crimean peninsula, Sevastopol is ethnically and culturally very much a Russian town. It is also a potential fault line between Russia and a jittery Ukraine, which today flexed its military muscle in a parade in Kiev and is on edge from Russia's willingness to send troops into Georgia, another former Soviet republic. PAGE A6
MEXICO CITY'S FIGHT OVER ABORTION
Mexico City's government made abortion legal last year, but that was far from the end of the debate. Since the city's legislature voted for the law in April 2007, some 85 percent of the gynecologists in the city's public hospitals have declared themselves conscientious objectors. And now, even as the city's left-wing government revamps its abortion services, the law is coming up against its biggest challenge -- in the Mexican courts. PAGE A5
DEATH TOLL FROM AIR CRASH CLIMBS
The death toll from the crash of a Spanair plane last week on takeoff from the main airport in Madrid rose to 154 during the weekend, when a patient suffering from severe burns died in a hospital. PAGE A10
NATIONAL
PLAN FOR BIDEN INCLUDES
Swing States and Attacks
Travel plans for Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. have not been finalized beyond his arrival this week in Denver for the Democratic National Convention. But campaign advisers said they were certain that he would spend considerable time campaigning in four swing states, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and that they expected him to be a stronger and wilier point man for attacking the Republican ticket than Democrats had in 2004 or 2000. PAGE A12
A KENNEDY VETS FOR NO. 2
When Caroline Kennedy endorsed Senator Barack Obama's candidacy in January, she thought her announcement would be the extent of her public role in his campaign. But then Mr. Obama asked her to play a primary role in his vice-presidential search, so for the past two months, she has been gathering information, asking questions and learning exhaustive details about some of the nation's top Democrats. PAGE A13
OBAMA'S ELUSIVE IDEOLOGY
Much of Senator Barack Obama's politics -- including opposing the war and supporting higher taxes on the wealthy and labor and abortion rights -- falls squarely in the liberal mainstream of the Democratic Party. And while presidential candidates often tack right as they enter the general campaign, Mr. Obama's departures from orthodoxy have heightened a sense of his ideological elusiveness. PAGE A15
FROM PRIVACY TO THE WORLD STAGE
Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden, 57, a professor of English at Delaware Technical and Community College, has a bachelor's degree, two masters' degrees and a doctorate in education. She also has a husband about to run for vice president, and as the Democratic National Convention gets under way in Denver this week, she is preparing to join a select club of women who have been catapulted from relative privacy to the world stage. PAGE A13
OBITUARIES
HENRI CARTAN, 104
A mathematician known for meticulous proofs and for inspiring a revival of mathematics in France after World War II, in the 1930s he was a founding member of a group of French mathematicians who set out to rigorously write down the foundations of mathematics; the group published papers under the pseudonym Nicolas Bourbaki. PAGE A17
LEO ABSE, 91
A colorful Welsh politician noted for his dandyish apparel, he took a leading role in liberalizing laws on homosexuality and divorce as a Labor Party member of Parliament from 1958 to 1987. PAGE A17
METRO
A DEMOCRATIC DELEGATION
Proud of Its Diversity
New York's delegation at the Democratic National Convention in Denver includes a former majority leader of the United State Senate, a former president and a very recent former candidate for president (with the same last name). There are convention newcomers and veterans, 180 men and 181 women, more than 200 members of minorities. ''We are black and white and brown and everything in between,'' the state party chairwoman said. PAGE B1
DEFAULT TALK FRAYS NERVES
The new owners of the Riverton Apartments in Harlem, which has 1,232 apartments with more than half rent-regulated, have notified lenders that they are in imminent danger of defaulting on their mortgage. Tenants worry that a default could lead to a court-appointed manager, cuts in services and a decline in maintenance while the fate of the complex is decided. PAGE B1
NEW TOWER QUIETLY ARRIVES
The talk about what has not been built around ground zero has ignored what has: a $2.4 billion, 43-story building where 11,000 people will be working next year, in Battery Park City, cater-corner from the new 1 World Trade Center tower. And that quiet suits Goldman Sachs, the publicity-averse investment banker that will be occupying it, just fine. PAGE B3
BEIJING '08
MEN'S VOLLEYBALL VICTORY
Comes Amid Coach's Pain
The United States men's volleyball team won its first Olympic gold medal in 20 years, defeating Brazil 3 to 1. For Coach Hugh McCutcheon, whose father-in-law was stabbed to death at a popular tourist site in Beijing the day after the opening ceremony, it was a moment to enjoy, but no salve for the pain. PAGE D1
A CHOICE OF HEROES
With a haul of 51 gold medals, China has a variety of Olympic celebrities to fill the role of hero. Many would barely merit any coverage by ESPN; they are athletes who won gold medals in sports like trampoline, badminton and weightlifting, sports considered marginal to a Western audience. But in China, those athletes embody the virtues that fans seek in their heroes. PAGE D3
REPRESENTING THE NEW INDIAS
They each won a medal for India, making it the country's best performance at the Olympics, and have shot from obscurity to sudden fame. Many in this country see their victories as emblematic of the rise of a New India. Actually, they represent the vastly different New Indias that today exist side by side, and the intensity of the new aspirations of young Indians up and down the social ladder. PAGE D4
BUSINESS
DEBATE ON INFLATION
Grows Louder for Fed
At the Federal Reserve's annual gathering over the weekend, the debate broadened over whether to raise interest rates now to avoid higher inflation in the future or to keep the key lending rate at 2 percent to allow banks and other lenders to rebuild the capital they need, as the Fed chairman and do a majority of the Fed's policy makers believe. PAGE C1
SHIFTING TO BOTTOM-LINE EMPHASIS
The transition in leadership at S.A.P., the maker of computer applications for business, is indicative of the company's shift toward more of a focus on the bottom line and less on multibillion-dollar investments in technology. The goal involves doing as well as its American archrival, Oracle, which had a pretax profit margin of about 35 percent last year, well ahead of S.A.P.'s 26.7 percent. PAGE C1
NETWORKS GIRD FOR CONVENTIONS
In 2004, the Fox News Channel attracted the highest ratings of any network during the Republican convention. But NBC, ABC and CBS all lost viewers compared with 2000, so some anchors and executives figured on even less coverage this year. But primary season ratings were unusually strong, and the networks are gearing up, not down, for the coming conventions. PAGE C3
1984: IT WAS A VERY BAD YEAR
Trying to make George Orwell more relevant to young people by turning him into a blogger; LinkedIn tries to remain relevant by looking to help out in Hollywood; and the mainstream media found the war between Russia and Georgia more relevant than politics, the Olympics or John Edwards. Media Talk. PAGE C4
SPIDER-MAN AND IRON MAN, RECAST
Marvel Entertainment is teaming up with Madhouse, a renowned Japanese animation studio, to develop new versions of Marvel's characters for four anime series that will premiere in spring 2010 in Japan. The efforts will involve reimagining the back stories and redesigning the look of Marvel's stable of characters, which include Spider-Man and Iron Man, to reflect Japanese culture. PAGE C6
ADVERTISING WINNERS AND DUDS
For the benefit of those who put up with two weeks of Olympic commercials on the various NBC channels -- instead of TiVoing everything and zipping through them -- it's time for a medal awards ceremony for the spots: gold for those actually worth watching, lead for the dreadful and tin for those that fell short or rang false. PAGE C6
Bypassing the Press C1
TVs That Talk to Fridges C5
ARTS
ARCHITECT UNBOUND BY STATUS QUO
Is a Vanishing Breed
The irreverent architect Lebbeus Woods produced a series of dark and moody renderings in the early 1990s that made him a cult figure. That he now stands virtually alone underscores a shift in the profession during the past decade or so, Nicolai Ouroussoff writes: By abandoning fantasy for the pragmatic, architects have lost some of its most valuable imaginative tools. PAGE E1
HELPING SOLDIERS' WIDOWS
A documentary series called ''In Their Boots,'' which focuses on young military widows whose husbands died in Iraq and Afghanistan, grew in part from a support group on MySpace called the American Widow Project. Ten episodes will soon be broadcast online, along with interactive support groups for widows. PAGE E1
AMONG THE BRETHREN
A funny thing happened to Christopher Buckley on his way to writing his new novel, ''Supreme Courtship'': nothing funny occurred to him. This is that rare occasion when Washington's wickedest wit takes aim at a humor-squelching target: the Supreme Court. The bright moments in the book are sparse, Janet Maslin writes, but Mr. Buckley, whose usual weapon of choice is a rapier, still makes for good company. PAGE E1
TANGLED PLOT, SUBLIME SETTING
Nature -- a lofty, orderly and beneficent Nature -- takes its course in high style in the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's inspiring production of ''Cymbeline.'' No matter how maliciously, illogically and self-destructively characters behave in the play, from the twilight of Shakespeare's career, such antics seem so, well, small when enacted before the breathtaking Hudson River view afforded by the open-sided tent. A review by Ben Brantley. PAGE E1
ISADORA LIGHT
It used to be widely stated that none of Isadora Duncan's dances seriously survived her death. And though systematic work has been done on retrieving information from those who studied with her, the nickname for her style diluted -- ''a small Isadora and soda'' -- was conjured over the weekend by Dances by Isadora, an all-female group that performed on the Lawn at Battery Park as part of the Downtown Dance Festival. A review by Alastair Macaulay. PAGE E5
MOSTLY MOZART'S FINALE
Loss and transformation were the themes of this year's Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center and were embodied in the final program at Avery Fisher Hall by Richard Strauss's ''Metamorphosen,'' a 1945 lament for the unthinkable damage from World War II. Steve Smith writes that the conductor, Louis Langree, set a lively pace that ejected morbidity and brought the performance a gracious lift. PAGE E2
Editorial
MR. OBAMA'S TASK
Senator Barack Obama goes into the Democratic convention in Denver with a clear challenge: to match the soaring oratory that brought him to this moment in history with a strong, detailed explanation of how he will address the country's dire problems. PAGE A18
THAT'S 8 OUT OF 457,000
This month, the Bush administration rolled out a new strategy to solve illegal immigration and just as quickly rolled it back in. It was called Operation Scheduled Departure, and it was simply this: It asked people to turn themselves in. PAGE A18
UNDAMMING THE PENOBSCOT
In many ways, taking a dam down is harder than putting one up. That is one reason that last week's announcement by the Penobscot River Restoration Trust in Maine is so remarkable. PAGE A18
Op-Ed
WILLIAM KRISTOL
Barack Obama's selection of Joe Biden to be his running mate complicates John McCain's vice-presidential calculations. Perhaps he needs his own Joe on the ticket. PAGE A19
PAUL KRUGMAN
The Obama campaign has turned to the politics of personal destruction, attempting to make a campaign issue out of John McCain's inability to remember how many houses he has. And the turn comes not a moment too soon. PAGE A19
THE RACE ISN'T ABOUT RACE
Matt Bai writes that there's plenty of reason to think that Barack Obama's race is not the insurmountable detriment to his candidacy that a lot of anxious observers believe it is. And the danger for Democrats is that dark prophesies of prejudice could be self-fulfilling. PAGE A19
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Obama Aides Defend Bank's Pay to Biden Son
BYLINE: By CHRISTOPHER DREW and MIKE McINTIRE; Michael Luo contributed reporting.
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During the years that Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. was helping the credit card industry win passage of a law making it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection, his son had a consulting agreement that lasted five years with one of the largest companies pushing for the changes, aides to Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign acknowledged Sunday.
Mr. Biden's son, Hunter, received consulting fees from the MBNA Corporation from 2001 to 2005 for work on online banking issues. Aides to Mr. Obama, who chose Mr. Biden as his vice-presidential running mate on Saturday, would not say how much the younger Mr. Biden, who works as both a lawyer and lobbyist in Washington, had received, though a company official had once described him as having a $100,000 a year retainer. But Obama aides said he had never lobbied for MBNA and that there was nothing improper about the payments.
Campaign officials acknowledged that the connection between the Bidens and MBNA, the enormous financial services company then based in their home state of Delaware, was one of the most sensitive issues they examined while vetting the senator for a spot on the ticket.
Mr. Biden's support for the bankruptcy changes, which were signed into law in 2005, puts him at odds with Mr. Obama of Illinois, who opposed the bill and has criticized the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, for supporting it. Consumer advocates and other Democratic allies remain sharply critical of Mr. Biden's actions, saying in recent days that they could hamper the campaign's efforts to attack the Republicans over their handling of the nation's credit crisis.
The financial services industry began seeking relief from Congress in the mid-1990s from an increase in bankruptcies that was cutting into its profits. Its initial support came from Republican lawmakers, who repeatedly introduced bills to make it more difficult for consumers to erase their debts. During that time, executives at MBNA, which was bought in 2006 by Bank of America, began donating heavily to both major political parties and many national politicians, including Mr. Biden.
In late 1996, the company hired the younger of Mr. Biden's two sons, Robert Hunter Biden, known as Hunter, who had just graduated from Yale Law School, as a lawyer. The company promoted Mr. Biden to senior vice president by early 1998. And after the younger Mr. Biden worked at the Commerce Department on electronic commerce issues from 1998 to 2001, MBNA hired him back on a monthly consulting contract to advise it on such issues, aides said.
Consumer advocates say that Senator Biden was one of the first Democratic leaders to support the bankruptcy bill, and he voted for it four times -- in 1998, 2000, 2001 and in March 2005, when its final version passed the Senate by a vote of 74 to 25.
Travis Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer group that opposed the bill, said that Senator Biden had provided a ''veneer of bipartisanship'' that eventually helped the credit card companies win over other Democrats. ''He provided cover to other Democrats to do what the credit industry was urging them to do,'' Mr. Plunkett said.
Aides to the Obama campaign said Sunday that Senator Biden's goal was always to strike a workable compromise between the competing interests on the bankruptcy bill, and that he was not influenced by his son's work for MBNA or the campaign donations. They said he had sought several changes in the bill to protect consumers that upset MBNA executives, then the largest employer in Delaware, while acknowledging that he also voted against other amendments proposed by other Democrats.
Hunter Biden, through his assistant at his law firm, Oldaker Biden & Belair, referred a request for comment to the Obama campaign. James Mahoney, the head of corporate communications for Bank of America, said the consulting arrangement had ended by the time Bank of America took over MBNA in January 2006.
''Senator Biden has a 35-year record fighting for people against powerful interests, whether it's drug companies, oil companies or insurance companies,'' David Wade, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said in a statement. ''He took plenty of knocks from the largest employer in his state because he demanded changes in the bankruptcy bill. But legislating requires compromise. Senators cast tough votes. Congress worked on the bankruptcy bill for nearly a decade, over five Congresses, to forge a bipartisan compromise.''
Mr. Wade added: ''Senator Biden took on entrenched interests and succeeded in improving the bill for low-income workers, women and children. There were times when amendments on both sides would have blown up a bipartisan compromise backed by three-quarters of the Senate. At those moments, Senator Biden had to make the tough calls and voted to pass a bill.''
Mr. Wade said Senator Biden took extra steps to protect consumers in votes to require people in bankruptcy to continue paying child support or alimony. He also took steps to affirm that the bill exempted debtors who have serious medical problems, are veterans or are in the armed service, the aide said.
But a review of the legislative record finds as many instances when Mr. Biden joined Republicans to defeat attempts by his Democratic colleagues, including Mr. Obama, to soften the bill's impact on those same constituencies. He was one of five Democrats in March 2005 who voted against a proposal to require credit card companies to provide more effective warnings to consumers about the consequences of paying only the minimum amount due each month. Mr. Obama voted for it.
Mr. Biden also went against Mr. Obama to help defeat amendments aimed at strengthening protections for people forced into bankruptcy who have large medical debts or are in the military; Mr. Biden argued that the amendments were unnecessary because the legislation already carved out exemptions for those debtors. And he was one of four Democrats who sided with Republicans to defeat an effort, supported by Mr. Obama, to shift responsibility in certain cases from debtors to the predatory lenders who helped push them into bankruptcy.
In many of these battles, Mr. Biden's Democratic colleagues often voiced their frustration with the big financial interests arrayed against them. Senator Paul Wellstone specifically cited MBNA during a floor debate in March 2001 over his call for stronger protections for debtors forced into bankruptcy because of medical bills -- an amendment that Mr. Biden would later vote against.
''It just so happens that the people who find themselves in terrible economic circumstances through no fault of their own -- major medical bills, they have lost their jobs, or there has been a divorce -- it is my view as a former political scientist and now a senator for the State of Minnesota that those people do not have the same kind of clout that MBNA Corporation has,'' Mr. Wellstone said.
Mr. Biden's supporters also point out that the Republicans controlled the Senate for much of the time when the bankruptcy bills were under consideration. MBNA employees have given Mr. Biden more than $214,000 in campaign donations over the years, the largest amount in his coffers tied to any single company. But the company's employees have given even more lavishly to President George W. Bush and top Republican lawmakers.
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August 25, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
McCain ad: Clinton's 'truth hurt'
BYLINE: David Jackson
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Republican John McCain launched an ad Sunday claiming rival Barack Obama passed over Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate for "speaking the truth" about his liabilities.
The ad, called "Passed Over," features a clip of Clinton and repeats criticisms the New York senator made during the Democratic primaries over Obama's alleged lack of specifics on issues, negative campaign tactics and his relationship with Antoin Rezko, a former Obama fundraiser convicted in June on corruption charges.
"The truth hurt, and Obama didn't like it," the ad says.
The spot is McCain's opening shot at grabbing headlines as Democrats converge in Denver to formally nominate Obama as the party's presidential pick.
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said the ad is running in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Iowa, in TV markets where the former first lady did particularly well in primary contests against Obama. He said it will also air in Denver.
Clinton said the McCain ad was misleading and left out the New York senator's repeated praise of Obama. Clinton and Obama "share a commitment to changing the direction of the country, getting us out of Iraq and expanding access to health care," Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said. "John McCain doesn't."
McCain has been seeking votes from disaffected Clinton backers, and sees a chance to gain ground with them because Obama selected Joe Biden, not Clinton, to be on the ticket.
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, appearing on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos, echoed the ad's theme by noting Clinton and Obama nearly split popular votes in the primaries. "The story here is more the Obama-not-Clinton ticket," Giuliani said. "Why?"
Bounds said the point of the ad is that Clinton once leveled the same "unanswered" criticisms at Obama that the McCain campaign is making and will continue to make through Election Day. The ads began a low-profile week for McCain, who flies today to California for The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. On Tuesday, he speaks to the American Legion convention in Phoenix. McCain also holds four fundraisers in those two days.
No public events are scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday, though Bounds said that could change. McCain is also preparing for his convention next week in St. Paul. Starting Friday, he will campaign in the key states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Missouri, which may also feature the debut of his running mate.
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August 25, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
In Biden, a life story to complement Obama's;
Delaware senator could help lure working class, Clinton supporters
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DENVER -- Maybe you didn't know that Joe Biden stuttered as a kid, takes a 91-minute train ride home to his wife each night and is so well known in a must-win swing state he's been called "Pennsylvania's third senator."
Barack Obama tapped as his running mate a man whose dramatic life story rivals his own, and holds political appeal far beyond the foreign-policy expertise that is Biden's most obvious asset.
The Delaware senator balances this ticket in many other ways. With his working-class background, Biden could help Obama fight his portrayal as a candidate of the elites, and win over the women voters who passionately supported Hillary Rodham Clinton. He's 65 years old to Obama's 47, Catholic to Obama's Protestant. Unlike Obama, he didn't attend Ivy League schools.
Though Obama has frustrated some Democrats by being slow to attack, Biden is blunt and eager to wage political combat -- qualities that could allow Obama to remain above the fray. Biden, who overcame his stutter as a boy by relentless drills, is a gifted if sometimes windy speaker who goes for the gut.
"He's comfortable on the attack and that will serve the ticket well," says Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala.
Biden also stays close to his roots -- in his visits to his hometown of Scranton, Pa., in the laws he works to pass and in the allies he's made in Delaware politics. When he returned last week from a trip to the embattled Republic of Georgia, for instance, he headed straight from the airport to a promised appearance at a firefighters hall.
In choosing Biden, Obama essentially is calculating that the Delaware senator's penchant for occasional gaffes won't be a distraction in the fall campaign.
Biden was driven from the 1988 presidential race for failing to credit a British politician for a passage Biden used in a stump speech. Biden has been lambasted more recently for clumsily praising Obama as "clean" and "articulate" and saying that in Delaware "you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent." Hours after Obama made his pick, Republicans launched a "Biden gaffe clock."
The same brain-to-mouth quickness that sometimes misfires, on the other hand, produced possibly the most memorable and cutting line of the primary season: Biden's contention that every sentence uttered by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani -- at the time a candidate for the GOP nomination -- was "a noun, a verb and 9/11."
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, another Democrat whose bluntness sometimes gets him in trouble, cast Biden's misfires as endearing. "It's pretty easy to fall in love with Joe Biden," he told USA TODAY Sunday. "Even his mistakes, you have a tendency to shake your head and say, 'But that's Joe.'"
Another potential downside of Obama's pick is one of the reasons he made it: the weight of Biden's experience. It's reassuring to wavering voters worried about Obama's short national resume. But it could undercut Obama's message of change.
Republicans have seized on that line of attack. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican often mentioned as a possible running mate for John McCain, on Sunday called Biden a "consummate insider" who was elected to the Senate when he and Obama were 11. "And he's known as being long-winded on top of that," Pawlenty added on a Republican party conference call. "Where's the change?"
Obama concluded the benefits outweigh the risks.
"Mostly, I think what attracted Sen. Obama was Biden's wisdom," senior strategist David Axelrod said on ABC's This Week. "And not the kind of wisdom you get in Washington, D.C., but the kind of wisdom you get when you overcome adversity, tragedy in your life as he has; the kind of wisdom you get in the working-class communities of Scranton, Pa., and Wilmington, Del."
Tragedy struck early for Biden. Shortly after he was elected to the Senate at age 29, his wife and young daughter were killed in a car crash as they shopped for a Christmas tree; his two young sons were badly injured.
In an emotional speech to the International Association of Fire Fighters last year, a shirt-sleeved Biden described his debt to his local firefighters. "My firefighters saved my children," he said.
In 1988, Biden had a life-threatening aneurysm and local firefighters again raced to the rescue. "I would not have lived" but for them, he told the group.
"We owe you big," he said. "You took care of me in the worst time of my life."
Biden was persuaded to take office as planned in January 1973 and, with his sister helping him look after his sons during the day, commuted home to see his recovering little boys every night. That set a pattern that has continued throughout his second marriage to Jill Jacobs in 1977.
The older of his two sons, Beau, 39, says that makes Joe Biden an outside-the Beltway candidate. He became an Amtrak regular for more than three decades so he could "be home at my ballgames and be at the dinner table," Beau Biden told USA TODAY last year.
Appeal to women
Though Obama leads McCain 48%-42% among women in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released Sunday, Biden's family life and his legislative record on women's issues could help win disappointed fans of Hillary Rodham Clinton and enlarge that gender gap.
Working Mother magazine said Sunday that Biden is one of 24 lawmakers on its "2008 Best of Congress" list. "He puts kids' health, safety and education at the top of his priorities list," the magazine said. It said he has worked recently on a bill to reduce class size and "along with his wife, Jill, Biden has been a longtime leader in the fight against breast cancer."
Biden supports abortion rights and, as a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has helped block anti-abortion jurists. Emily's List President Ellen Malcolm, whose group supports female abortion-rights candidates, called Biden "a passionate advocate for women" whose "commitment to family will resonate with women voters across this country."
When Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, some feminists alleged that he was too easy on Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas and too hard on Anita Hill, a former co-worker of Thomas' who had accused the federal judge of sexual harassment. Three years later, however, Biden was praised by many feminists for what he calls one of his proudest accomplishments: writing the 1994 Violence Against Women Act.
Joseph Pika, a political scientist at the University of Delaware, says Biden was at least in part making amends. "He very self-consciously tried to shore up his support from women voters after the Anita Hill episode," he says.
He says Biden's "respectful" treatment of Clinton could help Obama with Clinton supporters who have been reluctant to come on board.
Republicans, however, are doing what they can to stoke lingering resentments. McCain has released a TV ad called "Passed Over," lamenting that Clinton was not chosen as Obama's running mate. Giuliani, speaking on ABC's This Week, said Clinton should have been "a no-brainer" for Obama.
It's unclear how many Clinton supporters remain offended. One prominent Clinton ally, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, 42, switched to Obama right after the primaries and is even more enthusiastic now that Biden is on the ticket. She says she has been "an admirer of him for forever, gaffes and all," since her college days as a member of Students for Biden. "I had the button on my backpack and the whole deal."
Working class background
When Biden was named, Obama's Pennsylvania office put out a release headlined "Obama selects Pennsylvania's third senator." Delaware, south of Pennsylvania, is in the Philadelphia news media market. "People know him big time, and everything he does is reported by Philadelphia television," Rendell says.
What's more, Pennsylvania had Republican senators for 26 of the 30 years between 1977 and 2007 -- prompting some elected Democrats to turn to Biden for help. "He really handled Pennsylvania for us," says Rep. Paul Kanjorski, who represents the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre areas.
The strongest tie is Biden's abiding affection for Scranton, where he lived until he was 10. In the northeast corner of the state, Scranton is in the middle of swing-voter territory, home to working-class Catholic voters who in the Democratic primaries went solidly for Clinton.
Biden often invokes his blue-collar background with tales of his childhood playmates and uncles talking politics around the kitchen table, and he visits Scranton every year. Last year, he took his 91-year-old mother, Jean Finnegan, to visit the house where the family once lived.
"Scranton never leaves you; it's in your blood," Biden said in an interview published Sunday by the Scranton Times-Tribune. "I don't know, maybe I have a little romanticized view because I love the place so much."
He said his mother, who lives with him, kissed him as he left for Springfield, Ill., to be introduced as Obama's running mate. "Joey, everybody in Scranton'll be so proud," she told him.
The new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows Obama leading McCain 52%-36% among registered voters making less than $50,000 a year. Biden could help him solidify his standing in crucial states where he lost working-class voters badly to Clinton.
In northeastern Pennsylvania, Obama lost to Clinton 3 to 1. Kanjorski, who backed Clinton, says he has been worried about "stabilizing" his region for Obama. "Joe Biden goes 1,000 miles in that direction," he says. "He's a favorite son."
The Obama campaign is betting that Biden's blue-collar appeal will extend throughout the Rust Belt, and some political analysts agree. Alexander Lamis, a political scientist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, says lower-income white voters will determine the election in those states. "Biden helps," he says. "He's plain-spoken and down-to-earth and will resonate in working-class areas."
Student of the world
As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden eases the minds of people who want seasoning along with change. Pawlenty, in talking points also pressed by Giuliani and on a new GOP website called NotReady08.com, said Biden's resume amounts to "overcompensation" for Obama's "lack of readiness" to be president.
"It's not a situation where you should have to have a mentor or a trainer or a superviser," he said.
Biden himself cited Obama's inexperience during the primary campaign, but made light of that in his interview with the Scranton newspaper. "Guess what, he got experienced real quick," Biden joked, then added: "I was running against him, man. What did they expect me to do, lean over and hug him and say, 'Yeah, he was the most experienced? He has plenty of experience?' Hey, man, the only thing I had going was experience."
One state where his experience could make a difference is Florida, with its large contingent of Jewish voters. Obama has rattled some Jewish voters because he is open to high-level dipomacy with Iran and because last year he told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that "nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people."
Wasserman Schultz, who represents the Fort Lauderdale area, says Biden is viewed as a strong supporter of Israel and his presence on the ticket will "go a long way to winning over" Jewish voters. She says she's been told Biden will campaign in Florida: "He has worked the condos. I have worked the condos with Joe Biden before in my district. People will be excited and fired up."
If the choice of Biden works the way Obama hopes, winning the White House would raise a question that Biden himself has brought up: Can he adapt to working for someone else?
Biden has been his own boss since he won an unexpected Senate victory in 1972. He has run his Senate office, the Senate Judiciary Committee and now the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has been set back on his heels personally and politically, but it hasn't broken his faith in himself and his talents.
"One of the hardest things for Joe Biden, should they win, will be to stand silently by the president. Vice presidents are seen but not heard," Pika says. "Verbal problems are probably controllable: He'll stay on message. (But) I think playing second fiddle is going to be tough for him."
TEXT OF BIO BOX BEGINS HERE
The Biden file
Age: 65. Born Nov. 11, 1942, in Scranton, Pa.
Education: University of Delaware, B.A.; Syracuse Law School
Profession: Lawyer, U.S. senator
Elected offices: New Castle (Del.) County Council, 1970-1972; U.S. Senate, 1973-present
Politics: Unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate in 1988 and 2008
Senate committees: Foreign Relations, chairman; Judiciary, third-ranking Democrat
Family: Wife, Jill; three adult children, Beau, Hunter and Ashley; five grandchildren. His first wife, Neilia, and young daughter Naomi Christina were killed in a car accident shortly after Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972.
Quote: "These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader. A leader ... who can deliver."
-- Saturday in Springfield, Ill.
Sources: Almanac of American Politics and Biden's Senate office.
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USA TODAY
August 25, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
The goal: Get to know him;
Bob, Cal and the polling say the Democrats' challenge this week is to show Americans the real -- i.e., not aloof -- Barack Obama
BYLINE: Cal Thomas; Bob Beckel
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 15A
LENGTH: 1175 words
Cal Thomas is a conservative columnist. Bob Beckel is a liberal Democratic strategist. But as longtime friends, they can often find common ground on issues that lawmakers in Washington cannot. This week, in Denver, they'll dispense bipartisan advice every day from the Democratic National Convention.
Today: What must the Democrats achieve in Denver?
Bob: Welcome to the Mile High City, Cal -- this week's home to swarms of Democrats. I'm guessing you feel about as comfortable as Dick Cheney behind the wheel of a Prius. Let me assure you that Democrats will treat you well -- as long as you stay close. This is my eighth Democratic convention, one of which I ran in 1984. These events may be dismissed by some as infomercials for the parties, but they require countless man and woman hours to make these four days work. Obama staffers here have two duties: control the daily message and get the best TV coverage possible. What's your take on the week ahead?
Cal: Speaking as a political outsider, I think Obama needs to remake his image. Those McCain commercials that label him a celebrity, and conservatives who refer to him as "The One" and "Messiah," are helping to chip away at his poll numbers. I know you have thought him a shoo-in, but surely you must see potential trouble ahead. What would you suggest he do this week to detach himself from the growing impression that he is arrogant and too self-assured?
Bob: The Obama campaign did extensive polling leading up to this convention, especially among undecided voters, to learn what those voters like and don't like about him. The entire message out of this convention will be directed at the undecideds. I saw some of the negatives those polls picked up about Obama. You're right. To a lot of people, he seems plenty smart, but aloof and distant. They feel they don't know him. The campaign will use these four days to fill in the blanks. Listen closely to the convention speakers, starting with Michelle Obama tonight. Each will talk about him as a down-home person and tell personal stories -- even, I predict, Hillary Clinton.
Cal: Really? The same Hillary who questioned his ability to be president? We'll know about Hillary's commitment to unity after her speech Tuesday night. It looks like one of the other themes Democrats will push is national security. Polls show McCain has a clear advantage on this issue. Even the Clinton camp recognized Obama's vulnerability on this front. One recently revealed memo from Clinton strategist Mark Penn during the primaries noted his problem: "All of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light. ... I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values." Putting aside that Hawaii is part of America, did Penn have a point?
Bob: National security has been a problem for Obama because voters see that as a McCain strength, not necessarily an Obama weakness. Penn's point about Obama's multicultural background as a problem is silly. We saw where Penn's wisdom got Hillary. Obama is comfortable on the world stage, as we saw on his foreign trip last month. The Wednesday night theme is national security, which comes on the night of the vice presidential candidate's speech. That tells you why Obama chose Joe Biden as his running mate.
Cal: Another question: Obama's handlers are apparently going to keep him sealed off from the convention until Wednesday. Good move or bad move?
Bob: Well, they want to have him out campaigning among voters (most likely in small group settings) to not only deal with the aloofness problem we mentioned, but to keep him away from thousands of "politicians" who voters don't trust. So good move. During the Indiana primary, Obama's polling indicated that his huge arena audience speeches were not exciting working class and older voters. So Obama and his family campaigned in small-town settings, parks and bowling alleys. In hindsight, they should have avoided bowling alleys! But it worked and brought Obama "down to earth." The problem has surfaced again. McCain's Paris Hilton ad has underscored it. That's why he won't be seen much here until his acceptance speech.
Cal: That would seem to argue against the rock-star-like stadium event on Thursday night with 75,000 "fans."
Bob: The Obama campaign is betting that, by then, they will have made big strides in countering the "Obama is a celebrity and out of touch with regular folks" problem and allow him to get back to his greatest asset: his oratorical skills. One thing you can count on is that Obama will give a monumentally good speech that will dwarf McCain's speech next week in St. Paul. Obama's speech at the 2004 convention was just a warm-up act. Thursday is the real deal.
Cal: The question for many viewers will be: Is this just packaging, or is it real? I think that's going to be a hard sell, particularly with McCain pounding away on his celebrity and inexperience.
Bob: The test of a good politician is to convince voters that what they see and hear is what they'll get. Obama is a great politician. Not good. Great. After Thursday, it will be up to Obama to convince voters that he is not only qualified to be president, but that he understands their problems, hopes and fears. Here's betting he'll exceed all expectations. Speaking of expectations, what has struck you so far about this grand event?
Cal: The Democrats worship at the church of the environment. I mean, this place is green extreme. I hear someone is in charge of disposing of balloons in an environmentally friendly way. If only a few of the speeches could be disposed of! I also enjoy seeing the strange bedfellows at conventions (No, not that kind!). I mean, the DNC has a special suite for celebrities. It's sponsored by the Starz cable channel, a subsidiary of Liberty Media, whose chairman, John Malone, has maxed out his contributions to John McCain. Now there's someone practicing common ground! Now we'll see if you can get me in to meet Ben Affleck, Warren Beatty and Arianna Huffington.
Bob: You're assuming they'd want to meet you! For me this is like old home week. I know hundreds of people here, and many are lobbyists whose clients have paid for much of what you see. It is costing at least $75 million to put on this show. Despite the best efforts of the DNC, they had to rely in the end on big corporate interests for some of the money. You will see these special interests and many more at the GOP convention where, frankly, they'll feel more comfortable -- given how well Republicans treat big business. OK, so let's go hit the streets to see what's cookin' in Denver.
Cal: I'm counting on you to protect me from the type of Democrat who called me a "fascist" at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston. Clearly, he wasn't interested in common ground.
Bob: Not to worry. Democrats are in a much better mood this time around.
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August 25, 2008 Monday
Correction Appended
FINAL EDITION
Airport Check-in;
Every Monday
BYLINE: Roger Yu
SECTION: MONEY; Pg. 3B
LENGTH: 624 words
MINNEAPOLIS
Northwest nukes anti-nuke ad
Northwest Airlines, the official airline of the Republican National Convention, has ordered an airport advertising firm to pull down an anti-nuclear weapons billboard ad at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport that was placed in time for the upcoming convention.
The ad, placed by advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists, depicts a photo of an aerial cross-target locked onto downtown Minneapolis, the site of the convention that starts on Sept. 1. It urges Sen. John McCain that "it's time to get serious about reducing the nuclear threat. When only one bomb could destroy a city like Minneapolis, we don't need 6,000."
The group also bought a similar ad in Denver -- addressing Sen. Barrack Obama -- for the Democratic National Convention this week. "It's not an anti-McCain or anti-Obama ad," says Elliott Negin, spokesman for Union of Concerned Scientists.
Northwest says it asked Clear Channel Communications, which runs the advertising operation at Minneapolis-St. Paul, to remove the ad after receiving "several complaints from customers and employees on the content of this ad."
"The airport is a place where people of all political persuasions come for business and pleasure, and we wanted to avoid any issues related to what was perceived as a political message," says Northwest spokeswoman Tammy Lee in a statement.
Clear Channel says it complied because it's "under a contractual obligation to remove advertising copy ... at the Minneapolis-St. Paul if (it) is objectionable to Northwest."
Clear Channel also voluntarily removed the ad in Denver last week "after being informed of the reasons for Northwest Airlines' objections to the advertising copy in question." Northwest doesn't operate in Denver.
SAN JOSE
Airport discontinues diesel shuttles
Mineta San Jose International Airport has fully converted all of its 34 shuttles to run on compressed natural gas, joining a growing list of domestic airports that now ban diesel buses.
CNG shuttles have been running at the airport since 2003, but it completed the transition by placing 14 new ones into service in the last three weeks to replace the remaining diesel-fuel vehicles.
Since 2003, the airport has eliminated the use of more than 1.3 million gallons of diesel fuel and has saved over $3 million in fuel costs. It says the cleaner shuttles have also lowered vehicle exhaust emissions by about 76 tons every year since 2003.
ATLANTA
Less flush, more water
In an effort to conserve water, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson will be installing new toilets that use 1.28 gallons of water per flush vs. 1.6 gallons used by the current units. It also recently completed refitting men's urinals to use just half a gallon per flush, compared to one gallon in previous models.
Airport authorities estimate the changes will save 44 million gallons of water per year, or a reduction of 13% in airport water usage. The Atlanta area has experienced severe drought conditions in recent years.
COLUMBUS, OHIO
AirTran adds destinations
AirTran says it will begin operating at Port Columbus International on Nov. 6, with three initial non-stop routes -- Atlanta, Orlando and Fort Myers, Fla. JetBlue and Skybus ceased operations at the airport earlier this year, while Delta and American also cut back on service.
DENVER
Solar panels added
Denver International has installed 9,200 solar panels that will generate more than 3 million kilowatt hours of solar electricity per year, or about half of the power needed to operate the airport's people-mover trains. Located on 7.5 acres of land, they're expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 6.3 million pounds each year, DIA says. The project cost $13.5 million.
Fresno Yosemite installed similar solar panels earlier this year.
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CORRECTION: Contrary to a story Monday, Northwest Airlines does serve Denver International Airport.
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USA TODAY
August 25, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
Convention guide
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 487 words
On tap for Day 1
The theme of tonight's session of the Democratic National Convention is "One Nation."
Some scheduled speakers:
*Tribute to Sen. Edward Kennedy
*Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
*Michelle Obama
On TV (all times Eastern)
*ABC, CBS, NBC: 10-11 p.m.
*PBS: 7-11 p.m.
*C-SPAN: 5-11 p.m.
*Fox News: 9:45-11 p.m.
*MSNBC: 7-11 p.m. Regular programming airing from the convention.
*CNN: 6-11 p.m. (Larry King Live 9-10 p.m.)
Convention newsmakers
Each day during the convention, USA TODAY hosts discussions with newsmakers. Taking part: reporters and editors from USA TODAY, USATODAY.com and Gannett News Service. Sunday's guests were Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
Highlights:
Rendell. "Those voters who will vote against a candidate because they're African American would never vote for a progressive Democrat anyway. Never in a million years. ... Sen. Obama counterbalances that by his ability to expand the electorate."
Sebelius. "Sen. McCain, really from Day One, is aiming at a very negative campaign. That will continue in an effort to divide America. Make us afraid, make us divided. That seems to be the Republicans' notion of the pathway to success."
For complete coverage, including video clips, go to politics.usatoday.com
Convention coverage
*Joe Biden, the Democrats' soon-to-be vice presidential candidate, has a life story that rivals that of Barack Obama, his presidential running mate, Cover story
*Hunter Biden, the 38-year-old son of the vice presidential designee, is a lawyer and lobbyist at a time when lobbyists have come under fire by Democrats, 2A
*A look at the convention parties, concerts and receptions hosted by groups that want to influence Congress, 4A
*Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, the great gray eminence of the Democratic Party who is undergoing treatment for brain cancer, will be honored tonight as the convention opens, 5A
*A graphic look at the Pepsi Center, site of the 2008 Democratic Convention, 6A
*How -- and whether -- first ladies and potential first ladies matter, 8A
*John McCain ad asks why Hillary Rodham Clinton wasn't Obama's choice, 9A
*Get Marco R. della Cava's take on the lighter side of the convention in his blog, The Political Party, excerpted in Life on page 13B and in full at politics.usatoday.com
At politics.usatoday.com
Visit us online to recap today's convention events, including:
*Photo galleries. See the day in images or choose a candidate.
*USA TODAY On Politics Blog. Read about the day's big events and speeches.
Four interactives
USA TODAY has four political interactives online at politics.usatoday.com:
*Electoral vote tracker: Build your own general election scenario for 2008.
*Candidate match game: Find out which candidate most reflects your political views.
*Presidential poll tracker: See head-to-head polling numbers for all 50 states.
*Campaign ad tracker: Watch campaign ads and assessments of their accuracy and effectiveness.
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The Washington Post
August 25, 2008 Monday
Suburban Edition
The GOP's Delicate Passing of the Baton
BYLINE: Michael Abramowitz
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A15
LENGTH: 870 words
When it gathers next week in Minneapolis-St. Paul for its quadrennial convention, the Republican Party will try to turn the page from George W. Bush to John McCain. It won't be an easy trick.
The challenge for the party -- and by definition Bush, as the titular leader of the party -- is not completely dissimilar to that faced in past conventions, in which the nominee looked to escape the large shadow of an incumbent.
In 1988, Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, labored to create his own image independent of Ronald Reagan, who gave the senior Bush a warm though hardly effusive send-off at the New Orleans convention. In Los Angeles in 2000, Bill Clinton offered an effusive endorsement for Al Gore, after a lengthy recitation of what he saw as his administration's significant accomplishments.
For Bush and McCain, the political hurdle will be even higher, given the deep unpopularity of the president outside the convention hall. The last thing the McCain campaign wants is for Bush to reinforce the Obama message that the senator from Arizona is running for a third Bush term; what the McCain team seems to prefer is for Bush to help close the deal with voters in the GOP's base and with delegates who remain skeptical of McCain -- and otherwise get out of the way.
"The best way for George Bush to help McCain is to galvanize the Republican base, the conservatives, the evangelicals -- those folks with whom he has great credibility," said one McCain adviser.
The White House has been willing to oblige the McCain campaign's apparent desire that the president keep a healthy distance, with Bush quietly raising money for the GOP efforts this fall and aides biting their tongues over obvious gibes -- such as the McCain television ad stating bluntly that things are worse in this country than four years ago.
The White House team appears to be living the mantra popularized by Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis: "Just win, baby."
Save for a brief handshake on the tarmac in Arizona, the two men have not appeared in public together since a White House lunch in March. GOP operatives don't expect the two men to cross paths in the Twin Cities, where Bush is planning a quick trip to deliver his speech next Monday night before clearing out for McCain's arrival later in the week.
One GOP strategist close to both camps said he expects that Bush will be accompanied by much of his family, including his brothers, and that there will be a family-and-friends type reception on the day of the speech. First lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will also be on hand to speak to the convention Monday.
The big question is how Bush will use his final moment in the limelight, and to what extent he will try to defend the record of his administration. His aides were not prepared last week to offer many details, though press secretary Dana Perino said the speech will focus on McCain and give Bush's sense of why McCain is ready to tackle the challenges of the presidency.
"He will call on the party to do everything it can to elect John McCain," Perino said.
Whither the E-Mails?
An internal White House document provides some fresh clues about the status of the controversy that has been simmering since 2007, when it was discovered that potentially millions of White House e-mails over a two-year period were missing.
Exactly what the clues suggest, however, is a bit murky.
The document in question, first obtained by the Associated Press, is a draft nine-page "statement of objectives" for a contractor to provide a "comprehensive technical and management approach for the recovery of electronic mail records" from backup tapes. The number of days of e-mail "to be restored range from as few as 25 to as many as 225 days."
That may actually suggest there are fewer missing messages than some earlier estimates that more than 400 days of e-mail traffic might be lost. The White House is required by law to maintain the e-mails under the Presidential Records Act.
The White House says the document in question is out of date and inaccurate. But it won't say what is accurate: Indeed, after acknowledging that millions of e-mails might be missing, the White House is now refusing to say any e-mails are lost and says that previous analyses were inaccurate.
Privately, officials suggest the number could be far lower than the initial estimates. But aides say that only after a full audit is complete will the administration offer any further public information.
"The office of administration, working with outside technical experts, is conducting a thorough accounting of the e-mail archiving system," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel. "It is important that that work be complete and accurate and therefore they are taking great pains to do a through analysis. That's where we are."
Anne Weismann, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group that has focused considerable attention on the missing e-mails, said the White House document is a tacit acknowledgment that some e-mails are missing.
"The White House is taking some steps to recover these e-mails -- that's good," she said. "On the other hand, they have waited very late and it's not going to be done for quite a while."
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Charles Dharapak -- Associated Press; John McCain joined President Bush at the White House in March, in their last extended appearance together. The senator faces a balancing act with the president's presence at next week's convention.
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The Washington Post
August 25, 2008 Monday
Regional Edition
With the Democrats in Denver
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A17
LENGTH: 859 words
Today, washingtonpost.com launches PostPartisan, a blog of Post columnists and editorial writers. Throughout the conventions, Post writers will offer analysis and insights into what's happening on the stage and behind the scenes.
The photo ops and sound bites beginning tonight will all be designed to show Democratic unity -- Tim Kaine thinks Joe Biden was a great VP choice, Hillary Clinton thinks Barack Obama is the tops and so forth. But a pre-convention event at the Denver Art Museum yesterday afternoon showed that at least on one big issue -- education -- it's not all one happy family.
Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty, his Newark counterpart Cory Booker, the Rev. Al Sharpton, New York City superintendent Joel Klein and others gathered to push for merit pay for teachers and other accountability measures for urban schools. The biggest obstacle, they all agreed, is "special interests," by which for the most part they mean teachers unions -- whose members will make up about a tenth of convention delegates, according to National Education Association executive director John Wilson.
Sharpton described the terrible schools open to many poor black children as the biggest civil rights issue of the 21st century. "If our parents could stand up to biting dogs in Alabama, we can stand up to special interests in America's cities," he said.
Fenty said he supports Obama and his message of change -- "and change is most important in education." He offered ongoing teacher contract talks in the District as "a real life example." Chancellor Michelle Rhee's proposed contract includes merit pay for teachers who achieve results. But the American Federation of Teachers, "which I don't think does anything for the District of Columbia," is weighing in against the contract. Why? "The only thing I can figure out is, the people who are elected [as union officials] want to keep their jobs."
The NEA's Wilson, in the audience, told me he found the references to special interests, and the exclusion of unions from the conference, "disrespectful to teachers, and naive . . . . You're not going to change the current system until you bring in teachers and their collective voice."
Indeed, both big teachers unions insist they favor transformation and reform. But any time the talk goes to pay for performance or other ways to attract the best teachers to the worst schools, they change the subject to the problems with parents, or say the need for change is so big that we shouldn't get bogged down with little tactical things like the right to get rid of teachers who don't perform. There was a lot of hope expressed in the auditorium yesterday that Obama would stand up to the unions -- and for children who are being deprived a decent chance in life.
So far, Obama hasn't done much more than nibble at that one.
Fred Hiatt
The national political conventions are gatherings of VIPs, and every VIP expects a good hotel room. That's why media types tend to be relegated to the outskirts, or the suburbs, or the exurbs. And that's why the Cherry Creek neighborhood of Denver -- it is indeed inside the city limits, barely -- has become a vast resettlement camp for notebook-carrying, camera-toting refugees from Washington and New York.
We stick out. We're the ones on foot (this part of town was definitely made for cars), wandering in circles, hoping to stumble across a Starbucks. Helpful hint: If you ask a local, and he or she describes a destination as "right up the street," that means two or three miles.
I was trudging "right up the street" yesterday morning when I ran into a displaced person from the New York Times whose stride, anomalously, had bounce and purpose. He was carrying a swimsuit. "At our hotel, they said we could use the pool at the Holiday Inn if we showed our room card," he said. My smile was, perhaps, needlessly patronizing.
Our hotel has a pool.
Eugene Robinson
Exactly two hours before Sen. Joe Biden was to take the stage for his unveiling as Barack Obama's running mate, an e-mail arrived from the Republican National Committee laying out the case against both men. Printed out, it ran seven pages.
Before sun-up yesterday, the John McCain-GOP presidential campaign had rolled out two television ads blasting the Democratic ticket, including one that accused Obama of snubbing rival Hillary Clinton in the veepstakes.
The Obama camp fired back at McCain almost immediately, labeling the ad "demonstrably false."
I also received an e-mail release from Hillary Clinton's office restating her support for Obama and their shared "commitment to changing the direction of the country, getting out of Iraq, and expanding access to health care." Clinton chided McCain for not including those remarks in his ad.
All that by lunchtime on Sunday.
I cut my political teeth on the 1952 presidential campaign between the Republican candidate, and war hero, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Illinois's Democratic governor, Adlai E. Stevenson. The toughest campaign ad was Eisenhower's animated cartoon about himself accompanied by an Irving Berlin tune, "I like Ike."
Folks, as comedian Flip Wilson used to say, "are so touchy these days."
Colbert I. King
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The New York Times
August 24, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Becoming the Big New Idea: First, Look the Part
BYLINE: By MARY JO MURPHY
SECTION: Section WK; Column 0; Week in Review Desk; IDEAS & TRENDS; Pg. 4
LENGTH: 1020 words
The wind turbine's detractors fall into roughly two categories. To some objectors, the turbine is the devil's own trident -- a whirling, whirring one that thwacks birds, chews bats and sets whales' teeth on edge. To the less eco-minded, it is the blight just outside the front window or off the back porch -- if yours happens to be the front window or back porch.
But none of that matters just now. The wind turbine is the ''it'' item of summer 2008.
It is everywhere, and not in a bad way. Advertisements broadcast by the presidential campaigns of Senators John McCain and Barack Obama during the Olympics have featured almost identical pastoral panning shots of turbines. If you add the General Electric commercials that boast of the green-powering of the Games, the TV screen has shown wind turbines gleaming white more often than Michael Phelps flashing gold. There are turbines posing among the mannequins in the Calvin Klein windows on Madison Avenue. And last week Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg planted in New Yorkers' heads images of turbines on the bridges and rooftops and -- an instance of icon meeting icon -- lighting Lady Liberty's torch with their gusty might.
Not since Don Quixote have so many windmills presented such an orgy of illusion: wind power accounts for only about 1 percent of the nation's energy. Notwithstanding the ardent advocacy of people like T. Boone Pickens, oilman turned windman, it will be some time before the production catches up to the publicity.
But that's the way it is with a cultural icon: it is both of and ahead of its time, and it knows that looking good is half the battle. (You can almost hear Heidi Klum telling the ''Project Runway'' contestants, ''Your next challenge, designers, is to create an outfit for a wind turbine, fashion icon!'')
The most common wind turbine is a Danish design. Tall, sleek, clean, futuristic in a kind of retro Jetsons way (the turbine's a little old for an ingenue), it's your childhood pinwheel all grown up and playing for keeps.
''What makes this such a powerful icon is that it's unbelievably simple and telegraphic,'' said Allen P. Adamson, managing director of the New York office of Landor Associates, a corporate branding firm, and ''and yet it's a serious idea.''
Edward Tenner, author of ''Our Own Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity,'' suggests that the appeal of the design owes something to a Modernist and Scandinavian revival. The popular television series ''Mad Men,'' for example, is a catalog of Danish modern.
Mr. Tenner, whose next book will be about positive unintended consequences, sees in the rise of the wind turbine parallels to icons like the compact fluorescent lamp, the geodesic dome, even the railroad. A rectangular fluorescent bulb had been around for a while, he noted, but ''I think there is something about the spiral design that makes it visually arresting.''
Of course, one man's arresting is another's hideous, but this is a matter of how people train their perceptions. Mr. Tenner cites old bumper stickers that say ''Jet Noise: The Sound of Freedom.'' Similarly, advocates of wind power ''may actually see the sound of these blades as reassuring, but to others it's a visual and sonic intrusion.''
But ''perception of technology in the environment changes,'' Mr. Tenner said, recalling the railroad that cuts through the lovely Lake District. ''Is then no nook of English ground secure/ From rash assault?'' Wordsworth complained in 1844 in his ''Sonnet on the Projected Kendal and Windermere Railway.'' Now railways like that are greatly admired. ''On the other hand,'' Mr. Tenner said, ''wind turbines don't really complement the terrain as, for example, the Ribblehead Viaduct in Yorkshire did.'' The turbines ''are a bold, Modernist appropriation of the landscape.''
The geodesic dome was associated with the same sort of progressive thinking in design that led to the wind turbine. It was ''part of this movement for lightness and new materials and a smaller human footprint,'' Mr. Tenner said, and it became almost a cult object on college campuses beginning in the 1950s. But technical problems over time consigned it to a niche standing.
So what else does an icon have to do besides look good to a lot of people?
The best icons tell a story, says Seth Godin, author of ''All Marketers Are Liars,'' and it's ''a story that validates our feelings and amplifies the way we look at the world.'' The fins on cars of the 1950s are a good example, he said. ''It didn't have anything to do with how good the car was,'' but the fins evoked a rocket ship. ''Rockets, of course, were the icon of the day, so capturing that rocketness in a car transferred some of the magic.''
The wind turbine also plays to American mythology, which ''is all about supply,'' Mr. Godin theorizes. ''Demand is our right. It's our right to be wasteful and profligate. The supply is never-ending and will take care of itself. So an icon that represents a risk-free way to increase supply resonates with us.'' Mr. Obama is right when he says you should put more air in your tires, Mr. Godin says, ''but there's resistance, because that is something you have to do right now. For some people, this is scolding. Somehow, they think, 'it's my fault.' ''
Still, ''there's a huge danger if we try to build public policy about risk-free iconography and storytelling,'' Mr. Godin says. ''We end up with nuclear waste dumps and ethanol. There really is no free lunch, but that's a difficult story to tell.''
The windmill, Mr. Adamson said, has ''transcended its literal functionality to become an iconic symbol of the ideal.'' These reedy beacons are ''almost branded icons of hopeful, we-can-beat-them better mousetraps,'' but there is a risk in overuse, and in offering a promise too long undelivered. Today the icon has potential, he said. ''Right now it stands for 'Don't confuse me with the facts.' '' But ''it's at the tipping point right now,'' unless people go ahead and make good on the promise.
In the meantime, wind turbine, enjoy your moment. Stick that landing and blow a few kisses.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: August 24, 2008
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The New York Times
August 24, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Last Call for Change We Can Believe In
BYLINE: By FRANK RICH
SECTION: Section WK; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 9
LENGTH: 1579 words
AS the real campaign at last begins in Denver this week, this much is certain: It's time for Barack Obama to dispatch ''Change We Can Believe In'' to a dignified death.
This isn't because -- OMG! -- Obama's narrow three- to four-percentage-point lead of recent weeks dropped to a statistically indistinguishable one- to three-point margin during his week of vacation. It's because zero hour is here. As the presidential race finally gains the country's full attention, the strategy that vanquished Hillary Clinton must be rebooted to take out John McCain.
''Change We Can Believe In'' was brilliantly calculated for a Democratic familial brawl where every candidate was promising nearly identical change from George Bush. It branded Obama as the sole contender with the un-Beltway biography, credibility and political talent to link the promise of change to the nation's onrushing generational turnover in all its cultural (and, yes, racial) manifestations. McCain should be a far easier mark than Clinton if Obama retools his act.
What we have learned this summer is this: McCain's trigger-happy temperament and reactionary policies offer worse than no change. He is an unstable bridge back not just to Bush policies but to an increasingly distant 20th-century America that is still fighting Red China in Vietnam and the Soviet Union in the cold war. As the country tries to navigate the fast-moving changes of the 21st century, McCain would put America on hold.
What Obama also should have learned by now is that the press is not his friend. Of course, he gets more ink and airtime than McCain; he's sexier news. But as George Mason University's Center for Media and Public Affairs documentedin its study of six weeks of TV news reports this summer, Obama's coverage was 28 percent positive, 72 percent negative. (For McCain, the split was 43/57.) Even McCain's most blatant confusions, memory lapses and outright lies still barely cause a ripple, whether he's railing against a piece of pork he in fact voted for, as he did at the Saddleback Church pseudodebate last weekend, or falsifying crucial details of his marital history in his memoirs, as The Los Angeles Times uncovered in court records last month.
What should Obama do now? As premature panic floods through certain liberal precincts, there's no shortage of advice: more meat to his economic plan, more passion in his stump delivery, less defensiveness in response to attacks and, as is now happening, sharper darts at a McCain lifestyle so extravagant that we are only beginning to learn where all the beer bullion is buried.
But Obama is never going to be a John Edwards-style populist barnburner. (Edwards wasn't persuasive either, by the way.) Nor will wonkish laundry lists of policy details work any better for him than they did for Al Gore or Hillary Clinton. Obama has those details to spare, in any case, while McCain, who didn't even include an education policy on his Web site during primary season, is still winging it. As David Leonhardt observes in his New York Times Magazine cover article on ''Obamanomics'' today, Obama's real problem is not a lack of detail but his inability to sell policy with ''an effective story.''
That story is there to be told, but it has to be a story that is more about America and the future and less about Obama and his past. After all these months, most Americans, for better or worse, know who Obama is. So much so that he seems to have fought off the relentless right-wing onslaught to demonize him as an elitist alien. Asked in last week's New York Times/CBS News poll if each candidate shares their values, registered voters gave Obama and McCain an identical 63 percent. Asked if each candidate ''cares about the needs and problems of people like yourself,'' Obama beat McCain by 37 to 23 percent. Is the candidate ''someone you can relate to''? Obama: 55 percent, McCain: 41. Even before McCain told Politico that he relies on the help to count up the houses he owns, he was the candidate seen as the out-of-step elitist.
So while Obama can continue to try to reassure resistant Clinton loyalists in Appalachia that he's not a bogeyman from Madrassaland, he must also move on to the bigger picture for everyone else. He must rekindle the ''fierce urgency of now'' -- but not, as he did in the primaries, merely to evoke uplifting echoes of the civil-rights struggle or the need for withdrawal from Iraq.
Most Americans, unlike the press, are not obsessed by race. (Those whites who are obsessed by race will not vote for Obama no matter what he or anyone else has to say about it.) And most Americans have turned their backs on the Iraq war, no matter how much McCain keeps bellowing about ''victory.'' The Bush White House is now poised to alight with the Iraqi government on a withdrawal timetable far closer to Obama's 16 months than McCain's vague promise of a 2013 endgame. As Gen. David Petraeus returns home, McCain increasingly resembles those mad Japanese soldiers who remained at war on remote Pacific islands years after Hiroshima.
Economic anxiety is the new terrorism. This is why the most relevant snapshot of voters' concerns was not to be found at Saddleback Church but at the Olympics last Saturday. For all the political press's hype, only some 5.5 million viewers tuned in to the Rev. Rick Warren's show in Orange County, Calif. Roughly three-quarters of them were over 50 -- in other words, the McCain base. By contrast, a diverse audience of 32 million Americans tuned in to Beijing that night to watch Michael Phelps win his eighth gold medal.
This was a rare feel-good moment for a depressed country. But the unsettling subtext of the Olympics has been as resonant for Americans as the Phelps triumph. You couldn't watch NBC's weeks of coverage without feeling bombarded by an ascendant China whose superior cache of gold medals and dazzling management of the Games became a proxy for its spectacular commercial and cultural prowess in the new century. Even before the Olympics began, a July CNN poll found that 70 percent of Americans fear China's economic might -- about as many as find America on the wrong track. Americans watching the Olympics could not escape the reality that China in particular and Asia in general will continue to outpace our country in growth while we remain mired in stagnancy and debt (much of it held by China).
How we dig out of this quagmire is the American story that Obama must tell. It is not a story of endless conflicts abroad but a potentially inspiring tale of serious economic, educational, energy and health-care mobilization at home. We don't have the time or resources to go off on more quixotic military missions or to indulge in culture wars. (In China, they're too busy exploiting scientific advances for competitive advantage to reopen settled debates about Darwin.) Americans must band together for change before the new century leaves us completely behind. The Obama campaign actually has plans, however imperfect or provisional, to set us on that path; the McCain campaign offers only disposable Band-Aids typified by the ''drill now'' mantra that even McCain says will only have a ''psychological'' effect on gas prices.
Even as it points to America's future, the Obama campaign also has the duty to fill in its opponent's past. McCain's attacks on Obama have worked: in last week's Los Angeles Times-Bloomberg poll, Obama's favorable rating declined from 59 to 48 percent and his negative rating rose from 27 to 35. Yet McCain still has a lower positive rating (46 percent) and higher negative rating (38) than Obama. McCain is not nearly as popular among Americans, it turns out, as he is among his journalistic camp followers. Should voters actually get to know him, he has nowhere to go but down.
The argument against Obama's ''going negative'' is that it undermines his message of ''transcendent politics'' and will make him look like an ''angry black man.'' But pacifistic politics is an oxymoron, and Obama is constitutionally incapable of coming off angrier than McCain. A few more fisticuffs from the former law professor (and many more from his running mate and other surrogates) can only help make him look less skinny (metaphorically if not literally). Obama should go after McCain's supposedly biggest asset -- experience -- much as McCain went after Obama's crowd-drawing celebrity.
It is, after all, not mere happenstance that so many conservative pundits -- Rich Lowry, Peggy Noonan, Ramesh Ponnuru -- have, to McCain's irritation, proposed that he ''patriotically'' declare in advance that he will selflessly serve only a single term. Whatever their lofty stated reasons for promoting this stunt, their underlying message is clear: They recognize in their heart of hearts that the shelf life of McCain's experience has already reached its expiration date.
Is a man who is just discovering the Internet qualified to lead a restoration of America's economic and educational infrastructures? Is the leader of a virtually all-white political party America's best salesman and moral avatar in the age of globalization? Does a bellicose Vietnam veteran who rushed to hitch his star to the self-immolating overreaches of Ahmad Chalabi, Pervez Musharraf and Mikheil Saakashvili have the judgment to keep America safe?
R.I.P., ''Change We Can Believe In.'' The fierce urgency of the 21st century demands Change Before It's Too Late.
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LOAD-DATE: August 24, 2008
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The New York Times
August 24, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
THE CASE FOR COOL
BYLINE: By MATT BAI.
Matt Bai, who covers politics for the magazine, is the author of ''The Argument: Inside the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics.''
SECTION: Section MM; Column 0; Magazine Desk; THE WAY WE LIVE NOW; Pg. 11
LENGTH: 1014 words
Of courseBarack Obama couldn't have been content simply to show up and make history this week in Denver, accepting the nomination of his party just four years after he first introduced himself to Democrats in a keynote address that changed the course of American politics. No, he and his advisers had to move the convention's final night out of the Pepsi Center and onto Invesco Field, and you don't need clairvoyance to imagine the scene that will unfold there: Obama soaking in the fading sunlight like some weird combination of Brett Favre and the Dalai Lama, surrounded by 80,000 screaming fans of all ages and colors, the mile-high breeze rippling through that dark suit coat that looks as if it were sewn on him while he was standing backstage. You can already see his rhetoric of hope soaring through the night as balloons fall from the sky, a moment designed for museum exhibits. And you can imagine John McCain, too, perhaps sitting in his living room in Sedona, eyes closed, remote control pressed to his forehead, wondering how on earth he's supposed to follow this.
Presidential campaigns are about a lot of things -- timing, ideas, stamina -- and this one is just getting started. But in at least one critical aspect, the imagery surrounding each candidate, this year's contest has been as one-sided as any in recent memory. There was Obama during the primaries, coolly claiming victory (or near victory) in one primary after another, flanked by a tableau of diverse Americans, while McCain stood, seemingly flummoxed by the teleprompter, on stages sagging under the weight of white-haired men. There was Obama looking crisp as he addressed hundreds of thousands of adoring Germans, while a half-embarrassed McCain ate dinner at a German restaurant in Columbus. Watch cable television with the sound turned down, and you will notice a certain Kennedy-Nixon quality to the pictures. Obama, usually planted in front of banners advertising ''hope'' or ''change,'' seems lithe and a little detached, cool in a varsity-letter kind of way; McCain, his expression funereal as he discourses on the latest developments in Georgia, appears to find running for president about as fun as a colonoscopy.
This dynamic represents an unlikely turnabout for both parties. For most of the last three decades, leaving aside the eight-year interregnum of the singularly talented Bill Clinton, Republicans have been the ones to base their campaigns on overarching narratives and imagery rather than on their positions or curricula vitae. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush campaigned, with almost irritating buoyancy, on themes of reform, strength and integrity. Their celebrity grew from a sense of easy confidence, even as they waved away questions about their gravitas. It was the Democrats, meanwhile, who for a generation sought unsuccessfully to scold their way to the White House, shunning glamour for a sense of impending gloom. Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry -- all of their campaigns bring to mind memories of cold truths delivered in dry sermons, a misplaced faith in policy details over the power of visual projection.
Eventually, in politics, the vanquished learn from their vanquishers, and Obama and his chief strategist, David Axelrod, have internalized the lessons of Reagan and Bush. Instead, it is McCain who has fallen into the classic Democratic trap of equating celebrity with emptiness and broad thematics with a lack of depth. In his most memorable attack ad to date, McCain cast Obama as the political equivalent of a party girl, likening him to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. This strategy doesn't seem to have hurt McCain -- recent polls show the race tied -- but in the long term it may not help. For one thing, unlike Gore or Kerry, McCain has never been mistaken for a policy wonk, and he flubs important details with some frequency; it's not as if his command of substance makes Obama seem like a marshmallow by comparison. But the larger problem with campaigning against cool is that it seldom actually works. Too often, when you mock celebrity, you also seem to be mocking all the people who get to define celebrity -- which is to say, American consumers. In a way, McCain's celebrity ad could be the 2008 version of Gore's infamous sighs. It says, If you really find this character compelling, then there's got to be something wrong with you too.
Besides, who's to say that Americans are misguided for craving a little cool in their candidates? It's not simply that ours is a country of celebrity-seeking robots (although there may be some truth to that as well). Perhaps it's more that Americans are weary of a political system that has all but ground to a halt, and every four years they search for the galvanizing personality who stands a chance of dislodging it. The infatuation with star quality reflects, on some level, the yearning for the next Roosevelt (Theodore or Franklin) or Kennedy (John or Robert), some reformer with the dynamism and charisma to renew dialogue at home and kinships around the world, to tell us the truths we need to hear without telegraphing defeat.
It's curious that McCain would disparage the force of this undercurrent in American politics; after all, he was its beneficiary when he ran in 2000, vowing to transform the culture of Washington and extolling the virtues of national service. Then McCain emerged from the primaries as the cheerfully defiant voice of independent voters across the ideological spectrum. By contrast, his campaign now seems increasingly reactive, an exercise in discrediting his opponent rather than a vehicle for his own conviction. If McCain really wanted to blunt the force of Obama's imagery, maybe he would step onstage at the Republican convention in St. Paul and follow his own reformist instincts, appealing once again to all those Americans who would sooner serve their country than either of its calcified parties. A speech like that might not win the same roars of approval that will no doubt echo through the Denver night. But it would be really, really cool.
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LOAD-DATE: August 24, 2008
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CHART: SPLIT IMAGE: Percentage of people who have favorable or unfavorable opions of John McCain. The remaining respondents were undecided, had not heard enough to decide or refused to answer. (Source: The New York Times/CBS News)
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The Washington Post
August 24, 2008 Sunday
Met 2 Edition
Obama Calls His Pick, Biden, Both a Statesman and Fighter
BYLINE: Anne E. Kornblut; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1515 words
DATELINE: SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Aug. 23
Sen. Barack Obama introduced Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. as his vice presidential running mate here on Saturday, embracing him as a "statesman with sound judgment" who had never forgotten his humble roots or lost his fundamental decency.
"Joe Biden is that rare mix. For decades, he has brought change to Washington, but Washington hasn't changed him," Obama (Ill.) said.
The announcement -- made official only hours earlier -- capped weeks of speculation and brought an infusion of experience and aggressiveness to the Democratic ticket two days before the start of the convention in Denver.
Biden, 65, a sharp-witted and energetic foreign policy expert who has held two of the most critical Senate chairmanships, bounded out onto the stage just after 2 p.m. Central time. The senator from Delaware hugged Obama and then, taking the podium as the vice presidential candidate for the first time, eagerly assumed the role of attack dog against the presumptive Republican nominee.
Biden said Sen. John McCain -- although a longtime friend -- has "yielded to the very Swift boat politics he once deplored" during the course of the current race. And he made fun of McCain for recently forgetting that he owns seven properties, saying McCain cannot understand what struggling Americans discuss over their kitchen tables.
"He'll have to worry which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at," Biden said.
Obama settled on Biden during his vacation in Hawaii the week before but did not make his choice known, even to the other contenders, until late in the week, aides said. He called Biden on Thursday night to offer him the job, catching him at the dentist during his wife's root canal procedure.
That set into motion a cloak-and-dagger operation to bring the two together here Saturday. After the appearance, Biden and his wife, Jill, conducted interviews and were photographed with Obama and his wife, Michelle. When Michelle Obama and Jill Biden met Saturday, after speaking first by phone, they had what one person in the room described as an "instant comfort level." They discussed the pending glare of the cameras at the convention and shared anecdotes about their children.
The Bidens returned to Delaware after Saturday's event and are scheduled to fly to Denver on Monday. The two families plan to campaign together again after the convention.
Biden is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and also served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He commands a loyal, if small, clutch of followers in the battleground state of Iowa, having twice campaigned for president there.
His home state of Delaware has just three electoral votes, but he is originally from Pennsylvania, a critical swing state with 21. Democrats hope he can help break down any perceptions of elitism on the ticket, especially among working-class white voters.
Biden does not come without risks. Accusations that he plagiarized then-British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock helped sink his presidential campaign in 1987. During the primaries, Biden also attacked Obama aggressively, questioning his lack of experience. Those comments had already resurfaced in a McCain ad released shortly before the announcement was made official; it also quotes Biden, in 2005, praising the Republican.
Democrats largely embraced the choice, although some supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed disappointment that Obama's top challenger in the primaries was never considered for the second slot. A senior Obama adviser confirmed that Clinton was not asked for paperwork but said it was because she had asked Obama not to vet her unless he was seriously considering her.
It appears Obama never did. A Clinton loyalist who talked to her throughout the process said the senator from New York did not want to "make him feel he had to stage a Kabuki theater process for her" by pretending to consider her if he did not want to.
"She made it crystal clear in public and in private that this was entirely his decision to make any way he wanted, choose whomever he wanted," the loyalist said. "Clearly, he had no interest. No meetings, no conversations, no requests for information, no real consideration whatsoever. And that was his prerogative."
A new McCain TV ad aims to tap into the frustration of Clinton supporters over the decision by suggesting that Obama dissed his onetime rival. "Why? For speaking the truth," a narrator says.
The ad shows clips of Clinton criticizing Obama for vaguely discussing how he would govern and for his connections to Chicago developer Antoin Rezko. "The truth hurt. And Obama didn't like it," the narrator concludes.
Clinton issued a statement praising Biden, and some close to her said the choice of Biden validated their belief that experience is an important trait in the race -- even though as a 35-year veteran of Washington he does not project an image of "change."
"Senator Obama has continued in the best traditions for the vice presidency by selecting an exceptionally strong, experienced leader and devoted public servant," Clinton said.
Obama and Biden made their joint debut in front of a crowd of tens of thousands at the old Illinois statehouse, where the presumptive Democratic nominee launched his campaign a year and a half ago. The first blue "Obama-Biden" signs were on display -- quickly produced under the cloak of secrecy as the campaign tried to keep the announcement from leaking.
In his introductory remarks, Obama described Biden's life story: as a boy raised on Catholic values in working-class Pennsylvania; as a young senator who lost his first wife and daughter in a car accident; as a senator who had fought against tyranny and injustice.
It was clear from Obama's speech that he views Biden as bringing dual assets: being able to play the role of a down-to-earth fighter, appealing to Catholics and the working class; and serving as a statesman and expert on foreign policy.
"He is still that scrappy kid from Scranton who beat the odds -- the dedicated family man and committed Catholic who knows every conductor on that Amtrak train to Wilmington. That's the kind of fighter who I want by my side in the months and years to come," Obama said.
He described Biden as being "at home in a bar in Cedar Rapids" as well as on the world stage -- two settings in which Obama has struggled over the course of the race. Scranton is of particular significance for Obama: Clinton, who also has family from the area, dominated it in the primaries.
Biden, in characteristic language, noted that some people accuse him of speaking too colloquially -- and then proceeded to do so.
"There's something about this guy, there's something about Barack Obama, that allows him to bring people together," Biden said. "It's been amazing to watch him, but then again, that's been the story of his whole life."
He said Obama has the "vision and courage" to improve the country, calling him a "clear-eyed pragmatist who will get the job done."
Biden is also running for reelection and, under Delaware law, can remain on both the presidential and Senate ballots. He is expected to cruise to reelection, and if the Obama-Biden ticket prevails, Gov. Ruth Ann Minner would appoint his replacement in the Senate.
His son, Beau, Delaware's attorney general, is considered a favorite for that potential appointment.
Throughout the selection process, the Obama campaign had kept a close watch on Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine as a potential running mate. Kaine told associates that he had "very serious" conversations with Obama about joining the ticket and that he provided documents to the campaign about his background.
Speculation over Kaine reached a fever pitch last week when Obama spent two full days campaigning across Virginia and spent the night Wednesday in downtown Richmond, a few blocks from the governor's mansion.
On Friday, with a swarm of reporters parked outside, Kaine sneaked out of the mansion through an underground tunnel to help his son move to George Washington University. Kaine was notified of Obama's decision late Thursday night or early Friday, though he declined repeatedly Saturday to reveal when. He then flew to Denver.
Wayne Turnage, Kaine's chief of staff, sent an e-mail to the governor's cabinet at 11:09 p.m. Friday with the subject line "Vice President."
"The Governor has indicated that Obama did not select him as a running mate," it said.
A few hours later, at 3:10 a.m., the Obama campaign sent out a text message to an estimated 3 million supporters nationwide with the official news. But details had already begun to leak as Secret Service agents were dispatched to Biden's home in Delaware, and as Kaine and the others on the shortlist were informed they did not get the job.
In keeping with its secretive approach to the vice presidential rollout, Obama's campaign said it will release no details on how he made his decision. Obama also did not take questions; he has not done so for at least two weeks.
Staff writers Shailagh Murray and Perry Bacon Jr. in Denver, Anita Kumar in Richmond and Michael D. Shear, with McCain in Sedona, Ariz., contributed to this report.
LOAD-DATE: August 24, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post; Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and wife Jill share a celebratory kiss as Barack and Michelle Obama watch in Springfield, Ill. Obama called Biden "the kind of fighter I want by my side."
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The Washington Post
August 24, 2008 Sunday
Bulldog Edition
Extreme Campaign Makeover;
The sound bite and the fury over the nominees' houses
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. B06
LENGTH: 384 words
IT USED TO BE that scandals were named for buildings. (Remember Watergate?) Now, it seems, they're about buildings. John McCain doesn't know how many houses he and his wife own. Barack Obama bought his with an assist from a man later convicted of felonies. So much for the substantive, high-road campaign.
We can bemoan this elevation of the trivial without being deluded into thinking that it's something new -- although the velocity of the 24-7 news cycle, the omnipresence of cable television and instantaneous transmission over the Internet have intensified this phenomenon. Small moments that capture -- or appear to capture -- a deeper truth about a candidate are easy for voters to grasp and for rival campaigns to exploit. George H.W. Bush was painted as being out of touch because he supposedly marveled at a supermarket scanner. Al Gore was portrayed as a résumé-puffing blowhard because he supposedly claimed credit for launching the Internet or uncovering problems at Love Canal. Smart candidates have always known that they need to keep abreast of the price of a quart of milk. (Keeping up with the price of arugula at Whole Foods doesn't count.) Now they'll need to refresh their recollection of their real estate holdings.
The Obama campaign, having already collected research on the McCain real estate holdings, quickly produced an ad to taunt him. And it's not as though the McCain campaign has been higher-minded: Comparing Mr. Obama to Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Charlton Heston as Moses isn't exactly a reprise of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
Really, do the McCains' real estate holdings and his failure to keep count of his wife's Coronado condos make Mr. McCain oblivious to the concerns of ordinary Americans -- any more than their family estates made Franklin D. Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy incapable of feeling the pain of the common man? Do Mr. Obama's four fireplaces, music room, wine cellar and four-car garage count against him? Likewise, Mr. Obama has long said that he had a lapse in judgment in getting entangled with Tony Rezko, a friend and fundraiser who in June was convicted of 16 counts of felony corruption in an influence-peddling scheme, in buying his house.
But anyone who votes on the basis of this sound-and-fury politics deserves the president he gets.
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The Washington Post
August 24, 2008 Sunday
Every Edition
Myxm Xmy Xym;
As Campaigns Heat Up and Washington Gets Beaten Down, Are There Any Pols Who Will Sing Its Praises?
BYLINE: Dan Zak; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: SUNDAY SOURCE; Pg. N01
LENGTH: 760 words
The hating will reach a pinnacle in Denver and St. Paul., Minn., this week and next. At the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions, we'll get soaring speeches about how awful Washington is. How it is a quagmire of corruption. How it does nothing for anyone. How it needs to change.
Politicians have disparaged Washington since long before the days of air conditioning, but the anti-D.C. comments have been especially sharp during the 2008 presidential campaign.
"The city of Satan," John McCain declared to a crowd in Nevada.
The place where people "boil all the hope out of" you, Barack Obama warned in Akron, Ohio.
And these are men who work here and are asking to be elected to the top of the heap of this stinking swamp --
One moment. We have a bit of clarification from Scott W. Berg, author of "Grand Avenues," about Pierre L'Enfant's glorious vision for a glorious city.
"D.C. is not a swamp," says Berg, who lives in Reston. "It has some low areas of marshy ground, but it's not a swamp. It didn't become known as a swamp until a whole bunch of politicians came in and started referring to it as a swamp in metaphor. You call it a swamp enough, and people think it is. The name-calling changed what people thought of the physical place."
Ain't that the truth. Everyone jabbers about the perceived negatives of the District, and suddenly they're true. Politics, and the media coverage of politics, seem to blot out our fair city's positives. McCain and Obama have buttressed their presidential campaigns with quotations about how they want to remake Washington into a cleaner, brighter place.
"Washington's broken," says the narrator of a McCain TV ad airing this month. Obama made the same diagnosis in a speech in Indiana on Aug. 8: "Washington is broken," he concluded. Republican Mitt Romney repeated this mantra before his own presidential campaign broke.
Yes, we know they're talking about the political side, but it's still agitating to hear disparaging comments grouped nominally under the city as a whole. And this goes beyond presidential campaigns to every congressional district in the United States, where candidates seek to assure people that they're not a part of Washington, but they want to work there, hold their nose and maybe freshen it up.
"It's kind of comical, because people fight, connive and scheme to get to a place they profess to hate, and then they fight, connive and scheme to stay in the place they profess to hate," says Democratic strategist James Carville, who maintains a home in Alexandria.
"I kind of like Washington. Where else could I live where it takes me 12 minutes to go to a major league baseball game, 15 minutes to the airport, 15 to the Capitol? In terms of the way the government runs, there's a lot to criticize. 'Washington' has just become a shorthand. I detest the government but love the city."
The iconic Washington putdown is often attributed to John F. Kennedy. "Somebody once said that Washington was a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency," relayed the president in a 1961 speech. Sounds like a compliment for about two seconds.
"If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," was Harry Truman's pithy assessment.
And then there's the line about the nation's capital being "Hollywood for ugly people," a phrase uttered so many times it has lost its sting. So we're ugly and charmless, hostile and inefficient, not at all like the leaders who will storm into the city after this election cycle and make it all better.
"It seems to me whatever temporary gain you make in the election campaign by presenting yourself as outside the special interests of Washington, it's counterproductive in the long run," says writer Doris Kearns Goodwin, a scholar of presidential history. "It further denigrates the whole field of public service. Painting with such a broad stroke -- 'Washington is bad' -- only feeds public perception that politics is not an honorable vocation."
Amid the negativity that's recycled every election year, we wondered whether any members of Congress had anything nice to say about Washington. So we called a bunch and asked them, pretty please, to provide a kind word about our city. Many did, even the ones who voted against giving the District representation in Congress. Examples of their niceties follow. Consider this a salve, a pre-convention reconciliation, brokered in the eye of an electoral hurricane.
And, yes, we called McCain and Obama, but they had nothing to say. Obama's press team declined to pass along our request. McCain's camp didn't respond at all.
LOAD-DATE: August 24, 2008
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The Washington Post
August 24, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
Granite State Nail-Biter
BYLINE: David S. Broder
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. B07
LENGTH: 732 words
DATELINE: MANCHESTER, N.H.
When Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, lists the November races that will swell his party's majority, New Hampshire is one of the first he brags about.
Here on the ground, it looks a lot less certain that Democrat Jeanne Shaheen will cut short the promising career of Sen. John Sununu, namesake son of a White House chief of staff under the first President Bush.
Shaheen, a former governor who lost a close race to Sununu six years ago in an environment much more hospitable to Republicans, was a double-digit favorite early this year when she heeded supporters' pleas and left a Harvard administrative job to test Sununu again. But last weekend, as she and Sununu marched with their supporters in the Londonderry parade and then hobnobbed with voters at the Greekfest here, Shaheen acknowledged that things have changed.
Reflecting on a University of New Hampshire poll released July 23 that gave her a 46 percent to 42 percent lead -- the tightest in any public poll in a year -- Shaheen said, "We always knew it would be close. It's always difficult to beat an incumbent."
Sununu, who moved from the House to the Senate, gloated in a separate interview that he has hoarded his TV ad money, while "Shaheen spent $700,000 this summer and didn't move her numbers at all."
In a race where both candidates expect total spending to reach $20 million -- an extraordinary sum for such a small state -- Shaheen implored her backers last week to help her overcome "my opponent's $3 million cash-on-hand advantage." Conservative independent expenditure groups are also mobilized, she warned.
Sununu, Norm Coleman in Minnesota and Gordon Smith in Oregon are three relatively young senators the GOP hopes can survive this difficult year and provide a base for the future. All three stress their independent credentials, while their opponents try to categorize them as Bush clones. Democrats have been resurgent in all three states, but Sununu faces the toughest challenge.
In 2006, Democrats won everything in New Hampshire -- reelecting the governor, capturing both House seats and turning over both houses of the Legislature. Opposition to the Iraq war and economic worries left longtime Republican incumbents stranded.
In the past year, the state has not been as badly shocked by the housing crisis as some others, but voter interviews in heavily Republican Londonderry found a strong undercurrent of anxiety about energy and food prices and the cost of heating oil for next winter.
Sununu is trying to exploit that by advocating an aggressive offshore drilling program, while Shaheen, like other Democrats, would limit the sites for new wells and emphasize conservation and alternative energy sources. More broadly, they differ on taxes and on Iraq -- with Shaheen challenging Sununu's assessment that the war issue has faded since 2006.
Sununu, an engineer by training, comes across as the more forceful advocate, but Shaheen has the warmer personality. Her procession through the savory food stalls at the Greekfest was marked by hugs, smiles and family photos.
Shaheen supporters argue that this race should be easier for her than her 2002 run, when she was still governor and had to fit her campaigning into an official schedule. But voter interviews found that the controversies of Shaheen's Concord years are more familiar to many voters than the details of Sununu's Senate term.
At the margins, Sununu probably has the presidential candidate who helps him most in John McCain. The two have traveled the globe together, and McCain praises Sununu as "the smartest guy in the United States Senate."
On the Democratic side, the tension remaining from the Clinton-Obama contest here last winter remains a problem for Shaheen. She is identified as a Clinton partisan, in part because her husband, Bill Shaheen, was the New York senator's volunteer co-chairman until he was asked to resign after making disparaging comments about Barack Obama.
A Shaheen insider said, "The Clinton people are all with us, but we need more from the Obama side to win this." When Shaheen fired her campaign manager, Bill Hyers, last month, he was picked up by the Obama headquarters in Chicago. The new manager, Robby Mook, is a Clinton veteran, and some Democrats see the changes at the top as another sign that this victory is not yet in hand.
davidbroder@washpost.com
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The New York Times
August 23, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
On NYTimes.com
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 4
LENGTH: 459 words
Getting Ink at the Games
In Beijing, athletes, Olympics support staff and tourists are packing into local tattoo parlors to have a permanent commemoration of their time in China inked onto their bodies.
nytimes.com/olympics
Ideas
Links to What We're Reading
A blog from the editors of the Week in Review, featuring links to the best idea-driven writing on the Web, in the press and from policy institutions and academia.
nytimes.com/ideas
INTERACTIVE: END OF THE LINE
An interactive look at life at the 23 stops on the New York City subway system beyond which you can ride no farther, including video, audio and photos.
nytimes.com/nyregion
AUDIO: AS THE FOLIAGE TURNS,
So Does the Fashion
Bill Cunningham discusses what New Yorkers are wearing as they transition into fall. There seem to be two patterns: lots of bright colors or brown.
nytimes.com/styles
Q & A: GETTING BUMPED
From Flights
Micheline Maynard will be responding to questions on her article about the increasing chances that you will be bumped from your next flight.
nytimes.com/business
AUDIO: FIRE DEPARTMENT
Audio Reports
A series of audio clips released in a report conducted by the Fire Department investigating the deaths of two firefighters in a blaze at the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan.
nytimes.com/nyregion
AUDIO: GOODBYE, SOFTBALL
The United States softball team has dominated the sport in the Olympics, winning all three previous gold medals. But on Thursday in Beijing, in the final gold-medal game for the sport, the Americans lost to Japan.
nytimes.com/olympics
DEALBOOK Hedge Funds on the River
The fleet of financial professionals that turned out to compete in this week's fifth annual Hedge Fund Regatta in New York was thinner than last year. Only 17 teams entered the contest, down from 30 a year ago.
nytimes.com/dealbook
SLIDESHOW: MOROCCO'S HAMPTONS
A stylish playground for North Africa's elite, Asilah feels like a sailboat calmly adrift. The sounds of waves carry over the town's brilliant white architecture and down its freshly swept alleyways.
nytimes.com/travel
AUDIO: WEEKEND
Business Podcast
Jeff Sommer, Vikas Bajaj and Charles Duhigg on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; David Streitfeld on the struggling housing market; and Paul Lim on dividends.
nytimes.com/business
Opinion
Campaign Stops Obama Fatigue?
With John McCain's support rising, the Democratic candidate has his work cut out for him at the convention, says Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
nytimes.com/campaignstops
Buzz Bissinger Bench the Parents
In youth sports leagues across the country, the bad behavior continues, much of it off the field.
nytimes.com/opinion
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The Washington Post
August 23, 2008 Saturday
Regional Edition
Extreme Campaign Makeover;
The sound bite and the fury over the nominees' houses
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A14
LENGTH: 384 words
IT USED TO BE that scandals were named for buildings. (Remember Watergate?) Now, it seems, they're about buildings. John McCain doesn't know how many houses he and his wife own. Barack Obama bought his with an assist from a man later convicted of felonies. So much for the substantive, high-road campaign.
We can bemoan this elevation of the trivial without being deluded into thinking that it's something new -- although the velocity of the 24-7 news cycle, the omnipresence of cable television and instantaneous transmission over the Internet have intensified this phenomenon. Small moments that capture -- or appear to capture -- a deeper truth about a candidate are easy for voters to grasp and for rival campaigns to exploit. George H.W. Bush was painted as being out of touch because he supposedly marveled at a supermarket scanner. Al Gore was portrayed as a résumé-puffing blowhard because he supposedly claimed credit for launching the Internet or uncovering problems at Love Canal. Smart candidates have always known that they need to keep abreast of the price of a quart of milk. (Keeping up with the price of arugula at Whole Foods doesn't count.) Now they'll need to refresh their recollection of their real estate holdings.
The Obama campaign, having already collected research on the McCain real estate holdings, quickly produced an ad to taunt him. And it's not as though the McCain campaign has been higher-minded: Comparing Mr. Obama to Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Charlton Heston as Moses isn't exactly a reprise of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
Really, do the McCains' real estate holdings and his failure to keep count of his wife's Coronado condos make Mr. McCain oblivious to the concerns of ordinary Americans -- any more than their family estates made Franklin D. Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy incapable of feeling the pain of the common man? Do Mr. Obama's four fireplaces, music room, wine cellar and four-car garage count against him? Likewise, Mr. Obama has long said that he had a lapse in judgment in getting entangled with Tony Rezko, a friend and fundraiser who in June was convicted of 16 counts of felony corruption in an influence-peddling scheme, in buying his house.
But anyone who votes on the basis of this sound-and-fury politics deserves the president he gets.
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The Washington Post
August 23, 2008 Saturday
Met 2 Edition
In Racially Aware Akron, Campaigns Playing Well So Far
BYLINE: Steven A. Holmes; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A06
LENGTH: 1267 words
DATELINE: AKRON, Ohio
The pleasant summer evening was "Imagine Unity" night at Canal Park, home of the minor-league Akron Aeros, and was sponsored by a group of local ministers devoted to promoting reconciliation across racial, gender and religious lines.
Sitting in the stands along the right-field line, Judy McGovern pondered the question of whether race has been thrust into the presidential contest between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama. Yes, she said, adding that she was not happy about it, and quickly assigning blame.
"Only one candidate is doing it," said McGovern, a retired communications specialist from Medina, who is supporting McCain. "Barack Obama is guilty of it, whether it's him or his campaign people. All that talk about how he looks different is typically done to make him a victim. I think that's wrong."
Such sentiments convince the Rev. Ronald J. Fowler, a black minister and Obama supporter, that the candidate will raise race only gingerly in the future.
"I think the intent on Obama's part was to use a little humor to try to make a point that being different sometimes is viewed as a liability when it's really an asset," said Fowler, one of the ministers behind Imagine Unity, as he sat in the office of the Rev. Knute Larson, a white evangelical minister and close friend.
"He did open the door, but I don't think he was trying to make that an issue. That's the last thing that Obama needs to do is to come out and remind people that 'I'm black.' If anything, he needs to do the very opposite -- 'I'm American' -- and to stick with that."
In a presidential campaign that features the first African American to secure the nomination of a major party, the issue of race has bubbled beneath the surface like magma waiting to burst through a fissure.
Many thought that time had come a few weeks back. The McCain campaign aired an anti-Obama commercial featuring Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, two white, female celebrities, and drew criticism that it was racially tinged. Then, Obama said his Republican opponent would point out that he does not "look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills," a comment that prompted the McCain campaign to accuse the Democrat of playing the "race card."
Both campaigns have since backed away from the touchy issue of race. In a series of interviews in this northeast Ohio city, which has aggressively engaged in efforts to promote racial harmony, people expressed satisfaction over the absence of racial themes in the contest and generally blamed the news media for periodically focusing on the matter.
"I really don't think race is being injected in the campaign at all, and I'm really glad that it's not," said Leila Lualdi, a software marketer who is white and an Obama supporter, as she chomped on a burrito at a Chipotle in the city's trendy Highland Square neighborhood. "I think the people who are injecting it are the ones who have to fill a 24-hour news cycle."
Todd McKenney said he is relieved about the racial discourse of the presidential campaign so far, but he is mightily worried about its future tone.
An independent who unsuccessfully ran for municipal judge last year as a Republican, McKenney said he didn't think the Paris Hilton-Britney Spears ad had much to do with race. He said he thought Obama's "dollar bills" assertion was unfair but a slip of the tongue.
But he said that as the race intensifies after the conventions, tougher rhetoric will be more the norm.
"My concern in this campaign is that these things are going to get spun out, and they are going to generate more confusion in an already-tough area," said McKenney, a lawyer who has yet to decide whom he'll support. "I think that before the election, that will happen."
So far, few polls have measured the extent to which the public thinks race has been actively injected into the campaign. In a recent Los Angeles Times-Bloomberg poll, 48 percent of respondents said they did not think either candidate was using race as an issue. Of those who did, 28 percent said Obama was using it (13 percent said in a positive way, 15 percent in a negative way), while 15 percent said McCain was injecting it into the campaign (3 percent said positively, 12 percent negatively).
In many ways, the poll echoed the views of the more than 20 people interviewed in an unscientific survey in this city -- a fact that may be particularly telling.
After the local newspaper, the Beacon Journal, published a Pulitzer Prize-winning series on Akron's race relations, civic leaders, businessmen and activists in 1993 established the Coming Together Project, an initiative that promoted dialogue across racial lines on issues such as health care, unemployment, and relations between the community and the police department.
The effort garnered enough acclaim that in 1997 President Bill Clinton, as part of his race initiative, hosted a national town hall meeting at Akron University to discuss hot-button racial issues, particularly affirmative action.
The effort has faltered. Funding dried up for the Coming Together Project, and it shut down last year. Still, some residents say the experience made many in Akron, where blacks make up 28 percent of the population of 200,000, more attuned to racial issues than residents of many other places.
"I think we're a little bit more heightened to racial issues than other parts of the country because of the project," said David Hertz, vice president of a public relations company who, as a 30-year-old night editor at the Beacon Journal, conceived the race-relations series that led to the Coming Together Project.
"Perhaps Akron is a bit more prepared for an ongoing conversation of race that may or may not come about during this presidential election."
Some involved in race relations in Akron say Obama's campaign offers a historic opportunity for the country to directly address race and issues of concern to minorities. So far, they say, they are disappointed that, except for Obama's speech in Philadelphia, made in the wake of a controversy over remarks by his longtime minister, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the campaign's racial component has not gone much beyond name-calling.
"If there's going to be a racial discussion, let's talk about how do we level the playing field for a number of these issues that are affecting our communities -- minority communities disproportionately -- such as HIV-AIDS, which is on the rise, particularly in the African American community; incarceration rates, particularly among black men; failing educational system; housing foreclosures," said Bernett L. Williams, president of the Akron Urban League. "I'd be interested in their urban agendas. I really don't care what they look like."
Obama comes in for some tougher criticism in this regard. Even though he lays out an "urban policy," which calls for such things as job creation and ending racial profiling, he seldom mentions those issues on the stump.
"Police brutality, racial profiling -- these are issues that people are reluctant to put on the table," said Fannie L. Brown, who for years was executive director of the Coming Together Project. She added: "But, you know, if he started talking about racial profiling, he's a dead duck."
Whatever issues are put forward, Larson, the white minister, said he prays they will be done so civilly, though he added that he is concerned that in the intensity of the campaign's final days, they won't be. "I'm always scared of what even nice people do with regard to racial issues," he said. "This could be a great time for this nation, no matter who wins. It is a great time. This is a great achievement."
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The New York Times
August 22, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
Clinton Pays Some of Her Bills
BYLINE: By MICHAEL LUO
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; DEBT RELIEF; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 275 words
New filings with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday showed that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, had been able to cut into her mountain of debt to vendors.
Mrs. Clinton finished July with $10.8 million in unpaid bills, compared with the $12 million she had the month before. She has also lent her campaign more than $13 million.
Although her presidential campaign was suspended in early June, Mrs. Clinton still took in about $4.7 million in contributions toward retiring her debt. She has continued to send out e-mail solicitations to supporters and to hold fund-raising events to help her pay her campaign's outstanding bills.
One bill that the Clinton campaign has not yet paid: the $5.3 million owed to the firm of Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton's former chief strategist.
Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, meanwhile, spent about $55 million in July, compared with about $32 million spent by the campaign of Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. More than $32 million went for advertising for Mr. Obama; Mr. McCain spent about $18 million on commercials. Perhaps the starkest contrast came in the size of payrolls, with Mr. Obama building a much more extensive ground operation and a payroll of $2.2 million, more than twice as large as the McCain campaign's.
Mr. Obama took in just over $50 million in July, and the Democratic National Committee collected more than $27 million. Mr. McCain collected about $27 million, and the Republican National Committee brought in $26 million. More importantly, however, the cash both sides had available to spend beginning in August was roughly the same. MICHAEL LUO
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The New York Times
August 22, 2008 Friday
Correction Appended
Late Edition - Final
Group Plans Ad Criticizing Obama's Ties To Ex-Radical
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 13
LENGTH: 589 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
A new conservative group co-founded by a former campaign aide to Senator John McCain said Thursday that it would begin a major advertising campaign against Senator Barack Obama emphasizing his association with Bill Ayers, the 1960s radical and Weather Underground founder.
The group, the American Issues Project, says it is registered as a nonprofit organization that does not immediately have to disclose donors to the public.
One of its founders, Ed Failor Jr., is the executive vice president of Iowans for Tax Relief and worked for Senator McCain's Iowa campaign committee in 2007, before leaving that summer, when Mr. McCain pared back operations. Records show Mr. Failor's firm earned $50,000 from the McCain campaign.
A spokesman, Christian Pinkston, said Mr. Failor had not coordinated with the campaign, adding, ''He has not been with the campaign since July of 2007.''
''This has nothing to do with McCain,'' Mr. Pinkston said. ''This has everything to do with Senator Obama. We feel as if there are issues that have not been explored, and this is an issue that deserves some attention.'' Such independent groups are prohibited from coordinating activities with the campaigns.
(Mr. Pinkston's firm, the Pinkston Group, had worked for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that ran advertisements against Senator John Kerry when he ran for president in 2004.)
Mr. Pinkston said the American Issues Project was planning to spend $2.8 million to run the advertisement against Mr. Obama in Ohio and Michigan starting Thursday night, a significant purchase of television time. Still, Fox News Channel said Thursday night that it would not accept the advertisement amid questions about its legality. That raised the possibility that other stations and networks could have similar issues, but Mr. Pinkston said he was confident the advertisement would have healthy exposure in the two states. CNN also said it turned the group down, citing a ban on negative advertisements from outside groups during the party conventions.
The spot, running one minute, draws a parallel between plans for the bombings of the Pentagon and the United States Capitol -- for which the Weather Underground claimed responsibility -- and the Sept. 11 attacks. A narrator reports that Mr. Obama is ''friends with Ayers'' and that Mr. Obama's ''political career was launched at Ayers's home.''
Mr. Ayers was a founder of the Weather Underground; he and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, were indicted in 1970 on conspiracy charges that were dropped in 1974 because of prosecutorial misconduct.
Mr. Ayers and Ms. Dohrn, both of whom went on to become law professors, hosted Mr. Obama at their Chicago home in 1995 when Mr. Obama was running for office, although that was not considered a vital moment in his political career. Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers served together on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a charitable organization focused on welfare reform and affordable housing. In April, Mr. Obama said Mr. Ayers was ''not somebody who I exchanged ideas from on a regular basis'' and called him ''somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old.''
Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, accused Mr. McCain's campaign of being behind the advertisement, saying Mr. McCain had ''dispatched his paid consultant to launch this despicable ad.''
Mr. McCain has in the past denounced political attacks by outside groups. A spokesman, Tucker Bounds, said of the group, ''Of course we have nothing to do with them.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: August 22, 2008
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CORRECTION-DATE: August 25, 2008
CORRECTION: An article on Friday about an independent group's advertisement against Senator Barack Obama misidentified the educational position held by Bill Ayers, a former member of the radical Weather Underground whose ties to Mr. Obama were highlighted in the ad. Mr. Ayers is a professor of education at the University of Chicago, not a law professor there.
An article on Friday about an independent group's advertisement against Senator Barack Obama misidentified the educational position held by Bill Ayers, a former member of the radical Weather Underground whose ties to Mr. Obama were highlighted in the ad. And a correction in this space in some copies on Saturday misidentified the institution. Mr. Ayers is a professor of education, not a law professor, and he teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago, not at the University of Chicago.
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USA TODAY
August 22, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
Obama slams McCain's inability to tally family-owned residences
BYLINE: Jill Lawrence
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 6A
LENGTH: 448 words
WASHINGTON -- Democrat Barack Obama moved at lightning speed Thursday to capitalize on Republican John McCain's inability to say how many residences his family owns.
Politico asked McCain "how many houses do you and Mrs. McCain have," and the political news website published his answer ("I think -- I'll have my staff get to you") at about 6:30 a.m. ET. By midday the Obama campaign had made a TV ad, slated events in 16 states, circulated audio of the response and posted a YouTube video of Obama calling the remark proof of McCain's "gap of understanding" between his world and the real world.
In Chester, Va., Obama noted McCain adviser Phil Gramm's view that the United States America is in a "mental recession," McCain's jokey definition last weekend of rich (a $5 million income), and McCain's comment Wednesday that the U.S. economy is fundamentally strong.
"If you don't know how many houses you have, then it's not surprising that you might think the economy was fundamentally strong. But if you're like me, and you've got one house, or you are like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so they don't lose their home, you might have a different perspective," Obama said.
McCain's campaign says the Arizona senator has four residences: condos in Phoenix, Arlington, Va., and Coronado, Calif., and a house in Sedona, Ariz. All are owned by his wife, Cindy, and their children, who also own eight other residential properties. Those include four other houses at the 15-acre Sedona spread and four more condos, according to real estate records and the senator's financial disclosure reports. The dozen properties are worth more than $10 million, current assessments show.
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said Thursday that Obama is the one who's out of touch: "Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year ... and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses?"
By dinnertime, the McCain team had released an ad about Obama and his former fundraiser Antoin Rezko, who was convicted of corruption charges in June. On the same day in 2005, Obama bought his house and Rezko's wife bought an adjoining lot owned by the same sellers. She later sold a strip of it to Obama.
McCain, who has portrayed Obama as an elitist, is the son and grandson of admirals. The AP estimates his wife, a beer heiress, is worth $100 million. Obama was raised as young child by a single mother who relied at times on food stamps, and went to top schools on scholarships and loans. Book sales have increased his income since he spoke at the 2004 Democratic convention.
Contributing: Matt Kelley
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USA TODAY
August 22, 2008 Friday
FIRST EDITION
For Senate veteran, 'I'm the underdog'
BYLINE: David Jackson
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1224 words
ORLANDO -- John McCain said his upcoming speech to accept the Republican Party's presidential nomination poses "an opportunity as well as a challenge" because Democrat Barack Obama, who addresses the nation next week, is a "very talented" rival whose gift for oratory exceeds his own.
During an interview with USA TODAY, the Arizona senator repeatedly cast himself as a low-key David to Obama's speech-making Goliath -- "I'm the underdog" -- even as most national polls show the presidential race between the two candidates as being close.
McCain, who turns 72 next week, also expressed confidence that voters will choose him based on his 22-year record in the Senate and the plans he has for the country -- and not dwell on his age, Obama's historic role as the first African-American nominee of a major party, or the Democrat's ability to inspire people with eloquence.
"He's probably going to give a very impressive speech that will be very well-delivered," McCain said. "I'm sure he'll do a far better job than I could ever do. ... I hope we can convey the fact that I am the most qualified to lead, in both national security and domestic challenges."
McCain discussed in broad terms how he plans to do that when he is showcased at the GOP convention in St. Paul beginning Sept. 1, just three days after Obama, 47, accepts the Democratic nomination in Denver. While much has been made of McCain's background as a Navy pilot and Vietnam POW and his tenure in Congress, the presumptive GOP nominee said he would not stress his own experience.
Instead, McCain said he will emphasize to voters this fall "my vision" and "my plan for the future" because those ideas are "more important."
"People want to know how we're going to fix the problems," he said.
McCain's comments, made as his campaign plane dubbed the Straight Talk Air flew from California to Florida last Sunday, also touched on the race he's run so far, negative campaigning and the GOP's need to reach out to Hispanics and blacks as the nation becomes more diverse.
The senator consistently has refused to discuss his vice presidential pick. On Wednesday, he was asked at a town hall meeting in New Mexico if he would pick a running mate opposed to abortion rights. He did not answer specifically, except to restate his record against abortion rights.
This weekend, as Democrats await news of Obama's choice of vice president, McCain said he'll spend time at his retreat in Sedona, Ariz., so he can rehearse his acceptance speech, prepare for the unveiling of his own running mate and put the finishing touches on a four-day convention that will highlight service, reform, prosperity and peace. "Country first -- put my country first," McCain said when asked to describe the event's theme.
Age is 'fair' game
McCain, occasionally looking out the plane's window as he spoke, admitted he's getting advice from "everybody" about his remarks, especially from his family. He said he hasn't reviewed previous convention speeches, but praised Ronald Reagan's 1980 address attacking President Carter and Reagan's 1984 speech on conservatism.
One challenge: McCain's address on Sept. 4 coincides with pro football's season opener.
While he praised Obama's speaking skills in the interview, McCain also pointed out that he delivered three well-received convention addresses, including in 1996 when he entered Bob Dole's name in nomination.
In the 1996 campaign, Dole's age (then 73) was a factor because his opponent, President Clinton, was 23 years younger. McCain, who is about 25 years older than Obama, acknowledges that age "is a consideration that the voters have." But he's confident that he can overcome it. "I was able in the primary to show that I have the necessary experience and talents to lead the country," McCain said. "All is fair in political campaigns, apparently."
If elected, McCain would be the oldest president to take his first oath of office. He flatly ruled out pledging to serve only one term: "I haven't even considered such a thing."
In discussing the 2008 race so far, McCain brushed back Obama's criticism of negative campaigning -- sparked in part by McCain's TV ad comparing Obama's celebrity status and qualifications for the White House to that of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Obama also said McCain has questioned his patriotism by saying Obama would rather win the election by losing the Iraq war.
McCain said he would tell critics of the celebrity ad to "turn off the computer, go outside, get some fresh air and regain your sense of humor." McCain said the ad notes differences, such as his support for offshore oil and gas drilling and more nuclear power plants, both opposed by Obama.
McCain charged Obama with playing the race card when Obama told a Missouri audience in July that his opponent is trying to "make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name... he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills."
Obama said that comment was not meant to bring up race. In the interview, McCain said he believes race will not play a role this fall: "The American people are better than that."
McCain, who vowed he would run a respectful general election race, said the Democratic National Committee was the first to go negative in April with a TV ad charging that the Republican wants to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years. McCain had said it "would be fine by me" to keep troops in Iraq for decades "as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed."
"I'm not complaining," he said in the interview. "I think campaigns are tough. And I think we've run a very honorable campaign so far. And I'm confident at the end of this campaign that we'll look back with pride at the kind of campaign we ran."
Needing diversity
The convention lineup, announced Wednesday, features many of McCain's former rivals for the nomination, such as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty -- both possible running mates. But with a few exceptions, such as remarks by Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, not many non-whites will be featured.
In the interview, conducted before the convention lineup was announced, McCain said the GOP has to become more diverse as the U.S. heads to becoming a nation where minorities outnumber non-Hispanic whites by 2042.
"We have great opportunities to get significant support in all groups," he said. "We are the party of Abraham Lincoln and we are proud of our long record of commitment to equal opportunities."
A poll last month by the Pew Hispanic Center showed Latino voters favor Obama over McCain, 66%-23%, and believe the Democrat would do a better job than the Republican on education, immigration and health care. President Bush won more than 40% of the Hispanic vote in 2004, according to some surveys of voters.
McCain said he did not believe the immigration issue has hurt him with Hispanics. His stance has evolved from emphasizing more temporary "guest-worker" programs to now stressing border security. Pew estimates Hispanics are 9% of this year's eligible voters, but as much as 37% in swing states such as New Mexico.
"We're doing better and better with the Hispanic vote and I have a long record of involvement with Hispanics in my state," he said. "But I also realize I have a lot of work to do."
LOAD-DATE: August 22, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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The Washington Post
August 22, 2008 Friday
Regional Edition
Obama's Judgment Is Questioned
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A03
LENGTH: 287 words
Videos of these ads can be found at www.washingtonpost.com/politics.
THE AD
Narrator: "Barack Obama knows a lot about housing problems. One of his biggest fundraisers helped him buy his million-dollar mansion. Purchasing part of the property he couldn't afford. From Obama, Rezko got political favors including 14 million from taxpayers. Now, he's a convicted felon, facing jail. That's a housing problem."
ANALYSIS
This John McCain ad attempts to drag back into the news Obama's dealings with a corrupt fundraiser, which the senator from Illinois has described as a "boneheaded" mistake.
The facts are generally accurate, though some of the ad's insinuations are not. Tony Rezko was an Obama fundraiser, and when Obama and his wife bought their Chicago home in 2005 for $1.65 million, Rezko's wife bought an adjacent side lot for $625,000. Months later, the Obamas bought a small part of that lot for $104,000. Viewers of the ad may not realize, however, that Rezko was not under investigation at the time.
As a state senator, Obama did write letters to officials supporting a $14 million Rezko bid to build senior citizen housing, but he was not the decision-maker. While the ad features a Chicago Sun-Times headline --"Obama Surfaces in Rezko Case"-- he was tangential to the testimony and had no connection to the fraud and money-laundering charges on which Rezko was convicted in June.
The McCain spot, marked by ominous music, was released yesterday hours after an Obama commercial chided the senator from Arizona for failing to remember that he owns seven houses. The counterattack ad attempts to shift the focus from McCain's wealth to Obama's judgment by reviving a controversy that was fully aired during the primaries.
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August 22, 2008 Friday
Regional Edition
McCain Is Painted as Wealthy, Clueless
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A03
LENGTH: 276 words
THE AD
Maybe you're struggling just to pay the mortgage on your home. But recently John McCain said, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." Hmm. Then again, that same day, when asked how many houses he owns, McCain lost track -- he couldn't remember. Well, it's seven. Seven houses. And here's one house America can't afford to let John McCain move into. [Shot of the White House]
ANALYSIS
This Barack Obama ad attempts to paint the senator from Arizona as a wealthy, out-of-touch elitist -- precisely the tactic that Republicans once used against John Kerry and John Edwards.
McCain did make the comment about the economy and, in an interview with Politico yesterday, could not enumerate how many houses he owns. (An on-screen graphic notes that they are worth $13 million.) The McCain camp says he and his wife, Cindy, whose fortune comes from a family beer distributorship, use four of the properties, with the others occupied by relatives or others.
The underlying assumption -- that McCain's personal wealth makes him insensitive to the struggling economy -- is highly debatable. McCain has repeatedly talked about the need to address economic problems, and both he and the senator from Illinois voiced support for -- but did not vote on -- a housing bailout bill passed by Congress. Still, the tactic could be an effective counterpunch to McCain's ads dismissing Obama as a mere celebrity.
The Obama spot implicitly makes one other charge. By showing McCain speaking in slow motion with melancholy music in the background, while the narrator says he can't remember the number of homes, the ad suggests the 71-year-old Republican is confused.
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August 22, 2008 Friday
Met 2 Edition
Houses Add Up to A Snag for McCain;
Campaign Has Cast Obama as Elitist
BYLINE: Jonathan Weisman and Robert Barnes; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1424 words
Sen. John McCain's inability to recall the number of homes he owns during an interview yesterday jeopardized his campaign's carefully constructed strategy to frame Democratic rival Barack Obama as an out-of-touch elitist and inspired a round of attacks that once again ratcheted up the negative tone of the race for the White House.
A week dominated by vice presidential speculation and the run-up to the Democratic National Convention was quickly overtaken by the McCain miscue. In an interview with Politico.com, the presumptive Republican nominee was asked how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, heir to a beer distributorship, owned.
"I think -- I'll have my staff get to you," McCain replied. "It's condominiums where -- I'll have them get to you."
Obama's campaign and the Democratic National Committee pounced with remarkable speed. By mid-morning, reporters had received a video log featuring Cindy McCain's childhood estate in Phoenix, an Architectural Digest spread on another property the McCains had owned previously, and tax records and photos detailing seven houses and condominiums -- in Coronado and La Jolla, Calif.; Phoenix and Sedona, Ariz.; and Arlington. By 11 a.m., the Obama campaign had produced a television advertisement titled "Seven" and was answering the question McCain could not.
"It's seven, seven houses, and here's one house Americans can't afford John McCain to move into," the ad concludes over an image of the White House. (If a California beachfront condo that Cindy McCain purchased for their children this year is included, the number of homes owned by the McCains rises to eight.)
That provoked a furious response by McCain campaign and Republican National Committee aides, who charged hypocrisy and argued that the senator from Illinois had received help purchasing his South Side Chicago mansion from businessman Tony Rezko, a convicted felon.
"Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses?" asked McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.
The senator from Arizona also quickly assembled a response ad, in which a narrator intones, "Barack Obama knows a lot about housing problems." The spot raises Obama's relationship with Rezko, saying that "one of Obama's biggest fundraisers helped him buy his million-dollar mansion," and charges that in return "Rezko got political favors."
By the day's end, the Democratic National Committee was threatening to escalate the fight further by highlighting McCain's connections to the "Keating Five" savings and loan scandal, in which the senator ended up before the Senate ethics committee.
"They go Rezko, we go Keating," said a Democratic strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity to divulge potential campaign strategy. "If they want to escalate, bring it on."
For a Democratic candidate suffering from a barrage of attacks on his "celebrity," McCain's inability to recall the scope of his family holdings was a timely break.
"I guess . . . if you don't know how many houses you have, then it's not surprising that you might think the economy was fundamentally strong," Obama told an audience in Chester, Va. "But if you're like me, and you've got one house, or you are like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so they don't lose their home, you might have a different perspective."
Obama campaign aides and Democratic National Committee researchers had been sitting on film clips, tax records, photos and other information on McCain's real estate holdings for weeks. The now-defunct Progressive Media USA, a liberal activist group, had done polling on the potential line of attack and concluded that it alone would have little impact against McCain, whose "brand" as a maverick Republican has proved difficult to crack.
But Obama aides were collecting documentation of separate incidents they wanted to string together as a narrative: McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm's comment to the Washington Times that the United States was "a nation of whiners" stuck in a "mental recession" and overstating the current economic woes; a McCain assertion that the economy is fundamentally strong; and the Arizonan's comment Saturday at the Saddleback Civil Forum in California defining the threshold for being rich as an income of $5 million a year.
When McCain made his comment to Politico, Obama communications director Dan Pfeiffer flashed the green light.
Even if the slip doesn't resonate broadly with the electorate, it could have meaning for the one group Obama has had the most difficulty with: working-class white voters, said Democratic strategist Tom Matzzie.
It also muddles what had been a clear Republican line of attack on Obama. Throughout the summer, the GOP had worked furiously to turn one of Obama's greatest strengths -- his ability to whip his supporters into a passionate movement -- into a weakness, framing him as an inexperienced, featherweight celebrity who is not ready to lead. Obama's edge in many national polls has dwindled since that line of attack was launched.
But McCain's wealth was bound to eventually become entangled in the debate. The McCain campaign grudgingly released Cindy McCain's 2006 tax returns in May but refused to release the more detailed schedules that delve into the source of her wealth. Her 2007 tax returns have still not been released.
Those 2006 returns showed a woman with income that year of more than $6 million. Of that, just $299,418 came from wages and salary. The bulk of it -- $4.55 million -- came from real estate rentals, partnerships and other passive ventures.
Those real estate holdings include a Sedona ranch with three dwellings, worth $1.1 million; a Phoenix condominium suite that had originally been two units, worth $4.7 million; an $847,800 three-bedroom high-rise condo in Arlington; an oceanfront condo in La Jolla, Calif.; a half-million-dollar loft in Phoenix purchased for their daughter Meghan; another Phoenix condo, worth $830,000; and two beachfront condos in Coronado, Calif, one of which is valued at $2.7 million. The other was purchased just this year, as McCain was lamenting the difficulties that struggling Americans were facing just to make their mortgage payments. Cindy McCain told Vogue magazine the family needed the second condo because the first was getting too crowded as their family grew.
McCain's confusion could be rooted in the scattered nature of the family's holdings. Public records show they were purchased by various McCain family entities, with names such as Dream Catcher Family LLC and Wild River LLC, and at least one is listed as rental real estate.
The ferocity of the McCain campaign's response to Obama made it clear how seriously it viewed the potential for damage from the Arizonan's remarks.
"Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people 'cling' to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who's in touch with regular Americans?" Rogers demanded. In an interview, he was even more animated, saying Obama lived in a "frickin' mansion" in Chicago and adding that he is confident McCain resonates more with regular Americans.
"In terms of who's an elitist, I think people have made a judgment that John McCain is not an arugula-eating, pointy-headed-professor type based on his life story."
But recent events, some of them attributable to McCain or his advisers, have threatened McCain's regular-guy image.
Saturday night, during an appearance with the Rev. Rick Warren, an evangelical leader, McCain was asked to define the word "rich" and responded: "I think if you are just talking about income, how about $5 million?" Warren and the audience laughed, and McCain quickly added: "But seriously, I don't think you can -- I don't think seriously that -- the point is that I'm trying to make here, seriously -- and I'm sure that comment will be distorted -- but the point is that we want to keep people's taxes low and increase revenues."
McCain had distanced himself from Gramm after the "whiners" comment but welcomed him back to the campaign at a meeting of advisers last week.
And liberal bloggers have struck as well, pointing out that McCain's standard campaign uniform of blue "Navy" baseball cap and khakis is anchored by a distinctive pair of $500 Ferragamo loafers.
Staff writer Michael D. Shear and research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.
LOAD-DATE: August 22, 2008
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IMAGE; By Stephan Savoia -- Associated Press; In February, Sen. Lindsey Graham, center, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, right, joined John McCain at one of the presidential hopeful's Phoenix condominiums.
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Washingtonpost.com
August 22, 2008 Friday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Shailagh Murray, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2875 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Shailagh Murray was online Friday, Aug. 22 at 11 a.m. ET.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Raleigh, N.C.: Good morning! I have a process question. John McCain didn't suddenly become rich this week. For weeks his campaign has been calling Obama an elitist, which sort of clashes with McCain's own personal wealth. Suddenly that clash has become a mainstay of political reporting. What vaulted this story into the discussion? Was it merely what McCain said, or was it that the Obama campaign decided to talk about it (over and over and over again -- they had a media event about this in each of the targeted states)?
Shailagh Murray: Good morning everyone. This chat is live from Colorado, a really cool place that's about to be overrun by people who probably won't even notice.
Let's hear your thoughts on the vice presidential picks, the McCain housing market and what Obama is doing right/wrong, the latter being more interesting.
Let's start with Raleigh's inquiry. Obviously Obama is trying to make a personal connection with voters, an effort made all the harder by his different-ness (he'd be the first to agree on this). What McCain is trying to do is to reinforce the distance, and he has seized on Obama's celebrity status, which is indisputable, as a way of turning him into one of those otherworldly People magazine types. The reason it's a story is because at this stage of the campaign it's all about shaping perceptions of your opponent. Once people start feeling negative, it's difficult to turn that back. So the McCain campaign is trying to get the ball rolling by reframing Obama in a less-appealing light.
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Washington: Veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep veep arg!
Shailagh Murray: I will drink to that!
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Bowie, Md.: I hate negative campaigning that doesn't focus on issues, and the whole "how many houses does McCain have?" thing strikes me as dumb, but I have to say it's kind of what he deserves. I mean, they try to frame Obama as some guy who's too wealthy to be in touch with the "common man," but what is McCain, eating ramen every night to make ends meet? They had to know this was going to come back to bite them.
Shailagh Murray: You are exactly right Bowie. Politics is a high-risk, high-reward business.
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Baltimore: Do you think that John McCain's incredibly dumb "I forget how many houses I have" gaffe delayed Obama's vice presidential announcement, or do you think that they always had planned to wait this long?
Shailagh Murray: I have pondered this myself. I mean, why step on a potentially great story with a more or less predictable one (assuming there isn't some Chuck Hagel surprise lurking).
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Minneapolis: If you had to put money on it, is Obama announcing his vice presidential pick today or tomorrow morning?
Shailagh Murray: I'd say either later this evening or tomorrow morning. I think they'd like to wait as long as possible, but who knows what may start leaking once he begins making his calls.
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Washington: Yesterday your colleague Paul Kane commented: "At this point in his national political career McCain is not going to be transformed into a super rich elitist. He's just not -- the voters won't buy it." After the frenzy of the past 24 hours regarding McCain's inability to count the number of houses he owns (it's complicated!), do you agree with that?
Shailagh Murray: I love Paul Kane, but I don't agree with that. I don't think voters have a real clear idea of who John McCain actually is. I think they have a strong sense of who they want him to be, and who they remember from the 2000 campaign, but as we have seen again and again in politics, there's nothing more jarring than a story that shows you in a different light. It makes people wonder. I mean, think about that in the Obama context, and what Jeremiah Wright nearly did to his candidacy.
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Running Mate: There has to be a non-Biden old white man who can provide Obama with the perception of gravitas, doesn't there? Whom, then? Daschle? Reid? Rendell? Bob Graham? Oooooh, let it be Graham, please!
Shailagh Murray: There's no shortage of retired Democratic politicians who would love to become Obama's father figure. But then you run into the problem of contradicting your change argument. You have to at least pick someone who's still doing things -- hence Biden's appeal.
I always have been intrigued with the Jack Reed option, and think he would be a front-runner had he actually wanted to the job. But apparently he doesn't.
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Chicago: Good morning and thanks for chatting. Time Magazine is reporting that McCain has decided on Romney to be his vice president. Obviously McCain can change his mind until the official announcement is made, but in light of McCain's "I don't know how many houses I own" gaffe, wouldn't making Romney his vice president just add gasoline to the fire? How many houses would they own between them? Double digits, I'd guess. Would you say that the "Obama is an out-of-touch elitist" line of attack by the GOP is now a thing of the past, and that "he's too inexperienced" is now the best line of attack they have?
Shailagh Murray: I am so thrilled by the prospect of Obama-Biden v. McCain-Romney. Biden is such a blue-collar guy at heart -- he could tap all that lower middle-class resentment that Obama can't seem to reach. It would be a class war for the ages.
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Reston, Va.: Why is it that in 2004 we weren't supposed to pay attention to Theresa Heinz Kerry's wealth, including her houses, but now John McCain's wealthy wife's homes are an issue? Both men married women with family money, and that's the lifestyle they have. It should be more worrisome that Michelle Obama got a doubling of her salary after her husband was elected U.S. senator, from a health care provider whose board members just happened to contribute to her husband. It's even more troubling that the Obamas had a cozy land deal with a convicted felon.
Shailagh Murray: I agree, it's definitely dangerous ground to start picking at the spouses. Although McCain wouldn't be in the bind he's in had he clarified that Cindy was the primary owner of everything but the house he lives in.
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What Obama is doing right/wrong, the latter being more interesting: I am an Obama supporter. I don't think he is being specific enough about what is wrong with McCain or what he will do for people. Saying "change" is about building brand. People need to be told more specifically stuff, like "Obama will keep jobs in America by..." People vote for selfish reasons. They need to be told what's in it for them to have Obama be president.
Shailagh Murray: Thanks for weighing in.
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Re: VP Biden: Man, all this Biden-love coming from the press corps! Is Evan Bayh really that boring? Come on, the last vice president from Indiana had some entertaining moments!
Shailagh Murray: Like what? Go ahead, name a few. I'll give you all the space you need.
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Bremerton, Wash.: Shailagh thanks for having us. What's the scene like in Denver right now? Is there electricity in the air, or are people still trying to find their hotel room? Is the area around the arena and hotels blocked off to everyone?
Shailagh Murray: We don't start gathering until tomorrow, but the traffic disruptions are supposed to be epic. I always wonder why cities, especially second-tier cities below the biggies like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, want to deal with this aggravation. It costs them a fortune and all anyone does is complain.
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Re: Relentless Vice Presidential Speculation: I'm finding it tiresome, frankly, so let me get your make a modest proposal to cut back on it: Each reporter gets one story on potential vice presidents, and thereafter has to pay his editor $100 to write another such story. The editor pools the money and uses it as the reward for an intraoffice betting pool on who will be selected. Wouldn't that be a better way for the press to report on this?
Shailagh Murray: I love this idea!
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The Dan Quayle Library: You didn't find the "potatoe" episode entertaining? The political beat truly has made you jaded.
Shailagh Murray: To the contrary, it's always the little stuff like "potatoe" that lingers.
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Baltimore: In 2005, Joe Biden was ranked 99th out of 100 senators in personal wealth.
Shailagh Murray: It's that Wilmington housing market.
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You just outed yourself: "I am so thrilled by the prospect of Obama-Biden v. McCain-Romney. Biden is such a blue collar guy at heart, he could tap all that lower middle-class resentment that Obama can't seem to reach. It would be a class war for the ages." You liberal journalists love class warfare, don't you?
Shailagh Murray: That was supposed to be a joke. I'm actually one of the Rockefellers.
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Conventions: For those of us not in Denver and St. Paul, Minn., what will be the "must see" moments from the conventions?
Shailagh Murray: I have to confess that I am completely in the dark about St. Paul. It's all I can do to keep up with one candidate who never tells us anything.
As for Denver, check out the Kennedy tribute on Monday night. It's supposedly going to be really moving. And Hillary and Bill of course. Michelle Obama's basketball coach brother Craig is introducing her on Monday night -- he's supposed to be a natural at public speaking. And of course, don't miss the delegate voting, which actually could be dramatic this time.
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Monmouth, Ore.: Good morning. I have a question about Sen. McCain's temperament. It was covered extensively that he "really can't stand" Romney during the primary. Now it is written that he "really can't stand" Obama. He brags of never getting "Miss Congeniality" in the Senate. Isn't there a pattern here? While we all somewhat respect the curmudgeonly but good-hearted local character, we aren't particularly taken with the local hot-head or grudge-holder. This is not a temperament I would ever choose for the president, let alone commander-in-chief. Reagan, Ted Kennedy and many or most others have shown you can be highly partisan but still civil. At what point, if any, will he find this belligerence counterproductive? Thanks.
Shailagh Murray: Let's just say that Democrats aren't necessarily opposed to the idea of provoking McCain to a point where the hothead pops off. And of course, I'm sure the McCain camp is well aware of this.
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Big Lake, Alaska: So, when you fly and travel in the press pool for a candidate, do the Fox TV people hang with the Wall Street Journal people? How does that work? Obviously you're cordial, but is there a high-school-lunch-room thing when it comes to hanging out?
Shailagh Murray: No, no. We're all one big happy family. Imagine a road trip with the people you went to camp with. I know none of you will believe me, but it really is the case that most reporters covering campaigns are pretty ambivalent about their candidates, and circumspect about their chances.
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Alexandria, Va.: There's a difference between being rich and being an elitist. Obama's comments during the primary about the working poor's affection for guns and god because of their situation in life is an example of an elitist worldview. Not knowing how many houses you own does not make you an elitist, it just means you're rich.
Shailagh Murray: That's an excellent point, and I completely agree. The only reason the housing gaffe bit McCain was because of previous comments about the economy that made him seem hard-hearted.
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Naperville, Ill.: I was just watching the news and the reporter said something like "Obama was in Virginia yesterday campaigning with Gov. Kaine, one of the three finalists on Obama's short list for vice president." Really? When was that list issued by the Obama campaign? Unless Carolyn Kennedy left her purse open on the subway with "The List" on top, how does the press get away with making statements like this?
Shailagh Murray: Well, we're not completely in the dark. We know certain people they are considering, but what makes us all paranoid is that we don't know what we don't know!
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Florissant Valley, Mo.: Good morning, Shailagh. About this McCain house business: I don't think Americans are a very class-riven society. I don't think we envy someone who has made it and maybe even owns two or three homes. What we do resent is the "cover up." If McCain had just said immediately "you know, I know we have several -- Cindy owns some herself," and tried to move on, it scarcely would have registered a blip. When he played dumb and tried to be too calculating, one read all sorts of things into it -- like maybe he really is ashamed of it, or afraid of what it says about his income. Am I wrong?
Shailagh Murray: I think that's right. Success is the heart of the American dream. It's why people buy cars and houses they can't afford, because they aspire to be the Joneses.
As I said before, McCain handled that all wrong, and that's what he's paying for now. It's also not a good idea to pretend you're regular if in fact you're rich.
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Arlington, Va.: "Not knowing how many houses you own does not make you an elitist, it just means you're rich." Maybe, but claiming that being rich starts when you have $5 million is out of touch!
Shailagh Murray: In some parts of the country, making $100,000 a year is considered rich.
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1987 was before 2000 yes?: I saw a commercial where McCain calls himself "the original maverick." This is demonstrably false. Tom Cruise was the original Maverick (in "Top Gun"). When will The Post call McCain on his blatant lie?
washingtonpost.com: Tom Cruise is a Johnny Come Lately.
Shailagh Murray: Actually I've heard Tom Cruise is on McCain's short list.
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Arlington, Va.: Shailagh, how did this whole "arugula" line of attack get started from the right? It always seems ridiculous to me, and especially so in defense of the McCain housing gaffe. I mean, it's just lettuce, right?
Shailagh Murray: Actually, as an Italian chef once sniffed to me, arugula is a weed.
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Anonymous: So we open the paper this morning and see that U.S. and Iraqi negotiators agree on a timetable for withdrawal. McCain is kinda screwed, isn't he? Just about his only policy attack on Obama has been "no timetable." So, does he back off on that, or will he pledge that if he is president he'll ignore the timetable?
washingtonpost.com: U.S., Iraqi Negotiators Agree on 2011 Withdrawal (Post, Aug. 21)
Shailagh Murray: Substance! I'm speechless.
I always wondered about this: If McCain and the Bush administration are supposedly on the same Iraq team, why undermine him in such an obvious way? Maybe I'm missing something; wouldn't be the first time. Lost in the veep speculation and the housing crisis this week was a very heated Iraq debate between McCain and Obama. There will be plenty more of that.
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Lafayette Hill, Pa.: Will Obama be forced to adopt Hillary's health care plan?
Shailagh Murray: No.
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Relentless Vice Presidential Speculation: Many stories are editor-requested; let every editor who asks for more vice presidential speculation stories pay into the pool after the first story was written. After all, the reporter's only doing what he or she is told to do.
Shailagh Murray: I think the reason the veep speculation gets so out of control is that it's the last real unknown of the campaign, so we all exhaust ourselves trying to extract information that doesn't exist.
Enjoy yourselves watching the conventions, getting your kids (or yourselves) ready for school, and whatever else the next few weeks hold. Thanks for participating -- cheers.
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washingtonpost.com: A heads-up about some upcoming online coverage: We're trying to set up a discussion for tomorrow regarding Obama's vice presidential candidate. And come back throughout next week and the week after for tons of discussions live from the conventions daily live video with Chris Cillizza, Newsweek's Jon Meachem and an array of guests, and more.
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August 22, 2008 Friday 10:00 AM EST
House Hunting
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: OPINION
LENGTH: 2035 words
HIGHLIGHT: Four years ago, the Republicans tried to turn John Kerry into a windsurfing elitist, poking fun at Teresa's ketchup fortune and all the fancy houses she owned.
Four years ago, the Republicans tried to turn John Kerry into a windsurfing elitist, poking fun at Teresa's ketchup fortune and all the fancy houses she owned.
The Democrats thought that was silly and cynical.
Now it's turn-the-tables time. The latest line of attack against John McCain has to do with his real estate holdings, financed by Cindy's beer fortune.
This is the state of presidential politics today. Never mind that some very wealthy presidents--FDR, JFK--did plenty for the downtrodden, as did Nelson Rockefeller in New York. It's kind of a cheap, bogus argument--or at least it feels that way when it's done to your guy.
It's certainly fair for Barack Obama's side to fight back against the whole airhead celebrity rap. And it's true that while Obama was raised by a single mother in modest circumstances, McCain was the son and grandson of admirals. Character is important in a race for the White House. But these races often seem to descend into caricature.
The latest triggering event is the following: "Sen. John McCain said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own. 'I think -- I'll have my staff get to you,' McCain told Politico."
Obama rushed out a new ad. Liberals are pumped. Carpetbagger's Steve Benen:
"The exact number isn't especially relevant. The point is a) McCain is so rich he owns a lot of homes; b) McCain is so out of touch he can't even remember the number of homes he owns; and c) despite his extravagant wealth, McCain is anxious to push an agenda that favors the rich even more while screwing over the middle class and working families."
And don't forget the $4.7 million condo in Phoenix--which turns out to be two apartments combined.
At the Political Machine blog, David Knowles takes the high road--for about two seconds:
"I'm not a fan of stoking populist anger by pointing out that a candidate is rich. Wealth in itself doesn't necessarily mean a person won't do great things for those less fortunate. Take Michael Bloomberg as an example of a guy who really does care about the poor.
"That said, the fact that McCain doesn't know how many residences he owns, be they condos or not, will not endear him to the middle class voters who are struggling in today's economy. And the 'I'll have my staff get to you,' reeks of Thurston Howell III like nobody's business. 'Lovey, call up the servants and ask them how many fabulous homes we own!' "
McCain aides feel they've been handed a gift, that they can now draw the press into writing about Tony Rezko, the former Obama fundraiser who is now a convicted felon and who sold the senator from Illinois some land for his own home. Here's the counterattack from McCain spokesman Brian Rogers:
"Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people 'cling' to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who's in touch with regular Americans?"
You can kiss any hope for a high-minded campaign goodbye. I critique the Obama ad on this subject and the McCain counterattack spot on Rezko here and here.
Time's Mark Halperin: "Two Republicans close to the situation say McCain has apparently settled on Mitt Romney as his running mate." Ironic that this would leak out before we learned who Obama has picked.
I feel comfortable in saying this: Those stories about McCain considering Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman were either trial balloons or nods to independents. This New York Times piece sounds like an authorized leak:
"Senator John McCain has narrowed his list of potential running mates to a handful of candidates and appears unlikely to select anyone who supports abortion rights, several advisers close to his campaign said on Thursday.
"Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota are the top candidates as Mr. McCain and his advisers gather over the next several days at Mr. McCain's cabin near Sedona, they said."
Another opening for the Dems, if they want to keep attacking McCain personally, can be found in this Christian Science Monitor piece:
"The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother Teresa 'convinced' Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991.
"Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip. (Once contacted by the Monitor, the campaign revised the story on its website.)
"Such exaggerations may simply be the product of a faulty memory or a desire to be 'better' than one is in a political culture that requires larger-than-life idols. But with the advent of the fact-checking obsessed blogosphere -- and a media racing to keep up -- such self-aggrandizement doesn't last as long as it once did."
An insta-reaction from Andrew Sullivan:
"This is the pattern:
"A story that shows the McCains' genuine compassion and faith is embellished over the years to make the story a little more perfect, a little more salient, a little better as a narrative. It's especially important to add these embellishments when your goal is to appeal to a fundamentalist base, when your own prickly, personal and private faith isn't very marketable. And when your adopted daughter is Bangladeshi, and when that fact has been disgracefully used against you by the Bush machine in 2000, and when some fringes of your base get queasy about multi-racial families, what better way to describe the adoption than as something Mother Teresa herself 'implored' you to do?"
Yet another line of attack from the Obama camp. TPM's Greg Sargent picks up on a phone call that I didn't see get much attention:
"In an apparent effort to regain the offensive, the Obama campaign launched a broad attack on McCain Wednesday, portraying him as reckless on foreign policy, a hot-head who's too willing to use force and not willing enough to apprise himself of facts on the ground before urging military action.
"On a conference call with reporters just now, senior Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice argued that there is 'a pattern here of recklessness' when it comes to McCain's approach to various national security issues. She pointed out that McCain reacted too quickly with 'aggressive and bellicose' rhetoric on the Russia-Georgia crisis, and contrasted that with Obama's measured response to the dust-up.
" 'There's something to be said for letting facts drive judgment,' Rice said, also referring to McCain's desire to target Iraq right after 9/11."
"The key here is that this is actually a character attack on McCain, something the Obama campaign has been reluctant to undertake at a time when McCain has shown no such reticence with regard to 'celeb' Obama."
In another part of that Politico sit-down, McCain declines to become a premature lame duck:
"John McCain stated unequivocally in an interview with Politico on Wednesday that he would not pledge to serve only a single four-year term, rejecting a suggestion that some allies believe would allay questions about his age and underscore his nonpartisan message of putting country first. 'No,' McCain said flatly, 'I'm not considering it.' There has been speculation that McCain, 71, could couple a single-term promise with an untraditional running mate such as Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) to make the case that he would shove political interests aside and run a consensus-oriented government with the Democratic-held Congress."
I used to think that would have some appeal, but I now believe it would undercut McCain from Day One if he won the election.
With U.S. and Iraqi officials agreeing on a timetable--that's different than a time horizon, right?--for withdrawal, National Review's Seth Swirsky says Obama, who opposed the surge, should be grateful:
"People in America feel safe, and President Bush -- thanks to his advocacy of tough FISA laws, winning in Iraq, taking on the Taliban in Afghanistan, etc. -- deserves the credit. Therefore, Bush also deserves the credit for making the Obama candidacy palatable.
"Why? Because Americans simply will not elect a liberal when they feel fear. Without Bush's success against terror, a leftist newcomer with little experience -- like Barack Obama -- would never be considered for the presidency. Similarly, Americans could only elect Jimmy Carter because they felt safe. The chill between America and the former Soviet Union had thawed considerably by 1976."
I don't think it's true that they will not elect a "liberal." I do think it's true that they will not elect someone who has scant foreign policy experience and is not a plausible commander-in-chief. As a Texas governor who couldn't name the leader of Pakistan, George W. Bush would have had a hard time getting elected if he had first run after9/11.
Salon deconstructs one of the nutty e-mails floating around the Net, titled "OBAMA'S MILITANT RACISM REVEALED."
" In her senior thesis at Princeton, Michele Obama, the wife of Barack Obama stated that America was a nation founded on 'crime and hatred'. Moreover, she stated that whites in America were 'ineradicably racist'.
"Actually, that's a lie -- she doesn't make either of those statements anywhere in the 64-page thesis or the appendices, which tabulate answers to a survey she conducted of black Princeton alumni and then include the survey form. The thesis, entitled 'Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community,' comes to a conclusion that might not shock most college graduates -- black students identified strongly with other blacks while at Princeton, but after graduating, their attachment to the black community decreased . . .
"But rather than revealing 'MILITANT RACISM' (or even the less threatening lowercase version), the thesis actually shows Obama rejecting stereotypes. 'An individual who is more personally comfortable with Blacks than with Whites on an individual level need not hold political ideologies which support the separation of Blacks and Whites on a community level,' she writes.
"The 1985 thesis, titled 'Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community' was written under her maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson.
"Like the opening reference to 'Michelle Obama (a/k/a Michelle laVaughn Robinson),' the line about the thesis being 'written under her maiden name' seems designed to imply an attempt by Obama to hide her association with her husband when she wrote the thesis. Of course, in reality, Michelle Obama was 21 years old when the thesis was published, and the Obamas wouldn't marry until seven years later."
The news that Air America's Rachel Maddow is getting her own MSNBC show draws only qualified praise from the New Republic's Sacha Zimmerman:
"I really like Maddow and have found her thoroughly compelling throughout this latest campaign season, but I am not so thrilled about this trend toward partisan networks and news. By all means we should have progressive and conservative commentators and analysts, but is there no room for argument between the two? Where have all the iconoclasts gone?
"With this split in the networks and a near perfect red-blue divide nationwide, it seems that we are more and more retreating to our comfortable trenches and refusing to acknowledge anything but spite, paranoia, and conspiracy theory when it comes to the other side. And, since cable news is not exactly renowned for its nuance or intellectual rigor, knee-jerk reactions can pass for smart commentary. I think Maddow will be a wonderful host (and God knows MSNBC could use a smart woman), but how exciting is it really if she is just preaching to the choir?"
And just for laughs, the Center for Media and Public Affairs study finds that Obama is considered not very funny, at least to Leno, Letterman and Conan:
"Future Democratic nominee Barack Obama has attracted only 169 jokes from late-night TV talk show hosts in 2008, far fewer than his opponent John McCain's 322 jokes, and less than half as many as the 382 jokes aimed at Hillary Clinton, despite her departure from the presidential race on June 7th. George W. Bush tops the list with 428 jokes."
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August 21, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
Rural Swath Of a Big State Tests Obama
BYLINE: By MICHAEL POWELL
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1641 words
RACCOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Wander up a gravel road and ask George Timko about Barack Obama and John McCain and he wrinkles his nose. Neither of those guys strikes him as a prize.
Mr. Timko is a burly fellow, with close-cropped white hair and a Fu Manchu mustache, and a gold necklace that rests on his bare chest. ''Barack Obama makes me nervous,'' said Mr. Timko, a 65-year-old retiree with a garden hose in hand. ''Who is he? Where'd he come from? ''
As for Senator McCain? He shook his head. ''He keeps talking about being a prisoner of war back in Vietnam. Great. The economy stinks; tell me his plan.''
To roam the rural reaches of western Pennsylvania, through largely white working-class counties, is to understand the breadth of the challenge facing the two presidential candidates. But this economically ravaged region, once so solidly Democratic, poses a particular hurdle for Senator Obama.
From the desolation of Aliquippa -- where the Jones & Laughlin steel mill loomed at the foot of the main boulevard -- to the fading beauty of Beaver Falls to the neatly tended homes of retired steel workers in Hopewell, one hears much hesitating talk about Mr. Obama, some simply quizzical or skeptically political, and some not-so-subtly racial.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York ran 40 percentage points ahead of Mr. Obama here during the Democratic primary. With its neighborhoods of white working-class laborers and retirees and fraying party loyalties, it has become a most uncertain political terrain and an inviting target for Mr. McCain -- and one that could tip the electoral balance in Pennsylvania, a place packed with electoral votes.
Labor operatives line up behind Mr. Obama, and about a third of the 35 white voters who were interviewed leaned toward him. But no one feels confident predicting how many white Clinton voters will transfer their affections to Mr. Obama.
Raccoon Township, with a population just over 3,000, sprawls atop a hill in Beaver County, a 92 percent white and deeply blue-collar province. For a century it formed a stud in the Steel Necklace, a stretch of Pennsylvania and Ohio defined by belching steel mills and robust union wages. But as the mills shuttered, voters tipped Democratic by ever-narrower margins: Al Gore bested George W. Bush by eight percentage points in 2000; John Kerry took Mr. Bush by fewer than three in 2004.
Political scientists tend to paint Pennsylvania in broad swaths: There is Philadelphia and its liberal-to-centrist suburbs; the middle of the state, which is rural, gun-loving and rightward-leaning; and the western third, which, except for Pittsburgh, tends to hold ever-so-tenuously to Democratic loyalties.
The Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., in a poll conducted last week, found Mr. Obama piling up big margins in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but lagging in these western, working-class counties.
''This is not an easy land for any candidate, and you might say a black one has more trouble than most,'' said G. Terry Madonna, the center's director.
To what extent white voter concern has become a surrogate for racial anxiety is unclear.
Many voters talk of reading a stream of false and shadowy rumors purveyed by e-mail: Mr. Obama does not put his hand on his heart during the national anthem, he is a Muslim, he did not say hello to enlisted men in Afghanistan. Some disregard these rumors; some do not.
Mr. Obama is an Ivy League-educated lawyer campaigning in towns where an eighth-grade education and a sturdy back once purchased a good life. And he talks of soaring hope to people mistrustful of the same.
''People around here want pragmatic, practical language,'' said Tina Shannon, the 49-year-old daughter of a steel-mill worker and a liberal activist. ''They don't want high-flown talk.''
This said, Mr. McCain quickens few pulses. Vietnam, where he served in the military and was held captive for more than five years, seems distant. And not all laugh at his commercials poking fun at Mr. Obama's ''celebrity'' status.
Fifty yards down the gravel road from Mr. Timko's home, Brenda Goff, 55, a pharmacy worker who describes herself as a ''Hillary girl'' but is fine with Mr. Obama. As for Mr. McCain?
''I don't like his commercials -- it's like he thinks we're stupid,'' Ms. Goff said.
Issues might seem to break toward Mr. Obama. Only 2 of 38 people interviewed -- most in random door-knocking -- favored remaining in Iraq. (Mr. Obama advocates a 16-month withdrawal timetable; Mr. McCain vows to stay until the war is won but suggests that he would have troops out by 2013.)
Few want a handout, but fewer want government to abandon them. A simmering hurt suffuses their words, a sense that neither hard work nor their unions could save them.
James Stanford, a retired and still heavily muscled steel worker, stood at his door and spoke of a pension that had evaporated. ''Obama got one thing right,'' he said. ''We are bitter here.''
John Sylvester, 76, remembers when you could not find a parking space in Beaver Falls. You danced Saturday night at the Sons of Italy Club and drank with Dutch Town and River Rat neighborhood boys.
Mr. Sylvester labored in a steel mill for 42 years. Then the mill owner declared bankruptcy. Now he was bent over a chipped fire hydrant, putting down a coat of yellow paint for $7 an hour.
His blue eyes were piercing beneath a white sun visor. ''I got a little money in the end but nothing to speak of,'' he said.
Decades of job losses have created a youthful diaspora -- you can knock on many doors without finding anyone under age 45. Declining enrollments forced Raccoon Township to close its elementary and middle schools. Political wisdom holds that such fractures favor the Democrats.
But Mr. Obama does not sound like a sure bet.
''Obama's very charismatic but if you listen closely, he hasn't said a whole lot,'' Mr. Sylvester said.
In Raccoon, Kelly Dobbins, a middle-aged factory worker, offered the same. ''I'm like a duck in the water -- I float there but underneath I'm paddling hard as I can go,'' Mr. Dobbins said. ''What's pushing me toward McCain is Obama. Who is he? Where does he stand?''
Such questions hint at a cultural disconnect. Mr. Obama would invest tens of billions of dollars in retooling mills and factories to fashion windmills and solar panels. He notes that Denmark and the Netherlands have grown fat off the new energy economy.
But environmentalism holds little attraction in a county where soot-covered stoops and dirty rivers were accepted as an unfortunate trade-off of a prosperous industrial age.
''Until people see a factory transformed, they really don't put much store by this talk,'' said the Rev. Henry Knapp of First Presbyterian Church in Beaver.
Still, two-thirds of Pennsylvanians surveyed in the Franklin & Marshall poll ranked the economy as their No. 1 concern.
Hookstown is surrounded by emerald fields near the West Virginia border. White-haired Art Seckman stepped gingerly off his porch.
Mr. Seckman puts no faith in Mr. McCain. ''He looks tired, and he's gung-ho about war,'' Mr. Seckman said. ''I was a Hillary guy, but Obama sounds honest and he's young and he understands the modern economy.''
He paused, and laughed, ''Maybe, funny as it sounds, it's time for a black man to fix this mess.''
For a century, Aliquippa formed the primal heart of Beaver County. There was the mill, the company store and the Italian Renaissance library built by the daughter of the mill founder.
Ethnic communities occupied each hill. Croats, Italians, Irish and blacks worked, fought, and drank together. Now the downtown offers swaybacked homes and boarded storefronts, and rubble. Aliquippa is 35 percent black, the highest percentage in the county. Glenn Kimbrough, 65, with a silver-tipped goatee and a neat Afro, came out of the mills after 37 years.
Mr. Kimbrough is an Obama supporter but he would not hazard a guess as to how his white buddies will vote. He said economic disaster had exacerbated racial tensions. With the mills closed, the work force is resegregating.
Carl Davidson, a white friend and an Obama supporter, sat in Mr. Kimbrough's living room. ''My father voted for Edwards in the primary and now he wants McCain,'' said Mr. Davidson, whose father and grandfather labored in the mills. ''Without realizing it, he's wrapped up in white-identity politics.''
Sorting out white-voter discomfort with Mr. Obama is tricky business. Most speak of unease with his newness. But one in five primary voters surveyed in the Edison/Mitofsky exit poll in Pennsylvania said race was a factor.
Ivan Stickles, a carpenter, worked on his motorcycle in his driveway in Hopewell. Mr. Stickles, 57, is not taking what he sees as a gamble on Obama.
''There's this e-mail that he didn't shake hands with the troops,'' Mr. Stickles said of a rumor that is false. ''I don't have the time to check out if it's true, but if it is, it's very offensive.''
In Hookstown, Kristine Lakovich, 48, works the counter at Kiner's Superette. She likes Mr. Obama, a preference she keeps to herself. ''If you ask people around here, he's not exactly the right answer,'' Ms. Lakovich said. ''People are split between their politics and their prejudice.''
Nationally, the Obama campaign shies from talk of race, preferring to argue that the poor economy will dominate this election. Such delicacy holds no purchase here. An organizer with the United Steelworkers met with 30 workers in Beaver. He could not have been blunter. Mr. Obama, he told them, stands for national health care, strong unions and preserving Social Security.
''Some of you won't vote for him because he's black,'' the organizer concluded. ''Well, he's a Democrat. Get over it.''
Stateside: This is part of an occasional series of articles that track the pace of the presidential race in states across the country.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: John Sylvester, a retired steel worker who now works for $7 an hour, says Barack Obama has not offered economic plans.(PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID AHNTHOLZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Smokestacks dot the horizon of Beaver County, Pa., a largely blue-collar county whose cities and towns are struggling to survive economically after the failures of its once-dominant steel mills.
Ivan Stickles spoke of a rumor that Barack Obama had not shaken hands with troops in Afghanistan. ''I don't have the time to check out if it's true,'' he said, ''but if it is, it's very offensive.''
''People around here want pragmatic, practical language,'' Tina Shannon said.
Economic disaster in the area had worsened racial tensions, Glenn Kimbrough said.(PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID AHNTHOLZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)(pg. A19) CHARTS: How Pennsylvania Voted in Presidential Races . . .: 2004 popular vote margin
. . . and Who Voted: As percentage of all voters surveyed in the 2004 statewide exit poll.
Past margins of victory(Sources: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
exit poll conducted by Edison/Mitofsky) Charts detail bar graph and bubble chart for size of margin. (pg. A19)
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The New York Times
August 21, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
On a Working Break
BYLINE: By ELISABETH BUMILLER
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE CANDIDATE; Pg. 20
LENGTH: 104 words
Now it's Senator John McCain's turn.
After his town-hall-style meeting on Wednesday in Las Cruces, N.M., Mr. McCain headed to his home near Sedona, Ariz., for three days off the campaign trail.
It will be a working break: there will be staff meetings, filming for campaign commercials and practice for his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Two campaign advisers were to stay with him.
Mr. McCain has been off the trail part or all of most weekends, but he has not taken a vacation since the campaign heated up. Senator Barack Obama spent time with his family in Hawaii last week.ELISABETH BUMILLER
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August 21, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
Inside the Times
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 1911 words
INTERNATIONAL
DESPITE PROMISE, RUSSIA SHOWS
No Signs of Loosening Grip
Despite a pledge by the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, to withdraw his forces to the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russian troops did not appear to relax their grip on critical Georgian roads and ports. Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, said Russia was thinning out its presence in some of the towns it occupies but seizing other strategic spots. PAGE A10
MOSCOW'S BIFURCATED GOVERNMENT
When Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, rushed to Moscow to mediate the crisis over Georgia, he found the Russian president to be sanguine about prospects for a solution but Vladimir V. Putin, the president-turned-prime minister, virulent in denouncing Georgian actions. Mr. Sarkozy's report, made in a telephone call to President Bush, has added to bewilderment in Washington about how to deal with what is a two-headed government in Moscow. PAGE A9
GEORGIAN CRISIS TOUCHES POLAND
The events in the Caucasus, and threats of an attack by a Russian general after the announcement of a deal to place an American missile defense base on Polish soil, have cast a pall of doubt over a Poland that, flush and confident, has taken its place in the West, specifically on the side of America, as an ally rather than a vassal. PAGE A6
U.N. READIES DEAL OVER KIRKUK
The United Nations said it would present a list of proposals to resolve the conflict over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and other disputed regions in northern Iraq. The objective, the United Nations' special representative for Iraq said, was ''a grand deal'' among the Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Yazidis and other groups now passionately pressing their claims in the area. PAGE A8
IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION BUDGET SITS
Internal budget figures provided for the first time by the Iraqi government suggest that the nation has spent as little as 18 percent of its reconstruction budget in the first half of this year, roughly in line with previous estimates by American oversight agencies but far below the figures cited by the Iraqi government itself. Iraq's lagging spending on its own reconstruction has been the subject of wide criticism. PAGE A7
CONJURING LUCK IN BOLIVIA
With farmers hoping for healthy crops and urban dwellers searching for blessings in one of South America's poorest countries, no month beats August for Bolivia's witch doctors. In El Alto, a high-altitude twin city to La Paz, these specialists in divining good luck sell their wares -- llama fetuses, porcupine tails -- at a witch's market along a popular avenue. PAGE A12
Agreement to Draft Security Deal A8
NATIONAL
PLAN TO BOTTLE WATER RAISES
Concerns for Vermonters
Groundwater worries, long common in the arid West, are spreading even to the country's wettest areas. And with the growing recognition that groundwater is not limitless, more states and localities are looking for ways to protect it. In East Montpelier, Vt., concerns over a businessman's plans to bottle and sell about 250,000 gallons a day from the town's spring have pushed the issue to the forefront. PAGE A13
TROUBLED ELEPHANT CAN STAY HOME
Jenny, the emotionally troubled elephant, will not have to leave her home at the Dallas Zoo after all. Officials have decided to build a larger exhibit for her after a public outcry over plans to send her to a wildlife park in Mexico and resistance from an umbrella organization that accredits zoos to the suggestion that she be sent instead to a sanctuary for traumatized circus and zoo elephants in Tennessee. PAGE A15
CANCER VACCINES QUESTIONED
Two vaccines against cervical cancer are being used without enough evidence about their effectiveness, two articles in this week's New England Journal of Medicine conclude. The medical director for Merck, the maker of one, called concerns about effectiveness ''very theoretical'' and said that continuing research and monitoring suggested that immunity would be long lasting. PAGE A15
DEMOCRATS FAULT PLAN FOR F.B.I.
Some Democratic lawmakers briefed on a Justice Department plan for the F.B.I. say it would allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said the agency would need a ''valid purpose'' for an investigation and that it could not be ''simply based on somebody's race, religion or exercise of First Amendment rights.'' PAGE A18
RAISING THE STAKES IN A SENATE RACE
The actor who played the mobster Johnny Sack in ''The Sopranos'' is playing a union heavy in a commercial from a pro-business group suggesting that the Democratic Senate candidate in a competitive race in Maine is trying to infringe on the privacy of workers. Democrats call the ad misleading and say it could backfire, angering workers who could see it as equating union organizers with the mob. PAGE A17
UNION EXPENDITURES FAULTED
Disclosures that the local representing 74,000 home-care workers in Los Angeles County has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to companies run by various friends and the wife of the local's president have embarrassed the Service Employees International Union, whose campaign to organize the workers in 1999 was the largest successful unionization drive in the nation since the 1930s. PAGE A15
NEW YORK REPORT
REPORT ON FATAL BANK FIRE
Sees a Chain of Failures
A team of investigators enlisted by the New York Fire Department to conduct a formal inquiry into the deadly fire at the former Deutsche Bank building in Lower Manhattan last August finds fault or concern with many aspects of the building's demolition and the response to the fire, say people who have been briefed on the investigation or have seen its findings. PAGE A20
TROUBLES FOR WIND PROPOSAL
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's proposal to place wind turbines atop the city's skyscrapers and bridges, and off the coastline of Queens and Brooklyn, would be complicated and expensive and barely begin to meet the growth in demand for electricity that is expected in the coming years, architects, engineers and energy experts say. What would be more practical, experts say, is solar power. PAGE A20
BEIJING '08
REWRITING THE RECORD BOOK
Sooner Rather Than Later
Michael Johnson, who set the world and Olympic record for the 200-meter dash in Atlanta in 1996, said he figured that as soon as Usain Bolt trained his lanky 6-foot-5 frame in the fine points of the 200, ''I will be able to kiss my record goodbye.'' About five hours later, fine points or no, Johnson had to kiss away. Sports of The Times, by George Vecsey. PAGE C14
A QUESTIONABLE ALLIANCE FOR PHELPS
Omega is not only the official timekeeper of the Beijing Games, it is also one of Michael Phelps's corporate sponsors. The arrangement appears to be a conflict of interest, particularly after Phelps was involved in a disputed race last Saturday. Omega has declined to release underwater video images showing conclusively that Phelps won. PAGE C13
SEXIER TABLE TENNIS
In an effort to make table tennis more spectator-friendly, officials have tried various things, including speeding up the scoring system and switching to bigger Ping-Pong balls. Now they are looking to update players' uniforms, inspired by the increasingly stylish and -- yes -- sexy ones worn by female athletes in other sports. PAGE C13
A WINNING STRATEGY
No matter the distance, 19-year-old Larisa Ilchenko swims with the same strategy: stay back, drag off the pacesetters, outkick them at the end. It has served her well; she arrived in Beijing having won five consecutive 5K world championships and three major pre-Olympic 10K race titles. Ilchenko, from Russia, added the final gem, an Olympic gold, to her collection Wednesday. PAGE C20
BUSINESS
WELCOME TO COLLEGE.
Here's Your iPhone.
Some universities -- emphasizing the learning prospects, like online research in class and instant polling of students -- are handing out Apple iPhones and Internet-capable iPods to students. ''We think this is the way the future is going to work,'' said one official. But some professors, sensing the potential for distraction, are not enthusiastic about the prospects. PAGE C1
TURNING 2-D INTO 3-D
Microsoft introduced a technology intended to allow people to take a bunch of their overlapping two-dimensional pictures and turn them into a three-dimensional panorama called a photosynth. Creating one is free and automatic, provided that you have a Windows PC and either Internet Explorer or Firefox 3. (Mac users, your version is under development.) PAGE C1
PRESCRIPTION FOR BRITAIN'S AIR WOES
Government regulators investigating poor service, excessive airline charges and delays at overcrowded British airports found a principal cause: their common ownership by BAA. They say BAA, formerly known as the British Airports Authority, which has been owned since 2006 by the Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial, is likely to be required to sell two of its three London-area airports and either the Edinburgh or the Glasgow airport in Scotland. PAGE C9
BIG DREAMS FOR INDUSTRIAL PARK
The industrial park on the outskirts of Kaesong, North Korea, operated by a developer from South Korea, serves to emphasize stark differences between the two countries. But South Koreans dream of it as a foothold that may someday become the North Korean equivalent of Shenzhen, the investment zone that helped begin China's free-market miracle. PAGE C3
FROM FATIGUES TO BUSINESS SUITS
A program created last year at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University and expanded this year is looking to teach disabled veterans how to start and expand small businesses and to help them find financing for their ideas. ''These guys are smart,'' said one associate dean. ''They understand that running a business is like being on a battlefield.'' PAGE C5
Help for IndyMac Borrowers C1
OBITUARIES
HUA GUOFENG, 87
He helped steer China out of the chaos of the Cultural Revolution after the death of Mao in 1976 but was pushed aside by Deng Xiaoping after a short stint as China's top leader. PAGE A21
Editorial
AFGHANISTAN ON FIRE
Afghanistan is the principal battleground against the forces responsible for 9/11 and later deadly terrorist attacks on European soil. Washington, NATO and the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan must stop fighting it like a holding action and develop a strategy to win. Otherwise, we will all lose. Page A22
THE HANDS THAT FEED THEM
Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have been presenting themselves as dedicated reformers of the money-ridden political process -- just not for the next two weeks of freebie conventioneering. Page A22
Op-Ed
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
China is on track to displace the United States as the winner of the most Olympic gold medals. Get used to it: The world is reverting to its normal state, where a powerful Asia -- not America and Europe -- dominates the world. Page A23
GAIL COLLINS
As intense as the anticipation over Barack Obama's vice presidential choice is, it pales next to the hubbub over whether John McCain is going to pick Joe Lieberman. This would give Lieberman a unique niche in history: a politician who was the vice presidential nominee for both parties. Page A23
ALL THE OIL WE NEED
Americans are more worried than ever about energy security. In an Op-Ed article, Professors Eugene Gholz and Daryl G. Press explain that there is little to fear because robust stockpiles of oil around the globe could see us through any foreseeable calamities on the world market. Page A23
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
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The Washington Post
August 21, 2008 Thursday
Suburban Edition
The Silver Bullet;
Steve Schmidt Makes Sure His Candidate Knows Exactly What He Is Shooting For
BYLINE: Lois Romano; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C01
LENGTH: 2279 words
Steve Schmidt will not budge, and Mark Salter is begging.
"Why do I have to do this if you're not going?" Salter, a close John McCain confidant, is whining to the man now running the GOP presidential operation. "Get up."
"I'm not going," Schmidt shoots back.
"Yes, you are."
"I am not. I do not want to do it."
"Come on. Dude. I'm not going if you're not going," Salter pleads from the doorway of Schmidt's small office at McCain headquarters in Arlington.
"I will not appear in the pages of GQ," Schmidt declares defiantly, referring to the photo shoot on campaign hotshots that the magazine is doing for the November issue.
Salter sulks out, and Schmidt jumps up to lock the door with a loud click.
"I don't need anyone knowing who I am," he mutters, almost to himself. "It's the thing I despise most about this job. I don't want to be in GQ. I want to go home."
* * *
Steve Schmidt has made a career out of not being a creature of Washington. If the 2008 campaign were an action film, he would play the tough-talking Steven Seagal character, an idiosyncratic hero who is duty-bound to rescue the desperate from burning buildings (which Schmidt literally did last Christmas), but who longs to retreat into his easygoing world of family and suburbia.
At 37, Schmidt is one of the most forceful, successful and unconventional political operatives of his generation, running one of the most uphill GOP presidential efforts in decades -- yet he is hardly known outside political circles.
With a 6-foot frame carrying 225 pounds, plus a shaved head and an intense, clipped New Jersey style of speech, it's a little hard for him to stay under the radar. But try he has. He rarely appears on TV and avoids talking about strategy publicly. He would not be photographed for this story.
In fact, this was not at all how he planned to spend his fall.
A veteran of George W. Bush's 2004 campaign as a communications strategist, and well regarded for his instincts in shepherding Bush's nominations to the Supreme Court through the process, he was heavily courted by the top GOP presidential contenders last year. Mitt Romney sent him an antique chair to symbolize a seat at the table.
Schmidt was drawn to McCain, but planned on a limited role so he could have a life and remain in California, where he had settled after running Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2006 gubernatorial reelection campaign.
It never quite turned out that way. Schmidt was in the thick of things almost immediately, evolving into one of the Arizona senator's closest advisers. Then he joined McCain on the campaign trail right before the New Hampshire primary -- and never left. "I knew if we won New Hampshire I was not going home anytime soon," he says in a rare interview.
Last month, McCain asked Schmidt to take over the daily operations of an unfocused campaign that was languishing in Barack Obama's shadow. Frustrated Republicans saw an organization incapable of making the case for its candidate, switching themes and messages almost daily -- and failing to resonate with voters. Add to that a bad economy, a problematic war and an opponent who had turned into a phenomenon, and Republicans were privately writing McCain's obituary.
Schmidt wasted no time shaking up the campaign like a California earthquake. He centralized power at headquarters between himself and campaign manager Rick Davis, who has been overseeing the convention, fundraising and the vice-presidential selection. He made sure everyone understood their jobs and was communicating with each other. He insisted that aides stick to a closely controlled message, and he pushed for a more aggressive stance against Barack Obama.
Within weeks, McCain was ridiculing Obama's rock-star image in a provocative ad comparing him to Britney Spears, and seizing every opportunity to hammer him -- for canceling a visit to the troops, accusing him of suggesting McCain was a racist, painting him as an elitist -- all designed to make voters question whether he is ready to be president. At the same time, McCain himself has stuck to Schmidt's playbook with uncharacteristic discipline, even abandoning his daily freewheeling exchange with reporters.
Some loyalists complain that this new, more negative strategy is demeaning to McCain, and killing his trademark spontaneity and candor. But there is no question that it is working. McCain has new life, with national polls showing him dead even with Obama. Democrats are nervous enough to urge Obama to fight back.
"Since the changes, things are happening," observes Karl Rove, architect of George W. Bush's presidential races. "A guy who'd been in and out of the campaign for months told me he quickly saw a new crispness and order to the operation. He knew it when he walked in one day and there was a large calendar with daily message points plotted for several weeks -- a sign of strategic thinking that hadn't been so evident before."
"For the first time, there is a consistent narrative. . . . Steve brought extreme message discipline to an organization that never had it before," says Todd Harris, a political consultant who worked on McCain's 2000 presidential campaign.
Schmidt is a leader in a new class of professional campaign managers, who run the equivalent of hundred-million-dollar corporations overseeing thousands of employees and volunteers. They are in it for the win, not for a White House job, and engage in take-no-prisoners warfare. He is called "the bullet" -- for his swift and accurate aim at the target, as well as for the shape of his shaved head.
Schmidt often projects a combative partisan demeanor, but his allies insist he is no ideologue. He has referred to himself as a "raging moderate." In fact, sources say, it bothers him to be called a protege of Rove's, whose name became synonymous with the contentious partisan politics of the Bush era.
Schmidt's sister, his only sibling, is gay, and he has made it clear that he is appalled by the party's hostile attitudes toward gay rights. He urged Schwarzenegger last year to sign the California gay marriage bill, which the governor vetoed.
Friends and colleagues say he never pulls his punches with candidates. He told Schwarzenegger during his reelection bid to lose the leather coat, stop driving his gas-guzzling Hummer around the state, spend more time in Sacramento and start acting like the governor. He bluntly told McCain in June he was going to lose the election unless he brought some discipline to his campaign.
Like his counterparts in the Obama campaign, Schmidt finds himself running a presidential campaign unlike any other in history. He is up against a 24-hour news cycle, relentless bloggers and a mainstream media obliged to feed Web sites constantly, and he has adapted to this new reality. He curtailed McCain's media availability because he found journalists were more interested in filing hour-to-hour for the Web, rather than reporting more in-depth looks at the day on the trail. "There has been a transformational change in the way Americans get their news," he says.
Nonetheless, Schmidt says he won't allow the campaign to get thrown off by momentary distractions and pundits shooting from the hip. To that end, he and his colleagues have developed what they jokingly call the "Dave Gergen theory of the campaign" -- a metaphor for all talking heads.
Gergen, a veteran of four presidential administrations, is a frequent pundit on cable news. If senior members of the campaign disagree on a strategic move, they watch what Gergen has to say. They then do the opposite.
Commander of the War Room
Schmidt grew up in middle-class North Plainfield, N.J., was an Eagle Scout, a tight end on the high school football team, and says he loved politics as far back as he can remember. The first presidential race he clearly recalls -- he was 10 -- was the Ronald Reagan-Jimmy Carter matchup. "You intuitively understood that there was something special about him," he says of Reagan.
He attended the University of Delaware but came three credits short of graduating because he couldn't pass a required math course. "I'd still be there," he says, noting that he has been diagnosed with a learning disability that makes higher math difficult for him.
Schmidt had a swift rise in politics, careening around the country to manage Republican congressional races in his 20s and coming up through the GOP staff ranks on Capitol Hill. He was catapulted to the top tier of operatives in 2004, when he landed the job of directing the Bush campaign's war room, monitoring the media and the opponent all day, every day. Then as now, he strove to define the opposition for the voters, and never let a news cycle to go by without a comment from his side.
Still, for someone who refuses ever to go off-message, Schmidt has forged good relationships with political reporters, and tries to address their needs while sticking with his plan. Reporters on John Kerry's plane in 2004 came to know him well, as he called them several times a day -- sometimes to offer a comment on the text of a speech he managed to obtain but that Kerry had not yet delivered. He is credited with pushing the campaign to relentlessly stick with branding Kerry as a flip-flopper on issues.
Those who work with him say he is a master of the details. Brian Jones, who grew up with Schmidt and has worked with him on campaigns, said that to prepare for debates, he would demand dry runs among the staff in the war room -- to anticipate what the opponent might say, and respond quickly. Staffers were assigned different floors at headquarters to simulate the varied venues they would work from on the night of a debate, and he would use a stopwatch to time how fast they could send an e-mail blitz to the media. His was a tight ship, and he was known to hang up on everyone during a conference call, to send a message if one staff member forgot to get on the call.
In truth, he mentored an army of young GOP professionals who adore him. Most are fanned out among local races around the country, in the White House or working for various public officials. "The heart of all campaigns is kids in their 20s, many of whom are in the early stages of work experience, and these are concepts not taught in college, but you have to learn in the real world," he says.
"He was like a big brother to me," says Matt David, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger who worked for Schmidt in 2004. "He made me earn my stripes, and I've followed him ever since."
In 2006, Schmidt went right from the Supreme Court nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito -- which he managed from Dick Cheney's office -- to the reelection campaign for Schwarzenegger, who was in trouble. He had lost several important ballot initiatives, his popularity had plummeted, and he had little money to launch an aggressive campaign.
Schmidt's first course of action was to remove Schwarzenegger from all the props and sideshows that had caused the actor-turned-governor to be dubbed the "Governator," and to present him as a serious chief executive who was committed to the state.
Bill Carrick, the media strategist for Democratic challenger Phil Angelides, said Schmidt and company were effective in turning Angelides into a hapless politician with a series of ads that manipulated footage to show him walking backward.
"He is widely applauded for getting Arnold out of a mess," Carrick says. "In the end, he was able to restore Arnold's original appeal. The face of Arnold became less about ideology and back to the idea of bipartisanship."
Schmidt is aware that in running campaigns, he can be intimidating. On the Schwarzenegger campaign, he stopped attending the scheduling meetings because people were afraid to talk when he was in the room.
He and his wife liked the West Coast so much that they decided to stay put and raise their two young children in California.
Which brings us to the fire. Last December, unbeknownst to guests at a neighborhood Christmas party, the host's attic was in flames. Smoke slowly started seeping into the house, but not fast enough to slow down the party.
"People were still trying to get drinks at the bar -- it was unbelievable," recalls Kelly Resendez, the home owner. "Steve and another guy were responsible for getting everyone out of that house. . . . I was in shock, and here's Steve taking down pictures from the walls -- he saved all our family photos."
Schmidt was the last person out of the house.
"Not 10 minutes later the roof popped," says Resendez, "and the house went up in flames."
'My Happiest Moment'
Schmidt never saw himself being this involved in the 2008 race, and in fact, he thought he'd be back in California by now, back at his job as a partner in Mercury Public Affairs, a political and communication consulting firm. When McCain's operation imploded a year ago, he and Schmidt talked regularly by phone. But things looked grim. For most of the past year, Schmidt was an unpaid volunteer, only recently drawing a salary from the campaign.
He says he stayed around because of his affection for McCain, because he could not leave something midstream and because he believes McCain can win.
But he is unequivocal about his future in running campaigns: This is his last.
"The Internet has created a wave of venom that is very disturbing," he says of the e-mails and calls he receives. "People who run these campaigns have become targets very directly. Who needs it?
"My happiest moment is when the plane lands in San Francisco and you have lowered enough to see the rolling green hills of Northern California," he says, "and there is a level of happiness and joy that overcomes me. That is mirrored by the exact opposite emotion when I can see the approach to Dulles."
LOAD-DATE: August 21, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Gerald Herbert -- Associated Press; The adviser talks with Sen. John McCain on the campaign plane. Schmidt planned to have a limited role but soon became key to focusing the candidate's message.
IMAGE; By Mary Altaffer -- Associated Press; McCain adviser Steve Schmidt, who worked on the Bush and Schwarzenegger reelection efforts, tosses an orange during a bowling game on the campaign plane.
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The Washington Post
August 21, 2008 Thursday
Suburban Edition
Politics
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A03
LENGTH: 93 words
AD WARS, CONTINUED
Obama and McCain released ads yesterday targeting each other's economic plans. "Obama's got plans -- big plans -- for your money. . . . Piling more debt on the backs of your children and grandchildren." McCain's radio ad intones ominously. Obama's television spot is no less sharp: "John McCain's tax plan: for big corporations, $200 billion in new tax breaks . . . while 100 million Americans get no tax relief at all."
SOURCE: Staff writer Jonathan Weisman
AUG. 25-28 Democratic National Convention SEPT. 1-4 Republican National Convention
LOAD-DATE: August 21, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
August 21, 2008 Thursday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Paul Kane, Washington Post Congressional Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3337 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post congressional reporter Paul Kane was online Thursday, August 21 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Paul Kane: Good morning, folks. It's T-minus 134 hours or so till the really big news of next week hits: the Alaska Republican primaries, in which two incumbents with roughly 76 years of combined congressional tenure are facing tough battles just to win the right for an even tougher general election battle. Oh, I see, you're all focused on that other thing: T-minus 110 hours or so to the start of the Democratic convention (and an undetermined countdown clock till when Obama makes his veep pick). I quick review of your questions shows an intense focus on the presidential race, McCain's house-counting answer, and endless veep speculation. I'll take those questions, but I'll do my best to pick out the congressional questions first and foremost. Meantime, let's all give a warm round of applause to the Washington Nationals. Their very presence in the National League East is what keeps hope alive for my Phillies, because the Nats just stink these days. On to the questions!
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La Vale, Md.: I was surprised to read yesterday that Sen. McCain seemed to say that the only way we could win the war on terror is to reinstate the draft. Has his campaign issued a statement backing off from what he said, or is he now in support of the draft?
washingtonpost.com: Does McCain Favor a Draft? Nope. (The Atlantic, Aug. 20)
Paul Kane: I wasn't there to hear how McCain handled this question, so it's hard to judge his intent. (As a McCain watcher in his Senate days, sometimes the tone of his voice reveals just how sarcastic or serious he's being.)
But I know one person, for sure, who agrees with this sentiment: Charlie Rangel, the House Democratic chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
An Army veteran himself, Rangel believes that a draft is the only way to spread the service and sacrifice across all income levels and all races and ethnicities. Rangel has legislation calling for reinstituting the draft. He knows it's going nowhere, not gonna pass, but he thinks it's important to even have the legislation drafted.
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Reading, Pa.: Paul, interesting line-up on the discussions today -- Bob Barr and Tommy Chong. I think Barr must be smoking the same stuff as Chong if he thinks he has any chance this November. Why would Barr, or any candidate for that matter, spend time and money in such a losing cause?
Paul Kane: If there's one that thing that those of us who covered Congress in the '90s learned, it's that Bob Barr loves attention -- loves seeing himself on TV, loves seeing his name in print. I believe Barr was the first person in Congress to actually draft war legislation against Islamic terrorists after Sept. 11, knowing full well that the White House and Pentagon were working in bipartisan fashion with leadership to draft actual war legislation. Didn't bother Barr, he introduced his own bill -- and he got TV cameras to show up to cover his press conference. That's what this is all about.
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Naperville, Ill.: Thanks for taking my question. One can find a lot of sites dedicated to an analysis of Senate races and house races likely to change hands this year (The Post's own The Fix has a weekly column on the subject). My question is, what Senate race has the potential to be a total shocker in November? It seems like there is always one race where an incumbent no one expected to lose gets knocked off. What's your guess as to which race this might be?
Paul Kane: Great question. There are now six races that are high-profile, top-tier contests in which the current party holding that seat is in serious danger of losing that seat: New Hampshire, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico and Alaska. All Republican, so none of them would be surprises if Democrats win. The next tier: Louisiana, Minnesota, Oregon, North Carolina, Mississippi. All Republican except for Landrieu in Louisiana.
But if we're talking about a really big surprise -- something on the level of Cleland in Georgia in '02 or Allen cratering at the finish in Virginia in '06 -- then I think you should keep your eyes on Kansas. Pat Roberts -- first elected to the Senate in '96 with 62 percent of the vote, running uncontested in his '02 re-elect -- hasn't had a real race in a very long time. Those are the incumbents that cause political strategists to wake up in cold sweats in nightmares late at night/early in the morning. I think Roberts will win, it's Kansas after all. But there have been some polls showing Democrat Jim Slattery within striking distance. And if Roberts has Macaca moments in the final two months of the campaign, I'm not sure how he'll respond because it's been so long since he's been in a competitive race.
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Charlottesville, Va.: Mr. Paul Kane! Long time reader, first time questioner. Please tell me that there is at least a one in three chance that my cantankerous, sophomoric, national embarrassment of a Congressman -- Virgil Goode -- could be swept up in the Mark Warner/Obama tide in Virginia.
Paul Kane: I'm sorry, I just don't see Goode in deep trouble yet. If Goode loses in November, dear lord, that would probably mean Democrats pick up 30 seats again. And I'm just not ready to say that, so I don't see Goode losing.
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Biden's acceptance speech: Paul, I just thought I'd pass along a scoop: Internet word is that Joe Biden's preparing a 50,000-word acceptance speech (edited down from the 200,000-word version he would have given in 1988) for the convention. He has been scheduled to start Wednesday evening and wrap up on Thursday. Just thought you'd want pass this along to your colleagues!
Paul Kane: Ha ha. Very sarcastic and ironic. As for Biden, did anyone know that he's actually up for re-election this fall? I forgot until I just spent more than a week at the Delaware beaches. There aren't even any road signs touting the Biden race, from him or his opponent. So this makes the governor's race there very, very important if Biden were the veep pick for Obama, because state laws there allow Biden to continue running for his Senate seat even if he's also running for veep. But then the governor would appoint his replacement once he was sworn in as veep, making the Delaware governor's race very important to the future shape of the Senate. The same thing applies to the Indiana governor's race should Obama pick Bayh. If either of those senators are the veeps, pay close attention to the governor's races.
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Potomac, Md.: Why are people wasting time talking about whether the McCains own six or eight houses? That's a credit to the McCains for having the foresight to host the media in comfort when they come out for BBQs and to review the campaign's talking points. Focus on what's important, like why Obama looks French.
Paul Kane: I'll take just one question on this whole manufactured flap. These sorts of little things that we in the media spend lots of time running around in circles panting and moaning about, they usually add up to nothing at the polls. Every time something happens of this level to Obama (Rev. Wright, "bitter") the response from Democrats is that in really tough times like this the American voters are not going to be swayed by these little things and the attacks and the negativity that follows, that the voters will focus on the really big issues. That's what comes from Democrats. So, does the same not apply to something like this?
At this point in his national political career McCain is not going to be transformed into a super rich elitist. He's just not -- the voters won't buy it. It has the potential to reinforce questions about his age, I guess.
Still, with war, peace and prosperity on the line, I don't see this as a huge deal.
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Roseland, N.J.: I'm just kind of having a nightmare here: an election so close it comes down to ... Alaska. Where Obama quietly has been buying air time in the state, and the GOP brand is under indictment. Is this election year so surreal that, yes, it's possible the Land of the Midnight Sun will turn blue?
Paul Kane: Sorry, I'm not sure the management of any newspaper on the continental United States will allow any of us to answer a question such as this. You realize how much that would screw up our production schedules? The polls don't close in Alaska till -- what? -- 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. our time back east? Sure, Juneau and Anchorage aren't that far behind (four or five hours) but there are portions of that state that will have polls open till our wee hours of the morning. God save us all.
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New York: What do you think about the GOP's choice of Giuliani as keynote speaker? Do you think that McCain's two eliteness gaffes this week (his high estimate of how much it takes to be rich and his failure to know how many houses he owns) will cause any lasting problems? Thanks.
Paul Kane: As for Rudy as keynote speaker, I think it just shows how much McCain wants to appeal to centrist voters -- and how much he values good personal relationships. Rudy and McCain have been friends for a decade or more. This is why I always have doubted the Romney-as-veep talk. McCain just won't lower himself to pick someone he dislikes so obviously.
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Washington: Paul, could either Rep. Young or Sen. Stevens be defeated in the Alaska primaries next week? Thanks.
Paul Kane: Alaska is everywhere in this chat! Okay, so, on Tuesday Young and Stevens face tough primary climates. Young is in the most serious peril, facing state Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who is running as a reformer saying Young's decades of pork-barrel politics (and the multiple investigations those have spawned) are a thing of Alaska's past. Young, who never has been confused for being warm and cuddly, angrily accepted Parnell's challenge when he announced it at a state GOP convention in March: "Sean, congratulations -- I beat your dad and I'm going to beat you." That's a reference to Young's 1980 three-to-one victory over Parnell's father, who was a Democrat.
Stevens is considered much more likely to survive Tuesday, but then the question becomes whether he comes under pressure to bow out of the general election before his trial starts Sept. 22. He has until about Sept. 17 to get out of the race; after that it appears pretty clear that, even if Stevens is convicted, he would remain on the general election ballot against Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.
That's high-stakes poker for Republicans.
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Prescott, Ariz.: Did McCain really slow-roll the Abramoff investigation and steer it away from his Republican Senate buddies? Did he really ignore subpoenas to Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist?
Paul Kane: Okay, this is where folks in the blogosphere just really do take things and twist them dangerously out of control. In 2005 and 2006 I covered McCain's Indian Affairs Committee investigation of the Abramoff-tribal-casino clients for Roll Call. He and his aides were unmerciful toward Reed and Norquist. They released dozens and dozens and dozens of pages of damaging e-mails, memos and documents that effectively destroyed Ralph Reed's political career. Any suggestion that they went soft on Reed is crazy. They could have more fully embarrassed him by calling him to testify in public, I guess. But that was the only sign of restraint. I don't think they ever subpoenaed Reed because he cooperated and turned over extensive documents about his deals with Abramoff.
The committee subpoenaed Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform and got into brutal public fights with Grover. As for his fellow senators, only Conrad Burns came under scrutiny in connection to Abramoff, who basically dealt almost exclusively with House Republicans.
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Washington: Paul, terrible news about Rep. Tubbs-Jones and condolences to her family. Can you explain some of the confusion in the news reports yesterday? Thanks.
washingtonpost.com: Ohio Congresswoman Tubbs Jones Dies at 58 (Post, Aug. 21)
Paul Kane: Yes, yesterday was a bad, sad day for Congress. Tubbs Jones was beloved by her colleagues, and she was trusted enough that they made her the ethics committee chair, a position that you can only give to someone who you trust will be impartial in all dealings.
As for the media, it was a terrible day. But in these situations we're only as good as our sources -- and they were just dreadful. Sources in the Ohio Democratic Party were telling media outlets Tubbs Jones had died, sources on Capitol Hill were telling media outlets she had died, it was just terrible. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, with multiple sources both connected to the medical and political fields, posted a story saying she had died. This prompted other sources who also "knew" that she had died to confirm the news to other media outlets, and at that point everyone had the story "confirmed."
Was it irresponsible, given the gravity of what we were reporting? Of course. There's no coup as a journalist to reporting first that a congresswoman of her stature had died. But, think of it this way: There's also no incentive on the part of our sources to tell us someone had passed away. There's no partisan motive behind our sources in an instance like this, so of course we believed our sources knew she was dead -- of course we trusted them.
Turned out she wouldn't die for another six hours. Just an awful day.
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Iowa: That 50,000-word-Biden-speech bit is from the Borowitz Report. Just giving credit where credit is (or isn't) due.
Paul Kane: Thanks for the credit where credit is due.
One other thing about Biden: If he gets the nod, it will complete the total transformation of the world's most important political science department going from Harvard's Kennedy School to the University of Delaware. Yes, you heard me right. The Fightin' Blue Hens are just dominating this presidential campaign, with David Plouffe (Obama's campaign manager) and Steve Schmidt (McCain's top aide) also products of Delaware's political science department.
Sadly, neither Plouffe (shoulda been class of '89) nor Schmidt (shoulda been class of '92) actually graduated, both leaving school a few credits early to work on campaigns. Biden, class of '65, played running back on the Delaware football teams.
Disclaimer: I'm also a Fightin' Blue Hen, class of '92. No, I didn't know either Plouffe or Schmidt while I was there on campus. And yes, I gossip all the time with Biden about all things Delaware football. We both think Joe Flacco has great potential, but probably needs some time to learn the pace of the NFL game.
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San Diego: I fully agree that Obama's ad on Reed is blown out of proportion, but this is another example where the myth of McCain-as-maverick has taken over the reality of McCain-as-party-hack. His aides yelled at Reed? That's what we're supposed to take away as evidence that McCain wasn't "soft" on Reed? I'm sorry, these were hearings into serious wrongdoings. McCain deliberately decided not to call relevant witnesses who may have put some of his Senate Republican colleagues in jeopardy. He also decided that there would be no investigation into members of the Senate. And no, Abramoff was not just mostly involved with House Republicans.
Paul Kane: Sorry San Diego, I know more about this topic than you do, so I have to call you out. You're not right, you're wrong on the nature of the investigation. McCain was chairman of the Indian Affairs committee, not the head of the Justice Department's public integrity unit and not the chairman of the ethics committee.
His job was to investigate the fleecing of tribes. He did not have the power or jurisdiction to investigate his colleagues, he wasn't allowed to by all sorts of basic internal precedent. If he came across anything that seemed very sketchy about his colleagues, then his job was to turn it over to the Department of Justice or Senate ethics -- which, in the case of Bob Ney and Steve Griles and some others who testified before his panel, he actually did. The committee and its staff appeared before the federal grand jury to testify about potential lies told under oath to the Senate, which is a felony. So, no, he didn't go soft on his colleagues.
And Reed gave up all the documents showing the trail of tribal money. Sure, he could have called Reed before his panel just to humiliate him. he could have done that and lots of people who don't like Ralph Reed would have enjoyed it. But it wouldn't have added any actual investigative value to the Abramoff probe.
_______________________
Re: Biden's Acceptance Speech: Is that 50,000 words all unplagiarized text? I'm a liberal and I can stand this guy's lack of creativity.
Paul Kane: Ah, you're talking about something that happened in September, 1987. Biden's never been accused of stealing anyone's words since then. He's actually developed such a reflexive nature to those charges that, when he tells a story on the stump, he often raises his right hand, as if he's testifying, and says something like "honest to god's truth" or "true story, I swear."
It's as if those charges still linger in the back of his mind and he likes to let everyone know he's not telling tall tales.
His problem isn't a lack of creativity -- he's more creative than about 90 or so of his colleagues -- it's that Biden is often too creative. He goes on too long with his own ideas and starts saying things that are impolitic and get him into trouble.
_______________________
Washington: Good morning, Paul. I'm surprised that the North Carolina Senate race has tightened so much. In your opinion, are there any other House or Senate races -- previously quiet -- that might do the same? Are there any Republicans you are speaking to who are starting to get nervous (or more nervous)? Thanks.
Paul Kane: There are plenty of Republicans getting nervous, period. In this environment -- even after the last month of them being on offense on the energy issue -- almost every Republican needs to be scared. They simply lack the institutional ability to defend incumbents who slip up and find themselves in trouble. Remember, after Allen's Macaca moment, national GOP committees pumped about $10 million, maybe more, into Virginia trying to save him. This time around, those same committees are broke, so any GOP incumbents that go Macaca in the final weeks of this campaign are on their own to defend themselves.
_______________________
Paul Kane: Alright gang, thanks for the questions, as always. I'm leaving for Denver on Saturday, will spend the week there and then head straight to the Twin Cities. But let's remember these beneath-the-radar dates ahead: Aug. 26, the Alaska GOP primary; Aug. 27, the one-year anniversary of Roll Call breaking the story of Larry Craig's restroom arrest; Aug. 30, Springsteen closes out last stop on "Magic" tour in Milwaukee; Sept. 4, the NFL season opener between 'Skins-Giants; Sept. 8, Congress returns from summer break; Sept. 10, Larry Craig gets his appeal hearing before Minnesota courts in an effort to revoke his August '07 guilty plea.
See you again soon.
_______________________
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
August 20, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
Obama's Ads In Key States Go on Attack
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG; John M. Broder contributed reporting from Orlando, Fla.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1167 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
Senator Barack Obama has started a sustained and hard-hitting advertising campaign against Senator John McCain in states that will be vital this fall, painting Mr. McCain in a series of commercials as disconnected from the economic struggles of the middle class.
Mr. Obama has begun the drive with little fanfare, often eschewing the modern campaign technique of unveiling new spots for the news media before they run in an effort to win added (free) attention. Mr. Obama, whose candidacy has been built in part on a promise to transcend traditional politics, is running the negative commercials on local stations even as he runs generally positive spots nationally, during prime-time coverage of the Olympics.
The negative spots reflect the sharper tone Mr. Obama has struck in recent days on the stump as he heads into his party's nominating convention in Denver next week, and seem to address the anxiety among some Democrats that Mr. Obama has not answered a volley of attacks by Mr. McCain with enough force.
''If you can go quietly negative, that's what he's done; I think the perception is that he's still running the positive campaign,'' said Evan Tracey, president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group of TNS Media Intelligence, which monitors political advertising. ''It's a pretty smart, high-low, good cop/bad cop strategy.''
In Philadelphia; East Lansing, Mich.; Green Bay, Wis.; and at least five other major cities, Mr. Obama is heavily showing an advertisement contrasting a statement by Mr. McCain that ''we have had a pretty good, prosperous time with low unemployment,'' with appearances by people making statements like, ''The prices of gas are up; the prices of milk are up.''
Mr. McCain's statement was from a debate in January, before the economy took several turns for the worse, and did not include the senator's acknowledgment of ''a rough patch.'' Mr. McCain has since run an advertisement going so far as to say, ''We're worse off than we were four years ago.''
In Des Moines; Tampa, Fla.; Paducah, Ky., and at least 10 other cities, Mr. Obama is running a spot for a mock book, ''Economics'' by John McCain: ''Support George Bush 95 percent of the time; keep spending $10 billion a month for the war in Iraq.''
On Sunday alone, Mr. Obama's campaign spent nearly $400,000 to run those two spots more than 600 times, accounting for roughly two thirds of the commercials he ran that day, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
Nearly 85 percent of Mr. McCain's 650 spots that day featured attacks against Mr. Obama, according to the service, which reports that Mr. Obama has spent $48 million on advertisements in the last two months and that Mr. McCain has spent $34 million, with the Republican National Committee spending another $3 million.
Until recently Mr. Obama had primarily run positive commercials promoting his vision, and his latest offensive is his first major volley of spots against Mr. McCain that was not in response to an attack from him or the Republican Party.
All told, Mr. Obama's campaign has released at least six television commercials and two radio spots against Mr. McCain in the past two weeks, all of them with an overwhelmingly economic message and some tailored to issues in specific states.
The strategy is in keeping with predictions from strategists in both parties this summer that Mr. Obama would eventually press his financial advantage over Mr. McCain by running a more positive set of commercials on national broadcast television and a concurrent, harder-hitting set of spots in the states.
''It's 'game on, the money's in the bank, we're going to have a huge financial advantage, let the McCain campaign chase us around the country, if they can find us,' '' said Steve McMahon, a Democratic advertising strategist.
Mr. Obama has complemented his advertising this week with a newly aggressive tone on the stump. Campaigning in California and Florida in the last few days, he has criticized Mr. McCain as challenging his patriotism, for saying Iraqis would greet Americans as ''liberators'' in 2003, and as embracing a negative brand of politics in general.
But Mr. Obama's advertising has increasingly included spots that, like those from Mr. McCain, have been called negative and misleading by independent media analysts like FactCheck.org, part of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
Until last week, the organization had mostly focused on misleading claims by Mr. McCain. He has consistently misrepresented the particulars of Mr. Obama's tax and energy policies, claiming, for instance, that he will raise taxes on families making $42,000 a year -- a nonbinding resolution he voted for would amount to a $15 increase on individuals with such income -- and that Mr. Obama opposes nuclear energy (he does not).
But in the past two weeks the group has criticized Mr. Obama's spots for linking Mr. McCain to a decision by the DHL shipping company to pull out of a hub in Ohio, eliminating 8,200 jobs there; for exaggerating Mr. McCain's donations from oil executives; and for portraying his general corporate tax break as specifically tailored to oil and drug companies.
''We certainly for a while were finding a lot more in McCain's ads to complain about,'' said Brooks Jackson, the director of FactCheck.org. ''That pattern certainly has shifted a bit.''
Even if Mr. Obama's attack ads have so far not drawn much national attention -- in part because of the frenzied coverage of the vice-presidential selection process -- the spots have clear potential to undercut Mr. Obama's promise to remain above the fray of what he calls ''the same old Washington games.''
Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, called the strategy a ''result of his inexperience.'' He added, ''With a partisan record that doesn't measure up, Barack Obama's been reduced to a sucker-punch strategy, shirking his 'new type of politics' in favor of a more negative campaign.''
But several Democratic strategists said the ad campaign reflected the reality of the race. ''They may understand that this race is a lot tougher than they originally thought it was going to be,'' said David Doak, a Democratic strategist, ''and they're reacting that way.''
Mr. Obama's approach to the confrontational advertising is decidedly different from that of Mr. McCain. When Mr. McCain released his spot linking the popularity of Mr. Obama to the celebrity of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears last month, Mr. McCain's aides held a conference call with reporters.
In several cases Mr. Obama's campaign has either not announced its new spots or done so only after they were noticed by news organizations. Bill Burton, a spokesman, said that the campaign had not intentionally sought to hide its advertisements, noting they are available on the Obama Web site and in heavy rotation in states.
''We don't have a secret message,'' Mr. Burton said. ''It's a crystal clear one.''
He stood by the accuracy of the spots.
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LOAD-DATE: August 20, 2008
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Senator Barack Obama arrived Tuesday at the Sheraton hotel in Raleigh, N.C., creating a camera-worthy moment for onlookers. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES) (pg.A1)
New Obama campaign advertisements criticize Senator John McCain for his energy policies and link him to President Bush. (pg.A19)
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The New York Times
August 20, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
Two Against The One
BYLINE: By MAUREEN DOWD
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 23
LENGTH: 761 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
In the dead of night in a small hideaway office in the deserted Capitol, a clandestine meeting takes place between two senators with one goal.
They grin at each other as they lift their celebratory shots of brutally cold Stolichnaya.
''Our toast to The One,'' they say in unison, ''is that he's toast.''
''Obama should have picked you, Hillary,'' John McCain tells her. ''It isn't fair, my friend. But it just makes it easier for me to whup him.''
''Don't worry, John, I've put it behind me,'' Hillary replies. ''I'm looking toward the future now, a future that looks very bright, once we send Twig Legs back to the back bench.''
They chortle with delight.
''He's a bright young man, but he got ahead of himself,'' McCain says. ''He needs to be taught a lesson, and we're the ones to do it. Have you seen the new Bloomberg poll? Obama's dropped and we're even again. The Bullet's getting all the credit, but you and I know, Hillary, that it's these top-secret counseling sessions we're having. And thanks again for BlackBerrying me the Rick Warren questions while I was in the so-called cone of silence.''
''Oh, John, you know I love you and I'm happy to help,'' Hillary says. ''The themes you took from me are working great -- painting Obama as an elitist and out-of-touch celebrity, when we're rich celebrities, too. Turning his big rallies and pretty words into character flaws, charging him with playing the race card -- that one always cracks me up. And accusing the media, especially NBC, of playing favorites. It's easy to get the stupid press to navel-gaze; they're so insecure.''
''They're all pinko Commies,'' McCain laughs. ''Especially since they deserted me for The Messiah. Seriously, Hill, that Paris-Britney ad you came up with was brilliant. I owe you.''
Looking pleased, Hillary expertly downs another shot. ''His secret fear is being seen as a dumb blonde,'' she says. ''He wants to take a short cut to the top and pose on glossy magazine covers, but he doesn't want to be seen as a glib pretty boy.''
McCain lifts his glass to her admiringly. ''If I do say so myself, while the rookie was surfing in Hawaii, I ate his pupus for lunch. Pictures of him pushing around a golf ball while I'm pushing around Putin. Priceless.''
''I have a little secret to tell you about that, John. Bill made it happen. He loves you so much. He called Putin and told him that if he invaded Georgia, he could count on being invited to the Clinton Global Initiative every year for the rest of his life.''
''Wow. Should I call him? I saw your husband's kind words about me in Las Vegas on Monday, saying I'd be just as good as Obama on climate change.''
''I think he'd like that,'' Hillary smiles. ''He's still boiling at Obama. And you don't have to worry about my army of angry women. We've spread the word in the feminist underground -- as opposed to that wacky Obama Weather Underground -- that 'catharsis' is code for 'No surrender.' My gals know when I say 'We may have started on two separate paths but we're on one journey now' that Skinny's journey is to the nearest exit.''
''But Obama's says he's finally ready to hit back,'' McCain says, frowning. ''He's starting a blistering TV campaign and attacking me for attacking his patriotism.''
''Now, John, you know that every time he tries to get tough, he quickly runs out of gas. Sometimes in debates, he'd be exhausted by the third question. He must use up all his energy in the gym. He doesn't have any stamina, and he certainly doesn't have our bloodlust. Besides, you can throw that Mark Penn stuff at him that I couldn't use in a Democratic primary about how he's not fundamentally American in his thinking and values. While he's up on his high-minded pedestal, you'll scoot past him in your Ferragamos.''
''How can I ever thank you, my friend?''
''You can announce that you won't be running for re-election because you'd be 76, and you can pick somebody really lame to run with, like your pal Lieberman. That means one term for you, and two for me.''
''It's a deal,'' McCain says, sticking out his hand to shake on it. ''That was inspired to snatch his convention away -- makes him look so weak. Listen, why don't you stop in Sedona on the way to Denver? Wear a black wig and I'll spirit you up to the cabin for the night. I'll catch a catfish in the mill pond and grill it for you. It will be an adventure.'' There's a knock on the door. Jesse Jackson sticks his head into the meeting.
''Is it over?'' he asks his co-conspirators.
''Yes, he's over,'' they respond in unison.
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The New York Times
August 20, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
Portraying McCain as Out of Touch
BYLINE: By MICHAEL FALCONE
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE AD CAMPAIGN; Pg. 19
LENGTH: 466 words
This 30-second advertisement for Senator Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, is being broadcast in Indiana. It is called ''Fix the Economy.''
PRODUCER Obama campaign media team
THE SCRIPT Senator John McCain (Jan. 10, 2008): ''I don't believe we're headed into a recession.'' Ed Rutherford, Morrow, Ohio: ''I think we're absolutely in a recession.'' Lauren Ahlersmeyer, Lafayette, Ind.: ''I sometimes struggle just to get essentials, you know, the milk, the bread, the eggs.'' Mr. McCain (April 17, 2008): ''There's been great progress economically.'' Stuart Morrison, Park Hills, Ky.: ''The economy is in a rut.'' Mr. McCain (Jan. 30, 2008): ''We have had a pretty good, prosperous time with low unemployment.'' Kelly Robertson, Elkhart, Ind.: ''The way the economy is, it is the bleakest of times.'' Chris Fisher, Wilmington, Ohio: ''I'm worried, I'm really worried.''
THE SCREEN The advertisement opens with a clip of Mr. McCain at a debate in January, followed by the first of several cameos by residents of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky expressing concern about the economy. Mr. McCain appears twice more, couched between voters, before the screen fades to black and the following message appears: ''How can John McCain fix the economy, when he doesn't think it's broken?''
ACCURACY The Obama campaign uses three short quotes by Mr. McCain from several months ago, before the economy greatly soured, and leaves out the context of his remarks, which in each case indicates that he has a more nuanced view of the economy. For example, while Mr. McCain said at a debate in January that he did not believe a recession was imminent, he also noted that the country was in ''a rough patch.'' In two other cases, the advertisement uses only a slice of Mr. McCain's comments while omitting full quotes in which he offers a more gloomy assessment. And as the economy has since worsened, Mr. McCain has increasingly acknowledged the economic hardships many Americans face.
SCORECARD This advertisement, which came out in Indiana last week, tries to portray Mr. McCain as bullish about the economy while ordinary Americans are living through ''the bleakest of times,'' as one Indiana resident put it in the spot. But by using old quotes and providing little context, the Obama campaign does not fully represent the presumptive Republican nominee's public statements on the issue. Nevertheless, the advertisement's effectiveness may rest with who is delivering the contrast with Mr. McCain: not an anonymous announcer or even Mr. Obama, but real Americans who share their struggles on camera. If this is all that viewers in Indiana, a crucial battleground state, know of Mr. McCain's comments on the economy, it may convince some voters that he is out of touch.
MICHAEL FALCONE
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The New York Times
August 20, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
ON NYTIMES.COM
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 4
LENGTH: 267 words
Works by the Indian painter Nandalal Bose, which are on exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Mr. Bose, who worked in the first half of the 20th century, is a forefather of the contemporary Indian art scene, a creator of a style that was both cosmopolitan and distinctively Indian.
nytimes.com/design
Measure for Measure: Jeffrey Lewis The musician fondly recalls Guitar Situations, a composition experiment with fewer rules and more fun songs.
nytimes.com/opinion
VIDEO: A SWEET CONDIMENT,
Without Tomato Cans
Mark Bittman shares a recipe for one of his new favorite condiments: tomato jam.
nytimes.com/dining
VIDEO: COUNTING THE COSTS
A video report from several villages scarred by Georgian and Russian military campaign.
nytimes.com/world
INTERACTIVE: AN ARGENTINE ADVANCE
An interactive graphic analyzing the dominant players in the Argentina vs. Brazil men's soccer matchup.
nytimes.com/olympics
Shifting Careers: A Chat With an Olympian
Marci Alboher talks with Eric Heiden, the 1980 speedskating champion, about his post-Olympic career as an orthopedic surgeon.
nytimes.com/shiftingcareers
VIDEO: OBAMA CAMPAIGN
Turns Up the Heat
Senator Barack Obama has started a television campaign against Senator John McCain with a series of commercials painting Mr. McCain as disconnected from the economic struggles of the middle class in states that will be vital to either man's election.
nytimes.com/politics
AUDIO: FEDEX CUP CHANGES
Richard Sandomir talks about what the PGA Tour aimed to achieve with the new points structure of the FedEx Cup playoff.
nytimes.com/sports
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USA TODAY
August 20, 2008 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
After midsummer's silliness, a purpose-driven campaign?
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 10A
LENGTH: 500 words
Back in June, we expressed the hope that Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, the surprise winners of their parties' nominating contests, would conduct a spirited, substantive debate on the direction of the country. Unconventional picks with compelling personal stories, both candidates said they wanted to reach across party lines and change politics as usual.
Unfortunately, their campaigns have disappointed. At a time when the nation faces many challenges -- ranging from runaway deficits and the sagging economy to terrorism and a resurgent Russia -- each candidate has been ducking pressing issues, pandering and, in some cases, misrepresenting his opponent. Aides dispatch a daily drumbeat of attacks.
McCain has been running a series of negative ads out of character for someone who built a reputation as a straight talker. His most notorious one, featuring Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, was nothing short of inane, as was an effort to blame Obama for high gas prices. An ad suggesting sinister motives for Obama's decision not to visit wounded soldiers was the kind of nonsense usually limited to independent attack groups.
As for Obama, he ducked a proposed series of town hall meetings that would have elevated the discussion. On the campaign trail, he has resorted to pandering to voters with non-solutions that poll well, most recently with a proposed windfall profits tax on oil companies to fund a $1,000 rebate. Obama also proposes a 0% income tax rate for senior citizens earning less than $50,000 per year at a time when the budget is already skewed toward taxing (and borrowing from) young workers to spend on seniors.
In fact, the non-partisan Tax Policy Center concluded that both candidates' tax proposals would swell the federal budget deficit, which desperately needs to be brought down. McCain's plan, largely a continuation of the Bush tax cuts, would add $5trillion of debt over the next decade. Obama's plan -- which would hike taxes for upper-income workers, while lowering or maintaining current taxes further down the income ladder -- would tack on $3.5trillion in borrowing.
None of this midsummer mindlessness gets the nation any closer to balancing its budget or providing voters with much information to make an informed decision. But it's not too late for this state of affairs to change.
Saturday's forum at Saddleback Church in Southern California, where the candidates separately fielded questions from pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, provided an interesting window into their thinking. McCain and Obama have agreed to three debates, after the political conventions, that could raise the level of discourse.
With the general election just 11 weeks away, though, time is running short if the candidates wish to live up to their potential as transformative politicians who can transcend slash-and-burn politics and at least partially fix a broken system. The voters want real change -- starting with the way campaigns are conducted.
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The Washington Post
August 20, 2008 Wednesday
Met 2 Edition
Obama's Wide Web;
From YouTube to Text Messaging, Candidate's Team Connects to Voters
BYLINE: Jose Antonio Vargas; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C01
LENGTH: 3014 words
DATELINE: CHICAGO
Amid the cramped, crowded cubicles inside Sen. Barack Obama's campaign headquarters here, sandals are as ubiquitous as iPods. Two young guys in shorts and T-shirts throw a football around. An electoral college map (California 55, Texas 34, etc.) is taped to the wall in the men's bathroom. A BlackBerrying staffer sneezes and blurts out, "Whew! I think I'm allergic to hope!"
This is Triple O -- Obama's online operation.
Five years ago, Howard Dean's online-fueled campaign cemented the Internet's role as a political force. Exactly how big a force no one was quite sure. But this year's primary season, spanning six months, proved that online buzz and activity can translate to offline, on-the-ground results. Indeed, the Web has been crucial to how Obama raises money, communicates his message and, most important, recruits, energizes and turns out his supporters.
With less than three months to go before the election, Triple O is the envy of strategists in both parties, redefining the role that an online team can play within a campaign.
"Theirs is an operation that everyone will be studying for campaigns to come," says Peter Daou, who was Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Internet director.
Adds Andrew Rasiej, founder of Personal Democracy Forum, an online hub of how politics and technology intersect: "Obama's success online is as much about how our society has changed, how our media ecology has changed, just in the past four years."
Rasiej describes how his 81-year-old father, an Obama supporter, has taken to e-mailing videos of the senator's speeches and policy plans to 50 of his friends. "In one afternoon, my dad is reaching friends who in the past would have taken him a whole year to be in contact with. That's not necessarily Obama. That's the Internet," he continues. "But you have to give credit where credit is due: Obama's Internet team is doing a hell of a job taking advantage of all these changes. They've basically leapfrogged not just the Clinton and McCain campaigns but also the mainstream media when it comes to reaching their supporters."
Joe Trippi, who's widely credited with Dean's pioneering use of the Web, says: "I like to say that we at the Dean campaign were the Wright brothers. We put this rickety thing together and got it off the ground. But the folks in Obama's online team are the Apollo project. The question is, are they Apollo 8 or Apollo 11? If they're Apollo 11, they're going to launch a guy and land him in the White House."
The launch began in early 2007, when Joe Rospars, a veteran of the Dean campaign and the Democratic National Committee, was hired as new-media director. In the following weeks, the 27-year-old assembled a group that included one of the co-founders of Facebook, an award-winning CNN producer and a text-messaging enthusiast. BarackObama.com was born.
A year and a half ago, Rospars led a group of 11. It's easily double that now, with staffers taping signs on the back of their furniture that read, "This is not an extra chair! This chair belongs to . . ." Rospars won't divulge the total number of people in his team. "We don't want to give away our entire playbook," he says.
But he and other members of the group were willing to discuss many other details behind Triple O. This is how the pieces of their operation fit together.
'Not Just About Obama'
Forget CNN, Fox News, NBC et al. Obama stars on his own channel, and it's headed by Kate Albright-Hanna, a self-described YouTube addict who runs Obama's video team.
So far, Albright-Hanna's group has shot more than 2,000 hours' worth of footage and uploaded about 1,110 videos on Obama's YouTube channel -- more than four times what's available on Sen. John McCain's channel. For months, Obama's 37-minute race speech following the furor over the remarks of his former pastor has remained the channel's most watched video, seen more than 4.7 million times. But what's striking about Obama's channel is the breadth of its content. Though most of the videos are centered on the candidate -- his speeches and rallies, his TV and online ads, his TV appearances -- many others feature his supporters.
"Early on, we wanted to capture the sense that this campaign is not just about Obama," says Albright-Hanna, 32.
An Emmy winner, she joined CNN's political unit in 1999 and met Rospars while filming a documentary on Dean. When she heard that Rospars was working for Obama, Albright-Hanna called and said she wanted to produce a doc on Obama. The campaign planned to develop its own video content, Rospars said. Intrigued, Albright-Hanna sent him a proposal on video strategy. Weeks later, she left CNN and moved with her husband and 3-year-old son to Chicago.
At least nine staffers have contributed to the video team -- an astounding figure compared with many mainstream news organizations and past campaigns. (McCain's aides declined to say how many videographers the campaign has. It has four staffers devoted to Internet activities, and has also hired an outside vendor.) Some travel with Obama and his press pack. Others work in the field. Some of the videos last less than five minutes; others go on for as long as 25. They're posted on BarackTV, the video portal on BarackObama.com, and on YouTube.
A 13-minute video featuring students at the Bronx High School for Performance and Stagecraft, for example, shows black and Hispanic teenagers talking about their school's racial atmosphere and their reaction to Obama's race speech in Philadelphia. "I like . . . how [Obama] always says blacks, whites, Spanish, Asian," Ryston Buchanan, a junior, says in the video. "He says all the races, so you can see that he's not focused on one group of people." Albright-Hanna shot that video herself, and it's been viewed more than 400,000 times.
"I guess I've kind of been rebelling from my CNN days, where video had to be a certain length, a certain format with a certain sensibility. Where I came from, there's a lot of concern about ratings and about what they think people, everyday people, are interested in watching," Albright-Hanna says. "Here, we don't worry about how many views our videos get. That's not the priority. One of our goals is to get people talking about what's going on in their lives and why they're supporting Barack -- and hopefully not only will they watch the videos but also comment on them and forward them to relatives and friends and co-workers."
Last year, when reporters and pundits saw Clinton as the front-runner for the nomination, Albright-Hanna's team tried to capture how Obama's excited supporters were organizing. In December, weeks before the Iowa caucuses, a two-minute video was posted telling the story of Helen Kwan, an Obama precinct captain in Bettendorf, and Lilah Bell, a 99-year-old Obama volunteer who planned to caucus for the first time. "This is primarily Republican," says Kwan, a 46-year-old mother of five. "But I have about eight strong volunteers, probably closer to 10 strong volunteers." Obama never appears in the video, which has been viewed more than 11,000 times -- just his campaign logo.
The pattern has continued during the general election campaign, when most news reports zero in on the day's tit-for-tat. Never mind the polls, these videos seem to say, this is what's happening in various homes and communities.
The videos are also used to bypass the news media. In June, Obama announced his decision to opt out of public financing in an almost three-minute video that's been viewed more than 345,000 times. Recently, a policy adviser in the campaign was featured in a three-minute "fact checking" video -- now viewed about 117,000 times -- rebutting McCain's attacks on Obama.
Together, the videos on Obama's YouTube channel have been viewed nearly 52 million times, according to TubeMogul.com, which tracks online videos. A viewer watching a video on the channel has an option to click on a "Contribute" button and, using a credit card, donate an amount from $15 to $1,000 using Google Checkout. McCain's channel, whose videos have been viewed 9.5 million times, doesn't offer this option.
Some bloggers say these videos are self-serving, propagandist, almost cultlike. Others, however, say the videos give supporters a chance to see themselves as part of the campaign. Whatever the judgment, Albright-Hanna says, "we don't have control over what people think of the videos -- we just put them out there."
Texting, Texting: C U @ the Rally
Eyes rolled when Scott Goodstein rolled out the campaign's text-messaging program in June 2007.
In part, that was because the program included custom-made Obama wallpaper and ring tones -- both staples in the mobile commercial market but untested in the political realm. Clinton and John Edwards had texting programs, too, but they didn't take them this far. Even Obama staffers were skeptical. Unlike YouTube, texting is not free; depending on their cellphone plans, supporters have to pay to receive and send messages. All of the Republican candidates except Mitt Romney saw it as a gimmick. McCain's campaign doesn't text.
But Goodstein, who put his D.C.-based PR business on hold to join the Obama campaign early last year, is a texting evangelist. He's the kind of guy who texts on two phones -- a BlackBerry for work and a Motorola Razr for his personal use.
"To me, texting is the most personal form of communication," says Goodstein, 34. "Your phone is with you almost all the time. You're texting with your girlfriend. You're texting with your friends. Now you're texting with Barack."
Texting is also playing a crucial role in the campaign's obsession with growing its database. Throughout last year, Goodstein sent at least a dozen texts to collect names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Most important, the message came with "an ask," meaning users were asked to do something upon receiving it.
"Watch Barack debate tonight live on CNN! 7pm EDT. REPLY back with your name and your thoughts during & after the debate," read a text sent on July 23, 2007.
Two months later, on Sept. 11, a text read: "Please REPLY to this message with your five-digit zip code to receive local Obama campaign news and periodic updates."
Then as the primaries and caucuses neared, what Goodstein calls "a big experiment" started paying off. One Sunday afternoon in early December, minutes before Oprah Winfrey and Obama addressed about 29,000 people at a rally in Columbia, S.C., Jeremy Bird, Obama's state field director, asked the crowd to take out their cellphones and text "SC" to 62262, Obama's short code. The code spells "Obama" on phones.
In the following weeks, Goodstein sent texts to the numbers he'd collected and asked supporters to make phone calls, volunteer in precincts and vote on Jan. 26 in South Carolina. Obama won that state by 28 points.
"South Carolina was a defining moment in what we were going to do with text messaging -- not just with young voters but with all voters," says Goodstein, who spent three weeks there to oversee the texting strategy.
Texting is a two-way street, and staffers and volunteers respond to texts from supporters who send questions such as "Where's my polling place?" He wouldn't divulge how many supporters receive texts, but the strategy was effective enough to be used in subsequent contests. "Help Barack get out the vote in Pennsylvania! If you can get to PA between now and 4/22, REPLY to this msg: TVL and your NAME (ex. TVL Ann). Please fwd msg," read a text sent before the Keystone State primary.
Note the casual reference to the candidate ("Barack"); the request to forward ("fwd") the text; and the timing -- the text was sent two weeks before polls opened, giving it plenty of time to be passed around. Says Goodstein, "We've just begun to crack how valuable texting is."
Last week, the campaign texted its supporters to say that it will announce its vice presidential pick via text. Days later, Goodstein launched Obama Mobile, a site where users can access the latest Obama news and download videos on their cellphones -- a first for a presidential candidate.
Socnets Instead of Town Diners
If Triple O had a motto, it would be: "Meet the voters where they're at."
Obama was the first candidate to have profiles on AsianAve.com, MiGente.com and BlackPlanet.com, social networking sites (a.k.a. socnets) targeting the Asian, Latino and black communities. His presence on BlackPlanet, which ranks behind MySpace and Facebook in terms of traffic, is so deep that he maintains 50 profiles, one for each state. On ALforObama, his Alabama page on BlackPlanet, for example, supporters can read an updated blog, watch YouTube videos and learn more about his text program.
It's difficult to measure the value of these socnets in persuading voters to choose Obama. What's clear, however, is that online networking -- how supporters communicate with one another within their online communities -- has its advantages. A Facebook group called Students for Barack Obama, started in July 2006 by Bowdoin College student Meredith Segal, was so successful that it became an official part of the campaign. By the time Hans Riemer was brought on as Obama's youth-vote director in the spring of 2007, dozens of similar chapters were already up and running on campuses.
"Some people only go to MySpace. It's where they're on all day. Some only go to LinkedIn. Our goal is to make sure that each supporter online, regardless of where they are, has a connection with Obama," says Goodstein, who also is in charge of regularly updating Obama's profiles on these socnets. "Then, as much as we can, we try to drive everyone to our site."
All roads lead to BarackObama.com. In May, weeks before the end of the Democratic primary season, the site attracted 2.3 million unique visitors, according to the research company Nielsen Online. The latest figures from Hitwise.com, which regularly compares online traffic for BarackObama.com and JohnMcCain.com, says that Obama's site draws 72 percent of the total traffic to the two sites.
There's a design team that develops content for BarackObama.com, as well as staffers who place ads across the Web to drive people to the site. A group known as the "analytics team" tracks which ad at what time drew the most traffic and what kinds of e-mails from the campaign get opened and read most. Usually campaigns hire outside companies to do this work.
The site's epicenter is My.BarackObama.com, a socnet built and overseen by Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook and one of Triple O's first employees. The 24-year-old left Facebook, where he has stock options potentially worth millions, and moved to Chicago in February 2007. Like Albright-Hanna with video and Goodstein with texting, Hughes was anxious to see how online networking can apply to campaigning.
"As great as Barack is, if the campaign hadn't been constituted in this idea of investing in our everyday supporters and helping them organize among themselves, I wouldn't have been as excited about the job," Hughes says.
More than a million people have signed up on MyBO (pronounced My Boh), where they can blog, plan events, set fundraising goals, join groups and volunteer. So far, about 80,000 offline events have been planned using its tools, Hughes says. While most paid staff were deployed in the early-voting states, for example, volunteers were simultaneously organizing in Colorado, Idaho and Montana. The campaign's job is to communicate with users who host events, "making sure the events are happening as planned, that the hosts have resources, that they count how many people actually show up," Hughes says.
"We were able to build a state-by-state organization during the primaries because of the Internet," says campaign manager David Plouffe. "Now we have to continue building on that -- in addition to making sure we keep getting our message across and asking our supporters to help us debunk any rumors and lies out there."
Though staffers monitor MyBO, supporters critical of Obama's positions are allowed to express their dismay. Last month, angered by Obama's compromise on FISA, a telecom immunity bill, users formed what for a time became the single largest group on the network. President Obama, Please Get FISA Right still lists more than 23,000 members.
There are hundreds of groups within MyBO, and some of the biggest include Women for Obama, Veterans for Obama and Environmentalists for Obama. Nikki Sutton, a recent graduate of Middlebury College, contacts supporters within these groups and encourages them to make phone calls and host house parties. "That way, women are calling other women, people who list the environment as their top concern reach out to people who do, too," says Sutton, 23.
To foster a sense of community on MyBO, Sam Graham-Felsen, the campaign's blogger in chief, posts stories of supporters. The 27-year-old used to write for the Nation, for which he did a story on Obama's popularity among young people online. He joined the campaign shortly after that article ran. "I wanted to be a part of the campaign instead of just writing about it," he says. When the campaign hit its goal of 75,000 donors in March 2007, Graham-Felsen contacted the 75,000th donor -- an IT specialist from Long Beach, Calif. -- and wrote about the donor's $5 contribution, his first ever to a campaign.
That small profile encapsulates the hopes behind the entire online operation.
"You can see the main difference between the Obama and McCain campaigns by going to their Web sites," says Alex Castellanos, a longtime Republican media consultant whose clients have included Romney and President Bush. "Go to McCain's. Pretty standard. Looks fine. But go to Obama's. At the very top, there's a quote."
Alongside a photo of Obama, it reads: "I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington . . . I'm asking you to believe in yours."
"Because of the Internet, Obama has built a movement. He's leading a cause. McCain is running on his résumé. He's leading a campaign," Castellanos continues. "Now what's going to win: a cause or a campaign? We don't know."
LOAD-DATE: August 20, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; Joe Rospars honed his skills working on Howard Dean's Web campaign.
IMAGE; Chris Hughes, a Facebook co-founder, is harnessing social networking.
IMAGE; Photo Illustration By Susana Sanchez -- The Washington Post
IMAGE; Professed YouTube addict Kate Albright-Hanna leads the video team.
IMAGE; Scott Goodstein has been the driving force behind the text-messaging push.
IMAGE; Photo Illustration By Susana Sanchez -- The Washington Post
IMAGE; Photo Illustration By Susana Sanchez -- The Washington Post
IMAGE; Photo Illustration By Susana Sanchez -- The Washington Post
IMAGE; Photo Illustration By Susana Sanchez -- The Washington Post
IMAGE; By Warren Skalski For The Washington Post; The new-media gurus are, from left, Nikki Sutton, Joe Rospars, Chris Hughes, Kate Albright-Hanna, Scott Goodstein and Sam Graham-Felsen.
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The Washington Post
All Rights Reserved
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Washingtonpost.com
August 20, 2008 Wednesday 5:01 PM EST
Sen. John McCain Addresses a Town Hall Meeting in New Mexico
BYLINE: CQ Transcriptswire, washingtonpost.com
LENGTH: 8503 words
HIGHLIGHT: (JOINED IN PROGRESS)
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
MCCAIN: ... immigrants won a gold medal in wrestling from right here in Las Cruces, Henry Cejudo, I believe is the proper pronunciation. (APPLAUSE)
And I would point out that he grew up in Arizona, also, but as a mediocre high school and wrestler and at the Naval Academy, I am especially admiring of the first gold medal the United States has gotten in 16 years. And I know you're proud of Henry.
And if you saw his last night, it was quite moving, his statement about how proud he was to be an American. It was very nice, very nice.
So I want to thank all of you at New Mexico State. And tonight, there's a great program going on, Pete Domenici Public Policy forum. And I think it's -- it's great that we honor Pete Domenici, a great member of the United States Senate and a great servant of this nation. And I thank you for...
(APPLAUSE)
... for your support of him for many, many years. And so I want to say thanks for being here.
I'd like to make a few comments. And then I'd like to do what this is supposed to be all about, and that is listen to your questions, your comments, your concerns, your views, your ideas. That's what town hall meetings are supposed to be. That's -- that's what I think America should be about.
And I'm sorry that Senator Obama is not here with me today. I asked a long time ago for Senator Obama to come and come to town hall meetings with me. A little bit of history is that Barry Goldwater and Jack Kennedy had agreed to fly around the country, to town hall meetings all over America. Unfortunately, the tragedy of Dallas intervened.
But that's what -- that's what it's supposed to be about, not the sound bites, not the various attack ads, and all the stuff that seems to go on, which I don't think inform the American people very well.
Saturday night, I had the opportunity at least to respond to the same questions that Senator Obama had, and I think the American people have made a judgment on that. So...
(APPLAUSE)
So I just want to speak briefly with you about a couple of issues. And, first of all, you know that I've been called a maverick. Sometimes it's meant as a compliment; sometimes it's not. But it means that I understand who I work for. I work -- I don't work for a party. I don't work for a president. And I don't work for a special interest. I work -- I don't work for myself. I work for you and the country that I love.
And that's what I've been about all my life, and that's...
(APPLAUSE) And I spoke up against my party for out-of-control spending. I think you all know that we've spent money in a way that has mortgages our children's future. It's disgraceful. It's disgraceful.
You know, Ronald Reagan used to say, "Congress spends money like a drunken sailor, only I never knew a sailor drunk or sober with the imagination of Congress," and that's a pretty funny line. And I use it fairly often.
I use it so often -- I'm not making this up when I tell you I got an e-mail from a guy that said, "As a former drunken sailor, I resent being compared to members of Congress."
(LAUGHTER)
So I spoke up against the pork-barrel spending, and it's going to stop. I spoke up against the administration for their mistakes in Iraq. And I fought for the surge that's going to bring our troops home with victory and honor, not in defeat, as Senator Obama wanted to happen.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, I'd like to talk to you just for a couple of minutes about what you all know has been going on in a small, little country far away from the United States of America, the country of Georgia.
Georgia was one of the first Christian nations. In the third century, the king of Georgia converted to Christianity. If you go to Georgia, it's a beautiful little country. There's churches that go back to the fourth and fifth century.
It was part of this -- of the Russian empire. Then they became part of the Soviet Union. They broke free, and they had a terribly corrupt government. And there's a young man named Saakashvili who went to school in the United States of America. He went to George Washington University, and then he went to Columbia, which, by the way, where my daughter, Meghan, went to school.
So, Meghan, please, thank you. And tell about the tuition costs there.
(APPLAUSE)
I'm very -- I'm very proud of her achievements. And anybody who knows of openings for art history majors, please let me know after -- I'm very proud that she was able to go to such a wonderful school and get a great education.
But so did -- so did Misha Saakashvili. And he came back to Georgia, and there was a whole bunch of other young people like him who wanted democracy and freedom. They had a corrupt government headed by a guy named Shevardnadze, who you may remember from the days of the Cold War.
And they had a peaceful revolution, and they took over, and they were putting democracy and freedom and human rights. And they were prospering. And guess who didn't like it? Vladimir Putin didn't like it.
So, you know, we'll read about it in the history books, but we'll go through it, and as we parse what happened, and I'm sure that there was some provocation. But the fact is, Russian aggression was overwhelming, brutal, looting, murder, killing, and they still to this day, even though having signed a cease-fire agreement, are not leaving.
Why do we care? Of course we always care about any country in the world where democracy and freedom is maybe strangled in the cradle. But we also care because of what happens in the region.
The old Russian ambition pre-dating the Soviet Union is to control that part of the world. It's not an accident that five presidents of five countries, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, all came -- all came to Tbilisi when that country was under attack. And they did it because they know that their country is going to be under pressure from the Russians, as well, and Ukraine especially.
And why else do we care? There's a pipeline that goes through -- goes through that -- goes through Georgia, which is literally -- well, is, for all intents and purposes, the only oil pipeline that doesn't go through Russia. You have seen the Russians use oil as a weapon.
When the Czechs agreed with us to put some missile defense radars in their country, the Russians cut back on their oil supplies. So it's also got to do with energy. It's got to do with energy, as well, and world markets.
And one thing I want to assure you of is that I will, as president of the United States, achieve energy independence. We cannot afford to send $700 billion a year overseas to countries who don't like us very much.
(APPLAUSE)
And so keep the brave Georgians in your thoughts and prayers. And we have to take certain actions as to whether Russia should be in the World Trade Organization, whether they should be in the G-8, or now, I hope, be G-7, and other actions that need to be taken.
But this kind of provocation is not acceptable in the 21st century, an activity. And just let me remind you -- and I do not make any predictions -- I hope that we can modify Russian behavior -- but I would remind you that wars -- those of us that study history, wars and conflicts have started at other obscure places in the world. And we want to keep this one under control.
Yesterday, I was at an oil rig. Yesterday, I was at an oil rig off-shore in Louisiana. It was quite an impressive technological marvel. They -- I think it's 10,000 barrels a day of oil come through that oil rig. And so my point is that they do it off the coast of Louisiana, they do it off the coast of Texas, and we need to drill off-shore, and we need to do it now off our shores. And we can become energy independent.
(APPLAUSE)
Senator Obama says he wants energy independence, but he's opposed to new drilling at home, he's opposed to nuclear power. My friends, we have to have nuclear power. Nuclear power has got to be part of any way of us being energy independent.
(APPLAUSE)
Why should it take the French five years to build their nuclear power plants and us 10 or more? And, by the way, the French now reprocess their spent nuclear fuel. We can do that. We could do that. Eighty percent of the French electricity is generated by nuclear power. Now, we always want to be like the French, but the fact is...
(LAUGHTER)
By the way, in case you missed it, we now have a pro-American president of France, which shows you, if you live long enough, anything can happen in the world. But the fact is, we need nuclear power.
But we need all of the above. We need wind, tide, solar. Where better place for solar than New Mexico and Arizona? Wind, tide, solar, nuclear, natural gas. We need all of the above.
America sits on the largest reserves of coal in the world. We can develop clean-coal technology and become independent. We cannot afford this. We cannot afford this.
And, you know, a lot of times I hear that, you know, we can't do this, we can't reprocess, we can't store, we can't build nuclear power plants, we can't drill off-shore, we can't do this, we can't -- that's not America. That's not what America is all about. We've met every challenge, and we can do it, and we will do it. And as president, we will do it.
(APPLAUSE)
Well, so, anyway, Senator Obama thinks that raising taxes on oil is going to bring down the price at the pump. He's claiming that putting air in your tires is the equivalent of new off-shore drilling. Now, that's not an energy plan. That's a public service announcement.
And I'm all for it, by the way, but to think that it's going to replace off-shore drilling obviously is not something we agreed to. And, again, biofuels, others, and, finally, we're going to solve this problem, as I said, by all of the above.
Now, on Iraq, Senator Obama says he wants peace, but he still opposes the surge that succeeded. He opposed the surge. He said that it wouldn't work. He announced his policy towards Iraq the day before he left for the first time in over 900 days to visit Iraq and then refuses to acknowledge that the surge has succeeded. Remarkable. Remarkable.
I mean, no rational observer could go to Iraq and see what we've succeeded in doing in the last two years and say that the surge hasn't succeeded. That's what this is all about, my friends. This is what it's all about, securing our nation. Even in retrospect, with all we know today, he'd still choose the path of retreat and failure.
You know, yesterday, Senator Obama got a little testy on this issue. He said I'm questioning his patriotism. Let me be very clear: I am not questioning his patriotism. I am questioning his judgment. I am questioning his judgment.
(APPLAUSE)
Senator Obama has made it clear he values withdrawal from Iraq above victory in Iraq. Even today, with victory in sight, over and over again, he's advocated unconditional withdrawal, regardless of the facts on the ground. And he voted against funding for troops in combat after he said it would be wrong to do so.
He's made these decisions not because he doesn't love America, but because he doesn't think it matters whether America wins or loses. I'm going to end this war, and I'm going to bring them home, and they'll come home with honor in victory, leaving Iraq secured as a democratic ally in the Arab heartland. That's what I'm going to do.
(APPLAUSE)
So beyond all the commercials and all the words and the campaign back-and-forth, Senator Obama's agenda can be summarized at this: Government is too big; he wants to grow it. Taxes are too high; he wants to raise them. Congress spends too much, and he proposes more. We need more energy, and he's against producing it. We're finally -- we're finally winning in Iraq, and he wants to forfeit.
The bottom line is that Senator Obama's words, for all their eloquence and passion, doesn't mean all that much. And that's the problem with Washington. It's not just the Bush administration and it's not just the Democratic Congress. It's that everybody in Washington says whatever it takes to get elected or to score the political point of the day.
So I want to assure you we don't need another politician in Washington who puts self-interest and political expediency ahead of problem-solving. We want to start putting our country first and come together to keep American families safe and help them realize their dreams for a better life.
(APPLAUSE)
So with that, I'd like -- I'd like to stop by just saying, again, when we have an energy crisis and you're paying $3.75, $4 a gallon for gas, whatever it is, people who are the lowest income Americans are driving the furthest in the oldest automobiles, bearing a crushing blow. What does Congress do? Five-week vacation. Five-week vacation.
My friends, if I were president of the United States -- and when I'm president of the United States -- I'll call them back to town and tell them to go to work and solve America's energy problems and start going to work for America. And do it...
(APPLAUSE)
And do it in a bipartisan fashion. Can't we work together for the good of America? Can't we reach our hand out to each other and work together?
(APPLAUSE)
My whole life, my friends, I've put my country first. I want to assure you, as president of the United States, I will put my country first.
With that, I want to say thanks for coming, and we'd like to respond to any questions or comments that you have. And we have a person right there, if you'd bring the microphones. We had a microphone person, I think. Well, since we don't have a microphone person, I'll give you mine.
QUESTION: Thank you, sir. First, I want to say you really were fantastic at the Rick Warren forum. And one of the reasons was your answers weren't memorized...
(UNKNOWN): (OFF-MIKE)
QUESTION: Your answers weren't memorized. They were your core values. They were from your heart, and that's great.
In the early '90s, the Soviet Union's economy was in shambles. And by less than 20 years later, they're a strong, dynamic, vibrant economy, building up their military with oil reserves.
What is it going to take for Nancy Pelosi and Senator Reid to get out of their cone of silence, OK, and listen to you and the American people and drill here, drill now, pay less? What is it going to take for something like that to happen?
MCCAIN: Thank you very much.
(APPLAUSE)
It may take an election. And let me just say, where -- may have missed a comment, but Russia now has -- is a very wealthy country. They're only wealthy for one reason, one reason, over $100-a-barrel price of oil. That's the only reason why the Russian economy is strong.
In fact, some of their things that they've done, driving major corporations out of their country and some of the other measures that they're taking, makes them more and more dependent on the petro- dollars.
But, my friends, it really is another compelling argument for us to become energy independent. We are the world's largest consumer of oil. So if we become independent, then it's obviously going to lower the price of oil. I mean, it's just -- it's simple mathematics and economics.
So I think that the Europeans are moving in that direction, as well, because they don't like this dependency on Russian oil. But for a period of time, they're going to be. They're going to be. And so the United States of America obviously has to embark on the -- in the path that I just mentioned.
And that really does mean, again, all of the above. Natural gas is great. You may have seen Boone Pickens' commercials. You should have. He's spending millions of dollars on them. And he's right. He's right. But I also would add that not only is he right, but also we need all those other things, as well.
And, finally, could I just say, I think the automotive industry in America has a shot with hybrid electric and flex-fuel cars to regain their supremacy. I really do, because we still have the most productive workers in the world in -- residing in the United States of America.
Next question?
(APPLAUSE)
QUESTION: First of all, as a student attending New Mexico State University who's also declared a French major, I'd like to thank you for being here today. I also would like to add on to that last man's comment. I think you did an amazing job at the forum. I was very, very impressed with your answers. I thought you did an amazing job.
I also would like to ask my question is, is that the -- what is your plan of attack to actually help make these pork-barrel legislations be completely done away with, for the most part? Because millions of U.S. tax dollars are wasted yearly on these.
And I'd also like to thank you for not actually voting for any of these legislations for yourself.
MCCAIN: Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
My friends, for a long time, we thought that, quote, "pork- barrel" earmark spending was just some powerful member of Congress that got a project for his home state or his or her district and it wasn't a big deal. Well, now it is like any other evil, it's grown and grown and grown and grown.
Tens of billions, billions and billions of dollars, and they're for projects that we neither want nor need. And you know what my friend Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma calls it? He calls it a gateway drug. It's a gateway to corruption.
And I don't say that word lightly, but we have former members of Congress residing in federal prison who embarked in this process and ended up basically selling their -- themselves for various earmark projects. And it's like any other evil. Any other evil we all know in life, you either eradicate it or it grows.
And that's what's happened with this pork-barrel spending. You know, the other night, I joked about the -- one of my favorites, the $3 million to study the DNA of bears in Montana. Now, as I said, I don't know if it's a paternity issue or a criminal issue, but it -- but it makes you laugh and it makes you cry, because it's your money.
It's your money; $233 million for a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it. How do you justify that when next time you're stuck in traffic? And so -- so...
(APPLAUSE)
And it's your money. So let me say this. The time is ripe in America for us, one, to stop that, two, for us to work together, work together for the good of the country in these difficult times.
I was asked this morning by someone who said, "Well, China is going to be a bigger and more powerful country than the United States of America." I said, "I don't accept that. I don't accept that." I think that the most productive and best and most -- most innovative part of the United States of America is the United States of America.
And, by the way, there's another person here who I'd like for you to say hello to. And I think she is -- I don't see -- Meg Whitman is here. Meg, where are you?
(UNKNOWN): (OFF-MIKE)
MCCAIN: That's Meg Whitman. Meg Whitman, as you know, is the CEO of eBay.
(APPLAUSE)
These numbers are roughly correct. Twelve years ago, there were five people that worked for eBay. Today, 1.5 million people make a living off eBay.
Now, you tell Meg Whitman that America's best days are behind us. I don't think -- I don't think -- I think she can make a case that that's -- that that's not true.
So all I can say is that -- that I've got an old pen that Ronald Reagan gave me years ago. And I'm going to veto every one of these bills. And I'm going to -- you're going to know their names. I will make them famous. You'll know every one of them's names. And if they override my veto, I'll veto the next one. That's how we're going to do it. (APPLAUSE)
Yes, ma'am?
QUESTION: I heard -- I heard a rumor that you're going to pick a pro-life V.P. Is that true?
MCCAIN: Thank you. We're going through the process. I said on Saturday night that I have a proud pro-life record in Congress.
(APPLAUSE)
And I am proud of that. I respect the views of others, but I also happen to believe that the noblest words ever written in history were those that said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all of us are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life" -- I think liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I believe that life applies to those that are not born, as well as those that are born.
(APPLAUSE)
And so -- so -- so we're not talking about the process of the vice presidential situation, except that I would remind you that the vice president of the United States really only has two duties, when you think about it. One is in case there's a tie vote in the Senate, he comes to the floor -- he or she comes to the floor of the Senate and casts the tie-breaking vote. That's the constitutional duty.
The other duty of the vice president of the United States is to inquire daily as to the health of the president. So that will obviously make my pick very important.
Yes, ma'am? Yes, ma'am? He's going to bring it right there. These are work-release program people here, so they're doing a great job.
QUESTION: Yes, Senator McCain, I truly hope you get the opportunity to chase bin Laden right to the gates of Hell and push him in, as you stated on your forum. I do have a question, though.
The disabled veterans, especially in this state, have horrible conditions. Their medical is substandard. They drive four hours one way to Albuquerque for a simple doctor's appointment, which is often canceled. Our V.A. hospital is dirty. It's understaffed. It's running on maximum overload.
The prescription medicines are 10 years behind standard medical care. We have 700 claims stacked up at the V.A. office in Albuquerque. Some of them are 10 and 7 years old, waiting to be processed. In the meantime, these people are homeless.
My son is an officer in the Air Force. I'm a vet, and I was raised in a military family. And I think it's a sorry state of affairs when we have illegal aliens having a Medicaid card that can access specialist, top physicians, the best of medical, and our vets can't even get to a doctor.
And these are the people that we tied yellow ribbons for and Bush patted on the back. If we don't re-enact the draft, I don't think we'll have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of Hell.
MCCAIN: Ma'am, let me say that...
(APPLAUSE)
... I don't disagree with anything you said. And thank you. And I'm grateful for your support of all of our veterans.
I carry with me quite often a quote from General -- from George Washington. In 1789, he said, "The willingness with which young Americans will serve their country in future wars is directly related to the treatment of those who have previously served and sacrificed in conflict." He was right in 1789, and he's right today.
All too often, our veterans are -- do not receive the care that they have earned. And the scandal of Walter Reed is a blot on the honor of the United States of America, and we can never let it happen again.
Now, here's -- here's what I...
(APPLAUSE)
... make as short as possible, our veterans have earned our highest priority. And yet we know that there is also routine health care needs that veterans have that, in my view, they should not have to go to the V.A. to receive, OK?
We have, tragically and unfortunately in this war, a dramatic -- well, we're going to have a lot of PTSD. We also have severe combat injuries, because thank God we're able to get the wounded from the battlefield to medical treatment more quickly than anytime in history. But that puts an increased burden on our medical -- military medical care, as well as our V.A.
So you mentioned Albuquerque V.A., I believe. I could take you to the Albuquerque V.A. or the Phoenix V.A. quite often, and the waiting room is crowded. The veterans are standing in line to stand in line to get an appointment, to get an appointment.
That's not the fault of the people that work there. The people that work there are some of the finest in the world. It's just that they are overloaded.
So we have to focus our attention, expand our capability to treat PTSD, combat-related injuries, brain injuries, et cetera, that we're best at. And for a veteran with a routine health care need, why shouldn't we give that veteran a card and take it to the health care provider or the doctor of their choice, and get the routine health care that they need?
(APPLAUSE) That's -- that's -- that's what...
(APPLAUSE)
And that way we could utilize the V.A. and medical -- the military medical system to its greatest effect and also relieve this burden. I don't ever again want to have a veteran to stand in line, to stand in line, to get an appointment, to get an appointment. That's not -- that's just not acceptable in America.
And, again, I do praise the people who work there. They're some of the most dedicated people I've ever known in my life. The problem is there are just not enough of them.
Yes, ma'am?
QUESTION: Senator McCain, first of all, I'd like to say thank you for coming to Las Cruces. And Senator Obama tends to be the favorite among college students. And as a college student, I feel that you do care about us, because we are the future of America.
So I'd like to give you a brief respite from political questions and controversy and ask you what the single best piece of advice you can give college students with political aspirations.
(LAUGHTER)
(UNKNOWN): Political advice to college students with political aspirations.
MCCAIN: Well, first of all, obviously, get involved. The future of this country rests with you. I would not be running for president of the United States if it was not that I believe the next generation of Americans deserve a better, freer, more prosperous nation than the one that I inherited.
I think that now you have enormously increased ways of communicating over the Internet. Whether you happen to like blogs or not like blogs, the fact is that they have changed politics in America in many ways. The dialogue and the discussion and the broadening of it has been enormous.
I also think that you ought to be associated either with a campaign or a cause that you believe in. I think there's nothing more illuminating, there's nothing more educational, and there's nothing more beneficial than to support something that -- that you believe in, in a political campaign, and watch -- and watch this flawed and problem-filled process of ours go forward and the American people reach decisions and conclusions, and pick their leaders, and decide on our future.
And I hope that -- that the message to all young Americans, as well as all, but particularly the next generation, is that it does matter, it does matter what decisions are made now, because the decisions made now are going to directly impact your future and your children and your grandchildren. I'm happy, frankly, with the new means of communication that we have, the Internet and a lot of other ways, and a proliferation of television camera -- channels, and a lot of other things that we now have greater sources of information and knowledge.
Some of them I strenuously disagree with, but the fact is that all I can say -- that I believe, as president of the United States, my first job is to inspire a generation of Americans to serve a cause greater than their self-interests. And I believe that that is true of America today probably more than at anytime in the past.
You look at the men and women in the military. You look at Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Teach for America. You look at all of these volunteer activities that young Americans have engaged in, that it's my job to provide them with the ability to participate. And thank you for being here. Thank you.
Yes, sir? Yes, sir?
QUESTION: Thank you for coming out. In the past, you've alienated a great deal of conservatives who believe that conservative principles are always the answer by stepping across the aisle. And the third point of a vice president is the opportunity to groom himself to be president in the next cycle.
Are you going to pick a conservative...
MCCAIN: Or the cycle after that. Yes.
(APPLAUSE)
QUESTION: Perhaps. Are you going to pick a vice president that conservatives can actually rally around in the future? Or are you going to give us someone who will cause us to want to stay home, perhaps? Thank you.
MCCAIN: Well, sir, may I say, at least according to the polling data we have, we're doing very well with our base. We have a lot more work to do to energize our base. We also have to energize our base who cares a lot about our lack of fiscal responsibility who are very angry.
We're also...
(APPLAUSE)
We're also going to have to energize our base that cares about this nation's security, which is probably -- and when we look at the many challenges we face, are probably very significant.
I will choose a president -- I will nominate a -- a person to be vice president, my running mate, who shares my principles, my values, and my priorities. And that...
(APPLAUSE)
And that's the best that I -- that I can tell you. Thank you very much.
Yes, ma'am. Here she comes. This is the slowest one here.
QUESTION: I want to...
MCCAIN: She's from Phoenix. That's why.
QUESTION: I want to thank you not just coming from -- to Las Cruces, but I know you landed in El Paso, so you get to see the border. And I am from El Paso. My husband was a former mayor of El Paso, and he used to say that when (inaudible) sneezes, El Paso was catching a cold.
So I want to thank you again. And my question deals with health care.
My husband was diagnosed with a brain disorder, the same one that afflicted Senator Domenici. And at 51, he did not have long-term care and it was so devastating that it totally destroyed our finances. So I had to take him to my family's country home, which is Spain.
I got to see firsthand how social care was so much affordable. He was a fighter, although it undermined his muscles. He lost his voice. I was able to provide better care for him in another country than in our own.
And so I want to know about your health care plan, how can it be affordable? How can we change that? Why did I have to take him some place else so he could die in a better place than in his own country?
(APPLAUSE)
MCCAIN: Thank you. And please accept the sympathy of all of us. And thank you for his service. I'm very grateful.
There is a health care crisis in America. We would be, if it were not for the energy crisis, we'd be talking a lot more about health care issues.
And we have to reform health care in America. And we have to make insurance available and affordable for all Americans.
I do not believe that that means a government-run health care system is the most efficient...
(APPLAUSE)
... or what we need. And we need to have policies that encourage home health care as opposed to institutionalized care. And we need to treat people on an outcome basis that don't pay for every test or every procedure, every visit to the doctor, but treat them for a period of time, and then pay that provider.
Give -- there's a -- there's a program now for senior citizens that is -- that is not as wide as I'd like to see, where it's called Cash & Counseling. And seniors are given money every month, and then they're able to decide how they want to pay for their own health care. It's remarkable the savings that have been realized.
But in cases like your husband, where they're basically "uninsurables," quote, "uninsurables," people with chronic diseases and such as the terrible affliction that befell your husband -- and I know he appreciated your love and care -- but we should have what we call government-approved plans so that we pool federal and state money together and establish wide risk pools so that there is affordable and available health insurance for people like you and your husband.
We cannot leave the, quote, "uninsurables" or chronic disease victims without the access to care. And so it's going to have to be a federal and state combination, providing significant federal money from the federal government, and we are going to have to have that as a major part of health care reform, because we can't allow any American, any American citizen to experience what your husband experienced.
And I'm sorry that it happened. And I -- please accept my deep sympathy and our prayers. I thank you for his service. Thank you, and God bless you.
(APPLAUSE)
QUESTION: Thank you, Senator McCain, for coming. Also, we pray for you every day, my family and I, just to make sure you're safe and secure in your health and everything. And, also, I'd like to ask a question.
My dad used to work for EarthLink, and now they've moved to India. So what would you do -- what steps would you take to ensure that multinational companies would stay in America?
MCCAIN: Well, thank you for bringing that up, because business taxes in America are 35 percent. They're the second-highest in the world. Only the Japanese pay higher business taxes than we do.
You know what the tax is in Ireland that's had a booming economy, as you know, at least up until recently? Eleven percent. So you own a business, and you have the ability to go overseas or stay in the United States of America, what are you going to do? Obviously, that has taken businesses and jobs and jobs and jobs out of the United States of America.
So I would reduce that tax immediately to 25 percent and even bring it lower as soon as we could, because it does mean that jobs leave this country.
(APPLAUSE)
And, again, I believe that the American worker is the most productive, the most innovative, and the best in the world. But if you own a business and you want to make a profit -- because that's why we're in the capitalist business of capitalism then -- and you see a place where you can go, then I understand why you might.
So we have to lower that tax in order to keep a more level playing field. And the businesspeople I've talked to, they want to stay in the United States of America. They would rather stay here, for a whole variety of reasons, not the least of which is patriotism, but also because the productivity of the worker.
But when they see these kinds of incentives, then obviously they have a tendency to leave. So I would reduce this business tax, and I would do it immediately. And, by the way, that's another difference between myself and Senator Obama.
Yes, sir?
QUESTION: Nice to meet you, sir. On behalf of Boys Nation, which I just returned from, a great program, I'm glad that the government sponsors that so much. I'm very thankful that we have systems like this that can promote youth understanding in our government.
My question for you is, what are your plans for Social Security, since we're going to be swamped by the Baby Boomers very soon?
MCCAIN: Thank you. Thank you, I -- I'd like to give you a little straight talk. And I'm sorry to have to do it, but you probably know it. Otherwise you wouldn't ask the question.
In its present fiscal status, Social Security will not be there in its present form as it is for retirees today. Is that right? Is that the right thing to do to this young man?
People are working or paying into a system that they're not going to get the same benefits from as present-day retirees. It's a disgrace. It's a disgrace.
And I want to tell you, as president, I'll call in the Democrats, or I'll go see them -- I don't care -- and Republicans, and we'll sit around the table, and we'll say, "We'll fix Social Security."
My friends, in 1983, a long time ago, Social Security was going broke. It was going broke, and it was -- that's just a fact. And armed with a study by Alan Greenspan, President Reagan and Tip O'Neill, who was the liberal Democrat from Massachusetts, sat down together. They walked out together into the Rose Garden and said, "We're going to fix Social Security." And they did, for about 20 or 25 years.
So what do we do now? Nothing. Nothing. We get into a big fight about private savings accounts and other aspects of the issue, when really what we should be doing is sitting down across the table and recognizing that our obligation is to you. Our obligation is to you.
Now, I'll give them all the credit.
(APPLAUSE)
If they want all the credit when we fix it, fine. I'll give it to them. But the point is that Americans want us to work these things out. And once we worked one of them out and get approval -- by the way, did you notice lately the approval rating of Congress is at 9 percent, 9 percent? Now, anybody in that 9 percent, please raise your hands.
But, you know, you get down that low, you get down to paid staffers and blood relatives. You don't get much lower than that. So I think that, working together, we can -- Congress can regain some of that approval, by working together for our country for a change. But your point is exactly accurate.
Right behind you is a young woman there. Maybe I could hear from her.
QUESTION: Thank you for coming. What specifically are you going to do for the communities that don't have anything?
MCCAIN: I'm sorry.
QUESTION: What specifically are you going to do for the communities that don't have anything?
MCCAIN: Let me just -- thank you for the question. And I'm sorry that acoustics are a little poor. But thank you.
I think one of the -- one of the most important things I can do for these communities that you're talking about is to make sure that they have an educational opportunity that in wealthier communities that they have.
Now, as you know...
(APPLAUSE)
As you know, we have (inaudible) has now the right after a struggle to attend school. But, you know, what kind of a benefit is that if they -- if their only choice is a failed school?
And it's a fact -- it's a fact that at lower economic areas have worse school systems than higher income areas. It's just a fact.
So what I want to do is make sure that every child in America and every parent in America has the same choice that I and my wife, Cindy, did and Senator Obama and Mrs. Obama had, and that is to send your child to the choice -- the school of your choice.
Now, that means charter schools. It means public schools. It means home-schooling. It means vouches. It means...
(APPLAUSE)
It means to give them a choice. Those communities that you're talking about, unless we provide a training and education program for them, will never become economically better.
And so, look, just two quick points. One, New Orleans. I think many of you may know that New Orleans was, as we all know, was wiped out. And so they started from square one. And guess what? There's over 30 charter schools in New Orleans today. And guess what? Their education is improving dramatically.
New York City, New York City, they took over the school system, and they've been closing failing schools, and they've been rewarding good teachers for good performance, and good principals, and good schools. And guess what? The test scores are going up.
So it's all got to do, in my view, with providing parents and children with a choice. And that competition then increases education, and that's -- that's what -- what I'd like to do.
(APPLAUSE)
Yes, sir?
QUESTION: As a third-generation New Mexican, I appreciate you coming.
My family has been here for a long time. And we have a lot of problem across the border. We've had over 300 women over the last 10 years killed and across this border. We have towns right across the border (inaudible) where the police department has abandoned their position.
We've had over 800 people killed since Christmas. We had a pastor shot down, gunned down in his rehab to defend the children that were under his care. We need a surge on the border.
(APPLAUSE)
MCCAIN: I thank you. As you know, twice, I tried to get, in a bipartisan fashion, immigration reform passed by the Congress of the United States. And we failed twice.
And we failed because the American people -- and it is a federal responsibility, not a local responsibility, not the sheriffs' responsibility, not the legislatures', state legislatures' responsibility. It's a federal responsibility.
We failed because the American people didn't believe us when we said we would secure the borders. So it's clear that we have to get our borders secured, have a temporary-worker program that's truly temporary, and address the issue of the 10 million to 12 million people who are already in this country illegally.
Now, I'd be glad to go through all the details with you, but I would also like to point out -- and I know that you included this in your remarks -- my friends, on the other side of the border -- and everybody in this room knows the border. You know the problems; you know the challenges.
I don't have to tell you, that we now have corrupt police, and we have a struggle between the Mexican government and these drug cartels for supremacy in Mexico. Some weeks ago or a couple of months ago, one of the highest ranking federal police officials in Mexico City went to his apartment, which was supposed to be totally anonymous. He was shot eight times in the head. And the guy who shot him had the keys to his apartment.
The corruption is a battle that they are in today. And I'm happy to say that I think that President Calderon, the president of Mexico, is dedicated to trying to regain control of his side of the border from the drug cartels.
Now, here in New Mexico and in Arizona, standard procedure of the drug dealers, the cartels is to send 100 or so illegals across the border, call the Border Patrol. The Border Patrol comes and rounds up the illegals. They leave, and the drug dealers come across.
So this is not just the illegal immigration problem. It is these -- I mean, these are the -- it's hard to -- the brutality and cruelty practiced by these people in the drug cartels is beyond our imagination.
So we now have for the first time a plan called the Merida Initiative with the Mexican government. And we're going to spend $400 million at least of American dollars to try to coordinate with the Mexican government to get these drug cartels and the borders under control.
And it is a national security issue. We all know that. That's why it's a federal responsibility.
So let's give President Calderon a little credit, because I think, for the first time, if not the first time, it's the first time a most serious effort is being made to combat these drug cartels and control the border on their side.
How much easier would the job be of controlling our borders if we had the Mexicans seriously controlling the borders on that side, as the Canadians do? So -- so let's give them a little credit.
(APPLAUSE)
And, finally, finally, we'll go back at this issue. We'll go back at this issue, because it's a federal responsibility and we must do it.
And I'd also like to say, again, what everybody in this room knows. These are God's children. These people that come here are coming for a job. They're coming for the same reason why we did. And when I see stories of a 16-year-old girl that died in the desert with a rosary around her neck, then we have an obligation, because we are a Judeo-Christian-valued nation, as well.
And we value and cherish in this part of the country, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, we value and cherish our Hispanic heritage. But we also understand that we have to have secure borders and we have to do it because it's a national security responsibility.
Thank you.
Uh-oh, a piece of paper.
QUESTION: I want to turn the topic back to education. I'm an associate professor here at New Mexico State University. And I'd like to ask that, as No Child Left Behind is reauthorized, that gifted education be part of the mandate, because we're focusing our attention on struggling students and students with disabilities, which is critical, but we also need to focus our attention on gifted students.
Gifted students can make significant contributions to our society and do many of the things that you've been talking about in science and industry. And if we deny the fact that they think differently and provide them different services through education, then they have a more difficult time accepting the fact that they are different. And without that personal acceptance, they cannot make the significant contributions that they're capable of.
Here in New Mexico, they're trying to pass a new funding formula which will eliminate the add-on funding for gifted education. And if there were a national mandate for gifted education, then things like that wouldn't happen in a state like New Mexico, where alternate assessments are critical to make sure the underrepresented populations that are gifted are also served.
(APPLAUSE)
MCCAIN: Thank you. Thank you. May I say that you were very gifted in your presentation, and I thank you. And I mean that.
I agree with you. And I would also make two additional points. First of all, we need to provide more incentives and ability for math, science and engineering students, as well, because we are falling behind in that area. Everybody knows that.
(APPLAUSE)
We should -- we should reach a point at least where people with those specialties are able to secure a full and complete education.
But I'd also like to mention one other aspect of the issue of education, two points. One, No Child Left Behind needs to be reauthorized. We need to learn the lessons. We don't need to discard it completely.
The second thing is, one, a terrible thing that's happened in America recently, as I know you all know, is the rise of autism. We don't know. We don't know what causes it. There's a huge debate going on now about vaccinations. And I've read and studied and gotten briefings, and I don't know all the answers.
But I do know it's a fact that autism is on a dramatic rise in the United States of America. And we've got to find the cause of it.
But, meanwhile, we're going to have to increase funding for special education. I mean, it's just -- it's just a fact. And that's expensive, but it seems to me the kind of country we are, that that should have one of our priorities, along with our most gifted.
So thank you.
Yes. Yes, ma'am.
QUESTION: Senator McCain, I am -- thank you for coming. First, I wanted to say that. But I wanted to ask you, there seems to be a lot of controversy about people who are voting who shouldn't be voting, people who are not citizens of our country, citizens voting who are, you know, under dead people's names.
And, also, there's a huge controversy -- I watched Glenn Beck the other night, and he was talking about how many of the voting machines in the United States are not functioning properly. How can we be assured that we're even going to have an election that's going to have an accurate result?
(APPLAUSE)
MCCAIN: I think it's going to be very tough. In case you missed it, they had a film on HBO about the 2000 election. I think it was called "Recount," as I recall. Whatever it was, it was really a compelling film about what happened as a result of the, quote -- remember "hanging chads"? Remember that? And back and forth, and the -- I mean, it was -- it was incredible.
And I worry a lot about it, to tell you the truth, because I believe that this is going to be a close election. I believe that I'm the underdog. I believe that New Mexico will be one of those states, one of those few states, my friends, that we're up late and they're saying, "Well, we're still waiting for New Mexico to come in to see who the next president of the United States is."
So...
(APPLAUSE)
I think one way is that, you know, I think our election boards -- our local election boards can always use volunteers and people to help out. They can always use people to be there to monitor the polls and to -- and to see that everything goes well, and that all the procedures are correct.
Now, I hear stories that some of these voting machines, as you have heard -- and I've read, and there have been various hearings in Congress about some of these machines that aren't accurate. There's only 78 days left. Who's counting?
(LAUGHTER)
So you have motivated me again to look at this situation to see what else that we can do to make sure that there's a minimum of it.
But while I'm at it, while I'm at it, the unions, the organized labor wants to have a procedure where a union organizer can go to a person or to someone's house and sign them up in public to be members of that union. They call it "card check."
I think it's a violation of the fundamental right of Americans to have a secret ballot. And I intend to fight that as hard as I can.
(APPLAUSE)
So, yes, can we do one more here? Yes, ma'am.
QUESTION: Well, first of all, I'd like to thank you for coming down here and giving me such a wonderful reason to actually skip school. So...
(LAUGHTER)
There has been talk that there are people who want to have the voting age lowered from 18 to 16. And being a 16-year-old myself, I want to know what your opinion is on that.
MCCAIN: I think I know yours.
(LAUGHTER)
I think 18 is appropriate. That's -- that's the age at which people volunteer to serve in the military. And so I think 18 is probably appropriate.
There are some people that say that it should be higher. That's usually older people that say that. I think that -- I think that 18 is probably the most appropriate age for that availability.
Could I -- could I just say one of the things about this great state, if I might mention, there's a lot of military installations here in New Mexico. There's a lot of service, a lot of servicemen and women. And the New Mexico Guard and Reserve has served incredibly. They've been back, and back, and back, and back, and back, and back.
(APPLAUSE)
So I want to be president of the United States because I want to inspire a generation of Americans to serve a cause greater than their self-interest. And I'll always put my country first.
But every time I'm in the company of these young people, I'm inspired. I'm inspired because of their willingness to serve and to sacrifice.
I'd like to tell you just one brief story. The Fourth of July before last, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and I were in Baghdad. General Petraeus -- the temperature was about 117 degrees, as I recall, that day -- these troops -- these men and women serving are putting on 40 pounds of body armor and then 40 pounds or more of equipment, and going out on 12-, 14-, 16-hour days.
But, anyway, General Petraeus asked Senator Graham and I to attend a ceremony and asked me to speak at a ceremony where 866 brave young Americans decided that they would re-enlist and stay and fight, rather than come home at the expiration of their enlistment.
It was still one of the most moving experiences of my life. And every once in a while, when we get in the back-and-forth of a political campaign, and we have these downers and ups, and there's attacks, and all that kind of stuff, you know, I start feeling a little self-pity.
And then I think back to that day in Baghdad when General Petraeus spoke to those young people who are willing to serve again and again on behalf of our freedom and somebody else's.
My friends, I believe America's best days are ahead of us. And I want to assure you that I need your vote and I need a big voter turnout. And I do not take this election lightly. We're the underdog. I'm the underdog, have no doubt about it.
But I will count on you to get out the vote. And I promise you that I will put my country first, and I'll never let you down.
Thank you for being here. And thank you. And I'll be (inaudible) thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
END
LOAD-DATE: August 24, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
August 20, 2008 Wednesday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Lois Romano, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2452 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Lois Romano was online Wednesday, August 20 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Lois Romano: Good morning everyone. So sorry for the delay -- technical problems. Let's get started.
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Minneapolis: What is the most interesting thing going on in the campaign that does not focus on vice presidential selection? I noticed the Republicans are planning on visiting Denver during the Democrats' convention; are the Democrats returning the favor in St. Paul, Minn.?
Lois Romano: Opposing parties always show up at the others conventions. The conventions are designed as lovefests for one party and to bash the other party, so they always send people to defend.
But the veep thing is really the biggest thing happening in the next few days. This process has been more secretive than any other I can remember.
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Confused: The latest Zogby poll puts McCain up by 5 points. I know this is just one poll, but this same poll had Obama up for the past three months. The negative campaigning has taken its toll. McCain's past personal and public positions make target-rich environment for return attacks. It is time that Democrats responded in kind. Apparently it works, and this "high road" approach is not working. I know that Obama is doing some negative ads in target areas, but I think it is time to take the gloves off and let the opponent have it. Preview the ads with the media just like McCain to get additional play across the nation. If Democrats want to win, that is what they must do.
Lois Romano: McCain's attacks have gotten traction -- no doubt about it. Polls will go up and down, but there is absolutely a sense that McCain has put Obama on the defense. There are many Democrats who want Obama to start hitting back. His campaign likely still is developing a strategy for that, but going into the convention, they want everything to be upbeat, patriotic, happy. This is Obama's week to shine, and historically a candidate coming out of a conventions goes up in the polls.
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Waterville, Maine: Lois, Barack Obama's national poll numbers are in free fall and he is in danger of losing the swing states unless he rights the ship. This election season is turning out to be eerily reminiscent of Kerry/Bush four years ago. Conventional wisdom was that a war hero could beat an unpopular president, but in the end Kerry was portrayed effectively as arrogant and elitist. I would have thought Obama's campaign team would have seen this coming, but it is striking how ill-prepared they were for the negative onslaught. What are you hearing is the Obama campaign's plan to go back on the offensive?
Lois Romano: As I just wrote, I think at this juncture the campaign is just focusing on making Obama look good next week, which will bring his numbers up. It wasn't three weeks ago that he was on top of the heap and McCain was struggling to get attention. You are right in that Obama will have have a strategy to go on the offense. But I wouldn't worry just yet. he's had a pretty good run, and his campaign has been well run.
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Vienna, Va.: Ms. Romano, you have weighed in more than once recently on the Swift Boat Veterans, stating they "effectively -- and shamefully I believe -- denigrated Kerry's service," and that Kerry failed to respond "until it was too late." On what basis do you believe the Swift Boat Vets' challenges were shameful, or that their charges could have been debunked simply by Kerry responding sooner? Have you read either "Unfit for Command" or the more recent "To Set The Record Straight"? Just curious...
Lois Romano: I have read the books, I have combed Kerry's record, I have spoken with people who served with Kerry, and it's my opinion that the Swift-Boaters are partisans and nothing more. The fact is that whatever you think of Kerry personally, regardless of whether you believe he went to Vietnam to simply collect medals, he did go and he could have gotten killed. There were easier roads to a political future.
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Whittier, Calif.: Thank you very much for taking my question Ms. Romano. I was wondering: If Sen. Lieberman is the Republican vice-presidential nominee, when Congress comes back next month, will he no longer caucus with the Democrats? If not, does that mean the Republicans will get control again, as it would be 50-50 with Vice President Cheney as the tiebreaker? Or is it meaningless because nothing will happen in Congress for the rest of this year?
Lois Romano: That's a good question, and I don't know the answer. He could still caucus with the Democrats, because he would remain an independent. It would be as if McCain picked a Democrat to show bipartisanship.
But I don't think it will be Lieberman in any case. I think McCain wants someone younger.
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Chicago: I'm from Hyde Park and have been an Obama supporter for years now. I am coming around now to hoping that Hilary Clinton is the pick for vice president. By managing the media, Obama has made it absolutely clear that he's in control and is making the choice without duress. To my mind, that makes it possible from him to choose Clinton -- who, I think, has the best chance of helping him win. Do you think this is just a fantasy?
Lois Romano: Your analysis is right on -- but I do think it's a fantasy. We have no indication that Clinton has been vetted by the campaign. And although, she has been vetted many times, there would be some interest in vetting Bill Clinton's finances. I think we would have heard if that were going on.
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Baltimore: Is it dawning on the press that the Obama campaign is playing them like a set of spoons with the vice presidential announcement? Strict secrecy about the veep's identity is one thing, but the Obama campaign's secrecy about the date of the announcement leads daily "will-he-or-won't-he?" drama that keeps the press talking about Obama's VP options, which is a vast improvement over the press dwelling on his lackluster Saddleback performance. The press should dial back the hype and stop giving Obama free publicity.
Lois Romano: It's August in an election year a few days before the Democratic convention. It is the story.
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Chicago: Has there been any reporting on the potential first ladies' roles in selecting the vice president?
Lois Romano: I haven't seen any reporting on it, but at a minimum I'm sure Michelle Obama is in the loop. She stays involved as an adviser, but I don't the wives are part of the selection process.
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Chaska, Minn.: An outside interest group has an ad out that points out that the fact that McCain's tax proposals would result in Cindy McCain seeing her tax bill reduced by more than $300,000. I've seen some analysts suggest that pointing such a thing out is in poor taste. Do you agree, and if so, why? If McCain suggests that Obama's position on Iraq is motivated by self-interest and not national interest, isn't it fair to examine that claim against McCain in other areas?
Lois Romano: It's perfectly fair game.
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St. Paul, Minn.: Hi Lois -- thanks for taking questions today. I always appreciate your insights. Every day it seems like we're seeing a tightening of the polls -- today there's one out that shows McCain even leading. And yet the overall political landscape really hasn't shifted -- gas prices are high, the president's approval rating is low, people want change, etc., etc. Is Obama in trouble, or are we likely to see the lead go back and forth all the way up until the election? I know this phrase is wildly overused, but has Obama simply failed to close the deal? If he hasn't by now, when will he?
Lois Romano: He obviously hasn't closed the deal, although he has had the national stage for months to do. He probably is hoping to get a little closer next week when the Democrats showcase him 24-7. McCain's ads and attacks clearly have played to the public's doubts on Obama -- the idea that he's a phenomenon but is not ready to be president. Obama clearly was not ready for this attack -- but don't write him off yet. He has run a good campaign, and the polls will fluctuate. It's going to be a close race.
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Baltimore: I've read that John McCain is focusing his money on traditional television and radio advertising, while Barack Obama is downplaying broadcasting in favor of setting up more offices and contacting more voters. The ratio of voter contacts between the campaign is something like 35:1. Is having a visit from a canvasser really that much more effective than seeing an attack ad night after night? I guess we'll find out in November.
Lois Romano: Obama had great success in the primaries with a strong ground operation, so he will try to capitalize on that in the general -- but he also will advertise endlessly, and has the money to do so.
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Arlington, Va.: Today's abortion story makes it appear Sen. Obama opposed giving medical treatment to those born in a failed abortion. Can this be true? Although I am strongly pro-choice, the thought of this turns my stomach. What's the explanation?
washingtonpost.com: Candidates' Abortion Views Not So Simple (Post, Aug. 20)
Lois Romano: Abortion is a very personal and emotional issue for people -- and it isn't always black or white. I really don't know enough about the legislation referred to in the story, but I can assure you no one is for letting babies die.
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Republican VP dark horse: How about Chief Justice John Roberts? He'd mollify the conservative base and wouldn't be working until the first Monday in October anyway, and he simply could recuse himself from cases for the month or so from then till the election. One of the talking heads on ABC last Sunday observed that Roberts was able to tie Joe Biden in knots during his (Roberts') confirmation hearings, so I was thinking he might be a good choice to do the same in the vice presidential debate if Obama picks Biden.
Lois Romano: Interesting notion. Smart, attractive young family, but too risky for Republicans to take him off the court. If Obama wins, then the court tilts left.
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Washington: Biden is up for re-election in the Senate. Should Obama choose him as his vice presidential nominee, does Delaware law permit him to run both on the ticket and for re-election to the Senate (as others have done)? Should Obama choose Evan Bayh and win, would Indiana's Republican governor end up choosing his replacement?
Lois Romano: Yes, a Republican governor would appoint a Republican senator to replace him. I don't know Delaware law on whether he could continue to run. Anybody out there know?
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Seattle: The Zogby poll showing McCain up has Obama's support among Democrats dropping nine points. I found this part most disturbing: "Obama's support among Democrats fell 9 percentage points this month to 74 percent, while McCain has the backing of 81 percent of Republicans. Support for Obama, an Illinois senator, fell 12 percentage points among liberals, with 10 percent of liberals still undecided compared to 9 percent of conservatives." This is on the heels of Hillary's brother meeting with Carly Fiorina. Obviously reports of unity have to this point been overstated. Is Maureen Dowd on to something?
washingtonpost.com: McCain takes lead over Obama (Reuters, Aug. 20)
Lois Romano: I'm not sure unity is the whole issue. Yes, there are Hillary supporters who are still angry, but beyond that it's obvious that many voters still don't have a good sense of Obama, even though he been dominating the news for a year. The campaign will make every effort to deal with that next week at the convention. By the time it's over, you should know what he had for breakfast in third grade.
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Montgomery Village, Md.: Lois, what do you make of Biden's comment that he hasn't been contacted by the Obama campaign? Did he mean "recently"? This morning? Since he returned form Georgia? Is this a smokescreen, or is he off the short list?
Lois Romano: He means that he hasn't been asked to be vice president. The person who is chosen to be vice president probably will find out only a few hours before the general public.
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Central Massachusetts: How is Hillary's debt reduction going?
Lois Romano: Not great -- she never will be paid back the money she lent the campaign, and I believe all fundraising is going slow for her.
People want to give to the winner. It's hard to retire a debt.
_______________________
Fairfax County, Va.: Will President Carter also be speaking at the convention? Is he still up to that kind of appearance these days? I thought he was great at the 2004 convention, but of course his naval background played into the military theme that year.
Lois Romano: I'm sure he will be speaking, although I haven't seen a final schedule. Yes, he's still in good shape and up to the task.
_______________________
Gettysburg, Pa.: Is there a chance that one of the presidential candidates could pick a vice presidential candidate who comes completely out of the blue (like Dan Quayle)?
Lois Romano: Absolutely. There was some speculation early on that Obama might think outside the box and maybe look to the business community.
Bloomberg comes up as a vice president for either candidate.
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Lois Romano: Thank you all for joining us today. This is going to be a very exciting week in politics so save up all your questions for my colleagues who appear here every day.
See you in two weeks.
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washingtonpost.com: Discussion: Post Reporter Jose Antonio Vargas on Election 2008 Online Efforts (washingtonpost.com, Live NOW)
_______________________
washingtonpost.com: Discussion: Hip-Hop Republicans (washingtonpost.com, Live NOW)
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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August 19, 2008 Tuesday
Regional Edition
Summer's Wake-Up Calls
BYLINE: Eugene Robinson
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A13
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The Democratic and Republican conventions have a couple of tough acts to follow. Two compelling spectacles -- one glorious, one shocking -- have stolen the spotlight this summer to remind us all that whatever nostrums we hear from Barack Obama and John McCain about it being morning again in America, the truth is that we live in a much more complicated world.
The glorious extravaganza is, of course, the Olympics. Anyone given to paranoia about China's burgeoning wealth and stature has new cause for alarm, because the Chinese are staging what may be seen as the most unforgettable Games ever.
It helps that marquee athletes such as Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt have come through with unbelievable performances. Even without all the world records, though, we'd still have to be impressed by the scale and audacity of these Olympics. If China is announcing its emergence as a great power, we get the message.
Think back to the climactic moment of the opening ceremonies when one of China's greatest sports heroes, former Olympic gymnast Li Ning, appeared to levitate around the rim of the Bird's Nest stadium before lighting the Olympic torch. It wasn't just the best torch-lighting since 1992, when the cauldron in Barcelona was ignited by an archer's flaming arrow. It was also a nifty bit of advertising -- and, arguably, Chinese commercial piracy.
Li Ning is chairman of an eponymous sportswear company that once dominated the Chinese market but whose position has been eroded by global giants such as Nike and Adidas. Li has fought back by signing promotional deals with internationally known athletes such as Shaquille O'Neal as a way of raising the company's international profile and enhancing its cachet at home.
As it happens, Adidas paid an estimated $80 million to be one of the lead sponsors of the Beijing Games -- which meant that company officials had to sit in the Bird's Nest and watch as a competitor stole the show, with the billion-strong Chinese market paying rapt attention. Li's aerial coup should go down in the annals of product placement.
Whenever the television cameras pull back to show Beijing's stunning new architecture -- the Bird's Nest, the bubble-wrapped swimming center, the state television headquarters building that has a hole in the middle and no visible means of support for the upper floors -- it's impossible not to recall that our relationship to China is that of debtor to creditor. And the fact is that one tends to be polite to the bank that holds one's mortgage.
One other moment from the opening night of the Games lingers with me. We saw a shot of President Bush in the stands, fidgeting as usual, talking and smiling, looking around, taking it all in. In the background we glimpsed Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, stone-faced and nonchalant, as impassive as Clint Eastwood in one of his spaghetti westerns. Meanwhile, Russian tanks were rolling into Georgia.
The Russian invasion -- the other summer spectacle -- proved what should have been obvious all along: that the demise of communism never implied the demise of Russia as one of the world's great powers. It was only a matter of time before any country so blessed with natural resources and human capital would rise again. That day was hastened by the spike in the price of oil and natural gas, which has made Russia rich, and by Putin's calm and purposeful ruthlessness.
In response to demands by Bush and others that those tanks be rolled back out of Georgia immediately, Russian officials have essentially said, "Yeah, right, whatever, talk to the hand." It's obvious that they'll leave when they're good and ready -- and that there's basically nothing anyone can do to hurry them up.
The lesson that's being brought home this summer is that we live in a multipolar world. We knew that, but in our political rhetoric we prefer to ignore it. Now, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are going to be able to make it through their convention without acknowledging the world's complications and interconnections.
Obama will probably talk more about engagement and the "international community," while McCain is likely to sound more confrontational. I'm pretty sure, though, that neither will come clean about a central truth: Our future is being decided not just in Washington but in Beijing and Moscow -- and in Riyadh, Islamabad, New Delhi, Dubai, Caracas, Abuja, Brasilia. . . .
We still have the wherewithal to lead. But we're deluding ourselves if we believe we won't have to adapt to the new reality.
The writer will answer questions at 1 p.m. today at www.washingtonpost.com. His e-mail address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com
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August 19, 2008 Tuesday
Suburban Edition
Obama Tells Allies He Is Ready to Hit Back;
As GOP Attacks Grow, He Links McCain, Bush
BYLINE: Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A04
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DATELINE: ALBUQUERQUE, Aug. 18
Sen. Barack Obama returned to the presidential campaign trail on Monday after a week-long Hawaiian vacation and tried to assure anxious Democrats that he is ready to fight back against Republican character attacks that grew sharper in his absence.
At a town hall meeting here, Obama slammed Sen. John McCain for continuing the politics and policies of President Bush, part of an attempt to tether the presumptive Republican nominee to the unpopular president. In recent days, the campaign and its supporters have also begun portraying the wealthy McCain as too out of touch to represent the common man.
Late last week, the campaign dismissed the rising concerns of Democrats as arm-chair quarterbacking with little understanding of Obama's strategy. By Monday, not even the candidate could let such concerns slide.
"Everywhere I go, people have told me, 'I'm getting nervous. The Republicans, they're so mean. They're going to Swift-boat you. They're doing things to you. What are you going to do?' " Obama said. "I have to just remind people that it is true that, just as John McCain has embraced George Bush's policies, he's embraced his politics. And the same people who brought you George Bush are now trying to package John McCain."
Concerns from Democrats are stoked by memories of 2004, when candidate John F. Kerry did not respond vigorously to misrepresentations of his military service on a Swift boat in Vietnam. Those attacks also came in the run-up to the Democratic National Convention, and the senator from Massachusetts struggled to recover from them for the rest of his campaign.
Democratic jitters have been rekindled since the release of "The Obama Nation," an anti-Obama book written by the co-author of "Unfit for Command," the 2004 book about Kerry's service. Among other falsehoods, author Jerome Corsi charges that Obama misrepresents his religion, saying that Muslim faith plays a significant role in his ideology, even though he is a practicing Christian.
McCain showed no signs of letting up his attacks Monday, charging that behind Obama's demand to end the Iraq war "lies the ambition to be president."
"Even in retrospect, he would choose the path of retreat and failure for America over the path of success and victory," the senator from Arizona told the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Orlando. "In short, both candidates in this election pledge to end this war and bring our troops home. The great difference is that I intend to win it first."
At four events Sunday and again here Monday, Obama delivered pep talks and said he is prepared for the worst that Republicans will throw at him. Democrats may be disappointed that he hasn't opened up a significant lead to match voter discontent with Bush, Obama acknowledged. But McCain is a formidable opponent, he said, and despite Bush's woes the GOP is experienced at winning national elections.
"You have a candidate who doesn't take any guff," the presumptive Democratic nominee assured donors in San Francisco on Sunday night.
As Obama sharpens his attacks, Democratic allies have detected a green light from the campaign and have taken them much further. Last Thursday, the AFL-CIO sent out what it billed as "an important union message," which depicted McCain as an out-of-touch plutocrat.
"McCain's worth . . . over $100 million. . . . He owns 10 houses. . . . He flies around on a $12.6 million corporate jet. . . . He walks around in $520 Italian loafers," the mailer states. "If John McCain lost his Social Security, he'd get by just fine. Would you?"
After Obama strategist David Axelrod took up the same cudgel, the Democratic National Committee, the Service Employees International Union and liberal filmmaker Robert Greenwald hammered the theme, with videos and statements showing off McCain's Phoenix high-rise; his beach condominiums in Coronado and La Jolla, Calif.; his ranch in Sedona, Ariz.; his apartment in Arlington; and his Ferragamo shoes.
Still, some strategists close to Obama say he needs to hit harder, be more specific in his attacks, and delve into McCain's character the way McCain has hit Obama's.
"They need to draw a clearer contrast and not be shy or flinch from doing it," said a Chicago Democrat close to the campaign, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid. "He's running a commercial now that says [McCain] voted with Bush 95 percent of the time -- on what? And what about all the flip-flops?"
Writing for the online Democratic Strategist, party communications consultant James Vega outlined a character attack that Obama could pick up. He said McCain has become "a pale, diminished shadow" of his former self, so desperate to win the election that he has sacrificed "his deepest principles and his personal honor" and allowed "men he once despised . . . to manipulate him."
"McCain is actually profoundly vulnerable to a powerful, aggressive and damaging attack on his character," Vega concluded.
Other Democrats are showing deference to Obama and his campaign staff, who resisted repeated calls for a more negative approach during the drawn-out primary fight and came out on top.
"You always have a group of people in Washington whose political profession is to get nervous during elections," said Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), an Obama adviser. "McCain has failed to put forward a positive case for a McCain presidency. He's entrenched himself in this administration, and that's going to turn into the biggest strategic blunder of this campaign."
At least publicly, Obama is showing no sign of worry, but for the first time he's acknowledging the concern of others.
"Democrats, because we've burned in the last few elections, get nervous and skittish right around this time," Obama told about 350 people who paid $28,500 for a VIP dinner in San Francisco on Sunday night. "They say, 'Oh, no, here the Republicans come -- they're so mean and they're going to be doing all these things. Obama is a funny name, and who knows what they're going to do?' "
"So keep your stress to a minimum," he instructed them.
Weisman reported from Washington.
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August 19, 2008 Tuesday
Suburban Edition
Obama Suggests $2 Billion In New Funding for NASA
BYLINE: Marc Kaufman; Washington Post Staff Writer
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Sen. Barack Obama has detailed a comprehensive space plan that includes $2 billion in new funding to reinvigorate NASA and a promise to make space exploration and science a significantly higher priority if he is elected president.
Campaigning in Florida yesterday, Sen. John McCain responded by telling business leaders that Obama has changed his position on some key questions of NASA funding in recent months and should not be trusted to support the program.
While Obama's ambitious plan embraces President Bush's 2004 "vision" to send astronauts to the moon by 2020 and later to Mars -- a plan McCain co-sponsored in the Senate -- the Democratic presidential candidate said the administration's "poor planning and inadequate funding" have undermined the effort and jeopardized U.S. leadership in space.
In particular, he criticized administration policies that will lead to a five-year period after 2010 when "the United States will have to depend on foreign rockets and spacecraft to send Americans to orbit" -- even to the largely U.S.-funded $100 billion international space station.
"As president, I'll make our space program a priority again by devoting the attention and resources needed to not only inspire the world with feats of exploration but also improve life here on Earth," Obama said.
His plan also calls for reestablishing the National Aeronautics and Space Council to coordinate all civilian, commercial and military space programs; the body was in place in earlier decades but disbanded in 1992. As a signal that NASA will be a higher priority for him, Obama said the council would report directly to the president.
McCain did not directly address Obama's proposals, released on Sunday, but did emphasize that the Democrat had earlier opposed full funding for the NASA program to build a new generation of spacecraft to replace the shuttle by 2015. Obama's position has shifted since last winter, and he now says the replacement Constellation spaceship program is essential both for space exploration and for encouraging students in science and math.
"Sometimes it is difficult to know what a politician will actually do once in office, because they say different things at different times to different people," McCain said in a closed-door meeting of business leaders in Cocoa Beach. "This is a particular problem when a candidate has a short, thin record on the issues, as in the case of Senator Obama. Let me say, just in case Senator Obama does decide to return to his original plan of cutting NASA funding -- I oppose such cuts."
He also said: "I will ensure that space exploration remains a top priority and that the U.S. continues to lead the world in this field."
In a Democratic Party campaign call after McCain spoke, former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver said that while the Republican candidate now voices support for NASA, his voting record has been far less enthusiastic.
She said McCain spoke against a bill introduced last year that would give NASA $1 billion to make up for costs incurred after the Columbia disaster -- money that would have gone specifically to speeding development of the Constellation program.
"It's very interesting to see McCain now paint himself as a strong supporter of NASA," she said. "When he could have stepped up to support the program, he has not done that. He has no general respect for our community."
Garver acknowledged that Obama's positions on NASA have evolved since the primaries, but she said McCain's NASA advocacy has changed as well.
Although McCain has said continued U.S. space superiority is essential, he has also said that as president he would freeze all discretionary spending -- and NASA, with a budget of about $17.5 billion, is generally considered in that category. McCain has spoken in mostly general terms about NASA.
In an earlier interview, McCain campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin said the candidate firmly supports building a new generation of U.S. spacecraft and would fund the program as needed. He also said McCain would conduct "an overall review early in the administration of where NASA's money is spent to determine an appropriate plan of action."
Obama's campaign said the additional NASA funds would be paid for by rolling back congressional earmarks to what they were in 1994, and by using the newly formed advisory council to potentially re-allocate space funding.
Among the more expensive proposals is Obama's plan to flying an additional shuttle mission to bring a $1.5 billion particle detector to the station. NASA dropped plans to ferry up the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer after the Columbia disaster, even though the instrument is one of the most expensive ever built and was funded by a group of international governments and universities.
Under current NASA plans, the last shuttle mission will fly in summer of 2010, and the three-spacecraft fleet will be retired after that. The aging shuttles are expensive to maintain and operate, and under current budgets NASA will not have funds to build the new Constellation spacecraft unless the shuttle is grounded.
The Constellation won't be ready until 2015 at the earliest, however, creating the five-year gap when the United States will be largely dependent on Russian Soyuz transportation. NASA and the Russian space agency have worked closely and generally well together in recent years, but many are concerned that Russian military actions in Georgia will change that relationship.
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The New York Times
August 18, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
Like Politics? Broadcast Your View For Only $6
BYLINE: By NOAM COHEN
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LENGTH: 1344 words
Saysme.tv didn't invent the loudmouth, but, as the company's logo indicates, it sure hopes to sell him a megaphone.
The business plan works like this: Saysme.tv offers a service over the Internet that streamlines the submission process for homemade television advertising and offers cheap slices of cable-TV time -- perhaps as little as $6 for a 25-second spot, assuming you are O.K. with appearing on CNN Headline News sometime next week in parts of Charlotte, N.C., in the wee hours.
The hope is to get commissions from the legions of small-time commentators, political bloggers and local advertisers, who may have as strong opinions as T. Boone Pickens on renewable energy, but do not have his millions to bombard the public with them. Instead, the dream goes, there would be millions of individual commentators placing ads a few at time, market by market, either by uploading their own ads YouTube style or choosing from those already hosted at the site. Let the buckshot bombardment begin.
The Web site is a new example of an online phenomenon once considered powerful enough to have its own buzz word -- disintermediation -- which has been applied to auctions, entertainment and classified ads.
In the cable-TV advertising version, no longer would placing an ad be expensive and time consuming, with its own arcane rituals and legal boilerplate.
Instead, the path from computer screen to TV screen could be nearly smooth, efficient if you prefer, and in a generally accessible prices range, though more likely to be around $60 than the occasional $6 slot that one can hunt for on the site.
Combined with video hosts like YouTube, large blogging farms like Blogger and homegrown online news sites, perhaps saysme.tv could cause the incisive adage -- freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one -- to lose some of its bite.
If it all sounds like the cacophony of the Internet, or a busy commercial street on rush hour, is creeping into offline media outlets, saysme.tv's chief executive, Lisa Eisenpresser, pleads guilty, only she prefers other words: democracy, marketplace of ideas.
''We are trying to push free speech,'' she said, while acknowledging that the ads would still have to conform to the cable companies' restrictions on content. ''I'll put out the cacophony, and the cream will rise to the top.''
Since it is the beginning of the political season, the site, which declines to reveal the number of ads it has handled, has been playing up ads on the strengths and weaknesses of various candidates, and reaching out to the politically committed.
But in some ways, the founders say, those groups don't use the strongest element of the inexpensive advertising: hyperlocality. Morgan Warstler, the company's chief marketing officer, said he expected that businesses and civic groups would benefit from speaking to neighbors, and only neighbors.
A bar, working with a beer company sponsor, could promote a local band that is playing in the next few weeks, he suggested. Or, ''Your daughter is in the Girl Scouts and there are not a lot of kids in her group,'' he said. ''It should be easy to go to the Girl Scouts Web site and create an ad and put out the message and get other parents to call.''
The company, which is based in Los Angeles and has about 20 employees, announced in April that it had received an undisclosed amount of financing led by Intel Capital. Ms. Eisenpresser and members of her team come from other well-known stalls in the marketplace of ideas, including infomercials and direct mail.
In essence, Mr. Warstler said, the company was acting as ''a very large advertiser'' that sells the time it buys to individuals -- a vending machine for TV ads, to use the company's favorite analogy. The business plan includes paying creators of popular ads each time they are shown and rewarding large issue-oriented sites that drive business to the site.
Saysme.tv says it is still working out arrangements with the cable-TV providers to add to the 20 or so cities available on the site. Depending on the cable provider, there can be a minimum of $100 on ad purchases.
''We knew technically we could put it together,'' Mr. Warstler said, ''but it took a year's worth of hand-holding. We had to convince the cable companies that we could handle all the details.''
The details he mentioned include complying with Federal Communications Commission rules on tracking who paid for an ad, as well as the more detailed reporting required by the Federal Election Commission for political advertising. So far, saysme.tv ads appear in Comcast and Time Warner markets.
Among the first to step into saysme.tv's world of self-made, small-scale advertising is a coalition of left-wing bloggers who expect to make a $5,000 purchase in the next week or so in communities in states considered up for grabs in the presidential election, like Ohio, Florida and North Carolina.
The coalition's first ad was created by an admitted amateur, Mike Stark, the activist director of BlogPac who has made a reputation by confronting right-wing radio talk show hosts and Republican politicians, and taping those confrontations. It accuses the news media of not paying sufficient attention to John McCain's divorce decades ago and revels in as many of the particulars of that divorce as 25 seconds will allow.
''Bloggers will comprehend what saysme can do,'' Mr. Stark said. ''This ad, I made at home, with no experience at all. Others will come together to make an ad and people can pay for that ad.''
Mr. Stark is also unabashed in trying to use saysme to manipulate cable news outlets by getting ''free advertising'' from reports on the coalition's advertisement -- a common tactic among political campaigns whose most controversial ads often barely appear as paid advertising.
''We are still dependent on the larger media to amplify our message -- to bring what we are trying to say to the rest of the world that doesn't read our blogs,'' he said.
Ms. Eisenpresser has sought out bloggers and the politically outspoken -- while stressing that saysme.tv is a neutral platform open to all parts of the spectrum -- as perfect guinea pigs for the business. They represent, she said, the starting point for a ''perfect loop.'' An ad is conceived by an Internet group and played on TV. It is seen on TV and discussed online, which leads to more TV ads.
Politics, however, is a relatively small part of the TV advertising market. ''I think it is going to be $3 billion or $4 billion,'' Mr. Warstler said. ''More money gets spent on gum.'' Charitable giving, he said, was more than $300 billion last year, and it is that area -- as well as religion and advocacy on issues like animal rights and global warming -- that could prove more lucrative and dependable.
In the short term, saysme.tv has sought out provocative material to add to its library. It encouraged the makers of the popular online satirical ad ''I'm Voting Republican'' to cut it into 25-second segments and place them on saysme.tv.
Charlie Steak, the director of the video, says his production company, SyntheticHuman Pictures, negotiated a separate royalty agreement with saysme.tv ''because they came to us.''
But he adds: ''We wrote it without any intent of making money. We wanted to make a short film that would become a viral video that would cause as many people to think about whether their vote could make America a better place for other people.''
Nonetheless, he said he was pleased with the 25-second versions and happy to be reaching ''people who will not have found it on the Internet, who may see it on TV.''
Saysme.tv also produces its own videos -- most recently, a pro-Barack Obama ad using a professional skateboarder -- that it hopes will break out on the Internet.
''We want to be the place for people to air their grievances, promote their products or beliefs,'' Ms. Eisenpresser said. ''Come see my kid's school play, buy my car, protect a women's right to choose.''
Of course, there is still the freedom to cover your ears.
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The New York Times
August 18, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
Enticing Text Messagers in a Get-Out-the-Vote Push
BYLINE: By BRIAN STELTER
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 12
LENGTH: 921 words
R U curious to know Obama's VP?
The names of vice-presidential candidates are typically announced at news conferences or political conventions. But sometime before the opening gavel of the Democratic National Convention next Monday, Senator Barack Obama plans to break the mold by doing it with a text message.
Last week, the Obama campaign said that anyone who sent a text message of ''VP'' to a dedicated phone number would be among the first to learn the identity of his running mate. The campaign has also run a television commercial that offers a campaign sticker to any person who sends the word ''Barack'' to the same number.
The efforts spotlight Mr. Obama's push to harvest millions of cellphone numbers of potential voters through text messaging, a technology that is increasingly moving into the mainstream. And it could have a significant effect in November, when the campaign plans to use the technology to get out the vote.
The campaign is drawing on its technological know-how and its support among younger voters, who as teenagers and younger children embraced the technology -- often surreptitiously in their classrooms.
The strategy stands in sharp contrast to that of the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, who does not use text messaging and rarely uses the Internet, and whose campaign does not send text messages to supporters.
Mr. Obama's campaign has been encouraging people to sign up to receive text messages since last summer, and the effort to add names and numbers to its huge voter database has become more aggressive as the election nears. Such recruitment will be especially intense on college campuses.
Researchers are only beginning to study the effects of text messaging on get-out-the-vote efforts. A study of 4,000 people released last September found that those who received a reminder in a text message one day before an election were 4.2 percent more likely to vote, said a co-author of the study, Allison Dale, a graduate student at the University of Michigan.
Todd Rogers, the executive director of the Analyst Institute, said the findings were surprising because past research has shown that ''the more personal a mode of contact, the more effective it is.'' But, Mr. Rogers said, the impersonal nature of text messaging might be offset by the novelty of the medium. Researchers plan to run new experiments this year to test the strategy.
The Obama campaign may be running the biggest text messaging experiment. Ms. Dale said Mr. Obama's plan was clever. ''They're enticing people with a little bit of information,'' like the vice-presidential pick, she said, ''and once they have those numbers, they can use them again for mobilization.''
Though the campaign will not disclose how many people have sent text messages to its phone number, analysts say the number is under a million because of the limited use of the messaging.
The Obama campaign has sent text messages to subscribers to alert them about speeches to be shown on television. But, said Todd Zeigler, a senior vice president at the Bivings Group, an Internet consulting firm that has advised Republican candidates, the technology is still in its infancy as a political mobilization tool.
''A lot of people simply don't use text messaging yet,'' Mr. Zeigler said, ''and a lot of the people that do use it are reluctant to sign up to receive mass text updates.''
So the Obama campaign has had to grapple with text etiquette. Chief among the challenges is figuring out how many text messages can be sent before they become as annoying as spam, especially given that some cellphone users are charged for each message.
''It should be used judiciously -- only send something out if you actually have something important to say,'' Mr. Zeigler said. Indeed, in the study conducted by Ms. Dale, 10 percent of cellphone users who received the voting reminder said they were annoyed by it.
Scott Goodstein, who is in his mid-30s and has a dozen years of experience running campaigns, is trying not to be annoying. From the Obama campaign headquarters in Chicago, he manages the lists of voters who have signed up for text messages.
''Politics always strives to be about a one-on-one conversation,'' Mr. Goodstein said in an interview in May. ''We're betting that these subscribers are young folks who haven't been reached out to before.''
On his computer, Mr. Goodstein can scroll through lists of cellphone numbers and sort the groups by area code, ZIP code or other demographic information. Demonstrating that tool, he pointed to a list of hundreds of supporters who said they lived in Broward County, Fla., and showed how he could send a message to them about a rally planned for the next day.
In addition, every message Mr. Goodstein sends includes a request to forward the message to others.
Campaign officials say they want text messaging to feel like a dialogue. When subscribers reply and ask questions about basic political issues, the software sends an automated answer; other questions may receive replies from a campaign staff member.
Jim Goldstein, 38, a Web strategist from San Francisco, said he signed up for the text messages because they offered a direct channel to the Obama campaign. The prospect of being one of the first to hear about the vice-presidential pick was especially enticing, he said.
''It's not often in this day and age that a voter is made to feel like they're being put first versus the press, big donors and lobbyists,'' Mr. Goldstein said.
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USA TODAY
August 18, 2008 Monday
FIRST EDITION
McCain follows Clinton lead with '3 a.m.' approach
BYLINE: Byron York
SECTION: EDIT; Pg. 12A
LENGTH: 603 words
How many times have you heard commentators refer to Russia's invasion of Georgia as a "3 a.m. moment" for the presidential candidates?
The pundits are referring, of course, to Hillary Clinton's famous TV ad arguing that Barack Obama doesn't have the experience to handle a middle-of-the-night, out-of-nowhere national security crisis. Now, the thinking goes, the situation in Georgia gives John McCain an opportunity to claim an advantage over Obama in foreign affairs. And he's doing it -- with a script drawn straight from Clinton.
It might not seem smart to model a key aspect of your campaign on a candidate who lost -- to the same guy you're running against, no less. But that is exactly what Team McCain is doing.
"Clinton's campaign was a fabulous real-time laboratory in how you run against a movement candidate," Nicolle Wallace, a McCain adviser and spokeswoman, told me a few days ago. The McCainiacs have studied the New York senator's losing effort very, very carefully, and they've drawn some lessons from it.
Lesson No. 1 is that the "3 a.m." ad worked.
"The 'Is he ready to lead?' question in our Celebrity ad is the same question that the 3 a.m. ad asked," Wallace said. Clinton portrayed a blissfully sleeping child threatened by unspecified world events, while McCain went over the top with images of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, but the message was the same: Obama is not ready.
It appears to be working, at least for now. Although still behind in most nationwide polls, McCain is inching toward Obama in a number of surveys, including those in key battleground states.
And the reason the 3 a.m. strategy is a smart one for McCain is because it worked for Clinton. Although she lost the overall campaign, Clinton beat Obama soundly down the stretch -- after the 3 a.m. ad's release.
In the Democratic race from Iowa in early January through the Super Tuesday contests on Feb. 5, Obama, who began far behind, caught up with Clinton. Then, in a 10-day stretch from Feb. 9-19, he went on a tear, defeating her in nine straight contests, racking up nearly 900,000 more votes and erasing Clinton's delegate lead.
It seemed the contest was over. But there was a two-week gap before the next primaries, and in that period, on Feb. 29, Clinton unveiled the 3 a.m. ad.
It set off a huge debate about Obama's readiness -- and about Clinton's tactics. But it also changed the direction of the race.
Beginning in March and continuing through to the last primary in June, Clinton roared back, winning 500,000 more votes than Obama and setting off talk of "buyer's remorse" among Democrats who had already effectively handed the nomination to Obama. The 3 a.m. strategy was a winner. Clinton just came to it too late.
It seemed to work especially well among those working-class white voters who played such an important role in Clinton's victories in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky.
Covering the race in Pennsylvania, for example, I asked many Clinton voters whether they would vote for Obama if he won. Most said no. He's just not ready, voter after voter told me.
Now, McCain is looking to exploit those same concerns, in some of the same places.
In Ohio, for example, Obama is clinging to a tiny, half-percentage-point lead, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls. The voters who were concerned about him a few months ago are still concerned.
So don't be surprised if McCain continues to borrow from Clinton. For McCain's strategists, the lesson of the 3 a.m. ad is that Obama can be beaten -- and McCain is betting he can do it.
Byron York is White House correspondent for National Review.
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Washingtonpost.com
August 18, 2008 Monday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 5810 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Jonathan Weisman was online Monday, Aug. 18 at 11 a.m. ET.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Jonathan Weisman: Wow, well, I've got 36 questions in the queue and a meeting of our esteemed or despised politics staff(take your pick) at 11. So let's get started, and pardon the interruption. I'll make it quick!
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Princeton, N.J.: I have been complaining for months in these chats about the lack of media coverage on the campaign issues, especially economic ones. We get 10 articles about the horse race or personalities for every one on the issues. Well, it appears others agree with me -- not just on the campaign, but on economic coverage in general: Media coverage of the economic downturn in the U.S. has lagged behind both economic activity and public interest, according to a study being released Monday by a Washington, D.C.-based research group.
"The Project for Excellence in Journalism analyzed more than 5,000 economic stories in 2007 and the first half of 2008. The stories, by 48 different news outlets, were delivered by cable news channels, network television, radio, newspapers and the Internet.
"The study found that reliance on government data to track the economy is leading to scattershot coverage that, at times, lags months behind actual economic conditions.
" 'We can see little flashpoints in gas prices or a spike in joblessness but getting the whole picture is extremely difficult, in part because we're depending on government collected data, which could often be three months later,' said Project Director Tom Rosenstiel."
Jonathan Weisman: Well Prof. Krugman, I guess ya can't please everyone. Just last week I filed two stories detailing Obama's tax plan. You probably didn't notice because they were boring. My colleague Perry Bacon did an entire story a couple of weeks back on the health care issue. Steve Mufson has written extensively on the issue of energy and drilling.
Could we do more? Sure. But I think it is just false to say we haven't been writing about the issues.
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washingtonpost.com: Media coverage of the economy lags, study finds (AP, Aug. 18)
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Raleigh, N.C.: Good morning! Barack Obama has "sent" Joe Biden to Georgia, as his envoy or representative or Grand Poobah or something. Is this a funny hoisting of McCain on John's presumptuous petard, or a childish tit-for-tat?
Jonathan Weisman: What's good for the goose. ... I'm not sure it's childish. Biden is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He travels extensively to hot spots, especially during diplomatic standoffs. It is somewhat bizarre for him to be out of the country just as veep speculation about Biden reaches a fevered pitch. I don't know what to make of it.
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Raleigh, N.C.: I watched the forum at Saddleback Church on Saturday. I thought both candidates did well. I was impressed by the quick, direct answers McCain gave -- he seemed to say all the right things for that audience. Today I read that he wasn't really in a soundproof booth, as we were led to believe. Knowing the questions would explain his quick, direct answers. What was your take on the forum and why they led people to believe that McCain couldn't hear the questions in advance if he potentially could have?
Jonathan Weisman: This has become the latest squabbling point in a campaign that is descending into pointless bickering. If the Saddleback Show-Down was pivotal, I'd say concern about McCain's alleged overhearing would be well-placed. But McCain angrily is demanding Andrea Mitchell retract her charge that he overheard Obama's session, and frankly, I don't think it matters one bit.
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Reading, Mass.: Is there a convention rule against Virginians speaking on consecutive nights? The political press argument on Gov. Kaine's vice presidential prospects in relation to Sen. Warner's keynote is quite specious.
Jonathan Weisman: There's no conventional rule, but we have pretty good sources close to Kaine -- he is one of The Post's governors, after all -- and we're not hearing good things about his prospects. Sure, there can be back-to-back Virginians. The Old Dominion is the newest battle ground. But I think it's more significant and Joe Biden and Evan Bayh already have penciled-in speaking engagements on Wednesday, the night the vice presidential nominee speaks.
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Arlington, Va.: Frankly, I was disappointed in John McCain's performance on Saturday night. And while I'll be voting for Obama, I thought some of McCain's responses were scary. I know that Rick Warren wanted to ask the same questions to each candidate, but some answers begged for some follow-up, such as McCain's remark that "evil must be defeated." And how do you plan to do that?
And then saying that all the moderate/liberal justices on the Supreme Court have got to go was unhelpful. And while I thought that McCain's "cross in the sand" story sounded odd, it now turns out that McCain stole that story from Alexander Solzhenitsyn in "The Gulag Archipelago." Will anyone at The Post be investigating this fairy tale, since it appears that McCain first told it Saturday night?
washingtonpost.com: Is McCain Now Copying Solzhenitsyn? (CQ Politics, Aug. 17)
Jonathan Weisman: Well, now that you mention it, sure. Let's go for it.
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Fairfax, Va.: How concerned are the Obama folks about the situation surrounding Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick? Do they fear the allegations surrounding him, along with the very negative approval rating for Gov. Granholm, could turn voters -- particularly more suburban voters -- away from Obama?
Jonathan Weisman: If I were them, I'd be more concerned about Granholm. Usually bad economies harm the incumbent party, but in Michigan, the national and state incumbencies cancel each other out. Are Michiganders more angry at their governor or their president? (I don't see Detroiters voting for McCain and I don't see Michiganders outside of Detroit blaming Obama for the mayor's bizarre transgressions.)
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San Francisco: Hi, Jonathan, thanks for chatting this morning. Are the "Drill Here -- Drill Now" Republicans still playing Model Congress in the dark on Capitol Hill?
Jonathan Weisman: They sure are, Madame Speaker. But they may have reached the point of diminishing returns.
If you really do put together legislation with some expanded offshore drilling and lots of stuff the Republicans oppose (but now seem to back when they say they want "all of the above"), the September energy debate will be very interesting. Call their bluff. Do the Republicans really want all of the above (including portfolio standards for renewable electricity generation and a repeal of the 2005 tax break for the oil companies) or do they want the campaign issue? We shall see.
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Fairfax County, Va.: I was confused by today's article about voter registration increasing in Virginia. Most of the article reports that there have been big increases in the number of registered voters, especially in pro-Democratic parts of the state, and that the Obama campaign is going all out to register even more Virginians. That sounds promising for Obama. But then the end of the article reports that registration went through the roof from 1996 to 2000 to 2004 and the Republican edge at the polls didn't budge. How can that be?
washingtonpost.com: Voter Registration Key to Obama's Efforts to Put Virginia in Play (Post, Aug. 18)
Jonathan Weisman: You can lead a potential voter to the registration card, but you can't make him show up at the polls in November.
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Claverack, N.Y.: The candidate who's mocking Obama for being a celebrity ... is going to counter Obama's convention coverage ... by going on "The Tonight Show." You gotta figure they're trying to book Paris Hilton for the same night, right?
Jonathan Weisman: She keeps telling us she's so hot. She's above "The Tonight Show."
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Paoli, Pa.: Hello. The conventional wisdom is that the race is just about even when you look at poles like the Gallup daily tracking poll. But when you look at the state-by-state pools (e.g. Real Clear Politics) and the electoral votes, it looks like Obama has a pretty significant lead. What's your point of view on this ?
Jonathan Weisman: This is a tough one. The latest poll out of Ohio shows an exact tie. And most of the state-by-state polling stinks -- they are robo-polls, not screened for who bothers to pick up the phone, much less take the poll from a robot. Even an average of such polls may be meaningless. Garbage in, garbage out, as the scientists say.
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Boring Stories: I love your so-called "boring" stories. You are really one of the better writers out there on, or especially economic issues. Obviously from these chats you have a facile and barbed wit, but keep up the good stuff, not the "Veep guess," the horse-race or the how-does-this-impact nonsense that any idiot (see cable chatter) can provide!
Jonathan Weisman: Well thank you. The National Right To Life Committee wants me to address Obama and the born-alive issue. Should I?
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Audubon, N.J.: Hello Jonathan. I read the President as in Bush sent Biden to Georgia not Obama. Just to set the record straight. Thanks.
washingtonpost.com: "The chairman's statement did not mention Obama, noting that his trip came at the request of Saakashvili": The Trail: Biden to Make Own Journey to Georgia (washingtonpost.com, Aug. 16)
Jonathan Weisman: The president, as in the president of Georgia. Bush never would dispatch Biden, nor would it be appropriate for him to do so.
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Former Suburban Detroiter: You underestimate the role race plays in Michigan politics. Kwame once called Michigan the Mississippi of the North, and rightfully so. Granholm inherited the economic trouble Michigan faces from Engler, but you can't tell a voter that. Obama needs to steer clear of Granholm and Kwame. Up-and-comers Rep. Fred Miller (former Bonior staffer) and former Rep. Andy Meisner (former Sander Levin staffer) are bright spots in a dark Michigan cloud.
Jonathan Weisman: Thanks for the insight. Michigan's economy has been bad for quite awhile. In 2000 and 2004 it was supposed to be close, and it wasn't that close. I just wonder if it's much more blue and red on the purple spectrum now.
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Fairfax County, Va.: I think the response to the whole Saddleback affair is a classic case of people reading into the responses what they need to fit their preconceived notions about their favored candidates. Same goes for the columnists and pundits who are bloviating today about it. At the risk of sounding French, plus ca change. ... Perhaps the result then was -- a draw?
Jonathan Weisman: I agree. People love to say they hate horse race stories, yet they are quick to assign winners and losers at every turn. Let's just let this one go. Frankly, with the Olympics and a Saturday night, I just doubt many people saw it.
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Arlington, Va.: Among Gordon Smith, Norm Coleman and Susan Collins, who has the most to worry about as we head into the final months? I can't believe Democrats haven't capitalized on these three seats in blue states!
Jonathan Weisman: A month ago I would have said Gordon Smith. It just seemed like even though Oregonians tend to accept that he is a very moderate Republican, they would punish him like Rhode Islanders punished Lincoln Chafee in 2006. That still might happen, but Norm Coleman is being hounded for his sweetheart deal renting a garden apartment for next to nothing in the District from a lobbyist. It's a real issue, and it's not going away. Coleman, however, appears blessed by his opposition. Al Franken somehow must get beyond his Al Frankenness.
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Cabin John, Md.: I too watched Saddleback, and I thought the most interesting aspect was how the format made the candidates' differences on the issues so clear. Obama didn't "mealy mouth" on abortion; McCain was crystal-clear about his "no tax is a good tax" Republican supply side-ism. Same for both answers on the Supreme Court, etc. A few more appearances like these and no one will be able to claim that McCain is anything other than a conservative Republican. What was it about the format that caused the candidates to abandon both-sides-of-the-mouth platitudes for real answers?
Jonathan Weisman: Good question. Maybe it was because their questioner was so direct, maybe it was the audience. McCain perceived an audience of conservative evangelicals looking for red meat; Obama saw conservative evangelicals flirting with the Democratic Party's softer social side.
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Roseland, N.J.: Are the tiebreakers used in Olympic uneven parallel bars any clearer than those used in U.S. presidential elections?
washingtonpost.com: Liukin Loses Tiebreaker on Uneven Bars, Settles for Silver (AP, Aug. 18)
Jonathan Weisman: How come when it comes to obscure tie-breaking rules, the tiebreaker goes to the Chinese? (Why don't they just say those are the rules and spare us?)
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Norfolk, Va.: You won't touch the "born alive" issue with a 10-foot-pole. You know that's radioactive for Obama -- he was the only senator to speak out against a bill that would outlaw murdering a baby born alive during an abortion. Obama believes that it's okay to kill a crying baby. How's that for a campaign ad? It has the added benefit of being true...
Jonathan Weisman: Ah ha, a challenge. Now I have to!
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Anonymous: Can't McCain handlers get him to stop saying "my friends"?
Jonathan Weisman: I think it's so engrained in his psyche, he can't be broken of it. They have tried.
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Washington: In her ombudsman column about the controversial Obama quote you and Dana Milbank used, Deborah Howell said she spoke with your source and then added: "The source said he often tells reporters what happens in closed meetings and expects anonymity. He sent an identical e-mail to several other reporters and talked to several more; the others didn't see the quote as damaging." Could you explain why he routinely feels he should reveal activities his colleagues wanted to keep behind closed doors? He seems rather proud of himself.
washingtonpost.com: The Anger Over an Obama Quote (Post, Aug. 10)
Jonathan Weisman: I wish I could reveal names, but I absolutely won't. The source is very highly placed and authoritative. He did not believe he was leaking anything that would be harmful to Obama. Frankly, this is a dirty little secret in Washington. There are relationships in Washington where we know implicitly when something is on the record -- official comment, party spin -- and when it is not for attribution -- the divulging of backroom discussions. Rather than go over the rules of engagement with every conversation, we accept the ongoing ground rules, understood.
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Atlanta: Can I donate money to Al Franken's campaign, even though I don't live in Minnesota?
Jonathan Weisman: Yes indeed, and one of the raps on Franken is he's rolling in dough not stamped in Minnesota.
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What is "Born Alive": If it's the typical "Partial Birth" stuff, you should ... but beware, the photos are gross. I went to a boy's Catholic high school and had to take extensive classes on abortions. Funny, once I actually met women who had had abortions and learned their stories, I became pro-choice.
Jonathan Weisman: Here's the story: There was a bill in the Illinois Senate that reiterated rules against the slaying of babies born alive. Obama feared a trap, a defining of the life in such a way that could be extended to fetuses.
When a similar bill came up in the Senate, a clause was inserted saying the wording in no way could impact Roe v. Wade, and Obama voted for it. Now abortion foes are saying the identical language was inserted with Obama's full knowledge in the Illinois legislature and Obama still opposed it.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Why would Obama's campaign choose to release such magnificent fundraising numbers over a weekend when the news cycle is slower? He almost doubled McCain's fundraising numbers. Although that fact is not surprising, it is still quite significant, and would have been a good news item for his campaign to release during a week when Obama was on vacation. As an aside, I am rather shocked at both candidates' fundraising figures, given the state of the economy. Does it surprise you as well?
washingtonpost.com: Obama Raised More Than $51 Million Last Month (Post, Aug. 17)
Jonathan Weisman: I was a little surprised by that too. I guess they wanted coverage in the Sunday papers, the best read of our sadly unread medium. But they forgot to take note that reporters have families too and don't relish working on Saturdays. Moreover, the Sunday paper is usually pretty well set on Friday night. I think they made a mistake.
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Chattanooga, Tenn.: Did you see the New York Times's profile of New York University economics professor "Dr. Doom" this weekend? He predicted the housing decline, credit bubble bursting, etc., and says it's going to get worse before it gets better. You have a solid economic background and pay attention better than most; what do you think? And what impact might it have on the election and on the start of the new presidential term? Thanks for taking questions -- you're the best out there.
washingtonpost.com: Dr. Doom (New York Times, Aug 17)
Jonathan Weisman: I have spoken often to Dr. Roubini, but the politics of the economy is already cooked in the books. Ray Fair at Yale, the dean of economic determinism on politics, fixes his model for the presidential election after the first quarter of the election year, figuring voter opinions on the economy won't change after that.
That said, Fair believes this election should be a Democratic cake walk. So far, it hasn't. So much for economic determinism.
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Re: Cones of Silence: I don't think it mattered that McCain may have "heard" the questions (or been notified of them via an aide's blackberry) -- it was pretty obvious what was going to be asked. I am more interested in his campaign's response, which was (slightly paraphrasing), "how dare Obama accuse McCain, a former POW, of cheating?" Hmmm. Is that going to be McCain's new thing -- pulling out the "POW card" every time a tricky situation comes up? And as a character matter, McCain was a former POW when he left his first wife, and when he got involved with Charles Keating...
Jonathan Weisman: Ah, anything to slip in the infidelity/Charles Keating card. I do see the POW card being pulled often and everywhere, but John Kerry did the "reporting for duty" shtick ad nauseam in 2004, and look what that got him.
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"My friends": Historical reference: Nixon's handlers tried like Hercules to get their man to stop prefacing everything with "let me make one thing perfectly clear." They never could.
Jonathan Weisman: Thank you, Mr. Haldeman.
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Baltimore: The Saddleback Session: Am I alone in finding this bizarre? I think it shows how much our politics have gone downhill in 50 years that the Hawaiian-shirt wearing pastor of a megachurch can call the presidential candidates to a command performance where they get the opportunity to express their "faith." How would Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower or Lyndon Johnson have responded to such a request? With ear-scorching profanity, that's how.
Jonathan Weisman: It's only bizarre if you've been under a political rock since 1972. This is hardly new. Remember George W. Bush genuflecting at Bob Jones University? I'd hardly put Pastor Rick in that category.
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Anonymous: Who does McCain's TV ads? They appear dated and 1970s-like. His entire campaign seems dated. Is this done purposely in an attempt to strike a chord with the senior citizen vote?
Jonathan Weisman: Hmmm, I don't think we saw flashes of Paris Hilton in the 1970s. Did Nixon like Twiggy?
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McCain at Saddleback: I kind of see his answer as a quick distillation of the two candidates' views on foreign policy: McCain recognizes that evil exists, because he's experienced it, and Obama sees the concept of "evil" as an intellectual construct to be debated. Your opinion will guide your interpretation.
Jonathan Weisman: In my experience as a journalist, opinions always guide viewers' interpretations -- that's why these events move the dial so little. If you're predisposed to like one candidate or the other, you'll like your candidate's answer and hate his opponent's.
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Can you elaborate on this?:"You can lead a potential voter to the registration card, but you can't make him show up at the polls in November." Is there really proof that increases in voter registration for a particular party don't end up benefiting that party in the election? I found that hard to believe, but of course have no evidence to back up my claim.
Jonathan Weisman: I'm sure there have been studies. I don't have them. But anecdotally, it is true that in the last two elections, Republican get-out-the-vote drives were more successful than Democrats'. Republicans focus on getting folks to the polls, knowing their voters are more likely to be registered; Democrats -- especially Obama -- try to increase the universe of potential voters. But Obama is taking this to a new level. Ask me after Nov. 4.
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Fairfax, Va.: What are the chances that, if Obama were elected, Bob Gates would stay on as Defense Secretary? I know there were some whispers of it a few months ago.
Jonathan Weisman: When a House Democrat mentioned this in that now-famous closed-door meeting of Obama's a few weeks back, he was booed. 'Nuff said.
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Nashville, Tenn.: It's time to pony up another sacrifice to the nuclear waste god. The Department of Energy promised a house hearing on July 15 to announce its decision on the second nuclear waste repository "in several weeks." The rules say it has to be in the East. What state do you think will be selected?
Jonathan Weisman: How are the hills around Oak Ridge/Y-12 National Security Complex looking these days?
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Re: Former Suburban Detroiter: Hi Jonathan. This person was spot-on -- you could build a 20-foot-high cyclone fence with concertina wire across the top down the middle of 8 Mile Road, and all of the people north of it in Oakland County would cheer. The same mindset is just as pervasive here in Northwest Ohio. I have heard more than one well-traveled individual belonging to one minority group or another say that this part of Ohio is the most bigoted and racist place they ever have lived (including for one person of Korean descent from Selma, Ala.). I know a number of white people around here state who will not vote for Obama just because he's not white. I believe it would be a grave mistake to underestimate the role race will play this November.
How's your daughter doing, by the way?
Jonathan Weisman: Very kind to ask. My daughter is doing great, knock on wood. We finally dropped the steroids altogether last month. She's on a maintenance dose of another drug, a once-a-week injection, but other than that, we couldn't be happier.
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Anonymous: Were Lieberman and Ridge trial balloons and nothing else? Isn't McCain, more so than Obama, forced to select a safe, nondescript Pawlenty-type to appease all Republicans? Are the Christian conservatives the base of the Republican Party, or is that base in flux?
Jonathan Weisman: I just don't believe the Lieberman balloon, just like I can't believe the Hagel balloon. Lieberman is pro-choice, pro-environment, anti-Bush tax cut. You can't pick your running mate on a single issue, even if it's Iraq.
Ridge seemed more real, but I wouldn't put my money on it. I agree that McCain will be trying something safer -- unless he goes for Bobby Jindal.
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Baltimore: Re: Rick Warren, I hardly have been under a political rock since 1972. It's just that if I were a Muslim, Jew, atheist or Zoroastrian (I'm a lapsed Episcopalian, by the way), I would be less than thrilled that presidential candidates have to profess their personal relationship with Jesus in order to be considered viable. And I saw Warren on TV describe Christ as "my best friend -- I talk to him every day." Mental hospitals are full of such people.
Jonathan Weisman: Right, but George W. Bush named Jesus his favorite political philosopher. The cognoscenti chortled. The swing voters ate it up. And that was 8 years ago.
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The Great Beyond: Your chat is terrific, but I'm not sure that it pulls chatters from beyond the veil. H.R. Haldeman died in 1993, but he appreciates your concern about Nixon's repeated use of that catchphrase -- not that it did him much good in the end.
Jonathan Weisman: I had a feeling he was gone, but I was aiming for speed.
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Rockville, Md.: Oak Ridge? If history is any indication, it will be West Virginia, but if they had a giant disaster and if there were to be fallout (both very unlikely), the cloud goes east. I wonder where. Rockville? Yep.
Jonathan Weisman: I hear there are some lovely granite caves in Potomac, already spewing lots of Radon.
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Washington: I'd hardly call Schiff a House Democrat -- he has been Third Way since his election. New Democrats aren't really Democrats at all.
Jonathan Weisman: Spoken like a true MoveOn-er. C'mon. Schiff? What ever happened to the big tent? You're so pre-Rahm.
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"Born alive": Weisman, you're late to the game ... Obama already has been asked about this...
Jonathan Weisman: I know, I know. We're behind the curve.
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Washington: Weisman: The National Right To Life Committee wants me to address Obama and the born-alive issue. Really? Do you normally write pieces based on requests from issue groups? Presumably, they want you to write the piece because focusing on the issue will hurt Obama with the constituency they are targeting. Have you written other pieces on request? Uh, I'm a member of NOW -- and I'd like you to write about McCain and his history of treating the women in his life poorly and his love of deeply misogynistic jokes.
Jonathan Weisman: I get bugged by virtually every interest group on every topic. Sometimes they have a good story, sometimes not. But everyone has the right of request, and I have the right of refusal. And of course, if I did a story that Right to Life was pushing, I would play it straight. There's no guarantee they'd be happy with the final product.
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Alexandria, Va.: If John McCain didn't like Souter, Ginsburg or Breyer, why didn't he vote against them when they were up for confirmation?
Jonathan Weisman: Remember, he's part of the Gang of 14. That means he seems to think a presidential nominee deserves a hearing, unless he or she is egregiously out of the mainstream (whatever that means).
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McCain's Vice President: So what is Lindsay Graham -- just a dinner date?
Jonathan Weisman: He's the butt of a lot of corny McCain jokes. And increasingly a lot of unflattering profiles. But he seems to enjoy it nonetheless.
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Anonymous: Senate Democrats will pick up a few seats. Will they finally throw Lieberman overboard for his comments that Democrats aren't patriotic for not supporting the Iraq war, his campaigning for McCain and his bashing of Obama?
Jonathan Weisman: If they're close to 60, they'll keep him aboard. If they end up with, say, 56, there will be enormous sentiment to punish him. Stay tuned.
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Fairfax, Va.: If Obama does win and Democrats expand their majorities in the House and Senate as expected, what is the thinking about how they will pursue their agenda? Will they pursue compromises to get some legislation on pressing issues passed, or will it still be an "us against them" mentality where winning is defined as beating the opposition instead of passing any substantive bills? You mentioned that talk of Bob Gates staying on was booed, which seems silly considering he's been a very effective secretary, pushing for reform in a way a lot of Democrats like.
Jonathan Weisman: A good question. If the Democrats get 60 votes in the Senate (or even 58), they will be tempted to dam the torpedoes. Obama might be president but Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi control the legislative calendar. Still, as I hear it, they'll give Obama a few early slam dunks, like expanding the children's health insurance program and alternative energy production, then take their time on the big issues, like universal health care.
Iraq is the big question mark. Does Congress sit back and see what a President Obama does on his own or does Pelosi force the issue?
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Anonymous: Fred Thompson for vice president?
Jonathan Weisman: He was such an awesome candidate for president, I don't see how McCain could resist.
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Gainesboro, Tenn.: McCain won the first debate, is what people are saying here. They also say Obama lost the faith-based voters. People I talk to also say after hearing Obama's answers on the security of this country that they have a nervous gut about it. I've also seen a touch of anger about the resistance by the states against the offshore drilling -- the old not-in-my-back-yard statement is seen as a lack of respect for their sacrifice for the needs and security of this country.
Jonathan Weisman: Yet another reason why Barack Obama has written off Tennessee.
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Fairfax, Va.: Greg Mankiw has a blog post up stating that under the Obama tax plan, top effective marginal tax rates would rise to close to 50 percent, not seen since the 1986 Tax Reform bill passed. Given that high tax rates like that could inhibit economic growth, when will events force elected officials and candidates running for office to offer proposals to reform entitlement programs, which suck up the majority of the federal budget?
washingtonpost.com: Questions About the Obama Tax Plan (Tax Foundation, Aug. 14)
Jonathan Weisman: The tax code would be remarkably skewed under the Obama plan, since he leaves the bottom rates unchanged, and only lifts the top two. That might be good politics. Most people wouldn't see a tax increase at all. But that really is a sharp bump on incomes over $250,000.
The question is how the tax code, the entitlement issues, health care, and the alternative minimum tax all play together? Will the next president try to tackle all of them together or do it piecemeal? There is a strong argument that all of this needs a grand solution.
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Maryland: Not a question, but a really funny Wikipedia quote: "The Cone of Silence is one of many recurring joke devices from 'Get Smart,' an American comedy television series of the 1960s. Invented by 'Professor Cone,' the device is designed to protect the most secret of conversations (aka 'C.O.S. security risks') by enshrouding its users within a transparent sound-proof shield. Unfortunately, Control had purchased the device from a 'discount place' rather than the federal government, so it has never worked properly. Naturally, this frustrating situation provides fuel for comedy."
Jonathan Weisman: Amazing how these things migrate into the vernacular.
_______________________
Arlington, Va.: Between Barack's seemingly arrogant comments regarding his speech in Berlin and Pelosi's latest comment that Obama is "a leader that God has blessed us with at this time," I'm hoping the party can stay focused. C'mon folks, unless you've been in a cave for a while, this is a pretty close race according to the polls. If the plan is to win, better keep your head in the game!
Jonathan Weisman: Passing it along.
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Anonymous: I maybe reading too much into it but, Bush and Rice over the weekend appeared nervous and worried as they talked about the Russia/Georgia situation. I think there is more to this than we know
Jonathan Weisman: Ummm, the biggest nuclear power just invaded a neighbor and is threatening Poland. The U.S. has been asleep on the Russia issue for a long time. I'm nervous with what is lying in plain sight. Why does there have to be more?
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Pittsburgh: Will Mr McCain's ties to Ralph Reed become an issue after their fundraiser? I thought Reed was the guy who whipped up opposition to gambling in order to help his buddy Abramoff soak competing tribes for zillions of dollars.
Jonathan Weisman: I do find this amazing. John McCain (and his alter ego, Mark Salter) used to absolutely hate Reed. They put incredibly damning Reed and Abramoff e-mails into their report out of the Indian Affairs Committee, seemingly going out of their way to discredit the guy. Reed seemed to be suing for peace this spring. The fact that McCain and Salter are grasping the olive branch is quite shocking to me.
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Washington: A number of folks seem to support additional offshore drilling or drilling in the ANWR or other ways of getting more oil out of the ground, but worldwide consumption (and of course U.S. consumption) drives the price. How would we earmark the "extra" oil we hope to recover so that it makes it to the U.S. market? Won't China or India or some other oil consuming country just offer to pay a higher price per barrel?
Jonathan Weisman: Oil prices are set on global commodity markets. There's no way to earmark anything. If demand increases, prices should drop, but the Energy Information Administration predicts that drop would be very small and by the time the oil is out of the ground, increased demand will have swallowed it.
Nonetheless, oil is oil and more of it will help more or less. The best argument against drilling is that going for more of the junk keeps the junkie from breaking the habit.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: August 19, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
August 18, 2008 Monday 9:55 AM EST
Retreating from the Capital
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: OPINION
LENGTH: 2204 words
HIGHLIGHT: Washington, which likes to think of itself as the indispensable city for high-stakes journalism, is losing its luster.
Washington, which likes to think of itself as the indispensable city for high-stakes journalism, is losing its luster.
A full-blown withdrawal is underway, with newspaper companies reducing their troops here or pulling them out altogether.
"The folks back home see a Washington bureau as a luxury," says Bill Walsh, a former correspondent for the New Orleans Times-Picayune who recently left journalism. "They get plenty of copy from the wires to fill up their pages. I don't know that there's a real understanding of Washington."
The latest to pull the plug is the Newhouse News Service, which employs 11 reporters. Linda Fibich, the bureau chief, says the individual Newhouse papers, from Newark to New Orleans, will have to decide whether to pay for their own correspondents to be stationed in the capital.
"They know the issues, they know the characters," Fibich says. "I've watched people parachute into Washington, and they just don't have the same facility." Regional reporters, she says, "get embedded in Washington, just as reporters develop sources at City Hall or the school board. You go beyond stenography into enterprise."
The reason for this pullback is hardly a mystery. Newspapers are under fierce financial pressure, shrinking their staffs as advertising revenue plunges. Barely a day goes by without another grim announcement: The San Francisco Chronicle, offering buyouts to 125 journalists. The Cincinnati Enquirer, looking to cut 50. Florida's Sarasota Herald-Tribune, slicing its staff by a third in two years. Newhouse's Newark Star-Ledger, saying it will sell the paper unless the staff is cut by 20 percent.
In this climate, more editors are concluding that they should put all their eggs in the local-news basket.
But something is being lost. Regional reporting is a specialty that lacks the glamour of following the president around the world or popping off on cable television, but it's not a matter of journalistic vanity. Its practitioners follow the local congressional delegation and bird-dog federal agencies over matters important to their readers. Without them, there's a sizable gap between the national political writers and the local scribes back home.
David Lightman was the Hartford Courant's Washington bureau chief for 23 years, but in recent years the staff shrank from five to just him. Gone were the reporters who focused on defense and health-care issues, two vital areas for Connecticut. "The coverage obviously suffered. After '04 we never went to the White House anymore," says Lightman, who left last fall to join McClatchy Newspapers.
Maine's Portland Press Herald hired Jonathan Kaplan to be its Washington correspondent in December. His job was eliminated last month, and the Press Herald has put itself up for sale amid dire warnings about the company's future.
"I was crushed . . . . I will never look at someone who has lost his job the same way," Kaplan says. He says his brief tenure convinced him that "if you can get around the jargon we all talk in and make clear why this matters, it will be read."
Chuck McCutcheon spent six years with Newhouse's Washington bureau, first as one of a dozen national correspondents; there are now three. "We didn't go to press conferences and cover the story of the day," he says. "We were all trying to do broader trend stories."
McCutcheon, who calls the shuttering of the news service "devastating," was hired in 2002 to cover homeland security. "It was a hot topic," he says, "but as we got further from 9/11, fewer and fewer papers would run homeland security stories. Sometimes our copy got lost in the shuffle. It was obviously frustrating." He started at Congressional Quarterly two weeks ago.
Insiders expect the Tribune Co. to reduce its Washington presence by combining the bureaus of its two largest papers, the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. Some individual papers, such as Salt Lake's Deseret News, have shuttered their Washington bureaus, while others have downsized. The Philadelphia Inquirer is down to one reporter who does investigative stories. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette once shared four full-time Washington correspondents with its sister paper in Toledo; it has had no one here this year, although Executive Editor David Shribman says he hopes to add one reporter in the next month or so.
"Sometimes the local story isn't sitting right here in your Zip code or area code," says Shribman, a former Washington bureau chief of the Boston Globe. "Oftentimes it's in Washington. Nobody can afford the kind of Washington coverage we all used to do. We're in a struggle of trying to figure out how to provide the coverage we need and still stay within our economic constraints."
The journalists who cover the pols most intensively can get under their skin. In 2006, Rick Santorum, then a Pennsylvania senator, cursed at Brett Lieberman, the Washington reporter who covered him for the Harrisburg Patriot-News, saying: "I have to raise tens of millions of dollars because of the junk you feed the people of Pennsylvania." Lieberman lost his Washington post last week with the announced closing of the Newhouse bureau.
Walsh, the former Times-Picayune correspondent, said regional reporters in Washington specialize in "tracking who's getting the money and what favors these people are getting in return. Not to get on too high a horse, but it's vital to a healthy democracy. That's what's being lost, the real scrutiny for members of Congress."
But newspapers can no longer do it all. Times-Picayune Editor Jim Amoss plans to add a second Washington reporter but is not especially perturbed by the closing of the Newhouse bureau, which the chain's papers had underwritten. "If I were given a choice between thoughtful, original, national journalism practiced at our Washington bureau and intensive investigation of Louisiana matters, I would have to choose the latter," Amoss says. "In the end, the value of newspapers having vigorous local coverage trumps the kind of pieces a larger bureau was able to produce."
There is another factor as well. Newspapers are increasingly trying to peddle their wares online, where thousands of news snippets swirl around in an undifferentiated mass. People may follow a link from Yahoo or Drudge or the Huffington Post and read a single story on the newspaper site, which is very different from the way they peruse the ink-on-paper version.
In this environment, branding is the key, whether as the go-to place for news about Hollywood (the Los Angeles Times) or the Brett Favre soap opera (the Green Bay Press-Gazette). And it's difficult to market having the best Washington coverage of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation.
Perhaps the shift also reflects a boredom with Washington in the eighth year of the Bush presidency, at a time when terror alerts have faded and Congress seems gridlocked about everything. If so, more papers might shore up their bureaus at the start of an Obama or McCain administration. But unless Paris Hilton is given a Cabinet post, that's not very likely.
The Saddleback Church forum, carried by the cable nets Saturday night, got overshadowed by Michael Phelps and the Olympics. But Rick Warren asked questions you never would have heard from a network anchor, and elicited some revealing responses, as the L.A. Times reports:
"In the two-hour forum at Orange County's Saddleback Church, Obama told Pastor Rick Warren that it was 'above my pay grade' to define when a baby gets human rights, while McCain quickly answered, 'At the moment of conception.'
"Obama offered more nuanced and analytical answers on some issues important to conservative voters: abortion, same-sex marriage and stem-cell research. But Obama, a Christian who until recently attended Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, was more revealing about his faith.
"Explaining what it meant to him to be a Christian, the Democrat talked of 'walking humbly with our God.' 'I know that I don't walk alone, and I know that if I can get myself out of the way that I can maybe carry out in some small way what he intends,' he said."
Equally interesting was each man's confession of his biggest sin. Barack Obama chose his self-absorption that led to teenage drug use, while John McCain, in the post-Edwards climate, offered the breakup of his first marriage, an allusion to his past infidelity.
Andrew Sullivan likes what he saw from Obama:
"This is a masterful performance. Having watched nothing but ads and soundbites and speeches for the past few weeks, I'd forgotten a little bit what a class act he can be . . . 'I want people to know me well.' 'We will get the president we need.' There's a strange calm to the guy, a self-distancing that isn't simply aloofness. Maybe it's faith."
And here's Sullivan on McCain:
"I don't mean to sound churlish but the cliches are pretty overwhelming at this point. America's best days are ahead . . . etc etc. . . . McCain's evolution into a candidate who knows how to stroke the Christianist base is somewhat impressive. It was a little canned at times, but it will work with evangelicals. All in all, this struck me as pretty much a draw. But it also struck me that the questions could have been asked in a non-religious setting and by a real journalist who might have even followed up the questions and not allowed both candidates, but especially McCain, to go on anecdote auto-pilot."
National Review's Byron York calls it the other way, saying Warren's "simple, direct, big questions brought out something we don't usually see in a presidential face-off; in this forum, as opposed to a read-the-prompter speech, or even a debate focused on the issues of the moment, the candidates were forced to call on everything they had -- the things they have done and learned throughout their lives. And the fact is, John McCain has lived a much bigger life than Barack Obama. That's not a slam at Obama; McCain has lived a much bigger life than most people. But it still made Obama look small in comparison. McCain was the clear winner of the night."
McCain has had experiences almost no one has. But he has told those POW tales before.
This sounds like a stretch--blaming one senator for local murders?--as reported by the Chicago Tribune:
"Murders have risen 18 percent over a year ago. Assaults in the city involving guns are also rising. City officials, Police Supt. Jody Weis and the police force are increasingly coming under criticism. But some Republicans say part of the blame also lies with Obama.
"They argue that while serving Illinois as its junior senator and earlier, when the Democratic candidate for president was a state lawmaker, Obama didn't do enough to make violent crime a priority. Specifically, they point to Obama's votes over gun legislation and the death penalty."
Does this mean we have to keep watching those endless wind-power commercials?
"Democrat Barack Obama met yesterday with Texas oil baron and longtime conservative activist T. Boone Pickens to discuss strategies for developing alternative energy.
"The presidential hopeful praised Pickens, a native of Oklahoma, as a 'legendary entrepreneur' and deflected a question about the billionaire's role in helping to fund a television ad campaign that undermined John F. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee. 'You know, he's got a longer track record than that,' Obama told reporters when asked about Pickens's association with the ads by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth."
I wonder what Kerry, who's been out there pushing Obama, thinks about this.
I've been fulminating for weeks about the media's greater volume of Obama coverage, and WP ombudsman Deborah Howell takes the paper to task:
"Democrat Barack Obama has had about a 3 to 1 advantage over Republican John McCain in Post Page 1 stories since Obama became his party's presumptive nominee June 4. Obama has generated a lot of news by being the first African American nominee, and he is less well known than McCain -- and therefore there's more to report on. But the disparity is so wide that it doesn't look good.
"In overall political stories from June 4 to Friday, Obama dominated by 142 to 96. Obama has been featured in 35 stories on Page 1; McCain has been featured in 13, with three Page 1 references with photos to stories on inside pages."
A Post editor rightly says it's not a numbers game and that judgments about newsworthiness must be made. But over a two-month period, those figures seem really tilted.
The government hasn't apologized to Steven Hatfill for wrongly fingering him as the anthrax assailant, but as NYT ombudsman Clark Hoyt tells us, that's not the case for everyone:
"Nicholas D. Kristof, a Times Op-Ed columnist, intends to be more stand-up. He pointed to Hatfill as someone needing closer investigation in a series of columns in 2002 castigating the F.B.I. for 'an unbelievably lethargic' investigation of the anthrax attacks. Now that Hatfill, a former government biologist, has been formally cleared, Kristof told me he plans to write a column looking back on the case and apologizing to Hatfill for any 'extra scrutiny and upheaval the columns brought to him, and wrestling with the journalistic issues involved.' "
Now you know: The oldest person on Facebook is a 102-year-old woman.
LOAD-DATE: August 20, 2008
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The New York Times
August 17, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
How to Erase That Smea...
BYLINE: By PAUL VITELLO
SECTION: Section WK; Column 0; Week in Review Desk; THE NATION; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 1436 words
When Thomas Jefferson found himself accused of planning to burn all Bibles and legalize prostitution if elected president in 1800, he was ready with a counterpunch that might make today's most vitriolic campaign operatives stop short, if only to gape upon the greatness that once was presidential campaign slander.
Jefferson's rival, President John Adams, was endowed with a ''hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman''; and if re-elected he would crown himself king; and, by the way, he was ''mentally deranged.''
The author of the attacks was not Jefferson himself, of course, but a master poison-pen pamphleteer named James Callender, who, historians have since determined, was bankrolled completely by Jefferson. (For his efforts, Callender spent nine months in prison under the Sedition Act for saying those things about a sitting president; Jefferson pardoned him immediately after defeating Adams and taking office.)
So, if this year's entries in the annals of presidential campaign smears seem likely to reach depths never before plumbed -- the latest example, some would say, being the book ''Obama Nation,'' which suggests that Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, may be a drug-addicted, Muslim, radical leftist -- they probably won't.
For raw, crushing smear power, the 1964 ''Daisy'' ad, made for President Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign and suggesting that the election of the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater, would mean the end of life on earth, has still never quite been equaled.
And the 11th-hour telephone ''survey'' of Republican primary voters in South Carolina in 2000, asking ''Would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?'' will probably keep its place on the Mount Rushmore of smear for a while.
But while hermaphroditical characters and nuclear madmen may be missing, historians and others say the 2008 presidential campaign has achieved a level of smear and counter-smear sophistication that is unprecedented.
''The viral marketing we are seeing is simply fascinating,'' said Sid Bedingfield, a visiting professor of journalism at the University of South Carolina who is the former chief of CNN's domestic news coverage. ''The speed with which the Obama campaign can respond to allegations has been quite impressive, for example.''
For a long time there was a debate in the world of political professionals about when, and how much, to respond to the other side's brickbats.
But the very notion of viral marketing, a phrase that describes the exponential multiplication of e-mailed campaign messages sent to one network of people who send it on to another reflects the answer that has emerged from that debate: Never wait. Everything is moving at warp speed.
''The lesson of the last 20 years is to respond immediately and aggressively, and across a broad front,'' Professor Bedingfield said.
By most accounts of campaign professionals, campaigns operate now like orbiting spacecraft -- moving through space 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- and are every bit as susceptible to sudden disaster.
The unending news cycle, the explosion of the blogosphere and the freelance work of independent groups like the Swift Boat veterans of 2004, whose campaign severely undercut John Kerry's bid for president, has made every campaign entourage a kind of road crew cum paramedic team.
''When the Swift Boat ads hit us, it was obviously a serious matter, aimed straight at John's character,'' said Tad Devine, Mr. Kerry's campaign manager. ''We had a difficult decision to make.''
This year, some candidates have figured out how to turn the so-called interactivity of the new age of politics to their advantage. In June, plagued by Internet rumors about its candidate's patriotism and his religion, Mr. Obama's presidential campaign launched a Web page, ''Fight the Smears,'' that in effect can take the negative power of viral marketing and bend it, like Superman, to send it back where it came from and beyond.
Supporters who get such e-mail messages can visit the Obama site to access official campaign rebuttals to dozens of accusations, and then use the site to forward them to those who sent and received the original message.
Still, for all the new technology, the essential text of smears today is about the same as it has always been, said Paul F. Boller Jr., a former history professor at Texas Christian University and author of ''Presidential Campaigns: From George Washington to George W. Bush.''
''Religion and sex, and whether the other guy is a real 'man,' '' Mr. Boller said. ''It boils down to that.'' The difference now: ''If Winfield Scott's people went out and attacked Franklin Pierce as a coward,'' he said, referring to the election of 1852, which Pierce won, ''well in those days it took a while for that idea to get around.''
The rhythm of campaigning may have quickened, but the notion that a counterpunch delayed was a counterpunch denied did not seem to take hold in conventional wisdom until 1988.
That year, Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts fell under the wheels of a negative campaign juggernaut -- watching from a dignified remove as the supporters of George H. W. Bush wiped out Mr. Dukakis's 17-point lead by defining him as the man who furloughed the rapist-killer Willie Horton. Largely in response, Bill Clinton's famous 1992 campaign ''war room'' made it a policy to rebut or refute opposition accusations within 24 hours.
In the 2004 campaign, when Mr. Kerry came under attack in a television ad campaign and a book co-written by Jerome Corsi, the author of ''Obama Nation,'' disputing his Vietnam record, Mr. Kerry held back.
''The question at the time was, do we spend money in August to fight this thing,'' recalled Mr. Devine, ''or do we hold onto it until October, when people really make up their minds?''
By general accord, the smear campaigns that work seem to be the ones that contain a grain of truth, no matter how small.
''The mainstream press was pretty quick to vet the claims of the Swift Boaters, and show that most of what they were saying was inaccurate,'' Professor Bedingfield said. ''But it played into a narrative that already existed about Kerry -- that he was somehow a person who might shift with the wind, might not be enough of a leader or whatever.''
''With Dukakis,'' he said, ''the Willie Horton ads worked because there was this underlying narrative about him being this Massachusetts governor who was just too liberal for mainstream America.'' (It was actually Mr. Dukakis's Republican predecessor who began the furlough program, though not for first-degree murderers, and although Mr. Dukakis personally had nothing to do with Mr. Horton's release, one of those responsible for the ad campaign, Floyd Brown, said, ''When we're through, people are going to think that Willie Horton is Michael Dukakis's nephew.'')
Is it ever possible to ignore an attack?
The consensus these days is no.
''One of our big mistakes in '04 was in listening a bit too much to the swing voters who kept telling us to 'accentuate the positive,' '' Mr. Devine said. ''They said they hated it when we came on too aggressively, like when Kerry called the president the most reckless president in our history.''
He said Mr. Kerry had initially wanted to hit back hard, and buy air time, to discredit the Swift Boat ads, which were paid for by a group that had no direct link to the current President Bush's re-election campaign.
''But the consensus was that we should just let it peter out,'' he said.
Al Tortorella, a public relations executive who specializes in corporate crisis management, said politicians were in some ways more vulnerable than the average business executive to being caught off guard by a smear -- and not just because they live in the public arena.
''People in the business world just assume that someone out there is waiting to knock their block off,'' he said. ''But with politicians, it almost seems like a lot of them kind of believe their own hype. They forget to duck.''
He says he tells clients to expect sooner or later that their every weakness and worst secret will be public information; and that even the best public relations ''strategy'' must eventually face the world as described by the philosopher-fighter Mike Tyson.
In his heyday, Tyson answered pre-fight interview questions about his opponents' strategies this way, Mr. Tortorella said: ''Yeah, they all have a strategy -- until they get hit.''
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: 1964: The ''Daisy'' TV ad suggested that Barry Goldwater was nothing less than a threat to life on earth.
2004: John Kerry's campaign wavered on whether to respond to the veterans who challenged his decorated service in Vietnam. (PHOTOGRAPH BY REUTERS)
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The New York Times
August 17, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Looking for Swing Votes in the Boardroom
BYLINE: By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ and STEVE LOHR
SECTION: Section BU; Column 0; Money and Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 3327 words
THE guests who sat down for lunch with Senator Barack Obama at the Fairmont Chicago hotel in June weren't his usual audience. It was also a closed-door affair -- no crowds, no reporters, no oratory -- and instead of speaking, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee mostly listened. But the nine men and two women dining with him were leaders of companies like Ford, JPMorgan Chase, Aetna and Duke Energy and were used to doing the talking anyway.
For Mr. Obama, the three-hour session marked the beginning of his campaign's plan to win over big business, a coterie usually associated with Republicans, not Democrats. Two weeks earlier, it had been Senator John McCain's turn to woo the business world.
With Meg Whitman, the former chief executive of eBay (and now a co-chairwoman of the McCain campaign) introducing him, Mr. McCain extolled tax cuts, free trade and reduced government spending before an audience of 800 small-business owners in Washington. Despite the backing of well-known corporate honchos like Ms. Whitman and Carleton S. Fiorina, the former head of Hewlett-Packard, Mr. McCain spoke out for the little people.
''For too long,'' he said, ''government has been the voice of big business, not small business.''
As both candidates prepare for the party conventions and publicly spar over economic issues and energy policy, a different battle is taking shape behind the scenes: winning the hearts and minds of America's business leaders.
Because the 2008 campaign coincides with an unusual confluence of economic events, the outreach goes beyond usual appeals to corporate leaders who are also major employers, big donors and opinion leaders with a global platform. The surge in oil prices, the housing collapse, staggering Wall Street losses and consumer anxiety have caused voters to put their pocketbooks front and center, and an election once thought to hinge on national security issues and the Iraq war now may turn on how candidates handle a deeply troubled economy.
According to John Zogby, a leading independent pollster, the economy ''is far and away the most important issue,'' with about 60 percent of people his organization has polled recently citing it as their top concern. Only about 20 percent of his respondents cited Iraq as their chief issue (which makes it second on the list of voter concerns).
''Voters don't like bad behavior on the part of C.E.O.'s, but economic populism really doesn't work'' as a campaign strategy, Mr. Zogby says. ''And both guys have to show leadership on the economy.''
Lining up the support of chief executives and their small-business brethren offers both candidates a chance to bolster their economic credentials while sending voters the message that they're ready to be the nation's chief executive. The courtship goes both ways. For executives in industries like energy, health care and banking who face the possibility of new regulations, a smooth working relationship with the White House isn't just desirable; it's essential.
AS different as the resumes of the two candidates are, the two men have something in common in this quest: a standing start. Mr. McCain wasn't the first choice of business -- that was his vanquished rival for the nomination, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts -- and Mr. McCain himself has acknowledged that economics is not his ''strong suit.''
Similarly, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton locked up support from Wall Street titans like John J. Mack of Morgan Stanley and Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs during the hard-fought primary contest with Mr. Obama, whose relatively brief time on the national stage never allowed him to acquire a gold-plated Rolodex.
''Both candidates present a considerable unknown for business,'' says John J. Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable, a corporate advocacy group made up of chief executives overseeing companies that collectively generate $4.5 trillion in sales, employ 10 million workers and pay 40 percent of all corporate income taxes in the country.
Mr. McCain is hard to predict because his positions are not uniformly pro-big business, Mr. Castellani says, and in the past he has criticized outsize executive pay. Mr. Obama, according to Mr. Castellani, has to build bridges with business because he is a relative unknown.
Naturally, both sides want what's now a flirtation to blossom into a full-blown partnership. ''They have to be seen as thoughtful, responsible stewards of economic policy who can get along with business and talk to business,'' Mr. Castellani adds. ''It's what they need and what we need.''
Still, reaching out to corporate America is a balancing act that carries rewards and risks for both candidates.
For Mr. McCain, the support of Ms. Whitman and Ms. Fiorina, as well as other executives like John T. Chambers of Cisco Systems and John A. Thain of Merrill Lynch, helps offset the perception that he's more adept at foreign policy and national security than economic issues. But it leaves him vulnerable to accusations of cozying up to special interests, just as critics from President Bush on down blame Wall Street for the excesses that created the housing bust.
In any event, big business isn't Mr. McCain's natural constituency, Ms. Whitman says. His personal manner and his political storyline of being a maverick outsider are anything but corporate. Instead, Mr. McCain is tilting toward small business, with his campaign calculating that he will be the default choice of big business anyway.
''John talks to and cares about big business, but he has the greatest affinity for small business, which creates more than 70 percent of the jobs in this country,'' Ms. Whitman says. ''His entire lens on economic policy is job creation and small business.''
Mr. Obama faces his own challenges. Though he criticized companies as having a ''quick kill'' mentality in a speech at the Nasdaq exchange last year -- and more recently blamed a lack of regulation of investment banks and mortgage providers for the housing crisis -- some of Wall Street's biggest names are flocking to Mr. Obama.
According to his advisers, Mr. Obama began formally courting the Street in June 2007, just as the mortgage crisis was gathering steam. Mr. Obama's Wall Street support now includes Laurence D. Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, and more recently, veteran financiers who supported Mrs. Clinton, like Steven Rattner, Blair W. Effron and Roger C. Altman.
Big-business endorsements can help inoculate Mr. Obama against the accusation that he's a tax-and-spend liberal. ''I've gotten calls for a year and half saying: 'Tell me about this guy. How do you know him?' '' says William M. Daley, who served as secretary of commerce in the Clinton administration before returning to Chicago, where he is a senior executive with JPMorgan Chase.
Mr. Daley, who is a national co-chairman of Mr. Obama's campaign as well as the son and brother of Chicago mayors, says that by introducing the candidate to chief executives and featuring him alongside other well-known business leaders, the campaign can reassure voters who don't know where he stands on economic issues and ''raise their comfort level.''
Like Mr. McCain, Mr. Obama risks inviting criticism for pandering to special interests, especially when it comes to anyone linked to the housing mess. One prominent adviser, the former Fannie Mae chief executive James A. Johnson, left the campaign in June amid a furor over mortgages he received on favorable terms from the Countrywide Financial Corporation.
No matter who wins in November, it's clear that solving challenges like escalating health care and energy costs will require close cooperation between corporate leaders and Washington.
''It's a shared responsibility,'' says Ronald A. Williams, the chief executive of Aetna and a participant in the Chicago lunch with Mr. Obama. ''It will take a public-private partnership.''
MR. McCAIN is not a straight-down-the-line corporate Republican candidate. His political hero, he has said, is Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican who had an appetite for occasionally taking on big business. For his part, Mr. McCain has advocated so-called say-on-pay legislation to require that all aspects of chief executive pay, including severance packages, be approved by shareholders.
But once he became the presumptive Republican nominee, he began shoring up his corporate network. He reached out to business leaders who had been for Mr. Romney, like Ms. Whitman, whom he called in late February.
Ms. Whitman advises the campaign on policy and communications strategy and does some fund-raising. She met Mr. McCain about five years ago, she said, when the issue of taxing Internet sales was being debated. Mr. McCain opposed taxes on online transactions, as do eBay and other Internet companies.
''I've long admired John McCain, and I told him I would be delighted to help him,'' Ms. Whitman recalls. ''And I said: 'I have good news for you, John. At the end of March, I'm stepping down as chief executive of eBay, so I'll have more time to work on the campaign.' ''
On April 16 in Wisconsin, Mr. McCain met with a dozen Midwestern business leaders -- including the chief executives of General Mills, Wisconsin Energy and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance -- to discuss economic policy. On May 22, he huddled with a group of entrepreneurs and executives in Silicon Valley, including Mr. Chambers and Ms. Whitman, to discuss innovation policy.
Mr. McCain has been on the national stage for years, and his profile as an unapologetic free trader and tax cutter is clearly pro-business. But he has spent less time wooing big business than trying to mine the rich lode of votes among the nation's 26 million small businesses.
''McCain's style makes the big-business crowd uncomfortable, but they will back him in the election because of his conservative, free-market policies,'' said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California, who worked on Mr. McCain's 2000 campaign. ''The small-business crowd likes him for reasons of both policy and persona.''
In June, Mr. McCain spoke to hundreds of small-business owners at a gathering in Washington convened by the National Federation of Independent Business, a trade group. ''That was John McCain's core constituency in that room,'' Ms. Whitman says.
Mr. McCain began the meeting with a characteristic bit of self-deprecating humor. ''I have never run a small, struggling business -- unless you count my presidential campaign last year,'' he said. He then presented an economic game plan filled with tax cuts and tax credits, including ones for individuals and families to buy their own health care. He praised the virtues of free trade but also called for improved federal aid for workers whose jobs have moved overseas.
At the conference, Mr. McCain said Republicans needed to reclaim their legacy as the party of fiscal restraint while also elevating the role that government can play in the economy. His goal, he said, is ''not to denigrate government but to make it better, not to deride it but to restore its good name.''
Mike Nobis, president of JK Creative Printers and Mailing, a printing company in Quincy, Ill., attended the Washington gathering and said recently that his most pressing business concern was the cost of health care for his 42 employees, which he estimated had soared 150 percent in the last five years.
Mr. Nobis voted for George W. Bush in the last two presidential elections and calls himself conservative, but he says he has not yet decided how he will vote this time. For the McCain campaign, though, he seems a good prospect.
''He's not a real polished individual, and that's good,'' Mr. Nobis says. ''When he tells you something, I think he really means it.''
As an emissary to small business, Ms. Whitman herself is a natural, given that the company she ran, eBay, is an Internet marketplace for so many entrepreneurial merchants. Yet Ms. Whitman, of course, can also tap her extensive chief executive network.
The highest-profile member of Mr. McCain's corporate team is Ms. Fiorina, who is chairwoman of the Republican National Committee's Victory '08 campaign to support the party's presidential and Congressional candidates. She often travels with the campaign, making speeches and media appearances as a self-described ''top advocate'' for Mr. McCain. Though she appears less in public, Ms. Whitman is working for the campaign nearly full time. The other senior members of the McCain corporate club -- Frederick W. Smith of FedEx, Mr. Chambers of Cisco and Mr. Thain of Merrill -- are sitting chief executives and are mainly offering policy advice and fund-raising.
MR. OBAMA'S leading ambassadors to the business world are Mr. Daley and Penny Pritzker, a leading Chicago businesswoman whose family founded the Hyatt hotel chain and who serves as the national finance chairwoman of his campaign. Mr. Daley and Ms. Pritzker have known Mr. Obama for years and have often appeared on television or at campaign functions on his behalf.
But the foot soldiers in his effort are a small cadre of executives who aren't as well known and, in some cases, were once firm backers of Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Obama's kitchen cabinet of business types also includes a younger generation of Wall Street bankers.
''Barack tended to attract the younger, up-and-coming leaders at big firms, and people in private equity,'' says Michael Froman, a Citigroup executive who was a classmate of Mr. Obama's at Harvard Law School and is one of his key informal economic advisers. ''Many of them had an interest in economic policy as well. We didn't have as many gray hairs at the table, so there was room for them.''
Typical of this breed is Mark T. Gallogly, co-founder of Centerbridge Partners, a private equity firm. He met Mr. Obama at a dinner two years ago and says he quickly ''became convinced he was someone I wanted to back.''
''He was remarkably clear-eyed and thoughtful about what the country needed to do,'' Mr. Gallogly adds.
In June 2007, Mr. Gallogly was co-host for a dinner at Johnny's Half Shell in Washington with Mr. Fink, inviting guests like Richard S. Fuld Jr., chief executive of Lehman Brothers; Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman; C. Robert Henrikson, the chief executive of MetLife; and Jerry I. Speyer, the New York real estate tycoon.
Mr. Obama impressed his audience, according to Mr. Fink. Mr. Volcker met him there for the first time and subsequently endorsed him. And Mr. Fink, who was enthusiastic but not convinced before the dinner, was also sold.
About two months ago, Mr. Obama asked Ms. Pritzker and Mr. Daley to broaden his business network. Formal approaches, according to Ms. Pritzker, grew out of the June lunch in Chicago, which included Obama allies like Ann Fudge, the former C.E.O. of Young & Rubicam Brands, and Rob Glaser, the chief executive of RealNetworks. There were also neutral executives like Allan R. Mulally of Ford and James A. Bell, the chief financial officer of Boeing.
James Dimon, the chief of JPMorgan Chase, was another attendee, and although he can't endorse either candidate because he is a director of the New York Fed, he is privately for Mr. Obama, said fellow Wall Streeters who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the issue.
Mr. Daley acknowledges that it can be an uphill battle. ''Face it,'' he says, ''most businesspeople at the big-business level areRepublicans, either knee-jerk or born into it.'' To lead the effort, Ms. Pritzker and Mr. Daley have turned to Mr. Gallogly, Mr. Rattner, Mr. Effron, Ms. Fudge and Robert Wolf, president of UBS Investment Bank.
While Obama campaign advisers are quick to say there is no separate or special outreach effort aimed at black businesspeople, at the same time the campaign is seeking to build on what they see as an outpouring of support from black business executives like Ms. Fudge and Charles E. Phillips Jr., the president of Oracle.
Within the tech world, another attractive constituency, executives have also been heavily wooed. Although he hasn't yet endorsed Mr. Obama, Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, has also emerged as an influential figure in the eyes of the Obama camp. ''He conveys generational change,'' Mr. Daley says of Mr. Schmidt, ''and no one has wrapped himself around the new technology and the new fund-raising space like Obama. So to that crowd, this is a message.''
In Washington a month after the lunch in Chicago, Mr. Obama convened a slightly more public roundtable on the economy that featured Mr. Schmidt, as well as Indra K. Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo; Robert E. Rubin, the former Treasury secretary; and Warren E. Buffett, who dialed in. Mr. Buffett, the respected Omaha investor, declined to comment, but he has raised money for Mr. Obama and has informally advised his campaign on economic policy.
Mr. Schmidt was impressed by Mr. Obama. ''He listened more than he talked, which is always a good thing,'' Mr. Schmidt says. ''He clearly sees himself as a clever synthesizer of other people's ideas. And I think that is an important skill in a president.''
EVEN as the candidates and big business woo each other, whatever relationship evolves may not ultimately be as smooth as that of President Bush or, for that matter, former President Bill Clinton.
''I don't think Senator Obama has an agenda for big business,'' Mr. Daley says. ''He's trying to affect the overall economy, and he's got to find a way to help people who are worse off. I don't think he loses any sleep worrying about how to craft a policy just for big business, nor should he, and I say that as a former commerce secretary.''
As a campaigner, Mr. McCain has often struck populist, anticorporate themes in railing against Wall Street greed and lofty chief executive pay. Still, his proposals on taxes, trade and restraint in government spending resonate with big business. ''I don't agree with Senator McCain on everything,'' said Mr. Smith, the FedEx chief, who is also a campaign co-chairman. ''But on the big issues that will determine whether the U.S. is prosperous and whether we improve the living standards of working people, I think he's right.''
Now, both candidates are refining their proposals in an attempt to address the country's thorniest economic challenges in decades.
Mr. McCain's tax plan could prove a windfall for corporate America. He has proposed trimming corporate rates to 25 percent from 35 percent. In his Senate career, Mr. McCain has a voting record that is 82 percent pro-business, as calculated by the United States Chamber of Commerce. Its rating for Mr. Obama, by contrast, is 42 percent.
Mr. Obama's team counters that further corporate tax cuts would worsen the deficit, estimated at roughly $400 billion for fiscal 2008. Instead, Mr. Obama has said he would be open to reducing overall corporate tax rates if existing loopholes could be closed.
On broader economic policy, the McCain campaign has signaled that it generally favors further deregulation, while Mr. Obama is likely to back a more aggressive regulatory approach.
As the party conventions near, it is likely that the mating dance with business will intensify. Mr. McCain will continue trying to adapt to the Internet age by bringing more tech leaders on board, while Mr. Obama builds on his Wall Street base with appeals to supporters of clean energy (and, if he is lucky enough to get them, a few smokestack-industry bosses, too).
For business leaders, the stakes will also remain high. That's among the reasons that Mr. Williams of Aetna rearranged his schedule at the last minute to join the June lunch with Mr. Obama.
Although he doesn't intend to endorse either candidate, Mr. Williams said he flew from Connecticut to Chicago ''to share our point of view.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: August 17, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: John McCain and Barack Obama are aiming to bolster their economic credentials by garnering support from business giants.
Henry R. Kravis: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Policy advice, fund-raising
Carleton S. Fiorina: Formerly of Hewlett-Packard Policy advice,campaigning
John A. Thain: Merrill Lynch Fund-raising, policy advice
Meg Whitman: Formerly of eBay Policy advice, campaign strategy
Scott G. McNealy: Sun Microsystems Policy advice
Frederick W. Smith: FedEx Policy advice, fund-raising
John T. Chambers: Cisco Systems Fund-raising, policy advice
William M. Daley: JPMorgan Chase Campaign strategy, outreach
Eric E. Schmidt: Google Policy advice
Michael Froman: Citigroup Policy advice, outreach
Penny Pritzker: Hyatt Fund-raising, outreach
Steven Rattner: Quadrangle Outreach, fund-raising
Ann Fudge: Formerly of Young & Rubicam Outreach
Laurence D. Fink: BlackRock Endorser (PHOTOGRAPH BY ELAINE HE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
PHOTOGRAPHS BY KEN CEDENO/BLOOMBERG NEWS (McCAIN) AND CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES (OBAMA))(BU1)
Businesspeople like Carleton S. Fiorina, formerly of Hewlett-Packard, lend John McCain economic credentials. (PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES DHARAPAK/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Barack Obama has met with executives like Indra K. Nooyi of PepsiCo and Eric E. Schmidt of Google. (PHOTOGRAPH BY CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES)(BU7)
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The New York Times
August 17, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Obama Backers Mobilize in Bid to Wrest State From Republican Grip
BYLINE: By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 1480 words
DATELINE: RALEIGH, N.C.
Under a scorching sun, hundreds of people lined up recently in a parking lot here to pick up free back-to-school supplies being distributed by a local radio station. Bobbing among the shade umbrellas were a handful of workers for Senator Barack Obama, carrying clipboards and voter registration forms.
On Monday night, others fanned out at a movie screening for surfers in Wrightsville Beach. They descended on a street festival in Asheville. When oil companies posted record profits, Obama supporters showed up at gas stations here with registration forms.
Despite the relentless heat, and midsummer lull, the Obama campaign is mobilizing in North Carolina. The state is one of half a dozen once-solid Republican bastions, including Georgia, Indiana and Virginia, where Democrats now sniff opportunity to expand the electoral map.
They hope that North Carolina's growth, especially among high-tech workers in Research Triangle Park, will help change voting patterns that are decades old. But the Obama strategy relies on a surge among black voters and young people, two groups that have not turned out in great numbers in recent elections.
To that end, the organization of Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has been conducting an intense registration drive, appearing wherever people gather, as well as singling out potential voters in neighborhoods and online, and reaching out to undecided voters. It has also reactivated the extensive volunteer network it built before crushing Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton here in the May primary, and it is already running television commercials.
The campaign of the presumed Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, by contrast, has been barely visible. But his camp says it is getting in gear, and it has history on its side.
North Carolina has not voted for a Democrat for president since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Even with John Edwards, then one of the state's senators, on the ticket in 2004, the Democrats lost here in a landslide. But they say the state is ripe this year for picking.
''The dynamics here are different than they ever have been,'' said Mr. Obama's state director, Marc Farinella, pointing to the influx of about 600,000 people since 2004.
Mr. Farinella said the Obama campaign would take advantage of this through an aggressive ground game and would speak to both affluent workers and those upended by trade policies that have cost the state tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs. The campaign will also try to exploit Mr. McCain's opposition to a $300 billion farm bill approved by Congress.
''The race here will wind up being very tight,'' Mr. Farinella said. ''But I believe we'll wind up ahead -- we've got the volunteers, the excitement, his call for economic change, the trade issue. A lot of these things make North Carolina fertile territory for us.''
Mr. McCain's political director and deputy campaign manager, Mike DuHaime, said the state was still fundamentally conservative.
''I don't disavow that on paper this could be closer than last time, and Obama is spending money,'' he said. ''My question is, can you move this 13, 14 points from where you were when you had a North Carolinian on the ticket?'' a reference to the vote spread in 2004 when Mr. Edwards and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts lost to President Bush, 56 percent to 43.6 percent.
The average of the latest polls here, as of Wednesday, showed Mr. McCain with a lead of 4.3 percentage points over Mr. Obama, a difference that is barely significant statistically. One unknown with a black candidate on the ballot here is whether voters are telling pollsters the truth about how they intend to vote.
Another is whether Mr. Edwards's recently admitted affair will create a backlash against Democrats.
Mr. Obama has spent more than $1.9 million on television commercials here since mid-June. He has opened 16 offices in the state since early July.
His blueprint calls for deploying 625 teams, of four to six volunteers each, to blanket the state's 2,762 electoral precincts. So far, more than half the teams are in place, each with captains who are committed to contributing at least 10 hours a week. Almost 6,000 volunteers are actively engaged to some degree.
Obama headquarters in Chicago would not confirm the number of paid staff members it had in the various states, but the number in North Carolina is believed to be close to the estimated 150 it has deployed in another battleground state, Missouri, where Mr. McCain is two points ahead.
By contrast, the McCain campaign, which has less money, is relying heavily for resources on the state party and the Republican National Committee. With their help, the McCain campaign opened its office here in the capital on Monday, and six others in the last two weeks. It has a dozen paid staff members and has spent nothing on local television.
Democratic registration in the state is soaring, with 45,000 new registrants since May, and 7,000 new Republicans. About 44,000 have registered as unaffiliated.
Gary Bartlett, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said he expected more than six million people to be registered by the fall and that 4 million to 4.2 million would vote, up from 3.5 million who voted in 2004.
Analysts say the key here for Mr. Obama will be raising the percentage of blacks who vote and winning over more whites than Democrats have previously.
''Definitely, there is the real potential for black voters to become a more substantial part of the electorate this year,'' said Tom Jensen, a Democratic pollster. ''And that's what it will take.''
In 2000, blacks made up 17.3 percent of the vote, and in 2004 they made up 18.6 percent, according to the state elections board. To win this year, by Mr. Jensen's calculations, Mr. Obama needs blacks to make up 23 percent of the electorate while also winning at least 35 percent of the white vote. Others say he may need more.
So far, the rate of black registration (up 9.8 percent over 2004) is outpacing white registration (up 4.6 percent), but at the current rate blacks would make up only 20 percent of the electorate.
Bob Barr of Georgia, who is running for president as a Libertarian, may be a factor here in draining white votes from Mr. McCain. That could be a boon to Mr. Obama and might mean he could win with less than 50 percent of the total.
Raising the percentage of white voters could be a challenge for him, as it was in the primaries. In 2004, Mr. Kerry won about 32 percent of the state's white vote, Mr. Jensen said.
Some of Mr. Obama's positions, like his view that affirmative action should be applied by class, not race, and that the death penalty is acceptable in some cases, may appeal to these voters.
Other positions, like his support for some regulation of guns, could prove more problematic. Gov. Michael F. Easley, a Democrat who had supported Mrs. Clinton and now backs Mr. Obama, was asked how the ''Hank Hills'' of the world might vote, a reference to the animated television character who embodies small-town conservative values. ''The jury is still out on Obama,'' he said. ''They're watching.''
But Mr. Easley said Mr. Obama could win by focusing on economic issues. ''If people see Barack Obama watching out for them on the economy,'' the governor said, ''they'll vote for him.''
While Democrats often win state and local elections, they have a harder time at the national level. Usually they are perceived as more liberal than most North Carolinians, said Ferrel Guillory, an expert on Southern politics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, particularly on the bedrock issues of ''guns, God and gays.''
''Democrats who get elected in North Carolina are not Northeastern liberal Democrats,'' he said. In states like North Carolina, the McCain campaign is likely to make the cultural divide the fault line in November.
''Democrats who are successful in North Carolina and Virginia and other conservative states tend to be centrists and moderates, especially on the Second Amendment,'' Mr. DuHaime of the McCain camp said. ''No one would describe Obama as a centrist.''
But the Obama organization is steadily gaining recruits and putting them to work.
Jennifer Lasater, 38, a project manager at a software company here, donated $25 online to the campaign recently and then joined a registration drive through a breast-cancer awareness event. Now she is canvassing and calling voters and at night entering voter information into the campaign's extensive voter database.
''The thought that North Carolina could vote for a Democrat made me think that if there's something I could do to make that happen, that would be valuable,'' Ms. Lasater said. ''I figure, if my mother-in-law, who is fairly conservative, told me out of the blue that she was planning to vote for Obama, he has a chance in this state.''
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LOAD-DATE: August 17, 2008
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: The Obama campaign has invested large amounts of resources in North Carolina, which traditionally votes Republican. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JEREMY M. LANGE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.A14)
Marc Farinella, the campaign director for Senator Barack Obama in North Carolina, says the state is ''fertile territory for us.''
Rodney and Cheryl Ellis, shown with their children, are among the volunteers for the Obama campaign in North Carolina. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEREMY M. LANGE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.A21) CHART: HOW NORTH CAROLINA VOTED IN PRESIDENTIAL RACES (Source: Dave Leip's At
as of U.S. Presidential Elections.) (pg.A21)
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Series
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
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The New York Times
August 17, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
The Most Trusted Man In America?
BYLINE: By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
SECTION: Section AR; Column 0; Arts and Leisure Desk; TELEVISION; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 2972 words
IT'S been more than eight years since ''The Daily Show With Jon Stewart'' made its first foray into presidential politics with the presciently named Indecision 2000, and the difference in the show's approach to its coverage then and now provides a tongue-in-cheek measure of the show's striking evolution.
In 1999, the ''Daily Show'' correspondent Steve Carell struggled to talk his way off Senator John McCain's overflow press bus -- ''a repository for outcasts, misfits and journalistic bottom-feeders'' -- and onto the actual Straight Talk Express, while at the 2000 Republican Convention Mr. Stewart self-deprecatingly promised exclusive coverage of ''all the day's events -- at least the ones we're allowed into.'' In this year's promotional spot for ''The Daily Show's'' convention coverage, the news newbies have been transformed into a swaggering A Team -- ''the best campaign team in the universe ever,'' working out of '' 'The Daily Show' news-scraper: 117 stories, 73 situation rooms, 26 news tickers,'' and promising to bring ''you all the news stories -- first ... before it's even true.''
Though this spot is the program's mocking sendup of itself and the news media's mania for self-promotion, it inadvertently gets at one very real truth: the emergence of ''The Daily Show'' as a genuine cultural and political force. When Americans were asked in a 2007 poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press to name the journalist they most admired, Mr. Stewart, the fake news anchor, came in at No. 4, tied with the real news anchors Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw of NBC, Dan Rather of CBS and Anderson Cooper of CNN. And a study this year from the center's Project for Excellence in Journalism concluded that '' 'The Daily Show' is clearly impacting American dialogue'' and ''getting people to think critically about the public square.''
While the show scrambled in its early years to book high-profile politicians, it has since become what Newsweek calls ''the coolest pit stop on television,'' with presidential candidates, former presidents, world leaders and administration officials signing on as guests. One of the program's signature techniques -- using video montages to show politicians contradicting themselves -- has been widely imitated by ''real'' news shows, while Mr. Stewart's interviews with serious authors like Thomas Ricks, George Packer, Seymour Hersh, Michael Beschloss and Reza Aslan have helped them and their books win a far wider audience than they otherwise might have had.
Most important, at a time when Fox, MSNBC and CNN routinely mix news and entertainment, larding their 24-hour schedules with bloviation fests and marathon coverage of sexual predators and dead celebrities, it's been ''The Daily Show'' that has tenaciously tracked big, ''super depressing'' issues like the cherry-picking of prewar intelligence, the politicization of the Department of Justice and the efforts of the Bush White House to augment its executive power.
For that matter, the Comedy Central program -- which is not above using silly sight gags and sophomoric sex jokes to get a laugh -- has earned a devoted following that regards the broadcast as both the smartest, funniest show on television and a provocative and substantive source of news. ''The Daily Show'' resonates not only because it is wickedly funny but also because its keen sense of the absurd is perfectly attuned to an era in which cognitive dissonance has become a national epidemic. Indeed, Mr. Stewart's frequent exclamation ''Are you insane?!'' seems a fitting refrain for a post-M*A*S*H, post-''Catch-22'' reality, where the surreal and outrageous have become commonplace -- an era kicked off by the wacko 2000 election standoff in Florida, rocked by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and haunted by the fallout of a costly war waged on the premise of weapons of mass destruction that did not exist.
MR. STEWART describes his job as ''throwing spitballs'' from the back of the room and points out that ''The Daily Show'' mandate is to entertain, not inform. Still, he and his writers have energetically tackled the big issues of the day -- ''the stuff we find most interesting,'' as he said in an interview at the show's Midtown Manhattan offices, the stuff that gives them the most ''agita,'' the sometimes somber stories he refers to as his ''morning cup of sadness.'' And they've done so in ways that straight news programs cannot: speaking truth to power in blunt, sometimes profane language, while using satire and playful looniness to ensure that their political analysis never becomes solemn or pretentious.
''Hopefully the process is to spot things that would be grist for the funny mill,'' Mr. Stewart, 45, said. ''In some respects, the heavier subjects are the ones that are most loaded with opportunity because they have the most -- you know, the difference between potential and kinetic energy? -- they have the most potential energy, so to delve into that gives you the largest combustion, the most interest. I don't mean for the audience. I mean for us. Everyone here is working too hard to do stuff we don't care about.''
Offices for ''The Daily Show'' occupy a sprawling loftlike space that combines the energy of a newsroom with the laid-back vibe of an Internet start-up: many staff members wear jeans and flip-flops, and two amiable dogs wander the hallways. The day begins with a morning meeting where material harvested from 15 TiVos and even more newspapers, magazines and Web sites is reviewed. That meeting, Mr. Stewart said, ''would be very unpleasant for most people to watch: it's really a gathering of curmudgeons expressing frustration and upset, and the rest of the day is spent trying to mask or repress that through whatever creative devices we can find.''
The writers work throughout the morning on deadline pieces spawned by breaking news, as well as longer-term projects, trying to find, as Josh Lieb, a co-executive producer of the show, put it, stories that ''make us angry in a whole new way.'' By lunchtime, Mr. Stewart (who functions as the show's managing editor and says he thinks of hosting as almost an afterthought) has begun reviewing headline jokes. By 3 p.m. a script is in; at 4:15, Mr. Stewart and the crew rehearse that script, along with assembled graphics, sound bites and montages. There is an hour or so for rewrites -- which can be intense, newspaper-deadlinelike affairs -- before a 6 o'clock taping with a live studio audience.
What the staff is always looking for, Mr. Stewart said, are ''those types of stories that can, almost like the guy in 'The Green Mile' '' -- the Stephen King story and film in which a character has the apparent ability to heal others by drawing out their ailments and pain -- ''suck in all the toxins and allow you to do something with it that is palatable.''
To make the more alarming subject matter digestible, the writers search for ways to frame the story, using an arsenal of techniques ranging from wordplay (''Mess O'Potamia,'' ''BAD vertising'') to exercises in pure logic (deconstructing the administration's talking points on the surge) to demented fantasy sequences (imagining Vice President Dick Cheney sending an army of orcs to attack Iran when he assumed the presidency briefly last year during President Bush's colonoscopy).
Gitmo, the Elmo puppet from Guantanamo Bay, became a vehicle for expressing the writers' ''most agitated feelings about torture in a way that is -- not to be too cute -- that is not torture to listen to, and that is not purely strident,'' Mr. Stewart said. And the cartoon strip ''The Decider,'' featuring Mr. Bush as a superhero who makes decisions ''without fear of repercussion, consequence or correctness,'' became a way to satirize the president's penchant for making gut calls that sidestep the traditional policy-making process.
As the co-executive producer Rory Albanese noted, juxtapositions of video clips and sound bites are one of the show's favorite strategies. It might be the juxtaposition of Senator Barack Obama speaking to a crowd of 200,000 in Berlin while Mr. McCain campaigns in a Pennsylvania grocery store. Or it could be a juxtaposition of a politician taking two sides of the same argument. One famous segment featured Mr. Stewart as the moderator of a debate between then-Governor Bush of Texas in 2000, who warned that the United States would end up ''being viewed as the ugly American'' if it went around the world ''saying we do it this way -- so should you,'' and President Bush of 2003, who extolled the importance of exporting democracy to Iraq.
Often a video clip or news event is so absurd that Mr. Stewart says nothing, simply rubs his eyes, does a Carsonesque double take or crinkles his face into an expression of dismay. ''When in doubt, I can stare blankly,'' he said. ''The rubber face. There's only so many ways you can stare incredulously at the camera and tilt an eyebrow, but that's your old standby: What would Buster Keaton do?''
Given a daily reality in which ''over-the-top parodies come to fruition,'' Mr. Stewart said, satire like ''Dr. Strangelove'' becomes ''very difficult to make.'' ''The absurdity of what you imagine to be the dark heart of conspiracy theorists' wet dreams far too frequently turns out to be true,'' he observed. ''You go: I know what I'll do, I'll create a character who, when hiring people to rebuild the nation we invaded, says the only question I'll ask is, 'What do you think of 'Roe v. Wade?' It'll be hilarious. Then you read that book about the Green Zone in Iraq'' -- ''Imperial Life in the Emerald City'' by Rajiv Chandrasekaran -- ''and you go, 'Oh, they did that.' I mean, how do you take things to the next level?''
Mr. Stewart has said he is looking forward to the end of the Bush administration ''as a comedian, as a person, as a citizen, as a mammal.'' Though he has mocked both Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama for lapses from their high-minded promises of postpartisanship, he said he didn't think their current skirmishes were ''being conducted on the scale that Bush conducted things, or even the Clintons; I don't think it has the same true viciousness and contempt.''
SOON after Mr. Stewart joined ''The Daily Show'' in 1999, in the waning years of the Clinton administration, he and his staff began to move the program away from the show-business-heavy agenda it had under his predecessor, Craig Kilborn. New technology providing access to more video material gave them growing control over the show's content; the staff, the co-executive producer Kahane Corn said, also worked to choose targets ''who deserved to be targets'' instead of random, easy-to-mock subjects.
Following 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, the show focused more closely not just on politics, but also on the machinery of policy making and the White House's efforts to manage the news media. Mr. Stewart's comedic gifts -- his high-frequency radar for hypocrisy, his talent for excavating ur-narratives from mountains of information, his ability, in Ms. Corn's words, ''to name things that don't seem to have a name'' -- proved to be perfect tools for explicating and parsing the foibles of an administration known for its secrecy, ideological certainty and impatience with dissenting viewpoints.
Over time, the show's deconstructions grew increasingly sophisticated. Its fascination with language, for instance, evolved from chuckles over the president's verbal gaffes (''Is our children learning?'' ''Subliminable'') to ferocious exposes of the administration's Orwellian manipulations: from its efforts to redefine the meaning of the word ''torture'' to its talk about troop withdrawals from Iraq based on ''time horizons'' (a strategy, Mr. Stewart noted, ''named after something that no matter how long you head towards it, you never quite reach it'').
For all its eviscerations of the administration, ''The Daily Show'' is animated not by partisanship but by a deep mistrust of all ideology. A sane voice in a noisy red-blue echo chamber, Mr. Stewart displays an impatience with the platitudes of both the right and the left and a disdain for commentators who, as he made clear in a famous 2004 appearance on CNN's ''Crossfire,'' parrot party-line talking points and engage in knee-jerk shouting matches. He has characterized Democrats as ''at best Ewoks,'' mocked Mr. Obama for acting as though he were posing for ''a coin'' and hailed MoveOn.org sardonically for ''10 years of making even people who agree with you cringe.''
TO the former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, Mr. Stewart serves as ''the citizens' surrogate,'' penetrating ''the insiders' cult of American presidential politics.'' He's the Jersey Boy and ardent Mets fan as Mr. Common Sense, pointing to the disconnect between reality and what politicians and the news media describe as reality, channeling the audience's id and articulating its bewilderment and indignation. He's the guy willing to say the emperor has no clothes, to wonder why in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's ''It's 3 a.m.'' ad no one picks up the phone in the White House before six rings, to ask why a preinvasion meeting in March 2003 between President Bush and his allies took all of an hour -- the ''time it takes LensCrafters to make you a pair of bifocals'' to discuss ''a war that could destroy the global order.''
''The Daily Show'' boasts a deep bench when it comes to its writing, research and production and has provided a showcase for a host of gifted comedians who have gone on to other careers -- most notably, Stephen Colbert of ''The Colbert Report,'' as well as Mr. Carell, Rob Corddry and Ed Helms. But while the show is a collaborative effort, as one producer noted, it is ''ultimately Jon's vision and voice.''
Mr. Stewart described his anchorman character as ''a sort of more adolescent version'' of himself, and Ms. Corn noted that while things ''may be exaggerated on the show, it's grounded in the way Jon really feels.''
''He really does care,'' she added. ''He's a guy who says what he means.''
Unlike many comics today, Mr. Stewart does not trade in trendy hipsterism or high-decibel narcissism. While he possesses Johnny Carson's talent for listening and George Carlin's gift for observation, his comedy remains rooted in his informed reactions to what Tom Wolfe once called ''the irresistibly lurid carnival of American life,'' the weird happenings in ''this wild, bizarre, unpredictable, hog-stomping Baroque'' country.
''Jon's ability to consume and process information is invaluable,'' said Mr. Colbert. He added that Mr. Stewart is ''such a clear thinker'' that he's able to take ''all these data points of spin and transparent falsehoods dished out in the form of political discourse'' and ''fish from that what is the true meaning, what are red herrings, false leads,'' even as he performs the ambidextrous feat of ''making jokes about it'' at the same time.
''We often discuss satire -- the sort of thing he does and to a certain extent I do -- as distillery,'' Mr. Colbert continued. ''You have an enormous amount of material, and you have to distill it to a syrup by the end of the day. So much of it is a hewing process, chipping away at things that aren't the point or aren't the story or aren't the intention. Really it's that last couple of drops you're distilling that makes all the difference. It isn't that hard to get a ton of corn into a gallon of sour mash, but to get that gallon of sour mash down to that one shot of pure whiskey takes patience'' as well as ''discipline and focus.''
Mr. Stewart can be scathing in his dismantling of politicians' spin -- he took apart former Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith's rationalizations about the Iraq war with Aesopian logic and fury -- but there is nothing sensation-seeking or mean-spirited about his exchanges. Nor does he shy away from heartfelt expressions of sadness and pain. The day after the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, he spoke somberly of the tragic situation there and asked his guest, Ali Allawi, a former Iraqi minister of defense, how his country handled ''that sort of carnage on a daily basis'' and if there were ''a way to grieve.''
Most memorably, on Sept. 20, 2001, the day the show returned after the 9/11 attacks, Mr. Stewart began the program with a raw, emotional address. Choking up, he apologized for subjecting viewers to ''an overwrought speech of a shaken host'' but said that he and the show's staff needed it ''for ourselves, so that we can drain whatever abscess there is in our hearts so we can move on to the business of making you laugh.''
He talked about hearing, as a boy of 5, of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. He talked about feeling privileged to live where you can ''sit in the back of the country and make wisecracks.'' And he talked about ''why I grieve but why I don't despair.''
Mr. Stewart now says he does not want to listen to that show again: ''The process of the show is to bury those feelings as subtext, and that was a real moment of text. It's laying bare the type of thing that is there hopefully to inform the show, but the show is usually an exercise in hiding that.''
In fact, Mr. Stewart regards comedy as a kind of catharsis machine, a therapeutic filter for grappling with upsetting issues. ''What's nice to us about the relentlessness of the show,'' he said, ''is you know you're going to get that release no matter what, every night, Monday through Thursday. Like pizza, it may not be the best pizza you've ever had, but it's still pizza, man, and you get to have it every night. It's a wonderful feeling to have this toxin in your body in the morning, that little cup of sadness, and feel by 7 or 7:30 that night, you've released it in sweat equity and can move on to the next day.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: August 17, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Jon Stewart, above on the set of ''The Daily Show,'' tied Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams, Dan Rather and Anderson Cooper among admired journalists. And that was last year. (PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL NAGLE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.AR1)
Jon Stewart describes the morning meeting as ''a gathering of curmudgeons expressing frustration and upset.'' ''The Daily Show,'' then: center right, Mr. Stewart with Stephen Colbert in 2002
bottom right, Steve Carell with Senator John McCain in 1999. (PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL NAGLE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.AR18)
Mr. Stewart with Gitmo, a vehicle to broach the ''most agitated feelings about torture,'' he said, ''that is not torture to listen to, and that is not purely strident.'' (pg.AR19)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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The New York Times
August 17, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
The Candidate We Still Don't Know
BYLINE: By FRANK RICH
SECTION: Section WK; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 1582 words
AS I went on vacation at the end of July, Barack Obama was leading John McCain by three to four percentage points in national polls. When I returned last week he still was. But lo and behold, a whole new plot twist had rolled off the bloviation assembly line in those intervening two weeks: Obama had lost the election!
The poor guy should be winning in a landslide against the despised party of Bush-Cheney, and he's not. He should be passing the 50 percent mark in polls, and he's not. He's been done in by that ad with Britney and Paris and by a new international crisis that allows McCain to again flex his Manchurian Candidate military cred. Let the neocons identify a new battleground for igniting World War III, whether Baghdad or Tehran or Moscow, and McCain gets with the program as if Angela Lansbury has just dealt him the Queen of Hearts.
Obama has also been defeated by racism (again). He can't connect and ''close the deal'' with ordinary Americans too doltish to comprehend a multicultural biography that includes what Cokie Roberts of ABC News has damned as the ''foreign, exotic place'' of Hawaii. As The Economist sums up the received wisdom, ''lunch-pail Ohio Democrats'' find Obama's ideas of change ''airy-fairy'' and are all asking, ''Who on earth is this guy?''
It seems almost churlish to look at some actual facts. No presidential candidate was breaking the 50 percent mark in mid-August polls in 2004 or 2000. Obama's average lead of three to four points is marginally larger than both John Kerry's and Al Gore's leads then (each was winning by one point in Gallupsurveys). Obama is also ahead of Ronald Reagan in mid-August 1980 (40 percent to Jimmy Carter's 46). At Pollster.com, which aggregates polls and gauges the electoral count, Obama as of Friday stood at 284 electoral votes, McCain at 169. That means McCain could win all 85 electoral votes in current toss-up states and still lose the election.
Yet surely, we keep hearing, Obama should be running away with the thing. Even Michael Dukakis was beating the first George Bush by 17 percentage points in the summer of 1988. Of course, were Obama ahead by 17 points today, the same prognosticators now fussing over his narrow lead would be predicting that the arrogant and presumptuous Obama was destined to squander that landslide on vacation and tank just like his hapless predecessor.
The truth is we have no idea what will happen in November. But for the sake of argument, let's posit that one thread of the Obama-is-doomed scenario is right: His lead should be huge in a year when the G.O.P. is in such disrepute that at least eight of the party's own senatorial incumbents are skipping their own convention, the fail-safe way to avoid being caught near the Larry Craig Memorial Men's Room at the Twin Cities airport.
So why isn't Obama romping? The obvious answer -- and both the excessively genteel Obama campaign and a too-compliant press bear responsibility for it -- is that the public doesn't know who on earth John McCain is. The most revealing poll this month by far is the Pew Research Center survey finding that 48 percent of Americans feel they're ''hearing too much'' about Obama. Pew found that only 26 percent feel that way about McCain, and that nearly 4 in 10 Americans feel they hear too little about him. It's past time for that pressing educational need to be met.
What is widely known is the skin-deep, out-of-date McCain image. As this fairy tale has it, the hero who survived the Hanoi Hilton has stood up as rebelliously in Washington as he did to his Vietnamese captors. He strenuously opposed the execution of the Iraq war; he slammed the president's response to Katrina; he fought the ''agents of intolerance'' of the religious right; he crusaded against the G.O.P. House leader Tom DeLay, the criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff and their coterie of influence-peddlers.
With the exception of McCain's imprisonment in Vietnam, every aspect of this profile in courage is inaccurate or defunct.
McCain never called for Donald Rumsfeld to be fired and didn't start criticizing the war plan until late August 2003, nearly four months after ''Mission Accomplished.'' By then the growing insurgency was undeniable. On the day Hurricane Katrina hit, McCain laughed it up with the oblivious president at a birthday photo-op in Arizona. McCain didn't get to New Orleans for another six months and didn't sharply express public criticism of the Bush response to the calamity until this April, when he traveled to the Gulf Coast in desperate search of election-year pageantry surrounding him with black extras.
McCain long ago embraced the right's agents of intolerance, even spending months courting the Rev. John Hagee, whose fringe views about Roman Catholics and the Holocaust were known to anyone who can use the Internet. (Once the McCain campaign discovered YouTube, it ditched Hagee.) On Monday McCain is scheduled to appear at an Atlanta fund-raiser being promoted by Ralph Reed, who is not only the former aide de camp to one of the agents of intolerance McCain once vilified (Pat Robertson) but is also the former Abramoff acolyte showcased in McCain's own Senate investigation of Indian casino lobbying.
Though the McCain campaign announceda new no-lobbyists policy three months after The Washington Post's February report that lobbyists were ''essentially running'' the whole operation, the fact remains that McCain's top officials and fund-raisers have past financial ties to nearly every domestic and foreign flashpoint, from Fannie Mae to Blackwater to Ahmad Chalabi to the government of Georgia. No sooner does McCain flip-flop on oil drilling than a bevy of Hess Oil family members and executives, not to mention a lowly Hess office manager and his wife, each give a maximum $28,500 to the Republican Party.
While reporters at The Post and The New York Times have been vetting McCain, many others give him a free pass. Their default cliche is to present him as the Old Faithful everyone already knows. They routinely salute his ''independence,'' his ''maverick image'' and his ''renegade reputation'' -- as the hackneyed script was reiterated by Karl Rove in a Wall Street Journal op-ed column last week. At Talking Points Memo, the essential blog vigilantly pursuing the McCain revelations often ignored elsewhere, Josh Marshall accurately observes that the Republican candidate is ''graded on a curve.''
Most Americans still don't know, as Marshall writes, that on the campaign trail ''McCain frequently forgets key elements of policies, gets countries' names wrong, forgets things he's said only hours or days before and is frequently just confused.'' Most Americans still don't know it is precisely for this reason that the McCain campaign has now shut down the press's previously unfettered access to the candidate on the Straight Talk Express.
To appreciate the discrepancy in what we know about McCain and Obama, merely look at the coverage of the potential first ladies. We have heard too much indeed about Michelle Obama's Princeton thesis, her pay raises at the University of Chicago hospital, her statement about being ''proud'' of her country and the false rumor of a video of her ranting about ''whitey.'' But we still haven't been inside Cindy McCain's taxreturns, all her multiple homes or private plane. The Los Angeles Times reported in June that Hensley & Company, the enormous beer distributorship she controls, ''lobbies regulatory agencies on alcohol issues that involve public health and safety,'' in opposition to groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The McCain campaign told The Times that Mrs. McCain's future role in her beer empire won't be revealed before the election.
Some of those who know McCain best -- Republicans -- are tougher on him than the press is. Rita Hauser, who was a Bush financial chairwoman in New York in 2000 and served on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in the administration's first term, joined other players in the G.O.P. establishment in forming Republicans for Obama last week. Why? The leadership qualities she admires in Obama -- temperament, sustained judgment, the ability to play well with others -- are missing in McCain. ''He doesn't listen carefully to people and make reasoned judgments,'' Hauser told me. ''If John says 'I'm going with so and so,' you can't count on that the next morning,'' she complained, adding, ''That's not the man we want for president.''
McCain has even prompted alarms from the right's own favorite hit man du jour: Jerome Corsi, who Swift-boated John Kerry as co-author of ''Unfit to Command'' in 2004 and who is trying to do the same to Obama in his newly minted best seller, ''The Obama Nation.''
Corsi's writings have been repeatedly promoted by Sean Hannity on Fox News; Corsi's publisher, Mary Matalin, has praised her author's ''scholarship.'' If Republican warriors like Hannity and Matalin think so highly of Corsi's research into Obama, then perhaps we should take seriously Corsi's scholarship about McCain. In recent articles at worldnetdaily.com, Corsi has claimed (among other charges) that the McCain campaign received ''strong'' financial support from a ''group tied to Al Qaeda'' and that ''McCain's personal fortune traces back to organized crime in Arizona.''
As everyone says, polls are meaningless in the summers of election years. Especially this year, when there's one candidate whose real story has yet to be fully told.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: August 17, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: DRAWING (DRAWING BY BARRY BLITT)
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Op-Ed
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
662 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The New York Times
August 16, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
Rivals Differ (a Bit) on Financial Market Rules
BYLINE: By JACKIE CALMES
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; IF ELECTED ...; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1624 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
Modernizing the nation's New Deal-era defenses against financial disaster is not high among the priorities that either Barack Obama or John McCain list for the next president. But events could well plop the issue right in the middle of the winner's plate.
After a string of financial scandals and crises, a quarter century of deregulation and free-market experimentation is giving way to a new round of big-government financial regulation, regardless of who captures the White House, experts say.
''Either way the election goes, you're going to have a major rethinking of how we're organized in terms of oversight of financial markets,'' said Harvey J. Goldschmid, a professor at Columbia Law School and a Democratic member of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2002 to 2005.
Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama offer similar diagnoses of the past year's credit crises -- though the turmoil has only episodically been a focus in the long-running presidential campaign. Both believe that special-interest lobbyists had their way with Congress and the regulatory agencies, a conclusion tailored to fit their overall anti-Washington, pro-change campaign themes.
Both point a finger at real estate speculators, imprudent lenders and Wall Street for a housing bubble that burst, infecting credit markets here and abroad. But Mr. Obama, more so than his rival, blames the Bush administration for lax, reactive regulation.
Mr. McCain, reflecting the Republican Party's philosophical aversion to regulating business, would be more cautious about new regulation. But he would take a more aggressive approach to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants at the center of the current crisis, by proposing that they be nationalized, downsized and eventually sold.
Mr. Obama, the likely Democratic nominee, has outlined six ''principles'' suggesting a more comprehensive overhaul than a President McCain would seek. The Democrat has suggested that he would regulate investment banks, mortgage brokers and hedge funds much as commercial banks are. And he would streamline the overlapping regulatory agencies and create a commission to monitor threats to the financial system and report to the White House and Congress.
The Democratic candidate has said little about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two publicly traded but government-sponsored enterprises whose government lifeline had to be strengthened last month when the slide in their stock value threatened a financial contagion. Both are favorites with Democrats, given the firms' charge not only to benefit shareholders but to underwrite more affordable housing for lower-income Americans.
Mr. McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, has long been a skeptic about Fannie and Freddie along with many Republicans, and seized on their recent rescue, after first lauding it, to call for drastic action. He would nationalize both firms, which together own or guarantee nearly half of the more than $10 trillion in mortgages, and break them into pieces to be sold off to the private sector, shorn of the implicit guarantees of government backing they have long enjoyed.
Whatever the candidates' differences, the recent unprecedented interventions in the marketplace by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and by a Fed led by a former Bush economic adviser, Ben S. Bernanke, suggest that the imperative to act transcends party lines. Mr. Paulson, who engineered the forced fire-sale of Bear Stearns in March and then the Fannie-Freddie rescue in July, has proposed his own blueprint for redrawing the financial regulation system.
Translating the debate into policy will not be easy, given the trillions of dollars at stake globally. Mr. Goldschmid recalls walking through the Capitol in recent years for meetings on securities legislation, and seeing hallways crammed with lobbyists for ''perhaps a football field in length in every direction,'' all seeking to block changes in the status quo or increase deregulation. Now, he adds, ''I just don't think you're going to be able to hold back healthy change.''
But there are prominent voices for caution in the months before a new administration. ''It is unwise and probably unnecessary to set new regulatory standards before markets settle down,'' Alan Greenspan, the former Fed chairman, said in an interview. ''There is no rush. Current lending is already more cautious than any regulatory proposal I have seen.''
He believes housing prices, which are a key to the health of financial institutions and the economy generally, are not likely to bottom out until well into 2009.
''The real danger here,'' he added, ''is that there is going to be efforts to put legislation through too soon.''
But Mr. Greenspan, an ardent free-marketer, does not carry the clout he long did, as many have come to blame him for helping create a housing bubble -- by holding interest rates too low for too long -- and for letting the Fed's regulatory powers atrophy.
Mr. Greenspan defends the Fed's record under his chairmanship and warns against proposals that would give it full authority over the financial system. He insists financial crises are inevitable parts of history's ''cycles of euphoria and abrupt fear.'' He says the one area for government expansion, which could avert some future crises, is law enforcement's antifraud efforts.
While neither Mr. Obama nor Mr. McCain has blamed Mr. Greenspan, they seem more willing than he is to accept government oversight as a solution.
Mr. McCain's most expansive comments on the housing crisis date to a speech last March, and echo Mr. Obama's own bottom line. Government assistance should be provided only to prevent ''systemic risk'' to the financial system and economy, Mr. McCain said. But ''when we commit taxpayer dollars as assistance, it should be accompanied by reforms that ensure that we never face this problem again'' -- making financial firms more transparent and accountable.
The Republican says he would convene two meetings, one of accounting professionals to help banks and investors assess the battered values of their mortgages and other assets, and another of top mortgage lenders, to extract their pledges to help credit-worthy customers keep their homes or businesses.
More recently, Mr. McCain chose The St. Petersburg Times in Florida -- a state hard-hit by home foreclosures and critical in the election -- to criticize Fannie's and Freddie's excesses as ''a tribute to crony capitalism that reflects the power of the Washington establishment.''
With July's federal life preserver, both have access to an open-ended line of credit or equity investment from the Treasury. As housing prices continue to decline and the two companies' losses mount, a growing number of experts think the Treasury will ultimately have to bail them out.
Mr. McCain, acknowledging they are too big to let fail, said that if either firm ends up getting a dime of taxpayer money, their management and board should be fired, big salaries slashed and lobbyists let go. And as president, he wrote, ''I will get real regulation that limits their ability to borrow, shrinks their size until they are no longer a threat to our economy, and privatizes and eliminates their links to the government.''
That proposal to nationalize, downsize, then privatize parallels Mr. Greenspan's views, though the former Fed chairman says he has not advised either candidate, and will not. But another prominent Republican economist, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid antagonizing the McCain campaign, said: ''There isn't a good way to break them up. They have big portfolios'' of mortgages ''and if you sold them off anytime soon you would further deflate prices in housing, with all kinds of bad consequences.''
Mr. McCain relies on his chief domestic policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former Congressional Budget Office director and Bush White House adviser. But associates say the senator still dials up former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, who forfeited his title of campaign co-chairman after a controversy over his remarks that the United States is ''a nation of whiners'' and is merely in ''a mental recession.''
Current and former advisers say they still consider Mr. Gramm, now UBS investment bank vice chairman, a top prospect for treasury secretary in a McCain administration. While Mr. Obama's chief economic advisers are his policy director, Jason Furman, a Clinton White House veteran, and Austan D. Goolsbee, an economics professor at the University of Chicago, Mr. Obama's touchstones for financial regulation issues include former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and other Clinton Treasury veterans including former Secretaries Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence H. Summers, and Daniel K. Tarullo, an expert on international economic regulation.
Mr. Obama warned of a housing crisis in March 2007, five months before regulators stepped in. He then proposed that Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke convene a summit of lenders, borrowers and regulators.
In a March 2008 address at the Cooper Union in Manhattan, he outlined his six principles. They would subject any institution that borrows from the United States to government oversight. ''The American economy does not stand still, and neither should the rules that govern it,'' he said. ''Old institutions cannot adequately oversee new practices.''
After the last address, three former chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission -- William Donaldson and David Ruder, Republicans, and Arthur Levitt, a Democrat -- endorsed him, joining Mr. Volcker in saying a President Obama would take a ''reasoned approach'' to ''balanced regulatory reform.'' Mr. Goldschmid, the former S.E.C. commissioner, has also endorsed Mr. Obama.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: August 16, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: CHARTS: In Their Own Words: ON FINANCIAL BAILOUTS
ON FREDDIE MAC & FANNIE MAE
ON RISING HOME FORECLOSURES(THE NEW YORK TIMES
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The New York Times
August 16, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
Jackson Browne Sues Over McCain Ad
BYLINE: Compiled by BEN SISARIO
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The singer-songwriter Jackson Browne has filed suit against Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, over what he says is the unauthorized use of his 1977 hit ''Running on Empty'' in a McCain campaign commercial shown in Ohio, Mr. Browne's lawyer said Thursday. The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Los Angeles, seeks unspecified damages as well as an injunction against the use of the song in the commercial, which criticizes Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, for saying that Americans could conserve gasoline by keeping car tires at the proper pressure. A spokesman for Mr. McCain, Brian Rogers, said the commercial had been created independently by the Ohio Republican Party and had no connection to the national campaign.
''This campaign has never run any ad using any portion of Mr. Browne's song,'' Mr. Rogers said in a statement. ''If the complaint names the McCain campaign, Mr. Browne and his lawyers have picked the wrong target.'' The complaint also names the Republican National Committee and the Ohio Republican Party. Mr. Browne's lawyer, Lawrence Y. Iser, said in an interview on Friday that after he sent a cease-and-desist letter last week, the Ohio party stopped broadcasting the ad and removed it from the Internet. Calls to the offices of the Ohio Republican Party were not returned on Friday. Mr. Iser said that he would not drop the suit.
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The Washington Post
August 16, 2008 Saturday
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The Trail
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BURNING BOOK
Obama Campaign Angered by McCain's 'Sense of Humor' Comment
With the rest of the political universe buzzing about a controversial new book on Sen. Barack Obama, one person is staying quiet: Sen. John McCain.
McCain and his advisers have said nothing about "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," an innuendo-filled, mistake-riddled biography written by Jerome R. Corsi that will debut at the top of the New York Times bestseller list this weekend.
Asked about the book Friday, McCain replied: "Gotta keep your sense of humor." A McCain aide later said he had misheard the question and thought it was about a television ad.
The Obama campaign was having none of it.
"While the smears piled up and the lies were exposed, John McCain spent six days in silence and on the seventh day said we should have a sense of humor," Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said. "John McCain's response to this discredited book speaks volumes -- he is a George Bush candidate running a Karl Rove campaign with a Dick Cheney sense of humor."
Brian Rogers, a McCain spokesman, declined to comment on the book. Aides said the Republican campaign has no intention of coming to Obama's defense on every attack they have no control over -- even though, in the past, McCain has ruled out certain kinds of attacks as inappropriate. In 2004, McCain denounced another Corsi book attacking Sen. John F. Kerry's service on a Swift boat in Vietnam.
In the new book, Corsi describes Obama as a left-wing radical driven by a black-power agenda who has "extensive connections with Islam." Obama is a practicing Christian. His campaign has put out a 40-page rebuttal to the 304-page work, which the author said he wrote in the hopes of defeating Obama.
-- Anne E. Kornblut
VACATION RETALIATION
As Obama Wraps Up Hawaii Trip, He Takes a Shot at RNC E-Mails
Obama finished up his Hawaii vacation with some bodysurfing. He also honored his deceased mother by tossing a white lei into the sea. At another point, Obama visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor with his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters. He took his family and some friends snorkeling at Hanauma Bay.
Almost every day while Obama was gone, the Republican National Committee sent out an e-mail titled the "Updated Obama Travel Guide" -- mocking his two-hour basketball game, his picnic under a banyan tree and his rental of a large, oceanfront vacation home.
On Friday, the Obama campaign struck back with a mocking e-mail of its own. "Breaking News Alert -- RNC attacks hamburgers, moviegoers and ice cream cones! Puppies and kittens feared to be next!" the press release said. Listing a few examples of the Republican committee's e-mails, it continued: "Apparently the folks at the RNC don't like eating cheeseburgers or ice cream with their families, and are not among the millions of Americans who enjoyed Batman."
-- Anne E. Kornblut
BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE
T. Boone Pickens Lays Out Energy Plan For McCain, Then Joins Reid in Call
T. Boone Pickens, the oilman turned environmental crusader, met Friday morning with McCain at the Aspen Institute, where he peddled his plan for energy independence.
"It was a free flow of questions and answers," Pickens said afterward.
Less than two hours later, Pickens was the featured guest on a conference call with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), praising the Democrat's environmental work.
"Who would have thought last year that T. Boone Pickens and Senator Harry Reid would be in a boat pulling that oar the same way?" Reid joked on the call.
McCain and Pickens both want to expand drilling off the U.S. coast to reduce reliance on foreign sources. Pickens is also a big proponent of alternative forms of energy, such as wind power. McCain has expressed support for renewable energy, but has also voted against tax credits that the young industries experts have deemed critical.
During the conference call with Reid, Pickens sang the praises of natural gas and urged greater use of nuclear power.
-- Michael D. Shear
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The Washington Post
August 16, 2008 Saturday
Regional Edition
McCain Has Top Fundraising Month;
But Obama Will Still Have Major Financial Advantage
BYLINE: Matthew Mosk; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A05
LENGTH: 812 words
Republican Sen. John McCain posted the best fundraising month of his presidential campaign in July, bringing in $27 million, but his supporters are bracing for the near-certainty that he will be operating at a severe financial disadvantage in the two-month stretch between the end of the party political conventions and Election Day.
Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has spent more than three times as much as McCain to build a sprawling nationwide field operation and has television ads airing in twice as many states as his opponent -- including typically Republican strongholds such as Alaska and North Dakota. He is experimenting with some unorthodox approaches to reaching voters, such as a 30-minute infomercial that has aired on cable television in the middle of the night.
The anticipated financial mismatch is at least partly a result of McCain's decision to join the presidential public financing program. Under the rules governing the program, he will receive $84 million in federal money for his general-election campaign but must cease his fundraising efforts on Sept. 4, the day he is to accept his party's nomination.
Obama, who opted out of the program, can continue to raise as much money as he can, relying largely on Internet donors who have on occasion demonstrated the ability to pump more than $2 million a day into the campaign's coffers. Obama has not released his July fundraising numbers yet, but in June he continued to raise substantially more than McCain, bringing in more than $50 million.
Yesterday, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told reporters he recognizes that "we are in a different position financially than Barack Obama." But he said McCain's "very healthy" summer of fundraising will enable the Republican to maintain a strong position going into the final two months of the race.
McCain finished July with $21 million in the bank, Davis said. The Republican National Committee raised an additional $26 million and finished the month with $75 million on hand -- money that can be spent during the general election to benefit McCain, but without the campaign's direct control.
Philip A. Musser, a Republican political consultant who is helping raise money for the party, said McCain has already avoided a repeat of 1996, when President Bill Clinton used a huge financial advantage to dominate the airwaves all summer in his campaign against Republican Robert J. Dole. McCain has spent $60 million on television ads this summer, a substantial chunk of which has gone to commercials aired during NBC's broadcast of the Olympic Games.
Musser said that while no campaign would choose to be outspent, most McCain supporters have come to terms with the situation.
"The question is: When do you reach the law of diminishing returns?" he said. "We're talking about spending more than $80 million in 60 days. You get to a point where you hit your saturation point in your target states."
Steve Elmendorf, who served as deputy campaign manager for Sen. John F. Kerry's 2004 presidential bid, said he thinks that analysis amounts to little more than "spin."
"It's a significant advantage," he said. "The Obama campaign is going to be able to widen the playing field and put McCain on the defensive in states that he shouldn't have to be on the defensive in. Georgia, Montana, Alaska. McCain will either have to put resources there or have to face the potential of losing them."
Elmendorf noted that he speaks from experience. Four years ago on the Kerry campaign, he said, "we had to make some tough calls in October. We pulled out of Missouri, West Virginia. These were tough calls. If we had the money, we would have tried."
Obama will also have the luxury of experimenting with technology. In Ohio, for instance, he has been running 15-second commercials telling potential voters that if they send his campaign a text message, they can receive a free bumper sticker.
"They're going to have all those texts, so they can return to those people on Election Day with texts that say, 'Hey, go vote today,' " said Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group. "It's something you would do if you have money."
Tracey said Obama may also be able to continue a practice he began during the Olympics, buying national advertisements during major sporting events, such as NFL football games or the baseball playoffs.
Whether it will work remains an unknown. Brian Ballard, a Florida lobbyist who is raising money for McCain, said he has watched closely as Obama spent $7 million on commercials in his state while McCain has spent nothing on the Florida airwaves. Numbers there have narrowed slightly, according to local polls, but McCain has maintained his lead.
"Sometimes having money brings an undisciplined campaign," Ballard said. "Right now they're throwing money at wishes, not at reality. Frankly, I hope he keeps spending money here."
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Mary Altaffer -- Associated Press; Sen. John McCain and his wife, Cindy, greet patrons of Kerby's Koney Island diner in Bloomfield, Mich.
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USA TODAY
August 15, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
For candidates, Georgia crisis provides a revealing audition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 8A
LENGTH: 625 words
Hillary Clinton's "3 a.m. phone call" ad in March was widely mocked for melodramatically asking who voters wanted answering the phone in the White House in the middle of the night when serious trouble struck somewhere in the world.
But the ad's scenario sprang to life a week ago when President Bush and the two men running to succeed him all got urgent word -- likely sometime early Aug. 8 in the USA -- that Russia was invading neighboring Georgia, a former Soviet satellite. It wasn't a direct attack on the United States, but it wasn't far down the urgency scale: Russia's move not only put a staunch U.S. ally in deep peril, it also sent a chilling signal to other Western-leaning nations in the region.
How to react? Prudently, none of the three -- Bush, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama -- called for direct U.S. military intervention. Beyond that, their initial responses were revealing tests of their foreign-policy and crisis instincts, and none was completely reassuring:
*Bush, the only one of the three for whom this wasn't an audition, was in Beijing at the Olympics when the invasion occurred and appeared disengaged early on. The immediate White House reaction came from aides.
Bush got sharper and more involved as time wore on, eventually denouncing Russia's "dramatic and brutal escalation" as its forces attacked more broadly in Georgia. He dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to support diplomatic efforts and announced he'd deploy U.S. troops to deliver humanitarian supplies, a canny way to inject a military presence without threatening combat.
*McCain immediately put the blame squarely on Russia and demanded it "unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces."
McCain's response grew from his longtime friendship with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his uncompromising antipathy toward Russia's expansionism. He has mocked Bush for trying to engage former Russian president Vladimir Putin and would rather try to isolate Russia than work with it in world bodies. McCain has a more clear-eyed assessment of Putin's ambitions than Bush does, but the senator's boldness bordering on belligerence undervalues this reality: The U.S. needs Russian help in restraining Iran's nuclear ambitions and in keeping radioactive materials out of the hands of terrorists.
McCain's tendency to speak out can also make him sound unaware; his declaration Wednesday that "in the 21st century, nations don't invade other nations" comically ignored the fact that the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, an attack he supported.
*Obama, on his way to a vacation in Hawaii, was more hesitant than McCain at first, mildly calling on both Georgia and Russia "to show restraint and to avoid an escalation to full-scale war." He declared that "all sides should enter into direct talks on behalf of stability in Georgia."
Obama anticipated international calls for a truce and reflected the reality that the confrontation began after Georgian troops attacked Russian-allied separatists in a disputed part of Georgia. But his initial response underplayed the magnitude of Russia's aggression, and Obama later toughened his stance, saying it was "clear" that Russia had "encroached on Georgia's sovereignty."
By week's end, Bush, McCain and Obama had arrived at about the same place. As the situation continues to evolve, what's clear is that most crises last longer than a 3a.m. phone call, and a president's initial reaction is rarely as important as what he does to deploy the tools of foreign policy over time. By that standard, Bush is on the right track, and the candidates -- as befits the tradition that calls for the nation to speak with one voice in a showdown such as this -- are appropriately supportive.
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August 15, 2008 Friday
Regional Edition
NAMES & FACES
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Browne, Seeing Red
Rocker Jackson Browne is suing John McCain for using his song "Running on Empty" in a campaign ad, but McCain's spokesman says the ad was put together by the Ohio Republican Party, not the campaign. Browne, a well-known activist for liberal causes, is "incensed" that his 1977 song is being used without permission in a commercial that blasts Democrat Barack Obama, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Yesterday, Browne, 59, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against McCain and the Republican National Committee in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting the use of the song, or any of his other compositions, as well as damages. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers told the Times that the campaign did not sponsor or produce the ad, but Browne's attorney, Lawrence Y. Iser, said they have the right defendants in their sights. "We have sued the Ohio Republican Party as well, and we have been informed and believe that McCain and his campaign were well aware of the ad," Iser said. Browne declined to comment.
No Charges Against Bale
Actor Christian Bale will not face charges related to an alleged assault on his mother and sister last month, prosecutors in London said yesterday, suggesting that their decision was based in part on Bale's family members' wishes.
Britain's Crown Prosecution Service told the Associated Press that insufficient evidence is available to afford a "realistic prospect of conviction," and police were ordered not to take further action in the case. In a statement, the service said that though it takes all domestic violence incidents seriously, "it is important that the views of complainants are also taken into account when making decisions in such cases."
British media had reported that Bale's mother and sister told police he assaulted them at the Dorchester Hotel on July 20, a day before attending the European premiere of his film "The Dark Knight." Bale, 34, denied the allegations.
In a statement from spokeswoman Jennifer Allen, Bale said he "hopes to put the matter firmly behind him" and will provide no further comment. His family has repeatedly declined to comment, calling the matter "personal."
Steinbeck Copyright Case Settled
The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York ruled Wednesday that heirs of John Steinbeck's widow, Elaine Steinbeck, are rightful owners of copyright to many of the novelist's best-known early works -- including "Of Mice and Men," "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Tortilla Flat" -- dismissing ownership claims of the writer's biological heirs, the Los Angeles Times reports.
A unanimous three-judge panel overturned a 2006 federal court ruling that gave publishing rights to the author's only surviving son, Thomas Steinbeck, and granddaughter, Blake Smyle. Thomas, Steinbeck's son from a previous marriage, sought to end a 1994 agreement between his stepmother and the Penguin Group by asserting rights over a publishing deal his father forged in 1938.
The court ruled that the 1938 deal was superseded by Elaine Steinbeck's 1994 agreement, and that her estate will retain rights to -- and royalties from -- the books.
End Notes
Expecting: Mexican actor Gael GarcÃa Bernal, 29, is expecting his first child with girlfriend Dolores Fonzi, a 20-year-old Argentine actress, AP reports. The news comes a few days after People reported that Bernal's "Y Tu Mamá También" co-star Diego Luna, 28, and wife Camila Sodi, 21, welcomed their first child, a boy.
Spotted: Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright enjoying a quiet dinner of salad and tea with a female companion at Hook on Wednesday . . . A quintet of Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders dining at 2941 Restaurant in Falls Church on Tuesday night. The group -- just back from a trip to India, where they cheered at a cricket match with Washington Redskins cheerleaders -- sampled the grilled swordfish, smoked duck and spiced rack of lamb.
-- Marissa Newhall, from staff, wire and Web reports
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Washingtonpost.com
August 15, 2008 Friday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Chris Cillizza, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2780 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Chris Cillizza, washingtonpost.com political blogger, was online Friday, Aug. 15 at 11 a.m. ET.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
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Chris Cillizza: Good morning all. I have two thoughts to kick off this chat: I am very ready for the veepstakes to end, and I am very sick of beach volleyball being on in primetime. And away we go.
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Washington: Chris, I love your work ... my day was empty without my daily dose of Cillizza's Fix last week! Simple question for you ... since you bolted for Argentina before delivering a Veepstakes Line, are we going to get one last one here before Obama makes the choice? If not, can you at least give us a ranking in the chat?
Chris Cillizza: Nice to see my wife on the chat. Thanks for the question.
Yes, there will be another veepstakes Line. In fact, I was working on it right before I signed on to this chat and will finish it up once we end here.
I don't want to give away too much information on my new Line -- since I need the page views on The Fix! -- but I will tell you there are new No. 1s on both sides.
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Manchester, Vt.: Chris, what's your take on Obama's timing of the vice presidential announcement? I'm almost 100 percent sure McCain will wait until he hears Obama's pick. A weeknight during the 6:30 p.m. news in the East, a weekend, or what? Also -- as posed to Anne yesterday -- are both campaigns going to wait until the 20th to announce July fundraising? Thanks.
Chris Cillizza: I wish I knew... My guess is that Obama will go first and that he will announce sometime next week. Obama is flying back from Hawaii today and then heads to the Saddleback Church tomorrow. So that leaves Sunday, and, to be honest, I just don't see that happening.
So, next week is most likely for Obama although he will need to be mindful of the Olympics, which is dominating television pretty much all the time right now.
My guess on McCain is that he waits until Obama picks and maybe until after the Democratic convention. McCain is most likely to use his announcement to take some thunder from Obama so I could see his pick being announced right after the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention.
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Sacramento, Calif.: Do you think it is a tactical error to let Clinton go into nomination? Does it make Obama look weak?
Chris Cillizza: Speaking of the convention....As I wrote last night on The Fix, I don't think it's a tactical error for Obama to allow Clinton to have a roll call vote. Obama is well aware that there are still elements within the party who are deeply committed to Clinton, and the best way for him to court those voters is to show as much respect and deference to the New York senator as possible. She did get 18 million votes and she remains a major figure in the party.
In my mind, it's always better to look big rather than small in presidential politics. By allowing Clinton's name to be put in for nomination, Obama seems to be signaling that he is comfortable with her prominent role in the party -- demonstrating the confidence necessary to unite Democrats in the fall.
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Conventions: Why should we care about conventions when we already know the names of the nominees? Will anything interesting happen at either one other than empty speeches and imagined drama?
Chris Cillizza: It's true that the conventions are not the knock-down, drag-out floor fights that they once were. But, I am not entirely in the camp that says the conventions are meaningless and shouldn't be covered either.
For the average voter, the conventions may be the first time they truly start paying attention to the campaign and, therefore, the message and visuals that come out of Denver and St. Paul do matter quite a bit.
Are both conventions highly choreographed affairs? Yes. But, that doesn't mean they aren't important and shouldn't be covered.
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St. Paul, Minn.: Hi Chris -- thanks for taking questions today, and welcome back from vacation. Two questions: When can we expect to hear about a vice president from either candidate, and what are the chances that either will reach across the aisle for their pick?
Chris Cillizza: I addressed the timing question above. As for whether either candidate will reach across the aisle, I believe there is almost no chance Obama will pick a Republican (yes, including Chuck Hagel) as his vice president.
McCain is a different question. My understanding is that Joe Lieberman, the Independent Senator from Connecticut is under serious consideration to be McCain's vice president. Lieberman and McCain are very close friends and Lieberman has been a stalwart ally of McCain's on the Iraq war issue for years.
If Lieberman is the pick, it will be history: the same person as the vice presidential nominee for both major parties within an eight year period!
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Thank you!: Beach volleyball is teh suck! During the Olympics we will get excited about stuff we care less about for the other 47 months, but beach volley and synchronized diving are just horrible!
Chris Cillizza: I mean, seriously. Misty May-Treanor and Keri Walsh haven't lost a match in about eight years. Is it really exciting to -- night after night -- watch them destroy teams from Norway? No.
Here's an idea: The United States' women's field hockey team has qualified for the Olympics for the first time since 1996. How about showing some more of their games?
If only I owned a television network...
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Gainesville, Va.: If McCain wants to make a splash and grab some media attention when he announces his vice presidential pick, he needs to somehow figure out a way to get Michael Phelps into the shot. Maybe they could stage it at his pool, with Phelps swimming laps in the background. Or at a diner while he consumes his mass quantities for breakfast. Or they could just do it in front of his house in Baltimore.
Chris Cillizza: Very good idea. Another thought: Dara Torres. Like McCain, she is an elder statesman/woman in her chosen profession and is still keeping up with the youngsters. Two people not to pick: that wrestler who threw away his bronze medal and that weightlifter whose elbow bent the wrong way.
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Fairfax County, Va.: Now that the Obama family vacation is over (and boy it is ridiculous that such a normal event is even a topic for discussion), did it have any effect, positive or negative, on the shape, momentum or outcome of the campaign?
Chris Cillizza: Nope.
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Boston: Chris, is there anything to the chatter about John Kerry emerging as a dark horse in the Obama veepstakes? Personally, I think it'd be a poor choice. To channel Everett Dirksen, it would be a mistake to allow him to lead us down the path to defeat again.
washingtonpost.com: The Fix: Kerry's New Ad and the Return of the Nominee? (washingtonpost.com, Aug. 13)
Chris Cillizza: I don't think there is all that much there when it comes to the Kerry boomlet. While Kerry is appealing on paper -- experienced voice on paper, military service -- the damage down to him in the 2004 race still lingers.
Also, it would be hard for Obama to make the case that Kerry fits with his own fresh-faced appeal.
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Rolla, Mo.: After seeing how the idea of Lieberman or Ridge went over like a lead zeppelin because of their pro-choice positions, doesn't it seem McCain has at least as perilous a choice as Obama now?
Chris Cillizza: Great Zeppelin reference. I am not sure either Ridge or Lieberman will ultimately climb the stairway to heaven and become the pick.
That said, I think McCain is less worried about offending the houses of the holy than past nominees; the political environment is so bad that I think he can justify almost any pick as necessary to give the party a chance to win in the fall.
When the levee breaks over the next 10 days or so, all will be revealed.
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If it's gonna be Veepstakes Day on the chat: ... can you let me know now, so I won't waste my time? Why anybody in politics thinks they have a special ESP-line into the minds of the campaigns with regard to veep choice is beyond me. Has the media (as a Village) ever really named a veep pick correctly before the fact?
Chris Cillizza: I am more than happy to field questions about House, Senate and governors races.
To quote someone, bring it on!
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The House: You mentioned that you think the Democrats can get up to at most 57 or 58 seats in the Senate; any predictions on pick-up goals (realistic or otherwise) for the House?
Chris Cillizza: There's no doubt Democrats will make gains in November. The question is how big those gains will be.
On the one hand, House Democrats have a huge financial advantage and the scads of Republican retirements have given Democrats lots of target of opportunity.
On the other, Democrats picked up 30 seats in 2006 -- meaning that a number of seats they might have taken back in 2008 are already in their camp, lessening their ability to make major gains.
My guess would be that House Democrats will pick up somewhere between 12 and 20 seats. But, I haven't done a detailed seat by seat analysis in a while.
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Cleveland: What's your read on the North Carolina senate race? There has been some small movement in the polls for Hagan.
Chris Cillizza: I think Hagan is an excellent candidate who will make a serious run at Dole. I also think many Democrats are suffering from a bit of irrational exuberance when it comes to their chances of knocking off Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R). Dole is extremely well financed, surrounded by a savvy campaign staff and still is regarded by many in the state as a rock star politician.
Obama's decision to seriously contest North Carolina should help Hagan on turnout and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's willingness to spend heavily in the state will also help her. Still, this is not a top-tier Democratic pick opportunity yet. In the Senate Line today, I have North Carolina ranked 10th.
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Anonymous: Why do you say Franken has gotten it together up there in beautiful Minnesota? I thought he was getting his head handed to him.
washingtonpost.com: The Fix's Friday Line: Is 62 Democrats' Magic Number? (washingtonpost.com, Aug. 15)
Chris Cillizza: Franken had nowhere to go but up after a several months that would have buried most candidates. After enduring an examination of his taxes and his past writings in Playboy, Franken has had a relatively quiet past month.
Meanwhile, Sen. Norm Coleman is having to deal with allegations of a sweetheart living arrangement in Washington that threatens to linger and continue to cause trouble.
This race seems headed to a 51-49 result either way.
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Princeton, N.J.: How about a discussion of some of the Senate long-shots -- Kentucky, Texas and Oklahoma? Also, aren't the voters mad at Mitch Daniels for selling their roads to ferriners?
Chris Cillizza: Surely. First of all, I would draw a distinction between Kentucky and Texas/Oklahoma.
Kentucky is a state where Democrats have had success in recent years -- won a House seat in 2006 and the governor's race in 2007 -- and Mitch McConnell's role as the leader of Senate Republicans makes beating him a national priority for Democrats. Still, Bruce Lunsford, the Democratic nominee in Kentucky, has serious baggage from two unsuccessful primary bids for governor in 2003 and 2007, and McConnell has shown over the years that he is more than willing to go for the jugular early and often.
In Oklahoma, Democrats have a solid candidate in state Sen. Andrew Rice. And, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R) is not spectacular as a candidate and has some Republicans worried. But, in a presidential year, Oklahoma will act very Republican -- making it hard for Rice to pull the upset.
As for Texas, I don't see it. Sure, Sen. John Cornyn's numbers aren't great but he has two major factors in his favor: He has a big pot of campaign cash in a very expensive state in which to advertise, and Texas is very red at the federal level.
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Not the beach: Why beach volleyball is on every night: They compete in small bikinis. Duh. Why is everyone treating Corsi as if he's legit? The guy is from the lunatic fringe. If he wrote a book trumpeting his belief that Sept. 11 was an inside job, nobody would give him the time of day, but his unsubstantiated rantings about Obama are worthy of A1 treatment by the New York Times, The Washington Post, on CNN. ... And don't tell me it's because he's at the top of the best-seller list. Bulk sales game the system, and everyone knows it.
Chris Cillizza: Beach volleyball explained!
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Baltimore: Chris, state-by-state polls on Pollster.com and other places seem to show Obama making progress almost across the board. However, in the past month, the political markets (Intrade) have him falling from an almost 2 to 1 favorite to about 3 to 2. Any sense why? Most polls seem to show that, even if Obama doesn't win any current "tossups," he'd have enough electoral votes to win. Thanks for all the great writing.
Chris Cillizza: There is an odd disconnect between state polling and national polling in the presidential race. On a state by state level, Obama has reason to be confident as he is running ahead in a number of key battlegrounds and is within shouting distance in some states that Republicans have consistently won at the presidential level in recent elections. Nationally, however, Obama's lead continues to hover in the mid single digits. Why? I am honestly not sure. But, remember that the Obama campaign regularly dismissed national polls in their primary race against Hillary Clinton, and they proved to be right. Are we seeing a repeat performance in the general election?
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Importance of conventions: Yes, they are scripted, but no one can predict who will impress or not. Just look at who rose to prominence as a result of his performance at the last Democratic convention -- Barack Obama.
Chris Cillizza: Exactly.
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Reading, Pa.: Mark Udall in Colorado has a good family name and outstanding credentials for the changing Colorado demographic. How closely will Obama work with some of these down-ticket candidates ?
Chris Cillizza: Mark Udall is one of two Udalls running as Democrats for the Senate this year. (Tom Udall, his cousin, is a strong favorite in the open seat New Mexico contest.)
My guess is that Obama will help Udall more than Udall will help Obama. By targeting Colorado and putting significant resources into voter identification and turnout, Obama will make sure that every Democrat or Democratic-leaning voters in Colorado will get to the polls. Not every one of those people will vote for Udall but many will.
I think this election -- between Obama and Udall -- will show us just how much Colorado has changed demographically. If both win, it's fair to say that Colorado is now a Democratic leaning state. If one wins, it's a toss up/purple state heading into 2012. If neither win, we may have to revisit our assumptions about the political changes afoot in Colorado.
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Phoenix: I just read a wire service report that Obama has outraised McCain among US soldiers and has a six-to-one advantage in money raised from troops serving abroad. Your comments?
washingtonpost.com: The Trail: Obama Tops in Donations from Troops (washingtonpost.com, Aug. 14)
Chris Cillizza: Well, Matt Mosk at The Post wrote this up yesterday on The Trail. It's attached below.
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Chris Cillizza: Folks, I have to duck out a little early today to finish up the Veepstakes Line. Remember: Check out The Fix this afternoon for the latest and greatest ranking of who will be vice president, and e-mail NBC and tell them: more field hockey, less beach volleyball. Thanks for spending the hour with me.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: August 16, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Web Publication
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All Rights Reserved
669 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The New York Times
August 14, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
INSIDE THE TIMES: August 14, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 2283 words
INTERNATIONAL
AN AVENUE FOR PROTESTS
In China Leads to Jail
A Chinese woman who applied for a protest permit to air her complaints over what she claimed was the illegal demolition of her house is now serving a monthlong sentence for ''disturbing social order,'' according to her family. She is among a half-dozen people who have been detained after applying for permits to demonstrate during the Olympics in one of three Beijing parks specially designated as protest zones by the Chinese government. PAGE A6
UIGHURS UNDER SCRUTINY IN BEIJING
It is no longer easy to find many Uighurs, an ethnic group of Turkic-speaking Muslims from China's far west, still living in Beijing. Most of the several thousand Uighurs who work in the city have left. And with Chinese authorities warning that a Uighur separatist group is trying to disrupt the Games, the few Uighurs who remain in Beijing are being watched very closely. PAGE A16
SPIKE IN KIDNAPPINGS IN MEXICO
Kidnapping is on the rise in Mexico, and the biggest increase appears to be in the taking of children, with 15 Mexico City youngsters abducted last year and 22 so far in 2008. In all, there were 438 abductions reported across Mexico in 2007, 35 percent more than in 2006, federal officials report. The authorities acknowledge that most kidnapping cases are never reported and are handled privately, as the hostage-takers often demand. PAGE A8
GESTURE TO JEWS CRITICIZED IN IRAN
In a statement signed by some 200 members of the 290-seat assembly, Iranian lawmakers called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to dismiss Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, a vice president for tourism, after he repeated on Sunday his comments that ''we are a friend of all people in the world, even Israelis and Americans.'' PAGE A13
ZIMBABWE TALKS YIELD NO DEAL
After three days of intensive negotiations to resolve Zimbabwe's political crisis, President Robert Mugabe and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai were deadlocked on the most fundamental issue: which one of them would lead a new unity government. President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, the official mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis, left Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, without the power-sharing deal he had hoped to broker. PAGE A16
GUNMEN KILL FOUR SOUTH OF KABUL
Three Western women and an Afghan driver, all working for an American aid group, were killed just south of Kabul by men with automatic weapons, local officials and the aid group said. The Taliban took responsibility, asserting that the workers were not helping Afghanistan. PAGE A14
NATIONAL
CANDIDATES GET GRIEF
For Social Security Plans
Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have each ventured into risky territory by proposing that something be done about Social Security. Mr. Obama's call to raise payroll taxes, though only for the rich, has drawn criticism, and so has Mr. McCain's ''everything has to be on the table'' approach. A difference is that the criticism of Mr. McCain is coming from his own party. PAGE A20
A FLAG-WAVING ISSUE
Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts wants to phase out the state practice of using uniformed police officers to flag traffic at road construction sites where a crew is fixing potholes or laying pavement. Mr. Patrick wants to replace the officers with less-expensive civilians. Police officers, who may earn up to $40,000 a year beyond their salaries on such duties, warn of safety consequences. PAGE A18
CHOOSING SIDES
An analysis of the first filings under the new congressional ethics law shows the strength of party loyalty among lobbyists: more than three-fourths of the federal lobbyists making campaign contributions in excess of $25,000 this year have given money mainly to one party or the other, according to the reports they filed with Congress at the end of last month. PAGE A17
SEEKING $8 BILLION FOR PRISONS
The court-appointed receiver in charge of bringing California's troubled prison health system into compliance with Constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners said that he would ask a judge to seize $8 billion from the state treasury. The money would be used to pay for prison reforms and to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state controller, John Chiang, in contempt for their failure to pay for the plan. PAGE A18
REVIVING THE STREETCAR
More than 40 cities are exploring streetcar plans to spur economic development, ease traffic congestion and draw young professionals and empty-nest baby boomers back from the suburbs. Among them is Cincinnati, which wants to revive a system that was dismantled in the 1950s. ''Human beings can be silly,'' said one local restaurateur, ''because we move away from things too quickly in this country.'' PAGE A17
OBITUARIES
ELEO POMARE, 70
A modern-dance choreographer whose mordant wit filtered through his social-protest pieces about the human condition and the plight of blacks in particular, Mr. Pomare first stunned audiences in the 1960s with works of great originality and forcefulness. PAGE B7
NEW YORK REPORT
OPPONENTS GATHER MUSCLE
To Fight Rezoning in Queens
Supporters and foes of the Bloomberg administration's plan to replace more than 200 small businesses in Willets Point, Queens, with a $3 billion development of stores, offices and apartments faced off in a confrontation that grew emotional and raucous at times. Rejection by the City Council of a rezoning measure pushed by the mayor would be unusual; what is different this time is the organizational muscle of the opponents. PAGE B1
THE ETHICS OF A FREE RIDE
Subway tokens were simpler: each one allowed for one ride. But the disclosure this week of a computer problem that allowed hundreds of people to get free tickets and MetroCards from vending machines spotlighted the ethical quandaries of the proverbial free ride. PAGE B1
RECALLING THE BLACKOUT
It was exactly five years ago that New York office workers got stuck in elevators and passengers stalled in trains, commuters hitched rides and guests at hotels without air-conditioning slept on the streets. And that was just part of the story of a blackout that left 50 million people in eight states and Canada in the dark. Could it happen again? The short answer is yes, though the odds have significantly diminished. PAGE B3
SPORTS
CHINESE SEEM UNDERWHELMED
By Phelps's Gold Collection
Michael Phelps's quest to win eight gold medals may be generating incredible attention in the United States, but it is receiving curiously subdued attention in the country where it is taking place. There are empty seats at his races, state-run newspapers are providing muted coverage, and a number of people interviewed said that their favorite American athletes at the Games were not swimmers but N.B.A. stars. PAGE D1
A CONFLICT THAT WASN'T
The uniforms and trappings indicated that two Olympians from Georgia were playing two from Russia in beach volleyball, a potential minefield given the situation between the countries. But considering the fact that the ''Georgians'' were born in Brazil and live there still, the reality of the situation was a little different. PAGE D1
NO HARM, NO FOUL?
Before the Olympics, some members of the Spanish Olympic basketball team posed with their index fingers pulling back the skin by the corner of their eyes. But the Chinese don't seem terribly offended, raising the question, Harvey Araton writes in Sports of The Times: ''is the seemingly offensive gesture another noncall, a best-dismissed case of no harm, no foul?'' PAGE D1
BUSINESS
CHRYSLER JOINS THE MOVE
To Smaller Vehicles
Chrysler said it would spend $1.8 billion to convert a Detroit automotive plant from producing Jeep Grand Cherokees, a traditional sport utility vehicle, to making crossovers, vehicles that are mounted on car chassis rather than truck bodies. The move echoes changes previously announced by General Motors and Ford. PAGE C1
DULL, BORING AND PROFITABLE
Hudson City Savings Bank avoided offering subprime mortgages, risky construction loans and faster-growing markets offering easy money. It continued to screen borrowers carefully, since it planned to hold their loans instead of selling them. And it steered clear of complex investments its executives could not value. And now Hudson City's $50 billion balance sheet is not soaked in red ink. PAGE C1
RETAIL SALES CONTINUE DECLINE
Retail sales declined 0.1 percent in July, led by a sharp drop in automobile sales, the Commerce Department said. Sales were also weak at restaurants, sporting goods shops and health care stores. It was the first overall decline in sales since February and added to the evidence that the spending power of American consumers has weakened considerably, despite the booster shot of billions of dollars from the government's tax stimulus program. PAGE C1
AN UNDERGROUND BOOM
Rising energy costs have been very good for the business of ground-source heat pumps, which use the relatively constant temperature just below the earth's surface to heat in winter and cool in summer. Advocates say the systems can save building owners up to 65 percent on energy costs while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. PAGE C5
THE GLOOM SPREADS
Asia and Europe added to the economic gloom, as the Bank of England said it expected inflation to hit 5 percent because of energy and food prices and the economy to stagnate, and government data for Japan showed that the country appeared to be flirting with a recession. Analysts are expecting more bad news for Europe when new figures on the overall economy are released on Thursday. PAGE C3
SCANNING PHOTOS ON THE CHEAP
Turning a household's worth of photographs into their digital equivalents is a goal that most people never attain. Who has the time to do it themselves, or the money for someone else to scan them? But now a company says it will scan 1,000 photos for $50. There is no catch, but in the tradition of the photography business, the company hopes to lure you to spend more. State of the Art, by David Pogue. PAGE C1
Spain's Building Hangover C3
Genentech Rejects Takeover Bid C3
Arts
NONPROFIT GROUP USES BIG MEDIA
To Draw in Potential Youth Voters
Declare Yourself is a nonprofit group founded in 2003 to motivate the 18- to 29-year-old voting bracket. Now it is striving to register two million new voters by Election Day. The group follows in the footsteps of Rock the Vote, which rose to prominence in the early 1990s by allying itself with MTV. Declare Yourself is using big media, rather than music, to drive its message home. Stars of popular shows like ''Gossip Girl'' or ''The Hills'' appear during the shows' commercial breaks to mention the registration effort. PAGE B1
A HALL FOR ICONS IN AN ICONIC CITY
New York City, the birthplace of so many iconic moments in music and song lyrics, is to be host to a catalog of some of those moments and more. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will soon open an annex in SoHo. It will include exhibitions on Hall of Fame inductees, guitars played by the Ramones and Eric Clapton as well as traveling exhibits from the Hall of Fame's headquarters in Cleveland. At the opening ceremony Bruce Springsteen's first car, a '57 Chevy, was proudly on display. PAGE B3
Style
IS SELF-PRESERVATION
Really Skin-Deep?
Smokers in search of elective plastic surgery have been turned away from their desired tummy-tucks, face-lifts and breast-lifts, by surgeons who say that nicotine constricts blood flow, making healing more difficult. Suddenly, people who ignored the surgeon general's warnings and the advice of their cardiologist finally have a compelling reason to quit: vanity. PAGE G3
MATERNAL INSTINCTS IN CYBERSPACE
When a tradition like summer camp collides with the Internet, communication can get complicated. Services like campminder.com allow parents to e-mail children at camp. But keep it simple and keep it contained, parents. You can be kid-sick, but don't let them become homesick, writes Michelle Slatalla. PAGE G2
HOME
RELYING ON GARAGE SALES FOR NEW YORK HOME DeCOR
Garage sales are a summer pastime for many people, and something akin to an addiction for some. But for Linda Wary and John Meyers, a husband-and-wife team of interior designers based in Portland, Me., the sales are their bread and butter: all of their materials are from garage sales and flea markets in Maine. And their clients are in New York. PAGE F1
Editorial
RUSSIA TAKES GORI
President Dmitri Medvedev promised European negotiators that Russia would halt its brutal attacks on Georgia, then Russian tanks rolled into the strategic crossroads town of Gori. We're not sure if that means Mr. Medvedev isn't in charge or that he was lying to buy more time to push for the overthrow of Georgia's government. PAGE A22
SMOOTH AND DANGEROUS?
The Food and Drug Administration needs to have regulatory control over tobacco. And Americans need to know, once and for all, whether menthol makes cigarettes even deadlier. PAGE A22
Op-Ed
GAIL COLLINS
Few of us can internalize the athletes' trauma of the agony of defeat. But having the whole world know that you've been deemed insufficiently attractive -- now there's Everywoman's nightmare. PAGE A23
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
This fall, China's leaders could boast an even more monumental achievement than the Olympics: They could bring the Dalai Lama back to China and engineer a deal to resolve Tibet's future. PAGE A23
THE WRONG FORCE
Bartle Breese Bull, the foreign editor of Prospect magazine, argues that sending a surge of American troops to Afghanistan would risk lives while gaining little tactical advantage. PAGE A23
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: August 14, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Summary
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
670 of 972 DOCUMENTS
Washingtonpost.com
August 14, 2008 Thursday 12:00 PM EST
Washington Week With Gwen Ifill
BYLINE: Gwen Ifill, Journalist, Moderator, "Washington Week With Gwen Ifill and National Journal", washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2949 words
HIGHLIGHT: Each week, the country's top reporters join moderator Gwen Ifill for an in-depth discussion of the week's top news from Washington and around the world. The longest-running news and public affairs program on PBS, "Washington Week and National Journal" features journalists -- not pundits -- lending insight and perspective to the week's important news stories. Now, Ifill brings "Washington Week" online.
Each week, the country's top reporters join moderator Gwen Ifill for an in-depth discussion of the week's top news from Washington and around the world. The longest-running news and public affairs program on PBS, "Washington Week and National Journal" features journalists -- not pundits -- lending insight and perspective to the week's important news stories. Now, Ifill brings "Washington Week" online.
Ifill was online Thursday, Aug. 14 at noon ET to take questions and comments.
The transcript follows.
Ifill is moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" and senior correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." Ifill spent several years as a "Washington Week" panelist before taking over the moderator's chair in October 1999. Before coming to PBS, she spent five years at NBC News as chief congressional and political correspondent. Her reports appeared on "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw," "Today," "Meet the Press" and MSNBC. Ifill joined NBC News from The New York Times where she covered the White House and politics. She also covered national and local affairs for The Washington Post, Baltimore Evening Sun, and Boston Herald American.
"Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal," airs on WETA/Channel 26, Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. (check local listings).
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Gwen Ifill: Hello everyone. Happy to be back. Hope you're e-mailing from the beach!
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Tampa, Fla.: Gwen, congratulations on being named to moderate the veep debate again! Is there a way for us to send you suggestions about questions to ask? Like maybe an e-mail address or a Web site?
Gwen Ifill: Thanks for the good wishes. I'm honored to be moderating again.
You probably won't be surprised to hear I'm already getting suggestions on what to ask. I'll read them all. Send them to washingtonweek@pbs.org
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Washington: Any chance Joe Biden won't be the running mate? He emphasizes credentials Barack Obama doesn't have, while being longwinded as all get out, skewing old as he's at least 66, and being from a solid-blue state with few electoral votes? I don't see it, I think "plastic man" Evan Bayh (as they call him in Indiana) would be better. Noticeably, a national weekly called him Birch Bayh in an edition last week, so at least they remember the old man (pre-1980).
Gwen Ifill: It is completely possible you know more about all this than I do. I'm one of those waiting on David Plouffe to text me when the decision is made!
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Alexandria, Va.: Since the death of Tim Russert you have not appeared on "Meet the Press." Why is that?
Gwen Ifill: Scheduling, mostly. I've been invited, but unable to appear.
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Denver: Ms. Ifill, as an African American woman, if Barack Obama becomes president of the U.S., would this be the single greatet accomplishment for blacks in America? Or is this simply another in a long list of accomplishments that equate to a great country, great opportunities for all and still the land of immigrants.
Gwen Ifill: It would certainly be a big deal, but African Americans have accomplished an awful lot in this country -- much of which has everything to do with leadership and little to do with politics.
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Southwest Nebraska: As the moderator for the vice presidential debate, whom are you hoping will get the nominations? Who might give us a "I knew John Kennedy, and you sir..." type of moment?
Gwen Ifill: It's better for everyone if I don't root for anyone, don't you think? Seems that would work against any candidate.
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Washington: Do you expect mass layoffs soon to be announced from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? Wall Street backs have been hit hard by the mortgage mess and are unloading people, but I've heard nothing with regard to layoffs and Freddie and Fannie.
Gwen Ifill: Nor have I, so I really can't share any informed intelligence on that.
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Woodbridge, Va.: How are the moderaters chosen for the debates? They always seem to be mainstream media journalists with recognized liberal leanings. What is the likelyhood of ever getting some balance in the process?
Gwen Ifill: I can't tell whether that was a hostile question or not!
But here's a link to an interview with commission co-chairman Frank Fahrenkopf that you might find useful.
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Greenfield, Mass.: Good morning Ms. Ifill. I'm so naive. I honestly believe that, should Sen. McCain denounce Corsi's book and others of its ilk, it would burnish Sen. McCain's attempt to portray himself as outside of the Bush White House, and establish him as a true maverick. Oh well -- that ain't gonna happen. Congrats on the appointment as moderator.
Gwen Ifill: That's naivete? Seems pretty much like a 2008 version of "please don't throw me in the briar patch!"
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Columbia: Are the debates going to give more time for response and discussion? That would be great. Here's my suggestion: Every debate should center around one topic. National Security/International Relations, Energy/Environment, Economic Policy, Domestic Policy. Then, allow candidates time for meaningful debate, rather than the current talking points. This also would increase ratings, because you would have a reason to tune in after the first one.
Gwen Ifill: The format this year allows for one presidential debate focusing on domestic policy, one on foreign policy, another town hall meeting-style debate that allows questions on both, and a vice presidential debate that is split between the two as well.
The biggest difference for us moderators is that topics will be split into 10-minute blocs of time to allow for more give-and-take between the candidates. I'm looking forward to it.
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Seattle: Thanks for taking our comments, Gwen. I really would like to hear form one of your guests this week on what the U.S. may or may not have promised Georgia and Russia on these two disputed regions, and the timeline on what happened in the first few days. I think there's a lot more than what I've gotten from the mainstream media. Thanks.
Gwen Ifill: We're going to dig as deeply as we can, but events have been unfolding so rapidly that it has been a challenge to keep up with developments, let alone discern motive.
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Chicago: The vice presidential debate will be very interesting because it will the first and last time a sizable portion of the elector sees these candidates for a decent length of time. Given that most people will have little clue who they are, will you in any way explore their personal /political history, or simply go right to the issues?
Gwen Ifill: I won't be able to even begin to think about how to do these debates until I know who the candidates are.
This question didn't originate at Obama headquarters, did it?
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Athens, Ga.: What is to prevent a candidate from saying "I've thought it over and I'm changing my mind" instead of being called a flip-flopper?
Gwen Ifill: There is nothing to prevent them from saying that if they are willing to take the hear for it. Personally, I have excised the term "flip-flop" from my vocabulary, unless I am talking about beach shoes.
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Boston: Congratulations on moderating the vice presidential debate! Are there any topics that you didn't think were sufficiently covered by the presidential debates that you'd like to address? How much power would a veep actually have to resolve any of them? Thanks!
Gwen Ifill: It's the old "heartbeat away" question. I have no way of knowing what the Presidential debates will or won't resolve, but I consider vice presidential candidates to be potential presidents, which they often become. So I take their answers every bit as seriously as I do the primary candidates.
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Carlsbad, Calif.: Good morning Ms. Ifill, a quick question. Your colleage David Broder said in his online column yesterday that he thought the only way John McCain could win the presidency would be if he chose Gov. Mike Huckabee for his vice president. Seems strange to me, given that the Republican nominee, whomever, couldn't possibly lose any states in the South with or without Huckabee, and elsewhere I don't see Huckabee providing any electoral advantage. What is your take?
Gwen Ifill: I have long made it a practice never to disagree with David Broder. Even when I do.
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Fairfax, Va.: Politicians regularly talk past each other in the so-called "debates" they have. Will you commit to following up with both vice presidential nominees, asking each to address the other's main points when they don't? If you did, it would serve to enlighten us. For example, Obama has been saying that offshore drilling will not bring down gas prices any time soon -- if at all -- because there is not enough oil there in the first place and because of the lag time from drilling to producing gasoline. McCain replies that we must drill now and basically does not rebut Obama's arguments. If you run into similar exchanges in your debate, will you try to get the nominees to be responsive to the specifics of each other's arguments?
Gwen Ifill: That is certainly my goal. Because of the new formats this year, I believe there will be far more flexibility when it comes to follow-ups -- from me as well as from the debaters themsleves.
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Crossing Party Lines?: Hi Gwen. How likely is it that Obama or McCain will select a vice president from the other side? Would McCain backers support Leiberman, for instance, or would Obama's supporters go along with Hagel?
Gwen Ifill: Intriguing question, and one that I am certain some very smart people in either campaign are pondering. I am as uncertain about Lieberman's cross party appeal as I am about, say, Chuck Hagel's. It would be quite the test of voter's claims to ideological independence, wouldn't it?
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Arlington, Va.: Well, it seemed that the story of the week should be the oil-grab by the Russians who now control the remaining major non-Russian oil supply conduit coming out of the Caspian through Georgia. But there are Olympic Games and affairs of former candidates to cover, so I can see why it hasn't been dominating the news as much as a kidnapped child would, or a funny political ad by a half-naked heiress.
Gwen Ifill: Um, where have you been? Is it possible that you have missed the coverage of the story in Georgia? It's been everywhere. I honestly don't think you can accuse the press of ignoring this one.
Now, if you're paying attention to John Edwards travails instead, there's nothing I can do for you.
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Sewickley, Pa.: Now that Mr. McCain has announced that we are all Georgians, I'm wondering if you expect a surge in military enlistments as young people flock to recruiting centers so they too may fight the Russian Bear? Or will my husband have to switch from desert camo to his old green battle dress for a third deployment?
Gwen Ifill: Last I checked John McCain was not yet commander in chief. The President we currently have seems none to eager to put boots on this particular patch of ground.
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Anonymous: When did the League of Women voters stop hosting the debates? They did such a better job with staying on the issues and not playing the "gotcha" game.
Gwen Ifill: I think you have the network-sponsored debates confused with the commission-sponsored debates.
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Washington: Has either candidate really commented on the Phase IV portion of the Russian invasion against Georgia? The U.S. is undertaking Phase IV for it's responsibility in the Iraq invasion, yet it seems like, from press reports, the U.S. will provide humanitarian assistance to Georgia, as well as rebuilt it's destroyed or damaged infrastructure/cities/etc. and military. And we have funds for this, in addition to rebuilding the military and infrastructure of Iraq and Afghanistan? My debate question, I guess, would be where the money and manpower is coming from to rebuild three destroyed countries, and how do the candidates rationalize the spending to the American people, particularly in terms of not spending it on our own systems/infrastructure.
Gwen Ifill: I'll put that one in my file.
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Provo, Utah: Um, are there no qualified women to conduct a presidential debate?
Gwen Ifill: Sure there are.
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Bremerton, Wash.: Possible question for the vice-presidential debate: "What is the purpose of our government?" It sounds simple, but considering the Norquist philosophy of "drowning it in a bathtub," it could tell us a lot.
Gwen Ifill: Not sure that one will make the file.
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Milwaukee: Gwen, why do you think Kansas Gov. Sebelius's name has disappeared from the veepstakes speculation by the media? All we hear about these days are guys...
Gwen Ifill: Follow my example and take all the veepstakes speculation with a huge grain of rock salt. I am one of those who believe only a few folks have any idea what they are talking about -- and those folks ain't much talking.
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Fort Bragg, N.C.: It's reported in today's paper that John McCain said (regarding Russia) "I'm interested in good relations between the United States and Russia. But in the 21st century, nations don't invade other nations." Will his feet be held to the fire on that statement regarding the United States/President Bush as well as Russia? Or will he differentiate between the Russian nation's invasion and/or anyone else's invasion?
Gwen Ifill: Guess it depends on the meaning of the word "invade."
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Crystal City, Va.: The blogs are full of news that the 70,000 "free" tickets to Obama's acceptance speech actually require the recipient to volunteer three or four hours of campaign work before they get their ticket. Is the Obama campign comfortable requiring people to "volunteer," or are they starting to rethnk this policy? Any chance one of your panelists may dig into this before Friday?
Gwen Ifill: Haven't heard much about this. Is there really an outcry? Do people really think "free" ever means "free"?
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Washington: Just a note to say I'm really, really happy you're moderating one of the debates. I know you'll keep it substantive and meaningful. Let's talk policy, not politics!
Gwen Ifill: Will do.
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Pittsburgh: I have a devil a time understanding how the McCain camp believes the Russia/Georgia conflict helps them. The Obama surrogates/advisers on national security whom I have seen interviewed on TV seem to be experienced, tough, realistic heavy-hitters. The Obama campaign in general has seemed far more organized and coherent in terms of formulating a strategy, crafting a message and sticking to it.
Furthermore, I don't get the sense that Americans feel like "we are all Georgians now," as Sen. McCain asserts. If anything, the conflict seems to underscore how bellicose he and his advisers are and how closely tied to the neoconservative group that pushed for war in Iraq. How do you perceive attitudes on this conflict as you travel and talk to people?
Gwen Ifill: You just gave me about eight good questions to ask our panelists tomorrow night. Thanks!
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Springfield, Va.: A judge has decided that the indicted Detroit mayor can attend the convention in Denver. I predict I will outswim Michael Phelps before Kwame Kilpatrick gets his picture take, with Obama. How do you think the mayor will be treated by the leadership while in Denver?
washingtonpost.com: Judge Permits Detroit Mayor to Attend Party Convention (New York Times, Aug. 14)
Gwen Ifill: Kwame Kilpatrick has actually been quite the political realist when it comes to Senator Obama. It was the mayor who said it was best he not appear with the nominee when he visited Detroit not long ago. So I imagine the same thing will apply in Denver. You don't generally get that close to the nominee at a convention unless you are part of the inner, inner circle.
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Anonymous: Georgia sent 2,000 troops to Iraq. In return, the U.S. upped their military and financial aid to Georgia. Georgia spent the majority of this increased aid to beef up their presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the Russian border. Is this situation indirect "blowback" from the Iraq war?
Gwen Ifill: Things are rarely that simple. To listen to President Saakashvili, it would seem he expected more in return for his support than he has been getting so far.
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San Francisco: This is a shameless plug, I admit it, but: I am an Obama supporter and had been thinking of contributing to his campaign. However, after watching a recent "Washington Week," I have decided to divert my campaign contribution and give it to ... PBS (KQED). Obama doesn't need my money as much as public television does.
Gwen Ifill: That's the kind of shameless plug I love.
_______________________
Gwen Ifill: You may all go reapply sunblock now.
But tune in tomorrow, where we talk about the Russia/Georgia conflict as well as the politics of that standoff and all the other mini-standoffs that are building up as we prepare to head off to the conventions in Denver and St. Paul, Minn..
Who knows? Maybe by this time next week, I'll know who my debaters are going to be!
_______________________
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
August 13, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
Eight Strikes And You're Out
BYLINE: By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 21
LENGTH: 846 words
John McCain recently tried to underscore his seriousness about pushing through a new energy policy, with a strong focus on more drilling for oil, by telling a motorcycle convention that Congress needed to come back from vacation immediately and do something about America's energy crisis. ''Tell them to come back and get to work!'' McCain bellowed.
Sorry, but I can't let that one go by. McCain knows why.
It was only five days earlier, on July 30, that the Senate was voting for the eighth time in the past year on a broad, vitally important bill -- S. 3335 -- that would have extended the investment tax credits for installing solar energy and the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems.
Both the wind and solar industries depend on these credits -- which expire in December -- to scale their businesses and become competitive with coal, oil and natural gas. Unlike offshore drilling, these credits could have an immediate impact on America's energy profile.
Senator McCain did not show up for the crucial vote on July 30, and the renewable energy bill was defeated for the eighth time. In fact, John McCain has a perfect record on this renewable energy legislation. He has missed all eight votes over the last year -- which effectively counts as a no vote each time. Once, he was even in the Senate and wouldn't leave his office to vote.
''McCain did not show up on any votes,'' said Scott Sklar, president of The Stella Group, which tracks clean-technology legislation. Despite that, McCain's campaign commercial running during the Olympics shows a bunch of spinning wind turbines -- the very wind turbines that he would not cast a vote to subsidize, even though he supports big subsidies for nuclear power.
Barack Obama did not vote on July 30 either -- which is equally inexcusable in my book -- but he did vote on three previous occasions in favor of the solar and wind credits.
The fact that Congress has failed eight times to renew them is largely because of a hard core of Republican senators who either don't want to give Democrats such a victory in an election year or simply don't believe in renewable energy.
What impact does this have? In the solar industry today there is a rush to finish any project that would be up and running by Dec. 31 -- when the credits expire -- and most everything beyond that is now on hold. Consider the Solana concentrated solar power plant, 70 miles southwest of Phoenix in McCain's home state. It is the biggest proposed concentrating solar energy project ever. The farsighted local utility is ready to buy its power.
But because of the Senate's refusal to extend the solar tax credits, ''we cannot get our bank financing,'' said Fred Morse, a senior adviser for the American operations of Abengoa Solar, which is building the project. ''Without the credits, the numbers don't work.'' Some 2,000 construction jobs are on hold.
Roger Efird is president of Suntech America -- a major Chinese-owned solar panel maker that actually wants to build a new factory in America. They've been scouting the country for sites, and several governors have been courting them. But Efird told me that when the solar credits failed to pass the Senate, his boss told him: ''Don't set up any more meetings with governors. It makes absolutely no sense to do this if we don't have stability in the incentive programs.''
One of the biggest canards peddled by Big Oil is that, ''Sure, we'll need wind and solar energy, but it's just not cost effective yet.'' They've been saying that for 30 years. What these tax credits are designed to do is to stimulate investments by many players in solar and wind so these technologies can quickly move down the learning curve and become competitive with coal and oil -- which is why some people are trying to block them.
As Richard K. Lester, an energy-innovation expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, notes, ''The best chance we have -- perhaps the only chance'' of addressing the combined challenges of energy supply and demand, climate change and energy security ''is to accelerate the introduction of new technologies for energy supply and use and deploy them on a very large scale.''
This, he argues, will take more than a Manhattan Project. It will require a fundamental reshaping by government of the prices and regulations and research-and-development budgets that shape the energy market. Without taxing fossil fuels so they become more expensive and giving subsidies to renewable fuels so they become more competitive -- and changing regulations so more people and companies have an interest in energy efficiency -- we will not get innovation in clean power at the scale we need.
That is what this election should be focusing on. Everything else is just bogus rhetoric designed by cynical candidates who think Americans are so stupid -- so bloody stupid -- that if you just show them wind turbines in your Olympics ad they'll actually think you showed up and voted for such renewable power -- when you didn't.
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USA TODAY
August 13, 2008 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
Does age matter when you're CEO?;
Years bring experience, but some say leadership skill matters more
BYLINE: Del Jones
SECTION: MONEY; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 1846 words
Barack Obama turned 47 last week, and John McCain turns 72 on Aug.29, which leaves voters to choose from candidates who would widely be considered too young and too old to be CEOs of the largest corporations.
Obama, born just after Alan Shepard became the first American in space, would have a hard sell to convince a board of directors at a big company that he's not unseasoned. McCain would have a tougher sell as someone so seasoned that he was born before pilot Amelia Earhart vanished trying to circumnavigate the globe.
There are some CEOs running major companies in their 40s and 70s, and those interviewed say that age has little to do with success and leadership. What matters far more, says 49-year-old Rich Templeton, who became CEO of Texas Instruments at 45, is whether executives see the heart of their career and accomplishments ahead of them or behind.
"Leaders at all ages have to be willing to hear the bad news over and over and still see a silver lining," says Leslie Gaines-Ross, a longtime CEO observer and chief reputation strategist at Weber Shandwick. She says optimism is key.
But good leaders don't turn a blind eye to the data without good reason, and the data about corporate leaders indicate that age matters a lot more than CEOs and CEO experts let on. There is a leadership sweet spot that falls in the 50s and early 60s.
The median age for an S&P 500 CEO in 2007 was 55, according to executive search firm Spencer Stuart. If anything, companies are gravitating more toward the sweet-spot age. Since 2000, the percentage of S&P 500 CEOs 50 to 59 has increased to 58% from 53%, Spencer Stuart says. Among today's S&P 500 CEOs, 27 (5.4%) are 47 and younger, and six (1.2%) are 72 and older, according to Spencer Stuart and USA TODAY research.
Energy vs. wisdom
Age is a leadership wild card as headhunters and corporate boards ponder trade-offs such as energy vs. wisdom. An experienced CEO might help a company avoid repeating mistakes, but the flexibility of youth might be important in an environment of quick adjustments.
When CEOs are hired, most talented 45-year-olds must wait their turn, and most talented 65-year-olds make way. Management consulting firm Booz & Co., which tracks departing S&P 500 CEOs, says 29% of 2,258 who left the job from 1995 through 2007 were originally promoted to the top when they were 47 or younger. Only 13 (0.6%) became CEO at 72 or older, which makes a new CEO hire at McCain's age a statistical outlier, something akin to a 41-year-old Olympic swimmer.
ForteCEO, which specializes in placing interim executives with 20-plus years of experience at struggling companies, says only 5% of them are older than 65. Mark Rittmanic, CEO of ForteCEO, says most executives of McCain's generation assumed that at 65 it was time to retire and collect a pension, and they gave little thought to working on.
A survey of 158 senior business executives by search firm CTPartners found that 47% would not hire a qualified 72-year-old as CEO. At USA TODAY's request, CTPartners followed up with a separate survey asking senior executives if they would hire a qualified 47-year-old as CEO. Of the 116 respondents, five (4%) said they would not.
While CEOs almost never get the job at 72, there are those who are effective at that age and beyond. Warren Buffett turns 78 the day after McCain turns 72. Walter Zable, CEO of electronics manufacturer Cubic, is 93. Marriott International CEO Bill Marriott is 76. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch is 77. Kirk Kerkorian, CEO of Tracinda, is 91. Financier Carl Icahn waded into the fight between Microsoft and Yahoo at 72. T. Boone Pickens is weighing in on the energy quandary at 80.
Sidney Harman, 90, retired at 88 as CEO of audio equipment giant Harman International, where he had long been the dean of S&P 500 CEOs. The oldest five S&P 500 CEOs left are 77 to 79, practically wet behind the ears. Harman says he walks 18 holes of golf, sometimes 23, and travels every other week between Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, where he teaches a business course at the University of Southern California.
"Do I detect any difference between now and when I was 70? A little, but there is nothing significantly diminished," Harman says. "Am I a better executive than I was at 47? In some ways, absolutely. I think less in terms of me and more for others. I don't have the same level of enthusiasm, but I can inspire others more easily."
An exception to the rule
Harman says it's obvious that he is an exception, and he quotes former New York Mets manager Casey Stengel: "Most men my age are dead."
Dinesh Paliwal, 51, replaced Harman as CEO 13 months ago. Under such youthful leadership, stock in Harman International has fallen 63%.
However, as a group, the S&P 500 companies run by the youngest CEOs have been outperforming those run by the oldest. Of the 27 CEOs of S&P 500 who are 47 and younger, 23 have been CEO since the start of 2007. Those 23 stocks are down an average 2.8% over 19 months vs. a 9% decline in the S&P 500 index. The six companies with CEOs who are 72 and older are down an average of 21%.
Conclusions are all but impossible to draw from the portfolios of 23 and six companies, but winners are few among the older CEOs. Nabors Industries, with 78-year-old Eugene Isenberg as CEO, is up 10%, but the other five are down substantially over 19 months. Amazon, with 44-year-old Jeff Bezos at the helm, is the runaway leader among both age groups: up 121%.
When Bezos was 39, he was part of a 2003 analysis by Forbes magazine designed to measure the performance of the 10 youngest (average age 44) vs. the 10 oldest (average age 74) CEOs of large companies. Forbes employed a formula to measure CEO compensation packages relative to shareholder return. That study found that the younger CEOs as a group outperformed the higher-paid, older CEOs.
CEOs in their 40s say they have seen enough energetic role models to know what executives in their 70s can continue to accomplish. Troy Clarke, president of General Motors North America, says that until he met General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, 76, he assumed that no successful executive could function past 70. Lutz has more energy than those half his age, Clarke says.
Good leaders are crafted from tough times, even failure, says Gaines-Ross. Necessary experience rarely comes before 50, she says. "There is a prime age, like wine. Aged or seasoned executives establish credibility," she says.
Even so, young CEOs say they will exit before their 70s. "There will be someone a lot better than me long before that," says Richard Dugas, the 43-year-old CEO of home builder Pulte Homes. "It's an all-consuming role. I don't know many CEOs who are effective more than 15 or 20 years."
Jeffrey Schwartz, the 49-year-old CEO of ProLogis, a giant real estate investment trust operating in 20 countries, says he doesn't see himself slowing down much by 72, but he expects to retire around 60. Clinging on would be unfair to younger executives, he says.
Spurring competition
Companies such as Altria and General Electric encourage CEOs to retire by 65, if only to maintain morale and spur competition among those in line for the next chance. However, 67% of 398 senior executives surveyed by the Association of Executive Search Consultants this year said there should be no mandatory retirement age.
"Some companies use a mandatory retirement age to avoid a potentially awkward conversion and to provide younger leaders with a visible path to higher office," says Universal Health Services CEO Alan Miller, who turns 71 this month. "If the company is objectively managed, changes in leadership will happen when appropriate, making arbitrary limits unnecessary."
For every 65-year-old CEO nudged out the door, there is probably a talented fortysomething who feels his or her career has been unfairly postponed by the promotion of a fiftysomething. Dugas says he considers himself lucky to get his chance four years ago.
"Experience is not about having more answers. It's about asking the right questions," says Gary Smith, 47, who took over as CEO of communications company Ciena at 40.
Abhi Talwalkar, 44, who became CEO of semiconductor giant LSI at 41, says young CEOs connect with employees. Septuagenarian CEOs may be a fit for "old-world companies" where the average employees are in their 50s, but they're less likely to fit where employees are in their 30s or younger, he says.
As CEO of executive search firm Korn/Ferry International, it's Gary Burnison's job to help place CEOs at the right companies, and he says age is often a point of emphasis. Korn/Ferry's research finds that such traits as perseverance, integrity and trust have nothing to do with age, but that conflict management and negotiating skills improve over time.
International Dairy Queen is owned by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. Mike Sullivan retired seven years ago as Dairy Queen's CEO. He was 66 and was replaced by Chuck Mooty, 47 at the time. Age was not slowing him down at 66, Sullivan says. He might be less effective were he put back on the job today at 73, he says, but only because he has been gone so long that his work habits have changed.
"Age does raise questions. But I would not write someone off at 70 because of age itself," Sullivan says.
A first for voters
Voters have never had to choose between candidates born so far apart.
Bill Clinton won despite being 23 years younger than Bob Dole, but the older candidate has won 24 of 38 presidential elections since a Republican first faced a Democrat in 1856, according to American Demographics magazine.
Presidents since 1951 have been restricted to eight-year term limits, which may make age less of a consideration among voters than it would among company directors choosing a new CEO.
But the tenures are much the same. The average CEO of a large company lasts six years, Gaines-Ross says, and 27% of CEOs are gone within three years, according to a study out in June at Rice University.
However, companies like to gamble on the 1-in-20 chance of a 20-year success story, and that won't happen if they bring aboard a septuagenarian.
Young CEOs sometimes acquire a lifetime of experience early in their careers. Pulte CEO Dugas started running the home builder before the ongoing 30-month housing depression began. The company's stock bottomed out at $8.20, down from $46.74 in July 2005. It closed Tuesday at $12.47. Dugas finds himself leading through a business crisis worse than most CEOs see in a career.
Such downturns can make leaders prematurely gray. But gray hair has its advantages, Miller says.
"I don't think you get smarter, but you get wisdom. Everything is not an existential crisis. When you get older, you separate out what is really a crisis from an average problem," Miller says.
The stock price of Universal Health Services hit an all-time high this year, and Miller, 70 and CEO for 30 years, signed a five-year extension on his contract in December.
Character and courage are more important than age, Miller says. "If you're a young weasel, you'll be an old weasel."
Contributing: Matt Krantz
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August 13, 2008 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
McCain's criticism on wider stage than Obama's;
Candidates take different approaches to advertising during Olympics
BYLINE: Jill Lawrence
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 9A
LENGTH: 754 words
WASHINGTON -- Millions of TV viewers are seeing negative political ads during the Olympics, a gamble by Republican John McCain that the sheer size of the audience outweighs any potential backlash against sharp rhetoric during a feel-good event.
Democrat Barack Obama, the target of the two McCain ads running with the Olympics, is taking a different tack. His Olympics offering is a gauzy spot about new types of energy jobs. But he's getting tough on McCain in lower-profile settings such as national cable, local radio and TV ads targeted to a single state.
Political advertising analysts say both candidates are doing what they need to do: McCain raising questions about Obama's readiness to lead, Obama trying to preserve his positive brand of "new politics."
Still, says Ken Goldstein, head of the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin, it was strange to see a McCain "attack ad" during the Olympics opening ceremonies -- especially since the footage used to deride Obama's "celebrity" was of Obama being cheered in Germany.
Given that the spectacle was all about "the world and fellowship and the parade of nations," Goldstein said, "going after your opponent for being of the world seemed a bit jarring, a bit odd."
The Obama campaign suggests McCain's move will backfire. "Their campaign really seems pretty out of touch with what the American people want to see and hear during the Olympics," Obama adviser Anita Dunn says.
Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group says McCain's strategy is risky but could pay off. "They're using a gigantic stage to make their national case against Obama," he says. "It doesn't seem to be causing any uproar. They may have guessed right."
Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, says McCain is "focused on ensuring that voters have the best information possible to make an informed decision on Election Day."
The claims in both ads, that Obama voted to raise taxes on lower-income people and will raise them as president, have been labeled false or misleading by PolitiFact.com and FactCheck.org, non-partisan fact-checking groups that say Obama proposes tax cuts for lower-income people.
There's no sign Obama will be responding in kind during the Olympics. Jim Margolis, his media adviser, says his Olympics ad is "a lot more appropriate" than McCain's negative ads.
Most of Obama's negative ads are responses to McCain and the Republican Party. The local advertising offensive, Margolis says, is meant to show people how McCain's policies would affect them in a "relevant and personal" way. Recent examples:
*A TV ad in Nevada cites McCain's support for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and shows him saying he would not be comfortable with waste moving through Arizona, his home state. The McCain campaign says Obama, a Yucca opponent, twice voted for a water bill that funded the project.
*A radio spot in Ohio says McCain "used his influence" in the Senate to help DHL, a German firm, buy a U.S. company and says McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, "was the top lobbyist for the DHL deal." Now 8,000 jobs at DHL are "on the chopping block," it says. Davis said on Fox News Sunday that without the takeover, "those jobs were probably going to be lost" earlier. McCain has said he will do all he can to save the jobs.
*A radio spot running in Milwaukee and York, Pa., both identified with Harley-Davidson, concerns McCain's comment that "I will take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day" over the roar of Obama fans in Berlin. It cites McCain's opposition to requiring the government to buy U.S. motorcycles and products and says "Harleys don't matter" to him.
Bounds says McCain's economic plan would cut Harley's taxes more than $100 million, allowing it to expand and add jobs, and McCain supports free-trade policies that have created more than 170,000 jobs in Wisconsin. "Unlike Barack Obama, Harley owners appreciate open roads and open markets," Bounds says.
McCain's campaign isn't rebutting Obama's local ads with its own. It has agreed to take public financing of about $84million for the general election. That means its spending after the convention in September will be capped.
Democratic strategist Robert Shrum says localized ads in 2000 and 2004 were sharply restricted because nominees Al Gore and John Kerry took public financing. "I would have liked to have run ads to suppress (Ralph) Nader's vote in Florida in 2000 and more tailored ads in 2004" in individual states, Shrum says. "Obama is very wise to get out of federal funding."
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The Washington Post
August 13, 2008 Wednesday
Regional Edition
Can McCain Use Advice Clinton Got on Obama?
BYLINE: Dan Balz; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A03
LENGTH: 1010 words
If John McCain's campaign operatives were looking for strategic advice for the fall campaign against Barack Obama, they could click on the Atlantic Monthly's Web site. There they would find a raft of memos from Mark J. Penn, Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief strategist, outlining possible ways to try to defeat the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The memos, dug up by the enterprising Joshua Green and accompanying an article chronicling the demise of Clinton's campaign, are drawing attention in large measure for what they reveal about her operation's dysfunction. They are equally revealing for what they say about the direction Penn wanted to take Clinton's message and the risks inherent for McCain if he and his campaign were to pursue the same path.
Penn was always the biggest hawk in Clinton's campaign, always the one who advocated going negative against Obama. The day after the senator from New York won primaries in Ohio and Texas, Penn called for drawing a sharp contrast with Obama along the following lines:
"He is just words and she is a lifetime of action. . . . She is the one who is ready to fill the big shoes of this job and he is an inspiring speaker who isn't, and whose background you are beginning to wonder about. She has brought real results and even his words today are in doubt, invented for a campaign. Ultimately he cannot win against John McCain."
Clinton's campaign, he argued, "must now in earnest show that their image of Obama Camelot is simply nothing but campaign pitter-patter."
At the end of the day on March 30, he wrote an even more pointed memo. He argued that Obama needed to be "vetted" on the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his former pastor; on his ties to the corrupt Tony Rezko; and on his record in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. Senate.
"Does anyone believe it is possible to win the nomination without, over these two months, raising all these issues against him?" Penn wrote. "A 'nice' campaign that wins the states alone that can be won -- will that be enough or do serious issues have to raised about him?"
None of these were new positions for Penn. A year earlier, on March 19, 2007, he portrayed Obama as lacking roots in basic American values and as being a phony -- although he was more tentative on how the campaign ought to approach those topics.
Penn was particularly struck by what he called "a very strong weakness" in Obama -- "His roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values."
But then he worried about how the Clinton campaign could draw a contrast on this without sounding negative. "We are never going to say anything about his background -- we have to show the value of ours when it comes to making decisions, understanding the needs of most Americans -- the invisible Americans."
Penn's solution? "Let's explicitly own 'American' in our programs, the speeches and the values. He doesn't," he wrote. "Make this a new American Century, the American Strategic Energy fund. Let's use our logo to make some flags we can give out. Let's add flag symbols to the backgrounds."
Clinton's campaign never did quite become the flag-waving, patriotic operation that Penn envisioned in March 2007, nor did she ever go as overtly negative as he was preaching in March and April 2008. Would she be the nominee if she had? And can McCain win the presidency if he -- carefully -- pursues a similar path?
Clinton's risk, often cited by Penn's opponents inside the campaign, was that attacking Obama directly would only heighten negative impressions of her. She carried plenty of baggage as a polarizing politician; taking on Obama would have added to that baggage. Others in Clinton's high command preferred to portray her as more human. They did not think she needed to look more like a warrior.
Earlier this year, the McCain campaign, presumably unknowingly, adopted some of Penn's provocative 2007 playbook with an ad that talked about the presumptive GOP nominee as "the American president Americans have been waiting for."
That was even less subtle in invoking a cultural-values argument against Obama than Penn's suggestion to Clinton that she always tell audiences she was "born in the middle of America" and to talk about "the deeply American values you grew up with."
Interestingly, the most provocative of Penn's memos posted by the Atlantic -- the one that talks about Obama's lack of roots in American values -- went nowhere. "I don't remember there being a real discussion about this," Howard Wolfson, who was the campaign's communications director and who often differed with Penn on strategy, said yesterday. "It was universally rejected, and in fairness to Mark, I don't think Mark pushed it. . . . It's one of those things people heard and said, 'That's not a good idea.' "
McCain's campaign appears to have less hesitation than Clinton's did in going after Obama. For the past few weeks, it has run a series of negative ads -- some humorous, some not so -- that portray Obama as a famous but empty suit who is wrong on many of the issues Americans care most about.
The ads, at a minimum, may be getting under Obama's skin. It's possible they are doing real damage. Penn seems to believe that, based on what he wrote for the Politico. "Fair or not, as advertising it did its job," he said.
Just how far McCain's campaign will pursue this strategy isn't clear. There are risks for him, just as there were for Clinton. Obama has proven over this long campaign to be a difficult target to hit -- at least on anything more than an occasional basis. So the mileage may be limited long term.
More fundamentally, McCain risks damaging his reputation as a politician who has eschewed the politics of negativity. But what was considered out of bounds in a Democratic primary campaign may be less so in a general-election race, in which other voters come into play. McCain will have to make some difficult judgments about this in the final 82 days.
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The Washington Post
August 13, 2008 Wednesday
Regional Edition
Mr. Obama's Small-Business Tax Hike
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A14
LENGTH: 152 words
Howard Kurtz wrote an analysis ["McCain Paints Obama as a Tax Hound," Aug. 9] that dismissed claims, made in a campaign ad for Sen. John McCain, that Sen. Barack Obama would raise taxes on small business.
According to the latest Internal Revenue Service data, $706 billion of pass-through business income was reported in 2006. Of this, two-thirds was earned in households making more than $250,000 -- households on which Obama has said he will raise taxes.
If raising the tax rate on two-thirds of small-business income isn't a tax hike on small business, what is?
The tax rate on two-thirds of small-business income would skyrocket under the Obama plan. The current tax rate on this income is 37.9 percent. The Obama plan, thanks to uncapping the Social Security tax base, would shoot this small-business rate all the way up to a Carter-level 54.9 percent.
RYAN ELLIS
Tax Policy Director
Americans for Tax Reform
Washington
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The Washington Post
August 13, 2008 Wednesday
Regional Edition
Erasing The Race Factor;
Obama's Best Hope Is To Face the Issue Directly
BYLINE: Peter Beinart
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A15
LENGTH: 751 words
Barack Obama has a problem. He really, really doesn't want this campaign to be about race. He wants it to be about change, President Bush, the economy, gas prices, Iraq, Afghanistan -- almost anything else. But it is going to be about race, at least in part. That's the lesson of recent weeks, when the McCain campaign brought up race (on the pretext that Obama had brought it up first). The Obama campaign tried desperately to change the subject but couldn't. Once the chum was in the water, the media sharks went wild.
Obama should take that as a warning. Race will be central to this campaign because McCain needs it to be. He simply doesn't have many other cards to play. And it will be central because every time Republicans light the match, the press will create a forest fire. Race is just too titillating to ignore. The history of post-Vietnam presidential elections is littered with Democratic nominees who thought they could run on policy and ignore symbolism. This year, the symbolism will be largely racial. Obama can't avoid that. He needs to control the race debate instead.
Already, there is reason to believe that race is weighing Obama down. A survey this year by CBS and the New York Times found that 94 percent of respondents would vote for a black presidential candidate. But when asked if "most people" would, the number dropped to 71 percent. Notre Dame political scientist David Leege estimates that 17 to 19 percent of white Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents will resist voting for Obama because he is black. That's far more than the percentage of Republicans who may vote for Obama because he is black. And it's a major reason that this election -- despite Obama's myriad advantages -- remains close.
To blow it open, Obama needs to bring Leege's number down. That may be possible, because even racists can be wooed. Think about it this way: Many of the voters who right now won't vote for Obama because he's black would probably vote for Colin Powell even though he's black. That's because they don't see Powell as a racial redistributionist, a guy who would favor his community at their expense. There's no rational reason to believe Obama would, either. But because, unlike Powell, Obama is a liberal Democrat who enjoys overwhelming black support, that's what many racially hostile white voters assume.
For these voters, Obama can't make race go away by ignoring it, especially because the GOP and the media won't. He needs to acknowledge their fears and do something dramatic to assuage them. Paradoxically, his best shot at deracializing the campaign is to explicitly make race an issue.
He can do that with a high-profile speech -- and maybe a TV ad -- calling for the replacement of race-based preferences with class-based ones. That would confront head-on white fears that an Obama administration would favor minorities at whites' expense. It would be a sharper, more dramatic, way of making the point that Obama has made ever since he took the national stage (but which some whites still refuse to believe): that he represents not racial division but national unity.
On the merits, there's a lot to say for class-based affirmative action. Over the decades, racial preferences have played a vital role in creating a black middle class, but that middle class is now large and self-perpetuating. It is the multi-generational poor -- whether urban and black or Appalachian and white -- who truly need a boost today. And that's what Obama himself seems to believe. Arguing that his own daughters shouldn't benefit from affirmative action, he told the Chronicle of Higher Education last year that "we should take into account white kids who have been disadvantaged and have grown up in poverty and shown themselves to have what it takes to succeed." Some of the parents of those white kids fear voting for Obama because they think they'll lose out. If they knew Obama's views, they might change their mind.
Race isn't going away as a factor in American life, of course. But the defining American problem of the 21st century may not be the "color line," as W.E.B. Du Bois suggested about the 20th. In an age of growing multiculturalism and growing economic inequality, it may be the class line instead. By calling for a different kind of affirmative action, Obama could acknowledge that profound change -- and help propel himself to the White House at the same time.
Peter Beinart, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes a monthly column for The Post.
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August 13, 2008 Wednesday 1:03 PM EST
From Green Light to Yellow
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HIGHLIGHT: With Russia reportedly violating its hours-old cease-fire agreement with Georgia, President Bush announced today that he's sending in the American military -- sort of.
With Russia reportedly violating its hours-old cease-fire agreement with Georgia, President Bush announced today that he's sending in the American military -- sort of.
The mission is a humanitarian one, but by choosing to put U.S. planes and ships into a war zone, Bush is raising the stakes in a conflict that his top aides just last night were congratulating themselves for having resolved. (They thought vague threats about World Trade Organization membership had stopped the Russians in their tracks.)
This morning, however, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili took to the American airwaves to accuse Russian forces of moving deeper into his country. And he scolded Bush for his passive response.
"Well, frankly, some of the first statements from Washington were perceived by the Russians almost as a green light for doing this because they were too soft. Russians don't understand that kind of soft language," Saakashvili told CNN. "America is losing the whole region," Saakashvili said, adding that the Russians "are by proxy trying to fight war with the West."
In a hastily scheduled Rose Garden statement a few hours later, Bush repeatedly expressed concerns about Russian actions, then announced he was sending in military planes and ships with humanitarian and medical shipments. He also said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is headed to the Georgian capital.
This time, his comments had some elements of a dare: "We expect Russia to honor its commitment to let in all forms of humanitarian assistance," he said. "We expect Russia to ensure that all lines of communication and transport, including seaports, airports, roads, and airspace, remain open for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and for civilian transit. We expect Russia to meet its commitment to cease all military activities in Georgia. And we expect all Russian forces that entered Georgia in recent days to withdraw from that country."
The agreement that Bush administration officials last night were so proud of basically gave the Russians everything they wanted.
Andrew E. Kramer and Ellen Barry write in the New York Times: "The presidents of Georgia and Russia agreed early Wednesday morning on a framework that could end the war that flared up here five days ago, after Russia reasserted its traditional dominance of the region. . . .
"Whether the agreement holds or not, Russia has achieved its goals, effectively creating a new reality on the ground, humiliating the Georgian military and increasing the pressure on a longtime antagonist, Mr. Saakashvili."
Borzou Daragahi writes in the Los Angeles Times that Saakashvili had been forced to agree to "terms that some described as humiliating to his small, proud nation. . . .
"[A]nalysts said the peace proposal, backed by France and the European Union, left no doubt that Russia won the military conflict of the last several days.
"Russia clearly saw the conflict as an opportunity to reassert dominance over an area that it views as part of its historical sphere of influence. Georgia is a former Soviet republic that gained independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russia has watched with increasing fury as Georgia and other former Soviet states have developed close ties with the United States and Western Europe."
Ian Traynor and Luke Harding write in the Guardian: "The Kremlin last night dictated humiliating peace terms to Georgia as the price for halting the Russian invasion of the small Black Sea country and its four-day rout of Georgian forces."
But Karen DeYoung writes in The Washington Post: "The Bush administration suggested yesterday that an apparent cease-fire in Georgia came about because Moscow feared it would be banished from Western-dominated international economic and political institutions if it did not stop its 'aggression' in the former Soviet republic. . . .
"[A] senior administration official said . . . [m]embership in institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the Group of Eight major industrialized nations 'is what is at stake when Russia engages in behavior that looks like it came from another time.' . . .
"Although President Bush warned late Monday that Moscow's actions had already 'substantially damaged Russia's standing in the world,' the administration avoided making explicit threats in its own conversations with Russian leaders, one of the U.S. officials said, adding: 'We don't need to.'"
On the ABC World News last night, Charlie Gibson asked Rice about possible consequences for Russia. Her response: "This isn't 1968. The predecessor state of Russia, the Soviet Union, didn't care about its international reputation because it wasn't attempting to integrate into international organizations. . . . The Russians have said that they do want to be a part of that prosperous and forward-looking international community. And, frankly, they're doing great damage to their ability to do that. I can assure you that Russia's international reputation, and what role Russia can play in the international community, is very much at stake here."
By contrast, Matthew Lee writes for the Associated Press that "with scant leverage in the face of an emboldened Moscow, Washington and its friends have been forced to face the uncomfortable reality that their options are limited to mainly symbolic measures, such as boycotting Russian-hosted meetings and events, that may have little or no long-term impact on Russia's behavior, [administration] officials said Tuesday."
Peter Grier writes in the Christian Science Monitor: "Russia's blitz into the former Soviet republic of Georgia has exposed starkly the limits of US military power and geopolitical influence in the era following the invasion of Iraq."
And Jonathan S. Landay writes for McClatchy Newspapers that "the United States needs Russia's help on a range of issues, from tightening U.N. sanctions against Iran for refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment work to ensuring that North Korea abides by an agreement to eliminate its nuclear weapons program.
"Russia and the United States also work closely on counter-terrorism, and Moscow's influence is also required on a host of other issues, from the Middle East peace process and ending the war in Iraq to halting the proliferation of materials useful in producing biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
"'There is no question that the Bush administration will want to . . . express it's disapproval and to downgrade the relationship,' said Charles Kupchan, a former White House advisor on European affairs now with the Council on Foreign Relations. 'But at the same time, the United States doesn't want to shoot itself in the foot.'"
Helene Cooper and Thom Shanker write in the New York Times that "around Washington, there are some rumblings already over whether the crisis might have somehow been headed off. . . .
"In a flurry of briefings intended to counter the critics and overcome the impression of having been caught flatfooted, senior Bush administration officials tried to paint a portrait of American reason and calm in the midst of hot tempers in what several called 'a hot zone.' . . .
"Bush administration officials have been adamant in asserting that they warned the government in Tbilisi not to let Moscow provoke it into a fight -- and that they were surprised when their advice went unheeded. Right up until the hours before Georgia launched its attack late last week in South Ossetia, Washington's top envoy for the region, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, and other administration officials were warning the Georgians not to allow the conflict to escalate.
"But . . . the accumulation of years of mixed messages may have made the American warnings fall on deaf ears.
"The United States took a series of steps that emboldened Georgia: sending advisers to build up the Georgian military, including an exercise last month with more than 1,000 American troops; pressing hard to bring Georgia into the NATO orbit; championing Georgia's fledgling democracy along Russia's southern border; and loudly proclaiming its support for Georgia's territorial integrity in the battle with Russia over Georgia's separatist enclaves. . . .
"In recent years, the United States has also taken a series of steps that have alienated Russia -- including recognizing an independent Kosovo and going ahead with efforts to construct a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. By last Thursday, when the years of simmering conflict exploded into war, Russia had a point to prove to the world, even some administration officials acknowledge, while Georgia may have been under the mistaken impression that in a one-on-one fight with Russia, Georgia would have more concrete American support."
Julian E. Barnes and Peter Spiegel write in the Los Angeles Times: "A senior U.S. official involved in Russia policymaking vehemently denied that the administration had sent mixed messages, arguing that although Saakashvili had long received strong support from the most senior American officials, Georgians were warned not to engage Russia militarily.
"'We have consistently, and on Thursday also, urged the Georgians not to move their forces in. We were unambiguous about it,' said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity when discussing private talks with the Georgians. 'Saakashvili had always told us he could not stand by while Georgian villages were being shelled, and we always knew this was a point of pressure. We always told him that he should not give in to the kind of provocations we knew the Russians were capable of.'
"But [David L. Phillips, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council] said he believed that even if the State Department was warning the Russians, the Georgians heard a different message."
And where, oh where, might those mixed signals be coming from?
"'I think the State Department was assiduous in urging restraint, and Saakashvili's buddies in the White House and Office of the Vice President kept egging him on,' Phillips said."
Indeed, Barnes and Spiegel write: "[T]here are increasing signs that administration hard-liners are using the crisis to reassert their view that Moscow should be isolated.
"Vice President Dick Cheney's declaration Saturday that 'Russian aggression must not go unanswered' was seen by some experts as the first salvo of what could be a new battle over administration policy.
"Some conservatives believe the administration has not been tough enough with Russia. Frederick W. Kagan, a neoconservative scholar who has advised the Bush administration, praised Cheney's comment and faulted President Bush for failing to outline to the Russians the consequences of pressing their assault."
The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes: "U.S. credibility is . . . on the line as the Bush Administration stumbles to respond to the Russian invasion of Georgia. So far the Administration has been missing in action, to put it mildly. The strategic objective is twofold: to prevent Moscow from going further to topple Georgia's democratic government in the coming days, and to deter future Russian aggression.
"President Bush finally condemned Russia's actions on Monday after a weekend of Olympics tourism in Beijing while Georgia burned. Meanwhile, the State Department dispatched a mid-level official to Tbilisi, and unnamed Administration officials carped to the press that Washington had warned Georgia not to provoke Moscow. That's hardly a show of solidarity with a Eurasian democracy that has supported the U.S. in Iraq with 2,000 troops. . . .
"By trying to Finlandize if not destroy Georgia, Moscow is sending a message that, in its part of the world, being close to Washington can be fatal. If Mr. Bush doesn't revisit his Russian failures, the rout of Georgia will stand as the embarrassing coda to his Presidency."
Eric Lichtblau writes in the New York Times: "Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey on Tuesday rejected the idea of bringing criminal charges against former Justice Department employees who improperly used political litmus tests in hiring decisions, saying he had already taken strong internal steps in response to a 'painful' episode. . . .
"As last month's report from the inspector general acknowledged, the hiring abuses by former Justice Department officials represented a violation of federal Civil Service law, but not of criminal law, he said.
"'That does not mean, as some people have suggested, that those officials who were found by the joint reports to have committed misconduct have suffered no consequences,' Mr. Mukasey said. 'Far from it. The officials most directly implicated in the misconduct left the department to the accompaniment of substantial negative publicity.'"
Carrie Johnson writes in The Washington Post: "Mukasey said that the hiring system at Justice had broken down and that department leaders had failed to supervise the behavior 'of those who did wrong.' But the attorney general stopped short of agreeing to weed out lawyers and immigration judges who won their jobs based on faulty criteria."
Indeed, as Johnson points out: "The attorney general has been criticized for signing paperwork to promote immigration judge Garry D. Malphrus to a seat on the prestigious Board of Immigration Appeals even as investigators completed their blistering report. Malphrus is a former GOP aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also had been associate director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and had taken part in the 'Brooks Brothers Riot' -- chanting at Miami's polling headquarters -- to support George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida. . . .
"Separately, an official in the Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility said the unit has notified bar associations of its findings against five lawyers singled out in reports thus far."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy issued a statement in response to Mukasey's speech: "Attorney General Mukasey's blanket conclusions appear premature based on the facts and evidence that congressional investigators and the Inspector General have uncovered so far. The White House stonewalling continues, with aides refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas and testify about their role in the politicization of the Department of Justice. The Attorney General, the nation's top law enforcement officer, seems intent on insulating this administration from accountability. We must continue to pursue the truth and facts, and hold any wrongdoers accountable."
The New York Times editorial board writes: "Mr. Mukasey made no mention of the role played by his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, and other members of President Bush's inner circle. There is by now strong reason to believe that they were involved in plans to fire United States attorneys for political reasons, fill other important positions on the basis of partisanship rather than competence and order prosecutions designed to help Republicans win elections.
"The department has never properly pursued the bad actors. It has shown no real concern for the victims. Mr. Mukasey's cynical remarks shrugging off the whole scandal should prod Congress to pursue it even more vigorously. . . .
"Mr. Mukasey should have said that based on the recent reports he is going to personally and vigorously pursue allegations of politicization in the department, no matter where they lead. . . .
"He should also have vowed that he would do everything in his power to see that President Bush's chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, his former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, and former top political adviser, Karl Rove, all comply with Congressional subpoenas to testify in public and under oath.
"As the nation's top law enforcement officer, Mr. Mukasey should demand that they tell what they know -- particularly about the firing of the United States attorneys -- and deliver relevant documents. Instead, he has supported their baseless claims of executive privilege."
Scott Horton blogs for Harper's: "Prior to his confirmation, Michael Mukasey fessed up, in a written response to Senator Dick Durbin, to a meeting the White House arranged with a group of movement conservatives. The team he met with had a simple agenda: They wanted his assurance that he would not appoint special prosecutors to go after administration figures involved in serious scandals at the Justice Department, including the U.S. attorneys scandal and the introduction of torture with formal Justice Department cover. . . . Mukasey is clearly keeping the understanding that brought him to the cherished post of attorney general. . . .
"This didn't 'just happen.' It was the result of a careful plan for partisan entrenchment at Justice -- consciously pursued in defiance of the law. A serious investigation would have focused on the senior figures responsible for this program."
Joby Warrick writes in The Washington Post: "Al-Qaeda has exploited recent political turmoil in Pakistan to strengthen its foothold along the country's border with Afghanistan, a top U.S. counterterrorism official said yesterday in an assessment that also warned of a heightened risk of attack during the upcoming U.S. election season.
"Despite the loss of key leaders to U.S. strikes, Osama bin Laden continues to enjoy a haven in the border region and has managed to deepen alliances with a wide range of Islamist groups from South Asia to the Middle East, said Ted Gistaro, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats and an al-Qaeda expert."
Mark Mazzetti writes in the New York Times: "There is also a growing recognition among senior officials that the Bush administration for years did not take the Qaeda threat in Pakistan seriously enough and relied on President Pervez Musharraf to dismantle networks of militants there."
Aluf Benn writes in Haaretz: "The American administration has rejected an Israeli request for military equipment and support that would improve Israel's ability to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. . . .
"The Americans viewed the request, which was transmitted (and rejected) at the highest level, as a sign that Israel is in the advanced stages of preparations to attack Iran. They therefore warned Israel against attacking, saying such a strike would undermine American interests. They also demanded that Israel give them prior notice if it nevertheless decided to strike Iran.
"As compensation for the requests it rejected, Washington offered to improve Israel's defenses against surface-to-surface missiles.
"Israel responded by saying it reserves the right to take whatever action it deems necessary if diplomatic efforts to halt Iran's nuclearization fail.
"Senior Israeli officials had originally hoped that U.S. President George Bush would order an American strike on Iran's nuclear facilities before leaving office, as America's military is far better equipped to conduct such a strike successfully than is Israel's."
Another tidbit from the Haaretz story: "Two weeks ago, [Defense Minister Ehud] Barak visited Washington for talks with his American counterpart, Robert Gates, and Vice President Richard Cheney. Both conversations focused on Iran, but the two Americans presented conflicting views: Gates vehemently opposes an attack on Iran, while Cheney is the administration's leading hawk."
Steven Aftergood reports on his secrecy blog: "A new report from the Senate Judiciary Committee examines the use of the state secrets privilege by the executive branch.
"'In recent years, the executive branch has asserted the privilege more frequently and broadly than before, typically to seek dismissal of lawsuits at the pleadings stage. Facing allegations of unlawful Government conduct ranging from domestic warrantless surveillance, to employment discrimination, to retaliation against whistleblowers, to torture and 'extraordinary rendition,' the Bush-Cheney administration has invoked the privilege in an effort to shut down civil suits against both Government officials and private parties. Courts have largely acquiesced,' the report states.
"'While there is some debate over the extent to which this represents a quantitative or qualitative break from past practice, '[w]hat is undebatable . . . is that the privilege is currently being invoked as grounds for dismissal of entire categories of cases challenging the constitutionality of Government action,' and that a strong public perception has emerged that sees the privilege as a tool for Executive abuse.'"
Bryan Walsh writes for Time: "Thanks to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) -- the 1973 law that requires the federal government to protect endangered species and plan for their recovery -- iconic animals like the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon and the gray whale have rebounded to healthier numbers. It is one of the real success stories of the green movement.
"If the Bush Administration has its way, however, those protections may soon be endangered themselves. The White House on Aug. 11 proposed a sweeping regulatory overhaul of the ESA, virtually eliminating the independent scientific evaluation of the environmental impact of federal actions. . . .
"[I]t's difficult to avoid the conclusion that the White House is simply trying to dismantle as much of the nation's framework for environmental protection as possible in its last months in office. The Bush Administration had tried in the past to push similar changes to the EPA through Congress, but was defeated. The new regulations, which do not require the approval of Congress, seem to represent a last-minute end run around that opposition."
The New York Times editorial board writes: "[M]any property owners and commercial interests, including developers and loggers, hate the act because, in their view, it unreasonably inflates costs.
"The Bush administration has tried hard to accommodate their interests. It has gone to great lengths to circumnavigate the clear language of the law by rigging the science (in many cases ignoring their own scientists), negotiating settlements favorable to industry and simply refusing to obey court orders. This time, however, the administration means to rewrite the law itself, albeit through regulatory means. . . .
"The Bureau of Reclamation likes to build dams; the Department of Transportation likes to build highways. Protecting endangered species is not their priority. Other agencies, like the Office of Surface Mining or the Bureau of Land Management, have shown themselves far too vulnerable to pressure from the very industries, like mining, they are meant to regulate."
Kenneth R. Bazinet writes in the New York Daily News: "Another court said Tuesday that outed ex-CIA spook Valerie Plame can't sue Vice President Cheney, ex-Bush political guru Karl Rove or ex-Cheney senior aide Lewis (Scooter) Libby over the disclosure that she was an operative for the spy agency.
"The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington upheld a lower court decision to dismiss the lawsuit, which alleged the Bushies conspired to punitively expose Plame as a CIA agent after her husband conducted a fact-finding mission that helped debunk claims Saddam Hussein had tried to buy weapons-grade uranium in Africa to build a nuclear warhead."
Matt Apuzzo writes for the Associated Press: "It was an unusual case and even some on Plame's legal team acknowledged the case was an uphill fight from the start."
Amanda Terkel of thinkprogress.org wonders if White House officials will finally be forced to comment on their role in the leak.
Last year, after Libby announced he would not appeal his conviction, I noted that Bush, Cheney and their mouthpieces had promised that once Libby's legal options were exhausted, they would answer questions about the CIA leak case. But then -- surprise -- spokeswoman Dana Perino suddenly remembered there was a civil suit pending as well.
Ronald Brownstein writes for The Atlantic: "American voters nearly always elect a president who responds to the flaws they have found in his predecessor. Jimmy Carter was more honest than Richard Nixon; Ronald Reagan tougher than Carter; George H.W. Bush 'kinder and gentler' than Reagan; Bill Clinton more in touch than Bush; George W. Bush more morally upright in his personal life than Clinton. In November, whether most voters pull the lever for John McCain or for Barack Obama, they're likely to get a president who's more competent than Bush. What's less certain -- but equally important -- is whether they'll get one who can be the uniter that Bush promised to be, rather than the divider he has been."
He concludes: "Bush's failure has highlighted the fact that, ultimately, presidents who divide rarely conquer, and it has created an enormous opportunity for his successor to reshape the contours of American politics. . . . The opportunity to build a lasting majority would be greater for Obama than for McCain, because of the damage Bush has done to the GOP's image. But either man could strengthen his party by redefining it as more flexible, inclusive, and practical than it is seen to be today. More important, he could remind Americans, as Theodore Roosevelt once put it, that their 'common interests are as broad as the continent.' And that could be the key to progress on all of the problems -- from health care and energy to the economy and national security -- that will await the next president in January 2009."
Stephen Colbert hosted author Jane Mayer last night: "My guest tonight says that America is synonymous with torture. That is ridiculous. It is a euphemism for torture."
Colbert: "There's nothing in the constitution that says, 'don't torture.' The words 'don't torture' do not appear."
Mayer: "There is that little part, though, that talks about how you shouldn't have cruel and unusual punishment. . . . "
Colbert: "Let me point out that it says, 'cruel and unusual.' What we're doing may be cruel, but it is no longer unusual for us to do it, OK?"
Colbert also criticized Mayer for having "a problem with the term 'enhanced interrogation.'"
Mayer: "Enhanced interrogation is a euphemism for hurting people on purpose. . . . "
Colbert: "You're making it sound bad when -- when the term itself is meant to make it sound good."
And Colbert mocked the title of Mayer's book, "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals."
Said Colbert: "If we had never known that the government was doing this -- the way the government didn't want us to know -- our ideals would still be intact. But people like you want to harm our ideals by letting us know what it is we're doing on the dark side. Aren't you part of the problem?"
When this column was launched in January of 2004, I wasn't sure how long I could keep it going. But there's never been a dull moment. And today's column, by my count, is my 1,000th.
I'm Live Online today at 1 p.m. ET. Come join the conversation.
Matt Davies on Bush's Georgia strategy, Lee Judge on Bush's message, Tony Auth on Bush and the bear, John Cole on the moral authority problem, and Chan Lowe on Bush's bright line; also John Sherffius on Mr. Mugookasey; Dwane Powell on endangered species; and Bruce Beattie and RJ Matson on Hamdan.
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The New York Times
August 12, 2008 Tuesday
Late Edition - Final
INSIDE THE TIMES, AUG. 12, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 2198 words
International
THOUSANDS MORE SEEK REFUGE
From Violence in the Philippines
In the southern Philippines, the number of people turned out of their homes by recent violence between the government and Islamic separatists has swelled to 130,000. Many of the refugees, of whom a majority are Muslim, are being housed in over 40 emergency encampments while others have left to stay with relatives elsewhere, but social welfare officials warned of a possible crisis on the horizon. In the fighting itself, 2 soldiers and at least 15 rebels have been reported killed. Page A12
AFGHAN SUICIDE BOMB KILLS THREE
A convoy of NATO-led forces on the eastern outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, was struck by a suicide car bomb, killing three civilians and wounding about a dozen others, the Afghan police said. In addition, the United States acknowledged that it killed eight civilians and wounded three on Sunday when it bombed a house occupied by militants; 25 militants were also killed. Page A13
JORDAN'S KING PAYS VISIT TO IRAQ
King Abdullah II of Jordan visited Iraq, becoming the first Arab leader to visit the country since Saddam Hussein fell. The visit appeared to be a source of optimism for Iraqi officials, who cited it as a sign of Iraq's new stability. Leaders discussed the return of Iraqi refugees from Jordan and a discounted price of crude oil to Jordan. The king also called on other Arab leaders to extend a hand to Iraq, because a strong Iraq ''is a source of strength for the Arab nation.'' Page A13
FROZEN CASH IS TOO HEAVY TO CARRY
Skipping a court appearance and leaving behind more than $2 billion in assets, Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister of Thailand, announced he was taking refuge in London. The assets were frozen by the very generals who ousted him two years ago, and in response to his recent flight, the Thai government has issued arrest warrants for him and his wife, ordering that Mr. Thaksin's bail money be seized, bringing the grand total to $2.4 billion in forfeited assets. Exile is expensive. Page A14
INDIA'S FRUSTRATION WITH PAKISTAN
As rivals, India and Pakistan stand on the wreckage of their mutual peace: there is dialogue, but a frustrating one, Indian and American officials say. Pakistan's new civilian government is in talks with India, but India claims that the talks are useless because the people who actually have the power to decide war and peace are not negotiating, in a reference to Pakistan's powerful army and its spy agency. Stakes are higher now than ever, as cease-fire violations have climbed and relations between the two nuclear-capablecountries are at an all-time low. A Memo from New Delhi. Page A14
National
A LONG SHOT
Crashes Montana Senate Race
Bob Kelleher, the Republican nominee for senator in Montana, faces some major hurdles in his campaign. He is persona non grata among state Republicans, who would not let him speak at the convention in June. His opponent is a 30-year incumbent who has a $5 million campaign war chest, compared with Mr. Kelleher's $10,000. And he wants to replace the American system of government with a parliamentary democracy patterned on England's. PAGE A15
SPOTLIGHT ON MCCAIN'S RUSSIA POLICY
Senator John McCain's hard line against Russia in recent years is being newly scrutinized through the prism of Russia's invasion. In the past, he has called for excluding Russia from the Group of 8 and isolating it on the world stage. Neoconservatives who consider promoting democracy a paramount goal see his position as principled, and prescient. PAGE A19
INSIDE CLINTON CAMPAIGN'S COLLAPSE
An article published on The Atlantic Monthly's Web site portrays Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign as riven by backbiting, poor management and conflicting strategies that contributed to her loss to Senator Barack Obama. The article cites internal campaign memorandums that detail Mrs. Clinton's eruptions at staff members, and show her campaign shifting from strategy to strategy. PAGE A15
AFTER 47 YEARS, RUNNING WATER
The mostly black section of Zanesville, Ohio, called Coal Run Road finally has running water. Last month, a federal jury cited a violation of civil rights law, and ordered the City of Zanesville and Muskingum County to pay nearly $11 million in damages for failing to provide water to each of 67 plaintiffs for more than 45 years. On the day the clean water first gushed through the pipes, many in the neighborhood wept. PAGE A15
New York Report
'PREPPY KILLER' PLEADS GUILTY
To Cocaine Charges
Twenty-two years ago, Robert E. Chambers Jr. became a symbol of teenage socialite arrogance after he killed a young woman in Central Park. On Monday, he pleaded guilty to selling cocaine, in exchange for a sentence that prosecutors said would keep him in prison nearly until retirement age. Mr. Chambers, 41, whose square jaw and clean looks earned him the moniker ''the Preppy Killer,'' was cited for several violations -- including drug possession -- while serving his sentence for manslaughter. PAGE A21
Rolling Out 'Green' Escalators
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority introduced its new ''green escalators,'' which are intended to slow down when they are not in use and speed up when a motion-detection device senses that a rider has stepped on. But the debut was not without its hitches. The agency said that only 22 of the 35 escalators introduced at four stations were working as intended in the afternoon. PAGE A21
Business
FROM MEDALS TO MARKETING
It's Olympics time once again, which means that athletes -- even the retired ones -- are clamoring for endorsements. Every four years, those athletes are once again hot commodities, cashing in on their former fame. ''We planned our wedding around the '04 Olympics; we planned our little girl being born at the end of '06, when '07 wasn't as busy,'' said Janet Evans, who won gold medals in 1988 and 1992. ''My husband teases me, we plan in quadrenniums.'' PAGE C3
PASSPORTS INSTEAD OF PINK SLIPS
With the markets sagging in the United States, Wall Street firms are moving some employees overseas to places where the economies have the potential for growth. Even laid-off workers are seeing interest from companies abroad. But for a lot of bankers, the moves are less than voluntary. ''Some are being told, 'I don't care if your wife has to stay here, this is what you have to do,' '' said an executive at a finance hiring firm. PAGE C1
WAR RATTLES RUSSIAN MARKET
With the fighting between Russia and Georgia escalating, markets in Moscow fell sharply for a time and then recovered amid fears among investors that the conflict might endanger Russia's economic relations with the West. The ruble also fell in early trading, before the Russian central bank intervened, buying its currency to provide support, traders said. PAGE C3
ARTS
PAVING THEIR PARADISE
To Put Up a Parking Lot
A portion of an alley used as an outdoor studio by the artists Laddie John Dill and Ed Ruscha in Venice Beach, Calif., has been slated by the City of Los Angeles to become a metered parking lot. The project has quickly emerged as a fight between the artistic values that led to the renewal of Venice and the commercial interests that are reshaping the community. PAGE B1
A ROLE CLOSE TO HOME, TWICE OVER
She is a former B-list television star from a half-forgotten but once-popular nighttime soap opera (Susan Sullivan, ''Falcon Crest'') starring in an Off-Broadway play (''Buffalo Gal'') about a former B-list television star from a half-forgotten but once-popular series who goes back to her hometown to appear in a local production of a Chekhov play (''Cherry Orchard''), which is about -- an actress returning to her home and confronting her past. PAGE B1
A SUMMER OF COMEDY FOR THE WEB
How did some ''Saturday Night Live'' writers and actors spend a hot, humid week of July? Creating, shooting and distributing a new original comedy Web series called ''The Line.'' Financed by Lorne Michaels' production company, it showcases the passion and perversion of fans waiting 11 days for the premiere of a science-fiction film. PAGE B1
Science
WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW
Might Be Better for You
Could more cancer screening actually be detrimental to patients? Last week, a group of scientists urged doctors to stop screening men 75 and older for prostate cancer, arguing that it did little to improve long-term outlook, but instead increased the numbers of false positives and exposed patients to unnecessary and invasive treatments. PAGE D5
FILLING IN MAGIC'S GAPS
Sure, magicians like to throw in smoke and fire to misdirect their audiences, but they probably don't need to. A new paper in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience describes how magic tricks, from the simple to the spectacular, take advantage of glitches in how the brain works: approximating, cutting corners, instantaneously and subconsciously choosing what to ''see'' and what to let pass. PAGE D1
LET THE GAMES BE DOPED
A growing chorus of critics is taking issue with the antidoping policies used in the sports world. They say the alternative -- the system we currently rely on -- sows suspicions among competitors and relies on faulty testing that does not keep up with advances in technology. John Tierney asks: Is it time to let athletes do whatever they need to excel? PAGE D1
Sports
READYING FOR THE END
Of American Olympic Dominance
The United States' long stranglehold on athletic dominance in the Summer Olympics is loosening. China, the host country, is taking its place as the pre-eminent athletic superpower, and with its huge population, booming economy and surging athletic ambitions, it's not likely to be stopped. Harvey Araton, Sports of the Times. PAGE C11
WINNING ON HIS OWN TERMS
Going into the Summer Games, Michael Phelps was the most famous member of the United States Olympic swim team. But for a while, at least, he'll be sharing the spotlight with the enigmatic Jason Lezak, who made up a half-a-body-length lead in the final 25 meters to win the men's 4x100-meter freestyle -- and set a new world record. ''I think he has some kind of magical touch,'' his mentor said. ''You don't know why he gets his hand to the wall better than most people but he does.'' PAGE C11
OUT OF PAIN, THROUGH JUDO
Ronda Rousey's father used to rouse her from sleep in the wee hours when she was younger to take her to swim meets in their home state of North Dakota, and he told her she would be in the Olympics. And she is -- and favored to win gold, to boot -- but in judo, not swimming. She will do so without her father, who committed suicide when she was 8. ''It's the kind of thing where he would have flipped out,'' she said. ''It would have made his life to see me go to this Olympics.'' PAGE C11
BRITAIN'S HOPE FOR GOLD
Great Britain is starved for Olympic glory, and is trying to improve upon its nadir in 1996, when it won just a single gold medal. Much of its hope rests on the small shoulders of Tom Daley, a 14-year-old diver who at 5 feet 1 inch and 104 pounds is smaller than more than half the women competing in his events. PAGE C16
obituaries
GEORGE FURTH, 75
As a playwright, he collaborated with Stephen Sondheim on the Tony Award-winning musical ''Company.'' As a ubiquitous character actor, his television credits describe a history of popular series from the 1960s to the '90s, and his most memorable role was as Woodcock, the loyal railway employee who allows himself to be blown up not once, but twice, by Paul Newman's Butch Cassidy, rather than let the train he is riding be robbed. PAGE c9
ORVILLE MOODY, 74
He spent 14 years in the Army playing and teaching golf. Then in 1969, he emerged from obscurity to win the United States Open, his only PGA Tour victory. Moody, affectionately known as Sarge, proved to be an outstanding shot maker and he was a five-time runner-up on the PGA Tour, but he was ultimately stymied by poor putting. PAGE C9
Editorial
RUSSIA'S WAR OF AMBITION
No one is blameless in the war that has erupted between Georgia and Russia. But there is no imaginable excuse for Russia's invasion. The United States and its European allies must make clear to Vladimir Putin that the military aggression will not be tolerated and that there will be no redivision of Europe. Page A22
THREE YEARS AFTER KATRINA
The pace of recovery is slowing in New Orleans. The next president and Congress will need to expedite assistance before the city's mood turns from guarded optimism back to despair. Page A22
Op-ed
DAVID BROOKS
The rise of China isn't only an economic event. It's a cultural one. The ideal of a harmonious collective may turn out to be as attractive as the ideal of the American Dream. Page A23
BOB HERBERT
The public takes the fraudulent bait on the merits of offshore drilling. Page A23
RUSSIA BLAMES THE VICTIM
In an Op-Ed article, Svante E. Cornell of Johns Hopkins University writes that while Georgia has played a losing game with Russia, the United States should still confront Moscow, ideally by persuading allies to ban Russia from the Group of 8 industrialized nations. Page A23
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USA TODAY
August 12, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
Obama ad tags McCain as 'Washington celebrity'
BYLINE: Mark Memmott
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 302 words
Me? A celebrity? What about you, John McCain?
That's the gist of a TV ad that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign released Monday. Embrace is a response to two recent ads from McCain. Both McCain ads called Obama a "celebrity" and questioned whether he is ready to lead the nation. One compared his fame to that of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.
The script
Narrator: "For decades, he's been Washington's biggest celebrity. John McCain. And as Washington embraced him, John McCain hugged right back. The lobbyists -- running his low road campaign. The money -- billions in tax breaks for oil and drug companies, but almost nothing for families like yours. Lurching to the right, then the left, the old Washington dance, whatever it takes. John McCain. A Washington celebrity playing the same old Washington games."
The images
Embrace begins as a spoof of McCain's ads. The narrator calls McCain "Washington's biggest celebrity." Images of the Arizona senator hugging President Bush, joking with late-night comedians and appearing on NBC's Saturday Night Live and ABC's The View flicker by.
Reality check
The non-partisan Tax Policy Center says McCain's plans would "primarily benefit those with very high incomes," while Obama would raise taxes "significantly" on that group. Obama would give larger tax breaks to lower-income groups than McCain, according to the center, a project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution.
PolitiFact.com, however, has noted that McCain would "help individuals with lower household incomes" by increasing the exemption for each dependent and by raising the amount at which the alternative minimum tax kicks in. PolitiFact is a joint venture of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times and CQ.
Where it's playing
The ad will air on some cable networks starting today.
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The Washington Post
August 12, 2008 Tuesday
Suburban Edition
The Trail
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 696 words
A 2009 VACATION?
McCain Hints Ridge Would Stay Backstage
ERIE, Pa. -- Sen. John McCain began a two-day Pennsylvania swing Monday, accompanied by Tom Ridge, but there were conflicting signs about how serious a vice presidential contender the former governor and onetime homeland security secretary might be.
Some reporters initially received a copy of the day's schedule with a cryptic notation about Ridge and the No. 2 spot. The schedules were quickly retrieved, with the explanation that the note was just a reminder to McCain and his staff that reporters were likely to ask about the topic.
Later in the morning, the candidate himself talked about Ridge -- but not exactly in terms that gave the impression that the Pennsylvanian would be right down the hall in a McCain administration.
Asked by a questioner at an event at GE Transportation's Erie plant what McCain would focus on during his first 90 days as president, he said he'd "call Tom Ridge to Washington from wherever he's vacationing" and put him to work.
McCain's plant tour allowed him to touch on twin themes of energy and globalization. GE chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt, who introduced McCain, said about half of the more energy-efficient locomotives built at the plant would be exported.
As the McCain campaign headed to Harrisburg, the plane departed from Tom Ridge Field.
-- Robert Barnes
WAR AND PEACEFUL
Obama Talks Georgia On Hawaii Vacation
Barack Obama interrupted a family vacation Monday to address the exploding conflict between Russia and Georgia , saying he had spoken to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to convey "my deep regret over the loss of life and the suffering of the people of Georgia." Like John McCain, Obama called for "active international engagement" to address the dispute, "including a high-level and neutral international mediator, and a genuine international peacekeeping force -- not simply Russian troops."
But the Democratic candidate's brief public appearance was an aberration in an otherwise quiet week on the island where Obama spent much of his childhood. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin ran photos of the senator walking in the surf with Chicago friend Marty Nesbitt and waving to onlookers after a golf outing. It reported that he had jogged barefoot on Kailua Beach and, with his wife and daughters, delivered a gift basket to his grandmother. According to the paper, Obama is staying in a private beachfront home.
He sketched out his plans at a 4,000-person rally on the first day: "I'm going to get a plate lunch. I might go to Zippy's. I might go to Rainbow Drive-In. I haven't decided yet. Get some Zip Min. I'm going to go get some shave ice. I'm going to go body surfing at an undisclosed location. I'm going to see my tutu -- my grandma -- and I'm going to watch my girls play on the beach, and once in a while I might go into the water. But mostly I'm going to watch them."
"Obama's presence caused a stir everywhere he showed up," the paper reported, but one prominent resident wasn't impressed -- Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle (R). "This is not 'American Idol,' " the McCain supporter said of the choice facing voters this year, according to the article. "This is making an important decision on who should lead our nation."
-- Shailagh Murray
WHO'S THE CELEBRITY?
Obama Hits Back With Ad on Lobbyists
Hitting back at attacks from the McCain campaign labeling him a "celebrity," the Obama campaign began airing a new ad, "Embrace," on national cable TV Monday.
"For decades, he's been Washington's biggest celebrity," the ad's announcer says.
"And as Washington embraced him, John McCain hugged right back. The lobbyists -- running his low-road campaign. The money -- billions in tax breaks for oil and drug companies, but almost nothing for families like yours."
McCain is seen with David Letterman, Jay Leno and the ladies of "The View." But he is also seen embracing President Bush several times -- images consistent with previous Obama and Democratic-funded advertising.
The new ad comes as some Democrats have worried that the Obama campaign has not responded strongly enough to McCain's recent attacks, both in ads and on the stump.
-- Ed O'Keefe
LOAD-DATE: August 12, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE
IMAGE; By Mary Altaffer -- Associated Press; In Erie, Pa., John McCain told a questioner he might "call Tom Ridge to Washington from wherever he's vacationing" for help early in a McCain administration.
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The Washington Post
August 12, 2008 Tuesday
Suburban Edition
A Useful Pledge for Both Candidates
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A12
LENGTH: 182 words
The presidential campaign has turned so malevolent that most Americans would welcome a truce while the campaigns review the requirements of decency -- and pledge to reform ["Obama Hits Back, Too Softly for Some," front page, Aug. 7].
I suggest that Sen. Barack Obama privately telephone Sen. John McCain and arrange a secret meeting (like his meeting with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton).
There they could agree on a set of rules governing their campaign commercials that would define and ban the personal attacks that have so confused and disgusted much of the electorate. The country will suffer if, in such a critical election, millions simply wash their hands of it and stay home.
Along with the agreed guidelines, both candidates should pledge, in writing and on air, that if other groups -- not officially part of the campaigns -- run commercials that violate the rules, the candidate will go on television to renounce the ads and rebuke the groups that run them. Let the American people see that honor and decency are still basic ingredients of our democracy.
CHARLES L. LONGEST
Sykesville, Md.
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Washingtonpost.com
August 12, 2008 Tuesday 12:00 PM EST
Election 2008: The Advertising
BYLINE: Shanto Iyengar, Director, Political Communications Lab, Stanford University, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4439 words
HIGHLIGHT: Stanford University Political Communications director Shanto Iyengar was online Tuesday, Aug. 12 at noon ET to examine and take questions on how advertising has been deployed so far in the 2008 presidential campaigns.
Stanford University Political Communications director Shanto Iyengar was online Tuesday, Aug. 12 at noon ET to examine and take questions on how advertising has been deployed so far in the 2008 presidential campaigns.
The transcript follows.
Iyengar is a professor of communications and politics at Stanford. He is the author and co-author of several books, most recently " Media Politics: A Citizen's Guide."
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Shanto Iyengar: This is Shanto Iyengar. Pleasure to be here. Happy to answer your questions.
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Lyme, Conn.: Is it true that, in general, advertising that attempts an emotional appeal works better than ads that attempt to connect on an intellectual, factual level? If so, have you seen any good emotional ads in this campaign season?
Shanto Iyengar: Great question; the conventional wisdom is that emotion-evoking ads have more impact, but there isn;t much good resdearch on the question. Most of the so-called "classics" from years past seem to fit the conv wisdom -- "morning in America," "Daisy," 'White Hands" and various others.
This cycle doesn't seem to have produced any especially "hot" emotionally-laden ads.
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Fairfax, Va.: Is there any way that political advertising can be required to meet national standards of truthfulness and integrity, given that the ads use the public's airways?
Shanto Iyengar: It will be difficult to establish "national standards of truthfulness." Most political claims are grey rather than black or white. But most importantly, the 1st Amendment gjuarantees pols the right to speak.
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Olympics: Most advertisers seek a positive image to reflect the good feelings the Olympics generate. Barack Obama has produced new can-do spots that feel at home in that milieu. McCain on the other hand still is running his anti-Obama ads. In addition, the Olympics are prime HDTV territory. I've noticed Obama is in HD, but McCain isn't. What are McCain strategists thinking?
Shanto Iyengar: I agree that McCain seems stuck in a negative rut - running "Obama as celebrity" ads instead of defining some sort of vision or agenda for the nation. I don't think the celebrity label is particularly damaging. Better to be called a celenrity rather than a politician!
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Southbury, Conn.: Senator McCain's latest ads are trivial, petty and designed to stir up a controversy, so that the press (especially cable TV) speaks only about the tenor of his ads and not about the issues. If the press speaks only on the issues, such as the Iraq war, home foreclosures, high gas prices etc., McCain loses. Do you therefore agree that McCain's ads are designed to steer conversation away from the issues, and shouldn't reputable persons like you call him on such cheap tactics?
Shanto Iyengar: This is clearly what they're hoping to accomplish. Put out some especially nasty attacks that focus on Obama's persona, and then get the press to recycle the message of those ads. As you suggest, McCain has a problem on the issues and the track record of the incumbent administration. If the campaign focuses on energy, the economy, the state of our foreign relations, he's at a huge disadvantage. So, he'd rather change the subject to questions of character, experience, etc
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"Hot Chicks Dig Obama": Okay, so last time McCain said Obama was after our white women the media castigated Obama for "puling the race card from the bottom of the deck." I know this quote came from the McCain camp, but it was everywhere for three days. Now, the next round of "Obama getting our White Women" is out and it gets more explicit. How far does McCain get to take it before he gets called on this stuff?
Shanto Iyengar: The race card got played way before McCain emerged as the nominee. The Clinton campaign used a series of implicit racial appeals against Obama as early as NH. In one sense, those appeals could be said to have legitimized what McCain might do between now and the election. In another sense, they may have inoculated Obama from the use of coded racial attacks.
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St. Paul, Minn: Thank you for taking questions today. Sen. Obama is out with his own "celebrity" ad, showing that Sen. McCain has himself sought the spotlight by appearing on "The Tonight Show," "The Daily Show," etc. It also has a number of images showing him cozying up (literally) to Bush. It's a clever ad, but it isn't a little late to be bringing this up, given that the whole celebrity business is a couple of weeks old? Why do you think Obama decided to roll this out now? And if he's trying to say McCain is the same as Bush, then why not just say that very clearly and not try to wrap it in this whole celebrity brouhaha, which voters probably are tired of?
washingtonpost.com: The Fix: The Duality of Celebrity (washingtonpost.com, Aug. 12)
Shanto Iyengar: Yes, I'm not sure this "celebrity' business is worth responding to. But consultants swear by the "punch back" rule and that's probably why they ran it. Your point is well taken - instead of calling McCain a Washington celebrity, they'd be much better off running ads suggesting McCain represents another 4 years of Bush. Just like in 1996 when Clinton repeatedly showed Dole next to Gingrich, Obama needs to emphasize Bush in his anti-McCain messages.
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Coded racial attacks: So you are conceding that McCain's campaign is using "coded racial attacks"? Why do you think the media pretends they are anything different? Is it politeness or some other agenda?
Shanto Iyengar: No, I'm not suggesting the "he's a celebrity" line is a coded racial appeal. I'm saying that these appeals have been around in this cycle and that unlike previous campaigns, they've been used by a Dem running against a Dem. However, I fully expect the Republicans to use such appeals between now and Nov.
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washingtonpost.com: How do you see advertising dollars being spent this year? With Obama having such a big lead in fundraising, will McCain focus on the cheaper markets in Western and Plains swing states?
Shanto Iyengar: The typical formula is to invest only in states where you have a chance. But there is evidence that in this cycle, Obama is going to enlarge the playing field because he is pretty competitive in traditionally red states. I expect we'll see big-time Dmeocratic ad buys in Virginia, Colorado and even in North Carolina. McCain will probably stay with the script and concentrate on red-leaning states.
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New York: Are John McCain's latest ads ("Celebrity" and "Hot Chicks") examples of "dog-whistle politics in action? Why or why not?
Shanto Iyengar: Both these ads aimed not at the public, but at journalists. Lets face it, McCain has not been as newsworthy as Obama over the past few weeks. For McCain to attract media coverage, he needs to lob a few "grenades" in BO's direction. The press loves conflict and controversy, so negative ads are much more likely to be front-page material. In that sense, those ads "worked." I very much doubt that McCain would have gotten any press had he run a boilerplate "this is what I stand for" ad.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Any idea how many tens of millions of dollars the pair of four-day infomercials (er, conventions) are going to cost the U.S. taxpayer? I realize the parties will pay a large portion of the cost, but I believe that the taxpayer is going to be stuck with a bill (security, sanitation, promotions, etc). I also wonder how much it would cost the parties if they had to pay to broadcast these infomercials, rather than the networks donating that time.
Shanto Iyengar: The major networks have scaled back on their convention coverage over the past 3-4 decades. "Gavel-to-gavel" coverage is history. I don't blame the networks for scaling back their coverage, these conventions are hardly spontaneous expressions of political sentiment. Instead, they are carefully choreographed to create the appearance of party unity, enthusiasm over the nominee etc.
I don't know the exact formula for the financing of conventions, but I doubt the taxpayer cost is significant.
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Chicago: I live in Chicago and recently have seen ads for both Obama and McCain. It seems crazy to me because Obama has a huge lead and McCain has no chance. Why would they waste their money here?
Shanto Iyengar: You might have seen ads that were part of a national buy, i.e. ads Obama is running during NBC's olypmics coverage. No way Obama will purchase advertising time in Illinois.
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Sara: I'm no fan of John McCain, but isn't the counter "Celebrity" ad exactly what Obama vowed to eschew? Where is the new brand of politics he promised? His descent into "politics as usual" is disheartening and I doubt this juvenile quid pro quo will win over any voters.
Shanto Iyengar: Yes, this is the problem Obama faces. By getting into the tit-for-tat cycle he runs the risk of being perceived as just another politician. But if he ignores attacks, he runs the risk of becoming another Dukakis who let a double-digit lead evaporate by not responding to the Willie Horton and Boston Harbor attacks in 1988. So its a difficult balancing act. I tend to agree with you that the celebrity messages aren't worth responding to. Obama would be better off running an ad suggesting that McCain doesn;t have anything to say about energy, jobs, healthcare, that's why he's discussing celebrities.
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Southbury, Conn.: If the Obama campaign were to consult with you, would you recommend that they go negative, ala McCain, or should their ads be about introducing Sen. Obama and speaking to the issues? (Sen. McCain's negative ads seem to be working.)
Shanto Iyengar: I would definitely recommend that they go positive. One thing we know about advertisng is that the ad campaign needs to fit voters' stereotypes about the candidate. Obama is sen as someone who won't play by the standard rules of the game, i.e. he represents a different way. If he were to run a bunch of attack ads, this would clearly raise doubts about his core message and image. But at the same time, he can't just sit back and allow himself to be attacked without rebutting. (I thought he did this pretty effectively with the "3 am" ad used by Hillary.)
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Anonymous: Is quanity more important than quality? When a campaign runs a negative attack ad, the pedantic mainstream media plays it over and over again. This equates to free advertising for the candidate. But an ad that is noncontroversial -- an issues ad -- gets no free plays, so ignorant, bar-lowering ads become more effective from a saturation and cost perspective.
Shanto Iyengar: Yes, that's how ad strategy has evolved. Once the media got into the business of running "ad watches" and scrutinizing the ads for the accuracy and truthfulness of their content, consultants figured out that they could milk this type of coverage. There have been several instance of campaigns releasing ads to the press, but not purchasing a dime's worth of air time. In the end, this is a significant incentive to go negative since your positive ads will get no "recycling" whatsoever.
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New York: Gotta disagree with your perspective a bit with regard to Obama's celebrity ad response. They might not say a lot, but there are quite a few photos of McCain hugging Bush like he's a life preserver on the Titanic or something. He doesn't have to say anything ... just keep showing those close-close photos. A thousand words, as they say.
Shanto Iyengar: I agree; Obama needs to make the Bush-McCain connection rather than the McCain-celebrity connection. Calling McCain a Washington celebrity is not as effective as calling him another Bush.
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Southwest Nebraska: Campaigns have usually refrained from trying to capture the spotlight during the other party's convention -- at least until 2004. Will the Republicans try controversial ads or anything during the Democratic convention, or do they think that maybe the spineless Democrats actually might try to get back at them in September?
Shanto Iyengar: I doubt that they will try to do anything during the Dem convention. For one thing, the spectacle of a filled football stadium will suggest a level of public enthusiasm that will be hard to dismiss as "celebrity adulation."
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Anonymous: Why do McCain's ads attacking Obama show massive crowds gathered to hear him speak and Obama's smiling face as the narrarator slams him?
Shanto Iyengar: Good question. McCain's campaign seems to believe that the presence of massive crowds is a symptom of inexperience and style over substance. In the case of Obama's Berlin speech, they might have been trying to suggest that if foreigners like him so much, can he be good for America?
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Greg: The last few weeks feels more like a war zone with all the negative ads McCain is throwing against Obama. Here we are trying to watch the Olympics, and what do we get from Sargent Schmitt? A cluster bomb on celebrities and the media. Welcome to America folks. It's election time, and the Republicans are bombing our senses because Republican pollsters say this is good for the voters. I didn't even know who Schmitt was a few weeks ago; now we get the picture. McCain is a puppet of Sargent Schmitt and his mentor, Karl Rove.
Shanto Iyengar: Hi Greg - I'm afraid campaigns are a form of contact sport and there will be lots more negativity once people start tuning in in late Sept and Oct. So far, its been pretty tame stuff at least in comparison with Swift Boats etc.
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Southwest Nebraska: Are we about to see McCain ads portraying him as presidential in his statements about Georgia and Russia?
Shanto Iyengar: I wouldn't be surprised. Whenever there are national security-related issues in the news, candidates bend over backwards to show off their national defence, foreign policy credentials. If the crisis in Georgia is not immediately defused (and the reports today suggest that it might be widning down), I'd expect both candidates to posture on this subject.
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Seattle: What's your take on the strategy -- I think mostly by McCain so far -- of "releasing" a new ad that plays once in a small and cheap TV market, but tricking the news networks into playing it endlessly on their programs and discuss it?
Shanto Iyengar: This is now a well-established strategy. The RNC ran the "Soldiers and Sailors Act" ad against Clinton in 96 but didn;t spend 1 dollar of advertising time. They were happy to have NYT, Wash Post and others run front-page stories about the attacls on Clinton's character. 4 years ago, the Swift Boat ad did exactly the same thing and came away with thousands of front-page stories. That's probably why the McCain folks decided to go with the Paris Hilton ad a few weeks ago, they were starved for news coverage.
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But at the same time, he can't just sit back and allow himself to be attacked without rebutting: Why don't we see more humor in campaign ads? By poking fun at an opponent in an intelligent and nuanced way as a response, gets the message across and doesn't put the responder in a negative light.
Shanto Iyengar: You're right and McCain will probably argue that his celebrity attacks are partly tongue in cheek. Humor is a great asset in ad campaigns, but given the state of our politics it is difficult to make light of the problems facing this country. But ads that take aim at a candidate's character can certainly be humorous and hence attention-getting.
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Southwest Nebraska: Maybe Obama won't go negative, but will he allow 527s to? How much control does he have over them anyway? Do voters distinguish between the candidate's campaign and 527s?
Shanto Iyengar: Not much control. 527s are accountable to on one. MoveOn will probably run some pretty nasty ads against McCain. Great question about whether the audience can distinguish between a candidate ad and a 527 ad. Political junkies may know enough to recognize that the "I/m John McCain and I approved this message" did'nt air during a 527 ad, but most of us will be clueless and make no distinction at all.
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Portland, Ore.: The McCain camp seems intent on portraying Obama as a light-eight celebrity unfit to lead. Is this really a bright strategy? When the two candidates finally do share the same stage, if Obama comes across as knowledgable in the debates, McCain could have serious problems.
Shanto Iyengar: You're right. Calling him a celebrity is one thing, but if he's a celebrity who seems to know more about the issues facing the country, you've got a problem. I really don't understand why they've stayed with this celebrity theme for as long as they have.
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Washington State: I don't know if it's being done as effectively elsewhere, but the Democratic Party here is running some effective ads comparing Republicans to Bush, going as far as calling them "Bush-style Republicans." Is this a strategy that will get more and more play the closer to November we get?
Shanto Iyengar: It should. Lots of research shows that people vote asccording to their assessments of how well the incumbent administration has performed. Obama needs to beat that drum constantly - McCain is a continuation of the last 8 years.
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Arlington, Va.: with all of the great parody artists out there, do you think either campaign would hire some to inject that bit of humor into the ads? Would being too over-the-top be too dangerous? Or is that the way we are headed even without parodies? "The Daily Show" et al crank out hysterical ads that point out how bankrupt and ridiculous the current system is.
Shanto Iyengar: There's the risk that people will discount stuff that's off the wall. But done in a subtle way, parody and other means of injecting humor would strengthen whether people tune in and remember the message.
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Washington: The "punch back" rule is generically known as "tit-for-tat." Its most famous use is in the nuclear doctrine of mutually assured destruction. It is by all agreement an ineffective response, except for all the others. Massive retaliation causes the responder to become unpopular as a negative campaigner. No response means the attack upon one's campaign is not mitigated in any way. Rapid response is the only way to minimize the damage.
Dynamics when there are multiple candidates, such as in a primary, are more complex, but sometimes negative is the only choice regardless of how costly it can become. Voters reject the mud-slinger and the target of the attack, and choose among the alternatives. In that case, the mud-slinger is seeking to win as the tallest of the seven dwarves, so to speak. Of course, no one ever talks about use of negative attacks to discourage turnout because that sounds so undemocratic, but it too can work under some circumstances.
Shanto Iyengar: The MAD reference is quite appropriate. Another tragedy of the commons. The sprial of negativity does demobilize. Steve Ansolabehere and I ran a series of experiments way back in 1990-1992-1994 cycles in which we manipulated the tone of the ad campaign. We generally found that people - especially independents - were turned off by negative messages. Most consultants will acknowledge in private that trying to keep people from voting is one of the goals of negative campaigns.
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Kansas City, Mo.: Not sure if there is way to measure this, but I've always wondered what the value to the GOP is of the numerous talk radio shows, FOX News and so forth. If you had to buy that much airtime, what would it have cost?
Shanto Iyengar:"Free" media aka news coverage is invaluable. No way a candidate could afford the length of exposure they get oin news reports as paid advertisng. The problem is that except for presidential candidates, the media provide very little coverage. So if you're running for congress or attorney general or whatever, you're only means of communication with the public is adveritsing.
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Pittsburgh: How do you think the medium of online advertising (banners, search, but also social and video sites) are transforming the campaign, particularly as it relates to positive/negative messages?
Shanto Iyengar: The problem with online ads is that they reach a relatively small audience and one that is politically engaged. People surfing the web looking for political stuff are people with strong opinions - you're got going to persuade any of them. People watching the olympics, on the other hand, are just the opposite. They have no interest in politics and if you say "Obama is bad for America," they're more likely to believe it. That's the kind of audience politicians crave; the online audience is somewhat different.
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McCain's strategy: You've said a lot about what Obama should be doing to highlight a perceived McCain weakness (four more years of Bush). What do you see as Obama's weaknesses, and how should McCain exploit them?
Shanto Iyengar: Yes, there are several lines of argument McCain could push. Most notably, Obama's lack of experience especially in the national security arena. McCain has been mentioning the lack of sub-committee hearings etc, but he will probably run some version of Hillary's "3 am" ad in the near future. In general, Repulicans are seen as tougher on issues like terrorism, and McCain needs ot make that the major theme of his candidacy.
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Negative Messages: In your research, did people tell you they were turned off by negative ads, or did their actions tell you that? Because I think that people don't "like" them, but they believe parts of them, and the neg ads can affect their actions -- thus why they work and keep coming back year after year.
Shanto Iyengar: No, we looked at whether they said they would vote and we corroborated that by looking at actual turnout in areas that were epxosed to more neg vs positive campaigns.
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New York:"In another sense, they may have inoculated Obama from the use of coded racial attacks." Interesting. How so? Thanks.
Shanto Iyengar: In this sense - when McCain runs an ad suggesting Obama is a celebrity with no substance, people will say, "oh. there they go again." In this sense Hillary helped him out by running coded racial appeals. In a sense she confirmed the stereotype that a white candidate running against a black would attempt to take advantage of race. McCain now has the problem that even some race-neutral message is interpreted as a racial attack. The NYT, for instance, editorialized that the celebrity ads were of that ilk.
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Southbury, Conn.: Do you thing the sterotypes (Rev. Wright, Michelle Obama being proud of her country for the first time etc., etc.) are in the past, or do you see the GOP bringing these sound bites out again? And do you think that the American public (outside Fox news viewers) have an appetite for these sound bites, or will they just switch off? I know I will.
Shanto Iyengar: I'm sure we haven't heard the last of those sound bites. McCain probably won't use them, but the party committees and the 527s surely will. My take is that the people who might respond to those appeals are already unlikely to have a preference for Obama, so I don't see them as having much "net" impact. This election is so much about substance and issues - that;s what most people are concerned about - that the side-show of patriotism, family values etc will produce much less bang for the buck for those who seek to use it.
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I really don't understand why they've stayed with this celebrity theme for as long as they have.: You mean you think they actually have something else?
Shanto Iyengar: Ha Ha. Sure, they can trot out the standard boilerplate about "tax and spend liberal," soft on terrorists, in favor of socialized medicine etc
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Re: Hot chicks dig Obama: Will John McCain's tactic of associating Barack Obama with oversexed and/or promiscuous young white women in his ads end up like the Harold Ford ads in 2006 (i.e., a matter of deep dispute during the campaign that later was treated as transparent and obvious once the campaign is concluded)? Personally, I've not seen so much unreported racist dog-whistling in my life! How about you, Shanto?
Shanto Iyengar: The Ford "Playboy" ad was one thing - an explicit racial appeal, but the "Celebrity" stuff strikes me as quite something else. I don't see any racial appeal in the latter. In comparison with the stuff that the HC campaign tossed around at will, the celebrity theme is almost angelic!
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washingtonpost.com: How has the emergence of online video outlets like YouTube impacted campaign advertising? Do campaigns mostly use them to test messages (including perhaps more controversial ones that they don't really intend to put on the air), or could increased use become a real replacement for a chunk of ad spending?
Shanto Iyengar: Sure, once the online audience grows and attracts more than political junkies, it will become the next platform for campaigns. right now, tv is still #1, but by 2012 and 2016 I'd guess that online buys will begin to rival tv buys.
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One Last Question: If negative ads do in fact reduce turnout, then isn't it in Obama's favor to run as positive campaign as possible, especially in nontraditional battleground states? I get the feeling that his grassroots campaign could make some real progress there.
Shanto Iyengar: Absolutely. The higher the level of turnout, the better off he will be. He dominates McCain with younger and low-income groups who are not known for their high turnout. So mobilization rather than demobilization should be front and center for the Obama campaign.
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Shanto Iyengar: I've really enjoyed participating in this chat session. Questions were all on-point and interesting. I didn't notice that I'm already late for a meeting! Thanks for having me, Shanto
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washingtonpost.com: P.S. -- for those of you interested in watching the ads as they come out, they're all available at http://pcl.stanford.edu.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washingtonpost.com
August 12, 2008 Tuesday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Matthew Mosk, Washington Post Campaign Finance Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3135 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post campaign finance reporter Matthew Mosk was online Tuesday, August 12 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest news in politics.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Rolla, Mo.: Lost in all the chatter about the Clinton campaign memos is the fact that it was Hillary's ship, and she is responsible for running it into the ground. Blame the advisors all you want, but she failed as the executive of her campaign. It's not a stretch to imagine similar dysfunction in her administration. For comparison, do we now view Al Gore's loss in 2000 as his responsibility, or Donna Brazile's, et al?
washingtonpost.com: The Front-Runner's Fall (The Atlantic, September issue)
Matthew Mosk: Good morning everyone, and thank you, Rolla, for this question. It's a great place for us to start this morning because the political world is buzzing about this story in The Atlantic, which offers a rare, contemporaneous look inside a presidential campaign, through memos and e-mails that the article's author was able to obtain from Clinton insiders.
The story is a great reminder of all the churn that occurs beyond the view of most Americans as these presidential campaigns roll forward. In the case of the Clinton camp, the impression this article leaves is of a campaign in constant conflict with itself. Whether Hillary Clinton ultimately deserves blame for this largely is left to the reader to determine.
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Alexandria, Va.: Hi there. I'm watching the coverage of the John Edwards adultery revelation because of concern about one issue: the money. Since The Post reported on Saturday that Edwards's campaign finance chairman (not sure I've got that right) admitted to making very large monthly payments to Rielle Hunter over and above what she earned for her documentaries -- well, I've seen zip about that side of the story. And yet, to me, it could be a most damning piece and could be criminal.
First, it sounds like hush-up money delivered under blackmail. Second, it sounds as if campaign contributions might have been used. This would be illegal, non? Third, there was something about a multimillion dollar home in California being purchased. I tell you, if someone was getting rich off a campaign purported to be driven by passionate concern for the poor -- that would have to make Edwards legendary in the realm of hypocrites. By the way: I made hard-earned contributions to Kerry in 2000 (when Edwards was the vice presidential candidate), and to Edwards both in the run-up to 2004 and last year. He was my guy. So, what do you know about the money?
Matthew Mosk: I've got a long list of serious questions waiting on the subject of Georgia, Russia and the ongoing conflict there.
But I'll take a moment or two with this interesting question about John Edwards, his affair, and the money that wound up with his mistress. I think there are two separate issues here, with respect to the money. In terms of payments that Edwards's friends may have made to his mistress, I'm not sure what legal issues might arise there. I think a more serious question would arise if he used money directly from a campaign account to pay her. I'm going to see if I can't get a better answer for you before the hour is out.
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Boulder, Colo.: One of the talking-head refrains is that America is "still getting to know" Barack Obama. Has The Washington Post assigned a reporter to go to Illinois and explore Obama's experiences there? I have seen very few in-depth columns and essentially no serious TV reports detailing Obama's work as a community organizer, law professor and state senator, or going into detail about the political connections he made along the way. Ryan Lizza's New Yorker piece was very interesting, but the content mostly was ignored as the cover art was discussed ad absurdo.
washingtonpost.com: Making It: How Chicago Shaped Obama (New Yorker, July 21)
Matthew Mosk: Thank you Boulder. The answer to this is yes.
In addition to the article attached, my colleague Peter Slevin, who is The Post's Chicago bureau chief, has written about Sen. Obama's years in Springfield, and done extensive reporting on his life in Chicago. Also, as the conventions approach, I can advise you to keep reading. The Post plans a number of large, extensively reported biographical pieces about both candidates. These should be very helpful has you assess the candidates.
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Baltimore: Reviewing the national polls over the last few weeks, I keep seeing a trend that Obama does better in polls of registered voters while his lead is smaller in polls of likely voters. Does that imply that there's an "enthusiasm gap" favoring McCain? I figure a so-called likely voter is a registered voter with a bit more enthusiasm.
Matthew Mosk: Hello Baltimore. I've turned to The Washington Post's in house polling expert, Jon Cohen, to see if we can answer your question. Here's what Jon tells me:
"Propensity to vote is in part based on enthusiasm, but it's more typically assessed using voting history and intention, among other factors. Obviously for election outcomes, all that matters is whether people vote, not whether they do so 'enthusiastically.' A challenge for Obama is to convert highly energized supporters (there is currently an 'enthusiasm gap' favoring Obama) into registered voters and then into actual voters."
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Clifton, Va.: Despite Keith Olbermann and his little cohorts' dismissal of McCain's statements on the Russia/Georgia crisis, McCain is right. I am sorry, but Obama doesn't have a clue. And Bush is wrong for not sending in the Air Force to provide Combat Air Patrol and ground support to our Georgian allies. The Russians would outmatched and outgunned in the air. Bush also should have raised the DEFCON level and sent Russian ambassadors home! Obama and his MSNBC did a great job of demonstrating what great appeasers they are again. Nice of them to take a couple plays from the Neville Chamberlain Guide to Appeasement and Greater Global Insecurity. Obama -- what a pansy!
Matthew Mosk: I think Clifton's comment -- not really a question -- touches on a couple of interesting points that I'm seeing a lot of in the questions coming into the chat this morning.
The questions have to do with the U.S.'s ability or inability to respond to Russia's actions and defend Georgia, and with the political implications of McCain's early, tough stance against Russia's aggression.
I'm not a foreign policy expert and won't pretend to be one here. But I'd welcome your views on those two issues. Will the situation in Georgia highlight McCain's foreign policy acumen and become a political problem for Obama?
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Hell's Kitchen, N.Y.: So let me get this straight, Matthew: A major-party candidate for President of the U.S. has received a bunch of funds from a guy named Abdullah funneled through Jordan and the media is basically ignoring it? That just doesn't make any sense. How is Obama getting away with this? Oh ... the candidate is who? No, that can't be right: John McCain, you say? Oh ... never mind, then.
Matthew Mosk: Thanks for this question. It refers to a story I wrote last week about a Florida bundler for John McCain named Harry Sargeant who was raising money from a number of California families that did not have the apparent means or interest to give thousands of dollars to a presidential candidate. I think your question's reference to one of the donor-family's last names ignores the point. The real issue is whether these were legal donations or whether they were simply straw donors. If it's the latter, that would be illegal. This question has gotten pretty heavy coverage over the past week.
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washingtonpost.com: Bundler Collects From Unlikely Donors (Post, Aug. 6)
Matthew Mosk: Here's the original story.
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Not Beijing: Russia is pounding Georgia. U.S. soldiers are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. I turn on my TV to see the President cavorting in the sand with two female volleyball players (in their underwear, or so my wife seems to think) using ridiculously bad volleyball technique (the president, not May or Walsh), culminating in a lovely butt-pat. Excellent!
Matthew Mosk: I'm filling in for Mike Abramowitz today, who is in China now. I wish he was here to provide a witty response to your question!
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Seattle: I have heard rumors that one of John McCain's staffers is also a lobbyist for the country of Georgia. Is there any truth to that?
washingtonpost.com: The Trail: McCain Aide's Georgian Ties Become an Issue (washingtonpost.com, Aug. 10)
Matthew Mosk: It's kind of true, Seattle. A top McCain foreign policy adviser named Randy Scheunemann served as a lobbyist for the Georgian government for several years, beginning in 2004. He stepped down from that job in March, and so is no longer the country's lobbyist.
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Memphis, Tenn.: After reading Mikhail Gorbachev's piece in The Post, it seems as though Senator McCain's bluster was a little out of place. Please discuss Sen. McCain's judgment in this and other foreign policy matters. Thanks.
washingtonpost.com: A Path to Peace in the Caucuses (Post, Aug. 12)
Matthew Mosk: A very interesting take on the whole situation. Thanks for pointing it out, Memphis.
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Franconia, Va.: I am absolutely appalled that Hillary Clinton's top staff apparently emptied their files into the arms of the Atlantic reporter. Of course it is a scoop and a credit to the reporter, but can you even imagine, let's say, Karen Hughes, Karl Rove or other Bush loyalists doing the same? Or, for that matter, David Plouffe or David Axelrod?
I am a Democrat and Obama supporter, but am just absolutely stunned as an American that very high-paid, politically experienced staff simply would abandon all sense of privacy, confidentiality and loyalty this way. My picture is of rats swimming from a sinking ship, each one worried about preserving its future career. Is this as disgraceful as I see it, or par for the course these days? Or are they just mad they didn't get paid or for some other reason angry at Hillary Clinton? I cannot fathom what has happened here.
Matthew Mosk: I think you'll find some irony in the internal e-mail posted here.
It's from Washington super lawyer Robert Barnett, talking about how all the back-biting and back-channel discussions between Clinton campaign staff and Washington Post reporters "makes me sick."
You're right that there are two sides to this coin. For the reporters, these kinds of leaks offer them the chance to provide the public with a much more authentic look at what's happening inside a campaign. For political hands, it muse make them cringe.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Could contributors to the Edwards campaign object to their contributions being used to pay off his girlfriend?
Matthew Mosk: Okay, back on the question of Edwards and his money.
I just got off the phone with Michael Toner. He's a former Federal Election Commission chairman and really knows these rules well. He says the issue of payments to Edwards's mistress is a complex one.
First of all, if the campaign paid her for something other than her videographer services, that could be a problem.
"When you're talking about campaign funds, they can't be used for personal use. You can't use campaign funds to buy yachts or go out to Barbados," Toner said.
Another question will be whether Edwards used funds from his presidential campaign or from his leadership PAC. There are fewer restrictions on how he can use money in his leadership PAC.
Then there are the tax implications of payments to her, either by the campaign, or by Edwards's friends.
"Friends can give gifts to people up to a certain limit. Beyond that, it's income to the recipient," Toner said. "Whether it's an in-kind contribution? If they were paying her for something that was not campaign work, probably not."
And now to your question, Silver Spring. Can you object to the way a campaign uses your contributions?
"They can demand refunds, things like that," Toner said. But don't count on seeing a check in the mail!
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Minneapolis: Why all the attention on Edwards and Clinton when there are very relevant stories that could be told about the actual candidates for President? Not to mention the candidates for the House and Senate, for that matter...
Matthew Mosk: Alas, Minneapolis, the stories about Edwards and Clinton are to many people very interesting. That does not mean we ignore the other stories. Fortunately, you can find it all here on one Web site! :)
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Rockville, Md.: Sometimes I wish all the critics of the president would lighten up. They are the new puritans of the age, and most of the time they do not even have a clue. Everything is grist for their mill.
Matthew Mosk: Another point of view on President Bush's beach volleyball visit.
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Boston: For years, folks in the White House and right-wing think tanks have been assuring Georgians that the U.S. would be there when they needed us. Now Georgians of all stripes are being quoted asking "where are the Americans?" Why were these empty gestures being made? I don't get the reasoning, either tactical or strategic, and would love to get a better understanding on what motivated the Bush administration (and now McCain) to make promises we know we couldn't keep.
Matthew Mosk: One of the great things about the Post newsroom is that it is filled with experts on various topics. I have turned to our senior diplomatic correspondent, Karen DeYoung, to try and get you an answer to this interesting question, Boston.
Here's what she had to say:
"In countless public fora, the Bush administration has pledged its commitment to Georgia's 'territorial integrity.' That commitment has always been followed by the hope that all potential conflicts would be resolved peacefully. Administration officials insist that in private conversations, at the highest levels, they have told the Georgians that their commitment did not include military intervention on Georgia's behalf, and say they have repeatedly urged the Georgians not to provoke the Russian bear. But this stance gives rise to a question: At NATO's most recent summit, the administration pushed very hard to grant Georgia a place on the initial rung of the ladder toward NATO membership. European governments blocked that attempt, but U.S. remains committed to getting Georgia into the Atlantic alliance. The definition of NATO membership, of course, is a mutual defense commitment -- an attack on one equals an attack on all. Are we ready to go into battle against Russia to defend Georgia in NATO?"
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Re: The Bundler: Matthew: "This question has gotten pretty heavy coverage over the past week." Yeah, but what Hell's Kitchen is raising is that none of the coverage has dealt seriously with the national security/foreign policy issues that were raised in past fundraising controversies involving Democrats, like Gore and Clinton. That's not to mention the kind of talk show frenzy that the right-wing nutjobs embark on to question the patriotism of a Democrat candidate taking money from "furriners."
Matthew Mosk: I see your point. Two things are different here. One is that the donors themselves were American citizens. The contributions were only illegal if they did not use their own money. They say they did.
The second question relates to Sargeant's use of a Jordanian business partner to help raise the money. Election law experts seemed to be somewhat flummoxed by the question of whether a foreign national can legally bundle contributions for a presidential candidate, so long as they don't give money themselves. The FEC took a glancing pass at that question a few years ago, but it has never been resolved to the satisfaction of most campaign lawyers.
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Northern Virginia: When will we hear about the candidates' respective fundraising for July? Any hints so far on how much they got, and how many small donors each had?
Matthew Mosk: Well, we will definitely have the answer on Aug. 20, when the campaigns will report their July fundraising numbers to the FEC. But both campaigns have made a practice of releasing their numbers earlier, if it suits them politically. For instance, if Sen. McCain seems to be controlling a news cycle, the Obama campaign may release his numbers to try and step into the news cycle himself. McCain could do the same, assuming his money numbers are favorable.
If either one has numbers that concern them (I doubt that will be the case) they may wait till a slow Friday afternoon to release them.
Such is life in the age of media manipulation.
As for what the numbers might be? I have only a general sense that the Obama number will be very high. Probably a record for a month of fundraising for a presidential candidate.
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I am absolutely appalled that Hillary Clinton's top staff apparently emptied their files into the arms of the Atlantic reporter: Who dumped on who? Was Wolfson trying to lay blame on Penn?
Matthew Mosk: Is that you, Mark Penn?
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Rockville, Md.: Re: Georgia, I imagine that the president talked to Putin and got two points -- that they would scare but not overrun Georgia, and that much more help with Iraq and Iran could be expected. And both were happy. Nations have to remember that we have no friends, just interest to protect.
Matthew Mosk: Thanks Rockville. Interesting point.
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Matthew Mosk: Well, this has been an interesting hour. It's amazing how much we have to talk about in the middle of the summer -- usually a dead time for news.
Thanks so much for your terrific questions!
Now, back to work...
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washingtonpost.com: Discussion: Election 2008 Advertising (washingtonpost.com, Live NOW)
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washingtonpost.com: Upcoming Discussion: Ron Suskind on 'The Way of the World' (washingtonpost.com, 3 p.m. ET today)
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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USA TODAY
August 11, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
'Panic thinking' about gas prices stalls progress
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 10A
LENGTH: 667 words
When panic sets in, thinking ends. After Sept. 11, 2001, the American public fell for the lies about Iraq being a major threat to the U.S. and supported the invasion. Panic ruled the day. It has taken years for a majority of the public to turn against the unjustified war.
Today, with gasoline prices hovering around $4 per gallon, the public is again in the throes of panic-thinking. This phrase, of course, is an oxymoron, for there is no thinking when panic takes hold.
After years of sensibly opposing offshore drilling and drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because of its potential effect on the environment, panic is pushing the public toward support of such drilling.
Studies show that opening those areas to drilling would have no significant effect on gasoline prices for at least 10 years. At that time, the effect of drilling in Alaska would save roughly 2cents per gallon at the pump, along with possible devastating oil spills. Of course, by then gasoline could be $10 per gallon or more.
Obviously, drilling would do nothing to lower prices. But when panic takes over, people cannot see facts or common sense. It matters little what the issue is. Panic trumps thinking every time.
Bruce Barnbaum
Granite Falls, Wash.
No relief for gas prices
Last month, the Rasmussen Reports tracking poll showed that the Democrat-led Congress had a 9% approval rating. After the recent decision of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to send Congress on a five-week vacation rather than allow a vote on our nation's energy future, that historically low 9% number has surely gone down.
It seems that having Americans pay $4 at the pump is a secondary issue to Pelosi in particular. When asked why she would not let a vote proceed to allow offshore drilling, the speaker said she was "trying to save the planet." The arrogance and shortsightedness of that statement will hopefully prove to be the point in time when voters had finally heard and seen enough from the current leaders of the Democratic Party.
The USA has a real crisis of demand racing way ahead of supply in regard to our energy needs. The Democrats say don't drill because the oil we find is up to 10 years away from being useful. The alternative energy the Democrats want, on a scale that could power America, is many decades away.
All of us are for developing alternative energy sources, but we'll need fossil fuels for a long time. That means we must increase domestic drilling or remain the hostages of foreign oil, with all the national security perils that entails.
Only an elitist politician from San Francisco could tell Americans to live with high gas prices while she "saves the planet" and then goes on vacation.
Only voters who like watching their lives shrink into government-imposed serfdom would allow this politician to remain in power.
Joe Fieldus
Ormond Beach, Fla.
Windfall profits tax
Recent polls show Americans understand the need for a more sensible and productive energy policy. The country is ready to take advantage of our resources and seek relief from foreign imports and costs. Unfortunately, new tax proposals touted by some politicians, including Barack Obama, threaten the very engine that would drive such progress ("Obama ad alleges McCain is in oil companies' 'pocket,'" News, Tuesday).
Revisiting the failed policy of a windfall profits tax would be counterproductive to solving our energy needs. In the '80s, windfall profits taxes extracted about $39 billion from an industry that relies heavily on capital for new production and technology. It reduced domestic oil production and resulted in up to a 13% increase in dependence on foreign oil. We cannot afford to repeat this crippling policy.
American independent oil and gas producers have invested up to 150% of their domestic profits back into homegrown production. This is a practice our leaders should encourage, not punish, as we seek greater energy independence.
Barry Russell
President and CEO
Independent Petroleum
Association of America
Washington
LOAD-DATE: August 12, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
August 11, 2008 Monday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Dan Balz, Washington Post Chief Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2424 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post chief political reporter Dan Balz was online Monday, August 11 at 11 a.m. ET.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Dan Balz: Good morning to everyone. Sen. McCain is on the campaign trail. Sen. Obama is on the beach or the golf course in Hawaii. President Bush is on his way back from the Olympics. The campaigns are pointing toward their conventions. In two weeks, the Democrats will be raising the curtain on theirs. And of course, there's also the John Edwards story. I'll try to answer as many of your questions as possible. Thanks for joining up.
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St. Paul, Minn.: Hi Dan -- thank you for taking questions today. I heard something over the weekend about Sen. McCain possibly making a pledge to serve only one term if elected. What are the pros and cons of this? Does it help reassure potential voters that he's aware of the "age issue," or merely magnify it? (Not to mention the pressure that it puts on the selection of his running mate, and on the running mate if McCain wins...) Has this ever happened in the past?
Dan Balz: There has been talk about this ever since Sen. McCain made clear he was going to run in 2008 but so far there has been no definitive pledge. Certain, given concerns about his age, there would be some reason to do this. Also, perhaps voters would feel that, if he was planning to serve only one term, he would feel less encumbered to try to do some crockery-breaking initiatives to change Washington. But there are risks as well, including that such a pledge might draw even more attention to his age.
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Raleigh, N.C.: Good morning! Let's get into the sewer -- not because we want to, but because we have to. Does the Edwards affair hurt Obama more because Edwards is a Democrat and was talked about as a potential attorney general? Or does it hurt McCain, who himself had affairs while married to a sick wife (albeit 30 years ago)?
Dan Balz: I doubt it will have much effect on anyone other than John Edwards. He did endorse Obama, but talk of him being attorney general was as rampant when both Obama and Senator Clinton were seeking his endorsement. Nor does it necessarily affect McCain. McCain's marital history has been out there for a long time. The person this hurts most is John Edwards.
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Fossil, Ore.: I understand that John McCain has not been present for a Senate vote since April. With that in mind, how can he be so critical of the Senate taking a month's vacation, and saying that if he were president he would call them back into session? Perhaps it is time for some new legislation to cover House and Senate members running for offices, providing a leave of absence from their "day jobs."
Dan Balz: I think this falls under the definition of opportunistic politics. The McCain team believes that he has an advantage on the energy issue and wants to do everything possible to press that advantage. Saying he would call Congress back if he were president is one way of trying to do that. The fact that he has been absent for so long may not register with most people, who don't pay close attention to the attendance records of members of Congress--until an opponent makes an issue of it. Does anyone remember the famous bloodhound ad run by Mitch McConnell that helped sink Dee Huddleston of Kentucky in the 1984 Senate race?
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Bow, N.H.: Why do we seem to care about the marital issues of a former candidate (Edwards) but not about the marital issues of a current candidate (McCain)?
Dan Balz: When John Edwards confessed to his affair with Rielle Hunter on Friday, it was news and the media covered it. Most mainstream organizations, except for papers in North Carolina, had stayed away from the story, despite the National Enquirer's reports. You could ask why did no one "seem to care" about the Edwards story until Friday, which is fair question and one that goes to the always-difficult decisions about the personal lives of politicians.
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Arlington, Va.: A couple of months ago the New York Times ran a front-page, uncorroborated story of Sen. McCain's alleged relationship with a lobbyist a decade ago; The Post and other media outlets picked up on this story. Why the reluctance to write about Edwards -- when there was much more proof available -- compared to the eagerness to print anonymous sources with no substantiation concerning McCain?
Dan Balz: If you recall, the Post wrote about the lobbyist and McCain but did not highlight the angle that was prominent in the New York Times story. And as you also may recall, the Times was criticized, even by its own ombudsman, for raising the issue of a personal relationship. So I'd take issue with your suggestion that there was eagerness to write about McCain but not about Edwards.
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Washington: Good Morning Dan. What appears to be the fallout from the Edwards admission? And do you think if Edwards were not in the race at the Iowa Caucuses, that Hillary Clinton would have won the primary?
Dan Balz: Howard Wolfson, who was Senator Clinton's communications director, has already said that, if the news of the Edwards affair had been known earlier, Clinton would have defeated Obama in Iowa. Maybe he's right, but there's certainly no way to prove or disprove it. Edwards and Obama were competing for many of the same voters in Iowa, including people who had decided they were not likely to support Clinton. I would not venture to say who would have won Iowa without Edwards in the mix because the dynamic would have been so different without him. Certainly he complicated things for Clinton, but she had many problems in Iowa that had nothing to do with what people thought of Edwards.
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Carlsbad, Calif.: Mr. Balz, thank you for taking this question. If John Edwards had at this point a majority of delegates won in statewide elections, if the party wanted to switch to another candidate given his new admission, would party rules allow for that? And, just as a hypothetical, what would be the situation in the two conventions if, for any unforeseeable reason, either of the two candidates became unavailable to be nominated (health, for instance)?
Dan Balz: If Edwards had the majority of delegates at this point, the convention would be free to reject him and select another nominee. Although we often talk about "pledged" and "unpledged" delegates, the truth is that even pledged delegates are free to vote for whomever they wish at the convention. So until the convention votes, there is no nominee. The question is, who would the convention pick if delegates had to make the choice under these circumstances.
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Fear and Loathing: Dr. Balz, thanks very much for taking our questions today. Your history and experience as a campaign reporter is unparalleled, hence the following questions. What (gonzo?) journalist on the campaign trail today most embodies the principles (?) and vision of our late great friend Hunter S. Thompson? What do you think he would think of the state of the presidential campaign these days? Thanks very much for your unique perspective.
Dan Balz: This is a great question and so I throw it out to others to nominate their candidates. Is there a gonzo journalist on the trail this year and if so, who is it?
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McCain's comment today: Dan: I thought McCain's comments today on Russia and Georgia were generally logical and well-considered, but in opening his comments by saying that "Americans wishing to spend August vacationing with their families or watching the Olympics may wonder why their newspapers and television screens are filled with images of war in the small country of Georgia," he's taking a direct cheap shot at Obama's Hawaiian vacation. I believe this is uncalled for in this circumstance. Your thoughts, please?
Dan Balz: I would disagree with you on this. I don't think it was a shot at Obama but a recognition that many Americans are on vacation now.
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Stewartstown, Pa.: Why is it a legitimate news story if politicians have affairs? A person's right to privacy is very important. To legitimately invade that privacy, someone must have a compelling reason for doing so. The available evidence (examination of the lives and careers of past politicians) suggest there is no relationship between fidelity and being a good leader, and just because many voters seem to think there is such a relationship doesn't change the fact that the evidence suggests otherwise. If there really is a "dilemma" concerning reporting the personal lives of politicians, why wasn't there a dilemma in JFK's and Lyndon Johnson's time?
Dan Balz: Well, standards have changed. What was par for the course during the JFK and LBJ era is no longer possible. Every news organization has its own standards, but what been clear for some years now is that, one way or another, information like this makes its way into the public domain -- through a supermarket tabloid, through blogs or other Internet sources or sometimes in the mainstream media. That begs the question of legitimacy, but different organizations -- and different journalists within news organizations -- have different standards for answering that question.
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My vote for Gonzo: Matt Taibbi: Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone is one of the best young journalists covering the elections. Just had to put that out there. Really, really excellent!
Dan Balz: Thanks. Any others out there?
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Washington: On one of the various morning shows (I can't remember which one I was watching!) someone said that Howard Wolfson believes that, had the Edwards affair become public earlier, Clinton would have won the nomination. Huh-wah? What could his line of thinking be?
Dan Balz: I want to return to this one. My colleague Jon Cohen, who directs our polling unit, has done some numbers crunching this morning and says Wolfson's assertion is not correct. Far more caucus attendees who supported Edwards said Obama was their second choice than who said Clinton was their second choice. So on that basis, it looks as if Obama still would have won. As I said earlier, depending on when the news of the affair had become public, the dynamic of the Iowa campaign could have changed.
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Southwest Nebraska: McCain gave a press conference this morning on the Georgian-Russian conflict. He sure sounded presidential. Has he usurped Bush's role in the party?
Dan Balz: He's not usurped the president's role as president but certainly with Bush in lame duck status, both McCain and Obama attract attention that might normally go to the president. Obama got some of that attention when he was on his overseas trip a few weeks ago and McCain is seeking some of that attention right now. But neither confuses his role with that of Bush's.
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You dodged Bow, N.H.: So let me try another way. You say Edwards affair was news because it was just discovered, and I guess leave it to us to imply McCain's affair is old news and therefore not worthy of the same coverage. Except, perhaps it's old news to you, but I'd lay you money the vast majority of Americans don't know Sen. McCain cheated on his old wife with his current wife. And -- no small detail -- Sen Edwards is not the nominee of his party, and Sen. McCain is. So isn't it actually more"newsworthy"?
Dan Balz: I think you and I disagree on the definition of "news," which to me has generally had a heavy dose of something being new information or information that wasn't previously confirmed. A decades-old episode that has been previously reported does not have the same news value as a prominent politician going on national television to admit he had lied about a sexual relationship. So I don't believe news organizations should treat them as such. The fact that John Edwards is not his party's nominee is relevant and, I suspect, one reason why most mainstream news organizations stayed away from the story as long as they did.
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Baltimore: The Secret Service wouldn't allow a young Hunter S. Thompson within five miles of a presidential candidate these days. Thompson was a product of his times, and sadly the world will not see his like again.
Dan Balz: You may be right.
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New York: As already has been pointed out by far worthier observers than I, making the election about Obama is the only way Obama loses. If it's about Bush? Obama wins. If it's Obama vs McCain? Obama wins. If it's about some more vague "are you better off than you were four years ago"? Obama wins. Ah, but what if it's a referendum about Obama? Can Team McCain/GOP build enough doubts and worries about Obama? You bet. I think that's where all of those McCain ads want to go. What do you think, Dan?
Dan Balz: I agree that the more the election is about questions about Obama the more difficult the race is for him. What the McCain campaign is doing now is understandable, but eventually McCain will also have to demonstrate that he is his own vision.
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Long Island, N.Y.: When is the President due to leave Beijing? When he leaves, is he coming back to Washington, or is it off to Crawford?
Dan Balz: President Bush is on his way back to the United States and, I believe, heading toward Washington. He clearly enjoyed himself in Beijing, didn't he?
That's all for today. Thanks to everyone and sorry, as always, that we had to leave questions in the queue. Have a great week.
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washingtonpost.com: Discussion: Why Politicians Cheat (washingtonpost.com, Live NOW)
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washingtonpost.com: Upcoming Discussion: Registering Felons to Vote (washingtonpost.com, 1 p.m. ET today)
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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August 10, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Laugh Lines
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JAY LENO
And in an interview recorded by the BBC in Africa, Bill Clinton told people in Africa to practice monogamy and that we need to control unprotected sexual relations with unlimited numbers of partners. In fact, the minute he said that, the Secret Service wrestled him to the ground and said, ''Who are you and what have you done with the real Bill Clinton?''
DAVID LETTERMAN
Everybody in Beijing has Olympic fever. Or, as it's also known, bronchial asthma.
JIMMY KIMMEL
Barely a week after John McCain used her image in an ad attacking Barack Obama, Paris Hilton is fighting back. Yesterday, she released her own political ad in which she talked about her own energy policy, which until this point I think had been vodka and Red Bull.
CONAN O'BRIEN
In Ohio, a prisoner is claiming that he's too obese to be executed, but he says he could go for a last meal.
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The Washington Post
August 10, 2008 Sunday
Suburban Edition
Race Is In Holding Pattern For Now;
But After the Games Come the Conventions
BYLINE: Dan Balz; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A06
LENGTH: 1438 words
The opening round of the general-election campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain has produced memorable images, negative ads, snarling e-mails and pointed exchanges over war, the economy and energy. What it has not done is begin to resolve questions among voters that both candidates must address to win in November.
Amid a profusion of polls and a war of words and television commercials, the underlying dynamics of the election appear little changed in the two months since the primaries ended. Democrat Obama still faces reservations among voters about his background and readiness. Republican McCain still faces questions about whether he has a governing vision that represents a clear break from the policies of President Bush.
With the opening of the Olympic Games on Friday, the campaign has entered a two-week doldrums. But once the Beijing Games are over, Obama and McCain will retake center stage. In rapid succession, they will announce running mates, choreograph their nominating conventions and deliver acceptance speeches to what are likely to be the largest audiences they will reach until the fall debates.
Those events will dwarf what has happened to date. But they will play out against the backdrop of preliminaries that, in the estimation of the two campaigns, have positioned their candidates well for the real battle ahead.
McCain advisers believe they effectively blunted any boost Obama may have gained from his overseas trip, seized an advantage on the debate over energy policy and have begun to restore the "maverick" appeal that distinguishes their candidate from Bush. They also say they have corrected many of the operational weaknesses that plagued their campaign earlier in the summer and drew sharp criticism from others in the Republican Party.
"We are on offense on the most important domestic issue before the country, which is the energy crisis," Steve Schmidt, who runs the campaign's day-to-day operations, said in an interview. "We have blunted Obama's momentum both nationally and in the key states, where we're ahead, even or just slightly behind in a horrific political year."
Obama advisers think that they have laid the foundation for a fall campaign in which voters will gradually gain confidence in their candidate's capacity to serve as president. They also believe they have pinned the Bush label on McCain and enjoy a significant advantage in the intensity of their support, something they think will translate into bigger turnout in battleground states.
David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, said his team is acutely focused on two elemental objectives: winning the battle for swing voters and winning the battle over turnout. "The most underappreciated dynamic of the race is the intensity advantage," he said. "That's why George Bush won in 2004. . . . They had an intensity gap, and we have it now."
Over the past month, polls have suggested a fluctuating race, with Obama leading at one point by as much as eight or nine points, losing virtually all of it to McCain after returning from overseas and then again pulling ahead. The past month also has been notable for the intensity of the engagement between the two campaigns.
But experienced political strategists say what comes next will be far more important in determining the outcome in November than anything that has happened to date. They heavily discount any supposed movement in the polls, saying it has little relevance, and are convinced that most persuadable voters are paying scant attention to the daily dialogue.
"Beware the polls," said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. "People are very mediocre predictors of their own behavior. What they tell you in June and July will not necessarily comport well with what they do in November."
Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for Bush's 2004 reelection campaign and now an independent analyst, said little has changed over the summer, despite Obama's overseas trip, an array of television ads and extensive cable news coverage of the race.
"The race has been pretty stagnant," he said. "Obama had as good a trip overseas as you could possibly have, and nothing moved. Obama is sitting on a four-to-six-point lead, but he is underperforming where he should be" in the race, given the overall political climate.
Who has used the past two months most effectively? On that question, there is predictable partisan disagreement.
Democrat Geoff Garin, who finished the primaries as one of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief strategists, argued that Obama has put down a stronger foundation for the fall campaign than McCain has.
"The Obama campaign has always been extremely disciplined and focused, and in this period they have been extremely purposeful about filling in the blanks on Obama in a way that will serve him well in September and October," he said. "In order to do that, they've been willing to take a few dings from McCain. But my sense is it's nothing more than a few dings, rather than a deep and permanent definition of Obama that will haunt him throughout the campaign."
Those "dings" have included McCain's efforts to call into question whether Obama should have visited wounded service members in Germany after Pentagon officials indicated that he could not bring along an adviser from his campaign, and McCain's ads focusing on Obama as an international celebrity -- spots designed to raise doubts that the Democrat is ready to be president and question whether he and voters share the same values.
Schmidt summed up the case this way: "The American people now have a window into how to evaluate his candidacy, based on his unprecedented celebrity, that can help them process the decision in tough economic times and tough national security times, particularly with regard to Obama's lack of experience and his ability to change positions on any issue at any moment given what is politically expediency at that moment."
But Plouffe argued that McCain's efforts to portray Obama as a mere celebrity who is not ready to serve as president may be more likely to create enthusiasm among core Republicans than to persuade swing voters. He said the campaign's research has shown that swing voters were turned off by the celebrity ad that featured Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.
"We have been covered at high-intensity levels for 19 months," Plouffe said, adding, "I don't think people believe Barack Obama is an empty suit."
Garin did not discount the challenges Obama faces. "Voters have question marks about Obama," he said. "The Obama campaign in June and July and now into August has been consistently focused on trying to address those question marks, not in a way that will win him the election in August but that will put him in a better position to win the election in November."
But McCain advisers think their candidate matches up well against those potential vulnerabilities in Obama. "This guy's . . . weaknesses are all John's strengths," said one McCain adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to talk candidly about strategy.
Until recently, some Republicans had strongly criticized McCain over the conduct of his campaign. But, given his new, aggressive attacks on Obama and other signs of change within his campaign, those complaints have been muted.
Terry Nelson, who served as McCain's campaign manager until July 2007, said McCain was right to engage Obama and argued that the change in strategy has put the Republican in a stronger position heading toward the conventions.
"I think the McCain campaign has done a good job of laying out some battle lines," he said. "The Obama campaign seems to be not dominating the agenda of the campaign in the way that it was for some time. The question in my mind is, after the conventions are over, who is going to dominate the debate? The Obama campaign was able to do that for a while, but the McCain campaign is doing it now."
But Democratic strategists argued that McCain has done less than Obama to address his problems. "John McCain at this point is identified with four more years of George Bush," Mellman said. "That's exactly the way Obama wanted to paint him, and it is the way people see him. If he's going to win, he's going to have to go around fundamental perceptions that have been set."
One challenge both candidates share is their struggle to gain an edge on the economy. "The dominant issue in this election is what you broadly call pocketbook and the economy, and both candidates for some reason don't have a voice on it and they don't seem comfortable," Dowd said. "They talk about it and move off of it quickly. . . . The first one to get a voice on it will have an advantage."
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The Washington Post
August 10, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
To Listen Is Taxing;
New campaign ads distort, rather than enlighten.
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BARACK OBAMA and John McCain have important differences on tax policy. These are fair game for campaign ads, and no one expects 30-second spots to be suffused with nuance. But Mr. McCain's latest attack on the Obama tax plan crosses the line from reasonable argument to unacceptably misleading.
"Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000," the announcer warns. The basis for this statement is the senator's vote for the fiscal 2009 budget resolution, a nonbinding blueprint that assumed that all the Bush tax cuts would expire as scheduled. However, Mr. Obama has repeatedly said he wants to extend the Bush tax cuts for families making less than $250,000 a year. If anything, he has lavished too much in tax breaks on the middle class, proposing an expensive $1,000-per-family additional tax credit and, last weekend, piling on top of that an immediate, presumably one-time, $1,000-per-family rebate for energy costs.
"The Obama plan would reduce taxes for low- and moderate-income families, but raise them significantly for high-bracket taxpayers," the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center reported. "By 2012, middle-income taxpayers would see their after-tax income rise by 4.6 percent, or $2,100 annually." In fact, the center found, Mr. McCain was less generous than Mr. Obama to middle-income taxpayers, trimming their taxes by about 3 percent of income, or $1,400 annually, by 2012.
The McCain ad continues in the same dishonest vein: "He promises more taxes on small business, seniors, your life savings, your family." Mr. Obama would increase taxes on small business -- but only the tiny sliver that earn more than $250,000 a year. He would -- unwisely, in our view -- lower taxes on seniors, excusing those making less than $50,000 a year from paying any tax whatsoever. As for going after people's "life savings," Mr. Obama would exempt 99.7 percent of households from paying the estate tax. He would tax the "life savings" only of couples who leave a combined estate worth more than $7 million.
Mr. Obama is not blameless in the ad wars. He asserts that Mr. McCain would give new tax breaks to "Big Oil," without making clear that this is part of an overall reduction in the corporate tax rate. A radio ad released Friday warns that "there's something John McCain's not telling you: It was McCain who used his influence in the Senate to help foreign-owned DHL buy a U.S. company and gain control over the jobs that are now on the chopping block in Ohio." Sorry, but there's something Mr. Obama's not telling voters, either. "Foreign-owned DHL," which acquired Airborne Express, likely saved jobs that were on the chopping block in 2003, when the merger took place. Then, Mr. McCain opposed an ill-considered provision by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), pushed by DHL rivals Federal Express and United Parcel Service, that would have blocked its takeover of the struggling No. 3 Airborne. The current controversy involves a move by "foreign-owned DHL," now struggling itself, to outsource air cargo operations to, yes, American-owned UPS.
Mr. Obama should tamp down the xenophobic rhetoric. Mr. McCain should stop trying to scare voters by mischaracterizing Mr. Obama's tax plan.
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The Washington Post
August 10, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
That Was the Obama We're Still Waiting For
BYLINE: Michael Tomasky
SECTION: OUTLOOK; Pg. B01
LENGTH: 1448 words
As the Democratic convention approaches, it's a safe bet that the cable networks will transport us back in time to late July 2004 by showing clips of Barack Obama's electrifying keynote address to that year's gathering. That was the speech that made him a star (and unlike John McCain's ad team, I mean this as a compliment). But I've sometimes wondered in recent months: Whatever happened to that Obama, to that enemy of excessive partisanship and evangelist of national unity?
You will recall the money sentences: "Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America." These phrases were followed by several deftly chosen images designed to skewer the stereotypes that red and blue Americans entertain about each other. "We worship an awesome God in the blue states," Obama thundered. "And yes," he added, "we've got some gay friends in the red states."
These now-famous lines constituted just a small sliver of the speech; the rest was more standard stuff -- his biography, his concern for workers at a Maytag plant in Galesburg, Ill., (he was running for Senate, after all) and, of course, all the marvelous things that John F. Kerry would do as president. But those lines stood out for a reason: They articulated a deep yearning, held by many Americans of varying beliefs, for less polarization and division. This theme was precisely what cata pulted Obama to the front rank of Democratic poli ticians.
Now ask yourself: Have you heard Obama talk like that lately?
Chances are you haven't. The grand 2004 theme of post-partisanship seems to have all but disappeared from the candidate's rhetoric. In a major foreign policy address he delivered just before his overseas trip last month, he enumerated some of the steps the United States should have taken after Sept. 11, 2001. Getting Osama bin Laden led the list, but when it came to domestic priorities, the man who burst onto the national scene talking about one America conspicuously failed to mention his regret that, instead of being united after the attacks, Americans were divided along partisan lines by an administration that wielded patriotism as an ideological cudgel.
I recently asked David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, what became of post-partisanship. "Oh, I think he still speaks about it, and I'm sure it'll be a theme at our convention," Axelrod told me. "It's still fundamental to who he is." I'm sure that's true, but I also think that Obama will miss an important opportunity if he doesn't use this month's convention to restate this theme -- and remind voters that a purpler America is still a pretty good idea.
Here are four theories about why Obama has moved post-partisanship to the rhetorical back burner.
Theory No. 1: There's only room in a campaign for one big theme at a time, and the Obama team has settled on "change." That's fair enough. Change is undemanding and direct. It requires no presumed level of information, whereas describing a "post-partisan future" counts on voters' knowing that we're in a partisan time and being upset by that or, heck, even knowing what partisanship is to begin with. The urge to keep it simple is understandable.
Theory No. 2: Post-partisanship is too abstract. Obama has taken lots of fire from pundits and GOP operatives for supposedly being too highfalutin', a propensity he now feels he must guard against. (Of course, this is one of the planet's dumbest arguments: Humble people don't run for president, and that goes for John McCain, too.) So Obama's more recent rhetoric has tended to emphasize nuts and bolts -- his plans for Iraq, Afghanistan and the world and his prescriptions for the economy. Again, understandable.
Theory No. 3: The Obama team may feel that they've already established the purple theme sufficiently. They may be right; I don't see their internal polling results. But my sense is that if you asked the average voter today to name three or four things about Obama, few would say, "He wants to bring the country together." Even a year ago, many more would have.
Theory No. 4: It could be that the post-partisanship theme is simply less resonant now than it was in 2004. Back then, in an election that was a referendum on President Bush, the United States really was a 50-50 country. But with Bush weak and Karl Rove gone, Democrats can be forgiven for thinking that polarization is now a less pressing issue and that the equation tilts more in their favor today. Still, the McCain campaign shows every sign of planning to run -- quite counter to the candidate's earlier pronouncements -- a Rove-style, divide-and-conquer campaign. (The man who vowed to run a substantive, honorable campaign is bringing us Paris Hilton?) Obama is giving as well as getting on this front, so we'll certainly see our share of partisan politics between now and Nov. 4.
So perhaps the Obama campaign has good reasons to move away from the theme that made its candidate famous. The Obama people may know exactly what they're doing. After all, they haven't done too badly so far.
And in fact, instead of talking about post-partisanship, Obama has in some respects been demonstrating it. His apparently close relationship with retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel, the Nebraska Republican who traveled with him to Iraq and shows many signs of intending to endorse him, is the clearest manifestation of this. The recent ad bragging about Obama's nuclear nonproliferation work with Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), an ad that Lugar clearly green-lighted, is another.
I suspect that Hagel will speak at the Democratic convention and appear in ads for Obama down the road. And I wonder about former secretary of state Colin L. Powell and Lincoln Chafee (the former Rhode Island GOP senator, now an independent), and Susan Eisenhower (Ike's granddaughter) and even Douglas W. Kmiec, a conservative legal scholar who is hardly a household name but whose endorsement of Obama was a huge deal in certain circles. If these folks are willing to speak for Obama, offering testimonials to his ability to lead us toward a new kind of politics, that could well do more to advance the national unity theme than any amount of rhetoric from the candidate.
Even so, I would like to see Obama return to the post-partisan, one-America idea himself. It's an electoral winner and a governing essential, should he be elected.
It's an electoral winner because Democrats can't really triumph in divide-and-conquer elections. No, it's not that they're too noble for them. It's just that they're not as good at it as the Rove Republicans are, and progressive core positions don't translate as well into fear-mongering rhetoric. The Democrats fear-monger pretty effectively about Social Security -- as well they should -- but beyond that, it's hard to scare people into fearing that the other guy is going to cut your taxes too much or be too tough on our enemies.
Of course, Obama must attack McCain and return fire when fired upon, but he needs to do something more. He must get some percentage of people to vote their hopes, not their fears, as Bill Clinton used to put it. As McCain sprints rightward on a range of issues and dedicates himself to a negative campaign designed to scare 51 percent of the voters about Obama's euphemistic "otherness" and alleged lack of preparedness, a dose of trans-partisan optimism will make a useful contrast.
And the one-America theme will be crucial if he actually wins. As president, Obama will need to unite liberals and moderates of both parties and isolate the conservative blocs in the House and especially the Senate to get anything done. But that's getting ahead of ourselves.
It's been a while now since Obama really rocked the house with a great speech. His Berlin effort seemed medium-cool by design, as if he didn't want to create too much frenzy overseas. But in Denver, he'll be speaking to Americans, to voters. "People will leave the convention with a strong sense of who he is, what animates him, and how he will govern," Axelrod told me. "And I think his desire for bipartisanship is a big part of that."
The television coverage will remind viewers of his 2004 triumph. Obama should remind them of the core idea that made that speech a triumph -- and of why they were taken with him in the first place.
mtomasky@gmail.com
Michael Tomasky is the editor of Guardian America, the U.S.-based Web site of the Guardian.
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August 9, 2008 Saturday
Met 2 Edition
McCain Paints Obama as a Tax Hound
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THE AD
Narrator: "Life in the spotlight must be grand, but for the rest of us, times are tough. Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000. He promises more taxes on small business, seniors, your life savings, your family. Painful taxes, hard choices for your budget. Not ready to lead. That's the real Obama."
ANALYSIS
This John McCain ad reprises what has become his signature theme, that Barack Obama is a celebrity with a hidden policy agenda. It opens with crowds cheering Obama and pictorial spreads featuring the senator from Illinois in GQ, Us Weekly and Vanity Fair. But the spot quickly turns into a standard Republican attack on a Democrat as a tax-raising liberal.
The charge that Obama voted to raise taxes on people making $42,000 stretches a valid point. Obama voted for a nonbinding Democratic budget resolution that would not have raised anyone's taxes. But it did envision phasing out most of the Bush tax cuts, which would have that effect. (The McCain campaign has backed off a previous charge that Obama would boost taxes at the $31,000 level, labeled false by FactCheck.org.)
The ad is selective in saying that Obama would raise taxes on seniors and "your family," omitting that he would target only families, Social Security recipients and those with capital gains earning more than $250,000 a year. And it is misleading in charging that Obama wants to raise taxes on small businesses, offering the lame explanation that many affluent taxpayers who would be affected by the income tax increase also happen to own small businesses. The commercial also leaves out Obama's proposal for a middle-class tax cut.
But more important than the mathematical details is the portrait the senator from Arizona is trying to paint of his opponent as an untested leader whose domestic policies are obscured by the media spotlight.
-- Howard Kurtz
Video of this ad can be found at www.washingtonpost.com/politics.
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August 9, 2008 Saturday
Met 2 Edition
No Vacation From McCain's Attacks;
GOP Campaign Launches Three Ads as Obama Heads for a Week in Hawaii
BYLINE: Jonathan Weisman and Michael D. Shear; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A06
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With Barack Obama stepping off the playing field for a week-long Hawaiian vacation, John McCain's campaign released three new attack ads yesterday, signaling that the senator from Arizona would use the void to continue pummeling the character of his rival for the White House.
Obama's trip to Hawaii, where he spent much of his youth, comes after a week in which his Republican opponent dominated the news with his negative assault. Obama aides said the senator from Illinois is maintaining his lead in polls and will not be goaded into responding with character attacks of his own.
But the assaults on him continued yesterday, with new television ads and a radio spot portraying Obama as a lightweight celebrity intent on raising taxes across the board.
"Life in the spotlight must be grand," a female announcer declares to paparazzi-like images of Obama and adoring chants in the background. "But for the rest of us, times are tough."
That advertisement and a Spanish-language ad and radio spot claim Obama voted to raise taxes on families earning just $42,000, a claim based on his vote for a nonbinding, Democratic budget resolution that allows all of President Bush's tax cuts to expire in 2011, something Obama has promised he would not let happen.
Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan called the ad "a lie" and "part of the old, tired politics of a party in Washington that has run out of ideas and run out of steam."
But McCain aides showed little concern for such niceties. "Like it would have crossed our minds to let up on the guy just because he's on vacation?" asked Charles R. Black Jr., one of McCain's top advisers, as McCain flew from Iowa to Arkansas yesterday.
Many Democrats are increasingly worried that trying to debunk the McCain attacks will not be enough, particularly with the candidate on vacation. The Republican National Committee mocked Obama with "Barack Obama's Hawaii Travel Guide," noting the elite prep school he attended on scholarship and highlighting a Chevron station selling gasoline for $4.78 a gallon.
Obama did counter by airing a radio advertisement in Ohio taking McCain to task over the fact that his campaign manager lobbied on behalf of a German freight-shipping company, DHL, that is laying off over 8,000 Ohioans and moving its operations to Kentucky.
But an issue-based counterattack to McCain's character assault is not enough, worried Democrats say.
"It literally is the same old Democratic, consultant-driven politics," said Matt Stoller, a Democratic political consultant and blogger. "It's the same attempt not to tell a story about the country and the other guy, but to prove you're right, like an academic debating seminar."
The McCain campaign challenged Obama's ad in a conference call with Wilmington, Ohio, resident Mary Houghtaling, who in July tearfully challenged McCain to help with the job losses, then yesterday praised the Republican while castigating Obama and calling for his campaign to take the radio ad off the air. The hospice founder, whose husband is a pilot for DHL facing a layoff, joined in the attack, saying that "Obama's going to be in Hawaii, swimming."
With Obama off the stage, the Democratic National Committee next week will try to take up the slack, delivering birthday cakes on the Aug. 14 anniversary of Social Security to McCain and Republican state headquarters and hitting McCain's support for carving out private investment accounts from fixed Social Security benefits. On Tuesday, the DNC plans to hold what it calls a national day of action to paint McCain as a captive of Exxon Mobil.
For all the media attention on McCain's ads, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe argued that the most important event of the campaign this week was McCain's trip to Ohio amid coverage of his and lobbyist-turned-campaign manager Rick Davis's role in helping DHL take over U.S.-based Airborne Express, and the subsequent loss of Ohio jobs.
"John McCain can now become an emblem for what's wrong with Washington," Plouffe said, noting that McCain cannot win the White House without Ohio. "By November 4 in the Cincinnati and Dayton media markets, this will be something known by every voter."
During Obama's vacation week, his campaign will be focused on organizing in the 18 states his campaign has identified as battlegrounds, registering voters and focusing on local media.
"We have a game plan and a strategy, and we're going to continue to execute it. We're not going to be terribly worried about people playing armchair quarterback," Plouffe said. "By November 4, there are character dimensions to John McCain that are going to be clear."
McCain starts his week in Pennsylvania, where he will stump across the state with its former governor and possible vice presidential choice Tom Ridge. On Tuesday, he heads to New Jersey. McCain's campaign confirmed that the senator would will probably take his own vacation in the week before the Democratic National Convention. The senator plans to retreat to his home in Sedona, Ariz., where he owns a cabin and several other houses along a river, spending several days there before returning to the campaign trail during the Democratic convention in late August.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), still trying to squelch concerns about disunity among Democrats, campaigned for Obama yesterday in Henderson, Nev., and encouraged her supporters to fall in line.
"Anyone who voted for me or caucused for me has so much more in common with Senator Obama than with Senator McCain," she said. "Remember who we were fighting for in my campaign."
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The Washington Post
August 9, 2008 Saturday
Suburban Edition
How to Take Away The Religion Card;
How to Take Away The Religion Card
SECTION: METRO; Pg. B07
LENGTH: 363 words
Below is an excerpt from "On Faith," an Internet feature sponsored by The Washington Post and Newsweek. Each week, more than 50 figures from the world of faith engage in a conversation about an aspect of religion. This week's includes a posting by Jacques Berlinerblau.
I am vacationing off the coast of Sicily where Internet access is rather spotty (and where no sane person spends much time online anyway). But once I experienced John McCain's "The One" attack ad, I immediately put down my octopus-hunting harpoon and started taking notes.
By the time Charlton Heston began doing his Moses shtick, I realized I was in the presence of one of the biggest Faith and Values stories of the campaign. So please permit me a few reflections as I sip my Malvasia (BTW: How's the weather in D.C.?):
The Strategy: A certain professional football coach -- whose name I refuse to pronounce -- has fashioned a storied, if not controversial, career out of doing the following: making opposing quarterbacks discover that the things they once felt comfortable doing they can no longer do without incurring tremendous risk.
A similar set of tactics, I think, is at play here. Sen. Barack Obama, as some of you may have noticed, absolutely owns the religious card. He effortlessly delivers soaring monologues filled with scriptural allusions. Rendered in churchly cadences, his rhetoric mongers hope and electoral good will far and wide.
The McCain people, I surmise, would like to put a stop to that. With this commercial they try to condition voters (and the media?) to roll their eyes every time Obama "goes there." Thanks to "The One," an image of a goofy Obama/Charlton/Moses casting a spell over the sea and swarms of liberal dupes will pop into the heads of Obama's auditors when his rhetoric gets too highfalutin.
The next time he enthuses about faith on the campaign trail, he will be looking out of the corner of his eye.
-- Jacques Berlinerblau, author of "Thumpin' It: The Use and Abuse of the Bible in Today's Presidential Politics."
To read the complete posting and see more "On Faith" commentary, hosted by Jon Meacham and Sally Quinn, go to http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith.
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The Trail
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'STRAW' DONORS?
2 Groups Seek Probe Of McCain Contributions
MoveOn.org and an arm of the independent political group Public Campaign Action Fund want the Justice Department to investigate whether bundlers for John McCain's presidential campaign are using "straw" donations -- those made in the name of someone else to evade contribution limits.
The left-leaning online advocacy group, which has endorsed Barack Obama, is planning a petition drive to put pressure on Justice to look into two incidents involving McCain donors who, despite appearing to be of modest means, wrote large checks to his campaign and to the Republican National Committee.
"The Justice Department must thoroughly investigate John McCain and the Republican National Committee's pattern of potentially illegal donations," says an e-mail that MoveOn.org is sending backers.
McCain's campaign on Thursday returned nearly $50,000 raised by Florida businessman Harry Sargeant III after questions arose about the money he and his colleagues collected from California donors who held jobs that seemed inconsistent with such large political gifts. A second instance involved an office manager at the Hess oil company who, with her husband, an Amtrak track foreman, has given more than $60,000 to McCain and the RNC this year. She has said she and her husband gave their own money.
McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers said the money raised by Sargeant was returned out of an abundance of caution.
David Donnelly of the group Campaign Money Watch said he thought the McCain campaign's decision to return some of the money raised by Sargeant and his colleagues was "a good first step."
-- Matthew Mosk
CONCERNS APPARENTLY SET ASIDE
Cheney to Address Republican Convention
Vice President Cheney will speak at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul on the same day as President Bush, officials said Friday.
"The vice president looks forward to participating in the Republican National Convention and continuing to work for the election of Senator McCain and other Republican candidates in the coming months," Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said.
The announcement suggests the controversial vice president's enduring popularity within the Republican base overcame concerns from some GOP insiders that his appearance would pose a political complication for John McCain, who has sought to distance himself from the current White House.
Democrats have sought to tie McCain to the unpopular president, labeling him "McSame" and running commercials that show McCain praising Bush. Earlier this week, Democrats also unveiled a Web site called "The Next Cheney," comparing possible McCain running mates to the current vice president.
-- Dan Eggen
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Choosing the Next President
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Only a few short months to go until Election Day, and I'm still waiting for a sustained and meaningful dialogue between the candidates on issues such as energy policy, global warming, health care, Iraq and education ["Obama Hits Back, Too Softly for Some," front page, Aug. 7].
Instead, we get grown men taking potshots at each other, TV commercials that distort the facts, and endless media coverage on the resulting drama.
We should be getting more, given that both candidates actually work for us -- and they want us to give them an even better job in November. What to do? Get involved. Contact the campaigns and insist they inform rather than attempt to influence our decisions. Contact the media and demand fewer sound bites and more substantive coverage.
Believe it or not, we the people are at the helm of this election, but we need to be active before November if we want a process that serves our interests rather than those of the candidates.
J.P. LEOUS
Washington
·
William Freeman [letters, Aug. 8] is concerned that John McCain isn't intelligent and curious enough to be our president because of his low class ranking at the Naval Academy and his inexperience using a computer. He needn't worry.
After graduating from the Naval Academy, Mr. McCain successfully completed military flight school. He also showed courage by flying combat missions off an aircraft carrier into the dangerous skies over Hanoi, the grit and determination to survive torturous conditions as a prisoner of war for more than five years, the character to refuse an offer of early release that would have given him preferential treatment over some of his longer-held comrades, and the ability to serve in the Senate since 1986.
I don't care if he ever turns on a computer.
JOHN LAMBERT
Vienna
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USA TODAY
August 8, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
Flip-flops more fashionable this election;
Many due to changes in circumstances
BYLINE: Jill Lawrence
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 985 words
WASHINGTON -- Models of consistency they are not. But because of who they are and the times they are running in, political analysts say, presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain are not likely to be felled by charges of flip-flopping.
Both have shifted and reversed on issues, strategy and tactics. They've tacked right, left and center as political needs and voter concerns evolve.
"Obama's flip-flopping has moved him more toward the center" to appeal to moderates, says Jeffrey Berry, a political scientist at Tufts University in Massachusetts. "McCain moved to the right in the primaries to make himself more acceptable to conservatives."
In 2004, President Bush and other Republicans branded Democrat John Kerry a flip-flopper to raise doubts about his character. Kerry was dogged at campaign events by people dressed as Flipper, a TV dolphin, and didn't help matters by saying he voted for Iraq war money before voting against it.
The mood is different now. Polls show voters disenchanted with Bush, the Iraq war, gas prices and the economy. They have chosen presumptive nominees who say they'll work across the aisle to achieve energy independence and other big goals.
Obama and McCain are calling each other out on reversals -- Obama just this week said they were the price McCain paid for his party's nomination -- but so far, they aren't drawing blood.
David Damore, a political scientist at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, says flexible candidates prevailed partly in reaction to "Bush's hard-headedness and stubbornness. People don't care about ideological purity, they want problems solved. They want a president who can cross the divide and make deals" and won't be bound by what he said a year ago if facts change.
Many of the pair's flip-flops this year track with changing facts. Republican McCain decided recently that more U.S. troops should go to Afghanistan, a position Obama had pushed for a year. Democrat Obama acknowledged the increase in U.S. troops in Iraq, which he opposed and McCain championed, has helped reduce violence there.
'Cartwheels on energy'
Gas prices also have driven shifts. McCain, who once backed an offshore drilling ban, said in June it should be lifted. A few weeks later Obama said he could accept a little offshore drilling in a comprehensive energy bill.
Obama also decided that he was, after all, in favor of taking oil from the nation's emergency stockpile. McCain, meanwhile, decided he was not, after all, open to a tax on the "windfall profits" of oil companies.
"They both are doing cartwheels on energy," Damore says. "The energy environment is changing under their feet."
Obama's reversal on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve came just a few weeks after he said it should be saved for emergencies. McCain adapted just as quickly as the foreclosure crisis deepened.
In March, he said the government should not "bail out and reward" irresponsible borrowers. In April, he said "priority No. 1 is to keep well-meaning, deserving homeowners who are facing foreclosure in their homes."
McCain's economic views also are evolving. In January, he said the nation was better off than it was eight years ago. His new ad says, "We're worse off than we were four years ago."
Seizing the moment
Both candidates have appeared at times to tailor their positions to the political moment. McCain said during the primaries, for instance, that he backs repeal of Roe v. Wade and would extend Bush's tax cuts rather than let them expire automatically in 2010. Both stands differ from earlier ones.
Obama has moved rightward on some issues. In his 2004 Senate race, for instance, he said he would lift the trade embargo on Cuba. Last summer, he said he would keep it for leverage.
Top turnaround for Obama was his recent vote for a wiretapping bill that contained a provision he once pledged to filibuster: retroactive immunity to phone companies that may have violated people's privacy rights.
Obama also flipped in rejecting public financing for the general election. "He has completely reversed himself and gone back, not on his word to me, but the commitment he made to the American people," McCain said, casting it as a character issue.
Pollster Andrew Kohut, head of the Pew Research Center, says McCain may now have a similar problem because he is attacking Obama after saying he'd wage a respectful campaign. "Is he going against his principles by going negative?" Kohut says voters may wonder. "It represents a change in course."
Kohut predicts the public will forgive this pair their adjustments. Both men, he says, are seen as "having a core set of beliefs and a strong point of view."
Both candidates have inconsistencies
A look at some flip-flops by Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama:
McCain reversals
Taxes
McCain opposed President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, saying they were "too tilted to the wealthy." He now supports extending them because, he says, letting them expire would be a tax hike.
Abortion
McCain said in 1999 that he did not think Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion, should be overturned. He now says he does not support the ruling and that it should be overturned.
Drilling
McCain backed a federal ban on offshore drilling in his 2000 presidential campaign. In June, he said the ban should be lifted in order to increase domestic oil production.
Obama reversals
Campaign finance
Obama said he would accept limited public financing if his opponent did the same. But in June, saying he needed to stay competitive, he rejected the public money.
Wire-
tapping
Obama said he would filibuster an electronic surveillance bill if phone companies got retroactive immunity against privacy rights lawsuits. He voted for the bill with immunity, saying it had been improved.
Oil
Obama said last month the Strategic Petroleum Reserve should be reserved for "a genuine emergency." Now he says it should be tapped in order to reduce gas prices.
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August 8, 2008 Friday 3:36 PM EST
Sen. Barack Obama's Prepared Remarks Delivered in Elkhart, Ind.
BYLINE: CQ Transcriptswire, washingtonpost.com
LENGTH: 1879 words
HIGHLIGHT: OBAMA: We meet at a moment when this country is facing a set of challenges unlike any we've ever known. Right now, our brave men and women in uniform are fighting two different wars while terrorists plot their next attack. Our changing climate is putting our planet in peril and our security at risk. And our economy is in turmoil, with more and more of our families struggling with rising costs, falling incomes, and lost jobs.
OBAMA: We meet at a moment when this country is facing a set of challenges unlike any we've ever known. Right now, our brave men and women in uniform are fighting two different wars while terrorists plot their next attack. Our changing climate is putting our planet in peril and our security at risk. And our economy is in turmoil, with more and more of our families struggling with rising costs, falling incomes, and lost jobs.
So we know that this election could be the most important of our lifetime. We know that the choices we make in November and over the next few years will shape the next decade, if not the century. And central to each of these challenges is the question of what we will do about our addiction to foreign oil.
Without a doubt, this addiction is one of the most urgent threats we've ever faced -- from the gas prices that are wiping out your paychecks and straining businesses, to the jobs that are disappearing from this state; from the instability and terror bred in the Middle East, to the rising oceans, record drought, and spreading famine that could engulf our planet.
How, exactly, did we get to this point? Well, you won't hear me say this too often, but I couldn't agree more with the explanation that Senator McCain offered a few weeks ago. He said, "Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been thirty years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long-term about the future of the country." What Senator McCain neglected to mention was that during those thirty years, he was in Washington for twenty-six of them.
Now, yesterday, Senator McCain started running a TV ad saying that Washington is broken. No kidding. It only took Senator McCain those 26 years in Washington to figure that out. But here's the thing, Elkhart. I'm having a little trouble squaring that statement with Senator McCain's declaration a few months ago that we've made "great progress economically" over the past eight years. Or his boast that he's voted with President Bush over 90% of the time. Or his assertion that overall, the American people are better off now than they were when George W. Bush came into office.
You know from your own lives that we're not better off than we were eight years ago. Back then, you were paying about $1.50 for gas. Today, you're paying around $4 a gallon. Back then, you were paying $875 a year on electric bills. Today, you're paying more than $1,100. Back then, you were paying about $900 for heating oil to get you through the winter. This winter, you're likely to pay nearly $2,500.
This didn't happen by accident. It happened because for too long, we haven't had a real energy plan in this country. We've had an oil company plan. We've had a gas company plan. But we haven't had a plan that made sense for the American people.
So if Senator McCain wants to talk about why Washington is broken, that's a debate I'm happy to have. Because Senator McCain's energy plan reads like an early Christmas list for oil and gas lobbyists. And it's no wonder -- because many of his top advisers are former oil and gas lobbyists.
Instead of offering a plan with significant investments in alternative energy, he's offering a gas tax gimmick that will pad oil company profits and save you -- at most -- a quarter and a nickel a day over the course of an entire summer. That's why Washington is broken.
Instead of supporting my plan to use the windfall profits of oil companies to help you pay rising costs, he's offering $4 billion more in tax breaks to oil companies like Exxon that just made the largest quarterly profit in the history of the United States of America. That's why Washington is broken.
Instead of offering a comprehensive plan that will lower gas prices, the centerpiece of his entire energy plan is more drilling. It's a proposal that won't yield a drop of oil for at least seven years, but it's produced a gusher for Senator McCain. Because after he announced his drilling proposal to a room full of oil executives, the industry ponied up nearly a million dollars in contributions. That's the kind of special interest-driven politics that's stopped us from solving our energy crisis. And that's why Washington is broken.
So I know Senator McCain likes to call himself a maverick -- and the fact is, there are times when he's shown independence from his party in the past. But the price he paid for his party's nomination was to reverse himself on position after position, and now he embraces the failed Bush policies and politics that helped break Washington in the first place -- and that doesn't exactly meet my definition of a maverick.
By the way, while we're on the subject of Senator McCain contradicting himself, a few days ago someone asked me what they could do to help America save energy. I suggested that we could get better gas mileage in our cars and save oil in the process just by keeping our tires inflated, and experts agreed. But Senator McCain and his party mocked the idea, and they even sent out tire gauges. Well, get this -- last night, after all that, Senator McCain actually said that he agreed that keeping our tires inflated was a good idea. We just agreed to a series of debates in the fall, but the most interesting one that's going on these days is the debate between John McCain and John McCain
But understand, this isn't just about tire gauges and it isn't just about a single TV ad -- no matter how misleading it is. It's about everyone in this room. It's about your lives and your family's future. Because you know that what we've been doing for the past eight years hasn't worked -- and that we can't afford another four years of the failed policies that we've had under George W. Bush.
And if you needed one more example of what's wrong with our energy policies or the Bush policies in general, there's a new report out saying that Iraq has hit a windfall because of high oil prices. They have a $79 billion budget surplus at a time when were spending $10 billion a month to defend and rebuild that country. Their money is not being invested in services for suffering Iraqis or reconstruction. While some of their money is sitting in American banks, American money is being spent over there. It's time for Iraqis to take responsibility for rebuilding their own country, and it's time for us to address own concerns here at home.
That's why earlier this week I laid out a plan to help end the age of oil in our time. Here's how we'll do it. In the short-term, as we transition to renewable energy, we can and should increase our domestic production of oil and natural gas. Right now, oil companies have access to 68 million acres where they aren't drilling. So we should start by giving them a choice: use the land you have, or give up your leases to someone who will.
But the truth is, this won't seriously reduce our energy dependence in the long-term. We simply cannot pretend, as Senator McCain does, that we can drill our way out of this problem. Breaking our oil addiction will take nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy. It will take an all-hands-on-deck effort from America -- effort from our scientists and entrepreneurs; from businesses and from every American citizen.
We all know that this is the great challenge of our time. But it's also a great opportunity because if we can seize this moment, we can open the door to a new economy for the 21st century that will bring new energy, new jobs, and new hope to families in places like Elkhart.
That's why I voted for an energy bill in the Senate that was far from perfect, and that included tax giveaways to oil companies that I fought to eliminate, but that also represented the single largest investment in renewable energy in history. And that's why if I am President, I will put the full resources of the federal government and the full energy of the private sector behind a single, overarching goal -- in ten years, we will eliminate the need for oil from the entire Middle East and Venezuela. To do this, we'll invest $150 billion over the next decade and leverage billions more in private capital to harness American energy and create five million new American jobs -- jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced, good union jobs that lift up our families and communities.
There are three major steps I'll take to achieve this goal. First, we'll commit ourselves to getting one million 150 mile-per- gallon plug-in hybrid cars on our roads within six years. And we'll make sure that the cars of tomorrow are built not just in Japan or China, but right here in the United States of America. Second, we'll double the amount of our energy that comes from renewable sources by the end of my first term. That means investing in renewables like wind and solar power, and we'll also invest in the next generation biofuels. Third, I will call on businesses, government, and the American people to meet the goal of reducing our demand for electricity 15% by the end of the next decade. This is by far the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to reduce our energy consumption -- and it will save us $130 billion on our energy bills.
In just ten years, these three steps will produce enough renewable energy to replace all the oil we import from the Middle East and Venezuela. I won't pretend these goals aren't ambitious. They are. I won't pretend we can achieve them without cost, or without sacrifice, or without the contribution of almost every American citizen. We can't.
But I will say that these goals are possible. And I will say that achieving them is absolutely necessary if we want to keep America safe and prosperous in the 21st century. It's necessary if we want our families to thrive again -- to have good jobs with good wages that let them get ahead again.
So in this election, we face a choice. We can keep paying more and more at the pump, and sending our hard-earned dollars to oil company executives and Middle Eastern dictators. We can watch helplessly as the price of gas rises and falls because of some foreign crisis we have no control over, and uncover every single barrel of oil buried beneath this country only to realize that we don't have enough for a few years, let alone a century.
Or we can choose another future. In just a few years, we can watch cars that run on plug-in batteries come off our assembly lines. We can see shuttered factories open their doors to manufacturers that sell wind turbines and solar panels that will power our homes and our businesses. We can watch as millions of new jobs with good pay and good benefits are created for American workers, and we can take pride as the technologies, and discoveries, and industries of the future flourish in the United States of America. We can lead the world, secure our nation, and leave our children a planet that is safer and cleaner and healthier than the one we inherited.
This is the choice we face in the months ahead. This is the challenge we must meet. This is the opportunity we must seize -- and this may be our last chance to seize it. So I ask you to join me in November -- and in the years to come -- to ensure that we not only control our own energy, but that we bring about a new and better future for our hardworking families and for this country that we love. Thank you.
END
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Washingtonpost.com
August 8, 2008 Friday 12:00 PM EST
Books: U.S. Political Stupidity;
Authors Examine Idiocy in America's Elected, Electorate
BYLINE: Elvin Lim and Rick Shenkman, Author, "The Anti-Intellectual Presidency"; Author, "Just How Stupid Are We?", washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 8231 words
HIGHLIGHT: Authors Elvin Lim ("The Anti-Intellectual Presidency") and Rick Shenkman ("Just How Stupid Are We?")Â were online Friday, Aug. 8 at noon ET to debate which group in the U.S. has been more ignorant of late -- the government's politicians and bureaucrats, or the people who put them into office.
Authors Elvin Lim ("The Anti-Intellectual Presidency") and Rick Shenkman ("Just How Stupid Are We?") were online Friday, Aug. 8 at noon ET to debate which group in the U.S. has been more ignorant of late -- the government's politicians and bureaucrats, or the people who put them into office.
The transcript follows.
Lim is an assistant professor of government at Wesleyan University. He is a two-time winner of the Sara Norton thesis prize at the University of Oxford, and also has been honored by the Presidency Research Group of the American Political Science Association.
Shenkman, an associate professor of history at George Mason University, is the editor and founder of the school's History News Network, a Web site that features articles by historians on current events. He's a fellow of the Society of American Historians. "Just How Stupid Are We?" is his sixth book. Previously, Shenkman was an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter and the former managing editor of KIRO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Seattle.
____________________
Rockville, Md.: This is amusing in a way. Most of what I see is the habit of people saying that anyone who does not agree with them either are stupid or have sold out. It also is possible that some other person really is smarter. Eisenhower used to tell his staff that if they gave him a few minutes with the press, he would confuse them enough. So who is really stupid? And why?
Elvin Lim: Yes, I am in absolute agreement that "stupid" is all too frequently thrown out when some people simply cannot or refuse to see the other side of an argument. Intelligent people can genuinely disagree, but what is problematic is when anti-intellectual people refuse to be open minded about other points of view and intellectual perspectives (at the very least to consider them so that they can reject them). A stupid person cannot consider different competing arguments. Most people aren't stupid. But some people refuse to consider competing arguments. Now that is anti-intellectual.
That is why I prefer "anti-intellectual" as a descriptor of a phenomenon that I think we can all agree is malign. We can typically see anti-intellectualism being deployed when someone consciously over-simplifies an argument, indeed derides the complexities within it, in order to quickly dismiss other points of view and to seduce a listener to his/her side.
Rick Shenkman: I don't actually argue that the American people are stupid. That would be as stupid as saying the American people are smart, which you hear all the time from politicians. I do argue that gross ignorance has reached such an alarming proportion that it is akin to a 10-alarm fire. And a 10-alarm fire needs red-hot words like stupid to get attention. Had I used a more academic word I suspect fewer people would have heard my message.
One statistic, if you will. On the eve of the Iraq War some 60 percent of Americans believed that Saddam was behind Sept. 11 despite an absence of evidence. And a year later the number remained 50 percent even though by then the 9/11 Commission had reported that Saddam had no connection to Sept. 11.
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Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: Hmm. And just who will read books written about how stupid we are? The French? In fairness to me, I started the book last night by the guy who read the Oxford English Dictionary in a year and made notes on it. This would be a good place to insert one of those words. One concerning some aspect of human cluelessness, perhaps. Or better yet, a word describing human activity devoted to pointlessness! Merci.
Elvin Lim: Actually, many people are interested in the ignorance and anti-intellectualism of many Americans and presidents.
Look at our founding fathers: philosophers, inventors, scientists. Look at the federalist papers, look at the declaration of independence. Those were serious documents written by men who seriously pondered on their meaning.
If we care about democracy, we must care about how we cast our vote. Our vote is meaningless if it is cast in ignorance or for reasons distantly related to the political issues and policies at hand.
Rick Shenkman: Who reads books about how stupid we are? I was asked this by an academic before the book came out. The answer of course is that mainly well-informed people are likely to read this book. The masses of incurious voters won't.
Does that mean the rest of us should ignore the gross ignorance of the majority?
We need to recognize we have a problem. Well-informed voters have to get over the delusion that the masses are making decisions on the same basis that they are.
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Laurel, Md.: I know this is something most people don't want to put down to "stupidity," but is there evidence that support for the Iraq invasion (in 2003) was in some way correlated with attitudes toward things like Biblical prophesy and the Second Coming? In the religion section of my local used book store, you can find a half-century of titles claiming to predict the course of current events in the Middle East based on scripture.
Rick Shenkman: I haven't seen any convincing data correlating religious beliefs with attitudes toward the Iraq War.
What is clear is that voters who watched only Fox News were more likely to believe that there was a connection between Saddam and Sept. 11 even though there wasn't one. And we know that Fox viewers are more likely to attend church than Americans generally.
Draw your own conclusions. But this is treacherous territory. It is specious to believe that somebody who's religious is necessarily politically ignorant.
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Ellicott City, Md.: I think in business, it's true that stupid people's money is just as good as smart people's money, and it's a lot easier to get. Isn't the same thing true with votes?
Rick Shenkman: Politicians assume American stupidity. So do the media. If voters were smart would we have the dumb political ads we see on TV? Would we be talking about Obama's fist bump, Hillary's knocking back a drink in a bar, or Obama's bowling score?
We talk about these dumb things because everybody can have an opinion about them whether they know anything about politics or not.
The Bush administration obviously counted on people being grossly ignorant in the run up to the Iraq War. That's why they dropped hints that Saddam was somehow behind Sept. 11.
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Baltimore: Okay, I am not going to say this is "stupid" behavior, but I have been totally baffled by those diehard Hillary Clinton supporters saying that they would vote for John McCain before Obama. Huh? They would vote for a guy who would undo Roe v. Wade and appoint more conservatives to the Supreme Court while pouring more money into Iraq? It's patently absurd, and says to me that these are folks who were voting for Mrs. Clinton solely because of her gender. Who cares about policy?
Rick Shenkman: Voters are not computers. They are emotional. That's part of politics. I agree that Hillary supporters who vote for McCain out of spite are being foolish. Obama's challenge is to win them over. If he's the charismatic politician his supporters claim, he should be able to do so.
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Laurel, Md.: Is the election cycle (two, four or six years) really conducive to resolving long-term issues like developing energy sources or re-structuring Social Security? Or is the next election about as far as any politician or voter can see into the future?
Elvin Lim: Unfortunately, you are correct to note that the cost of democracy and elections is that it makes political actors short-sighted.
That is why the founders wanted some offices to have longer terms (senators), and even some (court justices) to have tenure in office. This electoral mechanism insulates some of our political actors from acting according to the winds and arrows of outrageous fortune (public opinion).
As things stand however, some in our culture denigrates the Court for this very reason. We need to remind Americans that we are a republic, not just a democracy. We should care about considered judgment as least as much as we care for popularity contests. A class or two in constitutional law and history might help restore the founding vision.
Rick Shenkman: At this point our democratic impulses have become so robust that it is impossible to consider going back to a time when this was, strictly speaking, a republic. The democratic forces unleashed by the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence cannot be squeezed back. We have to admit that this is very much a democracy now and deal with the consequences of an electorate that has much more control over things than ever before. Primaries, initiatives, polls -- all these democratic instruments are here to stay.
So what we have to do is develop smarter voters.
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Lyme, Conn.: Have you researched the flow of information? I have found it fascinating observing the descriptions as to what information reaches what level. I fear a decision of one level not to pass along information -- or to "sugarcoat" it when passing it along to higher levels -- has been the root of many bad decisions at higher levels.
Rick Shenkman: The larger problem we face is that the masses of voters want sugarcoated answers. The politician who tells people what they should hear usually loses. We say we want the truth. We prefer myths.
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Claverack, N.Y.: Isn't this just the great American meme that simple folk who use "common sense" are more in touch with the world than people with "their nose in a book"? This is ubiquitous -- for example, in the hysterical "debate" over vaccinations. There is not and never has been any scientific evidence they cause autism, yet millions are more willing to believe anecdotal evidence they cribbed from the Internet than the advice of their own doctors, because "what do doctors know"?
Rick Shenkman: The public is hardly aware of the scientific method. As Bergan Evans wrote in an expose of myths half a century ago, ideas of the stone age stand side by side with modern scientific advances.
My particular concern has been that voters are so unaware of basic civics that they are easily misled. Only two out of five know we have three branches of government and can name them. What kind of democracy can you have in such an environment of gross ignorance?
And as I argue in my book, ignorant voters are sitting ducks for wily politicians.
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Bennett Point, Md.: Just by listening to C-SPAN phone-in callers it is easy to understand that a large percentage of Americans are ignorant, stupid and paranoid. Considering that the America of George Washington's time was a Republic with limited voting privileges, should America limit the franchise to people who show some ability to intelligently vote and maybe even know that there are three branches of government, or who can come up with the names of their two senators?
Elvin Lim: A provocative proposal that probably won't pass, as I'm sure you know.
Yet there is hope. I don't think we need to go back to a world of philosopher kings. People can be inspired to acquire political information. Perhaps YouTube and the blogs are reviving interest in politics. I think people can be convinced that they are part of a greater whole, that they have a duty to exercise their vote meaningfully and to participate in a great democracy. Once they care, they will read, think, and deliberate.
Rick Shenkman: I don't believe the problem is convincing people to take political responsibilities more seriously. In a consumer's republic they are far more likely to worry about the price of gas than to spend five minutes reading about the legislation Congress is considering to address the gas crisis. While I want civics to be taught in school and want Congress to pass a law insisting that all schools of higher learning mandate current events quizzes for incoming freshmen, I believe systemic reforms are needed. The primary one is to revitalize mass institutions to help distracted voters make better informed decisions. I don't want to bring back party bosses or party leaders, but I do think that both parties and unions should be strengthened to help guide voters' choices. People who don't read the newspaper daily -- and most people don't --need cues from people who do. Otherwise they'll base their decisions on the superficial: How a candidate sounds on TV or how pretty/handsome their spouse is.
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Reston, Va.: Of the two (elected officials or a disquietingly large slice of the electorate) the "prize" for the greatest stupidity clearly belongs to the electorate. The latter not only vote for the former, but keep them in office. For example Bush won re-election in 2004 even after four horrific years. The former play off the ignorance, bigotry and religiosity of the latter through the use of "wedge issues" that have little (or even negative) bearing on the economy, national security, crime rates, national health care, etc. Although moral corruption and stupidity are not mutually exclusive, the former dominates many of the elected officials (and perhaps their appointees) while stupidity and ignorance "inform" the electorate.
Elvin Lim: I think this position exonerates our leaders. Leaders should know better, really. Blaming the people is like blaming the victims in this case.
Remember, people are being quite rational when they choose not to follow politics or read American history -- they have their lives to lead. In voting, they delegate the power of self-government to our leaders.
Yet our leaders happy accept the power, but deny the responsibility to then go ahead to do what we have chosen not to do in delegating our power. They exploit our political ignorance, and use it to pander to us and seduce us to get what they want passed in legislation. As I say in my book on page 107, this is "a cheap ride on a free ride" (resulting from the paradox of voting).
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St. Simons Island, Ga.: While in law school, I worked as a part-time staffer for a committee in the state legislature. On my first day, the staff director made the point that the members are a cross-section of the population -- some smart, some dumb and most in the middle -- and that I shouldn't to expect more from them than I would expect of the population generally. It was good advice then (in 1976) and still is today.
Elvin Lim: Yes, intelligence is distributed along a normal curve.
But ignorance does not have to be so. Ignorance is caused by indifference, unintelligence is (to some extent) an act of God.
This distinction is key. We can change indifference by motivating people (and their leaders). We don't have to accept the current condition of political ignorance and anti-intellectualism as intractable, because this is no act of God.
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Seattle: I'd add that your dichotomy isn't that useful because there is another dimension: The media, collectively. Through the years, they developed and/or encouraged the belief that "lowest common denominator" was king and applied it to everything, including news coverage. I don't think that Americans are more stupid than previously, it's just that the stupid Americans are more prominent and important than before, and politics is being covered with them in mind.
Elvin Lim: Indeed, the media's job is to make money. And to the largest market segment out there it must sell.
That is why I insist in my book that we need to expect better of presidents, who are fueling and exploiting our ignorance and refusal to contemplate competing visions of government. Presidents are supposed to be leaders, but it is tragic and dangerous that they too, are now pandering to the lowest common denominator. Only the president can (attempt to) break the power of the media to numb us sound bites and entertainment. But in recent decades, presidents have assiduously shunned this responsibility.
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Anchorage, Alaska: Remember the old aphorism: Never teach a pig to sing -- it just wastes your time and it annoys the pigs. (Don't bother trying to enlighten or inform those completely unwilling to be educated.) Thanks.
Rick Shenkman: Give up?
If we could educate voters back in the 1940s when most voters hadn't gone past the eighth grade, we can educate voters today, most of whom have had some college. But we have to get past the idea that civics is absorbed from the atmosphere through osmosis. It has to be taught. And furthermore, voters need to be taught which candidates are better for them. This is something only mass organizations are likely to be able to accomplish. What we need then, to boil down my argument, is for more people to be involved in mass groups like labor unions and parties. Unfortunately, the trend over the last half century has been in the opposite direction.
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Baltimore: Many instances of governmental incompetence by the Republican administration also have been interpreted as malice. If you believe that government ought not have a role in people's lives, the best way to prove that belief is to have government screw things up. Generous-hearted observers prefer to think that nobody is that heartless, but when you look at things like Katrina, can you honestly say they're that stupid?
Rick Shenkman: Republicans clearly have tried to discredit government. This creates a paradox. Putting them in charge requires them to do that which they believe is counterproductive. They don't want an efficient government, they want less government.
But do I think that the Bush administration deliberately messed up its response to Katrina? No. But putting hacks in positions of authority left the administration unprepared when a real calamity occurred.
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San Jose, Calif.: Do stupid people watch "The Daily Show"? Do smart, critical-analysis-using news hawks watch "The O'Reilly Factor"? Can the demographics of what I watch, read and purchase tell you whether I'm stupid and ignorant or indolent and indifferent? Folks with these attributes are probably well represented in Congress. What does that say about public service characters - supposedly The Best and The Brightest? Thanks.
Rick Shenkman: I cite research in my book indicating that the Stewart show's audience is more well-informed than the ordinary voter. But so is Rush's audience! And so is O'Reilly's!
What that suggests is that the ordinary voter's ignorance is so great as to be almost unfathomable. (See chapter two in my book for the stats.)
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Washington: So, if the political elites are anti-intellectual and the masses seem to feed into this, are we assuming then that this is a top-down problem, or do politicians feed off of our ignorance in a bottom-up dilemma?
Elvin Lim: The causal connection must run both ways, of course.
So the question is, who should shoulder more of the blame.
Posed as such, I think it should be clearer why I think presidents are to be blamed. Okay, let's assume that the American people don't know better on many issues of public policy. Presidents (or presidential candidates) don't try to educate them these days. Instead, they exploit this ignorance -- this tabula rasa (blank slate) -- and write their own agendas and preferences onto it. Deliberation is chucked, debate is elided. Yes it's probably ruthlessly efficient, but that is now how a republic should consider and deliver on the great issues that confront us today.
Rick Shenkman: I am convinced that we need to address the question of the public's responsibility for our dumb politics. It's too easy to blame Bush and Cheney et al. That leaves the rest of us off the hook.
Enough with complaining about Bush. It's time to take a cold long hard look in the mirror.
Once we admit the masses do not measure up to the responsibilities they have assumed in our democratic system we will begin to solve the problem. Like alcoholics though we first have to admit we have a problem. Natural solutions will emerge once we accept reality.
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Boston: My pet theory is that the 24-hour news cycle has killed public discourse, especially intellectual public discourse. All that emphasis on "New! Breaking!" has made it very difficult to find out what happened next. (And reduced accepted public appetite for follow-up?) Am I wrong? Why or why not?
Elvin Lim: Yes, the media as gateway to information has contributed to the malaise of the public mind.
The media causes us to be obsessed with the new, and not with enduring long term questions. The media decides what is news too, by selecting for drama, sensation, and scandal. The media has also killed discourse because of the need to keep things short and sweet -- hence the six-second sound bites.
Some will say that the media is merely responding to the market of listeners out there. Probably. But let it be said that there are several genres of media. There is C-SPAN, there is the History Channel, there is (perhaps more controversially) NPR. And there is even talk radio, which is a fiery genre, but quite a lot of substance transpires there these days.
Blaming the media as a monolithic drain on the American brain is counterproductive. The key is for leaders and interested citizens to find ways to use the media in new and innovative ways to educate the public to inspire genuine and productive debate.
Rick Shenkman: I agree that blaming the media is too easy.
What we have to do is ask why we focus so heavily on the media? Isn't it because we are all populists now and don't want to shift our focus to the masses?
As long as we celebrate the smarts of the masses we will not confront the reality of their gross ignorance. Harsh truth -- but an important one to face.
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Washington: What is your perspective then on the irony of how the gross ignorance that plagues the American public couples with their infatuation for governmental transparency?
Elvin Lim: The cynical answer is that people want to know that government is doing its job honestly, so that they can then be convinced in their desire to be left alone to go about their own business knowing that someone else is doing their job.
Perhaps, on to a less cynical suggestion for change, civic leaders can exploit the fact that people care about transparency to remind them that really, only the people can hold our leaders (and indeed the media) accountable. We should take government of and by the people as a doctrine more seriously.
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Washington: I love the general premise of this discussion. The first lesson I always tell interns, who usually are required by their colleges to keep a journal of what they learn, is "don't be stupid." After receiving the usual blank stare, I respond "much of what you see during your internship where something goes wrong happens because someone did something stupid." You would think after a long history of leaders getting drunk and running into pools with their secretaries and taking money from FBI agents dressed as Arabs that people would learn not to be stupid, but I continue to be amazed at how stupid people can get.
Elvin Lim: I think politicians who get caught committing a crime are more hubristic than stupid. They are drunk on power and think they can get away with anything. So I this is a problem of power, not ignorance.
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News Flash: Wow, a couple of professors suggesting that voters would be better informed if they belonged to unions! Shocking!
Rick Shenkman: Well, I'm happy to hear your suggestions for creating a more informed public? At least union members usually know which politicians favor measures that protect their interests -- though not always of course! Union hostility to NAFTA, for instance, is undoubtedly misguided. It's an example of union leaders misleading their members. Like pols labor leaders prefer simple answers. Labor leaders who blame NAFTA for the woes of the working man are giving in to this simplistic approach.
But I'd rather have working people taking heir cues from labor leaders than from dumb 30 second commercials -- as is currently the case.
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Rolla, Mo.: Is this the normal course in any hegemony? We don't care to inform ourselves because we think we don't have to. Were average Romans informed as to what was going on in far flung parts of the Empire? Were the British that well-informed 100 years ago?
Rick Shenkman: Because American voters today have far more power than voters in past eras the parallels are meaningless. Just consider the importance of polls today. Politicians live in fear of the polls. So what voters think means a lot more today than it did a century ago.
We can't roll back the democratic reforms of the last 100 years, so what we have to do is reform the system so we get smarter voters.
How many Iraq's can a nation stand? Even a rich and powerful nation that adopts foolish policies over and over again will eventually pay a hefty price--as will those in the rest of the world. A giant that stumbles around the world invading countries that didn't attack us will kill a lot of innocent people.
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The answer of course is that mainly well-informed people are likely to read this book. The masses of incurious voters won't.: Wow. So only the intelligent people or those who are curious will read your book and anyone who doesn't is just plain stupid? The book sounds fairly interesting, but if you are this obnoxious I'll pass. Oh, and I have a Ph.D. from Georgetown, so excuse me for rejecting your accusing me of being "stupid" for passing on your rubbish.
Rick Shenkman: I didn't argue that people who don't read my book are stupid. I did argue that people who are likely to already are fairly well-informed. What I try to do in the book is provide a history of the changes that have taken place in society over the last half century that led to our present condition.
No one who has read the book has come away saying it's obnoxious, even when they have disagreed with my approach. (At least, I haven't seen anyone say that in print or on the blogs.)
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Boston: In the past two weeks two books have been published that each contained revelations that should have occupied the national discourse for days. Jane Mayer wrote about a country that basically has turned its back on everything it previously had believed. Ron Suskind wrote about an administration that committed crimes unlike any this nation had faced before. Neither of these reports has received much (or sustained) coverage. Instead we worry about guessing the vice presidential selections, or discuss Paris Hilton's video. Is it because we as a country are to embarrassed to look at ourselves and what we have become?
Elvin Lim: I agree with you that we are in something of a national crisis but many of us do not see it.
Let me address Ron Suskind's book. I think the critical question is, why, when it was happening, didn't we see it? I think because the president was spouting platitudes, chest thumping sound bite that always get the hairs on our backs standing. It was not reason, evidence, or argument that seduced us back then, it was the eloquence of vacuous speech designed to inspire, not to educate.
If we had demanded more evidence, more reasons, more justification back then, we (and indeed the media) would have been less susceptible to presidential seduction.
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Wokingham, U.K.: "Christ or the Red Fog?" was the title, as I remember, of Father Coughlin's first broadcast sermon around 1920 -- and it seems to me as if the American people have been answering that question ever since, very emphatically. The Red Fog of Marxism is rejected and religion is embraced, to a degree and in a form that brooks no argument.
To some extent I feel that we in Europe owe the American masses a debt of thanks for refusing to listen to a dangerous and mistaken revolutionary creed that seduced so many of us. But I also see a great danger in the way the intellectual classes in America are being punished and despised because they, like their counterparts in Europe, flirted with Marxism. We now have to deal with a superpower where many voters believe in angelic intervention, react to evolutionary science with horror and embrace exponents of Biblical prophecy, like the Rev. Hagee.
Elvin Lim: I am in agreement that many intellectuals were associated with the left through the '60s in America.
But let it be said that there are intellectuals on the Right as well, and they are the neo-conservatives, the architects of the Iraq war with their neo-Wilsonian vision of global democratization.
More important, intellectualism should not be dealt with by anti-intellectualism, but by more intellectualism. Let the marketplace of ideas weed out the most ridiculous, or at least the most indefensible ideas. Let arguments be adduced and publicly asserted so that via a process of rational disputation, public reason will win out.
The American republic was constituted literally by a set of ideas. It is ironic then, that some of those who aim to preserve this republic presume that the only way to do so is to exterminate other ideas (such as during the period of McCarthyism), rather than to argue for the plausibility of those on which this country was founded.
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Boston: Would you say that the root of this issue lies in "the media's" assumptions about what people want to see/hear/read? Or is it more about the way we want to see ourselves, and shifting ideas of what it means to be an average American, and what an average American should aspire to? Or something else altogether?
Elvin Lim: Because the media is a business, I have lower expectations of it than I do of presidents.
Because the people expect, and indeed cast their vote in order to be led, I have lower expectations of them than I do of presidents.
Presidents, I do not exonerate. They have the loudest bullhorn in American politics. If they choose to speak and educate, as Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt (at least occasionally) did, the media is forced to give them at least some coverage.
But no, they choose the past of least resistance. Feeding the media and the people with platitudes and pap. This is a shameful abdication of leadership. Incidentally, presidents too want us to see the media as the black sheep so we miss their complicity in the creation of an ignorant republic. Blame the media has become the tune of the day. I think we need to take presidents to task.
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Washington:"Leaders should know better, really. Blaming the people is like blaming the victims in this case." This seems entirely backwards to me. We regularly elect the worst Americans to elected office, for the most wrongheaded of reasons, and we should blame ... the elected leaders? As you said earlier: The leaders are there to represent the folks who elected them. If the voters are ignorant and venal, how can we expect their representatives to be any better. As a D.C. resident, I always find the complaints about "politicians in Warshington" to be particularly galling. I always want to say "well, you're the ones who keep sending these cretins to my city!"
Rick Shenkman: The old saying is that you get the government you deserve. We have to ask ourselves why we deserved Bush.
I would not have framed the question in this way when his father was president. He was a capable leader. Even though I didn't share his agenda, I respected him and his experience.
So this isn't a question of politics. Bush II is cut from a far different cloth than Bush I.
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Re: Developing smarter voters: I think that the better approach than developing smarter voters would be increasing the number of representatives. When the ratio of people to representatives is relatively small, both sides pay closer attention because of the increase in the relative power of the voters to decide elections. Smaller, more numerous districts and more competitive (and less partisan) district-lines will encourage the electorate to get smarter.
Rick Shenkman: A more radical approach would be dumping the winner-take-all system. Scholars like Henry Milner argue that one reason why we have such harsh and simplistic politics is that the loser figures he has to demonize the winner. In a proportional system winners would know they had to work with the "losers" (those who received less than a majority but were still represented). I strongly recommend looking at Milner's book, "Civic Literacy."
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Athens, Ohio: "Union hostility to NAFTA, for instance, is undoubtedly misguided." Are you kidding? Hasn't it already been shown that NAFTA has harmed U.S. workers?
Rick Shenkman: I don't want to get into an argument over NAFTA. All I'll say is that it has been an easy scapegoat for deeper problems within our economy. Jobs move to low-wage countries and will continue to do so with or without NAFTA. What we have to figure out is how to compete in a global world not how to pull up the draw bridges to that world in an attempt to hang onto the world of the past.
That said, I'd happily concede that NAFTA probably didn't emphasize fair trade enough. Labor standards should be the same in Mexico as here otherwise companies will exploit labor in Mexico and cost Americans their jobs.
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Real America: You two are typical liberal elites. Get out of your ivory towers for once. You are the problem.
Rick Shenkman: Throwing around names is part of the problem.
It's easy to attack someone as an elitist. But what does that really mean? Are the millionaires who vote Republican not elitist?
Who exactly is an elitist? It's a silly label that is used to divide the country and distract people from real problems.
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Austin, Texas: A 300 million population and growing, getting darker and more uneducated, with less ability to command English and access to power. And you believe the prescription for our democracy is more ... democracy? We always have lived in a nation where the powerful enjoy the fruits of power and everyone else gets to suck it up and take it. If possible, join it. Why will removal of sloth, ignorance and stupidity have the slightest impact on how our nation is run? Who runs it, and for whom? "If you want to conquer and make insipid and servile, first create FOX News." Good session today.
Rick Shenkman: I don't believe all the ills of democracy can be cured with more democracy. That's the naive liberal assumption disproved by events.
But democracy is here to stay. So the question we face is, how do we get smarter voters?
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Buffalo, N.Y.: Hi -- thanks for the chat and the books! It seems to me, as a young academic, that my students increasingly are fixed in their ideological ways when I get them as freshmen. However, classroom interaction has a way of loosening them up and forcing them to articulate analytically their arguments and those of their peers. The one group of students who will not budge are those who are quite religious, so I have to wonder: Don't you think the dumbing-down of America is really linked to the increasing fundamentalism of America?
Rick Shenkman: I don't believe that fundamentalism is related to the dumbing down of politics. TV is the primary force responsible for our dumb politics and religion has nothing to do with it. I devote the longest chapter in the book to TV.
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Washington: Elvin, could you explain your NPR comment a bit more? Why was it "controversial"? Seems to me that the targeting of NPR (as "liberal") in recent years dovetails rather nicely with the whole "dumbification" of the public discourse.
Elvin Lim: I was trying to make clear that the "anti-intellectualism" charge is not a partisan charge.
The charge that NPR is liberal is, in part, intended to say that comparatively reasoned, informed debate that one does not agree with is a bad thing. Now, I happen to disagree.
Because that this claim entails is that however badly (fallaciously, circularly, etc) an argument is made, if one agrees with the conclusion, then the argument is correct. No one can agree with that!
If someone disagrees with NPR and what is said on it, let him or her come on and tell us why. It is too easy to dismiss NPR (or Bill O'Reilly) as out-of-touch over-intellectual or plain stupid: conservatives and liberals should step up to the task of talking to each other and confronting their disagreements. My aim then, is to promote more debate, not less.
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Hanover, N.H.: You would argue that the media and Internet have been significantly counterproductive. Ten-minute video clips and five-minute news bites have reduced the collective attention span. The more innocuous problem is that the Internet has made it easy for people to get their news with the political slant that suits them, resulting in more extreme opinions rather than neutral sources, like the newspaper, where there is some semblance of objectivity. As long as the Internet exists with blogs and opinionistas, can we actually solve this issue?
Elvin Lim: I agree with your premise that partisanship is an enemy to productive deliberation. Partisans refuse to see their other side, they refuse to debate. They charge the other side as being disingenuous, unpatriotic, uncaring, stupid, etc. I think it is better when we assume some good faith on the other side, and then work to find out why we disagree so fervently.
Multiple sources of partisan news on the Internet however, may potentially get us to the same place, as long as we read a diverse sample of them. Tocqueville believed that even eccentric ideas should have their air time, precisely because when we saw how indefensible some positions were, we are guided towards the more plausible ones.
The danger, as you rightly note, is when we self-select what we want to read to endorse what we already believe. No new information gets through, just a pat on the back. We need to find ways to resist this admittedly very human tendency, but one way, ironically, is to have more not less outlets of news and information.
Rick Shenkman: For what it's worth, when I lecture at colleges students ask me how they can become smart voters. I always tell them: Read a good newspaper like the New York Times or the Post; read the Weekly Standard to learn what the conservative arguments are; read the Nation to learn about the liberal arguments. Do that and you will have diversified your sources of information enough to have a good grasp of politics. The goal of course is to have the picture in our heads of reality correspond to reality, as Walter Lippmann said nearly a century ago in public opinion.
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Rick Shenkman: This has been a fascinating experience. Thanks to all for participating. Rick Shenkman (http://howstupidblog.com/). Signing off.
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Goodland, Kan.: You dainty Elites with your terms like "anti-intellectual"! Just because normal Americans don't read the newspaper or pay any attention to what's happening in the world at large doesn't mean they can't tell which way the wind blows. You must be working for the Obama campaign?
Elvin Lim: Interesting that intellectuals are "dainty." A standard way to denigrate those who prize the life of the mind.
What about Sam Huntington, Harvey Mansfield, Paul Wolfowitz and Francis Fukuyama? I think we all agree they are all intellectuals -- but perhaps to some, less dainty.
It is not helpful making fun of people who disagree with you, and certainly not helpful dismissing their method of inquiry. When you deride an intellectual, you imply that doesn't matter how one gets to the answer (some say the god-ordained truth). Intuition, gut feeling, revelation are not just equal sources of information, but better.
Without deliberation and rational disputation at the very least as constraining mechanism for the most implausible assertions of intuition, this is a formula for disaster. I invite you to consider when someone you disagree with told you point blank that he felt his belief in his gut. How are you going to get past this deliberative impasse. Spill him your guts to try to persuade him?
Reason, deliberation. That is what separates us from the beasts, it is what self-government of and by the people is ineluctably premised on.
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Rockville, Md.: In 2004, Bush won every one of the 16 states with the lowest percentage of college graduates. Kerry won 11 of the 16 with the highest. This despite the reputation of the two parties as supporting poor vs. wealthy economics. Are there people too dumb to know Bush isn't "for" them?
Elvin Lim: There is a literature for the British working-class voting Tory, apparently against their economic interests, that parallels this phenomenon.
But the story is a little different in America. Very briefly, there are (among others) social and economic conservatism. Social conservatism reigns in the South, as you know, and it explains in part the voting patterns of the red states.
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Washington: "We need to recognize we have a problem. Well-informed voters have to get over the delusion that the masses are making decisions on the same basis that they are." A nice place to start would be for the mass media to end the quadrennial paean to that gormless, useless, lumbering nimrod -- the post-primary "undecided voter." Such creatures should be held up to the fire-hose of ridicule to which they are so richly entitled.
Elvin Lim: I agree that there is something problematic about leaving everything up to undecided voters, many of whom just haven't bothered to keep up with politics to know where they stand.
But, many undecided are not uninformed, just unaligned. In fact they may hold the key to breaking the impasse of our anti-intellectual politics. Such people - informed but unaligned - are not ideologues, they think rather than plunge in like automatons according to party lines.
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Chicago: This is a fascinating topic and one that, I agree, is akin to a 10-alarm fire. It is all the more apparent during an election year. But my fear is that a book like this only will be fuel for the anti-intellectualism fire. (Look at those liberal academics and how elitist they are -- they don't have respect for the common American, etc.) Did such an outcome cross your mind when you were writing -- that this book might actually make anti-intellectualism worse?
Elvin Lim: I see my job as writing truthfully about a problem as I see it. Indeed I anticipated that its conclusion would be pegged as elitist, but I prefer to believe that people who disagree with me can be moved by reasons.
Let me try to offer one to them.
What is more elitist? Assuming that people are stupid and therefore dumbing down to this presumed level; or, believing that people are smart and are capable of evaluating serious arguments and real evidence?
Actually the truth is closer to the opposite of what the anti-anti-intellectual spouts! I don't think people are stupid and they crave and deserve more from the panders that have occupied the White House. It is the politicians who have cynically taken the path of least resistance. I find it almost an act of betrayal to the people that some amongst us will now stand with the panderers and others who have seduced us with false and misleading sound bites to embolden and justify such tactics.
I do find that I get some people back on my side once I remind them that I don't think people are stupid. They just haven't been fed the information, because our presidents have conveniently decided that it is easier not to do so.
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Fairfax, Va.: Watching the TV news and reading mainstream media outlets such as The Post, I often am sickened at how vacuous, uninformative and sometimes intentionally misleading our "Fourth Estate" is. I believe that corporate influence dictate this national media effort to frame what will be reported and what will be ignored or minimized so people remain ignorant, not necessarily stupid, about politics in America. What can be done about this national disaster, which leads to inexplicable findings that people think the "surge is winning" while we have no definition of what winning is, for example?
Elvin Lim: Well, the market does correct for itself somewhat. They are liberal-leaning market niches (MSNBC) and there are conservative-leaning ones (FOX). Where this market correction is insufficient, we hope that public television and radio can fill in the gaps. Some say that even these have been politicized, but that is not to say that they cannot be reformed accordingly. All the more important that we do so, I argue, because of new and proliferating methods of opinion dispersal in the Internet (via blogs and such).
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Washington: I am so glad to see this topic brought up. The cliched refrain from politicians that "the American people aren't stupid" has gotten stale in its utter meaninglessness. Too many people do not know why they vote the way they do -- they just do what their peer group does, or what their family does, and they literally have know reason why they vote.
Having said that, I once heard an interview with a guy who had just written a book about how civic engagement is overly focused in the media on voting, especially voting for members of Congress -- and how that is not really the way to institute change, because there are few institutions more resistant to change than the U.S. Congress.
Elvin Lim: Congress changed some of its rules (such as seniority rules, number of leadership positions) in the '60s as a result of changes in the electoral system (voting rights, primaries). So yes, only deep structural changes in the electorate and political system initiate congressional reform.
Congress moves slowly because there is a collective action problem. Much harder for 535 people to agree than one in the White House. That is why congressional approval ratings are always so low even though the numbers for each individual member of congress is almost always higher.
But that also means that if we want to solve the problem of political ignorance, it may be faster if we turned to the communicator in chief. The president speaks with a louder voice more often and with more coverage than any other person in America. For better (or as is now the case, for worse.) If he or she has much power to eviscerate substance in our public discourse, then he or she has a unique power to restore the health of our public deliberative sphere.
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San Diego: One aspect of the media's role in this that I think gets lost is the media's (for lack of a better word) "stupidity." Less than any bad intent, I just think the media for the most part is incapable of transmitting complicated information to the public. Most forms of media now have the goal of getting info out to people as quickly as possible, which has to sacrifice a certain amount of investigation, background reporting, etc. Sometimes this means people are only getting part of the story, or only the story as told to the reporter by the politician/bureaucrat. Other times it means the reporters get things flat-out wrong (this happens in legal reporting all the time).
Elvin Lim: Yes, when we allow the market to drive what gets processed and delivered as information, we have an imperfect method of delivering information.
That is why we must have publicly funded radio and television. If we disagree with what is being said on there -- too liberal -- then fine, let's talk about making it more balanced. Rather than abolish an important if flawed institution that serves an important public interest, we should try to improve it.
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Laurel, Md.: As a historian, I think that anti-intellectualism in the U.S. goes back to the 1830s and the Second Great Awakening. With Andrew Jackson, politicians started campaigning to the mass and against elites. Just look at the 1840 Whig Campaign. This carries over in the 1960s with Agnew, Wallace, et al. Americans are uncomfortable with intellectuals/elites, so those who attack elites do better (see Bush against Gore/Kerry). Ah well. To paraphrase Marx, history repeats itself -- the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
Elvin Lim: Absolutely, anti-intellectualism has deep historical roots, going to back to England too.
And that's why its dangerous, because it feeds on itself. When on president dumbs down, the next one must dumb down even more to make his effort demonstrable. So we have a vicious circle and a plummeting dynamic of dumbing down that has brought us to where we are. George Washington spoke at the college level, Bush at the seventh- or eighth-grade level. One hundred more years, and we are projected to have presidents talk to us at the fifth-grade level. I wonder when we will finally say, "enough is enough?"
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Elvin Lim: Thanks to all for your thought-provoking questions. If you would like to follow up with more on my book and thoughts on the upcoming elections, please visit my Web site.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: August 9, 2008
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698 of 972 DOCUMENTS
Washingtonpost.com
August 8, 2008 Friday 11:00 AM EST
Real Wheels
BYLINE: Warren Brown, Washington Post columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4329 words
HIGHLIGHT: Warren Brown has covered the car industry for The Washington Post since 1982.
Warren Brown has covered the car industry for The Washington Post since 1982.
Brown test drives all types of cars, from luxury sedans to the newest minivans and hybrids. His On Wheels auto reviews are lively, detailed accounts of cars' good and bad qualities.
Brown's Car Culture column addresses the social, political and economic trends of the industry.
Brown comes online Fridays at 11 a.m. ET to answer your questions on every aspect of the automotive industry -- from buying your dream car to the future of the internal combustion engine.
The transcript follows.
Subscribe to the Real Wheels RSS Feed
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Bowie, Md.: Hello Mr. Brown,I am the Lexus owner that setoff a firestorm of opinion's concerning Toyota products a year ago. While you've reviewed some Toyota products, not much in the LS category has been mentioned. What is your opinion of the Lexus LS460L? Cost, reliability, comfort, gas mileage and handling.
Lexus Lover....
Warren Brown: Good morning, Bowie:
I think you are referring to the Lexus GS 460 full-size luxury sedan. Is that right? If so, assuming you have and are willing to spend the money both for purchase and upkeep, it's a great car, albeit a bit consumptive with its 342-hp (if memory serves me correctly) V-8.
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Washington, D.C.: Hi Warren,
I enjoy reading your articles. I am a 30-something single woman and I'm really torn between two convertibles: The Volvo C70 and the BMW 330. Do you have a preference?
Thanks.
Warren Brown: Good morning, Ms. Washington:
Here's betting you went to parochial or otherwise private schools, that you have at least a bachelors degree from one of the Seven Sisters colleges, and that you are professionally employed...and have a dog. Am I close? If so, ignore your head and follow your heart and get the car you really want, which is the BMW 330 convertible. And, yeah, red with the tan interior is okay.
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Charlottesville, Va.: Have you driven the Honda Clarity hydrogen vehicle yet? Have you written or do you plan to write about it?
Warren Brown: Hello, Charlottesville:
I've driven the Honda FCX hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle. It's a nice, albeit pricey work in progress, a prototype. Amazing torque, very quiet, and thankfully styled to appeal more to car lovers than it is to science-project nerds. What's interesting is the progress Honda ad other car companies have made in downsizing the fuel stacks in hydrogen fuel-cell models without compromising power and performance.
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Silver Spring, Md.: My wife saw the Ford Flex and loves how it looks; not a minivan, not a monster SUV. I do wonder if Ford might miss the mark by repeating the mistakes of the Chrysler Pacifica: 4 wheel drive that isn't needed and a price point that is too high. What do you think? Will this be the homerun that Ford needs?
Warren Brown: Good morning, Silver Spring:
The Flex is a homerun for Ford, a solid hit out of the park. The Flex is available with front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive, which is a good marketing strategy. At about 21 mpg city ad 24 mpg hwy, it offers reasonably good mileage for a big family hauler. Here's hoping that Ford offers a diesel edition. That would be another homerun.
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Boston, Mass.: Thanks for taking my question. We have a 2001 Civic and 2002 Santa Fe. Both cars are driving well and are in great shape. Santa Fe had 3 accidents (all not my fault)and it's been repaired. We need to soon replace one of them with a 7-seater vehicle. What should we sell? I'm guessing that my Santa Fe has no resale value and has a lot of life so I could keep that. But civic gives me great fuel economy and I would end up with 2 gas thirsty vehicles. My husband uses public transportation and I have a reasonably short commute. But we could change jobs and end up with long commutes too..so what makes sense here?
Warren Brown: Hello, Boston:
Sell the Sante Fe. Use some of the proceeds to take out a membership in Zipcar. When you need a seven-seater, simply rent one from Zipcar. Return it after you're done. Keep driving the fuel-efficient Civic for regular family runs. You are a potential Zipcar client if ever there was one.
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"...red with the tan interior is okay.": Not only is the tan interior okay, it's practically mandatory for daytime driving. You get the black or blue leather, you're gonna feel like an egg in a frying pan.
Warren Brown: Thank you, Anonymous. How are you?
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ISO: A pickup: We'd really like to get a truck but are worried about gas mileage. Should we wait a year and hope the F150 shows up with a more efficient engine?
Warren Brown: Or you can get a flex-fuel Silverado from Chevrolet, which also offers fuel efficiency in the form of cylinder de-activation--for example, running with four cylinders at slow speeds and under light loads and running with eight when extra power is needed.
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Rockville, Md.: Your comments about the consumption of the Lexus 460, made me wonder where one could go for a good balance of fuel efficiency and luxury. It seems that smaller, efficient cars with the luxury standards of a Lexus/MB/BMW/Infiniti aren't readily available. What would you recommend for a shopper looking for both these qualities? Do you think manufacturers will respond?
Warren Brown: Hello, Rockville:
Manufacturers are responding. For example, Lexus offers a hybrid version of its luxury sedan. And nearly all car companies are getting smarter about producing smarter engines that offer more power without a concomitant increase in fuel consumption.
But...it is rather difficult to have it all--power, luxury and top fuel economy at a price approaching reasonable. For the time being, I think, you're looking at tradeoffs.
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Reston, Va.: Being a GM person (my family has always bought GM products except for my BMW) I have a problem when GM does something really stupid. GM's 2009 Colorado and Canyon Pickups are offered with a 5.3 V-8 engine (the 3.7 litre 5 cylinder wasn't strong enough and a lot of people complained). So instead of putting the 4.2 litre 6 cylinder offered in the trailblazer or the 4.3 litre V-6 (previously offered in the S-10's and is currently available in the full size Chevy Pickup) in this truck they offered the 5.3 litre V-8. Well next, because they offered the V-8 they could have lowered the gear ratio's to get better gas mileage (they didn't). I really don't think that GM gets it. One good note: We just ordered my mom the new Malibu but, they need to put a nav system in that car. Other than that it is a great car and my mom is waiting for hers to be built.
Thanks for taking my question.
Warren Brown: Thank you, Reston. I'm posting this for a GM response.
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Bethesda, Md.: When will BMW fix its systemic problems with its 3 series? I had a 97 E36 M3 coupe with rear subframe failure and door structure problems, my sister with her 99 3 series coupe E46 328ci has the same issues and now my 2008 E92M3 has the same issues. I hear the problems are common and yes they are safety-related. No recalls but BMW will fix 10-year-old cars with over 100k miles with the problem. It costs them about $8k per car. Last BMW we buy. Had a diesel on order but will cancel it. BMW will fix the problem but its a headache. The dealer out near the airport in Va. tried to do it cheap but it didn't meet BMWNA's specs so the car is back there again.
Problem is the rear subframe holds up the suspension. Its failure can be fatal. Door problem comes from the area where the door lock is. The welds and the area isn't structurally rigid enough so it fails.
Warren Brown: Thank you, Bethesda. We'll post this for a BMW response.
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Washington, D.C.: Warren, you are a geniune mindreader! I have been dreaming about a RED BMW 330 convertible for years.
Thank you from Ms. Washington
Warren Brown: Ah, Ms. Washington, you are most welcome.
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Rockville, Md.: Warren:
Happy Friday.
Have you driven a natural gas car? I must say I am taken with the Honda, but read that the trunk is just about full of gas container. OK. I can deal with that. How does it drive?
Warren Brown: And Happy Friday to you, Rockville.
Yes, I've driven the Honda Civic natural gas car anf found it very much to my liking, so much so I've been tempted to outfit my garage with a CNG home fueling station, which I still plan to do. CNG works. It seems to burn a lot faster than gasoline. But operation is smooth, quiet, confident. I suspect that Honda will get some company in the production of CNG fleets. Frankly, it seems to me that all new single family homes being built today should be built with CNG fueling stations, in much the manner that they are built to handle gas ranges and laundry equipment.
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Columbia Heights, D.C.:"Here's betting you went to parochial or otherwise private schools, that you have at least a bachelors degree from one of the Seven Sisters colleges, and that you are professionally employed...and have a dog."
Wow, that a whole bunch of offensive assumptions about the person, based on an anonymous query. Are you annoyed that she isn't considering an American car or something?
Warren Brown: Did you see Ms. Washington's answer? She told me that I was right. What's your problem? Are you upset because I make it my business to try to know my audience, to learn as much as I can about them, to love them? You got a problem with that? Besides, what's so offensive about being a graduate of a Seven Sisters college, being professionally employed and, by golly, having a wonderful dog? What's wrong with any of that?
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Clifton, Va.: GM will soon introduce light duty pick ups with diesel power. They will be 201 models but not sure when they will be introduced. Not sure about Ford's, Toyota's and Dodge's plans!
Warren Brown: Thanks, Clifton. And I assume you mean 2010 models. Is that right?
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Arlington, Va.: Many potential buyers on 7-seaters or more forget that the last row of seats is in the crumble zone. Not a good option especially for someone who has been in three accidents. And cars like the Mini are just severe back injuries waiting to happen for the rear seat occupants.
So when do you test a Aston Martin DBS?
Warren Brown: Those are good points, Arlington. Many of those vehicles with third-row seats have those seats awfully near the crumple portion of the crumple zone. I've yet to see much real world evidence of injuries or deaths involving rear end crashes affecting those seats. But, I wonder...
The Minis, on the other hand, based on empirical evidence, seem to be faring reasonably well in collisions, including a reported rollover or two.
As for driving an Aston Martin DBS--not anytime soon. Most of our audience here is interested in accessible, affordable cars and trucks.
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Washington, D.C.: Realistically speaking, in terms of manufacturers' ability to meet demand and the consumer's willingness to purchase a new car, how many gas-powered cars do you think can be taken off the road in favor of non-gas cars (hydrogen, CNG, etc.) over, let's say, the next 10 years? I've always wondered whether the number is large enough to truly make a dent in our gasoline consumption. Thanks.
Warren Brown: That's a good question, Washington.
I think alternatively fueled cars can substitute 20 pecent of the gasoline fleet in a decade. A 40 percent substititution by 2015 is not impossible.
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REF: Columbus Heights, D.C. : Warren -- the NERVE of them with their "offensive" sensitivities. Maybe they're mad they don't have a job, degree, education, nor SAVINGS.
Get a grip CH DC -- life is short. So live a little. Jeolousy is so U G L Y.
Warren Brown: Oh, well...love a little, live a little. God bless Ms. Washington and her pretty red BMW convertible. That's enough to make me smile.
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Re: Boston, Mass.: Thanks for this, Warren. (I'm not the original poster.) I think a lot of people (I was guilty of this too) think that a couple 'needs' to have two cars. My husband and I just downgraded from two cars to one. (I take public transit to work and he drives.) Sometimes it takes some shuffling, but we've learned how to combine errands to make sure we do everything in one trip, and it has increased our use of public transit. I have friends who use Zipcar and LOVE it, but I've never taken the plunge (because I haven't needed to).
Warren Brown: Zipcar makes sense. According to the company's stats, about 13 million of us live within a 10-minute walk of a Zipcar installation. Think about that--no need to worry about parking, insurance, or any of that stuff. You need a truck or a van? Just zip over to Zipcar. That allows you to own only one car, and to make that car the most fuel-efficient model possible.
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Tradeoffs!: Thanks for pointing out that cars, like all engineering challenges, are tradeoffs.
For any given cost, weight, size and creature comforts square off against performance, handling and fuel efficiency.
Want acceleration, handling and fuel efficiency? You'll have to give on weight, size and/or creature comforts. (Think Lotus.)
Want size and acceleration? Gonna have to rethink fuel efficiency. (Think Mercedes S500.)
Life's about making choices. You can't have it all, so you have to decide what you want.
(Me, I want to go back to sleep. It's been a rough day so far.)
Warren Brown: Rest well.
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Columbia, Md.: While we are at it...
I am 40, white male, Ph.D in engineering. What do I drive, Warren?
Warren Brown: You probably walk. But if you drive, it's probably BMW, Porsche, or Saab.
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Reston, Va.: Warren, I have to ask a question "is the Smart Car Really Smart"? It runs on Premium Fuel (which costs 20 to 30 cents higher than regular). It only get 40 miles to the gallon (Cobalt, Corolla, Civic get at least 35 on regular with more storage space). A real Smart car would be for Chevy to re-introduce the old Turbo Sprint (got better gas mileage than the Smart Car with more room and ran on regular gas).
Warren Brown: The Smart car is smart for urban transportation. But, as you point out, in many ways it is more cute than it is smart.
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think alternatively fueled cars can substitute 20 percent of the gasoline fleet in a decade. A 40 percent substitution by 2015 is not impossible.: Warren, did you get your chronology reversed? 2015 is only 6.5 years away.
Warren Brown: Yup. Sorry. And thanks for catching my error.
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Clifton, Va.: Yes 2010. Not sure when they will see the showroom floor. Completely different from 2500 and 3500 Allison powerplant and tranny. What GM needs to do is brrow technology from its former locomotive division and use diesel electric power for its trucks.
Warren Brown: Thanks, Clifton. But who the heck will be able to afford diesel-electric? That's a very pricey option...at this point, anyway.
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Charlottesville, Va.: Warren,
Two separate issues I wanted you to comment on. First, I am very upset with the service I received on a Toyota Tacoma. I took the vehicle while still under warranty in because it had a noisy and hard to press clutch pedal. The mechanics at the dealership said they had "realigned" the pedal to fix the problem. The problem returned 2 months later when the vehicle was out of warranty. This time, they said it was a problem with the master clutch and showed me a Toyota service bulletin. The cost estimate as over $800, prompting me to take it to another mechanic. The second mechanic explained that the Toyota dealership had simply sprayed grease on the clutch to make the sound go away. Why did they not fix it the first time? Do I have any recourse?
Surprisingly, my family's Fords never had these problems.
Second, will a fuel efficient off-road vehicle appear on the market? Working with the forest service this summer, I drove a 2000 Jeep Cherokee up to 2 hours a day to access research plots. Since part of our research looks at carbon sequestration, I feel a bit hypocritical driving a gaz guzzler everywhere.
Warren Brown: Thank you, Charlottesville:
First, if Toyota has issued a service bulletin on the problem, that means Toyota knew it had a problem; and that means you should have received some kind of compensation or other "consumer satisfaction" payment for your trouble. Go back to the dealer with service bulletin in hand and politely plead your case. A smart dealer will do the right thing.
On fuel-efficient off-roaders. It can be argued that many off-road vehicles are fuel-efficient, given the duty cycles for which they are designed. But fuel efficiency and fuel economy are two different things. And look, you cannot possibly sequester carbon without expending some of it in some form. The laws of thermodynamics rule. We just have to learn to live with them.
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Just Curious: Gas prices have been steadily decreasing for the past 3 weeks. Setting aside the politics for a moment, have you heard anything from your industry contacts regarding whether the slight decreases will impact their decisions to bring some of their European models to the U.S.?
Also, have you heard anything about Peugeot making yet another run at the U.S. market? They have some small cars that make me say Ooh la la...
Warren Brown: The car companies are nervous. They are sinking billions of dollars into fuel-efficient technology, revamping their product lineups to bring smaller cars to the U.S. market...and gasoline pries, as you point out, are beginning to fall.
At the moment, the car companies are committed to bringing more small, fuel-efficient cars to market. They remain committed to bringing in more fuel-efficient diesels. Our politicians, Democrats and Republicans, Obama and McCain, need to understand that high fuel prices have done more to encourage energy conservation and to support the development of fuel-efficient technology than any CAFE rule, or increased drilling for oil.
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Clifton, Va.: Actually diesel electric is on the drawing boards. May never hit the showroom, who knows. Now clean coal steam technology would be interesting if it was efficient.
Warren Brown: I know it's on the computer assisted design screens, Clifton. but I haven't spoken to anyone in the industry who is even remotely happy with the prospective pricing of diesel-electric technology.
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Reston, Va.: Warren, if everyone bought a more fuel efficient vehicle (instead of the Escalade they brought a Vue) that got 10 more miles to the gallon better than their current vehicle that would cut back on U.S. consumption until Hydrogen, CNG, or Electric vehicle infrastructure is in place (better mass transit, various types of fueling capabilities). That is the biggest problem, it would take at least 5 years to get the refueling stations prepared to move in a new direction. But, once that infrastructure is ready everyone would start the move to the newer vehicles. Plus in 5 years the price of gas would be back at 4 dollars a gallon. This would also allow the auto manufacturers the time to improve the Hydrogen, CNG, Plug in hybrids, and electric vehicles.
Warren Brown: Thank you, Reston.
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Poolesville, Md.: Warren -- A few years ago you reported about one of your family friends that had been arrested in Virginia for DUI. She was a fine, upstanding citizen until that night. How are she and her family doing now? I have that article on my fridge so I can see it every day as a potent reminder not to drink and drive. Thank you.
Warren Brown: Hello, Poolesville:
She and her family are doing wonderfully well. She is a grand lady, always has been. She deeply regrets that drunk driving error. (It pays not to get hopping mad after a dinner party and hop into a car.) But she is grateful that her mistake didn't result in a death or other injury.
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Suburbia: Daughter (age 17, new driver) will need a car to drive to school and internship this fall. We're looking for inexpensive and reliable, and will go used or new. What do you recommend?
Warren Brown: A Volvo or a Chevrolet Impala. Seriously. Or a Ford Crown Victoria. And a written contract in which she agrees not to transport more than one passenger at a time, at least until she is 18; and in which she agrees not to drink and drive, or otherwise act like a fool behind the wheel. Seventeen is a tender age. So much life ahead of her. So much promise. Remind her that it is all very fragile, capable of being lost in seconds. Which means you also should consider checking with AAA for defensive driving instructions.
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Kansas City: Keep up the good work Warren. Re the CNG Civic, where does one find info on CNG refueling stations? I'd love to have one but the boss thinks we'll be tethered to our house and won't be able to make road trips for fear of not find fueling stations. Thanks!
Warren Brown: Go to the Honda Web site, which should have information on the CNG home fueling station. Also Goggle "CNG home fueling."
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SW Fla.: It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to think that car buyers will stop wanting fuel efficiency if gas prices drop to $3. That's still higher than $2, and we're never gonna see $2 again no matter what anyone says.
Warren Brown: I wish it did not make sense, Florida. But the evidence is that Americans clamor for fuel efficiency only when they are feeling pain at the pump. Vehicle miles traveled, demands for larger vehicles and more horsepower all increased astronomically when gasoline was cheap.
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Annandale, Va.: Oil prices and other commodities have dropped sharply recently -- and thankfully it's now showing up at the pump. What happens to the trajectory of the move to alternative fuels/smaller cars/shorter commutes if we see gas prices at around $2.50 to $3 barrel, vs. the $4 plus this summer?
Warren Brown: Well, Annandale, if history is an indicator of the future, lower gasoline prices mean slower movement toward fuel efficiency. Here's hoping that pump prices stay at $4 a gallon for regular unleaded.
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Arlington, Va.: For Rockville, you ask where one could go for a good balance of fuel efficiency and luxury, and efficient car with the luxury standards of a Lexus/MB/BMW/Infiniti... MB makes such a car, the E320CDI. Warren?
Warren Brown: You are right, Arlington. The Mercedes-Benz diesel offers luxury and fuel economy. The new models, 2009 and 2010, should have 50-state clean-air certification. Current models only have 45-state certification.
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Washington, D.C.: Hi Warren --
Love the chat. Baby #3 is coming in the fall. Our other kids are 5 and 2, and (of course) we really don't want a minivan. What are your thoughts on the Volvo xc90? Is a pre-owned a better value? Thanks!
Warren Brown: I'd steer you away from that one and toward something like a Mazda CX-7 or CX-9, or a used Saturn Outlook. I think the XC90 will eat you up with fuel and repair costs.
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BMW Convertible: I currently have a 2006 325ci. It is a hot looking car. It is all black and really not that hot (and I drive with the top down a lot). All that being said, the car has been nothing but trouble for me and I have had it in the shop for a number of ridiculous repairs. The most frustrating thing is that the windows rattle audibly and I was told over and over they couldn't find a fix. BMW is supposed to have a great reputation, but I had so much trouble dealing with them that I wrote a 6-page letter to BMW Corporate detailing my issues and frustrations and all my repairs. All they wanted to do was offer me 1500 off my next BMW. I ordered a new Audi A5. Just saying...hot car, not hot service.
Warren Brown: Thank you.
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So Md.: Warren, I am new to your column and chats -- love both! I'm in the market for a new car. Of course, the timing is right to do something gas efficient which I always do anyway. Husband is loyal to Chrysler/Dodge -- any strong recommendations? I actually like the Saturn VUE, but am not sure he'll go with that. Thanks for taking my question!
Warren Brown: Hello, So. Md. Welcome. Try the Dodge Journey. I like that wagon/crossover. I think you'll like it, too.
_______________________
Downtown D.C.: Hi Warren, I'm submitting early because I'll be in a meeting. Regarding the punditry and their mockery of Obama on inflating tires and slowing down:
I keep the tires on my '05 S2000 four to five PSi over the recommended. With smart driving, coasting down hills, shutting off the engine at long red lights, and driving no more than 60 on highways, I am consistently getting 31 mpg on a mixed loop. That is 10 mpg over the EPA city estimate for my car! Also, I don't drive to work (Metro) so I only fill up once a month for about 35-40 bucks full tank...
What now Hannity?!
Warren Brown: Ah, those pundits. They should stick to things that don't matter, such as politics. Obama is right on this one. More sensible driving saves fuel. Proper tire inflation saves fuel. Proper vehicle maintenance saves fuel.
But I don't want Hannity to shut up. Lots of natural gas there. Pretty soon, we'll find a way to tap it to power our cars.
_______________________
CNG Fueling Stations: This Web site tells you where they are: Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center ( U.S. Dept. of Energy)
Warren Brown: Thank you.
_______________________
Warren Brown: Thank you for joining us today. Please come back next week. Thanks Rocci for a fine production. Time to eat lunch, Ria.
_______________________
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washingtonpost.com
August 8, 2008 Friday 9:20 AM EST
Is Obama Too Soft?
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: OPINION
LENGTH: 2066 words
HIGHLIGHT: Last fall, with Barack Obama badly trailing Hillary Clinton in the polls, the pundits came up with a solution: He needed to start smacking her upside the head.
Last fall, with Barack Obama badly trailing Hillary Clinton in the polls, the pundits came up with a solution: He needed to start smacking her upside the head.
Some commentators practically begged their man to start attacking, saying he had no chance of competing with the Clinton machine unless he got his mouth in gear.
So what happened? Obama did step up his criticism a bit but largely stuck to a positive campaign. He won Iowa, held his own on Super Tuesday, reeled off 10 straight victories and virtually captured the nomination.
Now a similar debate is under way. It's not that Obama is trailing, it's that his lead is deemed too slight. Journalists everywhere are asking: In a perfect environment for Democrats, why isn't he running away with this thing?
And the answer, according to the usual strategists and pontificators, named and unnamed, is that Barack has to start punching harder. He needs to pummel John McCain with the same fervor that the Arizonan's team is trashing him. He needs to show that he's not afraid of a brawl.
It seems not to have occurred to these folks that Obama has done pretty well by preaching a different kind of politics. There could be a significant downside to the Illinois senator getting down in the trenches and engaging in the kind of tit-for-tat charges that he has criticized.
That doesn't mean Obama can wimp out in the face of sustained political attacks. But he has a certain style of counterpunching--gently mocking his opponents, often with a smile--that, so far at least, has worked for him. Whether that approach can carry him through September and October is another question. But a high-minded candidate has to be careful about the low road. McCain is drawing criticism for his negative ads and 'rather lose a war' line of assault, but that's a risk the Republican's team has decided it's willing to take.
The issue came up in a WP piece citing Democratic strategists as saying that Obama's negative ads were "nothing like the character attacks by McCain, and that the response could be far nastier, perhaps raising McCain's ethical scrape in the Keating Five savings and loan scandal, mocking his family wealth and designer shoes, or highlighting his age. After McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm suggested that the United States has become 'a nation of whiners,' Democratic strategists said Obama should have immediately started an ad blitz."
Obama spokesman Bill Burton's response: "We are not going to base our campaign on the concerns of so-called campaign strategists on cable TV . . . This is a classic Washington story, anonymous quotes from armchair quarterbacks with no sense of our strategy, data or plan."
Take that!
But Americablog's John Aravosis is among those who think Obama's been too soft:
"I think John Kerry and Al Gore paid a high price for being intellectual pretty-boys who didn't show enough of a tough-guy side (interestingly, I think Wesley Clark has the same PR problem - way too nice of a guy on TV, and never shows his inner general). The public knows Obama is smart and good looking, now they need to know that he can be an [orifice I can't name] too."
Politico finds someone who wants a tougher Obama:
"One of the Democratic Party's leading electoral street fighters, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, said that Barack Obama should respond to John McCain's personal attacks with an equally personal slap . . .
"He argued for a higher-velocity response. 'I would answer back hard. What do you mean he's not one of us? It's John McCain who wears $500 shoes, has six houses, and comes from one of the richest families in his state,' Schumer said. 'It's Barack Obama who climbed up the hard way, and that's why he wants middle-class tax cuts and better schools for our kids.' "
After a day of media reports on friction with the Hillary camp, the Obama team leaked this news last night:
"Former President Clinton will speak at the Democratic National Convention this month, settling a lingering question about the role he will play in Barack Obama's nomination," the L.A. Times reports. "A senior Democrat familiar with convention plans said Thursday that Clinton would address delegates on Wednesday, Aug. 27, the day before the Illinois senator is to formally accept the nomination."
"So with Mrs. Clinton speaking on Aug. 26, followed by her husband, the Obama campaign is giving two nights of prime time coverage to the Clinton family," says the New York Times, adding: "The matter was so sensitive that no one was willing to speak about it on the record. Democrats on all sides, though, said it's a done deal."
All this back and forth has me wondering: Would Hillary have been in a stronger position at this point? She was stronger among working-class voters--the traditional Democratic base--and few seriously questioned her readiness to be president.
On the other hand, her weaknesses were apparent throughout the primaries: lackluster speaker. Divisive figure. And seen as running in a change election to restore the 1990s. I doubt she'd be much higher in the polls than Obama.
Conservatives have also been thinking about their least favorite former first lady, who Victor Davis Hanson says could have taken McCain:
"Many are beginning to notice how a Saint Obama talks down to them. We American yokels can't speak French or Spanish. We eat too much. Our cars are too big, our houses either overheated or overcooled. And we don't even put enough air in our car tires. In contrast, a lean, hip Obama promises to still the rising seas and cool down the planet, assuring adoring Germans that he is a citizen of the world . . .
"In a tough year like this, Democrats could probably have defeated Republican John McCain with a flawed, but seasoned candidate like Hillary Clinton. But long-suffering liberals convinced their party to go with a messiah rather than a dependable nominee -- and thereby they probably will get neither."
At Hot Air, much more skepticism from Ed Morrissey:
"After a season of Barack Obama as the nominee and his serial gaffes and contortionist flip-flops, it's easy to forget that Hillary could have been even worse for the Democrats. Early on, Republicans salivated at the thought of having Hillary as a fundraiser, tapping into the palpable hatred of the Clintons to fire up the base regardless of who the GOP nominated to run against her. Thanks to the long track record of the Clintons, they had plenty of ammunition to remind people just how tawdry their first occupancy of the White House turned out to be."
Could Hillary spell trouble in Denver? Right Wing Nuthouse resident Rick Moran thinks so, but not necessarily on the floor:
"Even though these Hillaryites don't have a ghost of a chance in overturning the nomination of Obama, that doesn't mean they can't cause loads of trouble for the nominee in Denver -- especially if they get anywhere near a microphone. And I will guarantee you that every network and reporter covering the Democratic convention in Denver will actively seek out the grumblers, the apostates, the bitter enders for Hillary, and any other delegates who will offer a dramatic counterpoint to the lovefest offered up by the Obama campaign.
"The nominee may control the floor. But he and his people have absolutely no say in what goes out over the airwaves. And since conventions aren't 'news' in the true sense of the word but rather 'entertainment,' networks will seek out controversy in order to offer 'drama' to the viewer."
The latest evidence that You Are What You Watch comes from this Rasmussen survey:
"Eighty-seven percent of Fox News viewers say they are likely to vote for John McCain, while those who watch CNN and MSNBC plan to support Barack Obama in November by more than two to one.
"A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 65% of CNN voters plan to vote for the Democratic candidate versus 26% who intend to go for the Republican. Similarly, MSNBC watchers plan to vote for Obama over McCain 63% to 30% . . .
"Seventy percent of those who watch CBS' Katie Couric every day plan to vote for Obama, as do 71% of the daily viewers of ABC's Charles Gibson and 67% of those watching NBC's Brian Williams."
It's a fragmented universe out there. No wonder Obama won't go on the "Factor."
You may have noticed that much of the campaign coverage lately involves . . . Paris Hilton. At times it seems to be more Paris than politics. Who's to blame for this? Arianna Huffington has two targets:
"Our energy policy and a good deal of this presidential campaign are being discussed through the lens of Paris Hilton. What a big goof it all is! If you just ignore all the soldiers and civilians dying in the Mideast, and all the millions losing their homes and their jobs at home, you could really see the lighter side of it all . . .
"It is still a sad spectacle to see John McCain going along with it with such glib eagerness. The man who once pledged to run a 'respectful campaign' and who said that Obama 'would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign' has made it clear that he'd rather lose everything he has stood for than lose the White House.
"As New York Magazine's John Heilemann noted, 'we now have an inkling of just how deep in the mud McCain and his people are willing to wallow in order to win in November: right up to their Republican eyeballs.'
"The problem is, we're right down there with him. That's because all it takes is one of the two candidates to decide to yank the discourse into the ditch and the media -- and as a result, the public -- follow.
"Instead of the media calling the McCain campaign on its pathetic trivialization of the presidential race, they have been engaging in meaningless horse-race analysis of 'did the ad work?' The conventional wisdom appears to be that it did."
It's our job to report on each campaign's tactics and not to denounce them as, say, pathetic. There's certainly been plenty of criticism of the McCain ad--though everyone likes the Paris spoof--and at the same time, it seems to have worked in changing the campaign conversation. Still, you'd have to admit there's been plenty of preening over Paris, especially on the tube.
More theories on why Obama doesn't have a bigger lead from Atlantic blogger Marc Ambinder:
"White, generational racism. Maybe racism accounts for Obama's difficulties with older white voters and white men, in particular. But with one exception -- older white women -- his fall-offs among these demographics roughly track the norm for Democratic presidential candidates.
"Otherness. There is a thin version, as expostulated by David Brooks, is that Obama, a 'sojournor,' and 'voters have trouble placing him in his context, understanding the roots and values in which he is ineluctably embedded.' Basically: the Peter Hart problem. The thinker version: whether it's his name, his binational background, his biracial identity, his urbanity, his inexperience -- people don't really trust him.
"Bambiness. Obama doesn't counterpunch effectively, and to the extent that baseline opinions about character are being formed now, bruises that were just about to fully heal from the primaries are blushing again. Put it another way, just as the McCain campaign is offended by the rank inexperience and presumptuous of the Obama campaign and aren't bottling up their feelings, the Obama campaign is offended by the rank immaturity and stupidity of the McCain campaign and aren't bottling up their feelings."
In the WSJ, Karl Rove offers some advice to the Republican candidate:
"Mr. McCain is the most private person to run for president since Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s. He needs to share (or allow others to share) more about him, especially his faith. The McCain and Obama campaigns are mirror opposites. Mr. McCain offers little biography, while Mr. Obama is nothing but.
"The Republican Party's convention next month is Mr. McCain's biggest chance to improve his posture. The best minds in his campaign should be carefully working on its script."
After my piece this week on McCain keeping national reporters at bay for the first time in two presidential campaigns, NPR also details the lack of access. Key quote from Mark Salter:
"Obviously, every campaign has to get out there, and every day you get up and you've got a certain thing you want to say. And if you spend a lot of time talking about things other than what you want to say, it often gets diluted or you guys don't report it."
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The New York Times
August 7, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
INSIDE THE TIMES: August 7, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 2315 words
INTERNATIONAL
VULNERABLE FOR H.I.V.,
Resistant to Labels
H.I.V. and AIDS are concentrated in Mexico among men, particularly HSHs, or hombres que tienen sexo con hombres: men who have sex with other men. Because homosexuality is far from accepted in Mexico, much sexual behavior is forced into the shadows. And that increases the challenges AIDS experts face in combating the risky practices that fuel the disease. PAGE A6
AIDS EFFORTS SHORT-CHANGE YOUNG
Although governments and donors provide large amounts of money for H.I.V. treatment in the developing world, too little of that money reaches children, said a psychologist who delivered the first plenary lecture on children in the history of the International AIDS Conference. She also said that despite increased efforts to reach pregnant women, too few of them were receiving the antiretroviral drugs that could prevent infection in their infants. PAGE A13
BUSH URGES CHINA ON RIGHTS
In remarks delivered Thursday on the eve of the Olympic Games in Beijing, President Bush said that he had ''deep concerns'' about basic freedoms in China and criticized the detention of dissidents and believers, even as he praised the extraordinary gains China has made since he first visited more than three decades ago. Mr. Bush's comments represent a rebuke to China's leaders, though a measured one. PAGE A14
ARMY OUSTS LEADERS OF MAURITANIA
Senior military officers in Mauritania arrested the country's president and prime minister in a bloodless coup against the first freely elected government there in more than 20 years. The military leaders seized power after the president, Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, fired them, according to government officials. Several of the military leaders were instrumental in a 2005 coup that led indirectly to Mr. Abdallahi's election last year. PAGE A6
STIR IN U.K. OVER TROOP USE IN IRAQ
More than four months after American troops were moved across Iraq to help save a faltering Iraqi Army offensive against Shiite militias in the southern oil city of Basra, a political controversy has erupted in Britain over its failure to promptly deploy its own troops, which were stationed a few miles from the fighting. PAGE A12
MYSTERY DISEASE IN VENEZUELA
A mystery disease has killed dozens of Warao Indians in northeastern Venezuela, according to indigenous leaders and researchers from the University of California at Berkeley. Studies of the outbreak indicate it may be a type of infectious rabies caused by the bite of bats. PAGE A9
Israel to Free Palestinian Prisoners A12
NATIONAL
RACE TAKES CENTRAL ROLE
In a Tennessee Primary
A TV commercial for a black candidate for Congress in Memphis, Nikki Tinker, links her liberal-leaning white opponent in Thursday's primary contest, Representative Steve Cohen, to the Ku Klux Klan. The commercial comes against a backdrop of lingering resentment at Mr. Cohen's election in 2006 among some black ministers in Memphis, several of whom have been outspoken in the view that a district that is 60 percent black should not be represented by a white man. PAGE A16
LITTLE ELECTION REMINDERS
Among those with particular interest in this year's presidential election are participants at the 2008 American Political Items Collectors National Convention in Las Vegas -- the kind of people whose lifelong fascination can be set off by landing an ''I Like Ike'' button at 17 while working as a doorman at the 1956 Republican National Convention. Why, imagine what might happen to the value of items related to Senator Barack Obama of Illinois if he is elected. PAGE A15
MINORITIES OFTEN A MAJORITY
The latest population changes by race, ethnicity and age, as of July 1, 2007, were not large, but suggest that minorities -- now about a third of the population -- might constitute a majority of all Americans in 2050, even sooner than projected by census demographers. Racial and ethnic minorities now account for 43 percent of Americans under 20, and among people of all ages, minorities make up at least 40 percent of the population in more than one in six of the nation's 3,141 counties. PAGE A15
MCCAIN CONTRIBUTIONS QUESTIONED
Records show that Senator John McCain collected more than $50,000 in March from members of a single extended family, the Abdullahs, in California and several of their friends. The contributions are surprising both for their size -- several people initially wrote checks of $9,200, far exceeding the $2,300 limit for an individual contribution -- and for the relatively hardscrabble inland towns from which they came. PAGE A17
Bikini Islanders Back in Court A23
OBITUARIES
ROBERT MONTGOMERY, 78
A lawyer, he marshaled a silvery Southern drawl and incisive strategy to win 65 settlements of $1 million or more, including billions from the tobacco industry awarded to Florida in 1997. PAGE B6
ROBERT MAHEU, 90
An aide to Howard Hughes, he engineered the deals for the Hughes business empire that helped change the face of Las Vegas but never once met his boss in the decade and a half he worked for him. PAGE B6
BUSINESS
RIDING A REAL ESTATE WAVE
And Facing a Wipeout
By aggressively peddling a popular type of high-interest loan to risky borrowers, Bank United tripled its profits in 2006 as real estate on Florida's Gold Coast peaked. Its chief executive, Alfred R. Camner, still defends the strategy. But the bank lost nearly $100 million as the market cratered, and Mr. Camner is scrambling to raise $400 million in capital. PAGE C1
ONLY HOLDING ITS OWN
Sprint Nextel seems to be making progress in reducing churn -- or the measure of how happy customers are and their willingness to switch to a rival -- and says it is focused on keeping high-quality mobile phone users in the Sprint family. But it has had limited success attracting customers from rivals like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, despite a new advertising campaign. PAGE C1
A WAY BACK TO THE LAND
After Sarah Beth Aubrey ''got sick of driving to work,'' she founded Aubrey's Natural Meats, a 31-acre farm in Elwood, Ind., where she and her husband, Cary, raise cattle and pigs. Her No. 1 recommendation to people thinking about getting into farming is to ''wean yourself slowly off outside income.'' Another way of putting that: Don't quit your day job. PAGE C3
MAKING COMPUTERS LISTEN
It isn't up to ''Star Trek'' standards, but these days, neither is William Shatner. And the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 program, available on Thursday, is headed in the right direction, David Pogue writes, saying that ''in its timid, conservative way, it takes voice control unmistakably closer to that holy grail of computing.'' PAGE C1
Board Supports GM Chairman C3
NEW YORK REPORT
A BILLIONAIRE MAYOR
And the Common Touch
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has periodically upbraided New Yorkers for expecting government to solve every problem. And he has gone from being a mere billionaire to possibly the richest person in the city. But according to a comparison of polls, a growing number of Mr. Bloomberg's constituents, regardless of their own income, say he cares about people like them. PAGE B1
THE VERDICT: DRINK UP
Patrons of the Cipriani family's empire of opulent restaurants and catering halls across Manhattan can keep their cocktails. By a 2-to-1 vote, the State Liquor Authority accepted the Cipriani family's $500,000 settlement offer, rather than revoke the licenses for more than four dozen violations of state law at nine locations, including the Rainbow Room. PAGE B1
Arts
BY HOOK OR BY CROOK,
D.J. Tests Copyright Limits
What may be described as the dance music equivalent of a collage, the tracks of the D.J. Girl Talk, whose real name is Gregg Gillis, are composed of short samples of other artists' music. He's skating on thin copyright-law ice by not paying for the samples, but he maintains that he's in the clear because of the ''fair-use'' principle, that the samples he takes are too brief. Page E1
IT'S SNAKESKIN ON THE INSIDE, TOO
Ah, the shenanigans of high-stakes reptile smuggling. ''The Lizard King,'' by Bryan Christy, is a true-crime book packed with anecdotes about the people in the trade of elicit rare and endangered reptiles. It's a business where clients' criteria often seem to be ''bigger, meaner, rarer, hot.'' How many chaco tortoises can you fit in a suitcase? One hundred seven, provided you also remember to pack the 7 rainbow boas and 20 tarantulas. Page E9
'IDOL' STARS GET 15 MORE MINUTES
Success on ''American Idol'' has long been confused with music industry viability, but the show requires a different set of skills. And in the American Idols Live Tour 2008 in Uniondale, N.Y., on Tuesday, which featured the top 10 finalists from the seventh season of ''Idol,'' the show's stars were not just singing songs, they were also playing their characters. PAGE E3
Styles
OUCH! THAT REALLY HURTS.
Could Blood be the New Black?
That may be a touch strong, since some of the uses for a new couture line of bandages have nothing to do with personal injury. The small adhesive strips are being heralded by the fashion conscious, with new versions sporting busy patterns and bold colors, as a new form of body art and ''a great way to make a statement.'' Page G3
A MASCARA DUEL. WATCH YOUR EYES.
First, toothbrushes. Then, razors. And now, mascara. With names like ''Turbolash'' and the ''Oscillator,'' they sound like Q's new collection of deadly gadgets for Britain's most famous spy. But the new vibrating wands are intended to better separate and coat lashes -- and are sold out. Page G3
STRETCHING FOR AN ANSWER
Investigators have begun two large studies of stretching in an effort to determine its effectiveness in athletics. They are being done independently, one by researchers based in Norway and Australia, and the other by a group in the United States, and are not identical, reflecting perhaps the different views of stretching worldwide. The hope is to resolve an issue that has passionate supporters and detractors. PAGE G8
HOME
HARNESSING THE WIND
For Home Use
Paid your electric bill this month? The first product in the designer Philippe Starck's line of so-called Democratic Ecology products, coming this year to Europe and next year to the United States, is a rooftop wind turbine, priced at $780 to $1,250, which he says will be able to produce up to 80 percent of a home's energy. Been to the pump lately? Plans include an electric car, too, and an eco-moped. PAGE F1
LONDON HOME TO SHOCK NEIGHBORS
Would the director of summer epics like ''10,000 B.C.'' and ''Independence Day'' have a home decorated with doilies and framed Norman Rockwell prints? Nope. When Roland Emmerich bought his townhouse in the staid Knightsbridge district of London, he was warned of the area's conservative nature. So he filled the house with items like a taxidermied zebra, a mural of Chairman Mao and a waxwork statue of the late Pope John Paul II. Page F4
The Floor Show F2
SPORTS
U.S. TEAM MEMBER FINDS HIMSELF
Swimming in Cancer's Shadow
Eric Shanteau was to have been a marginal member of the United States men's swim team in Beijing, though being marginal beats narrowly missing the team, as he did for the last two Games. But then he got a diagnosis of testicular cancer in mid-June, and on Wednesday, when select American swimmers gave a news conference in the main auditorium of the press center in Beijing, Shanteau was the best story, George Vecsey writes in Sports of The Times. PAGE D3
LOSING, BUT BREATHING
This United States women's soccer team may have lost its Olympics opener to a team it had beaten by a collective 12-1 in their last three meetings, but at least it got to do so in a seacoast city two hours by clean, efficient and air-conditioned railway away from Beijing. Both teams ''should probably be grateful to be consigned for now to the provinces, far away from the stifling center of the 2008 Summer Games,'' Harvey Araton writes in Sports of The Times. PAGE D1
ANALYZING THE BREAKS
As part of Major League Baseball's investigation into the safety issues related to broken bats, every bat maker that was approved for the 2008 season has been asked to provide information on issues including water content, drying procedures, handle and barrel diameters and whether the bat is white ash or maple. The committee also asks for the players who use the bat, the model, the number they purchased and the average price. PAGE D4
Editorial
GUILTY AS ORDERED
Now that was a real nail-biter. The tribunal created by the White House and its Congressional enablers to guarantee convictions of high-profile detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- using evidence obtained by torture and secret evidence as desired -- has held its first trial. It produced ... a guilty verdict. Page A24
TRAINING IN THE CITY HOSPITALS
New York City's public hospital system has signed a contract to train hundreds of students from a medical school in the Caribbean in exchange for payments that could reach $100 million over 10 years. The deal looks beneficial, but it is clouded by conflict-of-interest allegations and fears of bidding wars for clinical training slots. Page A24
GREED ABOVE, DEATH BELOW
The need for a criminal inquiry into the Crandall Canyon mine disaster is shockingly clear now that investigators have detailed how greedy mine operators concealed danger warnings and literally chiseled underground pillar supports to the breaking point. Page A24
Op-Ed
GAIL COLLINS
We're having energy week on the campaign trail. In honor of the critical nature of the debate, let's try to clear our heads of all thoughts of Paris Hilton ads and questions of whether John McCain expressed a yen to see his wife compete in the Miss Buffalo Chip beauty contest. Issues. It's all about issues. Page A25
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The New York Times
August 7, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
McCain's Break With Bush
BYLINE: By MICHAEL FALCONE
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE AD CAMPAIGN; Pg. 17
LENGTH: 470 words
This 30-second advertisement for Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, will be broadcast in crucial states, according to the campaign. It is called ''Broken.''
PRODUCER McCain campaign media team
THE SCRIPT An announcer says: ''Washington's broken. John McCain knows it. We're worse off than we were four years ago. Only McCain has taken on big tobacco, drug companies, fought corruption in both parties. He'll reform Wall Street, battle big oil, make America prosper again. He's the original maverick. One is ready to lead: McCain.''
ON THE SCREEN Black-and-white images of the White House, the Capitol and the interior of the floor of the House of Representatives -- with lawmakers in motion -- flash on the screen. Then a profile shot of Mr. McCain is followed by a gas pump with its numbers turning upward. The screen fades to black momentarily, and then, everything is in color. The next scenes show Mr. McCain talking to voters beside his Straight Talk Express bus, climbing into his campaign plane and at a town-hall-style meeting with the stripes of an American flag in the background. The words ''The Original Maverick'' appear on the screen at the end.
ACCURACY Although the McCain campaign said it stood by the contention in the commercial that ''we're worse off than we were four years ago,'' Mr. McCain has not echoed that assessment publicly. At a Republican debate in January, he said, ''I think you could argue that Americans over all are better off, because we have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment and low inflation and a lot of good things have happened.'' During his four terms in the Senate, Mr. McCain has burnished his reformist credentials on some issues. He was a leader of the effort to pass a bipartisan campaign finance reform bill that imposed new limits on political contributions. But Mr. McCain, who is sometimes referred to as a maverick, has not always voted against business interests or broken with his party. Although the advertisement says he would ''battle big oil,'' his support of expanded offshore oil exploration would seem to suggest otherwise.
SCORECARD This commercial has Mr. McCain implicitly breaking with President Bush, by saying that Americans are worse off now than four years ago. In doing so, and portraying himself as a maverick, Mr. McCain is trying to distance himself from an unpopular Republican administration, and from Washington, at a time when a souring economy and high gasoline prices could pose a threat to him. Mr. McCain has been in the Senate for two decades, a fact that could undermine that maverick message. The advertisement strikes a more positive tone than Mr. McCain's other recent commercials, and does not refer to his likely opponent, Senator Barack Obama.
MICHAEL FALCONE
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USA TODAY
August 7, 2008 Thursday
FINAL EDITION
Is Paris, like, ready to lead?;
Hilton throws her hot into the ring
BYLINE: Marco R. della Cava
SECTION: LIFE; Pg. 2D
LENGTH: 295 words
Paris for president?
That's the spoofy gist of a video starring Paris Hilton that's taken off on Will Ferrell's comedy site, FunnyorDie.com. The short is pushing 4 million views since Tuesday.
"Paris totally got the joke," says Adam McKay, Funny or Die co-founder and film director (Step Brothers), who conceived and wrote the Hilton spot. "I thought it was ludicrous that (John) McCain was trying to bring Barack Obama down just because he was popular. If (McCain) is going to step into the pop world, we'll respond."
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee played the celebrity card in a recent campaign ad that transitioned from images of Hilton and Britney Spears to those of the presumptive Democratic nominee. Obama is popular, the spot observes, "but is he ready to lead?"
Hilton agreed to do the video rebuttal within hours of hearing the director's pitch. It was filmed Sunday on Long Island. Lounging in a skimpy swimsuit and high heels, Hilton says she is, "like, totally ready to lead." She lays out her energy plan -- a blend of both candidates' proposals -- but only after leafing through a travel magazine to find the best places in the world to get a tan.
McKay's political sentiments are laid bare in a voice-over: "He's the oldest celebrity in the world ... but is he ready to lead?"
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds says the candidate thinks the video is "hilarious," adding that "Hilton might not be as big a celebrity as Obama, but she obviously has a better energy plan."
Hilton is on vacation in Denmark. But the family's sentiments are voiced in a posting by matriarch Kathy on Huffingtonpost.com: McCain's ad is "a complete waste of the country's time ... when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs."
Contributing: David Jackson
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Candidates Paint Each Other as 'Celebrity' Obama and 'More of the Same' McCain
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A06
LENGTH: 541 words
Videos of these ads can be found at www.washingtonpost.com/politics.
Narrator: He's the original maverick. (Graphic: Really?)
John McCain: The president and I agree on most issues. There was a recent study that showed I voted with the president over 90 percent of the time.
Narrator: John McCain supports Bush's tax cuts for millionaires, but nothing for 100 million households. He's for billions in new oil company giveaways while gas prices soar. And for tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. The original maverick? Or just more of the same?
Analysis: This Barack Obama ad begins with footage of a previous McCain commercial, in which he declared himself a maverick and took a veiled shot at President Bush by saying, "We're worse off than we were four years ago." The Democrat's ad uses a 2003 Fox News interview to tie McCain to a president now far more unpopular by using the Arizona Republican's own words.
Obama is being highly selective in saying McCain supports tax cuts for millionaires. The senator from Arizona backs an extension of the Bush cuts for all income levels. The charge that he offers nothing to 100 million households -- sourced to a writer for the Nation magazine -- is based on a McCain plan to double the child dependent exemption. But McCain says that not all the childless families who wouldn't be helped are middle class, and that he offers a health-care tax credit for low-income families.
The ad is selective also in accusing McCain of backing "oil company giveaways" when such firms would simply benefit from his proposed overall cut in the corporate tax rate.
McCain voted against Democratic amendments to discourage moving jobs overseas; these were party-line votes with every Senate Republican in opposition. The "more of the same" tag line tries to cement the image of McCain, who bucked Bush on several issues, as a virtual clone of the president.
Narrator: Is the biggest celebrity in the world ready to help your family? The real Obama promises higher taxes, more government spending, so: fewer jobs. Renewable energy to transform our economy, create jobs and energy independence? That's John McCain.
Analysis: This McCain ad again uses "celebrity" as an epithet, continuing the mocking theme of a previous spot likening Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. The Republican's campaign is trying to turn Obama's popularity against him, suggesting that the much-publicized politician is not the "real" Obama.
McCain is being highly selective in charging Obama with raising taxes, since he would end the Bush tax breaks only for the small fraction of individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and families earning over $250,000. Obama would boost federal spending but argues that investment in such areas as energy would create jobs, not reduce them.
Nothing that McCain -- or Obama -- has proposed would make America energy independent for years. While McCain now champions renewable energy, he opposed legislation that would extend a tax credit for producing such energy. By beginning with shots of crowds cheering Obama, the ad tries to project an image of the senator from Illinois, who has made detailed proposals to help working families, as a phenomenon unconcerned with helping "your family."
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IMAGE; In a spoof ad produced by Funny or Die, Paris Hilton calls McCain the "white-haired dude" and details her own energy plan.
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August 7, 2008 Thursday
Suburban Edition
Outspoken Pawlenty Auditions for Role of Mr. Discretion
BYLINE: Dana Milbank
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A03
LENGTH: 879 words
Tim Pawlenty is an uncommonly forthright man.
The Minnesota governor, who aspires to be John McCain's vice president, said during a radio interview in the spring that his wife enjoys fishing, football and hockey. "Now," Pawlenty quipped, "if I could only get her to have sex with me."
Three months after that public pillow talk, Pawlenty is showing similar openness as he campaigns actively, if unofficially, to be McCain's mate. The governor, a regular on the supposed short list of Republican vice presidential prospects, gave a pair of speeches in Washington yesterday -- one to the GOPAC gathering of Republicans and another to the National Press Club -- that amounted to a public audition for a chance to take up residency at the Naval Observatory.
Pawlenty advertised himself as a conservative: "I loved Ronald Reagan." He flaunted his youthful 47 years: "I came of age when he was president, running for president." He displayed his foreign policy credentials: "I've been to Iraq three times." He established his economic bona fides: "We closed some big budget deficits."
He even presented a ready-to-wear slogan for McCain, as catchy and populist as John Edwards's "two Americas." "We have to be the party of Sam's Club Republicans, not just country club Republicans," the would-be No. 2 said over the clink of silver on china at the press club.
All in all, a strong audition -- and it had to be to keep up with his rivals. With vice presidential announcements by McCain and Barack Obama just weeks, if not days, away, Republican and Democratic aspirants are aggressively marketing themselves before the television cameras this week.
Tom Daschle, a possible Obama pick, was vending his wares at least twice in the past week on CNN. Another aspiring Obama mate, Bill Richardson, has been presenting his credentials ("in the year 2000, when I was energy secretary . . .") on CNN, Fox and MSNBC this week. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a possible McCain partner, was on Fox. Meanwhile, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, an Obama hopeful, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a McCain suitor, did joint auditions on both MSNBC and CNN yesterday. They debated energy policy and deflected questions about the real reason they were there. "It's good for my ego, but probably not much else," said Bayh.
"I can't talk about that process," said Crist.
"We're rooting for both of you," said MSNBC's Joe Scarborough.
But nobody has kept pace with Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and a McCain VP hopeful, who has made no fewer than five broadcast appearances in three days, repeatedly describing Obama as "an Internet date." As for his own ambitions? "I don't expect to be a member of the ticket." Not that he'd mind, of course.
That left Pawlenty with a lot of catching up to do as he arrived for an early-morning speech to GOPAC. He mentioned not only his relative youth and his affection for Reagan, but also his concern that Republican ideas have become "a little stagnant." And he established himself as an above-the-fray choice for McCain as he praised Obama: "Say what you will about Barack Obama, people gravitate when you have something positive to say."
The governor used his downtime after the morning speech to add to his recent round of media interviews. Then he was back on stage at lunchtime, opening his speech to the press club with a tease about the VP selection process. "One of the questions that inevitability will come is, 'When will the decision be made? Who will he pick?' " Pawlenty said. "And I just want to address that right off the top. I don't have any particular insights as to where Brett Favre is going to play next year."
Pawlenty's style was conversational and fluid, but not captivating. His theme, the "Sam's Club Republicans," was just another way of talking about Reagan Democrats. Many of his solutions ("school choice") were Republican boilerplate, and his recommendations -- be "pragmatic," and "ideas matter" -- were often trite.
But he made up for that with his generous show of loyalty toward his would-be boss. Iraq? "The surge has worked. I agree with Senator McCain." McCain's recent turn to negative campaigning? "Unavoidable." McCain's ad likening Obama to Paris Hilton? "A legitimate line of inquiry." McCain's life experiences? "Epic. They are legendary."
Pawlenty performed his audition using the language of the PowerPoint presentation. "We are the party of markets," he explained, going on to discuss voters as "our potential customers," the 2006 "loss of market share," and a "more effective government at a better price," and, inevitably, the use of "benchmarks."
As a bonus, Pawlenty checked another box on the McCain VP requirement list: distance from President Bush. He praised "compassionate conservatism" but added: "That has to be more than just a label." Indirectly, he also scolded Bush for Republicans' "slow" awakening to conservation and their ideological "doldrums."
He got tripped up a bit when asked to square his Sam's Club idea with the "evangelicals and the neoconservatives [who] took over the GOP."
"The metaphor only goes so far," he conceded. But he recovered in time to answer a question about the most important qualities in a prospective vice presidential candidate. "Discretion," Pawlenty said. The audition was over.
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Regional Edition
Highlights
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C06
LENGTH: 341 words
Highlights
"Last Comic Standing" (Channel 4 at 8) lives up to its name on tonight's season finale. The winner receives a $250,000 prize and hopes not to be upstaged by presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, who make special appearances in "funny" campaign commercials.
Memphis (hated by Jerry) and Jessie (hated by everyone) are up for eviction on "Big Brother 10" (Channel 9 at 8).
"So You Think You Can Dance" (Channel 5 at 8) names this season's winner.
Welcome home, stranger! The 30th anniversary of Billy Joel's classic album is celebrated on "Billy Joel: The Stranger Live" (Channel 26 at 8) with the U.S. premiere of footage from his 1978 concert in England.
"Larry Flynt: The Right to Be Left Alone" (IFC at 9) profiles the controversial and always outspoken Hustler magazine publisher.
Prom is really all about the dress, but Bill doesn't get that when he says no to Lauren's pricey designer gown on back-to-back episodes of "The Bill Engvall Show" (TBS at 9).
"Samantha Brown: Passport to Great Weekends" (Travel at 10) journeys to the glorious city of Washington, D.C., with a look at places like U Street and Busboys and Poets.
Behind your sneakers lurks a billion-dollar industry. "The Works" (History at 10) explores the world of everyday shoes.
Some doctor-on-doctor flirting lightens up the intense hospital drama "Hopkins" (Channel 7 at 10) on the season finale.
The team on "Flashpoint" (Channel 9 at 10) is in for a shock when a man holding hostages during a bank robbery is not who everyone suspected.
This season of "My Boys" (TBS at 10) ends with no one happy about Bobby's wedding, possibly including Bobby himself.
"The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" (Channel 4, 11:35) hosts actor Nick Nolte, comedian Carrot Top and a performance by singer Solomon Burke.
Actors Kiefer Sutherland and Rumer Willis and country singer-songwriter Phil Vassar visit "Late Show With David Letterman" (Channel 9, 11:35).
"Jimmy Kimmel Live!" (Channel 7, 12:05) has actor James Franco, musicians Tommy Lee and From First to Last.
-- Emily Yahr
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Rob Loud -- Getty Images; Fans of Billy Joel (shown in July) can see rare footage tonight from 1978.
IMAGE; By Kelsey Mcneal -- Fox; Three of the four "So You Think You Can Dance" finalists won't be smiling tonight.
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August 7, 2008 Thursday
Regional Edition
A Way Back to the High Road?;
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BYLINE: David S. Broder
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A21
LENGTH: 724 words
The first question I asked John McCain and then Barack Obama was: How do you feel about the tone and direction of the campaign so far?
No surprise. Both men pronounced themselves thoroughly frustrated by the personal bitterness and negativism they have seen in the two months since they learned they would be running against each other.
"I'm very sorry about it," McCain said in a Saturday interview at his Arlington headquarters. "I think we could have avoided at least some of this if we had agreed to do the town hall meetings" together, as he had suggested, during the summer months.
Obama, in a phone interview yesterday from Elkhart, Ind., argued that "the classic tit-for-tat campaigning" of recent weeks "is part of the politics of the past that we have to move beyond." Ironically, having turned down McCain's proposal for weekly joint town halls, Obama argued that the formal debates, starting in late September, may refocus the campaign on real issues.
On June 4, McCain proposed 10 town-hall-style debates before screened audiences of uncommitted independent voters across the country. Obama countered by offering two such sessions this summer, one on Independence Day and one in August, and the idea died. Three days ago, Obama said he would participate only in the three debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, the first of which is scheduled for Sept. 26.
Since the idea of joint town meetings was scrapped, the campaign has featured tough and often negative ads and speeches. They culminated last week in an exchange in which Obama said that McCain and his supporters were calling attention to the Democrat's unusual name and the fact that "he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills."
The McCain campaign in turn accused Obama of playing "the race card."
In the interviews, both candidates expressed indignation at what was being said about them. "I'm not going to be smeared," McCain declared. "I went through that once, and I'm not going to do it again. . . . If anybody says I'm a racist . . . I'm not going to stand for that."
Obama insisted that he had never made such an accusation. And he condemned McCain for suggesting that "I would rather lose a war to win a political campaign. That is patently offensive. When his campaign ran an ad suggesting that I had refused to visit wounded troops because I couldn't have TV cameras with me, reporters immediately said that was patently false. . . . I'm not going to sit back and let my record be distorted."
When I asked Obama how he thought the campaign could be returned to the issues, he said he hoped that the two conventions would "offer each party a chance to showcase its best ideas" and that the three scheduled presidential debates then "will allow people to see Senator McCain and myself interact in a way that keeps people more honest because you're standing there face to face."
I told Obama that McCain made exactly that point in arguing for the early joint appearances. What McCain actually said was: "When you have to stand on a stage with your opponent, as I've done in other campaigns, you obviously have a tendency to improve the relationship. . . . When you have to spend time with somebody, I think it changes the equation."
I asked Obama if he had any regrets about turning down McCain's early June invitation to start the joint appearances back then. He said, "I think the notion that somehow as a consequence of not having joint appearances, Senator McCain felt obliged to suggest that I'd rather lose a war to win a campaign doesn't automatically follow. I think we each have control over ourselves and our campaigns, and we have to take responsibility for that."
He also noted, "We responded with an offer of doing five debates, rather than the traditional three, which the McCain campaign declined.
"My general point," Obama continued, "is that both the conventions and the debates will offer formats for Senator McCain and myself to make our best case to the American people at a time when the American people will be paying attention.
"And ultimately, the best corrective to overly negative campaigns are the American people, who are not interested in a lot of bickering but are interested in who's got the best answers for the country."
I think everybody would agree with that last point.
davidbroder@washpost.com
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August 7, 2008 Thursday
Met 2 Edition
Obama Hits Back, Too Softly For Some
BYLINE: Jonathan Weisman and Perry Bacon Jr.; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1068 words
Barack Obama released a television advertisement yesterday that questions John McCain's claims to be a "maverick," and he charged in a campaign appearance that the Republican displays independence only when it suits him politically.
Obama aides said Democratic hand-wringing about polls showing that the presidential race remains tight had nothing to do with the volleys.
"We are not going to base our campaign on the concerns of so-called campaign strategists on cable TV," spokesman Bill Burton said.
But the ad and the Democrat's rhetoric in Indiana appeared to up the ante in a campaign that took a distinct turn toward the negative last week.
"The price [McCain] paid for his party's nomination has been to reverse himself on position after position," Obama told a crowd of more than 1,000 at a high school gym in Elkhart. "That doesn't meet my definition of a maverick. You can't be a maverick when politically it's important for you but not a maverick when it doesn't work for you."
The parries come more than a week after his Republican opponent launched a string of increasingly personal attacks on Obama. McCain has said that his rival would lose a war in order to win a campaign, accused him of going to a gym rather than visiting wounded troops, and, while aides asserted that he had "played the race card," hinted that Obama has a messiah complex and portrayed him as a celebrity comparable to Paris Hilton or Britney Spears. That final line of assault continued yesterday with a new McCain ad, again mocking Obama as "the biggest celebrity in the world."
Such attacks have raised worries among Democratic strategists -- haunted by John F. Kerry's 2004 run and Al Gore's razor-thin loss in 2000 -- that Obama has not responded in kind with a parallel assault on McCain's character. Interviews with nearly a dozen Democratic strategists found those concerns to be widespread, although few wished to be quoted by name while Obama's campaign is demanding unity.
"Democrats are worried," said Tad Devine, a top strategist for Kerry who thinks Obama must stay on the high road. "We've been through two very tough elections at the national level, and it's very easy to lose confidence."
Obama's latest ad may be his toughest yet, using words and images to link McCain to President Bush and concluding: "The original maverick? Or just more of the same?"
But Democratic strategists said that it is nothing like the character attacks by McCain, and that the response could be far nastier, perhaps raising McCain's ethical scrape in the Keating Five savings and loan scandal, mocking his family wealth and designer shoes, or highlighting his age. After McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm suggested that the United States has become "a nation of whiners," Democratic strategists said Obama should have immediately started an ad blitz.
"If somebody attacks you, you have to frame the attack: 'This is the same old politics, or better yet, the Bush-Rove politics,' " something Obama has done well, said one Democratic strategist. "At the same time you do that, you have to counterattack. You don't want to look like a whiner. You want to look tough."
Said another Democratic consultant: "There needs to be a negative McCain track beyond the Bush policy stuff. One of the great strengths of the Obama campaign has been to not listen to the D.C. chattering class. They have a plan and they stick to it. But clearly, the D.C. chattering class are all wringing their hands."
A liberal advertising consultant said: "There's frustration there because they're watching these childish ad campaigns, and they know exactly how to answer it, but they're powerless to do so."
Powerless, that is, because most of the independent groups that would have taken the lead in such an independent campaign have been sidelined by Obama's insistence that Democratic donors channel their money to him, rather than outside groups. Obama's efforts have succeeded in maintaining message discipline in a campaign predicated on what the senator from Illinois has called a new kind of politics.
But that has hamstrung what would have been one of the three fronts on which Democrats had hoped to wage the 2008 campaign, said Donna Brazile, Gore's 2000 campaign manager. Obama's team was able to push back quickly against McCain's character attacks, she said, and the Democratic National Committee is beginning to engage the Republican National Committee in a more cutting effort, yesterday starting an "Exxon-McCain '08" campaign that portrays the Republican as the running mate of the oil giant.
But the surrogate groups remain dormant, Brazile said, because of Obama's decision to cut them out.
"There are no independent groups. Everybody's walked off the field," said Tom Matzzie, who left MoveOn.org to form Progressive Media USA specifically to launch a massive attack against McCain. The group has since disbanded for lack of funding.
So far, said Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org's executive director, the best response to McCain's celebrity attack has come from Paris Hilton herself, who released her own ad Tuesday calling McCain "the oldest celebrity in the world, like super old."
Consultants close to Obama say the Democrat has good reason not to risk his own campaign by following McCain's lead. Because McCain has accepted public financing for the general-election campaign, he must spend all his primary campaign money before the party conventions. Obama is focusing on turning out voters, while airing a mix of positive ads and responses.
And more ads may not help, according to a Pew Research Center poll released yesterday. Nearly half of respondents -- including 51 percent of independents -- said they have been hearing too much about Obama lately, and 22 percent said all that news has made them feel less favorable toward him. On the other hand, significantly more Americans view McCain's ads as mostly negative than say the same of Obama's.
Because Obama opted out of public financing and the spending limits that come with it, he will be free to swamp McCain with television spots in the fall. If he needs to become more negative at that point, he can -- knowing that McCain would be hard pressed to reply.
Obama spokesman Burton said the campaign sees no reason to shift strategy.
"This is a classic Washington story, anonymous quotes from armchair quarterbacks with no sense of our strategy, data or plan," he said.
Bacon reported from Elkhart, Ind.
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August 7, 2008 Thursday 2:00 PM EST
Celebritology Live: Paris Hilton Pokes Fun at McCain; Morgan Freeman's Accident
BYLINE: Liz Kelly, washingtonpost.com Celebritology Blogger, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4676 words
HIGHLIGHT: When stars shave their heads, couch-jump, spend countless minutes in jail, commit a fashion faux pas and/or other random acts of ego-inspired inanity, washingtonpost.com Celebritology blogger Liz Kelly is on the job. Every weekday, Liz shares the buzz, offers perspective and provides crucial links to juicy alternate news sources and, of course, takes your reaction in her daily blog.
When stars shave their heads, couch-jump, spend countless minutes in jail, commit a fashion faux pas and/or other random acts of ego-inspired inanity, washingtonpost.com Celebritology blogger Liz Kelly is on the job. Every weekday, Liz shares the buzz, offers perspective and provides crucial links to juicy alternate news sources and, of course, takes your reaction in her daily blog.
Join Liz LIVE every Thursday at 2 p.m. ET to gab about the latest celebrity pairings (and splittings), rising stars (and falling ones), and get the scoop on the latest gossip making waves across the Web.
In her pre-celeb obsessed days (as if!), Liz ran washingtonpost.com's Discussions section, where she enjoyed talking to really interesting people -- sometimes even Post reporters -- on the phone. She still produces Pulitzer-prize winner Gene Weingarten's weekly Chatological Humor discussion.
Celebritology Live Archive
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Liz Kelly: Afternoon one and all. Welcome back to our little weekly program -- where no story is too big or too small for discussion. I'm sure everyone will be: -- happy to learn that Morgan Freeman checked out of the hospital this afternoon. We wish him a speedy recovery. -- surprised to learn that Jamie-Lynn Spears took her seven-week-old baby shopping at the Kentwood, La., Wal-Mart. Gotta build that brand loyalty young. -- And, finally, relieved to learn that Tara Reid is not 'Dancing With the Stars' material. Let's get started...
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Falls Church, Va.: Liz, what do you think of Mary Kate asking for immunity in Heath Ledger's case? If she did nothing wrong was does she have to be worried about? Or does she? Hmmm....
washingtonpost.com: Lawyer: Mary-Kate Olsen Doesn't Know Source of Heath Ledger's Drugs (Us Magazine, Aug. 4)
Liz Kelly: Well, it's all a wash now that the Feds dropped the entire investigation today. It was as if, met with MK's resistance, they just threw in the towel. And that may not be so far off the mark. If they were grasping at Mary-Kate as their star witness -- or even as a target of their investigation -- she and her lawyer seem to have been prepared to entirely disabuse them of that notion. Also, I hear that the prosecutor is a really big "Full House" fan from way back.
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Rockville, Md.: I have to admit it -- Luke's Parental Advisory made me laugh harder than any reality TV show in history. I hope they can keep it up.
Liz Kelly: Did you watch? Give me a one or two sentence review? After watching Pam and Diddy for 90 minutes, I just couldn't take any more.
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Did anyone else whine about this or is it just, ME: Liz Kelly, I was hurt and upset and devastated and on my way out the door anyway when I got this message from the upgraded software yesterday:
"Your comment submission failed for the following reasons:
"Too many comments have been submitted from you in a short period of time. Please try again in a short while."
("Too many" = 6 in 54-odd minutes.)
You know, a lot of your regular commenters are just 'so darn clever' that a limit like that stifles their creativity.
Can't we post as often as we want, at least until we get over this whole Paris-for-President thing? I promise we'll govern ourselves with tact and dignity.
Liz Kelly: I did not hear about this, but it is a matter of gravest import to our thriving community and, as such, I will send it up the pole to the tech gurus and get an answer. How are we supposed to have a daily back and forth if one side of the conversation is essentially gagged? Hey, wait a minute...
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Bawlmer: Thoughts on the Anderson Cooper/Lohan dustup? Apparently Cooper again expressed his concern over having a 14 -ear-old appear on reality television, and Michael fired back by calling Anderson an "opinionated, hypocritical idiot." Mmm, classy.
Liz Kelly: Well, like any sane person I of course agree with Anderson. I think what he said was, "I cannot believe I'm wasting a minute of my life watching these horrific people" and then goes on to call 16-year-old Ali a publicity [derogatory term], ably aided by her stage mother, Dinah. Obviously, I'm paraphrasing. Here's the video. And it was actually papa Michael -- who is persona non grata in Ali and Dinah's life -- who called Cooper a "hypocrite" -- saying Cooper has "his own issues."
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M Street, Washington, D.C.: I have to say the blog takes some "interesting" turns when it gets overrun by people posting political stuff -- someone is actually debunking Paris Hilton's energy policy!
It makes me realize the world is a scary place. Thank NPH I have my pony to keep me safe.
Liz Kelly: Yes, I love that some commenters are referring to Paris's scripted thoughts as "The Hilton Plan." It just makes her sound so gosh darned legitimate. I half expect her to turn up at the next IMF meeting or in Iran on a diplomatic mission. It's a little jarring. All this time I thought "The Hilton Plan" was more like: 1. Be born to wealth. 2. Be hot. 3. Dance on tables. 4. Come up with viral catch-phrase (i.e. "That's hot.") 5. Get hair extensions. 6. date a Madden brother. 7. Film reality show. 8. Return to no. 1 and start over.
Liz Kelly: Actually, Jen Chaney and I were just discussing the fact that Paris doesn't come off as a total moron in her video response to McCain. Which means she's either: a. Not a total moron. b. Able to read lines and regurgitate them as if she actually understood what she is talking about. Which puts her one ahead of George W. Bush. It would just be fascinating if this clip ushered in a new era: Paris the Scholar, in which we find that she's not a hair-brained heiress after all, but a wit on the scale of Andy Kaufman: she's just been having us on this entire time, creating a vapid public-digestable character. We could create a whole secret Paris Hilton diary in which she vents her intellectual spleen regularly, since her "character" is only able to half-smile and giggle most of the time. Okay, I need to move on.
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Mens Wear Dept, Tysons Corner: So Tara Reid is not Dancing with the Stars material, nut Kim Kardashian is. I can't wait to see Kim's butt dancing choreography.
Liz Kelly: Right. See, even in the land of skanks, there is a hierarchy.
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Richmond, Va.: So, Morgan Freeman has a car wreck AND he's getting divorced. Worst week ever? I hope the female friend in the car doesn't have anything to do with the marriage breaking up.
Liz Kelly: We don't have any details at this point, so I wouldn't want to speculate. Also, I'm not so sure I care. He's a grown man.
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Gainesville, Fla.: Any speculation on possible relations between Freeman's accident and the timing of his divorce announcement -- kinda suprising considering almost a quarter of century of staying together? Or is it really just a bad year for Morgan? I mean... Wanted... really?... come on.
Liz Kelly: I think the accident probably led to this information being leaked out, yes indeed. But at least from what I read, Morgan and his wife of 20-odd years have actually been living separately for the past year. And while there may have been no reason to make that public before, speculation about Morgan's female car companion had many looking into her identity and relationship with the actor. So the information was "leaked" by a business partner of Morgan's and now we know -- even Morgan Freeman is human.
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Arlington Kevin Smith fan : Posting early because I can't check the chat at work (boo)...
This is actually for Jen. I just wanted her to know that I was so bummed about Kevin Smith not making the interview he had scheduled with Jen at Comic-Con that I posted to his message board about it. Here's hoping that he will schedule (and show up for) an interview with The Post when Zack and Miri comes out this fall!
Liz Kelly: I passed your note along to Jen and she wanted me to share this with you: Thanks for posting a note on the board, that's very kind of you. I am hoping Mr. Smith will come to Washington(post.com) for a discussion of some sort in the near future. If something arises, we will certainly let you know.
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Arlington, Va.: re: the comments upgrade. I was really hoping the psycho commenters on the political blogs would magically disappear after the software upgrade, but I guess I was just hoping for too much.
Anyway, I've noticed on several blogs (including yours) that it will say there are a certain number of comments, like say 6, but when you click to read them there are actually way more than 6. Not the biggest problem in the world, but if I'm about to wade into a morass of hundreds of bkd-type comments, it would be better to be forewarned.
Thanks.
Liz Kelly: I think part of the upgrade involved migrating the blogs to new servers -- note the url has changed from blog.washingtonpost.com/celebritology to voices.washingtonpost.com/celebritology, so they are still working to reconcile comments made on both versions. Okay, the previous sentence was way too techy and corp-speak for my taste. I need to go read OK! magazine for 30 minutes to deprogram. Or reprogram, depending on how you look at it.
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Pennsylvania: Hi Liz! At the risk of being thrown off the chat by those who want it free of politics, I have a question about John Edwards. In Shailagh Murray's politics chat earlier today, someone mentioned a "John Edwards sex scandal." I hadn't heard of anything such thing (sounds like she hadn't either). Do we know anything about this?
Liz Kelly: It's more of a baby scandal, but I suppose the fact that a purported "love child" allegedly exists implies that some sex was indeed being had. And considering that John Edwards is a supposedly happily-married former presidential candidate from South Carolina, that would make the sex pretty scandalous at that. I've been avoiding this one in the blog since I figured it would be covered elsewhere to better effect. Rocci will provide a link to the appropriate rag that claims to have photographic evidence that not only has John Edwards held a baby, he's held a baby while wearing a sweaty blue T-shirt.
Liz Kelly: I'm told we're actually not allowed to link to it, but a quick Google search on "John Edwards love child" will bring up the appropriate link for any interested parties out there.
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MK's Immunity: I don't know... if cops can burst into your home and kill your dogs (while one is running away, mind you) and handcuff your mother-in-law, well then maybe immunity is necessary. She didn't know what they'd come up with, and maybe she wanted to protect herself from their stupidity. And, believe me, I am not an Olsen defender.
Liz Kelly: I think you are an Olsen defender. Why not just admit it?
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byool, IN.: Liz Kelly, what is it about your use of the word "highbrow" in the title of your posts that seems to bring out the opposite tenor in the discussions?
Are you using that word ironically and I'm missing it, or should you start calling those posts "T--- and A--"?
Also, I agree with what '...or is it just, ME' said.
Liz Kelly: Now there's a thought...
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LAX: Enough about celebrities, how about an Andy update (including picture).
Liz Kelly: No new pics to share -- I'll take some for next week. But Andy has been a bit of a pill for the past week or so. He's gotten hyper-aggressive and it's mainly directed at me. One second he'll be fin -- typical chilled out cat gratefully accepting a head rub. The next he is launching himself at me or chasing me around the house, looking incredibly irked. We actually have friends visiting from California and they are scared of the cat. I can't tell you how many times I've said, "He's usually a really nice cat." Sigh. The vet thinks it might be the fact that he's been on steroids for over a month now. Basically 'roid rage. We're going to work on weaning him off and hoping that his allergies stay under control.
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Groovis: Coincidence? Morgan Freeman films a movie with Angelina Jolie and suddenly he and his wife of 20-some years are separated.....
Liz Kelly: Oh stop it!
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Nosy Parker: Last Friday you woodshedded me but good for having sent you a question on the previous day's online chat re Paris or Britney's possible political leanings, in the wake of the McCain ad picturing them as, gasp, celebs.
Then today you wrote in your Highbrow, "it turns out Hilton had contributed funds to the McCain campaign in the past."
Guess I was just ahead of the curve!
Liz Kelly: Not so fast -- it turns out Paris Hilton's mother has contributed to the McCain campaign. Read more closely. And I'm sorry about the whole woodshed thing.
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Atlanta, Ga.: I really wanted to not like the Paris spoof since she seems to represent all that is wrong with our society. So what does it mean that I didn't hate it and thought it was clever? Chalk it up to good writing and hold on to my judgments? This is just too much!
Liz Kelly: Yes, exactly -- don't let Paris fool you. Despite my fantasy of a secretly in-on-the-joke Paris, the reality is that she's probably blissfully unaware of the cost of a tank of gas and doesn't know any more today about the campaign than she did last week. What she is, though, is capable of reading and memorizing a well-written script. So if you want to like someone, like the guy (or gal) behind the camera.
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Paris: Somewhere in your steps, you forgot "make dirty video in nightvision that (oops!) goes public."
Anyway, I don't pay much attention to her (and never watched her TV show) but I've always had a feeling that she might actually be pretty smart, and is just playing a role. If not book smart, at least quite media-savvy. And that's where McCain's campaign made a mistake -- don't take a public jab at someone who is far better than you at media play and image management. Sure, her video was scripted by others, but you have to give her some credit for understanding how to seize a free opportunity, and for having a sense of humor about herself. Clearly, her main motivation was to get herself back in the news and promote her own "brand," but it had the secondary benefit of delivering a smackdown to someone who thought he could denigrate her with impunity. Good for her.
Liz Kelly: Sure, she seized an opportunity -- but lets not assume the video was Paris's brainstorm. I'm guessing it was thunk up by someone at FunnyorDie.com and she was presented with the opportunity. Only then did that genius for self-marketing kick in and make the right decision.
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Los Angeles, Calif.: Why would anyone want to ever do a remake of "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill?" when the original is such a classic? And to do it with Britney Spears? Is nothing sacred anymore?
Liz Kelly: I agree. As much as I want to trust Quentin Tarantino, I just have a hard time stomaching the idea of making that movie, which, along with "Mudhoney" were just incredible Russ Meyer movies. I get that Tarantino has a special place in his heart for the flicks, but why not doing something "in the style of" rather than an outright remake? Also, I think Quentin's half of "Grindhouse" stink stank stunk, so it has me a bit worried. Not to mention the rumors of Britney's casting.
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Inquiring Minds: I guess you missed Bear Grylls cooking and eating the skunk on "Man vs. Wild" last night? Ewww.
Liz Kelly: I did. Mr. Liz and I have been watching the first seasons on DVD of "30 Rock" and "Mad Men."
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State College, Pa.: The House Republicans doing the dog-and-pony show just brought up "The Paris Hilton Energy Plan".
Hilton-Spears '08!
BTW, Cillizza's in Argentina. Ed O'Keefe is blogsitting this week.
Liz Kelly: That Cillizza, he moves to quickly for mere mortals to keep up.
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Enquiring Minds: Liz:
Why won't The Post let you link to the National Enquirer's John Edwards story? The Rumor Mill section of Celebritology links to sketchily sourced stories from scurrilous sources all the time. What's special about the Edwards story that puts it out of bounds?
Liz Kelly: I dunno. Different editor making a different call. One that I will definitely seek clarity about after this hour is up. I just don't want to get a producer in trouble to prove a point.
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Falls Church, Va.: Liz, what was going on Wednesday... I couldn't find your blog/daily mix. It is the first thing I read once I get to work. How was I supposed to get thru the day?! Please say you won't do this to us again!
Liz Kelly: Someone doesn't read carefully -- I posted a note on the Tuesday blog entries letting everyone know that (for what I'm sure is a very good reason) our tech gurus decided to upgrade our backend blog software in the middle of the week, rather than on a weekend. The upgrade meant no posting by me and no commenting from you. Though I did get up a mix as soon as we were back in business -- around 2:30 p.m. yesterday.
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TV: So I'm curious, what reality TV are you watching these days?
Liz Kelly: Ya know, I think I'm back down to "Cops" at this point. Neither Pam nor Diddy impressed me enough to keep watching. Anyone have any recommendations?
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The evil genius behind the Paris video: is Adam McKay: Behind the Paris-McCain ad with creator Adam McKay (L.A. Times, Aug. 5)
Liz Kelly: There you go -- this is the guy to whom you should be giving props.
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Truly matrimonial material?: Reese and Jake? Jen and John Mayer? Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo?
Liz Kelly: Ummm... none of the above. Though matrimonial speculation has swirled around all three couples in the past week.
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Mens Wear Dept, Tysons Corner: What about those shoes that Paris Hilton was wearing in her parody campaign advertisement?
Liz Kelly: Well, I'm glad you mentioned those shoes. It seems she was wearing high heels, yet, their effect was totally canceled out by the fact that she had the heels stuck through the bottom of the deck chair. That, more than anything else, was a big blow to the "Hilton Plan" credibility. If she can waste inches of heel so casually, why should we trust her with energy policy?
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Paris: Geez, and here I was thinking she would be hosting seminars on energy policy at the Brookings Institute and American Enterprise Institute before the campaign ended? Or a town hall meeting on Rodeo Drive where Obama wore a jeweled flag pin and McCain was in biker duds?
Liz Kelly: McCain in biker duds? Ewww. I just had a vision of him wearing chaps and it wasn't a pretty picture.
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Boulder, Colo.: Please don't ever refer to Paris Hilton as a scholar...she didn't even finish high school for Pete's sake!
Liz Kelly: Listen you self-important intellectual, maybe Paris is a student of life.
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Jes: Re: Paris may be smart, isn't media savvy just another way of saying publicity wh-re? And really how smart does one need to be?
Liz Kelly: Right. I mean, even Tara Reid still gets regular rotation in the tabloids. And, umm, today's chat.
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Arlington, Va.: No question, I just wanted to spice up my day by getting posted in your chat. You rock! You are totally HAWT!
Liz Kelly: I read your posting too fast and that last word alarmed me greatly at first, until I realized it was just situational dyslexia. So, thanks. I think.
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Synthesizing politics, fashion AND Celebritology: We need a survey of which potential vice presidential nominees wear flat-fronts, and which wear pleats.
Liz Kelly: I'll get right on that. Or perhaps this is a job for Ed O'Keefe.
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2 things: If this were Russia, Putin would already have gotten Paris into the government and speaking of "why are they doing this?" remakes, I just saw trailer for "The Day the Earth Stood Still"
An absolute tragedy
Liz Kelly: Oh, the trailer -- I had to sit through an entire panel at Comic-Con. Don't even get me started.
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Liz Kelly: My friend Lisa Todorovich, who is smart, just reminded me that John Edwards is from N. Carolina, not South (though he was born in S.C.). I would like to point out to Lisa and her big brain that I know exactly where Paris Hilton is from.
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Washington, D.C.: I heard last night on Access or ET that the Faster Pussycat rumor was untrue. Britney will not be in the movie.
Liz Kelly: Well, if Access Hollywood said so, then I can sleep comfortably tonight.
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washingtonpost.com: The Day the Earth Stood Still/Trailer #1
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Love Lizzzzz!: So glad to have you back and be off that Comic-Con stuff! My office mates and I are thinking of going in together to share a subscription to Us Weekly, People or something like that. Which would be your first choice for gossip rag delivered to your desk?
Liz Kelly: Well, here's my philosophy: I read online -- all of the major gossip glossies have pretty good Web sites with lots of value-added content. But if I just happen to see an interesting cover on the newsstand or in the grocery aisle, I spring for it then and there. I am just out of control spontaneous like that. Also, producer Rocci regularly buys the real down and dirty tabloids, so I sneak a peek at those while visiting his desk.
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M Street, Washington, D.C.: Speaking of standing still, do you think anyone would notice if Keanu was replaced by a mannequin in any of his roles? Or CGI'd entirely in some parts, like Brandon Lee in the Crow?
Liz Kelly: I think it would be noticeable because the mannequin might just out-act him.
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Media savvy: I guess I see some difference between someone who loves publicity but doesn't seem to have control over it (Britney?) and someone who seems to have a strategy. Paris is the epitome of someone who's famous for being famous (unlike Britney, who actually had a successful music career for a while (note I didn't say she was good)), and I don't think it's just happenstance. I give her credit for making that happen -- she made an industry out of ... what? Not talent, not really looks (she's no more attractive than 100 other would-be starlets), not anything you can specifically identify.
Liz Kelly: Right. I think it's a case of the world being ripe for someone like Paris and her coming along at the right time. Preparation (in the form of hair extensions and partying) meeting opportunity (the expanding gossip news audience).
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Britney needs to take a page from Paris' playbook: Given that Britney is from Louisiana, which has lots of offshore oil-drilling, when are we going to hear about her energy plan for the country?
Liz Kelly: As I said in my main piece this morning, Brit has remained silent on the ad. I'm guessing she's trying to get "The Spears Plan" fully vetted before sharing it with the rest of us.
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Fruitfly: C-O-P-S! Cops, Cops, Cops!
There's John Edwards Love Child commentary happening over at the XXFactor blog on Slate.com, too -- much of it about why the "Mainstream Press" isn't working the story.
Liz, doesn't The Enquirer have a history of breaking stories that actually turn out to be legit and picked up by MSM outlets later?
Liz Kelly: They sure do. Of course no examples come to mind right now, but given a little time I could come up with a nice list of stories the Enquirer brought us first.
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Arlington, Va.: Quentin Tarentino is a tiresome blowhard. He should have quit after Pulp Fiction.
Liz Kelly: No way. The "Kill Bill" movies were incredible -- in fact, I'd say better than "Pulp Fiction."
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Alexandria, Va.: Liz, I caught this quote in Howard Kurtz's Media Notes this a.m. and I nearly hurt myself laughing. Quasi-celebrity Creationist Ben Stein has apparently had it up to HERE with a certain fun-loving heiress and decided to tell her off in the American Spectator, even though she didn't even start it! Just a quick excerpt: "This little tramp, who isn't even close to being pretty [!], is belittling a man who spent six years in brutal captivity for defending his country. . . . Paris, get this: in modern day America, we don't . . . make fun of old people for being old. This is uncool from any source. It is downright disgusting coming from a porn star -- and not a very good porn star at that (yes, I have seen the tape). And we especially don't like being told how to vote by porn stars."
Oooh, she struck a nerve!
How can anyone -- even a right wing nut such as this one -- not realize how badly this makes HIM, and his favored candidate, look? Noooooo sense of humor. They tried to use Ms. Hilton, exploiting her image shamelessly, to cast shame on someone else and score points, and then she turned around, shrugged, and made a funny (a very funny funny) and in response -- well one can almost see this guy flailing and sputtering. She should be ASHAMED, yet she ISN'T!
For some reason my heart just took wing when I read this and I've been giggling ever since. I hope your pal Gene sees it.
Liz Kelly: I don't have anything to add, but couldn't agree with you more.
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TV Recommendations: "Flipping Out" -- I think the season's over but Bravo will probably rebroadcast. That guy is totally anal retentive.
"Mythbusters" -- Just started a new season. (I like to see stuff being blown up.)
Liz Kelly: Cool. Mr. Liz tried to get me to watch "I Love Money" last week. It's a competition show on VH1 that pits former reality "stars" from past shows (like "Rock of Love") against each other. Ugh.
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Las Vegas: The Enquirer is the tip sheet of choice for anyone running a Celebrity Ghoul Pool.
Liz Kelly: Right.
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Washington, D.C.: I think most folks would agree with me (whether or not they've seen The Wire) that the guy who plays Stringer Bell is smokin' hot.
Thanks to you and your obsession, I noticed that he wears a LOT of pleated pants. I decided that these do not diminish his hotness.
So I can comfortably go back to not caring about pleats versus flat-fronts. Even though Mike Rowe had a funny take on it.
Liz Kelly: Good for you. I'd also like to point out that Nathan Fillion has also come out strongly against pleats.
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Paris vid: who sits on one of those chaise lounges without some kind of cushion or, at minimum, a beach towel? You KNOW Paris wouldn't abide the discomfort OR the stripes left on the backs of her thighs.
Liz Kelly: Well, I can tell you that's the first thing that crossed my mind when I first saw the video. Then I moved on to wondering whether or not that pool had recently been serviced.
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Pleated pants: Liz - I don't know if you noticed but Obama wore pleated khakis while during his world tour. Have you noticed if McCain favors pleated or flat-fronts? This might be the deciding factor in my vote.
Liz Kelly: I'm sure Obama's pleats are merely a strategic attempt to appeal to the common man. He couldn't possibly be wearing them out of personal preference. Not with a wife like Michelle by his side.
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Cleveland, Ohio: Love this -- Celebs We Prefer Dirty: our beloved 'Lost' cast gets a group nod: Hot and Dirty (MSN)
Liz Kelly: Oh my. Well, I guess we'll end on this today since no one will return once clicking through to this gallery. See you here next week and tomorrow in the blog...
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: August 8, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
August 7, 2008 Thursday 1:00 PM EST
Washington Sketch
BYLINE: Dana Milbank, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2581 words
HIGHLIGHT: Post columnist Dana Milbank, who serves as the capital's foremost critic of political theater in his Washington Sketch columns and videos, was online Thursday, Aug. 7 at 1 p.m. ET to take your questions and comments about the things politicians say -- and the absurd ways they find to say them.
Post columnist Dana Milbank, who serves as the capital's foremost critic of political theater in his Washington Sketch columns and videos, was online Thursday, Aug. 7 at 1 p.m. ET to take your questions and comments about the things politicians say -- and the absurd ways they find to say them.
The transcript follows.
Subscribe to this discussion
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Dana Milbank: Good afternoon, Sketchreaders. Or good morning from here in southern California, where I sit and chat today with a view of palms and the Pacific. Had our Founding Fathers been as smart as we all think they were, they surely would have located the capital here in Solana Beach. I'll be off for the next couple of weeks before the convention, but am eager first to take your questions about happenings in the devil's city: the veepstakes, Tim Pawlenty's sex life, Barack Obama's recurring Hillary nightmare, Ted Stevens's not-guilty plea, and House Republicans' lonely fight in the darkened House chamber this week while their leader plays golf.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Dana, you're not anybody in the Washington media scene until you've been called a "gutter journalist" by the White House. That was their pushback this week to the allegations in Ron Suskind's new book about the Iraq/al-Qaeda/WMD forgeries. Have you considered doing a Sketch on, well, Washington's gutters? I think you should.
Dana Milbank: Yes I am very jealous of my friend Ron Suskind, an old Wall Street Journal colleague, for the "gutter journalist" label. The closest I came was being called a "trash journalist" by Barbara Boxer. In fairness, Ron is not a tall man (a trait we have in common) so the White House may have meant the description literally, meaning he is closer to the gutter than others.
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Minneapolis: I have a great appreciation for the pithiness you displayed in last week's chat, but I think in fact that many of the whiners had at least a semi-valid point that you failed to address. The context of Obama's "symbol" statement was important, just as the context of McCain's "100 years" statement was important. When we don't get the full context, we're being served poorly by the media, who are supposed to provide the context and the fact-checking. Merely falling back on saying the quote was literally accurate isn't enough. So I give you a 91 for your performance last week.
Dana Milbank: Thank you for that rating and for that no-whine question.
Hopefully we needn't go through all of this again, but to make sure everybody's clear: My colleague Jonathan Weisman and I believe the quote was correct as written, and that this supposed "context" is a recreation, after-the-fact, by Democratic aides who were worried about how the quote looked. Perhaps Obama didn't mean for it to come out that way, but there's every reason to believe it did. The Post's ombudsman will be writing about it this weekend, I think, so we'll see what she has to say.
Here's what my friend and former colleague Mike Allen wrote last weekend about it in his excellent Politico Playbook:
"FOLLOWING UP: One of Playbook's functions is drawing clear lines around what's known and what's disputed. But we miscalibrated an item last week. The Washington Post strongly stands behind its report that Obama told House Democrats during a closed meeting: 'I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.' The quote was included in the aforementioned Dana Milbank's memorable 'presumptuous nominee' Sketch, which provoked a blogswarm.
"Democratic aides are also standing behind their contention that what the senator said was more like: 'It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have just become a symbol.'
"We're told there's no tape. Adding to the intrigue, Dana wrote in an online chat on WashingtonPost.com: '[O]ur source -- who was among the [House Democratic aides] complaining about the quotes yesterday -- sent us the quotes in writing in an e-mail Wednesday night.' "
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Dana Point, Calif.: I really hope Pawlenty does not get onto the ticket, and that either a true Maverick choice is made with Meg Whitman (eBay CEO) or a true GOP choice (safe) with Gov. Romney. Whitman adds demographic momentum (youth interested in a non-traditional vice president, women for McCain) and likely will provide compelling coverage for weeks. The Californian's a political newcomer who favored Romney, but her conversion provides an additional campaign narrative. Romney is the safe choice, in the mold of Cheney, Bush Sr. and Jack Kemp. Few people have the energy, brains and composure of Romney -- but this would require McCain to reach out from his cult of personality for a running mate.
Dana Milbank: Delighted to take a question from my neighbor in the beautifully named Dana Point, Calif.
I've been flacking Carly Fiorina pretty hard, but it looks as if I'm an army of one on that. So, yes, Meg Whitman would help McCain a good bit, particularly if Obama goes with a St. Albans guy like Bayh.
Pawlenty wouldn't be all bad, though -- particularly if he keeps making jokes about his wife.
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Laurel, Md.: I was wondering if you think many people are buying this ridiculous dog-and-pony show the Republicans are putting on regarding bringing Congress back, giving out tire pressure gauges, etc. Bush does nothing on energy for seven and a half years except to give oil companies big tax breaks, the Republicans vote against alternative energy funding and tax breaks for wind, solar, etc. ... and now they try and pull this? The tire pressure gauges remind me of a milder version of what they did to John Kerry. Give me a break!
washingtonpost.com: At Recess, a Little One-Sided Dodgeball (Post, Aug. 5)
Dana Milbank: The tire pressure gauge is clever, I think, but the McCain demand to call Congress back probably won't go far. After all, he hardly ever showed up to vote when Congress was in session. Meanwhile, gas prices continue to fall, which suggests that maybe the best thing for lawmakers to do about the energy crisis is to stay home and play golf.
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Chaska, Minn.: If I may go back to last week, while most folks were caught up in the symbol quote kerfuffle, I was more wondering about the notion of Obama being arrogant or presumptuous. I guess I'm having a hard time seeing how what Obama is doing that is fundamentally more arrogant than past candidates. Or is it more the way he is doing it?
washingtonpost.com: President Obama Continues Hectic Victory Tour (Post, July 30)
Dana Milbank: Another thoughtful question without a drop of whine! Maybe everybody is calmed by the soothing Pacific this morning.
It's true that every person running for president has an inflated sense of self, by definition. I think Obama went a bit too far with the Berlin speech, the faux presidential seal on the lectern, and some of his over-confident talk of victory. I was struck by the lead of CBS News's "Horserace" this morning:
"Everyone's had a lot of fun over the last couple of weeks with the whole 'celebrity' theme coming out of John McCain's campaign. There's been a lot of gnashing of teeth over the appropriateness of the suggestion that Barack Obama is an empty suit of the celebrity culture and not a few questions about its effectiveness. And we've heard plenty about the hollowness of the debate at a time when voters seem to be concerned about more pressing issues.
"At the same time, pundits and prognosticators of all stripes have been stumped at Obama's inability to break away from McCain - at least in the national polls. He appears to have just about every political advantage in the book. He's a historic figure representing a party whose traditional strengths line up well with voter concerns and he's running against a candidate whose party and president are near all-time lows in popularity. If there ever was a 'change' election, this should be it.
"So it might be time to ask whether there's something more to this 'celebrity' business than just another publicity opportunity for Paris Hilton."
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Anonymous: After watching the video of yourself in shorts and later Richard Simmons in shorts, I was stricken by how much you two resemble each other. Are you related?
washingtonpost.com: Capitol Hill Gets Exercised (Post, July 25)
Dana Milbank: Yes, I look like the "before" picture in the before-and-after photo of his turn from couch potato to wearer of spandex.
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Nevada: If Pawlenty runs as veep, I'm going to be nauseous for three months. First McCain invites us to picture his 50-plus wife prancing around on stage in the all-together, and now Pawlenty is just bursting to share his complaints that his wife won't have sex with him. What is this, the Viagra Ticket? I think I might really vote for Paris now.
washingtonpost.com: Outspoken Pawlenty Auditions for Role of Mr. Discretion (Post, Aug. 7)
Dana Milbank: Then there was my friend Carly Fiorina discussing the merits of medical insurance covering Viagra several weeks ago.
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San Francisco: McCain should choose Tim Pawlenty as vice president, if only so he can say: "My friends, Sen. Barack Obama lacks experience. Me, on the other hand ... well, I've got Pawlenty." Ba-dum-bum ching!
Dana Milbank: Pawlenty of postings coming out of my newly adopted home of the Golden State this morning.
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Chicago: Hey Dana, what's your take on the John Edwards baby daddy imbroglio? Is the mainstream media just being snobbish (toward the National Enquirer) or is there a legit reason why this story isn't getting more play? How can you guys resist?
Dana Milbank: There are two Two Americas. One reads the National Enquirer; the other does not. I am in the latter America
I assume that if something in the National Enquirer is true it will make its way over to the MSM, but I'll let somebody else do that first.
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Pittsburgh: So, how does working with Campbell Brown stack up against Keith?
Dana Milbank: Okay, I'll just dip my toe in this one for a moment.
I have the highest regard for Keith Olbermann and think he's one of the smartest and funniest guys in the business.
But I am also a huge fan of my friend Campbell and have been since we were on the White House beat together early in the Bush years. So I worked out a contract with CNN in the past month and, after persuading them to take me on board, started with CNN on Monday. Planning to be on Campbell's show tonight, at 5 p.m. Pacific -- 8 p.m. for you guys out east.
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Richmond, Va.: What's the deal with McCain saying "my friends" all the time. It's starting to sound a bit too robotic ... and it's starting to creep me out...
Dana Milbank: An excellent question, my friend. It has been bothering me for some time. At first it sounded sincere and intimate, but that was in 1998. Now I think it is a tic like "nucular."
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Undisclosed Location, Pennsylvania Avenue: My focus group tells me the voters see the most articulate candidate as Paris Hilton. I hear the Hiltons have money. Should we be vetting her for vice president?
Dana Milbank: I have begun the, um, vetting of Paris already, but the Post IT folks have apparently started blocking my access to certain Web sites. Go figure.
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Newark, N.J.: Why have you failed, to date, to admit to misreporting and mischaracterizing Barack Obama's comments last week? All indications are that you misquoted, out of context, what he said and how he said it, and yet you have conspicuously failed to set the record straight. A correction/retraction would have been journalistically/politically correct. Or has your racism compromised your journalistic integrity?
Dana Milbank: Ruh-roh. I think this one was from last week.
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Boston: After witnessing the backlash from your President Obama article, don't you get the sense that there are Democrats out there who feel as though it is almost the press's duty to protect Obama, and that not doing so is somehow going against their responsibility? It just seems like they feel as though being objective has no place in the news media when, in fact, that ought to be their main standard of procedure.
Dana Milbank: Take that, Newark!
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Tire gauges: Clever? Really? Seems totally junior-high to me. But then so does a lot of the McCain campaign (and your chat from last week ... but I digress). Chet Edwards for vice president -- what say you?
Dana Milbank: See, I don't see "junior-high" as a negative. But then again, I like all of Dana Priest's flatulence jokes.
I am strongly opposed to a Chet Edwards vice presidency. I have spent plenty of time in Waco-Crawford over the past seven years and I think presidents and vice presidents should be selected based entirely on their vacation home locations. McCain makes a strong bid with Sedona. Obama should buy property in his native Hawaii or pick a running mate from my new hometown of Solana Beach.
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Seattle: I am utterly disappointed with your column on T-Paw. How dare you discuss the man without mentioning that he got rid of the only mullet among governors? How can a governor who had a mullet and got rid of it escape your attention?
Dana Milbank: Seattle, I am duly chastened, my friend.
Won't let this sort of thing happen again.
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Fern Forest, Hawaii: If the Founding Fathers had as much foresight as we credit them with, they would have planned the capitol for Lahaina, Hawaii.
Dana Milbank: Maybe it is not too late.
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Trash Journalist: What did you do to incur Sen. Boxer's ire? It doesn't make me admire you as much as your hacking off Keith Olbermann did, but it still is intriguing.
Dana Milbank: In fairness to Boxer, she did have a point. After a hearing, I retrieved (with the help of a friend from Fox News) Russ Feingold's discarded notes from under the table.
_______________________
Los Angeles: The public is upset because Pawlenty doesn't have sex? The public is upset when an official does have sex? Maybe the public wants our leaders to be cyborgs from another dimension? Oops, sorry, that means we want the governor of California to be president.
Dana Milbank: Let me be clear: I am not upset because Pawlenty doesn't get sex. I am upset because he no longer has a mullet.
If I had it my way, every member of Congress would be Vito Fossella and every governor would be Elliot Spitzer.
_______________________
Issues of Import: Paris Hilton's video response to McCain's "Celebrity Ad" -- inspired rebuttal, or backhanded compliment to wrinkly old dude?
Dana Milbank: See, I told The Post's IT people that this is the Paris Hilton video I was looking for, but nobody believes me.
_______________________
Dana Milbank: Okay, chatters. The palm trees are swaying in the breeze and the dolphins are jumping. (Actually I can't see any dolphins, but they are probably jumping somewhere out there.) Please keep an eye on things while I'm away, and I'll be back in a few of weeks.
_______________________
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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August 6, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
McCain's Green-Eyed Monster
BYLINE: By MAUREEN DOWD
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 23
LENGTH: 770 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
Not since Iago and Othello obsessed on the comely Cassio, not since Richard of Gloucester killed his two nephews, not since Nixon and Johnson glowered at the glittering J.F.K., has there been such an unseemly outpouring of boy envy.
Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson and John Edwards have all been crazed with envy over the ascendance of the new ''It'' guy, Barack Obama.
Unlike his wife, Bill Clinton -- the master of fake sincerity -- still continues to openly begrudge his party's betrothed.
Asked by Kate Snow of ABC News in Africa whether Obama was ready to be president, Clinton gave a classic Clintonian answer: ''You could argue that no one's ever ready to be president.''
As always, the Big Dog was more concerned with himself -- asserting that he's not a racist -- than his party. Bill Clinton is not a racist. We can posit that. But he did play subtle racial politics in the primary. It's way past time for him to accept the fact that there's a new wunderkind in town.
Just as Bill Clinton looks at Obama and sees his own oblivion, so does Jesse Jackson. As Shelby Steele wrote in The Wall Street Journal, Jackson and his generation of civil rights leaders ''made keeping whites 'on the hook' the most sacred article of the post-'60s black identity,'' equality pursued by manipulating white guilt.
Now John McCain is pea-green with envy. That's the only explanation for why a man who prides himself on honor, a man who vowed not to take the low road in the campaign, having been mugged by W. and Rove in South Carolina in 2000, is engaging in a festival of juvenilia.
The Arizona senator who built his reputation on being a brave proponent of big solutions is running a schoolyard campaign about tire gauges and Paris Hilton, childishly accusing his opponent of being too serious, too popular and not patriotic enough.
Even his own mother, the magical 96-year-old Roberta McCain, let slip that she thought the Paris Hilton-Britney Spears ad was ''kinda stupid.''
McCain's 2000 strategist, John Weaver, was equally blunt with Newsweek's Jonathan Alter: ''It's hard to imagine America responding to 'small ball' when we have all these problems.''
Some of McCain's old pals in the Senate are cringing at what they see as his soulless transformation into what he once scorned.
''John's eaten up with envy,'' said one. ''His image of himself was always the handsome, celebrity flyboy.
''Now somebody else is the celebrity,'' the colleague continued, while John looks in the mirror and sees his face marred by skin cancer and looks at the TV and sees his dashing self-image replaced by visions of William Frawley, with Letterman jokes about his membership in the ham radio club and adventures with wagon trains.
For McCain, being cool meant being a rogue, not a policy wonk; but Obama manages to be a cool College Bowl type, which must irk McCain, who liked to play up his bad-boy cool. Now the guy in the back of the class is shooting spitballs at the class pet and is coming off as more juvenile than daring.
Around the McCain campaign, they grouse that Obama ''hasn't bled.'' He hasn't bled literally, in military service, just like W., the last holder of an E-ZPass who sped past McCain. And he hasn't paid his dues in the Senate, since he basically just stopped by for directions to the Oval Office.
As a new senator, Obama was not only precocious enough to pounce on turf that McCain had invested years in, such as campaign finance lobbying, ethics reform and earmarks. When Obama did reach across the aisle for a mentor, it was to the staid Richard Lugar of Indiana, not to the salty Republican of choice for Democrats, McCain.
When the Illinois freshman took back a private promise to join McCain's campaign finance reform effort, McCain told his aide Mark Salter to ''brush him back.'' Salter sent an over-the-top vituperative letter to Obama. ''I guess I beaned him instead,'' Salter told Newsweek's Howard Fineman.
McCain could dismiss W. as a lightweight, but he knows Obama's smart. Obama wrote his own books, while McCain's were written by Salter. McCain knows he's the affirmative action scion of admirals who might not have gotten through Annapolis without being a legacy. Obama didn't even tell Harvard Law School that he was black on his application.
McCain upbraids Obama for being a poppet, while he's becoming a puppet. His mouth is moving but the words coming out belong to his new hard-boiled strategist, Steve Schmidt, a Rove protege, nicknamed ''The Bullet'' for his bald pate.
Schmidt has turned Mr. Straight Talk into Mr. Desperate Straits. It's not a good trade.
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The New York Times
August 6, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
Ads to Compete at Games
BYLINE: By BRIAN STELTER
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE CAUCUS; Pg. 17
LENGTH: 249 words
The dog days of August? Not really, especially when it comes to political advertising during the Olympics. The Obama campaign plans to spend $5 million advertising on telecasts of the Games, and on Tuesday the McCain campaign moved to one-up it, releasing its own commercial as part of a $6 million Olympics advertising campaign.
Senator John McCain's campaign declined to comment on the media purchase, which will include commercials on both NBC and the cable channels that are showcasing the Beijing Games this month. The purchase was first reported online by Advertising Age, and confirmed by an official close to the network.
The buying of advertising time during the summer's dominant television event will allow both candidates to reach a broad audience. Each evening of NBC's coverage of the Athens Olympics in 2004 reached 26 percent of all television-viewing households.
Purchases of national advertising time by presidential candidates are highly unusual, as campaigns usually concentrate on local markets in swing states. John Geer, a Vanderbilt University professor who studies political advertising, said Senator Barack Obama's fund-raising success has given him a greater ability to buy national advertising.
''What Obama is buying is his belief that he can expand the electoral map,'' Mr. Geer said. ''What McCain is buying is credibility,'' he added, postulating that Mr. McCain would have looked weak had he not responded to Mr. Obama's advertising purchase.
BRIAN STELTER
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The New York Times
August 6, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
Big Donors, Too, Have Seats At Obama Fund-Raising Table
BYLINE: By MICHAEL LUO and CHRISTOPHER DREW; Griff Palmer contributed reporting.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1888 words
In an effort to cast himself as independent of the influence of money on politics, Senator Barack Obama often highlights the campaign contributions of $200 or less that have amounted to fully half of the $340 million he has collected so far.
But records show that one-third of his record-breaking haul has come from donations of $1,000 or more: a total of $112 million, more than Senator John McCain, Mr. Obama's Republican rival, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his opponent in the Democratic primaries, raised in contributions of that size.
Behind those larger donations is a phalanx of more than 500 Obama ''bundlers,'' fund-raisers who have each collected contributions totaling $50,000 or more. Many of the bundlers come from industries with critical interests in Washington. Nearly three dozen of the bundlers have raised more than $500,000 each, including more than a half-dozen who have passed the $1 million mark and one or two who have exceeded $2 million, according to interviews with fund-raisers.
While his campaign has cited its volume of small donations as a rationale for his decision to opt out of public financing for the general election, Mr. Obama has worked to build a network of big-dollar supporters from the time he began contemplating a run for the United States Senate. He tapped into well-connected people in Chicago prior to the 2004 Senate race, and once elected, set out across the country starting to cultivate some of his party's most influential money collectors.
He courted them with the savvy of a veteran politician, through phone calls, meals and one-on-one meetings; he wrote thank-you cards and remembered birthdays; he sent them autographed copies of his book and doted on their children.
The fruits of his efforts have put Mr. Obama's major donors on a pace that almost rivals the $147 million raised by President Bush's network of Pioneers and Rangers in contributions of $1,000 or larger during the 2004 primary season.
Given his decision not to accept public financing, Mr. Obama is counting on his bundlers to help him raise $300 million for his general-election campaign and another $180 million for the Democratic National Committee.
An analysis of campaign finance records shows that about two-thirds of his bundlers are concentrated in four major industries: law, securities and investments, real estate and entertainment. Lawyers make up the largest group, numbering roughly 130, with many of them working for firms that also have lobbying arms. At least 100 Obama bundlers are top executives or brokers from investment businesses: nearly two dozen work for financial titans like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs or Citigroup. About 40 others come from the real estate industry.
The biggest fund-raisers include people like Julius Genachowski, a former senior official at the Federal Communications Commission and a technology executive who is new to political fund-raising; Robert Wolf, president and chief operating officer of UBS Investment Bank; James A. Torrey, a New York hedge-fund investor; and Charles H. Rivkin, chief executive of an animation studio in Los Angeles.
''It's fairly clear that this is being packaged as an extraordinary new kind of fund-raising, and the Internet is a new and powerful part of it,'' said Michael J. Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute. ''But it's also clear that many of the old donors are still there and important.''
The care and feeding that top Obama fund-raisers have received underscores their significance to his campaign. Members of his National Finance Committee who fulfill their commitment to raise at least $250,000 are being rewarded with trips to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Finance committee members participate in conference calls with top campaign officials every other week. The fund-raisers meet quarterly, often with Mr. Obama dropping in. He lingered after the most recent meeting in June in Chicago, telling his staff he wanted to thank every person in the room. Some fund-raisers who knocked on doors for Mr. Obama in places like Indiana, Iowa and Pennsylvania got to spend time with Mr. Obama backstage before and after speeches on primary nights.
His fund-raisers invariably say their support for him is not rooted in any kind of promise of access, but rather their belief in him.
''This is about Barack Obama and changing the direction of our country,'' said Jonathan B. Perdue, a business consultant in Mill Valley, Calif., who has raised more than $250,000 for Mr. Obama's campaign.
Mr. Obama has pledged not to accept donations from lobbyists or political action committees registered with the federal government. But some top donors clearly have policy and political agendas. Hedge-fund executives, for example, have bundled large sums for Mr. Obama at a time when their industry has been looking to increase its clout in Washington.
Kenneth C. Griffin, chief executive officer of Citadel Investment Group in Chicago, has collected more than $50,000 for Mr. Obama. But Mr. Griffin, whose $1.5 billion in income in 2007 made him one of the country's highest-paid hedge-fund executives, has given generously over the years to Republicans as well, and he recently helped to hold a fund-raiser for Mr. McCain. Citadel has spent more than $1.1 million, dating back to 2007, in lobbying against higher tax rates for hedge-fund gains. (Mr. Obama has supported the higher tax rates.)
Similarly, Paul Tudor Jones, a billionaire hedge-fund manager from Connecticut, has raised more than $100,000 for Mr. Obama. But he also gave to Mr. McCain, to Rudolph W. Giuliani and to Mitt Romney. Mr. Jones, who has given more than $900,000 over the last decade to federal candidates and political organizations, helped form a trade association that has fought hedge-fund regulation.
Many fund-raisers sit on the campaign's array of policy working groups, getting a chance to weigh in on policy positions and speeches. Mr. Genachowski, a Harvard Law School classmate of Mr. Obama, leads the technology working group. Fund-raisers from private equity and hedge funds sit on Mr. Obama's economic policy group.
Despite Mr. Obama's image as a newcomer, many of his bundlers are Democratic Party stalwarts, including people who were some of the top fund-raisers for Senator John Kerry in 2004. At least 58 of them appear to have personally made more than $100,000 in contributions to federal candidates and committees over the last decade. Updated bundler lists released recently by the McCain and Obama campaigns show that they have similar numbers of high-dollar fund-raisers.
The Obama fund-raising operation is meticulously organized. Bundlers are assigned tracking numbers, and the finance staff sends them quarterly reminders of how they are doing in meeting their goals.
''There's no price for admission,'' said Alan D. Solomont, a top Democratic fund-raiser in Boston who made his fortune in the nursing home industry and has given more than $1.5 million to Democratic candidates and causes. ''We value every donation and every donor equally. But we are a performance-based organization. We want everybody to feel like they're included, but at the same time we're not here to have tea together.''
Mr. Obama began courting many of his fund-raisers soon after he burst upon the national scene with his rousing speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
Mr. Solomont, a major fund-raiser both for Mr. Kerry and for Bill Clinton during their presidential runs, received a call on his cellphone in February 2005, a year after Mr. Obama's election to the Senate, from a member of his staff who asked if he would like to get together with Mr. Obama.
They met for Chinese food in Washington the following week, and Mr. Obama scored points with Mr. Solomont when he pointed out that they had both been community organizers earlier in their careers.
''I've been involved in politics a long time,'' Mr. Solomont said. ''Nobody's bothered to know that about me.''
Early that same year, Mr. Obama attended a dinner in the Bay Area for about 20 major Kerry supporters. The dinner was organized by Mark Gorenberg, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who was Mr. Kerry's single biggest fund-raiser, after Mr. Obama's staff members contacted him. Several of those on hand, including Mr. Gorenberg and John Roos, head of a Silicon Valley law firm, became among the earliest and biggest check collectors for Mr. Obama's presidential bid.
In 2006, Mr. Obama became a vice chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, giving him the opportunity to campaign across the country and to cultivate other potential benefactors.
When his book ''The Audacity of Hope'' came out later that year, his staff members organized book parties at the homes of major Democratic donors.
In December, Mr. Obama visited the New York office of the billionaire investor George Soros to court a roomful of high-powered Democratic fund-raisers, hoping to lure some of them away from Mrs. Clinton. Not everyone was swayed, but Mr. Obama won over Orin Kramer, a hedge-fund executive from New Jersey, and Mr. Wolf, the UBS executive, both of whom are now among Mr. Obama's biggest fund-raisers.
Mr. Obama signed on as his finance director Julianna Smoot, who had led fund-raising for Senate Democrats and, before that, for Senator Tom Daschle when he was majority leader.
With guidance from Ms. Smoot, a key part of the campaign's fast start was its success in scooping up top former Kerry fund-raisers, including Lou Susman, a Chicago investment banker who was Mr. Kerry's national finance chairman, and Kirk Wagar, a lawyer in Miami who became Mr. Obama's finance chairman in Florida.
Even so, the initial meeting of Mr. Obama's national finance committee, held in Chicago the day after he officially announced his candidacy, was a relatively small affair, numbering about 75 people.
Penny Pritzker, the billionaire heiress to the Hyatt hotel fortune whom Mr. Obama asked to become his finance chairwoman, challenged the group to double in size.
The number of bundlers ballooned quickly. The Obama campaign made important inroads among affluent people under age 45, including Silicon Valley engineers and hedge-fund analysts, many of whom had not been on the political radar screen.
Donations in June, the latest month for which Mr. Obama has disclosed his donors to the Federal Election Commission, illustrate the double-barreled nature of the campaign's fund-raising. Mr. Obama brought in nearly $31 million in contributions of less than $200, his best month for small donations. But he also collected more than $12 million in contributions of $1,000 or more, the most since the first half of 2007.
The share from large contributions appears poised to increase, as Mr. Obama has stepped up his fund-raising schedule.
''In 2007, the campaign relied on the tried and true methods like fund-raisers, for both large- and small-dollar donors, with the candidate or his surrogates, and the Internet largely financed it in 2008,'' said Kirk Dornbush, the president of a biotech firm and a top fund-raiser in Atlanta. ''When you combine the traditional fund-raising methods with the continued online contributions, you have a very, very powerful fund-raising engine.''
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Orin Kramer: Hedge-fund executive in New Jersey. Made about $1 million in political contributions over the past decade.
James A. Torrey New York investment-fund manager. Veteran fund-raiser for Senate Democrats. Prominent financial supporter of Howard Dean in 2004.
Robert Wolf: President of UBS Investment Bank. Fund-raiser for John Kerry's presidential race in 2004.
Alan D. Solomont: Health care investor in Boston. Former Democratic National Committee finance chairman. Made almost $1.3 million in political donations since 1997.
Jim Crown: Member of the billionaire Crown family. Major supporter with his wife, Paula, since Mr. Obama's 2004 Senate race.
John W. Rogers Jr.: Founder of Ariel Capital Management, a major black-owned investment firm.
Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe: Visiting scholar at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation. Wife of John Donahoe, chief executive of eBay. Kerry fund-raiser.
Jeffrey Katzenberg: Chief executive of DreamWorks Animation. Made almost $1 million in political donations over the past decade.
Nicole Avant: Recording industry executive. Family has ties to the Clintons. Southern California finance co-chairwoman for Mr. Obama.
Christine Forester: Widow of architect and artist Russell Forester. Raised money for Mr. Dean and Mr. Kerry.
Charles H. Rivkin: Chief executive of Wild Brain, an animation studio. Kerry fund-raiser. Southern California finance co-chairman for Mr. Obama.
John Roos: Head of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a Silicon Valley law firm. Kerry fund-raiser. Northern California finance co-chairman for Mr. Obama.
Thomas J. Perrelli: Lawyer at Jenner & Block. Registered lobbyist as recently as 2005. Former deputy assistant attorney general under President Bill Clinton.
William E. Kennard: Managing director at the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm. Former chairman of Federal Communications Commission under President Clinton.
Julius Genachowski: Technology investor. Mr. Obama's classmate at Harvard Law School.
Don Beyer: Former lieutenant governor of Virginia. Owner of chain of car dealerships.(pg. A16) CHART: Top Obama Fund-Raisers: Senator Barack Obama has built a nationwide network of top fund-raisers, ranging from some of the Democratic Party's biggest longtime supporters to his friends from Chicago and Harvard Law School. These fund-raisers are among the 35 who have raised more than $500,000 for Mr. Obama's presidential campaign
some of them have collected more than $1 million for him.(Sources: Federal Election Commission
Obama campaign)(pg. A16)
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USA TODAY
August 6, 2008 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
McCain, Obama promote nuclear energy plans
BYLINE: David Jackson
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 5A
LENGTH: 568 words
WASHINGTON -- John McCain's visit to a Michigan nuclear plant Tuesday revives a debate over the promise and safety of nuclear energy.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee emphasized the promise, saying his plan to build 45 new nuclear plants by 2030 would help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and cut greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
"If we want to enable the technologies of tomorrow like plug-in electric cars, we need electricity to plug into," McCain said after touring a nuclear plant about 30 miles south of Detroit.
Barack Obama is more cautious. Although he says nuclear power should be part of U.S. energy plans, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said Tuesday that the nation must find "safer ways to use nuclear power and store nuclear waste." He said the focus should be finding new energy sources.
A summer of record-high gas prices and tensions with oil-rich areas such as the Middle East, Venezuela and Russia have combined to make energy a top issue in the White House race.
The Three Mile Island accident in 1979 changed the political dynamics of nuclear power. No new plants have been approved since 1979, but those in development at the time gradually came online, says Steve Kerekes of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade group.
There were 69 commercial reactors in the U.S. three decades ago, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, and today there are 104. Nuclear power now produces 19% of the nation's electricity -- a point McCain frequently makes on the campaign trail. Applications are pending for 18 new plants.
John Keeley, a spokesman for the institute, said that it is a lengthy process to get nuclear power plants licensed and built. "We're looking at an eight-to-nine-year time frame," Keeley said.
In making the case for nuclear power, McCain often cites France's reliance on such energy and plans by China, India and Russia to boost their capacity.
The Democratic National Committee and the League of Conservation Voters both noted that the Enrico Fermi nuclear plant that McCain visited -- named for the Italian physicist who developed the first nuclear chain reaction -- had replaced one that had a partial meltdown in 1966. An abnormal level of radiation was not released at the time, and no one was injured, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Fermi facility today gets top safety ratings from the NRC, Kerekes said.
Obama has criticized McCain for not having a plan to dispose of nuclear waste -- other than to deposit it at the proposed Yucca Mountain storage site in Nevada, which the Democrat opposes. McCain, who voted for the site in 2002, has said he supports the facility, about 90 miles from Las Vegas, as long as it can meet federal environmental standards.
Nevada, which has five electoral votes, is a battleground in this year's election. Nuclear waste disposal was a key topic during the Republican and Democratic primaries there.
McCain's plan for nuclear power, including eventual construction of 100 new facilities, is just one idea in a package that also calls for more oil drilling and tax breaks to developers of wind, solar and other alternative energy sources.
Obama's energy plan includes a tax on companies that make "windfall profits" from soaring oil prices, drilling on stockpiled oil leases and $150 billion to step up research on biofuels and other forms of "clean energy."
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USA TODAY
August 6, 2008 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
McCain ad says country is 'worse off' than 4 years ago
BYLINE: Mark Memmott
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 5A
LENGTH: 407 words
Republican John McCain's presidential campaign released a TV ad Tuesday that says Washington is "broken" and that he knows "we're worse off than we were four years ago." It goes on to tout his credentials as a "maverick" -- a claim that a spokesman for Democrat Barack Obama's campaign dismissed.
The script
Narrator: "Washington's broken. John McCain knows it. We're worse off than we were four years ago.
"Only McCain has taken on big tobacco, drug companies, fought corruption in both parties. He'll reform Wall Street, battle Big Oil, make America prosper again. He's the original maverick.
"One is ready to lead -- McCain."
The images
Broken opens with images of the White House, the Capitol, the House of Representatives and -- as the narrator speaks of being "worse off" -- rapidly spinning dollar figures on a gasoline pump. Then, as the message turns to McCain, his smiling face appears. For most of the rest of the ad, he's the focus.
Reality check
"We're worse off than we were four years ago" is a line that will remind voters of what Ronald Reagan said of then-president Carter's administration in 1980. During their only debate, Reagan suggested that voters ask themselves: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" He went on to defeat Carter.
The key difference between then and now is that Reagan, a Republican, was criticizing Democrat Carter. In Broken, Republican McCain is distancing himself from the tenure of a fellow Republican: President Bush.
Bush's approval ratings are among the lowest of any president in modern history. And Obama has been telling voters that electing McCain would mean a "third Bush term."
The Democrat himself has used a variation of the "are you better off?" line in recent weeks.
The ad's claims that McCain has stood up to the tobacco, drug and other industries stem from his work on anti-smoking legislation, reducing restrictions on prescription-drug imports and campaign-finance reform.
As for whether he is a "maverick," Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor challenged that claim, saying that McCain "voted with President Bush 95% of the time last year."
Where it's playing
While declining to be specific, McCain's campaign said Broken will air in some of the 13 battleground states where the campaign has been advertising in recent weeks. Those are: Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
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The Washington Post
August 6, 2008 Wednesday
Regional Edition
Crude Campaigning
BYLINE: Ruth Marcus
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A17
LENGTH: 772 words
You could write the formula with mathematical precision. The higher the price of oil and the lower the number of days until the election, the shriller the rhetoric, the grander the promises and the dumber the policy.
Exhibit A, campaign 2008, is John McCain. Just a few months ago, McCain had an energy policy that, while hardly perfect, was in the ballpark of reasonable. He had broken with his party on climate change and understood the importance of weaning America from its carbon habit. He proposed a palette of solutions: nuclear power, clean coal, plug-in hybrids, biofuels. You could argue that McCain's plan overemphasized nuclear energy or spent too little on renewable energy, but it was hardly Bush-Cheney revisited.
Then came McCain's reversal on new offshore drilling. This wasn't, in itself, the problem. The moratorium on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf has been in place for almost three decades. It is more a matter of theology than logic to believe that the combination of improved technology and increased prices does not justify reconsidering the environmental balance.
But with the unthinking zeal of the newly converted, McCain has morphed into a believer in the magical power of drilling. "We have to drill here and drill now," he has taken to crying on the campaign trail, as if he could get more sweet crude gushing by, say, November. On Monday, McCain, whose 2008 Senate attendance record is rather spotty, demanded that Congress "come back into town" to pass an energy bill. "Let's get this energy crisis solved," he proclaimed, as if a few weeks might make a difference.
Then there is the matter of misrepresentation. For all the focus on Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, the real problem with McCain's "celebrity" ad was that it falsely accused Obama of wanting to "raise taxes on electricity." As FactCheck.org noted, the McCain campaign based this claim on a single interview in which Obama rejected the notion of taxing wind energy, saying that instead "what we ought to tax is dirty energy." This is, FactCheck concluded, "a feeble peg on which to hang" the claim that Obama wants to raise your electricity bill. In fact, the cap-and-trade program that both candidates support is, in effect, just such a tax.
Monday's cute campaign trick was to celebrate Barack Obama's 47th birthday by distributing tire pressure gauges labeled "Obama Energy Plan," mocking the Democrat's suggestion that drivers improve gas mileage by properly inflating their tires. This trivial-sounding move could save millions of barrels of oil annually. The Bush Energy Department urges drivers to do it.
This brings us to Exhibit B, which is, you may have guessed, Obama. He got the good-policy merit badge for resisting peer pressure (McCain plus Hillary Clinton) for a gas tax holiday. He would spend $150 billion over 10 years, far more than McCain would, to promote alternative sources of energy. So far, so good.
But the Obama campaign has taken a decided turn toward the less responsible in the past week. I'm not talking about his evolution on drilling. However poll-driven, this is eminently sensible: He's not itching for more but willing to consider it in certain areas as part of a broader, bipartisan compromise.
The same can't be said for his deja-vu-all-over-again proposal to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (see Al Gore 2000, John Kerry 2004), or for his $1,000-per-family "energy rebate," a whopping $65 billion cost to be paid for with a windfall-profits tax. Just a month ago, Obama was saying that there was no need to tap the reserve and that such a move should be saved for a "genuine emergency." Oil was more than $140 a barrel then. It's less than $120 a barrel now. What's changed, except for the better? Still, as gimmicks go, tapping the reserve is a more effective one than a gas tax holiday.
As for a windfall-profits tax, if you want to produce more energy, it hardly makes sense to give oil companies less incentive to make investments. Nor does it make sense to tax companies because market conditions boost their profits -- any more than homeowners and shareholders should be penalized for selling during a boom.
Obama, too, has descended to misleading. He accuses McCain of wanting to give $4 billion in tax breaks to oil companies -- without mentioning that this is no special oil-only deal, just part of McCain's proposal for an overall reduction in the corporate tax rate, something Obama has said he'd consider. Does that put him in the pocket of Big Oil, too?
And another question: If this is the state of the discussion in August, what will October bring?
marcusr@washpost.com
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The Washington Post
August 6, 2008 Wednesday
Suburban Edition
NAMES & FACES
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LENGTH: 716 words
Paris for President?
In a two-minute video posted last night on the comedy site FunnyorDie.com, hotel heiress Paris Hilton announced her candidacy -- thanks to Sen. John McCain's ad comparing Sen. Barack Obama to her and Britney Spears. Though her parents have contributed to McCain's campaign, Hilton is no McCainiac. But she's not for Obama, either.
True to form, she's all about Paris. She wants pop star Rihanna as VP and might paint the White House pink.
"Hey, America, I'm Paris Hilton, and I'm a celebrity, too. Only I'm not from the olden days and I'm not promising change like that other guy. I'm just hot," she says, sitting on a lounge chair and wearing a skimpy one-piece leopard swimsuit. "But then that wrinkly white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which I guess means I'm running for president. So thanks for the endorsement, white-haired dude. And I want America to know that, I'm like, totally ready to lead."
She's even got a sober take on energy policy:
"Well, why don't we do a hybrid of both candidates' ideas? We can do limited offshore drilling -- with strict environmental oversight -- while creating tax incentives to get Detroit making hybrid and electric cars. That way, the offshore drilling carries us until the new technologies kick in, which will then create new jobs and energy independence. Energy crisis solved!"
This might just be Paris's best acting role yet.
First Lady Tyra?
The new must-print for fashion and celebrity magazines: anything about the Obamas. (Sen. Barack Obama and wife Michelle have mugged for recent issues of People and Us Weekly and for Essence magazine's September issue.) But Harper's Bazaar took a different tack for its September glossy, casting models as the Obamas in an Oval Office photo shoot, with talk show host and former supermodel Tyra Banks posed as Michelle Obama.
Michelle is "one hot mama," Banks, an Obama supporter, told the mag. "With Barack Obama, his becoming president is them becoming president because Michelle was there from the beginning. Without Michelle, he wouldn't be there." And on her preferred first-lady hairstyle: "My question isn't to flip or not to flip," Banks says. "Mine would be to weave or not to weave."
More Prying Eyes
Following news this spring that several UCLA Medical Center employees had peeked at confidential medical records of famous patients -- among them Britney Spears, Farrah Fawcett and California first lady Maria Shriver -- a report released Monday revealed that 59 additional employees at the hospital had been snooping through patients' records.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the California Department of Public Health report brings the number of workers implicated in the growing scandal to 127, and faults the hospital for not taking steps to maintain patient confidentiality.
The Times reported in March that UCLA had suspended six employees, planned to fire 13 others and disciplined six physicians for looking at the records of Spears, who was hospitalized in the UCLA psychiatric ward in January. And in April, former hospital administrative specialist Lawanda Jackson was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly selling information from Fawcett's records to the media, according to the Times.
Of the 59 employees now linked to the breaches, 24 still worked at the hospital when they were identified. The hospital has proposed firing seven and suspending or otherwise disciplining many others, while three remain under investigation.
End Quote
"I'm going to have three bullheads in there. I originally wanted six, but the guy who has to clean it once a week said that he's not going to get in the tank with six of them, he'll get in with three. Once they get big enough, I'll have to get rid of them. The guy who cleans the tank actually goes and catches the sharks himself, because you know, these sharks you can't just go buy, they're illegal."
-- From an Aug. 4 entry on Wizards superstar Gilbert Arenas's blog, explaining what's going into the 10,000-gallon shark tank that he knocked out a wall for in his Great Falls basement. Arenas credits "Jaws" with his love of sharks, as well as "when I saw 'Cribs' and Ice T had a shark tank in the back of his place, I was like, 'Oh man! That's what it is!!' "
-- Marissa Newhall, from staff, wire and Web reports
LOAD-DATE: August 6, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Alexi Lubomirski For Harper's Bazaar; No, they're not measuring the drapes: Models depicting the Obamas -- including Tyra Banks as Michelle -- appear on the cover of the new Harper's Bazaar.
IMAGE; Www.funnyordie.com; Paris Hilton announces her presidential candidacy on FunnyorDie.com. Despite being "like, totally ready to lead," the hotel heiress, 27, won't be eligible till 2016.
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The Washington Post
August 6, 2008 Wednesday
Suburban Edition
Energy Returns As Major Issue;
Obama Links McCain to Administration
BYLINE: Perry Bacon Jr. and Michael D. Shear; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 1175 words
DATELINE: BEREA, Ohio, Aug. 5
Barack Obama and John McCain used an ongoing debate over energy policy to tack back to core themes of their campaigns Tuesday, with Obama blasting his rival for the presidency as a clone of the current administration and the Republican seeking to revive his reputation as someone willing to buck his party on major issues.
Obama, campaigning in Ohio, said a McCain administration would be "four more years of oil companies calling the shots." Arguing he would do more than McCain to reduce gasoline prices, the senator from Illinois repeatedly attempted to connect McCain to President Bush and Vice President Cheney, both former oil company executives, saying "after one president in the pocket of the oil companies -- we can't afford another."
"Remember that when George Bush took office, he had an energy policy, he turned to Dick Cheney and he told Cheney, 'Go take care of this.' " Obama told a crowd at a gym in Youngstown, Ohio. "John McCain's taking a page out of the Bush-Cheney playbook."
McCain countered with a new television ad that will appear in crucial battleground states. The spot declares that "Washington's broken" and "we're worse off than we were four years ago," paraphrasing a line Ronald Reagan used to criticize Jimmy Carter almost three decades ago. While not criticizing Bush by name, the senator from Arizona pledged to "battle Big Oil" and "make America prosper again."
Standing in front of a nuclear power facility in Michigan, where he touted his plan to build 45 new plants by 2030, McCain noted that it was Obama, not he, who had voted for Bush's 2005 energy bill, which included major subsidies for oil companies.
"I think he might be a little bit confused, because when the energy bill came to the floor of the Senate full of goodies and breaks for the oil companies, I voted against it; Senator Obama voted for it," he said. "People care not only what you say, but how you vote."
Obama and Democrats in Congress have consistently sought to tie McCain to Bush's fading fortunes, labeling the Republican nominee "McSame" and running ads that feature McCain praising Bush. On Tuesday, Democrats unveiled a Web site called "The Next Cheney," in which they seek to compare McCain's possible running mates to the current vice president.
For McCain, the maneuvering has been more delicate as he tries to distance himself from the unpopular head of his party, while not angering the many conservatives who still back Bush.
Republican sources said Tuesday that Cheney -- one of the most controversial figures in the Bush administration -- is not scheduled to appear at the Republican National Convention next month, where McCain will be chosen as the new leader of the party. "His schedule hasn't been set for next week, let alone next month," said Megan Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Cheney.
McCain's assertion in his new ad, that the state of affairs has grown worse in the past four years, contrasts sharply with his declaration months ago that "Americans overall are better off, because we have had a pretty good, prosperous time, with low unemployment and low inflation and a lot of good things have happened."
For the second consecutive day, both candidates focused on their energy plans, as high gas prices continued to be one of the biggest issues of the presidential race. Obama touted his energy proposals as he campaigned in Youngstown and Berea, two working-class towns in eastern Ohio, appearing with Sen. Sherrod Brown and Gov. Ted Strickland.
McCain toured the Enrico Fermi 2 nuclear power plant near Monroe, Mich., as he sought to highlight his support for nuclear power as a key to the country's independence from foreign sources of energy.
Wearing a hard hat with earplugs attached, protective glasses and gloves, McCain toured the plant's control room and turbines, asking questions about safety and training.
But the visit raised questions about his repeated insistence that nuclear power is free from safety concerns. The first Fermi reactor -- located adjacent to the reactor McCain toured -- suffered a partial meltdown and was mothballed in 1972.
As he often does, McCain noted the U.S. Navy's experience with nuclear-powered ships and submarines, and his experience on the first such ship, the USS Enterprise. "I knew it was safe then, and I know it's safe now," he said.
In April, he said: "My friends, the United States Navy has sailed ships around the world for more than 50 years with nuclear power plants on them and we've never had a single accident."
But last week, the Navy reported that a nuclear-powered sub leaked tiny amounts of radioactive water as it navigated the globe. The Navy said the leak from the USS Houston was negligible.
"Safety is always a concern when it comes to power sources, but ultimately the perfect shouldn't be the enemy of the good, and nuclear power is an important part of John McCain's 'all of the above' approach to gaining energy independence," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.
McCain used the appearance at the nuclear plant to assert once again that Obama "says no" to the energy solutions the Republican is pushing, including increased exploration for oil and natural gas off the nation's coastlines.
"The fact is, we have to drill here and we have to drill now and we have to drill immediately," McCain said, repeating a now-common refrain. "I believe that it's vital that we move forward with that."
"Solving our national energy crisis requires an 'all of the above' approach," McCain said. "Senator Obama has said that expanding our nuclear power plants 'doesn't make sense for America.' He also says no to nuclear storage and reprocessing. I couldn't disagree more."
Obama aides, on the defensive in recent weeks as the McCain campaign has repeatedly described him as "Dr. No" on energy, emphasized Tuesday that their candidate backs the use of nuclear power, although he has been less bullish on the technology than McCain. Obama has said the security of nuclear fuel and waste must be addressed before an expansion of nuclear power is considered.
In recent days, Obama has modified his positions on key energy issues, saying he would remove oil from the nation's emergency reserves to reduce gas prices in the short term and could back some offshore oil drilling. But he blasted McCain's focus on drilling.
"That's what he talked about yesterday, 'I want to drill here. I want to drill now,' " Obama said, quoting McCain talking in South Dakota on Monday. "I don't know where he was standing. I think he was in a building somewhere. This plan will not lower prices today; it won't lower prices during the next administration."
He also cast McCain's recent tactics, such as airing an ad that likened the Democratic nominee to celebrities Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, as part of his move toward Bush's style of politics, which Obama pledges to change.
"John McCain wants to talk about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears -- that's his idea of a relevant campaign -- but I don't have time to deal with that mess," Obama said to loud applause at a high school in Youngstown.
LOAD-DATE: August 6, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Alex Brandon -- Associated Press; Barack Obama shakes hands at a town hall meeting at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. Rival John McCain was campaigning in neighboring Michigan.
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The Washington Post
August 6, 2008 Wednesday
Suburban Edition
McCain One-Ups Obama With Ad Buy
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 204 words
It appears that spending $5 million on advertising during the Olympics will get a presidential candidate only the silver medal.
Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain has taken out a $6 million ad buy for airtime during the Beijing Games that open Friday, $1 million more than Democratic rival Barack Obama had previously committed to his own media buy.
The McCain campaign declined to comment. But the public file at NBC Universal confirmed the purchase. McCain ads are to run in a variety of time slots, including prime time.
The broadcast network is airing 3,600 hours of Olympic coverage on NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, Oxygen and Telemundo.
Advertising Age, which first reported the buy, said the spending by the two campaigns marked the first substantial buys of national network TV by any presidential candidate in 12 years. More recently, campaigns have targeted their ads to battleground states, in addition to advertising on cable networks.
The McCain campaign, which has committed to federal funding during the general election, must use the money it has raised for the primaries before McCain officially becomes the party's nominee during the Republican National Convention, which starts Sept. 1.
-- Robert Barnes
LOAD-DATE: August 6, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Mary Altaffer -- Associated Press; John McCain, second from right, bought $6 million worth of airtime, $1 million more than Barack Obama.
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Washingtonpost.com
August 6, 2008 Wednesday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Anne E. Kornblut, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 5402 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Anne E. Kornblut was online Wednesday, August 6 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Anne E. Kornblut: Greetings, all! I'm just back from a quick trip to Africa with former President Bill Clinton and ready to hear from everyone. Let's get started!
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Define celebrity (submitting early btw): I was amused by the "Obama is just a celebrity" ads by John McCain's crew. I found them typical of the Republican machine and not particularly interesting or insightful. That aside, I wonder how the good senator defines celebrity. ... I ask because I was watching "Wedding Crashers" this weekend, and guess who made a cameo appearance? Yes, that's right, Mr. Keating 5 himself. Certainly someone might call that a "celebrity" appearance, no?
washingtonpost.com: Video: McCain's "Wedding Crashers" Cameo (YouTube)
Anne E. Kornblut: Pretty funny, right? I found myself wondering the same, and also remembering that it was name recognition that helped McCain so much in the first place. Thoughts anyone else?
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Columbia, Md.: I'm not sure what burns me up more, the media's pro-McCain bias, its pro-Obama bias, or its inability to decide what its bias is! Have a bias and stick to it, dadgummit!
Anne E. Kornblut: I was just remarking to someone on the Obama campaign recently that they must really enjoy hearing complaints about media bias from McCain of all people. Who said the media is all jaded and cynical?
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Washington: Word is that Obama is taking a vacation next week. Isn't it a bit risky to have the political news of the day be "John McCain spoke about Y while visiting X (followed by more text about what he said, etc.) and then "Sen. Obama continued his vacation in Hawaii" for seven days straight?
Anne E. Kornblut: Very good point. And I'm starting with the vacation question because I have to admit, a few days in Hawaii sounds good. But these are pretty personal choices for these candidates -- they run themselves ragged, at the expense of their families, and need time to regroup like everyone else -- and there is a long fall ahead. I'm betting that Obama won't be away for a full week, and that he'll do events while he's in Hawaii, which also, by the way, is a good place for him to talk about his unique upbringing (and he's very popular there). And then probably no breaks from the convention on out...
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Memphis, Tenn.: Just to be clear, it's bad if Paris Hilton completely seems more mature than you, right?
washingtonpost.com: Video: Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Campaign Ad (Funny or Die, Aug. 6)
Anne E. Kornblut: Love it.
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St. Paul, Minn.: Hi Anne -- Thank you for taking questions today. I know you are a reporter and not a psychoanalyst, but what do you make of Bill Clinton's very odd (and, some would argue, unsupportive) comments about Barack Obama being qualified to be president? Instead of a full-throated endorsement, he goes off on some nearly incoherent tangent about the Constitutional requirements for the presidency. It seems like Hillary has moved on, at least publicly, so what is Bill's problem? Is there any chance that he's deliberately trying to poison the waters to give McCain a better chance, so that Hillary can run again in 2012? Or is it just the newly quixotic Bill Clinton? Her chances for the vice presidency had seemed to be pretty slim, and whatever chance she had seems gone for good now.
Anne E. Kornblut: Thank you for this question. He said the same thing, more or less to me, when I interviewed him in Rwanda on Saturday -- we went a full 40 minutes without his saying anything much about Obama, and in the end I had to bait him into saying Obama could win. There was absolutely no question it was a tepid endorsement, if it could be called an endorsement at all. His people say that he is, naturally, still scarred from the primaries. But it's a very good question you raise...
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Boston: Anne, let's pretend I am your husband. (A man can dream, can't he?) Now for a quick laugh, I tell a bunch of bikers that I think you should enter their stripping contest. What do you say to me when we get off the stage?
Anne E. Kornblut: I am not sure it's printable here. Or am I flattered? I'll need to ponder this.
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Los Angeles: Why is it that Obama has very few women in position of leadership working for him?
Anne E. Kornblut: Actually, he's got a few more now than he used to -- early on in the campaign, it was just a handful. More recently he added Anita Dunn and Stephanie Cutter (and he has had Susan Rice on foreign policy and Julianna Smoot in finance since the beginning). It's something the campaign is sensitive to, however. I've wondered if they were at a natural disadvantage with Clinton in the race, with so many women going to work for her, but that doesn't quite explain it.
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Anonymous: "He will raise taxes" seems to be a centerpiece of the GOP campaign against Obama. I note that is not the same as saying they are against high government spending, perhaps because they are still in favor of $10 billion plus a month being spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it is true that so far in this situation they -- and many Democrats for that matter -- have gone along with reducing taxes and thus increasing the deficit. We all seem to be against a high deficit, but it is a much more amorphous concept than taxes. Can it be a winning strategy to keep up military spending without raise taxes?
Anne E. Kornblut: This is a great question, and something we as reporters should probably think more about. In my experience, talking about the deficit plays well in front of crowds but registers relatively low on the scale of voters' actual concerns, especially when pitted against other sacrifices that would have to be made. So when you ask if it can be a "winning strategy," I think the answer is yes, if you mean politically, but not necessarily so when it actually comes to running the budget as president.
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Arlington, Va.: It seems incredibly newsworthy that Obama's huge lead has evaporated. Just a month ago, Newsweek reported he had a 16 point advantage! Obama enjoys a big money lead and the slavish support of the media (The Washington Post genuflecting respectfully before him), but he's slipping badly anyway. I've seen very little coverage of Obama's missteps (like saying proper tire inflation obviates the need to drill for oil), so it can't be that. And McCain's nasty smear ads (really very mild pokes at Obama) have barely been aired. So what's the reason for Obama's slump in the polls?
Anne E. Kornblut: Let me confess here that I've been in Africa since last week, so I'm still catching up on the poll numbers, but a couple of thoughts. One is that I'm not sure the earlier 16-point lead was a reflection of how well/not Obama was doing; we've had him with a much more modest lead in our own polls. Secondly, even out of the country, I heard about the tire inflation comment, so I'd probably say it did get decent coverage. But more generally: this is, and has been, a tight race. There are a lot of reasons for it, but what I am most surprised at is the expectation that Obama should have it locked up by now -- when he didn't even have it locked up easily in the primaries.
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Boston: Is Keith Olbermann serious? I mean, how can this guy act so self-righteous in terms of being the ultimate journalist, and then say Dana Milbank wasn't welcomed back on the program and that they faced a tough decision over -- let's face it -- an opinion that differs from his?
Anne E. Kornblut: First: I am unabashedly in the tank for Dana (in part because he sits next to me, so I'm under constant threat of being "sketched" if I misbehave). Secondly: I agree. But Dana can now be seen on CNN in that same hour, on Campbell Brown's show.
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Cincinnati: Egghead East Coast liberals should be really careful into weighing into heartland politics. McCain's comment about his wife winning a stripping contest -- to a bunch of bikers -- is exactly the kind of ribald comment you make in Sturgis. You need to know your audience -- this is where people like Kerry, Dukakis, Gore and, yeah, Obama, get in trouble. If you can't connect with real Americans, how do you win Indiana, Michigan and Ohio? If a funny comment like McCain's gets your panties in a wad, you really need to get out of your Ivory Tower more often.
Anne E. Kornblut: Perhaps so. Something tells me it isn't going to help McCain's goal of winning the Hillary voters, however!
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Takoma Park, Md.: Obama makes a big ad buy for the Olympics and then McCain makes a bigger buy. It seems like the Olympics wouldn't be the best time to ask for a vote, so I'm wondering if Obama made his buy to get McCain to spend his hard-won resources too early -- after all, Obama is likely to raise a lot more money than McCain in the next three months, and money spent closer to the election is better than money spent now, right?
Anne E. Kornblut: I hadn't thought of it that way, but it's a really interesting question. A good thing for us to keep an eye on.
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Raleigh, N.C.: What's good about people like you in the traditional media is that you have access to Important People. Citizens needs that. What's good about blogs is that they don't have that access, so they do a lot of research ... reading government reports, technical books, etc. Does The Post have a department of research, or is it up to reporters to find the time to pore through 99 pages of boring useless dreck to find the One Golden Page?
Anne E. Kornblut: Thank you for the question. We do, in fact, have a terrific -- if constantly overworked -- research department, and they help a ton, especially with old news stories. On certain subjects, it's up to us to do the homework (definitely when it comes to some government reports, budgets, FEC filing, etc.). But I agree: There are benefits to having a variety of kinds of reporters, and there is no shortage of work for all kinds to do, on behalf of the reading public.
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Wokingham, U.K.: Obama is clearly a runaway favorite with us outside the U.S. Our local paper speaks with awe on a regular basis of the fact that he once actually attended a stag party in one of our pubs, but left before the stripper arrived. Does his popularity with us and his generally triumphant world tour help him with the American voters, or make them a little suspicious of him?
Anne E. Kornblut: Greetings from across the ocean. I think your question is right on -- it both helps and hurts, and he's made the decision that it will help more than it hurts, hence his overseas trip. That was not always the case: for Kerry, in 2004, allegedly having the support of "foreign leaders" became an international incident of its own. Obama is betting that, despite Americans' occasional suspicion of people beyond our borders, voters are looking to elevate the country's standing worldwide, and that he could do it.
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Tire pressure: Sigh. Arlington, really. He didn't say that "proper tire inflation obviates the need to drill for oil." He did, however, point out that if everyone kept their tires properly inflated, the estimated MPG savings would exceed the estimated output of increased offshore drilling. This is an actual fact, which previously has been touted by such lefty pinkos as Bush's Department of Transportation, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Arnold Schwarzenegger and NASCAR. Please get your facts straight.
Anne E. Kornblut: Thanks for pointing this out -- I assumed the earlier posting was an attempt at hyperbole, but you are correct not to assume anything.
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Re: Arlington Va.: My husband drives a semi and checks his tires at least 3 times a week to make sure his mileage is as good as it can get; his tires last longer, too. If conservation is a personal virtue, then profligacy may be your personal vice.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another ... thank you.
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Rochester, N.Y.: Anne, sometimes I get frustrated with the adversarial relationship between the media the Bush administration. Have you guys ever thought of being more polite with them, the way you are with McCain?
Anne E. Kornblut: I don't even know where to start with this one. If I recall correctly, not that long ago, the media took it on the chin for not being more adversarial with the Bush administration before the war in Iraq. And I'll defer to the McCain campaign, but I think they'd say they things aren't all sweetness and light these days. Or were you kidding?
_______________________
Bethel Park, Pa.: "Bill Clinton. Please meet your party at the Tangent Train, track 13, now boarding." Toot!
Anne E. Kornblut: Yes, well...
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Oakton, Va.: Thoughts on Paris Hilton's "response ad" to McCain's "Celeb" ad against Obama? After years of demanding to know why the press insists on inflicting innocent viewers with constant Paris Hilton coverage, I have to admit that her energy policy plan sounds as good as anyone's. It was a clever comeback.
Anne E. Kornblut: It was, wasn't it? I had no idea she had it in her.
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Edinberg, N.Y.: So if McCain in his latest ad says that the country is in worse shape than it was in 2004, when he endorsed and worked for Bush rather than Kerry, shouldn't he now admit he was wrong to do so? And shouldn't Katie Couric -- who asked Obama three or four times to say that he was wrong to oppose the surge -- ask McCain about this gross misjudgment three or four times as well? Fair and balanced.
Also, if it subsequently is proven that the claim Suskind makes is true -- which is that the Bush administration directed the CIA to forge documents to sell the war, the very definition of high crimes and misdemeanors -- how will the media be judged for its persistent ridicule and disregard of those who are pushing for impeachment, and for their willingness to be distracted by ephemera such as crazy reverends and idiot advertisements? Seems like the press's failure to question the case for the war in Iraq, which resulted in all that breast-beating, was small-potatoes by comparison.
Anne E. Kornblut: I don't have much to add to this, but I'll go ahead and post it and ask others: thoughts?
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Farmington Hills, Mich.: Ann, I'm 40 and am beginning to feel that the problem with our country is that there is no shame in anything anymore -- no one has a problem admitting bankruptcy, how many people they've slept with, overeating, being photographed with no panties ... and its beginning to seep into our politics. I would think the recent McCain ads would be beneath McCain, but it seems that there is no shame in power for power's sake. I feel like politicians at least were concerned about public perception of their morals in the past. Maybe I'm just a fuddy duddy.
Anne E. Kornblut: A really interesting question. It's true, it does feel like we've been in a sort-of confessional mode for some time (we've known more about our two last presidents' epiphanies than we could have ever wanted to know). And certainly Obama's first book told us a lot about his youth. What does everyone else think? Too much? Time for a more Romney-like approach?
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Re: McCain bikini contest comments: Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it a fact that FDR made very similar comments about Eleanor during the 1932 campaign and that these comments were widely seen as part of what helped him shed his East Coast stuffed-shirt image? Plus ca change...
Anne E. Kornblut: This is news to me; I'll have to look it up and in the meantime take your word for it. Obviously, it is worth pointing out that a lot has changed for women since 1932 as well.
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Re: Edinberg: Edinberg presumes Kerry would have been better than Bush. That's not a given.
Anne E. Kornblut: A good point...
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Arlington, Va.: It is true that proper tire inflation improves your mileage, but it's also true that Obama's comment is destined to be repeated from here to November as proof of how out-of-touch he is. Just checking your tire pressure is a laughably inadequate way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. And you missed part of the comment: Obama said we should get regular tune-ups. Huh? Modern cars don't get tune-ups. Add this to the out-of-touch arugula and god-and-guns comments.
Anne E. Kornblut: Modern cars don't get tuneups? This is an honest automotive question.
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New York: Cincinnati, we eggheads appreciate the idea of playing to an audience. It's doing it at the expense of your wife's dignity that seems a little, well, I dunno -- disrespectful of one's wife? Or maybe that's also considered okay in the heartland? Gee, maybe I should totally rethink my sense of decency, depending on where I am? Hmmm...
Anne E. Kornblut: Another view...
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New York: There's an interesting line building on Obama that somehow success and intelligence are a handicap. If he wasn't extraordinary, he wouldn't be where he is today. But then he is extraordinary and it becomes "he is just too good, too well-spoken, too accomplished." What kind of a bizarre, mixed up country do we live in, where the chattering pundits seem to want us to have a president who isn't too smart or well-spoken? Or is the real question simply that Obama is, Q.E.D., too "uppity" for the tastes of the establishment D.C. power structure?
Anne E. Kornblut: What is interesting about this narrative (sorry, I know "narrative" is way overused in campaign coverage) is that it was also true in 2000 and 2004 -- that both Gore and Kerry were deemed insufferable, in their portrayal by the Bush campaign, in part because of their wonkishness. So while there may well be racial undertones, I'd venture to say the whole plotline isn't new, and in fact has worked well for Republicans for some time.
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Washington: I guess I'm an "Egghead East Coast liberal", but the point is well-taken: Obama has gotten in trouble with working-class voters because he does seem out-of-touch with them. Complaining about the cost of arugula in Whole Foods? "Clinging to God and guns"? Obama could do worse than to tell a mildly risque joke at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post, and I suspect those Hillary supporters have a better sense of humor than you do. McCain has a strong, independent wife, so I see no downside to his joke.
Anne E. Kornblut: Look, I'm no fuddy duddy, but I'm now waiting for the next time the McCain campaign complains about the treatment of his wife in the media -- that we aren't being respectful of her privacy. It seems that line of argument has gone out the window now that the candidate has invited us all to imagine her naked in public.
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Hampton, Va.: I find it interesting that you mention that Obama's book told us a lot about his youth, but don't mention the shameful part: his admitted problem with cocaine. Why tiptoe around the subject?
Anne E. Kornblut: Sorry, not trying to tiptoe -- that's a pretty well-worn part of his story that everyone knows by now, correct? But thanks for bringing it up.
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Okay, off topic as hell, but as to tire inflation...: I understand that using nitrogen gas instead of air is much less leaky and you don't have to be as vigilant in terms of checking tire pressure. It costs about $10 a tire. NASCAR uses it, and it's getting more mainstream.
Anne E. Kornblut: I am leaving all car discussions here to others.
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Washington: This makes two or arguably three elections in a row where the Democrats are coming into the general elections with what should be big leads, only to see it steadily disappear. When are we going to see them realize the same strategy -- going to the center over and over again -- is not working for them? Rather than changing themselves, which makes them look weak, they need to spend the real time trying to convince people that their point of view is the correct one, and they stop doing that in the general elections.
Anne E. Kornblut: Another perspective. ... (Lots of opinions today!)
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Arlington, Va.: Hi Anne. Are you the Paris or Britney of campaign reporting?
Anne E. Kornblut: Are you asking me to participate in a strip tease? I'm outraged.
Joke.
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Arlington, Va.: Looking at the Electoral College map, Obama needs to win just a few critical Midwestern states to pull off the win. But they're Midwestern, for God's sake. Victory tours of Europe and elitist pronouncements from on high are unlikely to impress the corn-fed yahoos with their "God and gun" obsessions. What can Obama do to cultivate a more down-to-Earth image? And won't his rock-star plans for the convention hurt him with these people? I'm sure he'll get adoring media coverage, and his base on the coasts will love it, but they're voting for him anyway. Doesn't his campaign seem a little risky to you? It looks like Hillary all over again -- he thinks he's got it wrapped up already.
Anne E. Kornblut: I have heard this from a lot of Obama supporters, and it's a good question. The counterpoint from the Obama campaign is often that he is from the Midwest, and has a better grasp of it than, perhaps, Clinton did. Thoughts?
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Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: Now that the Billary campaign is over and a grateful nation pauses and catches it's collective breath, are you just doing general-purpose political reporting? Or have you secretly snuck aboard the Bus of the One? And Only? If only. Thanks much.
Anne E. Kornblut: My official role now is covering Obama with two other colleagues, Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman, but I'm also keeping an eye on the Clinton folk still. Old habits die hard.
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Alexandria, Va.: Nekkid first ladies? What are we, French?
Anne E. Kornblut: LOL.
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San Francisco: What was your assignment editor's point to sending you -- a talented reporter deep into campaign coverage -- along on Bill Clinton's Africa trip? He is only tangential to the upcoming campaign and likely will have little impact on it. Could you explain a little more what motivation you had for tagging along on his trip?
Anne E. Kornblut: Truth be told, I wanted to go -- to get the first interview with him after the primaries, and to assess his mindset. I've covered the Clintons a long time, and consider it a special area of expertise, so wanted to keep my pedigree fresh. And in the end, it was just four days (in Africa, can you believe?)so I am confident I can catch up. Back on the road with Obama soon! I'll post a link to the story I wrote in today's Style section, along with a mortifying photo that the Getty photographer took of me in front of a helicopter, for your enjoyment.
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Princeton, N.J.: Stevenson made a great speech, and someone jumped up and shouted "Adlai, every thinking person is behind you!" Stevenson shouted back: "It's not enough; I need a majority!"
Anne E. Kornblut: Terrific.
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Arlington, Va.: One thing that ought to be abundantly clear by now is that negative campaigns really work. They worked eight years ago, they worked four years ago and they are working for McCain now. For all Obama's high-mindedness, he is going to need to bring out the big guns and start assassinating McCain's character just as hard as McCain has been going after his. Does he have it in him to go negative? Is he really locked onto the "high road"? Isn't that unnecessarily tying one hand behind his own back?
Anne E. Kornblut: Can you all stop asking such good questions, please? I am running out of compliments.
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Richmond, Va.: See, Anne, that's what's wrong with politics: McCain makes a mildly risque joke about his wife, and you think that opens up all avenues of attack against her. Why would it? Did Michelle Obama's "I'm proud of my country for the first time" open the door to attacks on her? Obama still complains about those. I'm surprised at you.
Anne E. Kornblut: I'm not saying it opens up all avenues of attack; I'm saying it undermines McCain's case that certain things are off-limits the next time there are any. As Mrs. Obama's comments -- although they were of a slightly different nature, they certainly became a topic of discussion for some time.
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Washington: Anne, nice article on the Obama campaign last Sunday. You seemed to indicate that this was a different type of campaign organization, i.e. more disciplined, etc. Do you think this comes at a price though? Do you think they're not tuned in enough to the popular opinion of their candidate? I wonder if some of the opinions of Obama as aloof or presumptuous can be traced to his organization and the decisions it has made so far. Thanks.
washingtonpost.com: Obama Central: Peace, Harmony and Deep Secrecy (Post, Aug. 3)
Anne E. Kornblut: Entirely possible; the parallels between the Bush campaign in 2000 and the Obama campaign now were really striking. But you're right, with that kind of insularity comes the danger of not hearing the outside. Thanks for the comment.
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Dunn Loring, Va.: Now that a Hillary spokesperson (Wolfson) acknowledged that Obama's supporters regularly portrayed any criticism as racially based, do you think that the McCain campaign's criticism of the "race card" was legitimate? (I assume you've heard about the race issue since your previous chat, when you hadn't heard of it yet.)
Anne E. Kornblut: This is a really interesting topic to mine. I actually tried asking Bill Clinton this same question and he deflected it, but I do think that -- as with many other issues in this general election -- McCain is helped by turning back to arguments that Clinton made.
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Rockville, Md.: Goss's Garage said "no tuneups" in my question a week or two ago, but I can't find it in the archives.
washingtonpost.com: Transcript: Goss's Garage (washingtonpost.com, July 24)
Anne E. Kornblut: Thank you...this will be a good side subject for me to investigate now that I'm home.
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New York: Anne, what if Hillary goes all-out for Obama, but Bill sits it out?
Anne E. Kornblut: It's a good what-if. I honestly don't know. But based on what I saw the last few days, I would say it's not out of the realm of possibility.
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Penfield, N.Y.: I guess we still have the veeps to talk about, but Cheney will be gone, so what would make any of them be important unless Hillary Rodham Clinton or Phil Gramm were picked? McCain comes from long-lived genes, although he does seem to be slowing down cerebrally(never hurt Reagan, and W never sped up). Obama would seem to be able to absorb whatever working knowledge he needs to have a grasp of most or all of the national problems. I can't see any potential veep having the clout of even Al Gore, let alone Dick. Also, what does the working press really think about why Obama is lagging behind the party in the polls?
Anne E. Kornblut: On your second point, I think we all think it's a really close race -- and probably will be for awhile. Having lived through every moment of the 2000 recount and the close 2004 race, I'll be the last person to predict a runaway election in either direction, regardless of what the polls say. And I think most of my colleagues feel the same way.
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Albany, N.Y.: I particularly hate the comments accusing Obama of being out of touch because he eats arugula, goes to the gym twice a day, drinks herbal tea, etc. The real anti-working-class prejudice is from those who assume that working class people all eat iceberg lettuce and get their dinner out of a can. What is wrong with these people?
Anne E. Kornblut: Doesn't Bush go to the gym twice a day? But I guess he eats hot dogs also.
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Northville, N.Y.: So they put Osama's chauffeur on trial, they put in their case, and they got a conviction. Wasn't that hard? I feel just as safe -- or unsafe -- as I did yesterday. The bottom line here is that the Cheneys and Addingtons aren't particularly fond of constitutional rights, and they'll use any contingency to grab more power. It always has been thus with such characters, and the rest, including the stupid excuses, are total rubbish. We never had to kidnap innocent people off the streets, ship them to Syria, or torture them to death. The people who did these crimes are scared little punks talking tough, and they should be tried next.
washingtonpost.com: Bin Laden's Former Driver Convicted by Military Tribunal (Post, Aug. 6)
Anne E. Kornblut: OK, this isn't really a political reporter story, but it's a great one, so I'm going to go ahead and post this here.
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Anonymous: Why does Bill Clinton appear to have hurt feelings? He and Hillary did all they could and just came up short. I find it immature for a 60-year-old man.
Anne E. Kornblut: I'm not going to get into the business of psychoanalyzing him (there's a whole cottage industry doing that) but Clinton does have a history of being sensitive and competitive, and this campaign would have struck at both.
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Bloomington, Ind.: Good morning Anne, welcome back! Your trip to Africa with President Bill seems to have devolved into some kind of strange transcontinental odyssey. Did you have any time to enjoy any special non-working moments abroad, or was it really as exhausting as it sounds?
Anne E. Kornblut: In a word: no, we didn't see much of anything except the places where Clinton visited. I'm looking forward to a return trip to Rwanda to see the genocide museum, which others said is unbelievable.
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washingtonpost.com: Stern Constitutions Needed for Globe-Trotting With Bill Clinton (Post, Aug. 6)
Anne E. Kornblut: Here's my story from today.
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Roseland, N.J.: Has anyone asked Sens. McCain or Obama if they think it's appropriate for the president to be in China for the Olympics? Would they be there if they were president now?
washingtonpost.com: In Asia Speech, Bush to Critique China on Human Rights (Post, Aug. 6)
Anne E. Kornblut: I haven't seen, but I will ask around; good thought.
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Austin, Texas: So deficits, immigration, gay and lesbian living arrangements ... are not on topic this election cycle? I don't believe they are. Maybe Pat Buchanan, El Rusho and Lou Dobbs think they're Hot Topics (ticker: HOTT), but does anyone else care now? I certainly haven't heard the sound of buzzsaws carving these planks out for the national conventions. Don't forget to forgive the tomato and scorn the jalapeno. Hasta...
Anne E. Kornblut: Thanks, as a tomato addict, for this
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Rockville, Md.: One strike and you're out? Consider the New Yorker -- always an Obama supporter -- and how quickly it became a tabloid. But how about Katie Couric? I have seen all this "warmonger" talk about her and her questions. Someone needs to get a grip. If you want 100 percent support, you may lose all of it.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another good point...
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Anne E. Kornblut: Ok guys, I am sorry our time has run out. Great stuff today. See you all soon. Here is a photo from my Africa excursion.
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washingtonpost.com: Upcoming Discussion: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (washingtonpost.com, 3 p.m. ET Today)
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washingtonpost.com
August 6, 2008 Wednesday 9:48 AM EST
Paris for Prez?
BYLINE: Jose Antonio Vargas
LENGTH: 370 words
HIGHLIGHT: Paris for President?
Paris for President?
Well, check out her energy policy.
Yep, you read that right. In a two-minute online video posted last night on the comedy site FunnyorDie.com, Paris Hilton announced her candidacy -- thanks to Sen. John McCain's "Celeb" ad comparing Sen. Barack Obama to Paris and Britney Spears -- and boasts an energy policy that should make every screenwriter proud. Though her parents have contributed to the Republican senator, Paris is no McCainiac. (The ad begins with a voice-over referring to McCain as the "oldest celebrity in the world," before cutting to a photo of the senior citizens of "The Golden Girls.") But she's not for Obama, either. True to form, she's all about Paris. She wants pop star Rihanna as her vice president and might paint the White House pink.
"Hey America I'm Paris Hilton, and I'm a celebrity, too. Only I'm not from the olden days and I'm not promising change like that other guy. I'm just hot," she says, sitting on a lounge chair and wearing a skimpy one-piece leopard swimsuit -- with a copy of Conde Nast Traveler in hand. "But then that wrinkly white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which I guess means I'm running for president. So thanks for the endorsement white- haired dude. And I want America to know that, I'm like, totally ready to lead."
Paris then summarizes the difference between McCain and Obama's energy policies -- "Barack wants to focus on new technologies to cut foreign oil dependency and McCain wants offshore drilling" -- before offering her own sober take on the issue.
"Well, why don't we do a hybrid of both candidates' ideas?" she says. "We can do limited offshore drilling -- with strict environmental oversight -- while creating tax incentives to get Detriot making hybrid and electric cars. That way, the offshore drilling carries us until the new technologies kick in which will then create new jobs and energy independence. Energy crisis solved!"
She then continues: "I'll see you at the debates, bitches."
With a few film credits in her resume, this might just be her best acting role yet. The McCain camp seems to think so. "In reality, Paris Hilton may have a more substantive energy policy than Barack Obama," they said in a statement.
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Washingtonpost.com
August 6, 2008 Wednesday 8:52 AM EST
Beanpole-gate
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: OPINION
LENGTH: 2271 words
HIGHLIGHT: Hillary may be campaigning for Barack this week, but her spouse still hasn't, to use the vernacular, gotten over it.
Hillary may be campaigning for Barack this week, but her spouse still hasn't, to use the vernacular, gotten over it.
I'm not sure I've ever seen a politician muster less enthusiasm than when ABC's Kate Snow asked Bill Clinton whether Barack Obama was ready to be president.
There are a thousand things the former president could have said that sounded respectful toward his party's presumptive nominee without a full-throated endorsement. Instead, he said this:
"I think everybody's got a right to run for president who qualifies under the Constitution . . . You can argue that nobody is ready to be president. I certainly learned a lot about the job in the first year." Clinton went on to say that Obama can "inspire and motivate people" and is "smart as a whip, so there's nothing he can't learn." But I found myself saying wow. He is not going to lift a rhetorical finger for the guy who beat his wife. Saying someone has a constitutional right to run is a long way from saying that person should be president.
Every day seems to bring a new debate about Obama's character, as opposed to, say, his energy plan. This is understandable, as Obama himself has said, when someone is new to the national scene, but it's also playing on Republican turf. Conservatives seem to be leading the who is he, really? charge. You know: Is he Paris Hilton or JFK in Berlin? And it's just possible that the election may turn on whether the freshman senator can make voters comfortable with him, or at least those working-class voters who so far have resisted his charms.
This psychological excavation can be silly at times, as in the WSJ feature that questioned whether Obama is too skinny to win the Oval Office. Slate's Tim Noah dines out on the piece by reporter Amy Chozick:
"Most Americans, Chozick points out, aren't skinny. Fully 66 percent of all citizens who've reached voting age are overweight, and 32 percent are obese. To be thin is to be different physically. Not that there's anything wrong, mind you, with being a skinny person. But would you want your sister to marry one? Would you want a whole family of skinny people to move in next door? 'I won't vote for any beanpole guy,' an 'unnamed Clinton supporter' wrote on a Yahoo politics message board. My point is that any discussion of Obama's 'skinniness' and its impact on the typical American voter can't avoid being interpreted as a coded discussion of race . . .
"Are Obama's eating habits a political liability? The question may be trivial, but at least it's not offensive. The only real objection you can make there is that Chozick's litany of healthy foodstuffs favored by Obama (he 'snacks on MET-Rx chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and drinks Black Forest Berry Honest Tea, a healthy organic brew') echoes a similar litany from the day before by John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis. ('Only celebrities like Barack Obama . . . demand MET-RX chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew--Black Forest Berry Honest Tea' . . . )."
I don't see a racial aspect at all, and Noah quotes Chozick as saying it never even occurred to her. But the No More Mister Nice Blog has uncovered a problem with the piece, as picked up by Gawker:
"Well, it turns out that 'beanpole quote' came from a sort-of jokey anonymous reply to a message board topic the Journal reporter herself created, and was the only remotely quotable line in that thread."
The correction:
" A Weekend Journal article Friday about Barack Obama's weight included a quote from a Yahoo bulletin board that was posted in response to a question from a Wall Street Journal reporter who initiated the discussion. The article should have disclosed that the reporter used the bulletin board to elicit the comment, 'I won't vote for any beanpole guy.'
"Ha ha, the article should probably also disclosed that the quote came from an account ('onlinebeerbellygirl') only used once -- to post that message -- and read in full as follows:
" Yes I think He is to skinny to be President. Hillary has a potbelly and chuckybutt I'd of Voted for Her. I won't vote for any beanpole guy."
Can a Larry King appearance for onlinebeerbellygirl be far behind?
Here are two conservatives trying to deconstruct Obama. First, GOP strategist and former Romney adviser Alex Castellanos:
"At each place and stage, as Barack Obama chronicles the chapters of his life, he tells us how he has re-invented himself, becoming the role he inhabits, though not falsely or in-authentically, like Bill Clinton. He actually seems to transform himself, becoming what must be next. He has been called distant, aloof and somewhat unapproachable, perhaps because we cannot approach what he does not have, a solid core. His soul seems to be molten and made up of dreams, which is at once breathtakingly inspiring and forbiddingly indeterminate. When this young man with the flowing, passionate core, when this candidate without the solid-center changes positions and transforms himself as we watch, it leaves Americans much more in doubt about who he is and how he would lead us. It also reveals an Obama of unapproachable arrogance and inestimable self-regard: He appears confident voters will appreciate his superiority regardless of where he journeys or what he becomes to meet his political ambitions.
"John McCain is a complete and well-formed man. Barack Obama is completing himself."
We're rating the candidates' souls now?
More seriously, isn't any fortysomething candidate less fully formed than a septuagenarian? Didn't the country take a chance on Kennedy and Clinton without a complete assurance of what kind of leaders they'd turn out to be?
Next up, David Brooks, who paints Obama as the ultimate outsider:
"There is a sense that because of his unique background and temperament, Obama lives apart. He put one foot in the institutions he rose through on his journey but never fully engaged. As a result, voters have trouble placing him in his context, understanding the roots and values in which he is ineluctably embedded . . .
"This has been a consistent pattern throughout his odyssey. His childhood was a peripatetic journey through Kansas, Indonesia, Hawaii and beyond. He absorbed things from those diverse places but was not fully of them.
"He was in Trinity United Church of Christ, but not of it, not sharing the liberation theology that energized Jeremiah Wright Jr. He is in the United States Senate, but not of it. He has not had the time nor the inclination to throw himself into Senate mores, or really get to know more than a handful of his colleagues. His Democratic supporters there speak of him fondly, but vaguely . . .
"This ability to stand apart accounts for his fantastic powers of observation, and his skills as a writer and thinker. It means that people on almost all sides of any issue can see parts of themselves reflected in Obama's eyes. But it does make him hard to place."
That's an intriguing analysis. But would we want a president who could never transcend his roots as, say, a Georgia peanut farmer, Hollywood actor or Texas oilman?
In the continuing effort to chronicle every day of Obama's life, the Boston Globe weighs in:
"Obama rarely talks about his year spent within the arcane sphere of global finance as a junior editor for Business International Corp., a publisher based in New York . . .
"But in the years since, Obama has demonstrated an economic worldview bearing some common priorities with the first company for which he worked. At some points in his legislative career and presidential campaign, Obama demonstrated a willingness to let markets run their course when some other Democrats had sought a more forceful government hand. He rejects mandates for adults to buy health insurance and encourages the expansion of global exchanges for carbon-emissions credits. He has helped make it easier for private companies to take over public housing projects."
A nice piece. But more has now been written about Barack's time in elementary school than, say, McCain's years in the Navy.
But we can always put McCain on the couch, as Maureen Dowd does:
"John McCain is pea-green with envy. That's the only explanation for why a man who prides himself on honor, a man who vowed not to take the low road in the campaign, having been mugged by W. and Rove in South Carolina in 2000, is engaging in a festival of juvenilia.
"The Arizona senator who built his reputation on being a brave proponent of big solutions is running a schoolyard campaign about tire gauges and Paris Hilton, childishly accusing his opponent of being too serious, too popular and not patriotic enough.
"Even his own mother, the magical 96-year-old Roberta McCain, let slip that she thought the Paris Hilton-Britney Spears ad was 'kinda stupid.' "
By the way, after McCain jokingly told an audience of bikers that his wife might compete in their Miss Buffalo Chip contest, could Keith Olbermann have had a better time playing video of the scantily clad contestants simulating sex?
And speaking of scantily clad, after McCain's Paris Hilton ad, Paris Hilton fires back with her own political spot, which is both funny and contains a sensible energy plan! Maybe Mac should hire her filmmaker? Put her on the short list?
It's become an article of faith on the left that the media is protecting McCain. Josh Marshall lays out the indictment:
"Let's be frank. On the campaign trail this cycle, McCain frequently forgets key elements of policies, gets countries' names wrong, forgets things he's said only hours or days before and is frequently just confused. Any single example is inevitable for someone talking so constantly day in and day out. But the profusion of examples shows a pattern. Some of this is probably a matter of general unseriousness or lack of interest in policy areas like the economy that he doesn't care much about.
"But for any other politician who didn't have the benefit of years of friendship or acquaintance with many of the reporters covering him, this would be a major topic of debate in the campaign. It's whispered about among reporters. And it's evidenced in his campaign's increasing effort to keep him away from the freewheeling conversations with reporters that defined his 2000 candidacy. But it's verboten as a topic of public discussion.
"The other point that again goes almost totally undiscussed is McCain's two reinventions of himself over the last decade. From a mainline conservative Republican to progressive reform candidate to Bush Republican. The reporters who have been covering him for the last decade know that there is virtually no public policy issue of note which McCain hasn't made a 180 degree change of position on in the last half dozen years."
Well, McCain's campaign is keeping him away from the national press, as I saw up close last week, and I think it crimps his style. But I don't think his, ah, repositioning on various issues has gone unnoticed.
"In the two months since Barack Obama captured the Democratic nomination, he has hit a ceiling in public opinion, proving unable to make significant gains with any segment of the national electorate," Politico reports. I think we're days away--maybe minutes--from stories on what's wrong with the Obama campaign.
Has the Great Energy Debate of 2008 come down to tire gauges? Dick Polman deflates that argument:
"Last Thursday, Barack Obama made the rather mild observation that Americans could actually conserve a lot of oil by 'inflating their tires and getting regular tuneups.' Yet in a matter of hours, and over the weekend and beyond, all the moving parts within the conservative/Republican message machine were humming with fact-free synchronicity.
"Rush Limbaugh pronounced the idea 'laughable' and 'stupid.' John McCain, the alleged 'maverick' who has now embraced the traditional fakery as the best route to power, falsely suggested that Obama's car tips constituted the sum total of Obama's energy plan ('Do you think that's enough to break our independence on Middle Eastern oil?' asked the career Washington lawmaker who has spent two and a half decades on Capitol Hill doing nothing to break our independence on Middle Eastern oil).Meanwhile, Sean Hannity went on the radio, made up an entire quote, and attributed it to Obama. His credulous listeners came away thinking that Obama said this: 'All you need to do is inflate your tires. That's all you need to do. If every American would join in this effort, of inflating one's tires, then it's all going to be fine. And we can still import 70 percent of our oil from Saudi Arabia. Just keep those tires inflated.'
"Well, Obama never said that inflating one's tires is 'all you need to do.' Whether one agrees with Obama's prescriptions or not, the fact is that he talked about a wide range of energy ideas during the long Democratic debate season . . . But none of that apparently matters to the 'maverick,' because McCain was still slinging the bull ('We're not going to achieve energy independence by inflating our tires'), while his aides merrily distributed little tire gauges emblazoned with the words 'Obama Energy Plan' . . .
"What fascinates me most, however, is how McCain and his Rove-trained minions manage to stay so disciplined, even though the mockery is so transparently manufactured."
Bob Woodward is taking a pay cut and describes himself as being "in the bullpen" for The Washington Post.
I haven't really bought into the notion that Chris Matthews is going to run for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania, but a new poll shows Sen. Arlen Specter with a 41-36 lead. I wonder if the Specter folks are poring over "Hardball" tapes for negative ad material.
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The New York Times
August 5, 2008 Tuesday
Late Edition - Final
Looking for the Goal of That McCain Campaign Ad
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; LETTERS; Pg. 18
LENGTH: 272 words
To the Editor:
As a person ''of color'' and a close observer of the presidential campaign, I disagree with Bob Herbert's interpretation of the use of the images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in the recent ad by John McCain's campaign (''Running While Black,'' column, Aug. 2).
I see the two women as examples of individuals who are famous for being famous rather than for any real accomplishments. I think that was the purpose for using them. I don't see it as related to how images of a white woman were used in the campaign ad against Harold Ford.
The McCain ad, perhaps ham-fistedly, was intended as a comment on the fascination of the news media with Barack Obama since he began his run for the presidency as well as on the way he was feted during his recent European visit.
The ad asks the question: Should the leadership of the free world be awarded on the basis of star power, or on the basis of one's resume and policies? This is a question a lot of people, including Democrats, should be asking themselves. Tali Makell
Brooklyn, Aug. 2, 2008
To the Editor:
It's only August, and the race card is in full play in this election cycle.
It is hard, and painful, to imagine what the next three months of this long campaign will bring, in black and white and living color.
There is no subtlety here. If the McCain ads were written and produced to compare the celebrity of Hollywood rock stars with that of the popular and charismatic Senator Barack Obama, why didn't the makers of the advertisement use images of rock stars instead of two blond-haired white women?
Joyce Kravitz
Philadelphia, Aug. 2, 2008
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
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USA TODAY
August 5, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
Obama ad alleges McCain is in oil companies' 'pocket'
BYLINE: Mark Memmott
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 479 words
Democrat Barack Obama's presidential campaign released a TV ad Monday that says Republican John McCain could end up in the "pocket of big oil" if he wins the White House. The McCain campaign responded that it's Obama who once supported a "sweetheart deal for oil companies." Parts of both sides' claims have run afoul of independent fact checkers.
The script
Narrator: "Every time you fill your tank, the oil companies fill their pockets. Now big oil's filling John McCain's campaign with $2 million in contributions. Because instead of taxing their windfall profits to help drivers, McCain wants to give them another $4 billion in tax breaks.
"After one president in the pocket of big oil, we can't afford another.
"Barack Obama: a windfall profits tax on big oil to give families a thousand dollar rebate. A president who'll stand up for you."
The images
The 30-second ad begins with scenes of gas pumps and clogged highways, mixed with images of McCain and President Bush. As the background music turns upbeat and Obama appears, the message shifts to focus on Obama's proposal to tax companies' profits from soaring oil prices and give rebates to families.
Reality check
The ad reinforces a message Obama has been pushing for months -- a McCain administration would be like Bush's. It aims to make voters think that could mean more bad news at gas pumps. The facts:
*The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics says McCain's campaign has collected more than $2.4million from the "energy/natural resources" sector of the economy. About $1.3 million has come from political action committees and individuals tied to the oil and gas industries. The ad does not point out that Obama has collected at least $1.3million from the energy/natural resources sector. About $400,000 came from oil or gas company workers.
*McCain's contributions are not from oil companies directly, something the ad does not make clear. Corporations are barred by law from making such contributions. The independent FactCheck.org has previously criticized the Obama campaign for implying that his rivals (during the battle for the Democratic nomination) took money from oil companies.
*PolitiFact.com, a project of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times and CQ, has called the charge that McCain would give oil companies $4 billion in tax breaks "barely true." McCain would push to reduce corporate taxes across the board, not just for the oil industry.
*McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds' allegation that in 2005 Obama voted to give oil companies a "sweetheart deal" on taxes also conflicts with analysis by FactCheck. The bill Obama supported, it found, had been stripped of most such breaks by the time of passage.
Where it's playing
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the ad will air in some of the 18 battleground states where the Democrat has been advertising. The states include Colorado, Florida and Ohio.
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August 5, 2008 Tuesday
Regional Edition
Obama Urges Opening Up Oil Reserves;
Policy Shift Is His Second in a Week on Energy Issue; McCain Urges Immediate Drilling
BYLINE: Perry Bacon Jr. and Michael D. Shear; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 982 words
DATELINE: LANSING, Mich., Aug. 4
Sen. Barack Obama called Monday for using oil from the nation's strategic reserves to lower gasoline prices, the second time in less than a week that he has modified a position on energy issues, as he and Sen. John McCain seek to find solutions to a topic that is increasingly dominating the presidential race.
In a speech here, Obama outlined a plan to reduce an addiction to foreign oil that he said is "one of the most dangerous and urgent threats this nation has ever faced." He repeated his call for a $1,000 "energy rebate" for low- and middle-income families that would be paid for by a windfall-profits tax on oil companies.
The Obama campaign did not predict how much releasing reserves would lower gas prices. But it said prices at the pump went down more than 19 percent within two weeks when President Bill Clinton made such a move in 2000.
His proposal comes a month after Obama said he would consider using oil from the reserves only in a "genuine emergency," such as "terrorist acts." Aides said the plan is not a reversal because he would replace light crude oil in the reserves with less-expensive heavy crude. They also noted that the senator from Illinois last week described the country's economic conditions as an "emergency."
The Bush administration said it opposed using oil from the reserves when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called for it last month. McCain mocked the idea on Monday.
The proposal, along with Obama's comments last week that he would consider expanding offshore drilling as part of a comprehensive energy bill, illustrated how both candidates are trying to find quick fixes to $4-a-gallon gas and other rising energy costs. McCain had also opposed additional offshore drilling until reversing his position in June, and he has called for a suspension of the federal gas tax.
But their proposals reflect a problem both candidates face: There are few ways to dramatically reduce gas prices, even as voters demand solutions.
Obama emphasized on Monday that using reserves is a temporary fix and that drilling is not "a particularly meaningful short-term or long-term solution." McCain has said that drilling would have a "psychological" benefit for consumers; his proposal to suspend the 18-cent-a-gallon federal gas tax was ignored by lawmakers on Capitol Hill and criticized by economists, who said it would not lead to a noticeable change in prices.
On the stump, McCain talks frequently about electric power, a subject that energy experts say will do little to affect gas prices. His plan to build 45 nuclear power plants, which he will highlight with a visit to a Michigan plant Tuesday, would take decades.
McCain's aides said Obama's proposal to tap the nation's oil reserves amounts to his second position on the issue in a month. McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said the idea is "not a substitute for a real plan."
"The strategic oil reserve exists for America's national security strategy, not Barack Obama's election strategy," Bounds said.
At a small-business forum near Philadelphia on Monday, McCain called on Obama to insist that Congress return from its August recess to confront high gas prices and the energy crisis. He urged immediate drilling off the nation's coast.
"We have to drill here and drill now. Not wait and see if there's areas to explore, not wait and see if there's a package to put together," he said. "But drill here and drill now."
McCain has aired ads attacking Obama's positions on drilling. On Monday, Obama responded with an ad blasting his GOP rival for accepting millions in contributions from oil company executives and for advocating a corporate tax cut that would reduce taxes on oil companies.
In his speech, Obama pledged to eliminate the need for oil from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 years by growing alternative sources of energy and through conservation.
His long-term energy plan includes creating a million 150-mile-per gallon plug-in hybrid vehicles within six years; requiring that 10 percent of U.S. energy come from renewable resources by the end of his first term; and reducing U.S. demand for electricity by 15 percent by 2030.
Obama said he would give a $7,000 tax credit to those who buy plug-in hybrid cars. They won't be mass-produced until 2010, but aides said the candidate wants to encourage carmakers to move toward producing more energy-efficient vehicles.
"I want the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow to be built -- not in Japan, not in China, but here in the United States of America, here in Michigan," Obama said to loud applause.
McCain has said he would invest $2 billion in clean coal technology and has offered a $300 million prize to whoever invents the next-generation electric motor for cars. He would give a $5,000 tax credit to those who buy cars that produce less pollution.
Obama's shifts on offshore drilling and using the petroleum reserve come as polls show that large majorities back increased drilling to reduce gas prices.
The issue is complicated for the Democrat, as many environmental groups are eager to see Americans drive less and are sharply opposed to increased drilling. Friends of the Earth, an environmental group that endorsed Obama in May, said in a statement that "it's so disappointing to see Obama now say he would consider expanding offshore drilling, even though he knows it is not a real solution to the energy crisis."
Obama has also suggested Americans could save money on gas by fully inflating their tires -- something that police departments and other government agencies across the country have done to conserve fuel.
The McCain campaign has ridiculed Obama, saying it is a tiny solution to the gas problem. On his plane Monday, McCain's staff handed reporters tire gauges with the words "OBAMA ENERGY PLAN" stamped on them.
Shear was traveling with McCain. Staff writer Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report from Montana.
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Rebecca Cook -- Reuters; In a campaign stop in Lansing, Mich., Democrat Barack Obama called an addiction to oil "one of the most dangerous and urgent threats this nation has ever faced."
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August 5, 2008 Tuesday
Regional Edition
Alaskans for Obama: A Rare Democratic Push in the Last Frontier
BYLINE: Karl Vick; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 1176 words
DATELINE: ANCHORAGE
In what might be the fullest realization of Barack Obama's pledge to run hard in parts of the country largely untouched by presidential campaigning, the Democrat's Alaska operation is making plans for organizers to hopscotch the state's vast and sparsely populated interior by bush plane, knocking on doors in remote outposts for their candidate.
"Go around, put up signs, shake some hands, see some of the important people in the village," said state representative and professional pilot Woodie Salmon (D), describing his own campaign tactics in a legislative district that includes 94 villages, 70 of which can be reached only by air. "Get things stirred up and leave again."
Conservative and quirky, Alaska last went for a Democratic presidential candidate 44 years ago. No nominee from either party has even visited since Richard Nixon's journey to glad-hand in Anchorage on the last weekend of the 1960 campaign, a stop that some argue cost him the razor-thin election.
Obama, who often boasts of having visited the other 49 states, has yet to commit to a stop here. But his vibrant campaign operation here is stoking expectations and mounting the most prodigious presidential effort Alaska has seen.
While the John McCain campaign has yet to open an office anywhere in the state, Obama has dispatched dozens of paid staffers here over the past month; the latest batch arrived over the weekend. It is assigning field coordinators in each of the state's 40 legislative districts and has been buying television ad time since June.
"The campaign is treating Alaska as a key battleground state," said Jeff Giertz, the campaign's communications director in Alaska, who arrived in Anchorage from Iowa, the scene of Obama's first victory of the Democratic nominating contest.
With only three electoral votes, Alaska may seem a low-stakes prize. But by pouring time and money into traditionally Republican Western states such as Montana and Colorado, the Obama campaign is trying to make good on its vow to redraw the electoral map and force the McCain campaign to watch its flanks -- all the while reinforcing Obama's overarching claim of nurturing a politics of inclusion.
"It's a tough state to move, but we're making a play," Giertz said. "If there's any year where a Democrat can win Alaska, this is the year."
Public surveys consistently have McCain ahead, but by single-digit margins that reflect the Republican's tepid support here.
"Obama's really holding his own," said Andrew Halcro, a former Republican state lawmaker and independent gubernatorial candidate who termed the Obama effort "amazing."
"I think they could come pretty close," said David Dittman, the state's leading pollster, who works primarily with Republicans. He added: "I don't think Obama would win."
In a state where Ross Perot drew 28 percent in 1992 and Ralph Nader banked every tenth vote eight years later, an array of circumstances offers encouragement to the underdog Democrat, starting with McCain's last-place finish in the Republican caucus in February behind Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.
The Arizona Republican faces a tough sell here. Though McCain's military credentials resonate with Alaska's veteran and active-duty residents, he is also known here for railing against the "earmark" appropriations that bring Alaskans more federal money per capita than any other state.
But McCain's most dubious distinction is as the first GOP candidate in memory to oppose oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The position, which McCain reiterated even while reversing his opposition to off-shore drilling, puts him at odds with the overwhelming majority of Alaskans.
"There's a sense of betrayal with McCain in the fact that he doesn't support it," Dittman said. "There's the sense that he's not any better than a Democrat."
And this year, being a Democrat may not be such a bad thing. Every Republican on the November ballot can expect to suffer from the corruption scandal that has tarred Alaskan politics. Last week's indictment of Ted Stevens, the U.S. Senate's longest-serving Republican, follows the federal convictions of three state GOP lawmakers in cases that featured surveillance videos starring the oil executive who prosecutors say remodeled Stevens's modest Girdwood home.
Public revulsion at the continuing torrent of revelations fueled the upset election of Republican Sarah Palin as governor in 2006, on a platform of Alaskan pride and cleaning up government.
"I think Obama's message is similar to Sarah's two years ago," said Halcro, who lost his third-party bid to Palin. "People want to believe that these really complex public policy questions are going to be solved by what I call glittering generalities."
Alaskans may also appreciate being noticed.
"We've always voted up here. Just nobody's paid much attention," said Jim Schultz, 71.
Snowy-bearded and cheerful, the federal retiree worked the phones in Obama headquarters on a rare sunny evening during a cold and cloudy summer. Across the table sat a beaming Celine Gammond, 18.
"It gives us legitimacy," she said of the campaign's effort. "It's like we're a real state."
The youthful enthusiasm that powers the famous Obama ground operation first became apparent here on caucus night: The 8,800 who jammed into caucus sites represented more than ten times the turnout four years earlier, with 70 percent for the Illinois senator.
"I hope America doesn't disappoint these young people," Schultz said. But working the phones reminded him that in the great north, more than the weather can be harsh: "I think what surprises me is the animosity or the rudeness. If they're Republican they say, 'I'm not even going to talk to you.' Or they hang up."
Still, political professionals say the sheer force of effort is bound to produce dividends.
"They really appreciate that people would come to your town and talk to you. That's a big thing," said Salmon, who uses his two Cessnas for "campaigning, hunting, and odds and ends."
Fuel will be expensive, though, especially if the pilot refuels in the bush, where prices reflect the expense of delivering it there by barge or even air. "Arctic villages' last reported gas price was about $10 a gallon, and they live right next to ANWR," Salmon said.
McHugh Pierre, spokesman for the Alaska Republican Party, holds out hope that McCain will change his position on drilling in the refuge. He also batted aside japes from his Democratic rivals -- who issued a series of news releases suggesting vacant office space that McCain's campaign might rent -- by suggesting the influx of Obama staffers amounted to carpetbagging.
"Obama is trying to take advantage of our situation," Pierre said. "Obama has a lot of East Coast liberal staffers in Alaska" while McCain, he said, "has a real grass-roots effort, Alaskans talking to Alaskans.
"I don't think the views or opinions of Alaskans have changed, and the views of the Republican Party still represent the views of most people.
"Ronald Reagan didn't even have an office here," Pierre said. "This is the normal deal."
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August 5, 2008 Tuesday
Suburban Edition
The Race for Comedian In Chief
BYLINE: Lisa de Moraes
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C01
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Casting about for more low-rated television shows to shill for, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican candidate John McCain have shot "funny" campaign ads for this Thursday's season finale of "Last Comic Standing," NBC announced yesterday.
The 30-second-ish "ads" are a real coup for the NBC comic-competition series. This season it's pulling in its smallest audience yet, about 5 million viewers, which is slightly smaller than in that third, rushed season in fall '04 when NBC yanked the low-rated show and sold the finale to Comedy Central.
Speaking of Comedy Central, we're guessing the candidates got sucked into doing this for "Last Comic Standing" after getting good notices for their appearances on, say, "The Daily Show" -- which, they are about to find out, has mostly to do with how good Jon Stewart is at making them look funny and human and all.
Don't believe me?
The Obama ad opens with the candidate standing behind a lectern, telling Americans: "Hi, I'm Barack Obama and I'm running for president of the United States. Remember to vote for me in November. And if you don't think I'm funny, you've obviously never seen me bowl."
A picture of him bowling appears on-screen.
Obama then turns to someone off-screen and says, "I'm not going to deliver this line any better than that" and walks off.
The End.
The McCain ad begins with him behind a lectern, telling Americans: "I'm John McCain and I approve this message. A president has to be funny. They just have to be." Photos of a slack-jawed, cowboy-hatted President George W. Bush; a sax-playing President Bill Clinton; and a Bonzo-bedtiming pre-president Ronald Reagan appear.
"Unfunny presidents only serve one term if they win an election at all," McCain continues. "I may not be the last comic standing, but I'm definitely the funniest candidate for president."
"Yeah -- funny-looking!" says an off-camera voice.
"Who said that?" barks a faux-angry McCain.
The End.
The idea got its start at a meeting of the "Last Comic Standing" writers, according to show executive producer David Friedman. Originally the idea was to have the show's five finalists cut their own "campaign" ads, since this is an election year and American viewers also get to vote in re who wins the annual competition series. You know the drill. Anyway, that idea somehow morphed into approaching the two presidential wannabes, both of whom said yes.
And why not? In June, both men shilled for Lifetime network's "Army Wives" for its second-season debut -- and that show gets even fewer viewers than "Last Comic Standing." Those plugs were couched as "salutes" to military families, though the network took the bits in which the candidates said they watched the show and spoke the name "Lifetime" and wore them out in promos for Lifetime and the series.
In his plug, McCain said, " 'Army Wives' has a lot of great twists and turns. I know, because Cindy makes me watch with her and we're looking forward to Season 2," and so on. Obama told viewers, "I know you all are waiting to see what happens this season on 'Army Wives.' But I just wanted to take a moment to honor the people this show is about," etc.
Asked why he thinks the candidates are showing up to help promote prime-time soaps and reality series, "Last Comic" exec Friedman told The TV Column that while he's the last guy to say that something as important as a presidential election is a popularity contest . . . you know the rest.
McCain's ad was shot on NBC's lot last month, when he was taping an episode of NBC Universal's syndicated Ellen DeGeneres talk show. Obama's was shot last week at the Omni Shoreham in Washington.
Friedman says the two candidates' writers worked with the show's writers to come up with the ads, and it was pretty much the same as working with any "celebrity."
Speaking of celebrities, Friedman says he was not any more surprised that the men who would be president said yes to the pitch for an appearance than he is when anyone agrees to appear on the show. Obama and McCain will be joined on the season finale by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
And Jon Lovitz.
* * *
"American Idol" producer 19 Entertainment issued a statement yesterday emphatically denying reports of the departure of Nigel Lythgoe -- the second most annoying judge on "So You Think You Can Dance" and the "Idol" show runner.
"Contrary to online rumors, producer Nigel Lythgoe is not leaving 19 Entertainment," the company said, like it meant it to sting.
But no one was reporting Lythgoe was leaving 19 Entertainment.
Instead, they were reporting he was leaving "American Idol."
And he is.
Fox says so.
As in: "While we are disappointed that he will no longer be executive producing 'American Idol,' we are pleased to continue working with him on 'So You Think You Can Dance' and look forward to working with him on his new projects."
That's pretty much all Fox is saying on the subject, except that Lythgoe is "an extraordinarily talented producer whose creative contributions to the No. 1 show on television have been immeasurable."
(It's true, last season "Idol" took a bit of a ratings tumble, as did many prime-time series, though most could point to the writers' strike for cause. Not so for reality series. Fox is said to be looking to shake up "Idol," mulling things like shortening the whole lame-auditions period and spending more time on Hollywood Week, etc.)
But Lythgoe, who is a modest man, did not want to boast about his immeasurable contributions to what is still the country's most popular TV series by several laps:
"Due to the huge success of 'So You Think You Can Dance,' my summer will be taken up by travels to South Africa, Australia and Canada to work on local versions of the show," Lythgoe said in his official statement on the subject of his not leaving 19 Entertainment.
Lythgoe said he will "step back" from his day-to-day producing work on "Idol" to devote "my time to a new venture with Simon Fuller. . . . He is without doubt a man of vision, and I look forward to partnering with him on new and exciting challenges in all forms of entertainment."
Lythgoe, who, to his credit, does not emit deafening screams on "So You Think You Can Dance" -- choreographer Mary Murphy does that, making her the hands-down most annoying judge, not just on that show but in the history of TV -- is negotiating a "new deal" with 19 to start a "new joint venture" with Fuller, 19 Entertainment said in its statement -- proving once and for all that Lythgoe is not leaving 19 Entertainment. We hope that ends the rumormongering.
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IMAGE; Images From Tv; John McCain and Barack Obama have shot "funny" campaign ads for Thursday's season finale of "Last Comic Standing."
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August 5, 2008 Tuesday 1:00 PM EST
Opinion Focus
BYLINE: Eugene Robinson, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
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HIGHLIGHT: Washington Post opinion columnist Eugene Robinson was online Tuesday, August 5 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his recent columns and the latest news.
Washington Post opinion columnist Eugene Robinson was online Tuesday, August 5 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his recent columns and the latest news.
Discussion Group: Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood
The transcript follows.
Archive: Eugene Robinson discussion transcripts
____________________
Eugene Robinson: Hi, everyone. No preamble today -- let's just get started.
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Manhattan, Kan.: Hi Gene -- thanks for sharing your well-informed opinions. My question concerns the way the mainstream press has covered the brouhaha over McCain's accusation that Obama has played the race card. The warrant for that campaign's argument is Obama having stated three times in one day that his opponents will try to tell you that he doesn't look other presidents on the dollar bill.
However, not one single mainstream publication, including The Washington Post, has mentioned that a month ago McCain ran a Web ad showing a goofy-looking, Photoshopped image of Obama on a dollar bill. Why isn't this considered germane to the debate and being widely reported? Only the Huffington Post has reported this fact.
washigntonpost.com: Who's Raising Race? The Messages Loaded Into a McCain Surrogate's Words (Post, Aug. 5)
Eugene Robinson: Thanks. That sounds worth mentioning, but doesn't fundamentally change the "debate," such as it is, for me. Republicans could have easily just replied, "No, we're not going to try to scare people because of Obama's race," and left it at that. Their operatic umbrage was intentional and opportunistic, in my view.
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The Spin State: You are still dancing around the primary issue without properly answering or analyzing it. Why did Obama really say the line "I don't look like those Presidents on the dollar bills" several times during his multiple campaign stops. Obama may not have said the words "racist" or "victim," but his statement infers these issues. Also, when his staff was asked about the statement, they spun and never answered the reporter. If it was a mistake by the speechwriters to put that line in, then say so; if not, why was it in there and spoken several times?
Eugene Robinson: I'm not dancing around anything. Of course Obama was referring to race (perhaps among other attributes). I've said that I thought the initial answer given by one of his spokespeople, Robert Gibbs -- to the effect that he wasn't referring to race at all, not in the slightest -- was dumb and obviously not true. Very soon afterward, the campaign came out with a more reality-based response. The thing is, he does happen to be the first African-American major-party candidate for president. Seems to me that he will probably mention this fact from time to time.
_______________________
Fairfax, Va.: Race is playing an enormous role in this election in particular because it is causing Obama to hold back and avoid "red-meating" McCain. Can you explain the fears Obama may have that prevent him from agressively knocking McCain figuratively to the canvas? This is critical, because we live in a country where the electorate has been lied to by the president and dumbed-down by the mainstream media for so long that it is essential to have a candidate who will explain the issues and what the choices mean.
Eugene Robinson: Seems to me that race notwithstanding, the Obama campaign is going to have to find a way to respond in a more full-throated manner to the McCain campaign's attacks. Maybe this is done through surrogates, or through ads. I thought this was supposed to be a campaign without snarkiness, but the Republicans are snarking like never before.
_______________________
Washington: Obama is making an extended stop in Indiana today and tomorrow. Some speculate he may take the opportunity to announce favorite son Evan Bayh is his choice for vice president. If this were to be the case, how soon would we know it? I assume campaigns don't make this a complete surprise.
Eugene Robinson: Campaigns try their best to make these announcements a total surprise. One can't help but notice the sojourn in Indiana, but I don't know of any solid indication that Obama's ready to decide or that he's settled on Bayh.
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Miami: Today on The View, Elizabeth Hasselbeck asked John McCain if he had seen the recent poll showing that a McCain/Condoleezza Rice ticket would defeat the Obama/Hillary ticket. McCain spoke highly about Secretary of State Rice. How much pressure would McCain and Laura Bush need to place on Condi Rice to get her to accept a vice presidential offer? Or do you think the influence of President Bush would make it more likely for her to accept the post? Isn't this the sort of excitement that McCain would need to create the convention's wow factor?
Eugene Robinson: One way for John McCain to create some excitement and buzz for his candidacy -- as opposed to creating buzz against Obama -- would be to make a surprising, nontraditional vice-presidential pick. Condoleezza Rice would surely fit that bill. However, I don't think it's going to happen. She's pro-choice and pro-affirmative action, which McCain isn't. Also, she is completely untested as a politician. I'm still convinced that she will enter politics at some point, but I don't think it will be as McCain's running mate.
_______________________
Springfield, Mo.: Greetings from Springfield Missouri, where that controversial "other presidents" line was first used -- and appropriately, I thought. While Missouri isn't a Southern state, Springfield is hardly one of your northeastern cities, either. Past racial tensions are well-understood by long-time residents, black and white. I see Sen. Obama's words not as an arbitrary insertion of race into the conversation, but more as an indication that he did his homework well. The GOP has got to be terrified seeing those long lines even here in Greene County, which has gone Republican in every presidential race since Goldwater. Do you think, as some have said, that every day the election is about race, Obama loses? How about, "every day the cameras focus on John McCain's tired, angry face, the GOP loses"?
Eugene Robinson: I think that race is something that Obama is just going to have to deal with, and given how fraught this nation is about the subject, you'd have to say he's done incredibly well to date. There will be days when the conversation is about race and days when it isn't. One thing Obama can do is work to boost the number of days when the subject is McCain's suitability as president, not on his own.
_______________________
Baltimore: Is Larry Craig attending the Republican convention? Could they keep him away, considering he's a sitting Senator?
Eugene Robinson: I don't think they can keep him away. [Insert your own joke about his arrival at the airport.]
_______________________
Baltimore: The moderators for the debates have been announced -- Brokaw, Lehrer and Schieffer, with Ifill moderating the veep debates. Looks like there's still a glass ceiling in journalism if you're younger than retirement age, female, or black.
Eugene Robinson: Sigh. Tom, Jim and Bob are all great journalists and will do a terrific job, but it would be nice if someone from another demographic were invited to ask questions of the candidates on behalf of the American people (who are a more varied lot).
_______________________
Philadelphia: I know this is pure speculation, but given the clear strategic intellect of Obama and Axelrod, wouldn't you think they've got something up their sleeves to counter the Rovian tactics we're seeing now? Maybe something that we'll see rolled out after Labor Day when the conventions are over and when people start paying attention. It's not like any of this is a surprise; this is the same stuff we've been seeing for more than eight years now, even longer if you go back to Atwater. They have to have anticipated it, right? Our poker player has to have the upper hand, right?
Eugene Robinson: There are two theories. One, that Obama, Axelrod and the rest of the brain trust have this thing all figured out and are playing off McCain's attacks just the way they want to. The other theory is that the Obama team doesn't really enjoy this kind of brass-knuckles brawling. We'll see which is right.
_______________________
Bremerton, Wash.: Gene, do you think an opportunity has been lost? We've had eight weeks since the end of the primaries to start a rational forum on Race and Race Relations in America and talk about what things both cadidates agree on and disagree on, what it means and what we would want in the future. Instead, the slime merchants have come to draw this important subject down to baiting and name-calling, without context or hope for understanding. Is there any chance the we could get ourselves back to an informed and thoughtful discussion?
Eugene Robinson: To tell the truth, I doubt it. This campaign seems likely to generate more heat than light in terms of race, at least as far as discussion is concerned. I think you could argue, however, that the historic fact that one of the candidates is African-American will end up being a huge advance in our dialog about race -- when we eventually get around to having that dialog.
_______________________
Arlington, Va.: Good afternoon Gene. Obama seems to be counterpunching fairly well. He did this in the primaries and is continuing in the general. His ad and speech yesterday on energy was very good. On the other side of the scale, I thought the sarcasm on the part of the McCain campaign regarding tire pressure wasn't even clever, and not even close to the facts. I suspect McCain's tactics will do no more than harden the support for both candidates and push independents into the Obama camp -- especially if Obama does well in the debates.
Eugene Robinson: I'm not sure I entirely agree. I think Obama's counterpunching could stand to improve. I think you're absolutely right, though, about the debates. We won't really know the shape of this race until we get into the heart of the campaign.
_______________________
New York:"The other theory is that the Obama team doesn't really enjoy this kind of brass-knuckles brawling." A simpler theory is that going negative is lose-lose for Obama. It reinforces the "uppity" trope and blurs the differences between the campaigns. It's worth noting that the energy attack ad had more positive Obama framing than negative McCain attacks -- and that it was completely accurate.
Eugene Robinson: You could be right. That would be a variation of the "they've got this all figured out" theory. But from the Obama campaign's point of view, I think it would be perilous, to say the least, to let this election become a referendum on Obama's suitability to serve as president. Seems to me that they would have to put questions about McCain's suitability on the table as well.
_______________________
Richmond, Va.: Fred Haitt's recent editorial pointed to the danger of Democracts drinking their own Kool-Aid and assuming that all Republican victories are the product of unethical "dirty tricks" as opposed to more of the electorate agreeing with the Republican's positions in those elections. Do you think his idea that Obama should reconsider joint town hall meetings at this point has merit?
Eugene Robinson: It's pretty much an ironclad rule that the candidate who's behind wants lots of debates, or town halls, and the candidate who's ahead wants as few as possible. And my view is that presidential elections are not just about issues -- or just about dirty tricks -- but also, and sometimes primarily, about the public's sense of each candidate as a leader who will take the country in the right direction.
_______________________
McLean, Va.: How long before we see the Obama campaign or its 527 surrogates launch ads showing McCain confabulating issues about Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, while noting that he's the oldest non-incumbent ever to run for the presidency?
Eugene Robinson: I would be surprised if someone -- either the Obama campaign or some 527 -- didn't highlight McCain's stumbles on foreign policy. I doubt you'll see ads that explicitly attack him based on age.
_______________________
Arlington, Va.: Gene Do you have any thoughts on Bayh? I've heard him described as "white-bread" and "safe." I admit I know little about him, but it wouldn't seem like there wasn't any excitement factor there.
Eugene Robinson: My only thought is that I'd be surprised if excitement were at the top of Obama's list, in terms of what a vice presidential candidate could bring to the campaign. It's not as if there's a shortage of charisma or pizazz at present.
_______________________
Eugene Robinson: That's it for today, folks. Thanks so much for dropping by, and see you again next week.
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Chatological Humor: He's Just Talking About a Girl, OK? (UPDATED 8.6.08)
BYLINE: Gene Weingarten, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 7751 words
HIGHLIGHT: DAILY UPDATES: WED
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Gene Weingarten's humor column, Below the Beltway, appears every Sunday in The Washington Post magazine. It is syndicated nationally by the Washington Post Writers Group.
At one time or another, Below the Beltway has managed to offend persons of both sexes as well as individuals belonging to every religious, ethnic, regional, political and socioeconomic group. If you know of a group we have missed, please write in and the situation will be promptly rectified. "Rectified" is a funny word.
On Tuesdays at noon, Weingarten is online to take your questions and abuse. He will chat about anything. Although this chat is updated regularly throughout the week, it is not and never will be a "blog," even though many persons keep making that mistake. One reason for the confusion is the Underpants Paradox: Blogs, like underpants, contain "threads," whereas this chat contains no "threads" but, like underpants, does sometimes get funky and inexcusable.
This Week's Poll: MEN| WOMEN
Not chat day? Visit the Gene Pool.
Important, secret note to readers: The management of The Washington Post apparently does not know this chat exists, or it would have been shut down long ago. Please do not tell them. Thank you.
Weingarten is also the author of "The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death" and co-author of "I'm with Stupid," with feminist scholar Gina Barreca.
New to Chatological Humor? Read the FAQ.
P.S. If composing your questions in Microsoft Word please turn off the Smart Quotes functionality. I haven't the time to edit them out. -- Liz
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Gene Weingarten: Good afternoon.
You know what it feels like to take a salad fork and jab it hard into that lumpy, veined viscera under your tongue? Especially if you hit the really thin membrane in the front?
No? Well of course you don't. Nobody would deliberately do that. It hurts just to think about it. Well, then, why would anyone deliberately go to the movies these days? I don't do it all that often, and every time I do -- like recently, for "Wall-E" and "The Dark Knight" -- I am reminded why I don't do it all that often.
To get decent seats at any Multiplex, you have to arrive at least 20 minutes earlier than the movie start time, which is NOT in fact the movie start time but the start time for an endless series of coming attractions, so you are really compelled to arrive about 35 minutes before the movie. As you sit there consuming Milk Duds at roughly 20 cents per Dud and water at the price of imported beer, you have to watch commercials for TV shows and retail products. And they're not even GOOD retail products. Peach schnapps! Linoleum! Bab-O scouring cleanser! This is like paying $12 to watch commercial-only television.
Then arrive the coming attractions, which at some point in the fairly recent past all became the same, and all equally annoying. Have you noticed that? All coming attractions consist of two-second clips mashed together into an incomprehensible whole. Thud! An arrow hits a tree! Someone screams "No!" A boat explodes! A fat man is running! Two people are tongue kissing! A weasel looks out of a hole! A train derails! Then, things get even faster! ONE-second clips. Blurs, sounds, screams, fabric flouncing, close-ups of eyeballs, until... everything freezes. Silence! Slowly, a date crawls across the screen. It is the date the movie opens nationwide. Though the movie appears to be about, say, skateboarding, this date is presented as though it were announcing the official time of The Rapture.
So, I'm a Grumpy Old Fart.
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When I wrote Sunday's column about viral videos, including this one, I expected to be inundated with e-mails from people with greater Web skills than I, people who knew the provenance of the stunt, and could explain why it was or was not a fraud. But no! This one has remained a secret, which is pretty amazing. However, I did get an email from Andrew Curry, writing from Berlin. Andrew said that on German TV, a science-debunking show did a whole segment on this video, trying to figure out if it was possibly real. They enlisted a bunch of cheerleaders, a troupe of Mongolian acrobats, and a video-editing expert.
According to Andrew, they finally decided it was a phony, though a very clever one.
My reason for calling fraud was simply that the stunt is waay too dangerous for these obviously skilled people to attempt: The chances of catastrophic failure is simply too high.
The Germans, however, ultimately made their conclusion based on a logical examination the video itself, and I find it pretty conclusive. If you look at the man on the left, as he is setting up the lift, he looks up at the hoop OVER HIS LEFT SHOULDER.
The only way to place that cheerleader accurately through that hoop would have been to launch her from a position immediately beside the hoop, and flip her on a plane that is precisely the hoop's distance from the backboard. Had they done that, the man would have been looking straight up over the top of his head, not over his shoulder. The Germs concluded that this flip was done a foot or two in FRONT of the basket, and that they had rigged the net to move at the right moment via a tug on fishing wire. Shoot the scene from a distance with high depth of field, and the illusion is complete.
As to the popcorn video, I am informed that there are two explanations, depending on which of several cell-phone-and-popcorn videos you are looking at. In the original series, done virally by a Bluetooth company, the video was run backwards and popped corn was thrown ONTO the table, while the original kernals were digitally removed. Later, people replicated the act by removing the microwave generator from a microwave oven, and placing it below the table.
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I want to thank several readers who pointed out the obituary of Ricky Dumpit, a Cheverly sanitation worker.
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Henry Chen found this fabulous page from Conservapedia, explaining the phenomenon of atheism. My favorite explanation, because of its impressive logic, is that atheism is "a deliberate choice to ignore the reality of God's existence."
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I have been authorized to reveal, based on secret information, that the first name of one of the finalists in "America's Next Top Model" is... Hillareigh.
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Chatological Humor is always on the lookout for video clips that help raise the sophistication and dignity of this forum. So we proudly present today's Clip of the Day.
This was a weak comics week. The CPOW is today's Doonesbury. The first runner up was thursday's Cul De Sac. Honorable: Saturday's Agnes. But the most remarkable strip was Sunday's Opus. Please read and opine.
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Tyson's Corner: Gene, today is National Underwear Day! How many virtual and real pieces of underwear do you anticipate flung in your direction?
Gene Weingarten: I cannot believe no one informed me of this in advance.
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Gene Weingarten: Okay, this is important.
Someone just informed me that it is "generally known" that Brown Eyed Girl" is about back-door sex.
I instantly dismissed this as insane.
And then went to the lyrics:
Something you should know about Brown Eyed Girl Lyrics
Title: Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl lyrics
Artist: Van Morrison Lyrics
Visitors: 53130 visitors have hited Brown Eyed Girl Lyrics since May 27, 2008.
Print: Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl Lyrics print version
Complimentary "Brown Eyed Girl" Ringtone
Hey where did we go,
Days when the rains came
Down in the hollow,
Playin' a new game,
Laughing and a running hey, hey
Skipping and a jumping
In the misty morning fog with
Our hearts a thumpin' and you
My brown eyed girl,
You my brown eyed girl.
Whatever happened
To Tuesday and so slow
Going down the old mine
With a transistor radio
Standing in the sunlight laughing,
Hiding behind a rainbow's wall,
Slipping and sliding
All along the water fall, with you
My brown eyed girl,
You my brown eyed girl.
--
Can someone opine about this? Because I am feeling weak.
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Flyover Country: Hey, Gene. Did you see Olbermann's statement that he's not going to let Milbank back on his show until he apologizes for his Obama column from last week? I don't get it. I've been a fan of K.O. since the Big Show days, and I think he's often insightful and generally correct but the idea that pointing out the hubris of a presidential candidate in a humorous way is somehow a traitorous act that demands retribution seems completely off the wall to me.
Look, I'm a Democrat, born and raised, with the extra cachet of being an intern in the Clinton White House (no, not that one) who, like Fox Mulder, wants to believe, really badly. I think Obama's a decent guy, he's going to get my vote, but I've seen him speak, in person, a couple of different times and on neither occasion did he resemble the Second Coming.
Three months out and we've already lost our sense of humor and perspective. This is why people get frustrated and fall off the radar screen.
Gene Weingarten: Scuse me, but Olbermann is ridiculous. As silly and posuturing on the left as are the loonies on the right. His positions tend to be manipulatively extreme.
And that was an excellent piece by Milbank. Funny and true. Liz, can we link to it? Search "presumptuous."
washingtonpost.com: President Obama Continues Hectic Victory Tour, ( Post, July 30)
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Old Fart ...: There's a way around what you describe at movie theaters. Find one that has a "Director's Hall." It's the new "in" thing for movies. Extra-wide and extra-comfy seats for an extra-high price. HOWEVER -- you get assigned seats. No having to save your seats. So in the extra time you have, go to the nearby grocery store and buy your own candy and water to smuggle in. Enter about ten minutes after the announced start time, and you're set!
That's an interesting ethics question for you -- how do you feel about smuggling food into a movie theater? Is that a form of theft? I'll note that both Camden Yards and Nationals Park allow you to bring in outside food.
Gene Weingarten: I consider requiring you to buy unconscionably overpriced food is extortion. I believe we should rebel by whatever legal means available.
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Opus ...: So is that a hint that the strip is ending soon??
Gene Weingarten: Sure looks like it, no?
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London Calling: The COD reminds me of one of my favorite dishes, "Bangers and Mash."
Gene Weingarten: If you want to laugh out loud, go back and look at her face each time as she brings down the hammer.
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Brown Eyed girl: Van Morrison was 17 years old when he wrote that song. I can not and will not believe for a moment that the apparent freferences are anything but coincidence
Gene Weingarten: It's intriguing, though, isn't it?
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You should check this o, UT: Bumpers Lack Substance, ( WSJ, Aug. 3, 2008)
Now do you understand why some of us get PO'd at your bumper attitude? I will grant you that the car manufacturers are stupid, impractical, and hugely annoying. But unless and until they fix this stupidity, if you mess with my bumper, I'm coming after you to pay for it.
Gene Weingarten: This is a shocking disgrace, but ...
This has nothing whatsoever to do with tapping a bumper. I tap your bumper, you get at worst a negligible dent or a qarter inch scratch. And you probably get nothing.
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Long Beach, Calif.: In the Hitler eating watermelon clip, he's saying "this is so yummy" (eze taim ze) in Hebrew.
Gene Weingarten: This is from the update. Liz, can you link to it?
washingtonpost.com: Hitler Eating a Watermelon
Gene Weingarten: Kate Rears has arranged a continuous loop of this that is just great. I shall try to find the link.
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It's about a GIRL. With BROWN EYES.: Jesus. It's a romantic song. Only a bunch of immature, sex-starved adolescents would read more into it.
Granted, that's a large percentage of the readership of this chat, but still.
Gene Weingarten: I know. And I love the song, butt . . .
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Conservapedia: this site has to be a joke, right? in the same vein as Stephen Colbert? Please, please say yes.
Barack Obama's Entry
Gene Weingarten: The site is not a joke. Well, it IS a joke, but not an intentional joke.
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Pie R Square, Va.: Gene, If a basketball hoop is a standard 18" diameter, the circumference is 56.52". Even the latter-day Elvis could fit through that hoop.
Gene Weingarten: This is a fallacy. Its not about circumference. It's about diameter. My wife went through the hoop easily; I got stuck at the shoulders. And I am not 56 inch circumference.
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Re: Opus ending: Only Berke could furtively announce the impending end of his strip ... and include a penis joke at the same time. Classic!
Gene Weingarten: I know!
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Very Th, IN: Isn't the Rib a woman who "stays very thin"?
Gene Weingarten: Yes, and it is why I included that item. As of this morning, twice as many women than men had antipathy for her and others of her size.
I have written about my wife's small size two or three times in the past; each time I got at least a couple of emails from women expressing some degree of contempt for women who "starve themselves." After I wrote THIS column, the mail was particularly vicious. One woman said I should not compliment women who "look like tweezers."
It's just a body type. The anger is bad.
washingtonpost.com: Hubby's Perfect Gift for the Little Woman, ( Post, Jan. 4, 2000)
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Anonymous: Been a smuggler for years. I empty my mid-sized purse of all but the absolute necessities and bring in two cans of pop/water from home, a package of 1.00 Twizzlers from Walmart and Goodies/Allsorts from the bulk bins at the grocery store. We still buy popcorn as it's one of the reasons I go to the theatre.
We are considering the addition of "purse wine".
Gene Weingarten: Good.
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Arou, ND: To tie two week's conversation together, I have to admit that I judge people by their names, which is obviously absurd. But I definitely have preconceived stereotypes about the sort of people who have weak names like Tammie or Tiffany, or weirdly spelled names, or even hyper-masculine names. But judgments like these, or like many of the ones I copped to in the poll, I find are easily adjusted. Very few of them survive getting to know the person, and none of them would keep me from getting to know them. The only real exception for me is the Evangelical Christian example, and that's because, for me, that judgment is based more on direct bad experience than on a broad, idle stereotype.
Second, I have a personal hygiene question that I haven't seen covered in this chat. And that question is about shaving. How many women actually go full Brazilian, and how many let it all grow unimpeded? What do men actually prefer, and why? My last boyfriend really preferred the naked look, but I didn't get it, and worried about razor burn (and was too poor to really see waxing as a worthwhile grooming habit).
Gene Weingarten: When the poll resputs started rolling in, I initially found the evangelical Christian antipathy to be amazing. It led almost all categories; still does. But in thinking about it, I decided the reason was polticial, not religious: These are the folks who delivered us George W., not once but twice.
Gene Weingarten: As far as ladies' personal, private-regional hygiene, topiary, etc., this is a topic Chatwoman has specifically outlawed, poll-wise. We considered it. She decided no. A brief appeal was tendered and rejected. Philosophical entreaties were made, discussed, and dismissed.
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Gene Pool: Have you read the responses to your "Obama in a landslide?" question? I think you're the only one who thinks that. Most people were either in the McCain will win camp or Obama will squeek by, but nobody was calling for a landslide
Your comment reminds me of that other know it all, Bob Levy, who predicted with smug authority back in 1999, right here in his weekly chat, that "shrub didn't have a chance". Well, it's been almost 8 years of Bush and I'm still bitter.
Believe me, I hope you're right, but I don't think it's going to happen. Not a landslide anyway.
Gene Weingarten: Obama will get between 320 and 336 electoral votes.
I am anticipating something. If it doesn't happen, then I am wrong.
I am anticipating some very serious very public senior-moment slipups by Mr. McCain.
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Re: Olbermann: You're so right about Olbermann. I think he's just as bad as the guys on Fox News. I've given up on cable news/punditry and still to newspapers and their companion internet sites. But have you noticed that as Olbermann has drifted to the left and become more partisan, his ratings have gone up?!
Gene Weingarten: Of course. It is a completely cynical drift.
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Re: Brown Eyed Girl: According to the (somewhat) estimable Songfacts.com, the song was originally called "Brown Skinned Girl," and was about an interracial relationship. Morrison changed it to "Brown Eyed Girl" to make it more palatable for radio stations.
That would make it seem less likely that it was about anything other than young love (of the clean variety), no?
Gene Weingarten: Probably, probably.
I'm not really buying it. But I love the debate. The mine shaft line in particular.
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Sick: Gene,
I didn't watch it, but if any court has the right, they should take custody of the baby of those idiot parents with the king cobra. Seriously, what ever happened to parental responsibility? And laughing in the background? If there ever was a reason to lose custody of a child then this is it.
Gene Weingarten: It's a pretty astonishing clip. I suppose if this is a defanged cobra, what we're looking at is no more dangerous than, say, a dog nosing the baby. But it just looks awful.
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Rockville, Md.: The movie theaters make NO money off of the ticket sales for a good period of time after a movie is released. All the money goes to the movie companies. They only way they stay in business is concession sales.
If everybody brought in their own food/drink, movie theaters would fold.
Gene Weingarten: No, they wouldn't. They'd charge more for tickets.
More likely, they'd start charging reasonable prices. And a little more for tickets.
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Conservapedia: And it's "The Trustworthy Encyclopedia"! Is that sort of like truthiness?
This may be my new favorite site. I can't wait to find out what they have to say about feminists, gays, Jews, vegetarians, etc. Maybe YOU could get an entry, Gene. What an honor that would be.
Gene Weingarten: Ooh. Now, that's an idea for a column.
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Smelly Ears: I got my ears pierced five months ago, and about one or two months ago I noticed that my ear holes are smelly. Not really really bad foul infection smelly, just not really clean smelling (are there any body odors that are "clean" smelling). I thought it would just go away but it hasn't. They don't hurt and there doesn't appear to be any sign of infection, although when I pull the earrings out (studs only) there is a milky white goo on the stud. Is this common? I mean do all earring holes stink? I'm thinking not, but I'm too embarrassed to ask any of my pierced friends (I'm 27 so that would be most everyone). And I'm worried other people can smell it. Then the other day my friend tells me she read that old men have that old man smell because of something behind their ears, and I'm like holy crap! do I smell like an old man and just no one is telling me? Also, I'm in a much much hotter more humid environment for the summer than I normally am, so I'm wondering if its just like... earring hole BO. Do they make deodorant for this? I mean, part of me isnt concerned because there is no pain and otherwise the holes appear to have healed. But then like the stinky girl in high school, while BO doenst hurt you, it certainly doesn't bring friends. Should I just start trolling for men in the old people home as presumably old men don't think they smell like well old men and so they wont smell my earring hole BO. What I'm wondering is have you (or anyone else) heard of this before and should I be calling a doc stat?
Gene Weingarten: Have you ruled out the possibility that there are worms in your ear canal, and that they are farting?
You can elminate that possibility with a simple test: When you go to bed smear Elmer's Glue-All on the outside of your ear, all around the hole. Female ear worms (clostridia vulgaris) are sexually aroused by the Glue-All smell because it replicates male worm pheromones. When they explore the outer ear area, their ventral fangs will become entangled in the glue, and you will see them, probably still wriggling, when you awake. Dispose of them carefully, and repeat the procedure nightly until no more worms emerge.
Assuming there is no infestation, you probably have a mild infection of your ear holes. Wash twice daily and apply hydrogen peroxide.
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Northern, VA: Gene - I have a 12-year old Mazda Protege. Last night, I accidentally left the passenger door unlocked. This morning, I realized that someone had rifled through my car. Should I be upset about this, or about the fact that nothing was missing?
Gene Weingarten: My 17 year old car is rifled through almost every week! I leave the door open to make it easier. I've never had it stolen or even peed in. I'm not sure why. I think the homeless and the criminals respect it. It's one of them.
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Anonymous: I judge the people who checked eight or more check boxes in that poll.
Gene Weingarten: I would have checked eight. If I took the poll.
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Ball Girl Fa CT: My first thought seeing that video was that the ball girl should be fired for interfering with a ball in play. The next was that she was pretty good, staged or not.
Gene Weingarten: Here is what you have to remember: She is an athlete/stuntwoman. Here job was to climb a padded wall (she probably wore spikes and the pads may well have been tailored specifically to facilitate a climb) and then leap and twist, with her arm extended. That's it. There was no ball -- it was digitally added. So the feat is one of a climb and a safe fall, but it entailed no hand-eye coordination and no split-second timing.
washingtonpost.com: Amazing Ball Girl Catch
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Comic-Con: I hope Liz didn't have a run-in with this superhero while in San Diego. One can clearly see this guy's nuts.
washingtonpost.com: Good god. It's Nut Man.
Gene Weingarten: I believe he is a villain known as The Scrotum.
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Rockville, Md.: Regarding your comment about rebelling against overpriced theater food by any means necessary: how do you feel about rebelling against overpriced multiplex theater tickets by sneaking into a theater to see a second movie once the movie you've paid to see is finished?
Seems that it's no big deal since mgmt knows that will happen and there's no incremental cost associated with me planting my butt in another theater.
thanks
Gene Weingarten: I think that is dishonest.
Movie tickets are not overpriced.
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Brown Eye, OH: Here's a question for you (as an old fogey): was the euphemism "brown eye" in use in the 1960's? I don't think I'd ever heard it before the late 80's or so.
In related news, I don't think Cole Porter's song "The Magical Chocolate Starfish" is risque, either.
Gene Weingarten: I think I have mentioned this before, but there is a clip from a very old SNL in which the charactrs are going into a gay bar. You can only see the name of the bar for about a half second. It is "The Puckered Starfish."
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former world power: How do you think that people in the US will adjust to living in a country that is no longer a world power? Will we heave a collective sigh of relief - or merely try to compensate all the more?...(thinking here of many of my southern neighbors who are not yet over the recent unpleasantness of the war of northern aggression)
Gene Weingarten: I'm hoping what happens to us is more or less what happened to the Romans after their empire fell. They became fun loving goofy Italians.
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Not only that, but...: About the ball girl: If there's no ball, then she's an actor/mime. Heck, I'm a pretty good juggler, as long as I'm using invisible objects and not actual balls.
Gene Weingarten: Right. Well, she's an athlete. She climbed that wall and fell safely from about seven feet....
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Re: Old Cars: There's a great line a Douglas Adams book about a character who never locks her doors because her car isn't worth stealing, and she'd "rather they didn't have to break anything to discover that."
Gene Weingarten: Exactly my point. Even my radio: Probably worth four bucks. Not worth the time to yank it out.
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Re: Smelly ears: Be nice to the young lady, Gene.
Just for the record: no, it is not normal to have goo coming out of your earring hole. Although I'm an old fart with one piercing in each earlobe. Perhaps the young whippersnappers in the audience have had a different experience.
Gene Weingarten: She's a cutie. She has a little infection, and knows that now.
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Baltimor, ON: I'll see your stumbling senior moments by McCain and raise you blithering, stumbling incoherence by Obama at some point when he has to operate without a script.
Equally likely, you have to admit.
Gene Weingarten: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, no.
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Ladies' grooming: Not sure if Liz will let this through, but here goes...
This is not a black-or-white issue. As a homeowner, Gene, surely you do not delude yourself that the only options for your front lawn are scorched earth or knee-high weeds. Similarly, I prefer to keep my lawn neatly trimmed. That makes it easier for the kids to play, while still protecting the topsoil.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you.
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Houston, Tex.: This was a weak comics week. The CPOW is today's Doonesbury. The first runner up was Thursday's Cul De Sac. Honorable: Saturday's Agnes. But the most remarkable strip was Sunday's Opus. Please read and opine.
Both of the links to Cul De Sac and Agnes point to the same Agnes strip.
Gene Weingarten: Ooop, alert Cwoman.
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Paging Dr. Gene: What if someone took you seriously?
Gene Weingarten: Well no harm would be done. I didn't tell her to put the glue IN her ear.
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Minor Infractions Poll Idea: I too smuggle in food for movies and really just about anywhere, even if no eating is allowed (e.g., museums, Senate hearing rooms, etc.) I don't, however, cheat on my taxes which I believe you, Gene, agree is just wrong. But I would like to know how many people out there commit infractions large and small yet still will not blow through an automated toll booth if they haven't the correct change, missed the basket, it malfunctioned, or whatever. Because I just moved out near the Dulles Toll Road and I am always stuck behind these idiots!!! They sit there, unwilling to just GO, as if toll-paying is a moral obligation, when you know darn well they are cheating on their taxes, and likely their spouses. something about toll booths freezes people. And yes, I have an EZ Pass, but sometimes I can't get all the way over to those lanes.
Gene Weingarten: I will blow right through if I am caught without change, absolutely. It is stupid to sit there.
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washingtonpost.com: Agnes
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San Francisco: Wow, more people hate on people with poor grammar than cigarette smokers? That's shocking to me. As much as I annoyingly correct others' grammar at times, their mistakes don't kill people around them.
Gene Weingarten: Neither do cigarette smokers. You are a secondhand smoke weenie and I call you out for it.
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Defend Yourself: So Gene, this is your chance to utilize this forum to defend yourself for talking on your cellphone while you were in your car on Mass Ave. near the gas station on the Hill on Monday and not using a handsfree device. In the words of Wallace Shawn "Inconceivable!"
Gene Weingarten: I do not own a handsfree device. I do not apologize for driving while talking on a cell phone. I am proud of my ability to shift while talking.
You probably hate second hand smoke, too.
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Capitol Hill: So, Gene, with the Nats arguably the worst team in MLB (prior to this 4-game win streak), are you still "in the tank" for them, as you used to put it? And are you optimistic that your Yankees will make the play-offs?
Gene Weingarten: No, and no.
As to the first no, I think a team needs to earn your devotion. I'll come back around when they're giving me something to root for. Right now the Nats are a disappointment machine.
Speaking of which, the Yanks are a superior team playing without heart. I am mad at them.
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Even my radio: Probably worth four bucks. : The radio is worth 4 bucks? In your dreams. Wanna quadruple the value of your 1993 Mazda? Fill 'er up!
Gene Weingarten: It's a 91, and you are right.
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A 17-year-old Morris, ON: I totally believe that "Brown-Eyed Girl" could be about back-door sex, given what I saw in high school as the editor of a student poetry magazine. One (male) student submitted a poem for weeks that seemed to make no sense; we finally ran it, only to discover that it was one of those poems where the first letters of each line combined to spell a word. In this case, a very dirty word. What better joke could there be for a 17-year-old boy than to write a song full of double-entendre?
Gene Weingarten: I'm strongly leaning no on Brown-Eyed girl. I find the fact that it was apparently originally Brown-Skinned girl to be significant... but if you sing it, brown-skinned doesn't scan nearly as well as brown-eyed.
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Mt. Rainier, Md.: Gene: From Snopes, apparently the ball girl was attached to wires and literally yanked up the wall (then of course lowered safely). So she's not a superstar athlete either -- just a competent stuntwoman.
Gene Weingarten: Really? That must be new on Snopes. Okay.
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Help for ear holes: Your ears are infected a little, but they also haven't completely healed. Wear a pair of studs continuously for two or three weeks and let skin inside the holes grow and heal. But do follow Gene's advice while still wearing the earrings. Oh, and of course twist the earrings daily so the skin doesn't grow attached to the posts.
Gene Weingarten: This is making me think of that stuff under the tongue. Can we stop now?
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Comic Book Villian: As I looked at the photo, I thought, "How could he go out looking like that?" And then I realized that because of his belly, he couldn't see how exposed he was when he looked down.
Apparently he doesn't have a full length mirror, either. Not terribly uncommon for a single man.
Gene Weingarten: It reminds me of a great ad a few years ago for a weight loss product. The image was just looking down on a big man's belly, as though from the head.
The caption said: "If you can't see it, will she?"
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Washington, D.C.: I need some pseudo-medical advice, and since you are a pseudo-medical professional, I was hoping you (or other chatters in high-stress, bad habit-encouraging jobs) can help. I really need to stop biting my nails - it is really unbecoming and I think I may have gotten a small infection where I bit down too low. Any advice? I've tried manicures, fake nails, bitter nail polish, snapping a rubber band on my wrist...Nothing works. Any suggestions?
washingtonpost.com: What stopped me was a friend of the family telling me about all of the little nail crescents getting stuck in my esogphagus.
Gene Weingarten: True fact: What stopped me was a nin-month boondoggle fellowship at Harvard.
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Rockville, Md.: Gene:
Your column Sunday was a fine piece of writing. I liked the setup, the jump back in time to fill in the rest of the story, all of the references to YouTube videos I have seen, and the payoff. There was exactly one funny line in the entire piece, and it actually made me laugh out loud.
BUT
Why didn't you end the piece there? That last sentence not only added nothing to the story (any man who has spent any time with a woman knows the answer to the question), but just killed the laugh. It would have been so much stronger if you had just ended on your wife's question.
Gene Weingarten: I know at least one editor who agrees with you.
geen: Nothing but Net, ( Post Magazine, Aug. 3)
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Your German is Very Po, OR: Rears here. Re: Hitler in liederhosen -sic], it's actually spelled "lederhosen," which is technically pronounced "LAY-duh-hose-en" and translates to "leather pants." Liederhosen or "LEE-duh-hose-en" would translate to "song pants." Or, if you did like most Americans learning German and transposed your ie/ei sounds, pronouncing it "LYE-duh-hose-en," that would be spelled "leiderhosen" and would translate to "Unfortunately, pants."
Gene Weingarten: I like "song pants." It appears to be a fart joke.
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New York, N.Y.: Gene, can you answer a question for me concerning newspaper columnists and copyright and/or income?
Many columnists will take collections of their newspaper columns and publish them in book form. Presumably the newspaper that they work for does not receive any of the income from these columns when they are republished, even though they were originally written for and paid for by the newspaper.
On the other hand, I work as a computer guy for a large media company. If I happen to write some computer code for the company during the course of my employment, that code becomes the property of my employer, and I cannot take it with me to use for myself, even if the code is not going to be published outside the company, and I have no plans to publish it either.
Are columnists explicitly allowed to publish their own work in other media (i.e. is it written into their contracts)?
Gene Weingarten: I'm not sure I have a contract.
I think the policy is employer-by-employer. The Washington Post, as I understand it, shares a copyright with me for the things I write. Theoretically, the Post would have a right to demand a portion of any re-publication fees -- but, as a professional courtesy to their writers, they don't usually exercise it.
That's my understanding. I probably will be hearing from Eric the Lawyer if I am wrong.
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Washington, D.C.: Do you pronounce FAQ as "fack" or "eff-ae-que?"
The former seems so terrifyingly wrong to me.
Gene Weingarten: Fack.
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Denver: I just checked out Nut Man, and I will contact my attorney as soon as I stop barfing. Seriously, I recall rumors of guys "stuffing" during my high school years eons ago. Did this really happen? Does it still happen? I have a teenage daughter and she should be warned.
Gene Weingarten: I think guy stuffing never really happened. But I think girls stuffed.
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Early Poll Results: I'm astounded that so few people think negatively of Hasidic Jews. Many fewer than do of Evangelic Christians or Arabs. Really? Do people not realize that this is also a fundamentalist worldview? With some really retrograde ideas about men and women? Are they being polite because they know you're Jewish and they don't get how different it is to be Hasidic? What gives?
For crying out loud - we don't even know that the Arab guy listed is religious.
Weird country.
Gene Weingarten: Yeah, I chose Hasidic Jew, but not Arab guy.
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Southern Accents: I moved from California to Tennessee a few years ago. I didn't realize until then that I had equated "drawl" with "uneducated." Once I had adjusted and made some friends, I confessed to a gal who was born and raised here that I had thought poorly of her because of her accent. She told me that she didn't have an accent, I did. But I was getting over it.
Gene Weingarten: For most of my life, I shared the Southern-voice prejudice. I joked that my biggest fear was not so much getting into a terrible accident that required surgery, but that the last thing I will hear before going under anesthesia will be a southern drawl behind the surgeon's mask.
I got cured of this prejudice about 15 years ago in what I suspect is the only way you CAN get cured of that sort of prejudice: I met Lynn, a really smart editor at The Post. I forget which state she's from but, lak, y'all cain't geeyut moe suthn. Lynn's been living in the Washington area for about 20 years and I suspect that to her relatives back in Mule Jowl, Ark., or wherever, she by now sounds like a genuine Jewish-person city slicker, but to me, Lynn is still Becky Mae Sidesaddle. And still really, really smart. I lost the regional bias.
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A proud second-hand smoke weenie: Okay, Gene, I usually agree with your assessment of weenie-isms, but on this one you are wrong. Your generation grew up around smokers and even if you don't smoke, you consider it in the range of acceptable behavior. But if you are able to step outside your experience and really think about what is going on, you have to admit that it's insane. Someone is sitting in a public space and is freely, consciously choosing to spout carcinogens into the air. Would it be okay if a corporation decided to put its own little toxic-fume-emitting smokestack next to you? A smoker is doing the same thing.
I really can't believe anyone growing up in our country under the age of 50 smokes. The amount of anti-smoking education kids have heard the last few decades is vast. And yet these idiots STILL light up and get addicted and can't quit? Please, keep your stupid choices well away from me -- I want to breathe.
Gene Weingarten: I just believe that the second hand smoke thing is hysteria, and part of smoker-hate.
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Tropi: I worked on a pediatric ward in a hospital years back and a woman named her child after the one beverage she could tolerate during pregnancy and the spice she craved and used to douse all her food... and she was Hispanic with a hyphenated last name. I felt awful for "Tropicana Tabasco Hernandez-Vega" but that was poor Tropi's given name. Wilmington, NC in the mid-80s. I couldn't make it up if I tried.
Gene Weingarten: I doubted this, but there is another reference to this name on the Web.
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Blaine, Mo.: As of 3 p.m. on Monday, three men in the poll claim they would have antipathy toward no members in the groups listed. I'm thinking I would have antipathy toward these three people.
Gene Weingarten: Hahaha.
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Please Stop:...with the Brown Eyed girl thing. It's such a nice song. It's one of my 10 year old daughter's favorites, as she also has brown eyes...and really, as an alternative to Miley Cyrus or the many other Disneyfied "stars" out there, it's wonderful, so please don't ruin it for me!
Gene Weingarten: We deal in Truth only.
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Gene Weingarten: I do not own a handsfree device. : Hmmm...that's illegal in the District. You cannot use a cell phone while driving without a hands-free device in the district. Or do you consider this an optional traffic law like red lights and speed limits?
Get the stupid hands free device. You can get cheap ones at places like Walmart or Target for under ten bucks.
Gene Weingarten: How do the hands free devices work? I actually don't know.
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Elitist: Gene, I just discovered my husband is a terrible elitist. We are expecting our first child next month and I have been pestering him to finish the nursery. This past Sunday he got up at 6am and worked all through the day and finished everything. What a wonderful guy! However, when he finished I said "What a workmanlike effort!" He looked annoyed and said I was rude. He says the term workmanlike is an insult and suggests poor quality and unrefined results. I was sure it was a compliment meaning good quality, dependable through hard work. We are not arguing over this as he understands our misunderstanding, but who is right? is my husband an elitist?
Gene Weingarten: Hm. Well. This is an interesting issue of connotation.
Technically, "workmanlike" means competent. It's a compliment. But if an editor describes a story as workmanlike, he is basically calling it ... JUST competent. Not brilliant. Dutiful. Nothing WRONG with it, but not overwhelming.
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Dulles Toll Road: If you blow through the toll booth, they have a picture of your license plate and mail you a $45.00 ticket. It has happened to my husband.
Gene Weingarten: I have blown through there once or twice. I have also overpaid to compensate.
You know what else I will do? I will go through a red light if there is no traffic anywhere in any direction, as far as the eye can see. It's crazy to wait there.
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Poll Results: I chose Evangelical Christian and smokers because they're most likely to insistently invade your personal space ("Have you found Jesus?" and "koff koff koff"), whereas the other stereotypes don't. BTW, I'm VERY surprised that you didn't add Heavy Perfume Wearers.
Gene Weingarten: I figured that was covered by makeup. As it were.
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Baby and Cobra: I think there is a good chance this video is of a baby who is part of the snake-charmer caste. They wouldn't think anything of having their defanged pets interact with their kids like this.
Gene Weingarten: There is a snake-charmer caste?
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Manassas, Va.: This is the first week that I have been ahead of Machine Gun Gene in the chat. Not complaining... just sayin'
Manassas is a funny name for a town...
Gene Weingarten: I'm having some computer issues, actually. Slowin' me down a bit.
In fact, I am going to head out now rather than subject y'all to more delay.
Will be updating as usual. See you next week, too.
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New York, N.Y.:"Gene Weingarten: How do the hands free devices work? I actually don't know."
Someone rescues the little worms from the ear glue and puts them to work as telephone operators inside the device.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you.
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UPDATED 8.6.08
Gene Weingarten: As promised, we begin with our daily dose of Hitler humor.
We also have this important item from the police blotter.
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Gene Weingarten: We have received a great deal of response to my dismissal of "Secondhand smoke weenie," much of it highly critical of my attitude; people cite reports by the surgeon general and the world health organization finding at least mild carcinogenic effects in secondhand smoke.
True, true. Which is why there isn't much secondhand smoke anymore, outside one's own home. Workplaces are smoke free. Most restaurants are smoke free. A cigarette consumed in the open air by a furtive on-the-street smoker is not "killing people around him," as the weenie poster said. A sense of proportion is in order, as suggested by this poster:
Gene! I was reading the chat, and ran across the smug little epistle by the self-identified "Second-hand smoke weenie." I was struck by the question, "Would it be okay if a corporation decided to put its own little toxic-fume-emitting smokestack next to you?" Umm, what does honey-pot THINK s/he is breathing NOW? Crystalline air imported from Switzerland?
Now, I readily agree that having a room smoked up by someone is not such a great thing, and especially when there's no proper ventilation. But I cherish the memory of when I was still smoking and a brass-lunged, fish-faced female at a sidewalk cafe loudly castigated me for allowing my smoke to drift vaguely in her direction. It appeared to be interfering with her enjoyment of the exhaust fumes from the vehicles idling at the stoplight a few feet from her.
"Second-hand smoke weenie" is a jerk. If s/he really wants to clean the air up, there are some more serious targets than smokers -- but snapping at smokers is part displacement behavior (they make SUCH a good scapegoat to absorb frustrations!) and part cowardice. It is SO-O-O-O much easier to get snippy about smoking than it is to insist that 18-wheelers reduce their emissions or push for laws requiring coal-fired power plants to install pollution control equipment.
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Sunday Frazz: Does someone want to show Jef Mallett this Norman Rockwell painting before he goes on again about perceived racism in Rockwell's work?
Gene Weingarten: Interesting. I had never seen this before. This is Rockwell's take on Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney.
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Seattle, Wash.: So no part of your wife is more than 18 inches in diameter? I can believe (I suppose) that her waist is less than 18", but her hips? bust? shoulders?
Really?
Gene Weingarten: Really. See next post.
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All the Hoop, LA: Did you, your wife, or Tom the Butcher see to it that you did not impart at which point(s) the hoop came the closest?
Gene Weingarten: I think I am allowed to say this. I hope I am.
She was 15 inches across at the shoulders and hips. Three inches to spare.
Again, this is not an issue of circumference, it is entirely about diameter. Even a large bosomed woman who was built on my wife's frame would have fit through this hoop, I believe.
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Ex Post Facto, ID: Gene,
Does this story reflect badly on Senator McCain? How about the current Mrs. McCain?
Should the mainstream media be reporting about this kind of thing?
Gene Weingarten: Not any more than they have.
There is a tragedy here, and very complicated lives and circumstances. If this lady says she does not feel embittered, I accept that.
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Copy Edit, OR: If the Post feels free to edit the comics, then who, in addition to Berkeley, is responsible for the glaring error in the third frame of the linked Opus? (Hint: if one is good, two must be better)
Gene Weingarten: Ooooh. This is interesting. I missed it and have not talked to Berkeley about it. He might say it's deliberate or he might tell the truth. No way to know!
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Next Week's Really Big Show.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: August 6, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
August 5, 2008 Tuesday 12:00 PM EST
Critiquing the Press
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3966 words
HIGHLIGHT: Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War," "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."
Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War," "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."
He was online Tuesday, August 5 at noon ET to take your questions and comments.
The transcript follows.
Media Backtalk transcripts archive
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Washington: Howard, I was thinking about how I keep hearing about McCain running ads critical of Obama, and am curious if anyone keeps track of what proportion of a candidate's ads primarily focus on himself ("issue" ads) vs. ads that focus primarily on his opponent ("attack" ads).
Howard Kurtz: I asked that very question last week. McCain has run four straight ads critical of Obama, but his folks say that since the beginning of June, 80 percent of McCain's ad volume has been positive. (Obama has now hit McCain with two straight ads on energy.) Keep in mind, though, that the McCain he-didn't-visit-the-troops ad ran less than a dozen times but dominated cable news for days. In other words, campaigns often count on the media to amplify their advertising -- even more so with Web videos, which cost them nothing beyond the price of producing them.
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Silver Spring, Md.: So McCain is mocking Obama for suggesting energy conservation is a good idea? We can drill our way out of this without any sacrifice by hard working Americans? This approach worked very very well for Reagan against Carter, and my guess is that it will work again. Any chance I'm wrong in my thoughts on human nature?
Howard Kurtz: Of course, McCain is suggesting that all Obama wants to do is urge Americans to inflate their tires, when the Illinois senator actually has a detailed energy plan. The truth is, even with McCain flipping on offshore drilling and now Obama doing a modified half-flip on drilling, there is no quick and easy fix to an energy problem that has been 30 years in the making.
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Little Rock, Ark.: Deroy Murdock and Ana Marie Cox appeared on "Reliable Sources" Sunday. One topic of discussion was Barack Obama stating that he did not look like the people on dollar and $5 dollar bills, and whether that was accusing the McCain campaign of being racist. Both guests agreed that Obama was playing the "race card," and that race should have no place in politics.
Both Murdock and Cox felt that the press was merely responding to, not creating a story on race. There was no mention of the column by ABC's Jake Tapper accusing Obama of calling McCain a racist that preceded and likely ignited the McCain campaign camp's response. Two question's occur: Isn't it ridiculous that any minority presidential candidate has to contort themselves in an effort to avoid discussions of race? Didn't Jake Tapper serve as a catalyst for the McCain "race card" response?
Howard Kurtz: Well, I don't know why you would single out Tapper. Other journalists also said that Obama was invoking race in saying that McCain was trying to scare people about him, and Obama himself later conceded that race was a factor in what he was saying but that he was not accusing the McCain camp of racial tactics. At the same time, since Obama had said similar things before (without invoking McCain's name), there is the possibility that the McCain team manufactured some outrage in order to throw a brushback pitch at Obama. Having been out with the McCain campaign at the time, it was curious that while his aides were making the charge, McCain didn't seem to want to talk about it.
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Washington: Your column yesterday was one of the biggest whine pieces I have read in a long time. What do you want, to have access to the candidate from the time he brushes his teeth until he puts on his PJs? Sometimes constant media access is bad -- let the candidate breathe a bit. It's not like the media is completely shut out.
washingtonpost.com: Thrown Off the Bus (Post, Aug. 4)
Howard Kurtz: The whining is in your imagination. I wasn't complaining about the limited access -- I didn't even ask for an interview -- but I was reporting on how significantly the McCain campaign strategy has changed when it comes to the press. This is a candidate who told me on his plane in January that even if he won the GOP nomination, he wouldn't limit access to reporters because "that destroys credibility." And besides, he said: "I enjoy it a lot. It keeps me intellectually stimulated, it keeps me thinking about issues, and it keeps me associated with a lower level of human being than I otherwise would be."
Managing the media is a major challenge for every presidential campaign, which is why I report on it.
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Anonymous: Why would anyone need to watch the Olympics when we've got Obama and McCain doing backflips on oil drilling, troop withdrawals and immigration policy?
Howard Kurtz: Now all we need is press judges holding up scorecards.
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Bradenton, Fla.: I think I can understand the Obama campaign's reluctance to mention that John McCain's ranking fifth from the bottom of his class (and reputation as a hot-dogger). I do not understand the media's reluctance to do so. Surely the similarities to the underachiever now in the Oval Office can't be overlooked.
Howard Kurtz: It's hardly a secret -- McCain himself mentions it all the time. He's accomplished a fair amount since then. So I don't think the election is going to turn on it. Nor do I think the A student always wins elections.
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Weekly Radio Address: In the wake of Obama's "presumptuousness," is John McCain still running his presidential Weekly Radio Address? Did anyone other than CNN pick them up?
Howard Kurtz: He is, and I don't know who carries it. It just sort of materialized one week. I suppose it's mainly a way of providing sound for TV and radio producers to use every weekend.
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New Britain, Conn.: Is Bill O'Reilly getting talking points directly from the White House? He says he isn't!
Howard Kurtz: Well, Scott McClellan has apologized for suggesting that O'Reilly was getting such talking points. And think about it: Does Bill O'Reilly need the White House to tell him what to say? The man has opinions on everything. Those views were often sympathetic to the Bush administration, but I hardly think he needed a typed sheet of paper, any more than did liberals who defended the Clinton White House.
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Re: Too many Obama photos: Howard: I'd like to take exception to the Post's ombudsman's criticism that there were too many photos of Obama as compared to McCain in the paper's coverage. This reminded me of the surveys that showed how much coverage of the Bush administration was positive or negative. In that case, Fox's coverage was shown to be about 50-50, and this was viewed by some as fair. But if most of the news surrounding the administration is bad (a struggling occupation of Iraq, budget concerns, investigations of administration officials), "fair" reporting would actually show an imbalance toward negative reporting. I would bet most of the coverage of the Hoover administration was pretty negative.
Also, if Obama is a historic figure in presidential politics and if he undertakes photogenic events -- including a campaign that draws large crowds in the U.S., and a tour of the Middle East and Europe that includes meetings with major figures and a speech in front of 200,000 people -- isn't that going to cause your paper and others to print more photos of him? I'd love to know the photographic breakdown of the 1980 campaign, where I bet Reagan won the photo war. Your thoughts? Thanks.
washingtonpost.com: The Story the Campaign Pictures Tell (Post, Aug. 3)
Howard Kurtz: One hundred and twenty-two photos of Obama and 78 of McCain during the same period? Come on. That's indefensible, and I'm not going to try to defend it. I'm not saying there has to be a one-for-one quota -- Obama was in the news far more during his overseas trip, and of course there would be more pictures of him that week -- but there has to be a rough balance. We're not electing the most photogenic president, or at least that was my understanding. By the way, I keep making the same point about television air time, magazine covers and so on.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism says McCain's coverage equaled Obama's last week for the first time in the general election. A midcourse correction? Well, some of it had to do with the Paris/Britney ad.
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Washington: Okay, dumb question: Sometimes you see the nightly news anchor doing a preview of what will be on that evenings news during their early morning programming (say, the "Today" show). How does that work? Does the nightly news anchor tape the promo the night before, or do they all work 12-plus hours a day? I've always wondered. ... Thanks!
Howard Kurtz: Those morning previews are taped the night before. Network anchors generally tape newsier promos about an hour before airtime that the local affiliates can use on their 6 p.m. newscasts.
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New York: Be honest: Journalists have some sort of secret contest to see who can write the stupidest campaign story, right? Because that's the only sensible explanation for the Wall Street Journal's story about how people won't vote for Obama because he's skinny. It makes me sad when I can't tell the difference between the Wall Street Journal and the Onion.
washingtonpost.com: Too Fit to Be President? Facing an Overweight Electorate, Barack Obama Might Find Low Body Fat a Drawback (Wall Street Journal, Aug. 1)
Howard Kurtz: Let's just say I don't think that story will be winning a Pulitzer Prize. Even as a light feature, it seemed pretty silly. I can confirm, from first-hand observation, that Obama is pretty skinny. So what?
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New York: Hi! After reading your article, "Thrown Off the Bus," I am curious about the press aides chastising John King because a question was not on an "agreed-upon agenda." Do the traveling press always have to stick to an agenda for questions? Why? Especially during this crazy campaign period?
Howard Kurtz: Not at all. But in this case, the King interview had been scheduled in advance for a profile of McCain that CNN will run before the Republican convention. But John King says even in such a situation he reserves the right to ask a candidate about the news of the day. That was what the aides objected to, and then McCain himself cut it off after a very short answer.
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Chicago: Hey Howard, what's your take on the Dana Milbank imbroglio? I believe the response from the left wing is way over the top. Perhaps he didn't provide the perfect context, but he did not misquote. Given the time constraints on reporting and the caveats Milbank inserted in the article I think he did nothing wrong. I guess I am going to watch a lot more CNN. Does this mean we will get more Milbank on "Reliable Sources"?
washingtonpost.com: Dana Milbank And Unhappy Endings (Daily Kos, Aug. 4)
Howard Kurtz: I've been traveling and so haven't had a chance to look into it. But I can tell you that regardless of the specific complaint over that Milbank column, Dana had already set in motion plans to leave MSNBC as a contributor and join CNN. At least Olbermann wished him good luck.
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Minneapolis:"Now all we need is press judges holding up scorecards." We already have them -- they're called Cable News Pundits.
Howard Kurtz: Well, politics is like sports, isn't it?
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Washington: What are the feelings inside The Post newsroom about the condition of Bob Novak? I imagine some of the folks there know him pretty well.
washingtonpost.com: Citing 'Dire' Prognosis, Novak Retires Immediately (Post, Aug. 5)
Howard Kurtz: Actually, most people here don't know him at all. Novak's column was distributed through the Chicago Sun-Times and he had no professional connection to The Post, other than the fact that we ran his column. My feeling is that the diagnosis is quite sad and that whatever you think of Novak's journalism and his political views, he's a guy who kept on reporting till the age of 77, well after most of his contemporaries had retired.
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Washington: Hi Howard. One thing that struck me while reading your article about McCain's new restrictions on the press: It sounded exactly like the Bush routine during the last presidential election. Any thoughts on how McCain is peeling more pages from the Bush campaign book?
Howard Kurtz: But it's very different from the Bush campaign of 2000, which granted a lot of access. I remember flying along one day and being struck by how much time Bush spent chatting with reporters (though it was often about baseball). There was criticism, as you may recall, of Bush giving the reporters nicknames and so on. It's always very different when an incumbent president runs for re-election. Just the whole machinery surrounding Air Force One makes him seem a more remote figure to those covering his campaign.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Ron Suskind has written that the Bush White House ordered the CIA to produce fake letters establishing a link between the Sept. 11 murders and Iraq. The White House and former CIA Director Tenet strongly deny these allegations, but Suskind refused to back down and says he has sources. How big a story is this?
Howard Kurtz: Well, because it broke a few hours ago, we'll have to wait and see. I've skimmed the story but haven't had a chance to dig into the details.
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Washington: I enjoy "Reliable Sources," but to critique the media, you bring in members of the media and journalists. How about an outside voice? I have lots to say -- how about having me on as a man-on-the-street perspective?
Howard Kurtz: Everybody wants to be on TV!
We have on journalists because the show is about holding them accountable. We also have on commentators who are not part of the mainstream media gang. And occasionally we have political people or those who have been subjects of stories to take on what they view as unfair journalism.
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Re: Obama/McCain "Photogate": I just want to point out that your answer steers substantive reporting to the "he-said, she-said" dynamic that is at least partly to blame for many newspapers' declining revenues. You had a historic campaign trip, major meetings with foreign leaders and mass rallies balanced against Gramm calling us whiners and releasing attack ads. Which deserves more media coverage, especially of the positive sort?
Howard Kurtz: You must have misread my answer, which is that of course there should have been more pictures of Obama's trip. But over time, there should not be a huge imbalance in the number of photos, or the number of stories for that matter.
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Debate moderators: Here's the announced list of debate moderators: Jim Lehrer of PBS, Tom Brokaw of NBC, and Bob Schieffer of CBS will each moderate a presidential debate, which will take place on Sept. 26, Oct. 7 and Oct. 15. Gwen Ifill of PBS will moderate a vice presidential debate on Oct. 2. No one from ABC? Payback for their pitiful debate performance with the Democrats?
Howard Kurtz: The moderators are chosen by the Commission on Presidential Debates, and I don't know if the campaigns get to exercise veto power. Lehrer has of course been a fixture for several cycles; Ifill did one last time, as did Schieffer. Brokaw hasn't done one in awhile. Since Schieffer and Brokaw are both Sunday show hosts, not anchors, it's possible there was some resistance to Stephanopoulos because of his previous service in the Clinton White House. But that's just speculation on my part.
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Washington, DC: Howard, On the number of photos issue, I expect better of you. Are you saying that the newsworthiness of the events the candidate is participating in is irrelevant to the level of coverage? Would it be unfair if, during the week of the Republican national Convention, Obama went on vacation and the photos skewed 80/20 for McCain? Of course not.
Howard Kurtz: Am I mumbling today or something? There is nothing wrong with one candidate dominating the pictures during a given week -- at a convention or something. There is something definitely wrong with one candidate dominating the photos over a two-month period. Am I making myself clear?
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South Miami, Fla.: Howard, why doesn't McCain's dismal voting record (he has missed 63.3 percent of the votes in the current Congress!) ever make it into his media coverage? He is calling to Congress to return, while he himself only has cast a single vote since March 14 (cloture on the Dodd Amendment on April 8). Yet no one is pointing this out. Furthermore, McCain frequently accuses Obama of having voted on the wrong side of issues in the Senate (which invariably is reported), while he himself hasn't voted one way or another. How can this be overlooked so consistently?
Howard Kurtz: My own view is that when senators run for president, they miss a whole lot of votes and most voters give them a pass. It's not like Hillary, Obama or McCain were breaking any attendance records when they were constantly on the road.
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Fairfax, Va.: What is stopping The Post and other mainstream media luminaries from reporting on President Bush's role in not mitigating the rise in gas prices? After all, he has been one of the most powerful presidents in recent history. Why isn't The Post reporting on what he has done with that power to control gas prices? You all hardly mention him, although he has been and still is the president.
Howard Kurtz: I would prominently mention him, along with Bill Clinton, Bush 41 and Ronald Reagan. Each talked about energy independence but took only small steps toward making it happen -- along with a series of Congresses that were loath to do anything that would tick off the voters.
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Payson, Ariz.: Howard, thanks for taking the early post. I am traveling this week. ... How long do you think it will be before the Spears and Hilton camps sue the McCain campaign for everything it has in the bank? Last week's ad was not a "public service" message, it was an unequivocal buy-the-media, brand-endorsing advertisement -- and unauthorized use of an image in advertising is an actionable offense.
Howard Kurtz: I see zero possibility of a lawsuit. What are Paris and Britney going to object to, being called celebrities? The tarnishing of their sterling reputations? After all, one went to jail and the other lost custody of her kids. But it's noteworthy that Hilton's mom has ripped the McCain ad and called it a waste of money.
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Memphis, Tenn.: Howard, I constantly hear the media state that the candidates need to talk about issues, or what they see as solutions to critical issues. But Obama has spoken daily on energy, health care, and Iraq. Almost on a daily basis, I've watched CNN.live video (today for instance he has held a "town hall" where he outlined in detail his proposals on energy, and answered questions on a whole host of audience questions).
When will the media acknowledge what is going on right in front of their and our faces? One thing I've learned, is to not listen to the talking heads for my info, because they all have a bias toward stoking the the fire for show ratings. Each citizen needs to get the news from a wide variety of news outlets, and then use their critical thinking skills to evaluate it before coming to a conclusion.
Howard Kurtz: Which is why you need to read newspapers?
I can't argue with what you're saying; the past couple of days have seen an unusual degree of coverage of the candidates' positions on energy, but that has been more the exception than the rule, as the Paris/Britney flap underscored.
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O'Reilly: I am not a columnist or talk show host and I certainly don't get a direct feed from the White House on talking points -- but being alive and somewhat aware of news, events, etc., I could parrot the White House talking points on any issue. Just because there may not be a direct line between O'Reilly and the White House doesn't mean O'Reilly isn't a parroting tool.
Howard Kurtz: But that's a different issue. O'Reilly did break with the administration a few years ago in saying he had been wrong to support the Iraq invasion. But you'd hardly call him an outspoken critic of the White House.
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Washington: Howard, how hard is media trying not to make the Ivins's anthrax story a repeat of the Hatfill coverage? Has the media learned a lesson? Will they be able to practice the lesson learned? From everything I've read, it's a coin toss between Ivins killing himself because of feds were closing in and him killing himself because he couldn't see becoming the next Hatfill. If Hatfill had killed himself, the FBI would have declared victory and been carried off the field in glory for solving the crime.
Howard Kurtz: It seems to me the coverage has been fairly cautious. The FBI gathered a fair amount of circumstantial evidence against Ivins, including -- as The Post reports today -- that in 2001 he borrowed freeze-drying equipment that could convert wet cultures into dry spores. Then you have his therapist saying he was talking more recently about killing co-workers and that she sought a protective order against him. Does this amount to definitive proof that he was the anthrax killer? No. But the press hasn't said that it does.
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Re: Debate moderators: Howard, one thing immediately struck me about the moderators for the presidential debates: they're old -- really old. Sixty-eight, 71, 74: Those aren't Bingo numbers, those are their ages. Putting aside the knee-jerk complaint that old guys might be more supportive of McCain (I doubt it, not within the format), doesn't this make the debate process look outdated? Is there a chance in your mind that it might affect the focus of the debates, if only in terms of follow-up questions?
Howard Kurtz: I think the notion that they would favor McCain because they're in their seventies is silly. These are accomplished journalists who have moderated big-stakes debates before. Should the commission have thrown in someone a bit younger (other than Gwen Ifill for the vice presidential debate)? That would have been nice. But I don't know what the criteria were. Besides, if there's one thing Lehrer, Schieffer and Brokaw have in common, it's that they tend to make debates -- and interviews -- about the questions, not about them.
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Cache Valley, Utah: Hello Howard. Tony Fratto claims that "Ron Suskind makes a living from gutter journalism," and yet Suskind has a Pulitzer Prize while Fratto shovels manure for the the Bush White House. Who is more reliable at this point: Fratto or Suskind?
Howard Kurtz: Gutter journalism is certainly not a phrase I'd associate with Ron Suskind. One of his previous books, which the White House hated, was openly written with the former Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill. The job of an administration spokesman is to knock down negative stories (or books), but I must say that is unusually harsh language.
Thanks for the chat, folks.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: August 6, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
August 5, 2008 Tuesday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Matthew Mosk, Washington Post Campaign Finance Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2707 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post campaign finance reporter Matthew Mosk was online Tuesday, August 5 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest news in politics.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Matthew Mosk: Hi everyone.
A busy day on the campaign trail today. Sen. Obama has left Boston, where he celebrated his birthday with a major fundraisers. Sen. John McCain is on his way to Monroe, Michigan, where he will visit the Enrico Fermi 2 nuclear power plant to try and keep focus on the issue of energy independence.
I look forward to hearing what's on your mind.
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Washington: Mr. Mosk, Hess Oil got 10 folks to bundle $28,000 each for John McCain. You cite the talkingpointsmemo.com article that tells of the Amtrak employee and spouse who together gave "$61,600 to McCain and to his victory fund, which distributes $28,500 to the Republican National Committee." When will this make the print edition, and how will you get front-page placement? The Hess contributions are more than one quarter of the oil company donation at the time of McCain's flip-flop on oil. Who else gave? Is this reminiscent of the Ohio GOP contribution scandals of 2004?
Matthew Mosk: Hello Washington.
The Post was first to notice the trend in Sen. McCain's newfound bond with the oil industry. A group studying campaign contributions discovered that McCain's contributions from oil and gas executives went through the roof after he gave a mid-June speech in which he reversed his opposition to offshore oil drilling. The Hess contributions first surfaced in a report on those donations on Friday and the web picked those up.
Hess and the McCain folks have been quick to try and tamp down speculation about how an office manager there could afford such a large contribution. I suspect there will be more reporting on this situation and others like it.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Do you think anything will come of yesterday's story about the secretary at Hess giving the Republican National Committee a large pile of money, considering her profession? I assume it's on the up-and-up, but the whole thing doesn't smell very good.
washingtonpost.com: The Trail: Left Keeps Hammering McCain Oil Ties (washingtonpost.com, Aug. 4)
Matthew Mosk: Thanks for this question on the same topic. Here's an item we wrote about the Hess contributions on The Trail.
As for where it will go next, it's tough to say. The question folks are asking is, did this couple use their own money for these contributions. They say that they did. Newspapers are not in a very good position to prove that they did not.
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Clifton, Va.: Why didn't the mainstream media cover McCain speech in Sturgis? Were they afraid to go there? I'd rather have a president talk to 100,000 Harley riders than 250,000 Germans. Will Obama address the same group? Is he man enough? And another question: Do either Obama or his wife have any immediate family members serving in the military?
washingtonpost.com: The Trail: McCain Gets Bikers' Motors Running in South Dakota (washingtonpost.com, Aug. 4)
Matthew Mosk: Hi Clifton. You might have missed this report from the intrepid Michael Sheer, who went along for the ride when Sen. McCain visited the Harley riders in Sturgis.
Little known about McCain's campaign team is that they have a real affinity for Harleys. Back in 1996, when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was helping oversee the Republican National Convention, he arranged for motorcycle riders to parade around the convention hall.
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Rolla, Mo.: With all coverage of the finger pointing back and forth as to who "played the race card" first, I saw no mainstream mention of the basis for Obama's quote about "not looking like the other presidents on the dollar bills." Would it have been so difficult to do "a Google" and find that McCain did use a goofy looking Obama image on a dollar bill in a Web ad in June? Maybe Obama took the bait too easily, but he didn't make up the "dollar bills" part.
Matthew Mosk: Thanks Rolla. I wasn't aware of that.
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Hess: Are there regulations on having low-level support staff contribute huge sums to a campaign? What are the repercussions for Hess? Are there any repercussions for the McCain campaign?
Matthew Mosk: There are, in fact, prohibitions on what is called "straw donations."
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Concord, N.H.: How is Obama's change in thinking re: tapping into our oil reserves going to impact him politically? Of all the theories I've seen proposed to adjust for the high oil costs, tapping into the emergency fund doesn't seem like a great solution. I know people are worried about prices, but those emergency reserves are a drop in the bucket for what's needed over many years -- what happens if we have a real emergency and not just a badly needed reality check on how much energy costs in the rest of the world? I don't want people lulled back into expecting cheap oil and gas; it's just not in the cards.
Matthew Mosk: This is an interesting point, Concord. I think what we're seeing is Sen. Obama respond to a tricky political situation. Republicans broadly, and Sen. McCain specifically, have seen a political advantage in promoting an approach that includes both alternative energy and offshore drilling as a way to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil. Polling has shown this approach has been popular with the public. I've been told by some political analysts that what we're watching unfold now is Sen. Obama trying to position himself to respond effectively to that approach.
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Anonymous: I disagree that newspapers are not in a good position to determine the likelihood of the Hess donation being a straw man -- there's a lot in the public domain that give a sense of somebody's financial picture. What is the assessed value of their home? What kinds of cars are parked in the driveway? Have they given money to candidates before? Were they the beneficiaries of a large inheritance that was probated? Did they receive a lot of money in a settlement? Are they known to be related to a wealthy family? If somebody had a middle-class home, drove a compact, never gave money to a candidate before, had no known wealthy relations and there was no record of a large inheritance -- well, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's probably not a giraffe.
Matthew Mosk: I take your point. Though I will point out that even after the New York Times printed this today, there was still no proof the donation wasn't legal and proper:
"Publicly available information about the Rocchios offers a mixed picture of their socio-economic situation. They appear to rent their home in Flushing, a working class community in Queens, although property records also show they purchased a condominium in Arizona last year for more than $560,000 and a home in North Carolina for $525,000 in 2006. Motor vehicle records show a 2003 Buick and 1993 Chevrolet registered in their names.
But Mr. Rocchio is enrolled as a Democrat, and they do not appear to have previously made any political contributions to a federal candidate..."
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Atlanta: There are repercussions for straw donors? What was done to all those Chinese dishwashers who gave huge sums to Hillary? I guess those "repercussions" only apply to McCain?
Matthew Mosk: There have typically been repercussions for people who orchestrate straw donations. On two occasions, attorneys who helped arrange contributions for former Sen. John Edwards got in trouble with either the Federal Election Commission or the Justice Department. And you raise Norman Hsu, which is a great example of this. He's facing serious charges in federal court in New York, in part because of his efforts to bundle checks from people who had no intentions of donating themselves.
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Des Peres, Mo.: Morning, Matthew. Can you think of a good reason why Obama is resisting McCain's call for town hall meetings? If they believe -- as I think they should -- that their man will blow McCain out of the water when they appear side by side, then why not do even more of it? Do they worry that Obama isn't as conversant with "the facts" and might look out of his depth? Thanks.
Matthew Mosk: I suspect the Obama team has calculated that fewer debates would offer fewer chances for the senator to make a game-changing mistake. Typically it is the underdog -- in this case Sen. McCain -- who wants to debate as often as possible with the hopes of producing an exchange that shifts the direction of the campaign in a significant way.
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Strategic Oil Reserves: It is pretty easy to ease Concord's fears about the efficacy of tapping into the strategic reserves. Several presidents have done it in the past few decades. If memory serves, oil prices came down soon following the action.
Matthew Mosk: This is a bit out of my depth, but I welcome your views on the topic. I think we're all interested in hearing ideas about how we can reduce the price of gas.
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Dryden, N.Y.: Anyone who really knows about Sturgis should be aware that this is an international event. It is a bit of a joke among hardcore Harley owners that it is worth checking out the nearest airport (Rapid City). Around this time of year, it is full of the private jets of rich Harley owners who fly in from all over the world.
Matthew Mosk: Another topic that is a bit foreign to me. But I'd love to know more... Any rich foreign Harley riders out there?
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washingtonpost.com: Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling (Post, July 27)
Matthew Mosk: Here's the initial piece I wrote looking at the question of oil and political contributions.
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Washington: You're a campaign finance specialist; do you think that Obama's decisions to run ads in such a vast number of states, to open up 20 field offices in Virginia, etc., are wise, or do you think that he should focus himself more on specific states, as McCain is doing? Will McCain be able to compete financially? Finally, why haven't we seen that many ads from the cash-rich Republican National Committee?
Matthew Mosk: This is a terrific question. I have a couple thoughts about this. First of all, a review of the campaign filings suggests that while it is true that Obama is far outspending McCain on field staff and offices -- going into far more states than McCain -- it is actually McCain who has been spending more on television advertising. I think McCain's advertising strategy has probably helped him stay close to Obama in the polls. Obama's approach is more expensive, but we won't know until election day whether he's built a ground machine that pays off.
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Olney, Md.: Given that only $2,300 can be given per person to a presidential candidate, and that a number of people gave that number (clearly not $28,000 each, as so many partisans want to say) and that they all work for the same company, what difference does that make? So employees of an oil company gave him money? I could swear unions give money to Obama, and the union members are forced to give in much larger bundles by the union leaders. I could swear people in Hollywood give their time, which is worth much more than $2,300, and they also give money in groups at fundraisers. Somehow, giving money is a big scandal when it comes to Republicans -- and a cause for cheer when it comes to Democrats.
Matthew Mosk: Thanks, Olney, for adding this. You are right that bundling is a bipartisan exercise. But I'll take issue with the suggestion that the press only frowns on fundraising mischief when it involves Republicans. You'll note that Democrats have gotten negative attention in the circumstances I've just mentioned regarding Edwards and Hillary Clinton. Also, you might recall some "big scandals" to use your term, involving Al Gore and Bill Clinton and their donors.
We try to give a hard scrub to campaigns and donors from both sides.
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Arlington, Va.: Isn't donating to a presidential candidate one of the worst investments in history? I mean, if you donate money to Obama, you run about a 50/50 shot of him even being elected. And if elected, there is about a 10 percent chance he'll actually accomplish about 50 percent of his promises. It seems to me that you'd be smarter to put your money into something safer -- like, say, junk bonds.
Matthew Mosk: I've heard many sides to this question. There are people who hate the idea of money being donated at all. There are people who think everyone should be able to give as much as they want. There are those who consider political donations an act of patriotism -- a way to participate in the electoral process. And then, there is your opinion. I can't say I don't see a little merit it all of them.
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Beverly Hills, Calif.: Ultimately, taking into account all of the various "independent" committees and the mainstream media picking up and spreading Internet ads, which of the candidates will have the financial advantage?
Matthew Mosk: Hi Beverly Hills. I think there is strong evidence that Sen. Obama should have a significant money edge going into the final weeks of the campaign. A lot of this has to do with the energy that seems to remain strong on the Democratic side -- not only in giving to Obama, but to left-leaning groups, and to candidates for Congress. The trend lines could change, but they have not moved much since 2006.
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St. Paul, Minn.: Hi Matthew -- thanks for taking questions today. I think I know the answer to this question, but I'd be interested in your thoughts anyway. Have we ever seen an election with this level of constant attention and scrutiny? I'm talking about the cable networks in particular, and the "who won the day" mentality -- this constant "who's up, who's down" game. McCain or Obama sneezes and there has to be a panel of pundits to dissect it. (Was it a small sneeze? Big sneeze? Who sneezed first? Who might sneeze next?) I'm exaggerating, I know, but you get the idea. At this rate I can't imagine what October is going to be like.
Matthew Mosk: I can't say that I know the answer to this. But I bet it's the first one that has involved daily live chats on the Washington Post Web site! (And that's not bad, right?)
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Hampton, Va.: How is it possible that John McCain has seized the lead over Barack Obama? I only have read glowing news stories about Obama ever since he won the nomination. Why would he slip in the polls? Only a month ago Newsweek said Obama had an insurmountable 16 point lead, and now he's losing? What are the issues that are turning these voters? It can't be McCain's mild attack ads -- they barely have been aired.
Matthew Mosk: Here is how Fox News describes the latest polling: "Barack Obama took a 3 percentage-point edge over John McCain in a key tracking poll of U.S. registered voters on Monday, following a dramatic loss of the 9-point lead he gained from his well-publicized trip to Europe." I don't know how important polling is right now, given that most Americans are thinking more about their summer vacations.
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Matthew Mosk: Very sorry for the late start today, but it's already time for me to get back to work.
Seems from your comments we have a lot more to talk about, especially regarding energy policy.
I hope to see you back here soon.
Have a great day...
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: August 6, 2008
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731 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The New York Times
August 4, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
Inside The Times: August 4, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 2304 words
International
AGREEING TO WORK FOR NEW PACT
For Anglican Church
As the Lambeth Conference came to a close, the 650 bishops and archbishops of the Anglican Communion agreed to seek a new pact, known as a covenant, that would help engender what a conference-ending document described as ''a season of gracious restraint'' among all parties to the ecclesiastical controversy over the issue of homosexuality. The push for a covenant amounted to a strategy for finding both short- and long-term solutions to a dispute that has bitterly divided the world's estimated 80 million Anglicans. PAGE A6
AIRSHIPS KEEP A TOWN AFLOAT
The town of Friedrichshafen, Germany (population 57,000), was where Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin launched his flying machine, and the sizable foundation he bequeathed to the town has been a huge boon, generating between $60 million and $80 million a year. The zeppelins, which consume very little fuel, are receiving new attention that could bolster the town even further. But so far, Friedrichshafen's airship companies have found few takers. PAGE A6
AUSTRALIA TO INVESTIGATE AIRLINE
Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority, said that it would investigate safety standards at Qantas Airways following several recent incidents involving the airlines' planes. Last month, a blast blew a hole in the fuselage of a Qantas flight between Hong Kong and Melbourne, forcing the plane to land in Manila. Two other, less serious incidents followed: a domestic flight had to turn back after a door above one wheel would not close; on Saturday, a hydraulic leak forced a flight to Manila to return to Sydney shortly after takeoff. PAGE A7
SEX SCANDALS ROCK MALAYSIA
Two top politicians in Malaysia are embroiled in sex scandals: one accused of sodomy and the other of romantic links to a Mongolian woman gruesomely killed in 2006. Both men were vying to become Malaysia's next prime minister, and the scandals could end their careers. And though the government tightly controls the media, it has been unable to rein in the documents, facts and rumors that have been disseminated via the Internet. PAGE A7
IRAQIS FAIL TO REACH ELECTION DEAL
Iraqi political leaders tried to reach a deal that would allow provincial elections to go forward, but they again failed to reach an agreement, which made the prospect of elections to be held this year less likely. The talks took place as bombings shook Baghdad, including a truck explosion that killed 12 civilians. PAGE A8
Bombing Kills 15 Women in Somalia A10
NATIONAL
A NEW CROP SPRINGS UP
In the Hills of Nebraska
Being the Middle of Nowhere has its advantages, including, for Ainsworth, Neb., an annual festival. And wind, wind of the sort that has motivated the construction of three dozen wind turbines standing 230 feet high with blades 131 feet long. The idea is to produce energy without burning coal or natural gas or anything else like that; to be, in other words, the future. This Land, by Dan Barry. PAGE A11
MCCAIN BORROWS FROM CLINTON
Senator Barack Obama has watched Senator John McCain pick up central strands of the approach Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton used against Mr. Obama and amplify them. That would no doubt be acceptable to the Obama camp, if the outcome proved the same. But John Harwood writes in the Caucus that ''key elements of Mr. McCain's offensive, and Mr. Obama's response, may resonate differently than in the Obama-Clinton duel.'' PAGE A12
RESEARCHERS' HOMES FIREBOMBED
The police and federal authorities are investigating a pair of firebombings at the homes of two researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The attacks, which the university described as ''anti-science violence,'' occurred nearly simultaneously before dawn on Saturday, just days after the police in Santa Cruz discovered pamphlets in a local coffee shop warning of attacks against ''animal abusers everywhere.'' PAGE A11
A PLEA TO LET DELEGATES VOTE
Senator Barack Obama has asked the credentials committee of the Democratic Party to give full voting rights at the national convention to delegates from Florida and Michigan, states that held early primaries in violation of party rules. The move is not unexpected -- nominees like to please delegates -- but is likely to cause consternation among party officials, who have struggled to maintain some authority over the primary calendar. PAGE A12
OBITUARIES
DAVID H. POPPER, 95
A seasoned United States diplomat, he struggled to balance military and human rights concerns as ambassador to Chile in the tense early years of General Augusto Pinochet's government. PAGE A15
JOHN F. SEIBERLING, 89
A former representative, he served on the committee that led impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon and laid the groundwork for Ohio's only national park. PAGE A15
NEW YORK REPORT
CORRECTING THE MAYOR
When He Misspeaks
Luis Cardozo left Colombia in the late 1990s to escape the violence of the drug cartels and came to the United States. He dreamed of practicing law in the city but also needed money to send for the son he had left in Colombia. So he went to work, and the first job he was offered was at a language school. Since 2002, he has been tutoring another immigrant of sorts, though one from another state, not another country: a fellow named Bloomberg. PAGE A18
FLUMMOXED BY CYCLISTS
The New York City Police Department has been on the front lines of the citywide decline in serious crime, has protected visiting dignitaries like Pope Benedict XVI and has posted officers in foreign capitals to gather information on terrorism and trends that could threaten New York. But once a month it is flummoxed by bicyclists riding together and shouting disparaging words. PAGE A18
Metropolitan Diary A19
SPORTS
FORGOTTEN ARCHITECTS
Of Great Golf Courses
In recent decades, there has been nostalgia for the enduring work from golf's golden age of architecture, roughly defined as the period from 1910 to the late 1930s. Some of the names that dominate this era are Donald Ross, Alister MacKenzie and A. W. Tillinghast. Rarely heard are the names of their contemporaries Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek. But, Bill Pennington writes, Stiles was prolific, and Van Kleek put his stamp on golf courses throughout New York City. PAGE D5
THE NEGATIVES OF A POSITIVE
Every day a team with about 300 members gets ready for the Beijing Olympics. They hop into cars, catch planes, ride in buses and trains or squeeze onto three-wheeled scooters to carry out their assignments: collecting urine and blood samples from China's best athletes. After all, it would be devastating to the entire nation, high-level sports officials here said, if an athlete from the home country were to fail a drug test while the world was watching. PAGE D1
SAY THEY CAN'T GO
The National League West appears once again to be mounting a threat to get a team with a losing record into the postseason. Dave Anderson writes that such a possibility should inspire Commissioner Bud Selig's rule makers to render any division winner with a sub-.500 record ineligible. Sports of The Times. PAGE D1
BUSINESS
A MAVERICK KEEPS BANKERS
On the Edge of Their Seats
Richard X. Bove can rattle the mighty of American banking, as he did after a bank collapse in July, making a list of 107 others, ranked according to financial strength, and asking, ''Who's next?'' One on the list is suing him, but controversy is nothing new for Mr. Bove, 67, who has analyzed banking stocks for 26 years and who since 2005 has gained a certain reputation as one of the few bank analysts to predict the blowup in the housing market and subsequent problems at many banks. PAGE C1
MEDIA SEEK CAMPAIGN BOUNCE
Heightened voter interest in this year's presidential campaign has pushed cable news ratings sharply up and made The Politico, an upstart news organization founded in January 2007, a clear winner. But many media companies are struggling to translate campaign coverage into repeat readers and viewers -- or revenue. The presidential primary debates had little lasting impact on TV ratings, and some magazines say that issues with candidates on the cover show only a modest bump in newsstand sales. PAGE C1
THE HOT NEW CONGRESS VIDEO
If members of Congress speak but C-Span's cameras are turned off because of recess, will there be any video? If you are a band setting the hearts of teenage girls aflutter, like the Jonas Brothers, but have only one album in stores, what happens to the price of your unheralded early efforts? And is that a mummy in the Olympics? Media Talk. PAGE C6
F-R-E-E SPELLS WHAT?
Maybe you have seen the commercials too, with the slacker dude singing about the problems life dealt him because he failed to check his credit on FreeCreditReport.com. Catchy, no? Well, some consumer advocates say the pitch is misleading, and that the ''F-R-E-E'' in the lyrics may not end up meaning what is generally considered to mean ''free.'' PAGE C9
HOW MANY POINTS FOR 'QOPHS'?
Fans of Scrabulous, the Scrabble clone on Facebook, are undaunted by the lawsuit that forced the game's removal last week. They are simply downloading Facebook's Wordscaper (which lets them mimic a Scrabble board, if they like) or playing Scrabulous on the game's own Web site. One apparently universal dislike, though: the name Wordscaper. PAGE C10
Intel Tries to Outdo Itself C8
A Diplomatic Wiki C4
Grim News for a Paper C1
ARTS
PAINTINGS BY NUMBERS
With a Chicago Economist
David Galenson can name the single greatest work of art of the 20th century (''Les Demoiselles d'Avignon''), as well as the second, third, fourth and fifth. His confidence does not come from a stack of degrees in art history. Mr. Galenson, an economist at the University of Chicago, is convinced that economic analysis can also explain art. His statistical approach has led to what he says is a radically new interpretation of 20th-century art. PAGE E1
COUNTLESS WIVES AND SOURCES
There are many indications that David Ebershoff conducted prodigious research to write his novel about polygamy, ''The 19th Wife.'' His narrative includes memoirs, depositions, letters, newspaper articles and a Wikipedia entry. What he has replicated as powerfully as the history of polygamy in America is the scholarly process of looking things up. Far from bringing him closer to his characters, Janet Maslin writes, it muffles his novel's drama. PAGE E1
MAYO AND INCONSISTENCY
The chef Emeril Lagasse cannot put away the butter. Or the cream. Or the creme fraiche, white flour, olive oil, fried batters, bechamel, roux, mayonnaise and fatty beef. ''Emeril Green'' on Planet Green, a new offering by the Discovery Networks, is supposed to promote easy ways to prepare eco-friendly dishes. But healthy, it seems, doesn't have to be heart-healthy or even low in fat, Alessandra Stanley writes. And on a channel that measures citizenship by the carbon footprint, Mr. Lagasse leaves a huge caloric wake. PAGE E1
DANCE GETS MARTIAL ARTS KICK
DanceBrazil has been trained to deliver capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian genre in which dance meets martial arts. Since this meant that exceptionally fit men delivered a display of agility, there was eager applause from the audience. What was in doubt, Alastair Macaulay writes, was whether this was interesting as dance. PAGE E4
GIRLS, GUNFIRE AND DESPAIR
''Baghdad High,'' a documentary that will premiere on Monday on HBO, follows four Iraqis through their senior year. The film is not the first documentary for which high school students have been handed cameras and asked to record their daily lives. But, Mike Hales writes, the stakes are quite different when driving to school in the morning could mean being shot. PAGE E2
DODGING MOZART AND WEBERN
With Louis Langree conducting and Christiane Oelze applying her versatile soprano, the first half of the Mostly Mozart Festival did some artful dodging between tonality and atonality, from Mozart's ''Idomeneo'' to Webern's ''Five Canons After Latin Texts.'' A review by James R. Oestreich. PAGE E4
Editorial
ENERGY FOLLIES
Given one last shot at taking modest but meaningful steps to deal with tightening oil supplies and climate change, the Senate instead settled for a schoolyard blame game to exploit public dismay over rising gasoline prices for short-term political gain. PAGE A20
A MAJOR POLITICAL TEST FOR IRAQ
Since the American invasion of Iraq, the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk has been a political tinderbox-in-waiting that is largely ignored. Now that violence is way down, Iraqi leaders have no excuse not to peacefully decide the city's future. PAGE A20
LAST-MINUTE MISCHIEF FOR LABOR
The Department of Labor has taken a giant step beyond its customary neglect of workers. Now it is trying to make it more difficult to limit exposure to poisonous chemicals. PAGE A20
Op-Ed
WILLIAM KRISTOL
So who would be a strong vice presidential pick for John McCain? It depends. Some candidates fit one theory of the campaign, others another. And there seem to be at least four competing theories in the McCain camp, which, while not entirely mutually exclusive, point in different vice presidential directions. PAGE A21
PAUL KRUGMAN
The gradual way the financial crisis has unfolded has led to an ''angels on the head of a pin'' debate among economists about whether what we are suffering really deserves to be called a recession. But even a slow-mo crisis can do a lot of damage if it goes on for a year and counting. PAGE A21
NO DOGS ALLOWED ON THE MENU
Beijing restaurants have been asked to take dog meat off their menus during the Olympics. But dog is not a dish many Chinese are likely to miss, Fuchsia Dunlop writes in an Op-Ed article. PAGE A21
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The New York Times
August 4, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
Voting With Their Eyeballs
BYLINE: By BRIAN STELTER and RICHARD PEREZ-PENA
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This year's presidential campaign has drawn more voter interest than any other race in generations. For mainstream news media, however, capitalizing on that interest has been hit or miss, though not for lack of trying.
Cable news ratings have risen sharply, with record viewership for debates and growing numbers for Keith Olbermann on MSNBC and Wolf Blitzer on CNN. Sites including MSNBC.com and CNN.com have set new records for views of online videos. A trade association for newspapers has placed advertisements telling campaign managers that ''newspapers deliver voters.''
But many media companies are struggling to translate campaign coverage into repeat readers and viewers -- or revenue. The presidential primary debates had little lasting impact on TV ratings, and some magazines say that issues with candidates on the cover show only a modest bump in newsstand sales.
More noticeably, the broadcast networks' evening newscasts -- the traditional standard-bearers of television news -- have been unable to stop their long-term ratings declines, even during the hotly contested primaries. The newscasts on NBC, ABC and CBS had an average combined audience of 23.7 million viewers from January to June, down 2 percent from the same time period in 2007.
That decline came despite expensive efforts to remain competitive. The networks have produced special series about the candidates and kept reporters on the campaign trail. Most recently, Brian Williams of ''NBC Nightly News,'' Charles Gibson of ''World News'' on ABC and Katie Couric of the ''CBS Evening News'' all traveled with Senator Barack Obama as he toured the Middle East and Europe, yet household ratings for each of those three newscasts were flat compared with the previous week.
Jon Banner, the executive producer of ''World News,'' suggested that the ratings, especially during the slow summer months, might have slid further were it not an election year. He added that the heightened interest in the election can benefit many media entities without taking away from others.
''It's not a zero-sum game,'' he said.
It is true that the amount of news Americans consume has grown over the last few years, as has the number of news sources. The lineup of Web sites, newscasts and publications that jockey for attention and advertising dollars continues to expand.
Three months before the election, one clear winner of the cycle so far is The Politico, an upstart news organization founded in January 2007. The Politico, with nearly 70 editorial employees, publishes a 26,000-circulation newspaper three days a week in Washington, D.C.
But it is Politico's round-the-clock online news reporting and analysis that have made it a must-read for a large audience outside the Beltway. Politico.com averaged 2.5 million unique visitors a month in the first half of 2008, more than all but 13 American newspapers, according to Nielsen Online.
The Politico has benefited from profound changes in the way people get news, according to Jim VandeHei, the executive editor and co-founder. People look for news far more often during the day, they are far more likely to seek multiple sources as well as favorite bloggers and writers, and they are far more interested in watching video online.
''The difference between '04 and '08 is like walking into a different century,'' he said. ''Virtually everybody who comes to us also goes to The Post or The Times or Drudge or Yahoo or Google. Having a sole source of news -- those days are over.''
A spring poll by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 17 percent of Americans learn about the campaign via the Internet on a typical day, more than double the number that did in the spring of 2004. But traffic on Internet news sites has grown steadily for years, making it hard to say how much of this year's rise is attributable to the election.
(Nor does it mean that online publications are translating page views into dollars. Politico still gets most of its revenue from ads in its printed newspaper, placed by interest groups hoping to influence the paper's powerful readers.)
Charlie Tillinghast, the president of MSNBC.com, said he believed that at least part of his site's success is election-related. In December, weeks before the first primaries, MSNBC.com's traffic surpassed the 30 million visitor mark. It has held up since then, attracting 37.6 million visitors in June, when the final nominating contests were held.
For news Web sites, the most significant change from 2004 is the amount of video being consumed. Compared with previous election years, ''the video players are better, the video quality is much better, and the overall user experience is vastly improved,'' Mr. Tillinghast said. ''It's actually a pleasant experience, whereas before, users suffered a little pain to watch online video.''
On YouTube, the Internet's most popular video site, political commercials are far more popular than news reports. John McCain's recent ad tying celebrities like Britney Spears to Senator Obama has been viewed nearly 1.5 million times.
Cable news has been a huge beneficiary of the campaign cycle. An analysis of Nielsen ratings by Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of CNN, shows cable with a 58 percent share of all news-viewing on television, up from 50 percent in 2004.
As the nominating contests played out in the first half of 2008 and the cable networks showed two dozen candidate debates, CNN had, on average, 32 percent more 25- to 54-year-old viewers than during the same period in 2004, while MSNBC (starting from a much smaller base) averaged 73 percent more. The Fox News Channel showed a 17 percent decline compared with the same time period, but still had more viewers than the other news channels.
Record-breaking spending on political ads has helped local TV stations, though it only partly offsets a slump in the general ad market. Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain, the likely nominees, are each spending about $6 million a week on television ads, mostly on local TV in battleground states, particularly Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida.
During the prolonged primary season, many more local markets enjoyed a taste of campaign advertising dollars. ''Local stations were seeing primary money late into the season that had never seen a dime before -- states like South Dakota, Montana, North Carolina,'' said Jack Poor, the vice president for marketing at the Television Bureau of Advertising.
Among magazines, Newsweek, where the campaign is a bread-and-butter topic, reports that issues with Senator McCain or Senator Obama on the cover have been among its best sellers, but that is not saying much, because its sales do not vary greatly based on cover photos. Rolling Stone and Us Weekly also had moderately higher-than-average sales with their Obama covers.
The audience for newspaper Web sites rose sharply this year, even as the printed papers continued to lose circulation. Nielsen figures compiled for the Newspaper Association of America show that in an average month in the first half of 2008, 66.3 million Americans visited a newspaper Web site, a 12.2 percent increase from the first half of 2007.
Again, how much of that growth stems from the campaign, and how much from factors like better video on those sites, is unclear. Newspapers still get less than 10 percent of their ad revenue from the Internet, so vast online audiences do not mean financial success.
With so many outlets covering the campaign, standing out is hard, but some are still trying. The British Broadcasting Corporation is renting a bus and intends to drive across the country between the conventions and the election.
Other outlets that do not regularly feature political news are trying to cash in on the election interest. In the July week that ''Access Hollywood'' showed a four-part interview with Mr. Obama's family, the entertainment show had a 20 percent increase in viewers. Senator Obama's family has also been featured in Us Weekly and People magazines.
Attention like that has led to accusations from the McCain campaign that Senator Obama has become the media darling of the election, raising the question of whether mainstream media outlets risk longer-term declines if they are seen to favor one candidate.
For instance, ratings for MSNBC, which has been singled out by the McCain campaign as being pro-Obama, have risen, largely because of Mr. Olbermann's program. ''Countdown With Keith Olbermann'' has had its audience of 25- to 54-year-olds double in the last two years. The audience of ''Hardball With Chris Matthews'' has also jumped significantly. Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC, said that the election is emblematic of a larger shift away from broadcast news and toward cable, a trend that he expects will keep viewers tuning in after Election Day. ''More and more, the news game is being played out on cable,'' he said.
Single broadcasts, however, do not seem to have any aftereffects. After Mr. Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, the host of ABC's Sunday morning show, moderated an April debate between Senators Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, they were widely criticized for emphasizing scandal over substance.
But neither the debate nor the harsh criticism that ensued seemed to affect ABC's ratings. The numbers for ''World News'' edged up in the days after the debate, but soon returned to normal.
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Senator Barack Obama was asked about Senator John McCain during a taping of ''The Situation Room'' on CNN in May. (PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES DHARAPAK/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Some magazines with the candidates had only a modest increase in sales. (pg.C1)
The Politico, a news organization started by John Harris, above left, and Jim VandeHei, has benefited from the campaign. MSNBC.com is offering interactive graphics. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JACQUELYN MARTIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS) (pg.C6)
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THE TALK
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The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee accused Sen. John McCain's campaign of trying to impugn the character of Sen. Barack Obama in this year's presidential race.
"They're trying to scare you," Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "They are engaged in character assassination."
"They've decided they can't win on the issues, so they've decided to try to destroy his character," Kerry added, quoting his Senate colleague Russ Feingold (D-Wis.).
Kerry's comments alluded to a McCain TV advertisement that debuted last week. The ad, which compared Obama to celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, raised an important point, McCain ally Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) said on NBC.
"Notwithstanding his celebrity status, is Barack Obama ready to serve?" said Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate.
He said the question was particularly relevant after Obama's trip to Europe, where 200,000 people turned out in Berlin to hear him speak. "We're not deciding who's our favorite celebrity," Lieberman said. "We're doing something very serious."
Kerry countered, "It tries to insinuate that his celebrity is all [Obama] has."
Lieberman focused on a statement by Obama last week that caused a stir. The senator from Illinois said in Missouri that his opponents are going to try to instill worries in voters by emphasizing that Obama is an unfamiliar figure who "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."
The McCain campaign quickly accused Obama of playing the race card.
"You're making a personal insult to John McCain," Lieberman said. "This man does not have a bigoted bone in his body," he added, noting that McCain and his wife have adopted a child from Bangladesh.
On ABC's "This Week," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was pressed on whether she would allow a vote to expand offshore drilling for oil. Last week, she did not allow such a vote before Congress recessed.
"You never say never to anything," she said. "But from my standpoint . . . I'm not giving the gavel away to a tactic that . . . supports . . . big oil at the cost and the expense of the consumer."
-- Zachary A. Goldfarb
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Rerouting McCain's Bus;
Frustrations Lead Campaign To Limit Reporters' Access
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz; Washington Post Staff Writer
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While the traveling press corps was shipped off to a barbecue restaurant here, John McCain charmed his way through an interview with a local TV reporter. Surae Chinn of KCTV posed such less-than-penetrating questions as "How important is Missouri?" and "Have you chosen a running mate?" and -- addressing the candidate's wife, Cindy -- "How do you make your marriage work?"
Moments later, though, the Republican candidate seemed to grow annoyed with the Kansas City Star's Steve Kraske, who pressed him on his recent comment that "nothing is off the table" when it comes to strengthening Social Security.
When Kraske said that McCain presumably wasn't ruling out a payroll tax hike, McCain interrupted: "That's presuming wrong." When the reporter rephrased the question, McCain said: "If you want to keep asking me over and over again, you're welcome to."
It was a brief moment of friction that highlighted how the captain of the Straight Talk Express is having a bumpier ride with journalists than when he ran for president eight years ago. The popular image of the campaign -- McCain bantering with national journalists in the back of his bus -- has, in reality, all but vanished. The traveling press is now routinely stiffed in favor of five-minute sit-downs with local reporters.
At the same time, the Arizona senator is having trouble making news, or at least news that advances his campaign's goals, and when he does it is often reacting to the media hurricane that surrounds Barack Obama.
In 2000, when top news executives were clamoring for a chance to ride the fabled bus, McCain would spend hours talking to reporters who would write one story a day. "Now, with each bus trip, everyone's filing a blog report, every little thing is picked up and off it goes," says Slate correspondent John Dickerson. "It certainly takes him off message."
McCain is "pained" at all but ending the sessions, says spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush White House communications director, but "we have to find a balance. He won the primary essentially on a bus with the press. . . . He's intensely loyal to the back-and-forth with the press. It's who he is. It will always be part of our mix."
It wasn't part of the mix last week. National correspondents traveling with the candidate did not get to ask McCain a question for four days, and grew angry when a media availability was scheduled for late afternoon Friday in Panama City, Fla. -- too late to do them much good and requiring extra flights for those who had planned to head home for the weekend.
While the front of McCain's plane was reconfigured with a couch and two captain's chairs to allow for easy conversation, journalists say he has invited them up only once, on a trip to Colombia. On the ground, his availability is sometimes limited to a quick gaggle with a small group of pool reporters.
Obama doesn't mingle much with his press corps either -- he made an exception on his recent world tour -- but that has never been a core part of his strategy.
McCain is less engaging as a scripted candidate. But his strategists are convinced that the perpetual access was eroding their ability to drive a message, forcing the candidate to play on the media's turf by responding to flap-of-the-day questions, such as top adviser Carly Fiorina's lament that many health plans cover Viagra but not birth control.
But the aides say McCain would get hammered by the press if they restricted access even further, given his repeated insistence that such a move would destroy his credibility.
While many problems are of McCain's own making, it often seems that he can't catch a break. He stood beside an oil pump in a dusty Bakersfield, Calif., field last week, trying to dramatize his support for offshore drilling while painting Obama as "the Doctor No of America's energy future."
But the clip that played on ABC's "World News" and the cable networks was of McCain, who has a history of skin cancer, explaining to reporters why a mole had been removed from his face.
Republican strategists not affiliated with McCain say his campaign seems to lurch from one tactic to the next and has been largely devoid of new ideas that might draw sustained coverage.
"The McCain campaign's challenge in this Obama environment is to be consistent and drive a daily message for more than two days in a row," says Scott Reed, who managed the 1996 presidential campaign of another septuagenarian senator, Bob Dole.
Mark McKinnon, a McCain adviser who left the campaign after the primaries, says the media are "overhyping" Obama, but that things will even out by the fall.
Asked if McCain should spend so much time responding to Obama, thus letting him set the story line, McKinnon says: "It's hard not to react when there's this blazing comet across the sky."
If that has eclipsed the Republican's campaign, the staging of McCain's events hasn't helped. When Obama was in Israel, McCain was awkwardly chatting up shoppers in the cheese aisle of a Bethlehem, Pa., supermarket, where at one point several jars of applesauce came tumbling off a shelf. When Obama was drawing a huge crowd in Berlin, McCain was visiting Schmidt's Sausage Haus in Columbus, Ohio, placing an order of chocolate cream puffs to go.
Beyond the stagecraft, there is a sameness to McCain's schedule that works against breaking into the news cycle: town hall meeting, local interviews, fundraiser.
McCain is clearly energized by the town halls. In Racine, Wis., he was asked about taxes, college aid and whether Brett Favre should leave the Green Bay Packers. McCain's answers were crisp and forceful, but he said nothing he hasn't said dozens of times -- and therefore made no news.
Such generally friendly questions are now deemed preferable to responding to reporters. After touring a tractor factory Wednesday in Aurora, Colo., McCain kept walking when Associated Press correspondent Beth Fouhy shouted a question at him about the indictment of Republican Sen. Ted Stevens. The press corps had no chance to get a comment on his controversial ad likening Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.
On Thursday in Wisconsin, the reporters were itching to ask about the campaign's accusation that Obama was "playing the race card" by suggesting that McCain was trying to marginalize him as someone who didn't look like other presidents on dollar bills. When CNN's John King was interviewing the senator for a profile to run before the Republican convention -- and raised the race-card flap at the end -- aides tried to cut him off. McCain gave a 10-second answer and ended the interview with a quick handshake as King tried to follow up. The aides later chastised King for raising a subject that was not part of the agreed-upon agenda.
On the bus ride to the airport, four Milwaukee journalists were invited on the Straight Talk, in keeping with the new policy of generally reserving such trips for local reporters. This time, Fouhy asked the local AP scribe on that bus to question McCain about the race charge, and made sure the senator's defense of the charge hit the national wire.
During the subsequent flight to Orlando, McCain remained in the front cabin, which was cordoned off by a curtain. The only journalist ushered into his presence was a writer for Marie Claire magazine.
In the old days, reporters would have had hours to chew over the latest controversy, and plenty of other subjects, with McCain. But for a campaign struggling to regain control of its message, the old days are definitely gone.
Howard Kurtz hosts CNN's weekly media program, "Reliable Sources."
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By L.m. Otero -- Associated Press; John McCain's impromptu sessions with the press have become fewer and far between.
IMAGE; By Mary Altaffer -- Associated Press; Sen. John McCain, with his wife, Cindy, speaks to reporters at the Red Ribbon Ranch Oil Lease in Bakersfield, Calif., July 28.
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Sen. Barack Obama Addresses Energy Policy in Lansing, Mich.
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HIGHLIGHT: OBAMA: We meet at a moment when this country is facing a set of challenges greater than any we've seen in generations. Right now, our brave men and women in uniform are fighting two different wars while terrorists plot their next attack. Our changing climate is placing our planet in peril. Our economy is in turmoil and our families are struggling with rising costs and falling incomes; with lost jobs and lost homes and lost faith in the American Dream. And for too long, our leaders in Washington have been unwilling or unable to do anything about it.
OBAMA: We meet at a moment when this country is facing a set of challenges greater than any we've seen in generations. Right now, our brave men and women in uniform are fighting two different wars while terrorists plot their next attack. Our changing climate is placing our planet in peril. Our economy is in turmoil and our families are struggling with rising costs and falling incomes; with lost jobs and lost homes and lost faith in the American Dream. And for too long, our leaders in Washington have been unwilling or unable to do anything about it.
That is why this election could be the most important of our lifetime. When it comes to our economy, our security, and the very future of our planet, the choices we make in November and over the next few years will shape the next decade, if not the century. And central to all of these major challenges is the question of what we will do about our addiction to foreign oil.
Without a doubt, this addiction is one of the most dangerous and urgent threats this nation has ever faced -- from the gas prices that are wiping out your paychecks and straining businesses to the jobs that are disappearing from this state; from the instability and terror bred in the Middle East to the rising oceans and record drought and spreading famine that could engulf our planet.
It's also a threat that goes to the very heart of who we are as a nation, and who we will be. Will we be the generation that leaves our children a planet in decline, or a world that is clean, and safe, and thriving? Will we allow ourselves to be held hostage to the whims of tyrants and dictators who control the world's oil wells? Or will we control our own energy and our own destiny? Will America watch as the clean energy jobs and industries of the future flourish in countries like Spain, Japan, or Germany? Or will we create them here, in the greatest country on Earth, with the most talented, productive workers in the world?
As Americans, we know the answers to these questions. We know that we cannot sustain a future powered by a fuel that is rapidly disappearing. Not when we purchase $700 million worth of oil every single day from some the world's most unstable and hostile nations -- Middle Eastern regimes that will control nearly all of the world's oil by 2030. Not when the rapid growth of countries like China and India mean that we're consuming more of this dwindling resource faster than we ever imagined. We know that we can't sustain this kind of future.
But we also know that we've been talking about this issue for decades. We've heard promises about energy independence from every single President since Richard Nixon. We've heard talk about curbing the use of fossil fuels in State of the Union addresses since the oil embargo of 1973.
Back then, we imported about a third of our oil. Now, we import more than half. Back then, global warming was the theory of a few scientists. Now, it is a fact that is melting our glaciers and setting off dangerous weather patterns as we speak. Then, the technology and innovation to create new sources of clean, affordable, renewable energy was a generation away. Today, you can find it in the research labs of this university and in the design centers of this state's legendary auto industry. It's in the chemistry labs that are laying the building blocks for cheaper, more efficient solar panels, and it's in the re-born factories that are churning out more wind turbines every day all across this country.
Despite all this, here we are, in another election, still talking about our oil addiction; still more dependent than ever. Why?
You won't hear me say this too often, but I couldn't agree more with the explanation that Senator McCain offered a few weeks ago. He said, "Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been thirty years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long-term about the future of the country."
What Senator McCain neglected to mention was that during those thirty years, he was in Washington for twenty-six of them. And in all that time, he did little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. He voted against increased fuel efficiency standards and opposed legislation that included tax credits for more efficient cars. He voted against renewable sources of energy. Against clean biofuels. Against solar power. Against wind power. Against an energy bill that -- while far from perfect -- represented the largest investment in renewable sources of energy in the history of this country. So when Senator McCain talks about the failure of politicians in Washington to do anything about our energy crisis, it's important to remember that he's been a part of that failure. Now, after years of inaction, and in the face of public frustration over rising gas prices, the only energy proposal he's really promoting is more offshore drilling -- a position he recently adopted that has become the centerpiece of his plan, and one that will not make a real dent in current gas prices or meet the long-term challenge of energy independence.
George Bush's own Energy Department has said that if we opened up new areas to drilling today, we wouldn't see a single drop of oil for seven years. Seven years. And Senator McCain knows that, which is why he admitted that his plan would only provide "psychological" relief to consumers. He also knows that if we opened up and drilled on every single square inch of our land and our shores, we would still find only three percent of the world's oil reserves. Three percent for a country that uses 25% of the world's oil. Even Texas oilman Boone Pickens, who's calling for major new investments in alternative energy, has said, "this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of."
Now, increased domestic oil exploration certainly has its place as we make our economy more fuel-efficient and transition to other, renewable, American-made sources of energy. But it is not the solution. It is a political answer of the sort Washington has given us for three decades.
There are genuine ways in which we can provide some short-term relief from high gas prices -- relief to the mother who's cutting down on groceries because of gas prices, or the man I met in Pennsylvania who lost his job and can't even afford to drive around and look for a new one. I believe we should immediately give every working family in America a $1,000 energy rebate, and we should pay for it with part of the record profits that the oil companies are making right now.
I also believe that in the short-term, as we transition to renewable energy, we can and should increase our domestic production of oil and natural gas. But we should start by telling the oil companies to drill on the 68 million acres they currently have access to but haven't touched. And if they don't, we should require them to give up their leases to someone who will. We should invest in the technology that can help us recover more from existing oil fields, and speed up the process of recovering oil and gas resources in shale formations in Montana and North Dakota; Texas and Arkansas and in parts of the West and Central Gulf of Mexico. We should sell 70 million barrels of oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve for less expensive crude, which in the past has lowered gas prices within two weeks. Over the next five years, we should also lease more of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas production. And we should also tap more of our substantial natural gas reserves and work with the Canadian government to finally build the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline, delivering clean natural gas and creating good jobs in the process.
But the truth is, none of these steps will come close to seriously reducing our energy dependence in the long-term. We simply cannot pretend, as Senator McCain does, that we can drill our way out of this problem. We need a much bolder and much bigger set of solutions. We have to make a serious, nationwide commitment to developing new sources of energy and we have to do it right away.
Last week, Washington finally made some progress on this. A group of Democrat and Republican Senators sat down and came up with a compromise on energy that includes many of the proposals I've worked on as a Senator and many of the steps I've been calling for on this campaign. It's a plan that would invest in renewable fuels and batteries for fuel-efficient cars, help automakers re-tool, and make a real investment in renewable sources of energy.
Like all compromises, this one has its drawbacks. It includes a limited amount of new offshore drilling, and while I still don't believe that's a particularly meaningful short-term or long-term solution, I am willing to consider it if it's necessary to actually pass a comprehensive plan. I am not interested in making the perfect the enemy of the good -- particularly since there is so much good in this compromise that would actually reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
And yet, while the compromise is a good first step and a good faith effort, I believe that we must go even further, and here's why -- breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our generation will ever face. It will take nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy. This transformation will be costly, and given the fiscal disaster we will inherit from the last Administration, it will likely require us to defer some other priorities.
It is also a transformation that will require more than just a few government programs. Energy independence will require an all- hands-on-deck effort from America -- effort from our scientists and entrepreneurs; from businesses and from every American citizen. Factories will have to re-tool and re-design. Businesses will need to find ways to emit less carbon dioxide. All of us will need to buy more of the fuel-efficient cars built by this state, and find new ways to improve efficiency and save energy in our own homes and businesses.
This will not be easy. And it will not happen overnight. And if anyone tries to tell you otherwise, they are either fooling themselves or trying to fool you.
But I know we can do this. We can do this because we are Americans. We do the improbable. We beat great odds. We rally together to meet whatever challenge stands in our way. That's what we've always done -- and it's what we must do now. For the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, we must end the age of oil in our time.
Creating a new energy economy isn't just a challenge to meet, it's an opportunity to seize -- an opportunity that will create new businesses, new industries, and millions of new jobs. Jobs that pay well. Jobs that can't be outsourced. Good, union jobs. For a state that has lost so many and struggled so much in recent years, this is an opportunity to rebuild and revive your economy. As your wonderful Governor has said, "Any time you pick up a newspaper and see the terms 'climate change' or 'global warming,' just think: 'jobs for Michigan.'" You are seeing the potential already. Already, there are 50,000 jobs in your clean energy sector and 300 companies. But now is the time to accelerate that growth, both here and across the nation.
If I am President, I will immediately direct the full resources of the federal government and the full energy of the private sector to a single, overarching goal -- in ten years, we will eliminate the need for oil from the entire Middle East and Venezuela. To do this, we will invest $150 billion over the next ten years and leverage billions more in private capital to build a new energy economy that harnesses American energy and creates five million new American jobs.
There are three major steps I will take to achieve this goal -- steps that will yield real results by the end of my first term in office.
First, we will help states like Michigan build the fuel-efficient cars we need, and we will get one million 150 mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrids on our roads within six years.
I know how much the auto industry and the auto workers of this state have struggled over the last decade or so. But I also know where I want the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow to be built -- not in Japan, not in China, but right here in the United States of America. Right here in the state of Michigan.
We can do this. When I arrived in Washington, I reached across the aisle to come up with a plan to raise the mileage standards in our cars for the first time in thirty years -- a plan that won support from Democrats and Republicans who had never supported raising fuel standards before. I also led the bipartisan effort to invest in the technology necessary to build plug-in hybrid cars.
As President, I will accelerate those efforts to meet our urgent need. With technology we have on the shelf today, we will raise our fuel mileage standards four percent every year. We'll invest more in the research and development of those plug-in hybrids, specifically focusing on the battery technology. We'll leverage private sector funding to bring these cars directly to American consumers, and we'll give consumers a $7,000 tax credit to buy these vehicles. But most importantly, I'll provide $4 billion in loans and tax credits to American auto plants and manufacturers so that they can re-tool their factories and build these cars. That's how we'll not only protect our auto industry and our auto workers, but help them thrive in a 21st century economy.
What's more, these efforts will lead to an explosion of innovation here in Michigan. At the turn of the 20th century, there were literally hundreds of car companies offering a wide choice of steam vehicles and gas engines. I believe we are entering a similar era of expanding consumer choices, from higher mileage cars, to new electric entrants like GM's Volt, to flex fuel cars and trucks powered by biofuels and driven by Michigan innovation.
The second step I'll take is to require that 10% of our energy comes from renewable sources by the end of my first term -- more than double what we have now. To meet these goals, we will invest more in the clean technology research and development that's occurring in labs and research facilities all across the country and right here at MSU, where you're working with farm owners to develop this state's wind potential and developing nanotechnology that will make solar cells cheaper.
I'll also extend the Production Tax Credit for five years to encourage the production of renewable energy like wind power, solar power, and geothermal energy. It was because of this credit that wind power grew 45% last year, the largest growth in history. Experts have said that Michigan has the second best potential for wind generation and production in the entire country. And as the world's largest producer of the material that makes solar panels work, this tax credit would also help states like Michigan grow solar industries that are already creating hundreds of new jobs.
We'll also invest federal resources, including tax incentives and government contracts, into developing next generation biofuels. By 2022, I will make it a goal to have 6 billion gallons of our fuel come from sustainable, affordable biofuels and we'll make sure that we have the infrastructure to deliver that fuel in place. Here in Michigan, you're actually a step ahead of the game with your first-ever commercial cellulosic ethanol plant, which will lead the way by turning wood into clean-burning fuel. It's estimated that each new advanced biofuels plant can add up to 120 jobs, expand a local town's tax base by $70 million per year, and boost local household income by $6.7 million annually.
In addition, we'll find safer ways to use nuclear power and store nuclear waste. And we'll invest in the technology that will allow us to use more coal, America's most abundant energy source, with the goal of creating five first-of-a-kind coal-fired demonstration plants with carbon capture and sequestration.
Of course, too often, the problem is that all of this new energy technology never makes it out of the lab and onto the market because there's too much risk and too much cost involved in starting commercial-scale clean energy businesses. So we will remove some of this cost and this risk by directing billions in loans and capital to entrepreneurs who are willing to create clean energy businesses and clean energy jobs right here in America.
As we develop new sources of energy and electricity, we will also need to modernize our national utility grid so that it's accommodating to new sources of power, more efficient, and more reliable. That's an investment that will also create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and one that I will make as President.
Finally, the third step I will take is to call on businesses, government, and the American people to meet the goal of reducing our demand for electricity 15% by the end of the next decade. This is by far the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to reduce our energy consumption -- and it will save us $130 billion on our energy bills.
Since DuPont implemented an energy efficiency program in 1990, the company has significantly reduced its pollution and cut its energy bills by $3 billion. The state of California has implemented such a successful efficiency strategy that while electricity consumption grew 60% in this country over the last three decades, it didn't grow at all in California.
There is no reason America can't do the same thing. We will set a goal of making our new buildings 50% more efficient over the next four years. And we'll follow the lead of California and change the way utilities make money so that their profits aren't tied to how much energy we use, but how much energy we save.
In just ten years, these steps will produce enough renewable energy to replace all the oil we import from the Middle East. Along with the cap-and-trade program I've proposed, we will reduce our dangerous carbon emissions 80% by 2050 and slow the warming of our planet. And we will create five million new jobs in the process.
If these sound like far-off goals, just think about what we can do in the next few years. One million plug-in hybrid cars on the road. Doubling our energy from clean, renewable sources like wind power or solar power and 2 billion gallons of affordable biofuels. New buildings that 50% more energy efficient.
So there is a real choice in this election -- a choice about what kind of future we want for this country and this planet.
Senator McCain would not take the steps or achieve the goals that I outlined today. His plan invests very little in renewable sources of energy and he's opposed helping the auto industry re-tool. Like George Bush and Dick Cheney before him, he sees more drilling as the answer to all of our energy problems, and like them, he's found a receptive audience in the very same oil companies that have blocked our progress for so long. In fact, he raised more than one million dollars from big oil just last month, most of which came after he announced his plan for offshore drilling in a room full of cheering oil executives. His initial reaction to the bipartisan energy compromise was to reject it because it took away tax breaks for oil companies. And even though he doesn't want to spend much on renewable energy, he's actually proposed giving $4 billion more in tax breaks to the biggest oil companies in America -- including $1.2 billion to Exxon-Mobil. This is a corporation that just recorded the largest profit in the history of the United States. . This is the company that, last quarter, made $1,500 every second. That's more than $300,000 in the time it takes you to fill up a tank with gas that's costing you more than $4-a-gallon. And Senator McCain not only wants them to keep every dime of that money, he wants to give them more.
So make no mistake -- the oil companies have placed their bet on Senator McCain, and if he wins, they will continue to cash in while our families and our economy suffer and our future is put in jeopardy.
Well that's not the future I see for America. I will not pretend the goals I laid out today aren't ambitious. They are. I will not pretend we can achieve them without cost, or without sacrifice, or without the contribution of almost every American citizen.
But I will say that these goals are possible. And I will say that achieving them is absolutely necessary if we want to keep America safe and prosperous in the 21st century.
I want you all to think for a minute about the next four years, and even the next ten years. We can continue down the path we've been traveling. We can keep making small, piece-meal investments in renewable energy and keep sending billions of our hard-earned dollars to oil company executives and Middle Eastern dictators. We can watch helplessly as the price of gas rises and falls because of some foreign crisis we have no control over, and uncover every single barrel of oil buried beneath this country only to realize that we don't have enough for a few years, let alone a century. We can watch other countries create the industries and the jobs that will fuel our future, and leave our children a planet that grows more dangerous and unlivable by the day.
Or we can choose another future. We can decide that we will face the realities of the 21st century by building a 21st century economy. In just a few years, we can watch cars that run on a plug-in battery come off the same assembly lines that once produced the first Ford and the first Chrysler. We can see shuttered factories open their doors to manufacturers that sell wind turbines and solar panels that will power our homes and our businesses. We can watch as millions of new jobs with good pay and good benefits are created for American workers, and we can take pride as the technologies, and discoveries, and industries of the future flourish in the United States of America. We can lead the world, secure our nation, and meet our moral obligations to future generations.
This is the choice that we face in the months ahead. This is the challenge we must meet. This is the opportunity we must seize -- and this may be our last chance to seize it.
And if it seems too difficult or improbable, I ask you to think about the struggles and the challenges that past generations have overcome. Think about how World War II forced us to transform a peacetime economy still climbing out of Depression into an Arsenal of Democracy that could wage war across three continents. And when President Roosevelt's advisers informed him that his goals for wartime production were impossible to meet, he waved them off and said "believe me, the production people can do it if they really try." And they did.
Think about when the scientists and engineers told John F. Kennedy that they had no idea how to put a man on the moon, he told them they would find a way. And we found one. Remember how we trained a generation for a new, industrial economy by building a nationwide system of public high schools; how we laid down railroad tracks and highways across an entire continent; how we pushed the boundaries of science and technology to unlock the very building blocks of human life.
I ask you to draw hope from the improbable progress this nation has made and look to the future with confidence that we too can meet the great test of our time. I ask you to join me, in November and in the years to come, to ensure that we will not only control our own energy, but once again control our own destiny, and forge a new and better future for the country that we love. Thank you.
END
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Washingtonpost.com
August 4, 2008 Monday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Ben Pershing, Washington.com Congressional Blogger, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2983 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Ben Pershing, washingtonpost.com congressional blogger, was online Monday, August 4 at 11 a.m. ET.
Read Pershing's Capitol Briefing blog.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Ben Pershing: Happy Monday, everyone. Sorry for the late start to this chat but we'll try to make up in quality what we'll lack in quantity. Or something like that. And away we go...
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Fairfax, Va.: Do you expect a shake-up in the GOP House leadership in the next session? How much is Cantor helped by this talk of being vetted for McCain's vice presidential slot given that McCain probably isn't the favorite among a lot of the movement conservatives in the House?
Ben Pershing: The short answer is yes, I do expect a shakeup in the House GOP leadership after November. Republicans appear likely to lose several more seats in the fall, and regardless of whether that's really the leadership's fault, members may well want change. It's too early to say who will compete for which office, but Eric Cantor is definitely a prime candidate to move up -- possibly by challenging Minority Whip Roy Blunt, the man who put Cantor in the leadership in the first place.
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Washington: The Presidential polls this week have been all over the place, and I wonder if The Post will include an interpreter of sorts along with these chats in the future to help common folk like myself (who are interested politics) understand what these polls mean?
Ben Pershing: I'm not sure whether the Post will actually hire a poll interpreter, though it certainly sounds like a good idea.
The Post does have a fine blog run by its polling department called Behind the Numbers.
And I also really enjoy Mystery Pollster, who is very good at sorting through survey data and making sense of it all.
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Seattle: Great to have you on this morning, Shailagh. With the Olympics clock ticking, do you think either candidate will unveil his running mate this week?
Ben Pershing: Shailagh is taking a much-needed vacation this week, so I am doing my best to fill her very talented shoes. No one knows when either candidate will unveil their vice presidential pick beyond the two candidates themselves and a small circle of advisers. But quite a few smart analysts do think McCain is likely to unveil his pick before the Olympics. For what it's worth, Newsweek is reporting Obama is more likely to announce his vice presidential pick right before the Democratic convention. But everyone's just guessing at this point.
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Sacramento, Calif.: McCain's negative ads seem to be working if you use polls and media focus as measurements. Will Obama have no choice but to respond in kind? I know it goes against his brand, but is the alternative him being made into an unelectable caricature?
Ben Pershing: Obama can probably respond by trying to counter McCain's image of him, and by tut-tutting the overall negativity of the campaign. (i.e. "It's sad McCain has to stoop so low..."). And Obama has just come out with a new ad hitting McCain for being a tool of "Big Oil."
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Annapolis, Md.: The GOP seems to feel, with some cause, that they can portray themselves as the party of tight spending and lower taxes (without mentioning $10 billion a month or more spent in Iraq and Afghanistan), and can back offshore drilling without mentioning that prices might not be affected for at least 10 years. I think they may be right. The Democrats' responses so far have seemed pretty weak, and more importantly are not succinct enough to fit on a billboard. Can they win?
Ben Pershing: Sure, Democrats can win. But it is true that the GOP's current message on energy -- more drilling right now! -- is catchier and easier to understand than the Democratic message, which involves cracking down on oil speculators, drilling on land that's already been leased and putting more money into alternative energy. The good news for Democrats is that while polls seem to show support for opening more land to drilling, they also show that most of the public blames oil companies and President Bush for high gas prices, rather than congressional Democrats. For now, anyway.
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washingtonpost.com: Obama Ad Slamming McCain Energy Policy (YouTube)
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Detroit: Thank you for taking my question. For the Republican veepstakes, way too much is made of Mitt Romney having a positive effect on Michigan voters. His father was in office eons ago, and he has had no role in Michigan state politics. I am curious about your thoughts on Sen. Chuck Hagel. He is the true maverick of the Republican Party, and seems to have drifted further and further away from his once-close colleague Sen. McCain. He would seem to be a savvy choice for Sen. Obama. And they have had to spend a lot of time together on the Middle East tour. I am curious of your thoughts on him as a possible selection. He could garner a lot of independent voters.
Ben Pershing: Hagel's motivations have always been something of a mystery and have become more so recently. It certainly would get attention if Obama picked him, but you have to remember that for all his defiance of the GOP on certain issues, Hagel is still pretty conservative. He is anti-abortion, for example, and I just can't see Obama picking a candidate who doesn't support abortion rights. It would tear the Democratic party apart.
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Washington: The McCain campaign recently accused Obama of playing the race card. I'm not going into the discussion of whether or not that was the case, but McCain is on record using a racially incendiary term (i.e., gooks) to describe Asians during his 2000 presidential campaign. McCain, being McCain, even refused to apologize for using this word. The mainstream media covered this in 2000; why are they avoiding it now? If the Rev. Wright can be skewered for what he said in 2001, why is McCain getting a pass?
Ben Pershing: That's a good question. My best guess is that, as you said, that controversy occurred 8 years ago and got covered at the time. The media is usually looking for new stories to cover and is generally not inclined to rehash something that happened years ago. Now if McCain had used that term 8 years ago but no one had covered it at the time, then it could be a big story today.
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Washington: Will you be blogging from the conventions? I really appreciated the timely updates from that circus on Friday afternoon...
washingtonpost.com: Capitol Briefing: Bizarre Scene on the House Floor (washingtonpost.com, Aug. 1)
Ben Pershing: That's very kind of you. Friday's non-session in the House was interesting to watch just from an institutional standpoint (I am a nerd about Congress), if not from an actual substantive policy standpoint. And House Republicans are back at it today. As for the conventions, I'll be in Minnesota for the GOP convention, but not Denver.
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Shailagh is taking a much-needed vacation this week, so I am doing my best to fill her very talented shoes: Ow, Ben, that sounds painful. Just hope they're not stilettos!
Ben Pershing: Very nice. Take my wife, please...
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Gaithersburg, Md.: Is The Post covering today's ongoing Republican protest in the House?
Ben Pershing: I wrote a blog post about it on Capitol Briefing this morning and will update as circumstances warrant. It's worth remembering that this is essentially a publicity stunt, albeit a clever one.
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Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: Congress is on a 5-week vacation. The president is off for the Far East for glad-handing and the games. Are the presidential candidates taking vacations this month? If so, for how long? Will the press corps go into dormancy while the newsmakers are idling on the beach? After all, it is August, and no one rolls out a new product line in this languid month (as Andy Card opined). Thanks much.
Ben Pershing: August is always relatively quiet in Washington, and the busiest place in town is usually Route 50, which everyone takes to drive to the beaches in Delaware and Maryland. The presidential campaign means this August will be a little busier than, say, August 2007. But remember that the Olympics will suck up a lot of oxygen, and a lot of everyone's newsroom budget. So there will be something of a lull between now and the start of the Democratic convention.
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Atlanta: Going negative always works. Every election cycle, there's always a lot of hand-wringing; will so-and-so pay the price for going negative? So-and-so never pays the price.
Ben Pershing: That's a good point, and I think I agree with it. Candidates rarely get penalized for going negative. You know what else almost never matters? "The debate over debates" stories. I can't remember the last time a candidate got hurt because he/she only wanted to do 3 debates while his opponents wanted to do 6. Remember that the next time you read about Obama refusing to do all those town hall meetings that McCain wants. These are process stories that the press probably cares about more than voters do.
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New York: On one of the Sunday talk shows yesterday, House speaker Nancy Pelosi touted a member of the House of Representatives as a possible vice president for Barack Obama. What's with that? I can't remember who it was, but is this congressman on the short list, or is Pelosi trying to send the Obama campaign some sort of message?
washingtonpost.com: Pelosi pushes Texas lawmaker as Obama running mate (AP, Aug. 3)
Ben Pershing: This isn't the first time Pelosi has touted Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) for VP. Her last mention of Edwards came in late June. She just really likes him and thinks he's smart and talented, and he comes from a red state and probably knows how to reach out to conservatives better than Obama does.
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washingtonpost.com: Capitol Briefing: The Speaker, Voiceless but not Speechless (washingtonpost.com, June 26)
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Fan of both politics and celebritology: Is there a Web site you or your producer could link to that lists which celebrities are backing which presidential candidates? In the wake of the McCain ad comparing Obama to Paris Hilton/Britney Spears, it starts to seem relevant.
washingtonpost.com: Three older lists: Newsweek | Hotline | Democracy in Action
Ben Pershing: Our intrepid producers have already dug up some links for you that are included above. I wouldn't necessarily agree that it's "relevant" to know who Britney Spears is backing, or even Miley Cyrus (can she even vote yet?). But it is entertaining, I guess.
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Re: House GOP Shakeup: I think a leadership shakeup is inevitable, but the real question is in what direction, because don't the seats being targeted this election belong to more moderate GOP members, leaving the harder-line members in place?
Ben Pershing: Yes, there is a good chance that several more moderate Republicans will lose in November (a bunch lost in 2006) and the GOP Conference next year will be more conservative than the current one. There is a real split in the party on this subject: Some members believe the GOP is losing because it's gotten away from its conservative roots, others believe the problem is that Republicans haven't done enough to appeal to moderate and Independent voters.
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Seating Michigan/Florida delegates: Read an article this morning about Obama's newfound desire to seat all of the delegates and count those votes now that doing so won't give Hillary the chance to get the nomination. The article lightly danced around Obama's former stance and didn't do anything to remind readers how hard Obama fought to make sure those votes didn't count. I'm a little surprised that there isn't more fuss about this, even though the primary season has passed. Magnanimous of him to give those votes back after they can't be used against him.
washingtonpost.com: Obama says give Florida and Michigan delegates full vote (AP, Aug. 3)
Ben Pershing: At this point "unity" is the order of the day, so if Obama can make a gesture to Michigan and Florida without hurting himself, why wouldn't he? Welcome to the world of politics.
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Keating (*cough cough*)!: Hi, Ben. I have an offer for you! Should McCain hold a press conference to express his antipathy for what Ted Stevens did, I'll put up $50 to any enterprising journalist who keeps coughing "Keating ... Keating" into his fist while McCain speaks. You may get excluded from the next McCain BBQ, but for $50 you can buy your own ribs and chicken. Any takers in The Washington Post's newsroom, do you think?
Ben Pershing: I like your idea, but see my previous answer about McCain's use of a racial epithet in 2000. Important as the Keating Savings and Loan scandal was, it's been covered exhaustively over the years, so reporters don't see much value in trying to bring it up again and again.
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Not Munich: I was resisting the urge to write, but unwittingly you're dancing around my issue. You offer some interesting ideas for how Obama should respond to McCain's attacks. Fortuitously, Fred Hiatt has solved that problem for everyone! In response, Obama should capitulate and do the town hall meeting with McCain. That'll show McCain...
washingtonpost.com: Answering McCain's Attacks (Post, Aug. 4)
Ben Pershing: Having said that I don't believe Obama's decision to snub the town hall offer will hurt him, I do think that the idea that the format is such an advantage to McCain might not be true. When the offer was originally made, Obama was clearly leading in the polls, so the rationale was that he shouldn't gamble. But now the race appears to be very close, and I think Obama is articulate enough and quick enough on his feet that he might do well in a town hall environment. Just a thought. And some commentators -- including George Will in a column yesterday -- think Obama needs to tone down the speeches filled with lofty rhetoric, so town halls could be a way to do that.
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Pittsburgh: Re: The veepstakes, if McCain picks a vice presidential candidate near his own age the Republican slate will appear elderly, but if he picks a much younger one then the age contrast will make McCain look old. Likewise, if Obama picks a vice presidential candidate near his own age the Democrats' slate will appear young and inexperienced, but if he picks a much older one then the age contrast will make Obama look young. Thus it seems that each should choose a running mate circa age 55-60, in order to minimize the contrast while not skewing their team's age too much. Which likely vice presidential nominees best fit this template?
Ben Pershing: I'm not sure if I agree with the parameters you've set out. McCain is going to be the oldest candidate ever regardless of whom he picks for vice president, so I don't necessarily think picking, say, Romney will hurt him just by creating a contrast. And Obama wants to pick someone with a certain level of experience, but that doesn't mean he needs to pick someone much older. Evan Bayh, for example, is 52 but has been both a governor and a Senator with a fairly lengthy record.
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Wokingham, U.K.: Behind the negative campaigning there lies a serious question: Do we set a definite end to the Iraq adventure, accepting a serious possibility of defeat, or do we stay on "until victory," however expensive? If voters accept that they have to make this fateful choice, which way will they go?
Ben Pershing: Hello Wokingham! Both Obama and McCain are trying to steer a course with their Iraq strategy that does not include the "fateful choice" you present. Obama, in particular, is trying to make the case that you can set a "timeline" or "timeframe" for leaving and yet still leave open the possibility of a shift in strategy if conditions warrant. That may or may not be realistic, but neither candidate is being quite as clear-cut as you suggest.
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Confused...: Yesterday the two CNN Sunday shows (Kurtz and Blitzer) had discussions about McCain's accusation about Obama's use of the race card. Each had a black male conservative advocating the McCain side. I've had trouble understanding whether there is any significance. The visuals alone seemed to defuse the topic in McCain's favor. Am I missing something?
Ben Pershing: It's not unusual for networks to ask black commentators to discuss issues pertaining to race and African Americans, or Latino commentators to discuss issues relating to Latinos. I wouldn't read too much into CNN's use of any particular guests.
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Madison, Wis.: Can you give some examples of Obama's "lofty rhetoric"? Or are we just suppose to except your characterization becomes it has been repeated ad nauseam by your friends in the media?
Ben Pershing: Read George Will's Sunday column. He cites some examples. And for what it's worth, George and I are not friends or even acquaintances. Though we are both big baseball fans. Go Dodgers!
Thanks for all the great questions, everyone.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washingtonpost.com
August 4, 2008 Monday 9:53 AM EST
Thrown Off the Bus
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: POLITICS
LENGTH: 2252 words
HIGHLIGHT: KANSAS CITY-- While the traveling press corps was shipped off to a barbecue restaurant here, John McCain charmed his way through an interview with a local TV reporter. Surae Chinn of KCTV posed such less-than-penetrating questions as "How important is Missouri?" and "Have you chosen a running mate?" and -- addressing the candidate's wife Cindy -- "How do you make your marriage work?"
KANSAS CITY-- While the traveling press corps was shipped off to a barbecue restaurant here, John McCain charmed his way through an interview with a local TV reporter. Surae Chinn of KCTV posed such less-than-penetrating questions as "How important is Missouri?" and "Have you chosen a running mate?" and -- addressing the candidate's wife Cindy -- "How do you make your marriage work?"
Moments later, though, the Republican candidate seemed to grow annoyed with the Kansas City Star's Steve Kraske, who pressed him on his recent comment that "nothing is off the table" when it comes to strengthening Social Security.
When Kraske said that McCain presumably wasn't ruling out a payroll tax hike, McCain interrupted: "That's presuming wrong." When the reporter rephrased the question, McCain said: "If you want to keep asking me over and over again, you're welcome to."
It was a brief moment of friction that highlighted how the captain of the Straight Talk Express is having a bumpier ride with journalists than when he ran for president eight years ago. The popular image of the campaign -- McCain bantering with national journalists in the back of his bus -- has, in practice, all but vanished. The traveling press is now routinely stiffed in favor of five-minute sit-downs with local reporters.
At the same time the Arizona senator is having trouble making news, or at least news that advances his campaign's goals, and when he does it is often reacting to the media hurricane that surrounds Barack Obama.
In 2000, when top news executives were clamoring for a chance to ride the fabled bus, McCain would spend hours talking to reporters who would write one story a day. "Now, with each bus trip, everyone's filing a blog report, every little thing is picked up and off it goes," says Slate correspondent John Dickerson. "It certainly takes him off message."
McCain adviser Steve Duprey, a former chairman of New Hampshire's Republican Party, says "he'd love to be back on the bus, driving around with eight or 10 of you, and just riffing. In New Hampshire, if he'd say something that wasn't artfully phrased, there was more of a flow -- he could revise something, or say let's talk about baseball. He'd get a pass. But in the age of blogs, there's always someone who makes a big deal out of it."
McCain is "pained" at all but ending the sessions, says spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush White House communications director, but "we have to find a balance. He won the primary essentially on a bus with the press. . . . He's intensely loyal to the back-and-forth with the press. It's who he is. It will always be part of our mix."
It wasn't part of the mix last week. National correspondents traveling with the candidate did not get to ask McCain a question for four days, and grew angry when a short media availability was scheduled for late afternoon Friday in Panama City, Fla. -- too late to do them much good and requiring extra flights for those who had planned to head home for the weekend.
While the front of McCain's plane was reconfigured with a couch and two captain's chairs to allow for easy conversation, journalists say he has invited them up only once, on a trip to Colombia. On the ground, his availability is sometimes limited to a quick gaggle with a small group of pool reporters.
Obama doesn't mingle much with his press corps either -- he made an exception on his recent world tour -- but that has never been a core part of his strategy.
McCain is less engaging as a scripted candidate. But his strategists are convinced that the perpetual access was eroding their ability to drive a message, forcing the candidate to play on the media's turf by responding to flap-of-the-day questions, such as top adviser Carly Fiorina's lament that many health plans cover Viagra but not birth control.
But the aides say McCain would get hammered by the press if they restricted access even further, given his repeated insistence that such a move would destroy his credibility.
While many problems are of McCain's own making, it often seems that he can't catch a break. He stood beside an oil pump in a dusty Bakersfield, Calif., field last week, trying to dramatize his support for offshore drilling while painting Obama as "the Doctor No of America's energy future."
But the clip played on ABC's "World News" and the cable networks was of McCain, who has a history of skin cancer, explaining to reporters why a mole had been removed from his face. It was the sole focus of a New York Times story on his day. And in a CNN sit-down, Larry King's opening questions were about the excised skin, which turned out to be benign.
Republican strategists not affiliated with McCain say his campaign seems to lurch from one tactic to the next and has been largely devoid of new ideas that might draw sustained coverage.
"The McCain campaign's challenge in this Obama environment is to be consistent and drive a daily message for more than two days in a row," says Scott Reed, who managed the 1996 presidential campaign of another septuagenarian senator, Bob Dole. "It's hard, it's frustrating, but it needs to get done. The surrogates are off message every day. They're all over the place. They need to echo what McCain says."
Mark McKinnon, a McCain adviser who left the campaign after the primaries, says the media are "overhyping" Obama, but that things will even out by the fall.
"I think they've done a good job of calling foul on the refs" in the press, McKinnon says. "We're seeing more critical coverage that might not have happened if the McCain campaign had not blown the whistle. I don't think the McCain camp should get hysterical and go out and try to do something different."
Asked if McCain should spend so much time responding to Obama, thus letting him set the story line, McKinnon says: "It's hard not to react when there's this blazing comet across the sky."
If that has eclipsed the Republican's campaign, the staging of McCain's events hasn't helped. When Obama was in Israel, McCain was awkwardly chatting up shoppers in the cheese aisle of a Bethlehem, Pa., supermarket, where at one point several jars of applesauce came tumbling off a shelf. When Obama was drawing a huge crowd in Berlin, McCain was visiting Schmidt's Sausage Haus in Columbus, Ohio, placing an order of chocolate cream puffs to go.
Beyond the stagecraft, there is a sameness to McCain's schedule that works against breaking into the news cycle: town hall meeting, local interviews, fundraiser.
McCain is clearly energized by the town halls, even as he tells the same tired jokes he was using in 1999 (about how he "hasn't always won the title of Miss Congeniality" in Congress and how its approval rating is "down to paid staffers and blood relatives"). In Racine, Wis., he was asked about taxes, college aid and whether Brett Favre should leave the Green Bay Packers. McCain's answers were crisp and forceful, but he said nothing he hasn't said dozens of times -- and therefore made no news.
Such generally friendly questions are now deemed preferable to responding to reporters. After touring a tractor factory Wednesday in Aurora, Colo., McCain kept walking when Associated Press correspondent Beth Fouhy shouted a question at him about the indictment of Republican Sen. Ted Stevens. The press corps had no chance to get a comment on his controversial ad likening Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.
On Thursday in Wisconsin, the reporters were itching to ask about the campaign's accusation that Obama was "playing the race card" by suggesting that McCain was trying to marginalize him as someone who didn't look like other presidents on dollar bills. When CNN's John King was interviewing the senator for a profile to run before the Republican convention -- and raised the race-card flap at the end -- aides tried to cut him off. McCain gave a 10-second answer and ended the interview with a quick handshake as King tried to follow up. The aides later chastised King for raising a subject that was not part of the agreed-upon agenda.
On the bus ride to the airport, four Milwaukee journalists were invited on the Straight Talk, in keeping with the new policy of generally reserving such trips for local reporters. This time, Fouhy asked the local AP scribe on that bus to question McCain about the race charge, and made sure the senator's defense of the charge hit the national wire.
During the subsequent flight to Orlando, McCain remained in the front cabin, which was cordoned off by a curtain. The only journalist ushered into his presence was a writer for Marie Claire magazine. In the old days, reporters would have had hours to chew over the latest controversy, and plenty of other subjects, with McCain. But for a campaign struggling to regain control of its message, the old days are definitely gone.
Here are two diametrically opposite views of the battle to define Obama, the first from National Review's Rich Lowry:
"Responding to a McCain ad knocking him as a world celebrity, Barack Obama essentially accused the McCain campaign of race-baiting. It was a hair-trigger resort to the charge of racism of the sort that [Jesse] Jackson built a career on, making himself radioactive and anathema to the political center . . .
"The McCain ad had a serious point, one the Obama campaign obviously felt it couldn't ignore. Obama can be as arrogant, gassy and remote as other members of the country's aristocracy of fame. If this celebrity framework is successfully imposed on Obama, the entire repertoire of Obamania -- the mass rallies, the soaring eloquence, the picturesque cool of the candidate himself -- risks becoming a liability . . .
"Obama hopes to use the racism card to inhibit all criticism of him, with the presumed cooperation of the press. But there's a much larger downside. Obama's race is a political advantage so long as it is sold in a post-racial context. If his background is a symbol of how we can get beyond the poisoned atmosphere of both racism and the hyperactive, opportunistic charges of racism, it's a boon to his change-and-unity candidacy . . . Now, Obama could throw it away in a fit of self-destructiveness worthy of . . . dare we say it, Britney Spears?"
But HuffPost's Bob Cesca sees a plain old smear campaign:
"Pat Buchanan on Hardball Monday night wondered out loud about Senator Obama: 'Is he one of us?'
"If by 'one of us' he means a cranky, elitist, white, corporate media, man-shaped bunion who fashioned his career by demonizing brown people, the answer is a certain 'no'. But we know what Buchanan meant by this. Is Senator Obama with 'us' or is he with the uppity blacks? Is he a real American like Senator McCain or is he a Muslim terrorist like those e-mails suggest? Is he too European (GAY!)? Is he like us: white, wealthy, conservative, elite?
"During this dark ride of the Bush years, it's no longer surprising or shocking to hear such a bottomless cup of awfulness. This line of questioning has become the dominant theme in the corporate media's political narrative. 'Us' has become a baseline which liberals -- regardless of race or gender -- will never achieve because the experiment is stacked against anyone who isn't centrist, moderate, right of center or conservative . . .
"The corporate media accepts their terms, their rules and their frames as a given and the Democrats are expected to jump and dash and explain themselves based upon those givens, irrespective of how ludicrous they happen to be . . . Prove to us, Senator Obama, that you're not a tabloid pop star. Prove to us that you're not a bleached blonde heiress or a slack-jawed ex-Mouseketeer."
You may not be shocked to learn that The Washington Post has run more pictures of Obama than McCain since the primaries ended--122 to 78. More stories, too.
McCain was once beloved by the pundits, but now he has lost Joe Klein:
"A few months ago, I wrote that John McCain was an honorable man and he would run an honorable campaign. I was wrong. I used to think, as David Ignatius does, that McCain's true voice was humble and moderate, but now I'm beginning to think his Senate colleagues may be right about his temperament . . .
"Courage is grace under pressure. McCain showed it when he was a prisoner of war, and on many issues--yes, even on his stubborn insistence that the surge would work--but he is not showing it now. He is showing flop sweat. It is not a quality usually associated with successful leadership."
Obama has been accused of many things, and now the WSJ has the inside skinny on a new problem:
"Speaking to donors at a San Diego fund-raiser last month, Barack Obama reassured the crowd that he wouldn't give in to Republican tactics to throw his candidacy off track.
" 'Listen, I'm skinny but I'm tough,' Sen. Obama said.
"But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama's skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them . . .
" 'He's too new . . . and he needs to put some meat on his bones,' says Diana Koenig, 42, a housewife in Corpus Christi, Texas, who says she voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.
" 'I won't vote for any beanpole guy,' another Clinton supporter wrote last week on a Yahoo politics message board."
Puh-leaze! Does it take a beer gut to get elected in this country?
Howard Kurtz hosts CNN's weekly media program, "Reliable Sources."
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The Washington Post
August 3, 2008 Sunday
Every Edition
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SIGNE WILKINSON
The Philadelphia Daily News
What so engages us about caricatures?
People love to look at them because it's a kind of magic to have a few lines represent someone and people know who it is.
What's your process?
I'm too disorganized to have a process. I do try to get a lot of photographs. Whenever the candidates are on [TV] for a speech, I try to sketch from that -- just so I keep looking at them. . . . Cartoonists are the creators and keepers of our treasured national stereotypes and we have to earn that right. So it's a good idea to keep my eyes open.
Your Obama -- difficult?
He's pretty easy. He's got a clearly shaped face and he's got great eyebrows and a great mouth and he's a lean, skinny guy. He came prepackaged!
And how's your McCain coming along?
Oddly -- and I will charitably call him middle-aged -- middle-aged white men are a pain in the neck to draw because they're so pale. When they get white eyebrows and white hair and no discernible features, that gets difficult.
Size up, if you will, the best of the also-rans.
I like drawing Hillary. It's not exactly a policy discussion here, but she has great eyebrows, great cheeks and a good face-shape. . . . I also liked Romney. He looks like a 1950s actor in a Sani-Flush ad.
So anything you won't do, in terms of caricature?
I don't need to make caricatures so ugly that they're warped. . . . I was never fond of that Hillary-as-a-witch kind of thinking. . . . And black faces are still sensitive, but decreasingly so. Cartoonists are drawing an individual face, not a race.
As a cartoonist, whom would you rather draw for four more years
I pledge to draw the person who the American people choose to give me. I will be happy and grateful for their choice. But I hope whoever it is will not [again cause] me to have to draw zippers.
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The Washington Post
August 3, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
Dollar Bills and Paris Hilton;
Both presidential candidates are capable of better.
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IS BARACK Obama a celebrity lightweight, a self-involved Paris Hilton yearning to live "The Simple Life" in the Oval Office? Is John McCain trying to scare voters about the fact that Mr. Obama, soon to be the first African American nominee, "doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills?" And one more question: How silly were we, just two months ago, in venturing "some hope that the general election can be waged on the elevated plane that both nominees say they want?"
When the story of Campaign 2008 is written, neither candidate is likely to look back with pride on the final week of July. Mr. McCain is entitled to question his opponent's readiness for the presidency and even to employ a bit of cheeky humor in making his point. He's not entitled to be dishonest, as he was, for example, in the ad suggesting that Mr. Obama preferred to play basketball rather than visit wounded troops on his trip to Germany.
Mr. Obama is entitled to inoculate himself against the discomfort and even hostility that are, unfortunately but inevitably, evoked among a minority of Americans by the fact of his race. Indeed, he would be foolish to pretend that race plays no role in this historic campaign. But Mr. Obama is not entitled to pin responsibility for this reaction on the McCain campaign, as he did on Thursday in saying that President Bush and Mr. McCain would try to scare voters: "You know, 'He's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name.' You know, 'He doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills.' "
There was, no doubt, a calculated element of tactical foul-crying in the McCain campaign's loud and immediate protestations that Mr. Obama had not only "played the race card" but dealt it "from the bottom of the deck." This assessment was overstated. But just as the Obama campaign is free to do what it can to counteract the complications of running as the first African American nominee, the McCain campaign needs to carve out space to wage a vigorous campaign without fear of being labeled racist at the slightest criticism.
Both candidates would do well to keep in mind that voters, worried about gas prices and the economy, health care and Iraq, are likely to run quickly out of patience with some of the juvenile back-and-forth. Voters face a serious choice between two candidates who bring impressive qualities to the race. Those qualities weren't shining through last week.
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The New York Times
August 2, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
Unemployment Hits 5.7% As Jobs Fall for 7th Month
BYLINE: By LOUIS UCHITELLE
SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 994 words
The unemployment rate spiked again in July, to 5.7 percent, its highest level in more than four years and a strong signal that come Election Day millions of Americans will still be hunting for work.
''We are not seeing a catastrophic collapse in the job market, like you often see in recessions,'' said James Glassman, senior domestic economist for JPMorgan Chase. ''What we are seeing instead is a steady hemorrhaging of jobs, and that is going to continue until housing stabilizes and stops dragging down the rest of the economy.''
The nation's employers cut their payrolls for the seventh consecutive month, this time by 51,000 jobs, the government reported Friday. For millions still at work, hours were reduced, a hidden form of unemployment, and the average raise was less than enough to keep up with inflation.
The steady erosion in payrolls -- 463,000 jobs have disappeared since January -- cut across nearly every sector in July. Teenagers, 16 to 19, trying to land work, were particularly hard hit. Their unemployment rate, 20.3 percent, up 2.2 percentage points in just a month, was the highest since 1992, contributing significantly to the jump in the overall unemployment rate. That rate jumped from 5.5 percent in June and 5 percent in April.
''Parents don't push their kids to go to work in good times,'' Mr. Glassman said, ''but they probably are doing so now with gasoline and food prices squeezing family budgets.''
The weak jobs report and the Commerce Department's finding on Thursday that the economy was growing sluggishly, at best, led Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, to declare in a stump speech in Florida that ''anxieties are getting worse, not better,'' for many families.
Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate, said the latest jobs report was ''a reminder of the economic challenges we face.''
The Bush administration offered a more upbeat assessment. ''We are concerned about continued job losses,'' Elaine L. Chao, the labor secretary, said in a statement, but ''the long-term fundamentals of the economy remain solid.''
The Federal Reserve's policy makers, who have cut the key short-term interest rate they control to a low 2 percent, in an effort to stimulate the economy, are almost certain to leave the rate at that level when they meet in Washington on Tuesday.
Neither the jobs report nor the persistently weak economic growth suggests that the surge in fuel and food prices will spread soon to a multitude of other items -- a prospect that would push the Fed to raise rates to suppress inflation.
''If you are the Federal Reserve, this jobs report might even be enough to convince you to cut rates again,'' said Jared Bernstein, a senior economist at the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute.
The weak economy coincides with a sharp increase in labor productivity in the second quarter, which helps to explain why employers have been shedding workers. The latter are increasingly producing more in a day's work than their employers can sell. That is partly because their employers prod them to do so, or introduce labor-saving devices.
In either case, employers are laying off excess staff or reducing their hours or holding back on weekly raises, which rose at an annual rate of only 2.8 percent in July for the typical white-collar or blue-collar worker. That is well below the inflation rate of more than 4 percent.
The layoffs and staff cutbacks were evident throughout the private sector, with only health care, oil production and computer design showing more employment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Manufacturing and construction lost the most workers, a total of 57,000. Nearly 30,000 temporary workers across many industries also disappeared.
''When the economy barely grows but labor productivity does, you are inevitably putting people out of work,'' said Jan Hatzius, chief domestic economist at Goldman Sachs.
In that environment, the percentage of 16-to-19-year-olds holding jobs fell to 32.5 percent in July from 33.1, the lowest level since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started collecting this data, in 1948.
Young people often seek work in retailing, construction and food service, and all of these industries have either been shedding workers or not adding them at their usual pace, said Tom Nardone, an assistant commissioner at the bureau.
Teenagers were not the only ones hit. The unemployment rate for men in their prime working years, 25 to 54, jumped three-tenths of a point, to 4.9 percent.
James McCambridge, a 54-year-old widower living in Park Ridge, Ill., with his three children, is among the victims. In May, he lost his $120,000-a-year job as a salesman for the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau and has been painting houses since then while responding to 100 job postings on the Internet -- so far without success.
''Painting helps me to blow off some energy, and some anger,'' he said. Next week, he plans to apply for a charter school teaching job on the West Side of Chicago. He would accept it, he said, even though the $53,000 salary is less than half his old pay. ''It will mean major lifestyle changes for my family,'' he said.
Dino Helke, 38, of Dayton, Ohio, on the other hand, has joined the swelling ranks of those who would like to work but are discouraged from doing so or cannot get full-time employment.
Add these people to the ranks of the officially unemployed, like Mr. McCambridge, and the 5.7 percent unemployment rate swells to 10.3 percent, up from 9.9 percent in June, the bureau reported.
Mr. Helke made $80,000 a year, including overtime, as a production worker at a General Motors plant near his home in Dayton until the plant was shut recently and he was laid off. Since then, he said, he has been unable to find work that pays more than $8 an hour, and he prefers not to work for that wage.
''Who can do anything with so little money?'' he said.
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: An employment training facility, JobTrain, in Menlo Park, Calif., offering career counseling.(PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL SAKUMA/ASSOCIATED PRESS)(pg. C7) CHART: THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: At 5.7 percent in July, the nation's unemployment rate is approaching the highest level in more than four years.(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics) Chart details line graph for recessions.
Construction Spending: Total construction spending at a seasonally adjusted annual rate.(Source: Commerce Department) Chart details bar graph for spending.
The Labor Picture in July: Unemployment rate. Chart details line and bar graphs for labor statistics.(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)(pg. C7)
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The New York Times
August 2, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
Running While Black
BYLINE: By BOB HERBERT
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 15
LENGTH: 793 words
Gee, I wonder why, if you have a black man running for high public office -- say, Barack Obama or Harold Ford -- the opposition feels compelled to run low-life political ads featuring tacky, sexually provocative white women who have no connection whatsoever to the black male candidates.
Spare me any more drivel about the high-mindedness of John McCain. You knew something was up back in March when, in his first ad of the general campaign, Mr. McCain had himself touted as ''the American president Americans have been waiting for.''
There was nothing subtle about that attempt to position Senator Obama as the Other, a candidate who might technically be American but who remained in some sense foreign, not sufficiently patriotic and certainly not one of us -- the ''us'' being the genuine red-white-and-blue Americans who the ad was aimed at.
Since then, Senator McCain has only upped the ante, smearing Mr. Obama every which way from sundown. On Wednesday, The Washington Post ran an extraordinary front-page article that began:
''For four days, Senator John McCain and his allies have accused Senator Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.''
Evidence? John McCain needs no evidence. His campaign is about trashing the opposition, Karl Rove-style. Not satisfied with calling his opponent's patriotism into question, Mr. McCain added what amounted to a charge of treason, insisting that Senator Obama would actually prefer that the United States lose a war if that would mean that he -- Senator Obama -- would not have to lose an election.
Now, from the hapless but increasingly venomous McCain campaign, comes the slimy Britney Spears and Paris Hilton ad. The two highly sexualized women (both notorious for displaying themselves to the paparazzi while not wearing underwear) are shown briefly and incongruously at the beginning of a commercial critical of Mr. Obama.
The Republican National Committee targeted Harold Ford with a similarly disgusting ad in 2006 when Mr. Ford, then a congressman, was running a strong race for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee. The ad, which the committee described as a parody, showed a scantily clad woman whispering, ''Harold, call me.''
Both ads were foul, poisonous and emanated from the upper reaches of the Republican Party. (What a surprise.) Both were designed to exploit the hostility, anxiety and resentment of the many white Americans who are still freakishly hung up on the idea of black men rising above their station and becoming sexually involved with white women.
The racial fantasy factor in this presidential campaign is out of control. It was at work in that New Yorker cover that caused such a stir. (Mr. Obama in Muslim garb with the American flag burning in the fireplace.) It's driving the idea that Barack Obama is somehow presumptuous, too arrogant, too big for his britches -- a man who obviously does not know his place.
Mr. Obama has to endure these grotesque insults with a smile and heroic levels of equanimity. The reason he has to do this -- the sole reason -- is that he is black.
So there he was this week speaking evenly, and with a touch of humor, to a nearly all-white audience in Missouri. His goal was to reassure his listeners, to let them know he's not some kind of unpatriotic ogre.
Mr. Obama told them: ''What they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He's risky.''
The audience seemed to appreciate his comments. Mr. Obama was well-received.
But John McCain didn't appreciate them. RACE CARD! RACE CARD! The McCain camp started bellowing, and it hasn't stopped since. With great glee bursting through their feigned outrage, the campaign's operatives and the candidate himself accused Senator Obama of introducing race into the campaign -- playing the race card, as they put it, from the very bottom of the deck.
Whatever you think about Barack Obama, he does not want the race issue to be front and center in this campaign. Every day that the campaign is about race is a good day for John McCain. So I guess we understand Mr. McCain's motivation.
Nevertheless, it's frustrating to watch John McCain calling out Barack Obama on race. Senator Obama has spoken more honestly and thoughtfully about race than any other politician in many years. Senator McCain is the head of a party that has viciously exploited race for political gain for decades.
He's obviously more than willing to continue that nauseating tradition.
Gail Collins is off today.
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The New York Times
August 2, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
With Genie Out of the Bottle, Obama Treads Carefully on Race
BYLINE: By MICHAEL POWELL; Michael Cooper contributed reporting from Panama City, Fla.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1257 words
Senator Barack Obama is a man of few rhetorical stumbles, but this week a few of his words opened a racial door his campaign would prefer not to step through. When Senator John McCain's camp replied by accusing him of playing the race card from the bottom of the deck, the Obama campaign seemed at least momentarily off balance.
The instinctive urge to punch back was tempered by the fact that race is a fire that could singe both candidates. So on Friday the Obama campaign, a carefully controlled lot on the best of days, reacted most cautiously as it sought to tamp down any sense that it was at war with Mr. McCain over who was the first to inject race into the contest. Mr. Obama made no mention of the issue, except for a brief reference in an interview with a local newspaper in Florida.
''I was in Union, Mo., which is 98 percent white, a rural conservative, and what I said was what I think everyone knows, which is that I don't look like I came out of central casting when it comes to presidential candidates,'' he told The St. Petersburg Times. ''There was nobody there who thought at all that I was trying to inject race in this.''
The furor started on Thursday when Rick Davis, Mr. McCain's campaign manager, said, ''Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck.'' Mr. Davis was alluding to Mr. Obama's remarks on Wednesday that Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing out that he ''doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.''
As Mr. Obama carefully addressed the issue on Friday, his campaign's formidable network of grass-roots activists, and the Web sites crafted to give them ''talking points'' to carry into battle against Republicans, remained uncharacteristically quiet on the matter, even though the issue dominated political blogs for a second straight day.
David Plouffe, the campaign manager, talked briefly, and not too eagerly, about it. And the campaign's chief strategist, David Axelrod, blamed the Republicans for misconstruing Mr. Obama's words as an attack, and quickly moved on.
The muted response should not be taken, even campaign insiders acknowledged, to reflect high-mindedness; the Obama campaign can wield a rhetorical gutting knife. There simply was no percentage for the first black major-party presidential candidate in the nation's history to draw too much attention to his race, much less get into a shooting war with the Republicans over the combustible issue.
''For our part, there is no stake in abetting that strategy,'' Mr. Axelrod said. ''The best we could do is call this and move on.''
By the day's end, Mr. McCain proclaimed that he did not want to dwell on the issue either, although he repeated his campaign's central charge that his probable opponent had injected race into their battle.
''He brought up the issue of race; I responded to it,'' Mr. McCain told reporters in Panama City, Fla. ''I don't want that issue to be part of this campaign. I'm ready to move on. And I think we should move on.''
For Mr. Obama, the risks of fighting back are that anything that calls attention to the racial dynamics of the contest would potentially polarize voters and stir unease about his candidacy, particularly among white voters in swing states. He is, after all, a candidate who has sought to transcend his own racial heritage in appealing to the broad electorate.
''Ideally, you want to punch back right to the solar plexus,'' said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist. ''But when race gets injected, given the 200-year history of this country, it is really fraught with peril.''
More broadly, the battles this week over Mr. Obama's comments and Mr. McCain's efforts to link Mr. Obama's celebrity to that of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears raised the question for some political types of both parties about whether Mr. Obama is aggressive enough to lunge for the Republican jugular.
Although his campaign has been known to fire volleys back at Mr. McCain, and Mr. Obama has often been critical of Mr. McCain's policies in his speeches, opportunities to draw blood have come and gone. And he finds challenges on many fronts these days, including at one of his rallies on Friday, where seven self-styled African revolutionaries began shouting and pointing at him, accusing him of undermining revolutionary struggle.
This was perhaps one of Mr. Obama's easier moments of the week, as the crowd was allied as one with him. He motioned the crowd to let the revolutionaries have their say, and then he responded.
''I may not have spoken out the way you want me to speak out,'' he said. ''But I am suggesting that I have spoken out, and spoken out forcefully.''
After two straight defeats in presidential elections, Democrats sometimes speak of hungering for a more aggressive standard-bearer to confront Republican attacks. Some wonder why, every time he speaks of the economy, Mr. Obama does not mention that Mr. McCain's chief economic adviser referred to a ''mental'' recession rather than a real one.
''I am somewhat mystified that he isn't attacking much harder on the policy front,'' said Ronald Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland. ''He needs to rev up his attacks, and his proposals.''
But this is to some extent Mr. Obama's sleight of hand. He relies heavily on surrogates, and tends to back into his attacks. So he cues up Mr. McCain as ''an honorable man'' and a ''war hero,'' before skewering him as lacking in ideas.
He has, too, a Teflon quality that reminds Democratic strategists of Ronald Reagan. He can get himself in trouble with words, he can flip-flop on a position or three, and little sticks.
''Obama and Reagan are quite similar in this regard,'' said Jim Jordan, a Democratic strategist who managed John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2004. ''They deflect humor with a quip.''
So Mr. Obama spoke to a crowd of supporters in Orlando, Fla., on Friday, and poked fun at Mr. McCain. ''We were expecting a more elevated debate,'' he said. ''They are running commercials about Hilton and Britney -- I mean, that's frivolous.''
Still, the candidate has the peculiar habit of rehearsing his faults for listeners, apparently in an effort to inoculate himself against attacks. And that could be how Mr. Obama got himself tangled up in race.
The candidate and Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, traveled this week around the Republican precincts of rural Missouri. Ms. McCaskill tried to set minds at ease by recalling an ''old Ozark habit'' of saying ''they say,'' as in, they say he's too young, they say he's not the right color.
So far, so politically artful; she never specified Republicans, much less Mr. McCain.
But when Mr. Obama traveled this rhetorical ground, he tripped. ''So nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me,'' Mr. Obama said. ''You know, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills.''
Even some Republicans are not convinced that Mr. Obama intended to accuse Mr. McCain of racism, as there's no percentage for him. Mr. McCain talks of himself as experienced but never, ever, old; Mr. Obama talks of change but charily of his status as a historic first.
''He's the candidate who happens to be African-American,'' Mr. Lehane said. ''He's much more effective when he can just throw McCain's words back at him.''
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Barack Obama addressed hecklers after he finished a speech in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Friday.(PHOTOGRAPH BY JAE C. HONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A customer picked out some peaches for Senator Barack Obama on Friday at the Parkesdale Farm Market in Plant City, Fla.(PHOTOGRAPH BY JAE C. HONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS)(pg. A12)
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The Washington Post
August 2, 2008 Saturday
Met 2 Edition
Jobless Rate Hits a High, Dims Hope For Recovery;
Four-Year Peak Signals Deeper Economic Woes
BYLINE: Neil Irwin and Alejandro Lazo; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 959 words
The fallout from the economic downturn spread into new corners of the job market in July, adding to the deep stresses facing American workers.
The unemployment rate jumped yet again as employers slashed jobs for the seventh consecutive month, the Labor Department said yesterday. And the job losses weren't just in the long-troubled construction and manufacturing sectors. Trucking companies, telecommunications firms and car dealers all eliminated thousands of jobs, too, as the troubles in the nation's economy showed new breadth that undermines any hopes of even a tentative recovery in the second half of the year.
The jobless rate rose to 5.7 percent in July, the highest in four years. It is up from 5.5 percent in June and 4.7 percent a year earlier. Employers cut their payrolls by 51,000 net jobs, bringing the total reduction in the nation's job count this year to 463,000. The ranks of the unemployed increased by 285,000 people in the month, continuing a steady deterioration in the job market that began at the end of last year.
"Businesses are looking for ways to cut costs at every turn," said Robert Dye, a senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group. "They're in no mood to hire, and I don't see that turning around anytime soon."
There have been fewer massive layoffs than in the last recession, in 2001. But companies are reducing hours (hours worked dropped 0.4 percent in July), eliminating temporary workers (employment services firms slashed 34,000 jobs in the month), and declining to hire students for summer shifts (the unemployment rate among teenagers was 20.3 percent, up from 15.3 percent in July 2007).
Workers without advanced skills have been hit the hardest. Among people without a high school diploma, the rate has increased to 8.5 percent, from 7.2 percent. The rate among those with a bachelor's degree or more education is 2.4 percent, up only slightly from 2.1 percent a year ago.
"Unfortunately it's the lower income households with the less advanced skills who are getting hit with a weak labor market at the same time they are hit with very high gasoline and food prices," Dye said. "It's a real squeeze."
At Adecco Group North America, a nationwide staffing firm, for example, there are thousands of unfilled positions for engineers and skilled health-care workers, said chief executive Tig Gilliam. On the other hand, in "manufacturing and construction jobs, almost no matter where you are, there's going to be weakness," Gilliam said.
The losses in those sectors are stark. Manufacturers cut 35,000 net jobs in July, and 383,000 in the last year, with some of the worst declines among makers of automobiles and automotive parts. The construction sector continued its steady bleed, losing another 22,000 positions, for a total of 457,000 in the past year.
Residential building has been in steep decline for 18 months, but now commercial construction -- office buildings, retail centers, and the like -- is cutting back, too. Nonresidential specialty trade contractors cut 10,800 jobs in July.
"There is less work, and there is more time between jobs," said Clayton Sinyai, executive director of the Residential Construction Workers Association in Alexandria.
Retailers cut back, too, responding to strapped American consumers, with the fine print showing how Americans' unwillingness or inability to buy large, expensive items is spreading through the economy. Auto dealers cut 8,400 jobs; building materials stores cut 5,500.
High fuel prices walloped trucking companies, leading employment in that sector down by 5,100, and information companies, including publishers and telecom firms, slashed 13,000 jobs. The decline in jobs with employment services was typical for a downturn, said people in that industry. "That's frequently where employers cut first," Gilliam said.
Finance, while not bleeding jobs, is no longer a source of strength. "The accounting and the finance areas, which for years have been really strong, is the area that has definitely been on the decline over the last 12 months," said Paul Villella, chief executive of HireStrategy, an employment services firm in Reston.
The bright spots were few. High oil prices drove new exploration for energy; oil and gas extraction businesses added 10,300 jobs. Government employment rose by 25,000 positions, though many analysts expect that number to come under stress in the months ahead as state and local governments grapple with weaker tax revenue and cut their budgets.
And health care, a stalwart of job creation, continued adding positions, reflecting perennial shortages of qualified labor. Today there are 1,400 job openings in Inova Health System, Northern Virginia's largest nonprofit hospital chain, said Daniel Nichols, the system's director of recruitment.
"While we do have plenty of nursing positions open -- and we're always looking for nurses -- it takes a lot to run a hospital, from mechanics to food service to health care IT," Nichols said.
On the campaign trail, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama responded to the gloomy economic news by calling for a fresh round of $1,000 rebate checks to be sent to taxpayers. The $65 billion cost would be covered through a tax on oil companies' windfall profits. Obama also proposed $50 billion in new federal spending.
GOP presidential candidate John McCain, meanwhile, renewed his call for a job-creation plan that includes cutting the corporate income tax.
The Washington area's job market has held up relatively well as the national picture has deteriorated. The region's unemployment rate was 3.9 percent in June, the lowest among large metropolitan areas, and the region added 25,300 jobs in the past year.
Staff writers Kendra Marr and Lori Montgomery contributed to this report.
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Race, Celebrity and the Presidential Campaign
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The Post asked some experts for their take on a turbulent week in politics. The conversation continues on washingtonpost.com.
ED ROGERS
Former deputy assistant to President Bush and chairman of the BGR Group
John McCain's celebrity ad was effective. It wasn't uncontroversial and it didn't please all the political scientists, but it sure got noticed, and it made Barack Obama overreact. Questions about Obama's desire for celebrity status will linger. He now has to be very careful about intersecting with Hollywood, pop culture and entertainment. Lee Atwater said the worst thing you can do in American politics is play to your negative stereotype. Well, Obama's negative stereotype now includes the idea that he may be a little too glitzy. (Speaking of negative stereotypes, when Obama was talking about the pictures of presidents on dollar bills, was he introducing the presumptuous notion that his face belongs on American currency? I wonder whom he thinks he should replace.)
There are signs that Obama is beginning to believe all the hype. So, thinking he would have media cooperation, he tried to preemptively accuse McCain of attacking him because of his race. He forced it, and it didn't work. Bottom line: If McCain had the celebrity ad to do over again, would he do it? Answer: Yes. If Obama had it to do over again, would he talk about race and presidents' pictures on the money in our wallets? Answer: No.
McCain broke through this week and helped himself.
CARTER ESKEW
Chief strategist for Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign
I once asked a famous commercial advertiser why he didn't attack his big rival, a competing laundry detergent -- say that it "ruins your washing machine!" or "causes hives!"
His answer: "Because I might gain temporary market advantage, but I'd devalue the whole category. Sooner or later, people would stop buying soap."
That may be the main difference between political and commercial marketing: The political marketer is all about temporary advantage -- the field of politics be damned.
We've seen that familiar dynamic this week in the presidential race. John McCain's team has decided, given the gale forces against his candidacy, that he must destroy his opponent. Nine out of 10 political strategists, when faced with his playing field, would probably take this route. Barack Obama is struggling with a more complex strategic question: How does he counter the mud and not tarnish his own brand? A casual attempt this week to flick McCain's charges off his shoulder dragged Obama into a silly and distracting discussion of race. The ghosts of losers past must haunt his team -- will Obama be Swift-boated if he doesn't strike back hard?
BENJAMIN GINSBERG
Partner at Patton Boggs and a veteran of three Republican presidential campaigns
Given the intensity of the subjects -- race, age, hubris and temperament -- this week has the potential to help define the campaign.
For the short term, the McCain campaign succeeded in changing the subject from Obama's triumphant overseas tour. But one good week does not mean victory. Over the next 12 weeks, the McCain campaign needs to reinforce its message, making certain that voters retain the image of Paris-Britney-Obama in one vacuous celebrity breath. They cannot let voters instead remember the Obama counterattack superimposing "old politics" on McCain's picture.
The injection of race into the campaign (whether by Obama's unforced error or by McCain's rapid opportunistic response) can be a game changer. The challenge for the McCain campaign (look what happened to Bill Clinton at the hands of the Obama campaign) is to make certain that this is understood as a smart and strategic inoculation, not a cranky response to an agenda that the McCain camp saw slipping out of control.
WILLIAM A. GALSTON
Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
The Obama campaign needs to think harder about how to respond. The remark about presidents' faces on our currency was a sloppy unforced error, as the campaign quickly recognized, but also symptomatic of a larger problem. On the one hand, Barack Obama cannot afford to let potentially damaging charges go unanswered, as Michael Dukakis did in 1988. On the other, if he gets sucked into the daily back-and-forth of negative campaigning, he will erode what has made him distinctive and attractive. Besides, he seems uncomfortable in that role. It's not an easy call, but on balance, he's probably better advised to stay on the high road while leaving it to surrogates and, if necessary, advertising to answer charges. Getting a vice presidential choice into the fray earlier rather than later would be useful.
But the overriding imperative is to drive home the message that put Ronald Reagan over the top: While I stand for dramatic change, I'm a safe choice for president. There's nothing Obama can do about his youth, his paucity of experience as conventionally defined, his newness on the national stage or the color of his skin. But he can help the people get more comfortable with him, in part by relentlessly talking about people's problems in terms they can understand and in settings that emphasize intimacy rather than distance. The message people hear must be, "John McCain thinks this election is about me; I think it's about you. And in all the respects that matter, I'm one of you." But that message will be credible only if Obama doesn't convey the impression, which he sometimes does, that he, too, thinks the election is about him.
EDWARD J. ROLLINS
Head of Ronald Reagan's 1984 reelection campaign and Mike Huckabee's campaign chairman this year
An ad man's dream.
In addition to Obama being compared to the "silly girls," you also heard he's going to raise your taxes and make us more dependent on foreign oil. That's the good news for those on the McCain team. The bad news is they may be diminishing their own great brand: "Straight Talker, John McCain!"
After being attacked in the primaries by Mitt Romney's relentless negative ads, John McCain refused to respond in kind. The Manchester Union Leader praised him and said McCain has "conviction" and that "Granite Staters want a candidate who will look them in the eye and tell them the truth."
I get disturbed when I hear McCain operatives say this campaign is all about Obama and that they have to define the Democrat as "not ready to lead." This race is also about John McCain. Is he ready to lead? Is he willing to have the courage to move the country in a new direction? The first test will be whether he has the courage to run an honest, "uplifting" campaign. Or will we be going to have more "negative tactics" from the Rove junior varsity.
We need to demand that each candidate look us in the eye and tell us how he gets us out of the mess we're in and the direction in which he will take the country. If they spend their TV millions doing that, the country will be well served. And, finally, the news media need to be covering the race, not rerunning political commercials.
TAD DEVINE
Principal consultant to Al Gore in 2000 and adviser to the John Kerry campaign in 2004
The celebrity ad and the other attacks are the harbingers of what will inevitably be an incredibly nasty campaign. Will they work? Perhaps. But I believe that Obama will prove to be a more elusive target than previous Democratic nominees, stretching back to George McGovern, who were subjected to the Republican attack machine.
That's because Obama's narrative is not one of an elitist, and his rise from a single-mother home almost to the summit of power is obviously the result of talent and hard work, not favoritism and privilege.
Obama's campaign still must find a way to talk about race -- the central fact of this election -- without appearing to be injecting it into the political dialogue. And the campaign needs to resist the suggestion that it should have opened up a horse-race lead in an election in which no one will soon move the 15 percent who are hanging out as soft or uncommitted.
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Race Proves to Be Unwelcome but Persistent Issue
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Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama tried yesterday to step back from a divisive debate over race, with each candidate denying that he was the first to inject the issue into the campaign.
Nonetheless, the candidates and campaigns battled throughout the day over the issue and over which side was engaged in "low road" politics, an indication that race is likely to remain a major point of contention in what is becoming an increasingly bitter contest.
For Obama, the argument was an unwelcome distraction that could complicate his efforts to win over voters who may be skeptical of a relative newcomer with an atypical background. It also pulled the focus away from his efforts to stress bread-and-butter economic issues. For McCain, any hint of racist tactics would hurt his efforts with the moderates and independents he needs to win in November.
Yesterday showed how hard it will be for both to avoid the issue now that it has burst into the public sphere. Obama was heckled in St. Petersburg by black nationalists who accused him of not doing enough for the African American community. In Florida's Panhandle, McCain faced a barrage of questions from reporters and asserted that he is not running a negative campaign "in the slightest," even as his aides launched their latest online attack ad mocking Obama as a candidate with a messiah complex.
"I don't think it's negative. I think we're drawing differences between us," McCain said, adding that Obama "brought up the issue of race," and, "I responded to it. Because I'm disappointed, and I don't want that issue to be part of this campaign."
In response to questions about his recent attacks against Obama, McCain said he has been waging "a very respectful campaign." McCain has compared Obama to celebrities such as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, said he is willing to lose a war to win a campaign, said he would rather play basketball than visit wounded troops, and, on Thursday, accused him of playing "the race card" and playing it "from the bottom of the deck."
McCain, who defended himself against tough policy questions from African Americans yesterday at the National Urban League's annual meeting in Orlando, suggested the media should "move on" from the issue of race because Obama had "retracted" his allegations that he and other Republicans were using his appearance to intimidate voters.
But while Obama has toned down some of the language that the McCain campaign criticized, he did not retract his allegations or back away from his contention that Republicans were trying to scare voters about him. Obama and his aides yesterday faulted McCain for not working hard enough to quash state Republican attacks based on race, saying the candidate was merely stating the obvious when he told Missouri voters Wednesday that some of his opponents were insinuating that he does not fit the mold of a traditional presidential candidate.
"I was in Union, Missouri, which is 98 percent white -- a rural, conservative [community], and what I said was what I think everybody knows, which is that I don't look like I came out of central casting when it comes to presidential candidates," Obama told the St. Petersburg Times. "I think that what people are really concerned about, what they're looking for, is fundamental change on the economy, things that are going to help their families live out the American dream. There was nobody there who thought at all that I was trying to inject race in this. What this has become, I think, is a typical pattern from the McCain campaign, whether it's Paris Hilton or Britney or this phony allegation that I wouldn't visit troops. They seem to be focused on a negative campaign; what I think our campaign wants to do is focus on the issues that matter to American families."
The Obama campaign could produce no evidence that McCain's campaign was responsible for any attack that directly cited his race or his name. Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), an Obama adviser, said the candidate probably regretted evoking McCain's name when he talked about Republican scare tactics.
But adviser Anita Dunn said Obama was more than justified in lodging accusations Wednesday that prompted McCain campaign manager Rick Davis to say Obama had "played the race card." The North Carolina Republican Party has already used inflammatory images of Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and the Tennessee Republican Party mocked Obama's middle name, Hussein. Although McCain decried those efforts, Dunn said it was hardly the full-throated, angry denunciation McCain has shown himself capable of, she said.
"The McCain campaign has clearly made the decision that there really is not a road too low for them to travel," she said.
Other Democrats complained in the spring that McCain's first general-election television commercial -- which ended with the line, "John McCain: The American president Americans have been waiting for" -- was an attempt to exploit doubts about a candidate with an African name.
"Race is a central fact in the campaign. I think it's inescapable," said Tad Devine, a strategist for Sen. John Kerry's campaign in 2004. "It's smart to push back and push back hard. He's got to make sure that people's antennae are up and that the McCain camp cannot be allowed to send messages to people who are receptive to those messages."
For their part, Republicans said the back-and-forth had laid bare an effort by Obama to inoculate himself from the scrutiny any candidate should expect. Obama's stature as the presumptive first black nominee of a major party has made McCain and his campaign "rightfully overly sensitive," said House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (Fla.), in whose district Obama campaigned yesterday.
"Obama has been playing both sides of the race card long before he was the nominee," Putnam said. "He played it in the primary. He uses the historic nature of his candidacy to his advantage, which he should, but he also works the refs by accusing his opponents of using the race card, which makes them second-guess common campaign themes."
McCain emphasized his commitment to helping African Americans in yesterday's speech before the Urban League. The Arizonan spoke at length about his support for education, lower taxes and oil drilling -- all of which he said would aid the black community -- before taking more than a dozen questions from the crowd.
Although the group's president, Marc Morial, praised McCain for taking questions, the session was awkward at times, especially when the senator defended his opposition to affirmative action.
Obama wrestled with the issue of racial equality yesterday when hecklers confronted him at a town hall meeting in St. Petersburg.
"Why is it that that you have not spoken to the issues or spoken on behalf of the African community?" demanded Diop Olugbala, 31, citing the plight of poor blacks targeted by predatory lenders, police brutality and racist attacks.
Obama defended his record, saying he had spoken out on every issue the hecklers raised, from the shooting of Sean Bell in New York to the prosecution of the "Jena Six" in Louisiana to predatory lending targeted at blacks and Hispanics.
"That doesn't mean I'm always going to satisfy the way you guys want me to talk, which gives you the option of voting for someone else, which gives you the option of running for office yourself," Obama replied, amid deafening cheers.
As the candidates campaigned, their staffs sparred via e-mail and on the Internet. McCain's campaign issued a Web ad called "The One" that insinuated Obama views himself as akin to Jesus and Moses and includes a clip of actor Charlton Heston, as Moses, parting the Red Sea.
Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan said the ad was one of McCain's "juvenile antics."
McCain told reporters the attack was made in jest. "We were having some fun with our supporters that we sent it out to," he said.
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Sizing Up McCain's Claims
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We are not getting much straight talk from John McCain these days, but we expect more from The Post. The July 30 front-page headline "McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence" was so understated that it may actually feed the distortions.
When McCain carefully add the words "according to reports" to charges that Barack Obama canceled a trip to see injured solders because he could not bring along the media, it suggests that the charges have not been substantiated. When McCain staffers cannot produce the reports, it suggests that they are telling lies.
A more accurate headline would have been "McCain Uses Troops in Fabrications About Obama."
-- Doug Reeves
Alexandria
·
When I read Michael D. Shear and Dan Balz's front-page article about the John McCain campaign ad, it occurred to me that The Post could recoup some of its plummeting ad revenue by laying off the reporters and simply printing Barack Obama campaign press releases. They would be cheaper, better written and less biased.
-- Michael Fransella
Arlington
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Brangelina's $14 Million Babies
People magazine has won the bidding for the North American rights to publish exclusive photos of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's newborn twins, Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon. And the price is astronomical, even if it's going to charity.
People, along with Hello! magazine, which beat out OK! magazine for British rights, combined to pay $14 million for use of the images, the Associated Press reported yesterday. People paid a measly $6 million to feature Jennifer Lopez's twins on its March cover, according to Forbes.
The photos are scheduled to appear in Monday's new issue of People and will debut on People.com tomorrow evening. Getty Images conducted the exclusive photo shoot with Knox, Vivienne, Jolie, Pitt and the couple's other four children, Maddox, Zahara, Pax and Shiloh.
Jolie and Pitt sold the rights to photos of their first-born daughter, Shiloh, born in 2006, to Getty Images in exchange for a donation to charity. People paid $4 million for the U.S. rights at the time, and Hello! obtained British rights. Last year, Jolie and Pitt sold images of 3-year-old son Pax to the same magazines, with each contributing a share of the price.
A New McCain Refrain
Country music's latest contribution to the 2008 presidential campaign soundtrack? "Raising McCain" by John McCain supporter John Rich, one half of the Nashville duo Big and Rich. The refrain: "We're all just raising McCain." (Who would have guessed?)
Rich, who supported fellow Tennessean Fred Thompson in the Republican primaries this year, planned to debut the song yesterday at the Country First concert in Panama City, Fla., with McCain in attendance. The singer-songwriter finished the tune about a month ago and sent it to the candidate's daughter, Meghan McCain, who passed it to campaign officials. The anthem focuses on the 5 1/2 years McCain spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
"The entire world is looking for a way to sucker-punch us," Rich said. "National security is absolutely at the top of the list of issues. That's why I think John McCain is the guy to keep us safe."
Not so fast, though. Rich's partner in song, Kenny "Big Kenny" Alphin, contributed $2,300 to Barack Obama's campaign last year.
Meanwhile, Meghan McCain was spotted recently with Heidi Montag of "The Hills" -- a celebrity! -- at a trendy Santa Monica eatery, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Noted
· Elizabeth Taylor has been hospitalized in Los Angeles but is expected to return home, reps for the 76-year-old Oscar-winning actress told the Associated Press on Thursday. "Ms. Taylor is fine," read a statement released by her publicist, Dick Guttman. "Her hospital visit was precautionary."
· Actor Charles Durning received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame -- the 2,336th star -- next to James Cagney's on Thursday. The 85-year-old took part in World War II's D-Day invasion and earned two Oscar nominations -- for 1982's "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" and 1983's "To Be or Not to Be."
· A lawyer for two men arrested on marijuana-possession charges on Snoop Dogg's tour bus said yesterday that the bus did not have expired tags. The Texas troopers who pulled the bus over examined it for an expired registration sticker. Ethan Calhoun, 27, and Kevin Barkey, 26, were arrested and later freed on $1,500 bond each. Snoop (real name: Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr.) was not arrested.
-- Christian Hettinger, from wire and Web reports
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August 1, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
Can This Planet Be Saved?
BYLINE: By PAUL KRUGMAN
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Recently the Web site The Politico asked Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, why she was blocking attempts to tack offshore drilling amendments onto appropriations bills. ''I'm trying to save the planet; I'm trying to save the planet,'' she replied.
I'm glad to hear it. But I'm still worried about the planet's prospects.
True, Ms. Pelosi's remark was a happy reminder that environmental policy is no longer in the hands of crazy people. Remember, less than two years ago Senator James Inhofe -- a conspiracy theorist who insists that global warming is a ''gigantic hoax'' perpetrated by the scientific community -- was the chairman of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee.
Beyond that, Ms. Pelosi's response shows that she understands the deeper issues behind the current energy debate.
Most criticism of John McCain's decision to follow the Bush administration's lead and embrace offshore drilling as the answer to high gas prices has focused on the accusation that it's junk economics -- which it is.
A McCain campaign ad says that gas prices are high right now because ''some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America.'' That's just plain dishonest: the U.S. government's own Energy Information Administration says that removing restrictions on offshore drilling wouldn't lead to any additional domestic oil production until 2017, and that even at its peak the extra production would have an ''insignificant'' impact on oil prices.
What's even more important than Mr. McCain's bad economics, however, is what his reversal on this issue -- he was against offshore drilling before he was for it -- says about his priorities.
Back when he was cultivating a maverick image, Mr. McCain portrayed himself as more environmentally aware than the rest of his party. He even co-sponsored a bill calling for a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gas emissions (although his remarks on several recent occasions suggest that he doesn't understand his own proposal). But the lure of a bit of political gain, it turns out, was all it took to transform him back into a standard drill-and-burn Republican.
And the planet can't afford that kind of cynicism.
In themselves, limits on offshore drilling are only a modest-sized issue. But the skirmish over drilling is the opening stage of a much bigger fight over environmental policy. What's at stake in that fight, above all, is the question of whether we'll take action against climate change before it's utterly too late.
It's true that scientists don't know exactly how much world temperatures will rise if we persist with business as usual. But that uncertainty is actually what makes action so urgent. While there's a chance that we'll act against global warming only to find that the danger was overstated, there's also a chance that we'll fail to act only to find that the results of inaction were catastrophic. Which risk would you rather run?
Martin Weitzman, a Harvard economist who has been driving much of the recent high-level debate, offers some sobering numbers. Surveying a wide range of climate models, he argues that, over all, they suggest about a 5 percent chance that world temperatures will eventually rise by more than 10 degrees Celsius (that is, world temperatures will rise by 18 degrees Fahrenheit). As Mr. Weitzman points out, that's enough to ''effectively destroy planet Earth as we know it.'' It's sheer irresponsibility not to do whatever we can to eliminate that threat.
Now for the bad news: sheer irresponsibility may be a winning political strategy.
Mr. McCain's claim that opponents of offshore drilling are responsible for high gas prices is ridiculous -- and to their credit, major news organizations have pointed this out. Yet Mr. McCain's gambit seems nonetheless to be working: public support for ending restrictions on drilling has risen sharply, with roughly half of voters saying that increased offshore drilling would reduce gas prices within a year.
Hence my concern: if a completely bogus claim that environmental protection is raising energy prices can get this much political traction, what are the chances of getting serious action against global warming? After all, a cap-and-trade system would in effect be a tax on carbon (though Mr. McCain apparently doesn't know that), and really would raise energy prices.
The only way we're going to get action, I'd suggest, is if those who stand in the way of action come to be perceived as not just wrong but immoral. Incidentally, that's why I was disappointed with Barack Obama's response to Mr. McCain's energy posturing -- that it was ''the same old politics.'' Mr. Obama was dismissive when he should have been outraged.
So as I said, I'm very glad to know that Nancy Pelosi is trying to save the planet. I just wish I had more confidence that she's going to succeed.
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McCain Camp Says Obama Plays 'Race Card'
BYLINE: By MICHAEL COOPER and MICHAEL POWELL; Michael Cooper reported from Orlando, Fla., and Michael Powell from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Adam Nagourney and Michael Falcone contributed reporting from Washington.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
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DATELINE: ORLANDO, Fla.
Senator John McCain's campaign accused Senator Barack Obama on Thursday of playing ''the race card,'' citing his remarks that Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing out that he ''doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.''
The exchange injected racial politics front and center into the general election campaign for the first time, after it became a subtext in the primary between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
It came as the McCain campaign was intensifying its attacks, trying to throw its Democratic opponent off course before the conventions.
''Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck,'' Mr. McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, charged in a statement with which Mr. McCain later said he agreed. ''It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.''
In leveling the charge, Mr. Davis was referring to comments that Mr. Obama made Wednesday in Missouri when he reacted to the increasingly negative tone and negative advertisements from the McCain campaign, including one that likens Mr. Obama's celebrity status to that of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.
''So nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me,'' Mr. Obama said in Springfield, Mo., echoing earlier remarks. ''You know, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He's risky. That's essentially the argument they're making.''
With his rejoinder about playing ''the race card,'' Mr. Davis effectively assured that race would once again become an unavoidable issue as voters face an election in which, for the first time, one of the major parties' nominees is African-American.
And with its criticism, the McCain campaign was ensuring that Mr. Obama's race -- he is the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas -- would again be a factor in coverage of the presidential race. On Thursday, it took the spotlight from Mr. Obama when he had sought to attack Mr. McCain on energy issues.
The tactic could cut both ways: it might tap into the qualms some white, working-class voters in crucial swing states may have about a black candidate, or it could ricochet back against the McCain campaign, which has been accused even by some fellow Republicans of engaging in overly negative campaigning in recent days.
The remarks put Mr. Obama's campaign, which has tried to keep him from being pigeonholed or defined by race, in a delicate position. He did not address the matter himself on Thursday, and his campaign gingerly tried to tamp down the issue, saying he did not believe that Mr. McCain had tried to use race as an issue.
''This is a race about big challenges -- a slumping economy, a broken foreign policy and an energy crisis for everyone but the oil companies,'' said Robert Gibbs, a campaign spokesman. ''Barack Obama in no way believes that the McCain campaign is using race as an issue, but he does believe they're using the same old low-road politics to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign. And those are the issues he'll continue to talk about.''
The sparring over race thrust an unpredictable element into the campaign. Contests have often been influenced by racial imagery, whether stark, like the Willie Horton advertisements run against Michael S. Dukakis in the 1988 presidential race, or subtle.
In the 2006 Senate race in Tennessee, Republicans ran an advertisement against a black candidate, the Democrat Harold E. Ford Jr., that featured a white woman saying, with a wink, ''Harold, call me.'' Some have drawn parallels between that commercial and the McCain campaign's advertisement juxtaposing Ms. Spears and Ms. Hilton with Mr. Obama.
Mr. McCain addressed Mr. Davis's ''race card'' comments later Thursday. ''I agree with it, and I'm disappointed that Senator Obama would say the things he's saying,'' Mr. McCain said aboard his campaign bus in Racine, Wis., according to The Associated Press.
Mr. Davis's comments came as the McCain campaign has adopted a far more aggressive, negative posture toward Mr. Obama in recent days, trying to define him as arrogant, out of touch and unprepared for the presidency. But until this week, the McCain campaign had not invoked race.
Mr. Obama has been the victim of some racist and racially tinged attacks this year, particularly during the primaries.
Underground e-mail campaigns have spread the false rumor that he is Muslim and questioned his patriotism by falsely charging that he does not put his hand over his heart when the Pledge of Allegiance is recited. A button spotted outside the Texas Republican convention asked, ''If Obama Is President ... Will We Still Call It the White House?''
But Mr. McCain has condemned racist campaigning and has denounced Republican groups that tried to make an issue of inflammatory statements made by Mr. Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and one of his own supporters who referred to Mr. Obama as ''Barack Hussein Obama'' at a McCain rally.
Mr. Obama has been more explicit about the role of race in attacks against him in the past, but he is rarely specific about who is behind them. ''We know what kind of campaign they're going to run,'' he said in June. ''They're going to try to make you afraid of me. 'He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?' ''
Steve Schmidt, who runs the day-to-day operations of the McCain campaign, said the campaign had been moved to issue the statement in part because it saw the damage done during the Democratic primary when Obama supporters made accusations that former President Bill Clinton had been racially insensitive, or worse.
''The McCain campaign was compelled to respond to this outrageous attack because we will not allow John McCain to be smeared by Senator Obama as a racist for offering legitimate criticism,'' he said. ''We have waited for months with a sick feeling knowing this moment would come because we watched it incur with President Clinton. Say whatever you want about President Clinton, his record on this issue is above reproach.''
In the Democratic primary campaign, Mr. Obama's supporters at several occasions accused the Clinton campaign of using racially charged tactics, particularly after Mr. Clinton equated Mr. Obama's victory in the South Carolina primary with the Rev. Jesse Jackson's victory in the nominating contest there in 1988. Mr. Clinton himself then complained in a radio interview in April that the Obama campaign had ''played the race card on me.''
Howard Wolfson, who was the communications director of the Clinton campaign, said, ''The McCain campaign has obviously been watching our primary very closely and recognized how damaging it had been to be tagged with the charge of race baiting.''
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Senator Barack Obama autographing items on Thursday after speaking in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.(PHOTOGRAPH BY JAE C. HONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS)(pg. A14)
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USA TODAY
August 1, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
Aligned on pushing alternative power;
Issues 2008: Where the Candidates Stand; Energy policy
BYLINE: Jill Lawrence and David Jackson
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 449 words
Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain each have plans to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, ease the energy crunch and develop new and cleaner energy technologies. USA TODAY's Jill Lawrence and David Jackson compare the candidates' proposals.
Issue
Obama position
McCain position
---
Drilling for oil
Would require oil companies to use 68million acres of stockpiled leases with potential to produce an additional 4.8million barrels of oil per day.
Wants to lift bans on offshore drilling. Says increased domestic production should be part of any energy legislation package.
Nuclear power
Says nuclear power has to be part of the U.S. energy mix. Would step up federal research into waste disposal so nuclear power can be "clean and safe."
Would bring 45 new nuclear plants online by 2030 with goal of 100 new plants. Cites Europe's success with nuclear power.
Fuel economy
Would double standards within 18 years and offer tax credits and loan guarantees to help auto companies make the transition.
Would enforce current standards for cars (27.5 miles per gallon) and light trucks (22.2 mpg) as a way to reduce energy consumption.
Windfall profits tax
Would impose such a tax on oil selling at more than $80 per barrel and use money to reduce burden of rising prices on consumers.
Opposes such a tax on oil companies, saying it would hurt domestic exploration and help maintain dependence on foreign oil.
Conservation incentives
Proposes expanded grants and tax incentives to encourage home weatherization, public-transit use and energy-efficient state and local buildings. Would help utilities make more money when customers use less energy.
Proposes $5,000 tax credit to people who buy zero-emission cars and graduated tax credits for other cars (the lower the emissions, the higher the credit). Would upgrade national electricity grid to promote efficiency.
Research and development
Would provide $150 billion over 10 years to accelerate research, development and commercial transition to biofuels, plug-in hybrids, renewables, low-emissions coal plants. Includes doubling science and research funding for clean-energy projects. Would require 25% renewable electricity by 2025.
Would provide $300 million prize for electric-car battery design and set aside $2 billion annually to advance clean coal technologies. Proposes a permanent tax credit equal to 10% of wages spent on research and development. Would also offer tax credits for wind, hydro and solar power development.
Oil futures and speculators
Would strengthen federal oversight of oil markets and prevent crude-oil transactions through offshore markets.
Would clarify and improve laws and regulations governing the oil futures market.
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USA TODAY
August 1, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
Voters want candidate with energy answers;
Poll finds support for new habits, new sources
BYLINE: Jill Lawrence
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 683 words
WASHINGTON -- Americans want their next president to invest in new energy sources and won't penalize a candidate who says they need to change their habits to conserve, according to the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll.
The poll, taken last Friday through Sunday, found wide support for many proposals advanced by Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, their parties' presumptive nominees. Obama's ideas had broader support, and he was viewed as better able to handle energy issues, but 21% said neither candidate would do a good job.
Energy and gasoline prices top the list this year when voters are asked what's extremely important to them in choosing a candidate.
The most popular idea in the poll was tax incentives for conservation. Nearly seven in 10 people said they'd be more likely to vote for a candidate who supported that. Both McCain and Obama would offer incentives.
Two Obama ideas showed nearly the same level of appeal: raising fuel-mileage standards on cars and investing $150 billion in clean energy and biofuels.
McCain has a potential winner in his plan to lift restrictions on offshore drilling: 57% in the poll said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate with that position. Also popular: a windfall profits tax to reduce oil companies' profits from soaring oil prices, backed by Obama. The issue got even more visibility Thursday when ExxonMobil announced the highest-ever quarterly profits for a U.S. corporation.
Fewer than half in the poll said they'd be more likely to back a candidate who wants to build more nuclear plants (47%) or temporarily suspend the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax (46%). Both are McCain ideas.
The poll suggests Americans may be receptive to being told they need to conserve energy. About three in 10 said they'd be more likely to vote for a candidate who said they'd have to change their habits, 17% said less likely, and 54% said no difference.
Mark Bernstein, a political scientist and director of the Energy Institute at the University of Southern California, says the responses suggest the next president will have an opening to call for a bit of sacrifice. "No president has really asked the public to spend more or give up something" since Jimmy Carter's failed effort in the 1970s, he says.
Energy has dominated the political agenda for weeks.
McCain has run a TV ad blaming Obama for high gas prices and calls Obama "Dr. No" for opposing offshore drilling and other steps. Republicans from McCain on down are ridiculing Obama for advising Missourians to properly inflate their tires to get better gas mileage.
Obama, who has his own TV ad on energy, held a town-hall-style meeting Thursday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to promote an energy plan he first presented in October. Also Thursday, the Sierra Club and MoveOn.org released TV ads criticizing McCain's stands on energy issues.
Dean Spiliotes, an independent political analyst and author of a book on political economics, calls the drilling issue tricky for Obama and a "bright spot" for McCain. "People are so frustrated, they're at least willing to contemplate the idea," he says.
Spiliotes says Obama and the Democrats may be able to "tap into populist anger" over oil-company profits, but "the argument can't just be about big multibillion-dollar plans over the next 30 to 50 years. It's got to be about things they can do now that will bring the price down."
McCain says he offers the right mix: a gas-tax holiday, more domestic drilling and more nuclear plants as the nation moves to alternative fuels. Obama says it will be years before new oil wells or nuclear plants come on line. He proposes tax rebates for short-term help and a long-term alternative energy plan he says will create 5 million jobs.
Nearly seven in 10 in the poll said there are steps a president can take to reduce gas prices in the short term. Bernstein says only consumers can make a real difference. "The reason we've seen prices soften in the last couple of weeks is that demand is down," he says. "It shows you what can happen if people actually do something themselves."
Contributing: David Jackson
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USA TODAY
August 1, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
Attacks, counterattacks are order of day;
Candidates trade hostile charges increasingly
BYLINE: David Jackson and Kathy Kiely
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 576 words
WASHINGTON -- So much for "a civil, substantive debate."
That's what Barack Obama was predicting when John McCain called on June 4 to congratulate the Democrat on wrapping up his party's nomination. The two presidential contenders even talked about holding joint town-hall-style meetings.
Instead, McCain and his campaign on Thursday charged Obama with playing the race card. They have also suggested that Obama would rather lose a war than an election, is personally responsible for the rise in gasoline prices and is a celebrity on the order of tabloid divas Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.
Obama, the first African American nominated for president by a major party, has focused his attacks on McCain's ideas, frequently comparing his opponent to President Bush and his "failed policies." Accusing McCain of engaging in "gutter distractions," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe unveiled a website Thursday to counter "smears" from McCain's campaign.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, an expert in political rhetoric with the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, says both candidates are guilty of unsubstantiated charges. She said Obama went "low-key but lethal" Wednesday when he said McCain and Republicans were fear-mongering.
"What they're going to try to do is make you scared of me," Obama told a Missouri audience. "You know, he's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name, you know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills."
McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said Thursday that Obama was playing the race card "from the bottom of the deck," and McCain said he agreed. "There's no place in this campaign for that," McCain told CNN.
Plouffe charged that it is McCain who is using "old, low-road politics" to distract voters. Obama also sent out a fundraising appeal to counter McCain's "expensive, negative campaign."
Jamieson said Davis had a point when he accused Obama of playing the race card. Obama's comment about not looking like other presidents "essentially forecasts that the McCain campaign is going to make his race an issue," she said. "Where's the evidence for it?"
She said, however, that McCain's contention last week that Obama "would rather lose a war in order to win a campaign" is an "illegitimate" attack.
McCain told a Wisconsin audience Thursday that he is "proud of the campaign we have run" and noted that he is pointing out the "stark differences" between himself and Obama.
At this point in the campaign, McCain has been more aggressive and has launched three consecutive ads attacking Obama. In one, an announcer intones, "Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?" And a crowd chants, "Obama! Obama!" Another says Obama "made time to go to the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops" during his recent trip to Germany. Obama said he canceled a planned visit to a military hospital after Pentagon officials suggested it would be viewed as a political stop. The third ad mocks Obama's celebrity and asks, "Is he ready to lead?"
Mark Corallo, a GOP consultant who backs McCain, said the former Vietnam prisoner of war should talk more about himself. "Right now, what we're getting out of Sen. McCain is a lot of attacks on Sen. Obama," Corallo said. Other Republicans endorsed McCain's approach. Scott Reed, campaign manager for 1996 nominee Bob Dole, said McCain's team recognizes the election has become a "referendum" on Obama. "They need to define him quickly."
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USA TODAY
August 1, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
McCain switches sides for the better
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 11A
LENGTH: 656 words
Barack Obama said he was disappointed with John McCain's change of heart on affirmative action, but I find it encouraging ("McCain sides with ban on affirmative action," News, Monday).
McCain said he backs a proposed referendum in Arizona to ban affirmative action. Why is Obama disappointed that McCain has decided finally to back the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause, which guarantees everyone equal protection of the laws? Is it because Obama supports preferential treatment for some at the expense of others?
Martin Luther King Jr., in his 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail," wrote: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." That's good advice.
I'm satisfied that McCain has realized the danger and injustice in favoring or discriminating against a person based on race or gender. Obama would benefit from learning that lesson as well.
Michael A. Bertolone
Rochester, N.Y.
Fans turn out for Obama
USA TODAY reader Rick Henry seems to think that because Barack Obama had a large audience on his European tour, he is qualified to be a world leader ("Who's whining now," Letters, Monday).
If having throngs of followers is a qualification for public office, England should have elected Princess Diana to be prime minister. No one commanded an audience better than she. While I adored her and believe the world suffered a great loss with her death, I don't believe she was qualified for elected office.
As for Obama's speech in Germany, it was like all his others, with nothing but platitudes, slogans and applause lines. It was all style, no substance.
Republicans nominated an empty suit in 2000, and the Democrats are doing the same in 2008.
David Ennocenti
Rochester, N.Y.
Attack ads disappoint
USA TODAY's editorial "McCain attack ad cheapens campaign. More to come?" makes an important point: "Blaming Obama for energy crisis is just silly." For some time now, McCain's ads about Obama have appeared childish (Our view, Campaign fairness debate, Tuesday).
McCain said something recently that I think explains his behavior. He said Obama "would rather lose a war than lose a campaign." Nothing in Obama's behavior justifies such a comment.
McCain apparently will do anything to win an election. I hope that when they vote, Americans take into account the lack of character McCain is showing.
James Kimberly
Lincoln, Neb.
How to talk about race?
In reading DeWayne Wickham's column on Barack Obama's sojourn to Europe, it struck me how difficult it must be to be Obama ("Obama among black trailblazers overseas," The Forum, Tuesday).
Wickham prickles at Obama's failure to mention the feats of black Americans like Wickham's father who served in segregated units during World War II and then broke racial barriers.
What a tightrope Obama must maneuver. If he talks too much about race, whites might bristle at the thought of a black president. If he doesn't mention it enough, some blacks might fear he's turned his back on them.
I suggest voters take a deep breath and examine the candidate on his policies, forthrightness and hopes for America. Let's not get caught up in suffocating racial analysis.
Greg Gibson
Overland, Mo.
Jab at Clinton supporters
In the Forum piece "Presidential sidekick," Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was mentioned as a choice for Barack Obama's vice president. Then followed this offensive statement: "But picking a woman would be toxic to spurned Hillary [Clinton] fans," (Tuesday).
No one would suggest that if John McCain does not pick ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as his vice president that he shouldn't pick another man for the position.
Clinton and her supporters should be proud.
She made history as the first former first lady elected to public office. She also was the first woman to be a serious candidate for president.
To suggest that Clinton's supporters are so petulant that they would resent another woman being tapped for the No. 2 spot should offend everyone.
Lenny Krosinsky
Albuquerque
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USA TODAY
August 1, 2008 Friday
FIRST EDITION
Attacks are order of the day;
Candidates trade hostile charges increasingly
BYLINE: David Jackson and Kathy Kiely
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 569 words
WASHINGTON -- So much for "a civil, substantive debate."
That's what Barack Obama was predicting when John McCain called on June 4 to congratulate the Democrat on wrapping up his party's nomination. The two presidential contenders even talked about holding joint town-hall-style meetings.
Instead, McCain and his campaign on Thursday charged Obama with playing the race card. They have also suggested that Obama would rather lose a war than an election, is personally responsible for the rise in gas prices, and is a celebrity on the order of tabloid divas Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.
Obama, the first African American nominated for president by a major party, has focused his attacks on McCain's ideas, frequently comparing his opponent to President Bush and his "failed policies." Accusing McCain of engaging in "gutter distractions," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe unveiled a website Thursday to counter "smears" from McCain's campaign.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, an expert in political rhetoric with the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, says both candidates are guilty of unsubstantiated charges. She said Obama went "low key but lethal" Wednesday when he said McCain and Republicans were fear-mongering.
"What they're going to try to do is make you scared of me," Obama told a Missouri audience. "You know, he's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name, you know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills."
McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said Thursday that Obama was playing the race card "from the bottom of the deck," and McCain said he agreed. "There's no place in this campaign for that," McCain told CNN.
Plouffe charged that it is McCain who is using "old, low-road politics" to distract voters. Obama also sent out a fundraising appeal to counter McCain's "expensive, negative campaign."
Jamieson said Davis had a point when he accused Obama of playing the race card. Obama's comment about not looking like other presidents "essentially forecasts that the McCain campaign is going to make his race an issue," she said. "Where's the evidence for it?"
She said, however, that McCain's contention last week that Obama "would rather lose a war in order to win a campaign" is an "illegitimate" attack.
McCain told a Wisconsin audience Thursday that he is "proud of the campaign we have run" and noted that he is pointing out the "stark differences" between himself and Obama.
At this point in the campaign, McCain has been more aggressive and has launched three consecutive ads attacking Obama.
In one, an announcer intones: "Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump? Obama! Obama!" Another says Obama "made time to go to the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops" during his recent trip to Germany. Obama said he canceled a planned visit to a military hospital after Pentagon officials suggested it would be viewed as a political stop. The third ad mocks Obama's celebrity and asks, "Is he ready to lead?"
Mark Corallo, a GOP consultant who backs McCain, said the former Vietnam POW should talk more about himself. "Right now, what we're getting out of Sen. McCain is a lot of attacks on Sen. Obama," Corallo said. Other Republicans endorsed McCain's approach. Scott Reed, campaign manager for 1996 nominee Bob Dole, said McCain's team recognizes the election has become a "referendum" on Obama. "They need to define him quickly."
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The Washington Post
August 1, 2008 Friday
Regional Edition
Bret Baier, Sharing His Pride and Joy
BYLINE: Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C03
LENGTH: 735 words
The day his son was born -- June 29, 2007 --was one of the happiest of Bret Baier's life. One day later, the Fox News White House correspondent discovered that the baby had five life-threatening congenital heart defects. His father-in-law turned to him and said, "You've found your cause."
Paul Francis Baier is now a bouncing 13-mouth-old with a mighty grateful family: Children's National Medical Center announced yesterday that Baier, his wife, Amy, and in-laws Paul and Barbara Hills have donated $1 million to the hospital. "It's our family's gift," Baier told us. "We're fortunate to be in the position to give back to a place that has done so much for us."
In his short life, Paul Baier has had two open-heart surgeries and two angioplasties. The first eight-hour operation, when he was just 12 days old, was performed by world-renowned pediatric cardiologist Richard Jonas, who called it one of the most complicated of his career.
The Baiers spent more than two months at the center, which persuaded them to make children's heart research and technology the focus of their philanthropy. "One out of 100 kids has some kind of heart defect," said Baier. Part of the $1 million donation goes to establish a high-tech media room that will allow doctors to consult from all over the world; the balance will support Jonas's research on preventing brain damage during surgery.
The baby is now a toddler: walking, running, dunking the roll of toilet paper in the bowl and throwing it at the wall. "He is awesome," said his dad. "He is all boy. He gets into everything. . . . We are incredibly grateful."
UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM
News and notes on the path to the 2008 nominations:
· If you're going to make fun of a vapid famous-for-being-famous heiress, it's always a good idea to check the donor roster first. The Hilton family looks pretty devoted to John McCain, whose new "Celeb" ad kinda picks on sweet young Paris while mocking Barack Obama, reports our colleague Garance Franke-Ruta. Parents Rick and Kathy Hilton have maxed out with $4,600 in individual contributions to McCain, and granddad William Barron Hilton has given him $2,300 -- plus $35,000 or so to the National Republican Senatorial Committee since 2006. Way to lose your Hilton Honors status!
THE SOURCE QUOTE
"If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody anymore, thank God; and, evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don't seem to have much of an issue."
-- Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton explaining why he opposes new legislation to penalize celebrity photographers. Bratton interrupted his morning workout and jumped into a live interview on L.A.'s KNBC-TV yesterday to "set the record straight": The paparazzo frenzy, he said, was primarily caused by recovering bad girls Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lohan and is under control.
LOVE, ETC.
· Playing hardball: Alex Rodriguez, who said yesterday that his alleged "extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct" were "immaterial and impertinent" to a divorce settlement. In court documents, the New York Yankee responded to wife Cynthia's divorce petition by admitting that their marriage was "irretrievably broken" but that she was entitled only to the amount set in their 2002 prenup, plus child support for their two kids. No extra $$$$ for his late-night chats with . . . say, Madonna.
· Number One: OK! magazine ranks D.C. tops in "Best 10 States to Nab a Single Guy." Confused about our lack of actual statehood, the celebrity tab also asserts that "cultured men abound" in our fair metropolis. Maryland came in seventh; Virginia is apparently not for single lovers and was shut out.
THIS JUST IN . . .
· Luke Russert has a new gig: at-large correspondent for NBC, the network announced yesterday. The 22-year-old son of the late Tim Russert won kudos for his poise and eloquence at his dad's funeral in June; he'll cover youth issues at the GOP and Dem national conventions and the general election for NBC's "Nightly News," "Today" and MSNBC. The Boston College grad currently co-hosts a sports show on XM satellite radio with James Carville.
NOTE TO OUR READERS
The Reliable Source -- pale, exhausted and so-not-ready -- is off for two weeks of sunny beaches, fruity drinks and trashy novels. We'll return Aug. 19; meanwhile, send your tips and sightings to reliablesource@washpost.com
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The Washington Post
August 1, 2008 Friday
Suburban Edition
Race Moves to Center Stage;
McCain Campaign Accuses Obama of Exploiting the Issue
BYLINE: Jonathan Weisman and Juliet Eilperin; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 1122 words
DATELINE: CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, July 31
Sen. John McCain's campaign accused Sen. Barack Obama of playing the "race card" on Thursday, a day after the Democrat said his opponent and other Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing to Obama's "funny name" and the fact that "he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills."
The charge was the first time the campaigns had directly confronted the subject of race. Although both sides have sought to avoid raising the thorny issue, the back-and-forth showed that it was perhaps inevitable the topic would emerge in a campaign in which an African American is headed for a major-party nomination for the first time.
The exchange was reminiscent of several flare-ups over race during the Democratic primaries, when the Obama campaign complained about comments made by Bill Clinton in support of the candidacy of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. The former president responded by accusing the Obama campaign of "feeding" the news media to keep the issue of race alive. Obama also tackled the issue in a major speech in Philadelphia to quell controversy over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., his former pastor, who accused the U.S. government of conspiring against African Americans.
The McCain campaign's charge comes in a week in which it has launched a series of increasingly harsh attacks against Obama, accusing the Democrat of turning his back on wounded troops and being an arrogant, out-of-touch celebrity who does not appreciate the problems of average Americans.
McCain aides said they were driven to raise the race issue after three Obama appearances Wednesday in Missouri. In them, the Democrat took on McCain's recent aggressiveness and alluded to remarks about his name and looks that McCain campaign officials said have never been uttered.
"Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said in a statement. "It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong."
Obama began his day Wednesday in Springfield, Mo., charging: "Nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He's risky."
In Rolla and then in Union, Obama issued similar lines. "They're going to try to say, 'Well, you know, he's got a funny name, and he doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five-dollar bills,' and they're going to send out nasty e-mails," he told an audience in Union.
E-mails making false charges against Obama have circulated for months, but there is no evidence that McCain's campaign has been behind them.
Obama aides said the candidate's remarks were no different from applause lines he has used for months. At a mid-June fundraiser in Jacksonville, Fla., for instance, Obama said: "They're going to try to make you afraid of me. He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?' "
But Obama did appear to expand upon the theme by linking the attacks to McCain by name. Asked what specifically Obama was referring to, campaign manager David Plouffe avoided the question, saying, "What we're seeing out of the McCain campaign, the Republican Party and some of their allies have been some very aggressive charges."
Obama strategist Robert Gibbs said separately: "Barack Obama in no way believes that the McCain campaign is using race as an issue, but he does believe they're using the same old low-road politics to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign, and those are the issues he'll continue to talk about."
McCain aides acknowledged that Obama has leveled similar accusations for some time, but they said the insinuations that McCain was personally a party to racism required a response. In an e-mail, senior McCain aide Mark Salter wrote that Davis issued the statement to defend McCain "from Obama's repeated suggestion that he's running a racist campaign." Salter continued: "When he did it the first time yesterday, we let it pass. When he did it again later, specifically linking us to it, we decided to respond."
Salter added that "there isn't a shred of evidence" that McCain "would tolerate such a thing," noting that the senator from Arizona had denounced an Ohio radio talk show host who mocked Obama's name and that he criticized an ad by the North Carolina Republican Party highlighting Obama's ties to Wright.
Responding to a question on CNN about whether it was fair to say that Obama was playing the race card, McCain responded: "It is. I'm sorry to say that it is. It's legitimate. And we don't -- there's no place in this campaign for that. There's no place for it, and we shouldn't be doing it."
McCain also defended the more aggressive strategy at a town hall meeting in Wisconsin, where a young woman asked him why he had launched an ad juxtaposing Obama with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. "What we are talking about here is substance, and not style," he said. "Campaigns are tough, but I am proud of the campaign we have run, I'm proud of the issues we have raised."
In recent days, McCain has aired advertisements and issued statements labeling his opponent a vapid celebrity akin to Hilton and Spears, accusing him of canceling a visit to wounded veterans because he could not bring along a media entourage, and suggesting he would raise taxes on electricity -- all questionable assertions.
Battling what aides called McCain's "gutter distractions," Obama's team continued to push back Thursday on the stump and launched a Web site called the Low Road Express.
At a town hall meeting in Cedar Rapids, though, Obama did seem to pull back slightly from his remarks Wednesday, dropping references to his name and looks. "All they're doing is churning out the same stuff they do every four years. All you have to do is change the name," Obama told a boisterous crowd. "So when you hear my opponent say he's too risky, what they're really saying is 'We know we don't have any good ideas, but you should be worried about him.' "
Roger Wilkins, an African American scholar at George Mason University, called Obama's Missouri statements "fair campaigning," considering McCain's recent attacks.
"It seems to me at this point it would be naive of the Obama campaign not to anticipate efforts to tear at Obama's character the way Bush tore away at John Kerry's character four years ago. So if a fellow can rationally expect a Swift boat full of funny racial angles racing at him, he would only be sane to try to deflect that," Wilkins said.
Eilperin reported from Wisconsin with the McCain campaign.
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August 1, 2008 Friday
Suburban Edition
McCain's Ad Formula Employs Lowest Common Denominator
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz; Washington Post Staff Writer
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DATELINE: RACINE, Wis., July 31
In a celebrity-driven culture that has left little space for John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate has decided to go tabloid.
By featuring Paris Hilton and Britney Spears in an attack ad against Barack Obama, the senator from Arizona has risked charges of silliness to draw attention to his frequently overshadowed campaign. And on one level, it has worked: Television, with its love of pop culture, has replayed the spot hundreds of times, and the NBC, MSNBC and Fox morning shows had aides to McCain and Obama debating it Thursday.
At the same time, analysts questioned what message McCain was sending by interspersing footage of his Democratic opponent before a huge crowd in Berlin with that of two socialites famous for their irresponsible antics.
"I don't get it," said Ken Goldstein, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "Is it valid to go after Barack Obama on inexperience, being a bit glib, perhaps even a bit arrogant for doing the European tour? Absolutely. But you just sound dopey when you put Paris Hilton in an ad."
Shanto Iyengar, a professor of political science and communications at Stanford University, said McCain needs "to come up with a more affirmative narrative for his candidacy -- Why is he running? What does he stand for? -- before going after Barack Obama." But he added: "McCain has lost the free media contest over the past couple of weeks; he's desperate to make the news, and controversial attacks are more newsworthy than boilerplate positive ads."
The commercial, which calls Obama "the biggest celebrity in the world," reflects frustration with the sizable imbalance in media coverage, with the senator from Illinois featured in recent weeks in People, Us Weekly and Rolling Stone and on "Access Hollywood." Unable to compete on that playing field, McCain operatives have taken to mocking Obama's global fame.
McCain said at a town hall meeting here that he is "proud" of the ad as stressing "substance and not style," and his spokeswoman, Nicolle Wallace, defended it. "The ad is meant to acknowledge reality -- that he is huge, that he is a celebrity," she said of Obama. "It wasn't meant to be insulting. One of the things we learned from Hillary Clinton running against Obama is that railing against his celebrity, whining about his celebrity, doesn't work."
Obama aides dismiss the latest ad as pointless. "To inject Britney Spears and Paris Hilton into the debate is beneath what America deserves," spokesman Bill Burton said. "It was a way for them to get attention for yet another inaccurate, misleading negative attack. People are caught up with the gimmick."
Responding to earlier negative spots by McCain, the Obama camp rolled out a counterattack ad with the line: "John McCain. Same old politics; same failed policies." That ad drew on widespread media criticism of the recent McCain commercials, which a New York Times editorial called "low road," a USA Today editorial dubbed "baloney" and Time described as "baseless."
The televised attacks by McCain represent a decision that he must tarnish Obama as an out-of-touch tax-raiser with little sympathy for the military, much as President Bush devoted the bulk of his 2004 advertising to denigrating Democratic nominee John F. Kerry. The McCain camp said it has aired four positive spots for every negative one, beginning in June.
One McCain ad assailed Obama for deciding against visiting soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center while he was in Germany, saying that "he made time to go to the gym but canceled a visit with wounded troops." Several news organizations, including The Washington Post, said there was no evidence to support the ad's key allegations.
Another ad blamed Obama for "rising prices at the pump," although he has been a senator for four years and McCain has said increased energy prices represent a problem that developed over 30 years.
Despite the media criticism, the ads have forced Obama to play defense on such issues as his opposition to offshore oil drilling, which McCain opposed in his 2000 campaign but now supports. "Every time they put up a negative ad, we're going to respond with the force of truth," said Burton, the Obama spokesman.
Even some McCain allies have winced at the Paris/Britney spot. Republican strategist Dan Schnur, a former McCain adviser, said that "most voters won't see the parallels between a presidential candidate and two party girls. So a legitimate point about inexperience gets lost in the appearance of name-calling."
Still, McCain has succeeded in using meager ad buys to generate free news coverage.
Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group said the ad on the canceled troops visit, which dominated cable news for days, has aired just nine times.
"If you're running against a rock star and have a huge disadvantage in money, you do the oldest trick in the book," Goldstein said.
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The Washington Post
August 1, 2008 Friday
Regional Edition
So Much for St. John
BYLINE: Eugene Robinson
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It's awfully early for John McCain to be running such a desperate, ugly campaign against Barack Obama. But I guess it's useful for Democrats to get a reminder that the Republican Party plays presidential politics by the same moral code that guided the bad-boy Oakland Raiders in their heyday: "Just win, baby."
The latest bit of snarling, mean-spirited nonsense to come out of the McCain camp was the accusation, leveled by campaign manager Rick Davis, that Obama had "played the race card." He did so, apparently, by being black.
On Wednesday, at a campaign stop in Missouri, Obama had predicted that Republicans would try to "make you scared of me. You know, 'He's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name,' you know, 'he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.' " So what does Davis do? He promptly tries to make voters scared of Obama by feigning outrage over the presumptive Democratic nominee's "divisive, negative, shameful and wrong" remarks.
Of course the McCain campaign isn't really offended that the first black major-party candidate for president in American history might mention this distinction from time to time. The idea is to slow Obama down before he runs away with this thing, and the weapon of choice is handfuls of mud.
Remember St. John the Reformer, who promised a high-minded campaign and said he wouldn't question his opponent's patriotism? Clearly, he's been replaced by an evil twin. The switch seems to have taken place during his opponent's world tour, when Obama's prescriptions for Iraq and Afghanistan began to look prescient -- and McCain's began to look irrelevant.
McCain kept saying that Obama "doesn't understand" the war zones -- even though the president of Afghanistan, the prime minister of Iraq and even U.S. military officials on the ground seemed to think Obama understood both situations quite well. McCain then resorted to the outrageous charge that Obama "would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign." I think that qualifies as an allegation that Obama is "not patriotic enough," don't you?
Since then the McCain campaign has sharply escalated its rhetorical attacks -- making blatantly false claims, for example, about a canceled visit with injured troops in Germany. The blitz has been successful in one of its aims, which is to drive the news cycle and thus focus attention on McCain. Much less clear is whether voters really want to elect Don Rickles as president.
The low point so far is McCain's bizarre ad that flashes images of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears before showing Obama in Berlin addressing the multitudes. In what promises to be a major attack theme, the ad derides Obama as "the biggest celebrity in the world" -- an attempt to turn Obama's popularity into some kind of fatal flaw.
In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, Davis and campaign senior adviser Steve Schmidt -- a veteran of George W. Bush's 2004 campaign -- kept returning to the word "celebrity" in describing Obama. It's a classic attempt to take a positive and turn it into a negative, as was done with John Kerry's heroic service in Vietnam by the odious Swift boat campaign.
The McCain campaign's excursion into popular culture has been so aggressive that the Obama campaign felt obliged to promptly denounce a new song by Ludacris that criticizes both McCain and Hillary Clinton in crude terms. Never mind that the rapper has no association with Obama's candidacy, and never mind that McCain is probably not intimately familiar with the Ludacris oeuvre. All this gnashing and flailing would be laughable if it weren't so purposeful. The aim is to cast an aura of doubt around Obama -- to portray him as handsome and popular but insubstantial, as a "celebrity" who's not really up to the job. Oh, and not that we would ever mention such a thing, but did you notice that Obama had the audacity to mention that he's African American?
The Obama campaign has been quick to respond with new television ads accusing McCain of practicing the "old politics." Kerry's unhappy experience showed that this kind of define-your-opponent blitzkrieg, however ridiculous the attacks may be, has to be answered immediately -- and in kind.
Negative campaigning is not a pretty thing, and it should be beneath John McCain to stoop so low. But Democrats would be foolish to forget that sometimes it works.
eugenerobinson@washpost.com
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CELEBRITY FUNDRAISING
The parents of Paris Hilton, whose image appears in an ad by John McCain that attacks Barack Obama for being a celebrity, have donated the maximum amount to the Republican's campaign. Her grandfather, William Barron Hilton, also gave the maximum $2,300 to McCain.
AUG. 25-28 Democratic National Convention SEPT. 1-4 Republican National Convention
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Washingtonpost.com
August 1, 2008 Friday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Matthew Mosk, Washington Post Campaign Finance Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3674 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Post campaign finance reporter Matthew Mosk was online Friday, Aug. 1 at 11 a.m. ET.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
____________________
Matthew Mosk: Good morning,
The Washington Post newsroom is buzzing this morning as reporters gather more information about the suspect in the antrax attack. But members of the politics team have their collective heads down as they examine the latest back-and-forth between John McCain and Barack Obama. I look forward to chatting with you about all of that this morning.
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The "celebrity" ad: Chris, I know it's dangerous to apply logic to political ads, but could you or someone else at the Post ask the McCain campaign this question:
They're claiming that Obama is only a celebrity and not really qualified to run the country. Yet John McCain's political hero is Ronald Reagan, whose biggest claim to fame before getting elected as Governor of California was...being a celebrity.
Doesn't this mean they think Ronald Reagan should never have been elected governor and begun his career in politics?
Matthew Mosk: Thanks for this question. First off, my apologies on behalf of Chris, who is in transit right now and was unable to be here today. I've gotten on the horn with Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, to respond to your question.
Here's what he said:
"Being politically active before his election as governor as one of Americas largest and most economically consequential states is a stark contrast from a senator who literally has a record of underwhelming accomplishments, who has consistently opposed measures that would reduce the price of gas for hard working Americans, opposed the successful surge strategy in Iraq, and demonstrated the type of judgement we can't afford in the White House."
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University Park, Md.: Good Morning. Thanks for taking the question. McCain campaign was armed with ammunition and jumped the guns. They accused Obama playing the race card.
Obama said that he is different from all president on dollar bills. Frankly, we know that Obama has one thing that makes him different from all presidents of the U.S. and that makes him unique. Being a worldwide phenomenon, a charismatic rock star may be a good chance for him to be on a future dollar bill. Obama probably misspoke a little but he is excited like his staunch voters.
I think deficit thinking is on McCain campaign's part. What are your thoughts?
Matthew Mosk: The Obama statement in question, about being different from the presidents on the dollar bill, has been a stock part of his stump speech for some time (though he framed it somewhat differently this time). I heard him say largely the same thing out on the trail a couple months ago.
I think the McCain campaign has identified this moment as the time to start going on the offensive to define Obama. I suspect that the race card comment is all part of that effort.
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Rockville, Md.: I got my undergraduate degree in "political science" but am so disgusted with the level of dishonesty that I would never work in the field. Mostly I have been in government service and the FDA. Does that ever happen to reporters? I guess you can put some distance and reflect on your code of ethics as a antidote. But who gets burned out?
Matthew Mosk: I appreciate your sentiments, Rockville. I think there has probably always been dishonest in politics at times, especially in the midst of a hard fought campaign. Rather than get me down, it makes me feel more strongly in the importance of the role the press can play in making sure the public is not misled. I think The Washington Post accomplished that mission early this week (and again today with an analysis by Howard Kurtz) by providing a frank and thorough assessment of the current McCain advertising strategy.
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Dunn Loring, Va.: After your hit piece last week trying to tie a Republican donor with financial problems to John McCain, Ann Kornblut stated in her chat that you would soon be doing some hard reporting on Obama. When can we expect a unflattering piece on Obama from you? Have you ever broken a negative story about Obama?
Matthew Mosk: Hi Dunn,
Thanks for your question. You touch on an interesting question here that I don't think many reporters have the opportunity to address head on. What motivates our reporting? I think it is true of most reporters, and certainly for me, that we are looking for the most interesting and informative stories we can find that will benefit our readership. The "hit piece" you mention was part of a series of stories I have written about the motives of people who are raising money for the presidential candidates. Here's an article with a similar theme I wrote about Sen. Obama's fundraisers:
Big Donors Among Obama's Grass Roots (Washington Post, April 11, 2008)
And here's another story along the same thing about someone raising money for Sen. Clinton:
When Controversy Follows Cash (Washington Post, September 3, 2007)
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Baltimore, Md.: I read your paper's profile of The Mind of McCain this morning, expecting a hagiography. Yet it's surprisingly subversive. McCain is an emotional thinker who doesn't like shades of gray. Scary, frankly.
Matthew Mosk: I thought this was a fascinating piece, and provided a really good look inside the way Sen. McCain thinks. I am hoping Bob Kaiser, who wrote the story, is planning to do the same for Barack Obama.
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Atlanta: Hi, Matthew. I'm very puzzled by the poll numbers. Do you think there is a cell phone effect? I'm in my 50s and half my friends don't have a home phone anymore. I would think the cell-only percentage would be much higher in people younger than my age group. Which leads me to wonder if younger Obama supporters are not being polled, thereby skewing the results and making the race look closer than it might really be. Your thoughts?
Matthew Mosk: Hi Atlanta,
Thanks for this question about polling. I've inquired with The Post's polling guru, Jon Cohen, about the "cell phone effect."
He suggested I refer you to this article that suggests polling results are not influenced by people using cell phones as their primary means of communicating.
washingtonpost.com: Cell Phones and the 2008 Vote, An Update (Pew Research Center, July 17, 2008)
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Chicago, Ill.: How is Dana Milbank holding up? Dana is an equal opportunity opportunist and the left never complains when he attacks myriad right wingers. However, when he so much as disturbs a hair on Obama's body they get apoplectic.
washingtonpost.com: He seems to be doing all right. Check out his live discussion from yesterday: Washington Sketch (Washington Post, July 31)
Matthew Mosk: Just went to see if he was at his desk, but didn't find him. He must be in hiding.
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Concord, N.H.: That was an amazing non-answer from the McCain rep on drawing a comparison between Obama's and Reagan's "celebrity" status as candidates. It would have been nice if he had quantified McCain's support for Reagan's political involvement prior to being elected with examples of that involvement. Instead, he couched his answer solely in terms of Obama's lack of achievement without giving concrete evidence of what Reagan did prior to being elected that could draw distinctions between the two. Nicely done!
If the constant sworls of hot air coming from both campaigns in response to perceived slights and non-events could be bottled, the search for reusable forms of energy would be over.
Matthew Mosk: I suspect that neither the question, nor the answer, was ever really about Ronald Reagan. :)
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Reston, Va.: Matthew, do you think Obama's energy plan (inflate your tires and there's no need to drill for more oil) will hurt him any? Or will this gaffe become a distant memory quickly? Should McCain's camp pounce on it?
Matthew Mosk: I understand that Obama's inflate-the-tires remark played big on conservative talk radio. I'm not sure how much impact they will have with the broad electorate. (Probably not that much).
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Richmond, Va.: I am glad to see recent articles in the Post that reverse the often hagiographic treatment of Obama by the media, especially during his overseas trip. Is this part of a new trend at the Post? These include Milbank's article on Obama as a "presumptuous" nominee and another article noting Obama's treatment as "the One", a la Neo in The Matrix. This campaign -- so long on rhetoric and short on legislative and governing experience -- has to be the biggest bubble of hot air in U. S.history since the Hindenburg exploded in 1938!
Matthew Mosk: I think there is a lot of suspicion on both sides that reporters (or entire news outlets) are trying to skew their coverage. I have not seen evidence of that in the Post newsroom. We like to stick with the facts (such as, the Hindenburg exploded May 6, 1937).
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D.C.: I can't find today's Kurtz article on McCain advertising (perhaps because of the Post's infuriating insistence on not including author's names in the article summaries). A link, if you will?
washingtonpost.com: McCain's Ad Formula Employs Lowest Common Denominator (Washington Post, August 1, 2008)
Matthew Mosk: your request is our command!
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Sacramento, Calif.: I'm going to put you on the spot: I know that we have a long time until the election and anything can happen between now and then, but if you were forces to guess, who do you think will win, Obama or McCain?
I'm an Obama supporter, but I think moderates will break for McCain in the battle ground states but Obama will win the popular vote.
Matthew Mosk: Barring something totally unforseen, I can say without equivocation, one of them will be the next president.
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For the First Poster...: Next time that McCain celebrity ad comes on, turn on the "mute" button. It then looks like an Obama ad! This ad has been panned by many including McCain's own allies!
Mr. Mosk, would you agree that this ad seems doomed to backfire?
Matthew Mosk: I don't know. I have spoken to several Republican strategists who are very excited about this new line of attack. They see an advantage to be gained in turning Obama's strength, his broad appeal, into a potential liability. I think it will be instructive beyond 2008 to learn whether an ad campaign like this can be successful. If McCain wins, I think this will be viewed as an important turning point.
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Cell phones: I don't think I really buy Pew's argument that cell phones make only a small difference in polling. I mean, they're trying to keep themselves relevant, no? If cell phones really do skew the results, they'd be in trouble.
I know anecdotes don't really count, but I'm 33, live in DC, and only know one person in a circle of about 20 friends who has a landline at home. And none of us would answer a call on our cells if we didn't know the caller.
So I'm skeptical.
Matthew Mosk: Things are certainly changing fast, and while I don't see any reason to doubt the Pew study, I do think that while the effect may be small now, it may not be small for much longer.
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RE: Your Response to Atlanta: News organizations, politicians and political pundits are mesmerized with political polls, especially for contested elections. Reporters and pundits delight in reporting a "tight horserace" or abruptly changing poll results. However, political polls cannot predict future events reliably because they don't meet the prerequisites for valid statistical inference. Political poll results that indicate "a statistical dead heat" or "within the margin of error" can be misleading because most represent just a collection of disparate views of a few hundred individuals who are available and respond to questions - some of which are unartful. The fallacy of political polling could be seen if pollsters published their polling designs and error margin calculation methods for scrutiny.
News organizations and political parties spend millions on political polling. Yet voter turn-out often is the decisive factor in elections. Other than producing dazzling graphics, is it a case of the blind following the blind or that there's nothing better to do with political contributions and news organization budgets?
Matthew Mosk: Whew! That's an interesting way of framing it, RE. In the spirit of the chat, I will respectfully disagree with you. I think polling is one of many important ways for both campaigns and those who cover them to gauge how the public is responding to the politics of the moment. I think responsible publications will use them to take a pulse, but not to try and predict where an election will wind up. Other thoughts?
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Re: Inflating Tires...: Again, this was taken out of context. Obama merely said that inflating tires can improve gas milege and it can:
Keeping Your Car In Shape
This is from a government web site!
Matthew Mosk: More information about tires! (thank goodness)
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Boston: I know the conventional wisdom is that when you insult Obama, you get tons of negative feedback from the [add gratuitously insulting name for Obama supporters here].
Is it really more then normal for a Presidential campaign? And if so, do you think its because for once people actually like a candidate rather then simply tolerating him?
Matthew Mosk: I think this misses the point, Boston.
It's almost four years to the day from the Swift Boat ads. What the McCain campaign is doing, as the Bush campaign did effectively four years ago, is trying to create a competing narrative for Obama's story. Was Kerry a war hero or a blow hard? Is Obama beloved, or simply in love with himself? This is what the Republicans seem to be after. And I do think it is a normal part of a presidential campaign.
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"If McCain wins, I think this will be viewed as an important turning point. ": If this ad is what turns the election for McCain, then I'm REALLY fear for our nation as a whole.
I don't object to a McCain victory per se, but if this is the template on how to win an election, then that's a sad commentary on our how our system is working.
Matthew Mosk: Thanks for this, another point of view.
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Enough-already, USA: I already have decided which candidate I'm voting for and frankly, I'm getting a migraine headache thinking of having to endure another three months of stick-to-the-message-and-ignore-the-question surrogates out-shouting each other on TV and insult-my-intelligence ads (from both sides). Any idea of how many more of me there are out there? (And if you know of a good place for us to hide until November, please pass it on.)
Matthew Mosk: Though I completely get what you're saying here, wouldn't you agree that this is one of the most fascinating and important presidential campaigns of our lifetimes? Frankly, I'm riveted by every twist and turn!
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Milbank's article: I tried to follow the link provided to Washington Sketch, but got an "access denied" message.
Could you tell me, briefly, how Milbank responds to the complaint that Obama's quote about being a symbol was altered in a way that changed its meaning? Did Milbank hear the comment himself? (I thought it came in a meeting that was closed to reporters?) If not, how can he be certain that he got it right?
washingtonpost.com: So sorry! Please try this link instead: Washington Sketch (Washington Post, July 31)
Matthew Mosk: whoops. let's try to make sure no one is denied access to Dana!
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...: I read on a regular basis stories on McCain based on the sentiment that while his campaign may have taken a nasty turn, McCain himself is still an honorable person. The WP story yesterday, "As Aides Map Aggressive Race, McCain Often Steers Off Course" is a perfect example.
Reporters more than anybody seem to view McCain as he was, not as he is now. It's like if a friend of yours saved you from a burning fire and then robbed a bank. The tendency to rationalize and make excuses for him would be strong.
Facing reality for what it is and not for what it was or we want it to be is one of the harder parts of being human. Some pundits and reporters are better at it than others.
washingtonpost.com: As Aides Map Aggressive Race, McCain Often Steers Off Course (Washington Post, July 31, 2008)
Matthew Mosk: This is an interesting point. I'm not sure it's how reporters are making their calculations, but I welcome other thoughts on this.
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Princeton Junction, N.J.: Does anyone in Washington actually believe that Barack Obama is more arrogant than John McCain? It seems to me that in order to run for president, an extraordinary amount of personal confidence and conviction are required. Both men have this confidence which is well-earned by their notable achievements in several fields of endeavour. McCain, the son and grandson of admirals married to a multi-millionaire heiress would seem to be a better candidate for the title of "elitist" than Obama. So then why does the media follow the GOP talking points in glibly sticking Obama with this unsupportable label?
Matthew Mosk: You must have watched the Daily Show last night, Princeton!
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Race Card: So, what would an actual racial attack on Obama really look like in this day and age? We know the Republicans won't come out and use the "n" word, but they do kind of skirt around about it. Let's see - white blond women with a black man, that doesn't have any subliminal racial context? Now Obama can't make a statement about what is happening without them saying he is using the race card? I know they think he has an advantage over the pasty-faced McCain, but I also think they are using a racial subtext and don't want anyone to notice.
Matthew Mosk: I agree with you that, in this day and age, it would be highly unlikely to see a major presidential campaign make an overt attack on an opponent based on race. To do so would be suicidal. So how would a racial attack happen? The most instructive thing I've seen on this was written by Kevin Merida, on some of the racially tinged incidents that Obama campaign workers encountered out on the trail. There is undoubtedly going to be an element of racism out there during this campaign, but it's not likely to emerge in any officially sanctioned way.
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Richmond, Va: As someone who is a Democrat yet felt McCain was a different kind of Republican, I have been disgusted at the same character assassination techniques that he has used in the past week. Does he realize how many of us on the fence are disgusted by the right's slash and burn politics? I hope for once the GOP will not pull out a victory based on character assassination and then be deemed political geniuses by the MSM. If you guys don't think they are playing the race card through surrogates I will be happy to send you some of the filth that clutters my in-box on a daily basis.
Matthew Mosk: Another point of view about the McCain approach. Thanks Richmond.
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washingtonpost.com: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause (Washington Post, May 13, 2008)
Matthew Mosk: Here's that Merida piece. It's worth reading.
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Princeton Junction, NJ: Actually, I missed the Daily Show last night, but I am glad to learn that Jon Stewart agrees with my analysis. What is your answer to my question about the media's views of the two candidates?
Matthew Mosk: I don't anyone could answer that question because the media is not a monolith. The Daily Show piece, for those who didn't see it, provided a look at how some news outlets have run with the McCain messaging -- that Obama is in some ways arrogant. The point of the piece, as with our friend in Princeton Junction, is that both candidates have to be sufficiently arrogant to place themselves in contention for the position of leader of the free world. I think that's a fair point, no?
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Boston Again: Sorry, I was unclear. I was talking about the feedback reporters and talking heads get when they are negative about Obama.
Do you get more outrage in terms of volume for a negative Obama article then for a negative McCain article?
Matthew Mosk: Hi Boston. The answer, at least for me, is no. I get a fair bit of outrage in response any article that casts either candidate in a negative light. There are supporters of both who believe their candidate can do no wrong. (And their opponent can do no right.)
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Bethesda: I'm with Enough-already. I consider myself a political junkie (I started watching the Sunday morning shows when I was still a teen in flyover country), and I'm already so fed up with all of it that I just want to hide until November. And yet, because reading papers and watching TV news are so ingrained in my daily habits, I feel stuck. (I seriously need to get a new hobby.)
Matthew Mosk: You're just the kind of reader we're counting on, Bethesda. If I had time, I'd drive out to your place and thank you for making the paper part of your daily life.
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Matthew Mosk: Okay, gang. This was fun, but I've got to get back to my day job.
Thanks for all the great questions, and stay tuned, even if it's involuntary!
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The New York Times
July 31, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
On NYTimes.com
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LENGTH: 430 words
After the Games
From Play Magazine, audio interviews with eight Olympic champions, including Bruce Jenner, Greg Louganis, left, and Nadia Comaneci, who discuss their greatest athletic moments and life after competition.
nytimes.com/playmagazine
SLIDESHOW: FLYING HIGH
For 60 Years
Kennedy Airport turned 60 this month. This slide show takes readers through the airport's early years after the first commercial flights began from there in July 1948. The photos include a handful of famous people who have flown in and out of the international gateway.
nytimes.com/cityroom
AUDIO: WHAT'S NEXT
In World Trade
Keith Bradsher looks back at the failure of the Doha round of trade negotiations to reach an agreement on lowering trade barriers between emerging and developed nations.
nytimes.com/business
Frugal Traveler:
The Grand Tour
In the Harz Mountains
After 10 weeks of navigating old towns and inspecting fine restaurants, the Frugal Traveler, Matt Gross, escapes civilization for the deep forests of the Harz Mountains in Germany, said to be home to witches and ghosts. For days, he walks alone, discovering misty trails, folksy villages and affordable places to stay.
nytimes.com/frugaltraveler
BREAKING IN
To accompany the first installment of ''Breaking In,'' a series chronicling efforts to launch a career in the arts and how that process has changed over the years, there are video features, a slide show and a tour diary centered around Sean Carlson, a 23-year-old music tour promoter.
nytimes.com/music
AUDIO: TECH TALK
This week, Brad Stone discusses the latest turns in the online Scrabble war, and the author of ''Growing Up Digital,'' Don Tapscott, talks about how the Net Generation is shaping up. Plus, defining the term ''2.0.''
nytimes.com/techtalk
BUSINESSMEN IN SHORTS
In one of the odder turns of recent fashion events, the relaxed business style that is casual Friday's permanent legacy now brings us the men's shorts-suit and clam-diggers worn to the office. Additional photos of men on the streets of New York, and recent runway shots from the men's shows in Milan.
nytimes.com/fashion
Opinion
Doug Glanville
Baby on Deck
The former baseball player writes about the tough, unspoken rules about absences for personal reasons from one's team.
nytimes.com/opinion
Campaign Stops
The Worst V.P. Picks
According to Dan Schnur, a Republican political analyst, Mitt Romney and Tim Kaine are bad choices as running mates for John McCain and Barack Obama because they exacerbate the candidates' weaknesses.
nytimes.com/campaignstops
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
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The New York Times
July 31, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
McCain Is Trying To Define Obama As Out of Touch
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG; Michael Powell contributed reporting from Lebanon, Mo., and Jeff Zeleny from Washington.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1066 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
After spending much of the summer searching for an effective line of attack against Senator Barack Obama, Senator John McCain is beginning a newly aggressive campaign to define Mr. Obama as arrogant, out of touch and unprepared for the presidency.
On Wednesday alone, the McCain campaign released a new advertisement suggesting -- and not in a good way -- that Mr. Obama was a celebrity along the lines of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Republicans tried to portray Mr. Obama as a candidate who believed the race was all about him, relying on what Democrats said was a completely inaccurate quotation.
The Republican National Committee began an anti-Obama Web site called ''Audacity Watch,'' a play on the title of Mr. Obama's book ''The Audacity of Hope.'' And, in a concerted volley of television interviews, news releases and e-mail, campaign representatives attacked him on a wide range of issues, including tax policies and energy proposals.
The moves are the McCain campaign's most full-throttled effort to define Mr. Obama negatively, on its own terms, by creating a narrative intended to turn the public off to an opponent.
Although Mr. Obama has been under an intense public spotlight for the last year, he is still relatively new on the national scene, and polls indicate that for all the enthusiasm he has generated among his supporters, many voters still have questions about him, providing Republicans an opening to shape his image in critical groups like white working-class voters between now and Election Day.
Mr. McCain's campaign is now under the leadership of members of President Bush's re-election campaign, including Steve Schmidt, the czar of the Bush war room that relentlessly painted his opponent, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, as effete, elite, and equivocal through a daily blitz of sound bites and Web videos that were carefully coordinated with Mr. Bush's television advertisements.
The run of attacks against Mr. Obama over the last couple of weeks have been strikingly reminiscent of that drive, including the Bush team's tactics of seeking to make campaigns referendums on its opponents -- not a choice between two candidates -- and attacking the opponent's perceived strengths head-on. Central to the latest McCain drive is an attempt to use against Mr. Obama the huge crowds and excitement he has drawn, including on his foreign trip last week, by promoting a view of him as more interested in attention and adulation than in solving the problems facing American families.
''I would say that it is beyond dispute that he has become the biggest celebrity in the world,'' Mr. Schmidt said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. ''The question that we are posing to the American people is this: 'Is he ready to lead yet?' And the answer to the question that we will offer to the American people is: 'No he is not.' ''
Mr. McCain's more focused assault comes after one of his worst weeks of the general election campaign, when he seemed to fumble for a consistent, overarching critique of Mr. Obama, who winged around the Middle East and Europe. Mr. McCain's advisers continue to look for ways to bring more discipline to his message, and are being urged by some supporters to cut back the frequency of his question-and-answer sessions with reporters, a staple of his campaign but one that occasionally yields unscripted moments, misstatements and off-the-cuff pronouncements that divert attention from the themes he is trying to promote.
The intensity of the recent drive -- which has included some assertions from the McCain campaign that have been widely dismissed as misleading -- has surprised even some allies of Mr. McCain, who has frequently spoken about the need for civility in politics. The sentiment seeped onto television on Wednesday with Andrea Tantaros, a Republican strategist, saying on MSNBC that the use of Ms. Hilton in Mr. McCain's commercial was ''absurd and juvenile,'' and that he should spend more time promoting his own agenda.
Mr. Obama's campaign seized on those concerns, trying to turn the tables by portraying Mr. McCain as cranky and negative. The Democratic National Committee called Mr. McCain ''McNasty.'' Late Wednesday Mr. Obama released a counter advertisement citing editorials critical of Mr. McCain's latest volley of attacks and featuring an announcer who says, ''John McCain, Same old politics, same failed policies.''
Asked by reporters about Mr. McCain's new advertisement, Mr. Obama said, ''I do notice that he doesn't seem to have anything to say very positive about himself.''
Mr. Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, said that Mr. McCain's strategy to define Mr. Obama negatively in voters' minds, while similar to one that successfully worked against Mr. Kerry, would not work this year.
''When people are struggling, when they're trying to pay their bills, when they're concerned about their fundamental security, I don't think they have much tolerance for Britney Spears and Paris Hilton,'' Mr. Axelrod said. ''I think they understand times are more serious than that, and they thought John McCain was, too.''
Mr. Schmidt, whom Mr. McCain placed in charge of day-to-day operations this month, specialized during the 2004 campaign in seizing on opportunities -- think windsurfing; seemingly contradictory votes on Iraq policy -- to paint Mr. Kerry negatively.
Seeking similar openings, the campaign seized on Mr. Obama's decision to skip a visit with wounded United States troops in Germany. (The McCain campaign said Mr. Obama canceled because he could not take the news media with him to the hospital, an assertion denied by the Obama campaign and undercut by the accounts of reporters.)
The new focus has been welcomed by some Republicans. ''They're now in a position of driving news as opposed to reacting to it,'' said Brian Jones, a former aide to Mr. McCain.
But some fear a backlash. And Mr. McCain does not like to follow a script. People who know him said that it may be a challenge to apply the Bush model -- strict adherence to the message of the day by the candidate combined with a relentless drive to define the opponent negatively -- to a campaign not known so far for discipline or consistency.
''It could be the Coca-Cola strategy of marketing that they're trying to apply to Dr Pepper,'' said John Weaver, a former chief strategist for Mr. McCain.
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GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Senator John Mc- Cain, speaking Wednesday at a town-hallstyle meeting in Aurora, Colo., has begun a campaign to define Senator Barack Obama in negative terms. (PHOTOGRAPH MARY ALTAFFER/ASSOCIATED PRESS) (pg.A15)
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USA TODAY
July 31, 2008 Thursday
FIRST EDITION
McCain ad paints Obama as a celebrity, not a leader;
Ad Watch: The McCain campaign
BYLINE: Mark Memmott
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 5A
LENGTH: 325 words
Republican John McCain's presidential campaign released a TV ad Wednesday that compares Democrat Barack Obama's popularity to that of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, and questions whether being a "celebrity" qualifies someone to be president. It's called Celeb.
The ad also, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said, makes the case that Obama is unsuited to be president like those two young pop stars and that the Illinois senator favors higher taxes.
Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor replied that McCain had launched "yet another" false and negative attack. Paraphrasing Spears, Vietor said of McCain that, "oops, he did it again."
Wednesday evening, the Obama campaign released an ad, which it plans to broadcast today, called Low Road. It says McCain is "practicing the politics of the past" with his "attacks."
Celeb's script
Narrator: "He's the biggest celebrity in the world.
"But, is he ready to lead?
"With gas prices soaring, Barack Obama says no to offshore drilling. And, says he'll raise taxes on electricity.
"Higher taxes, more foreign oil, that's the real Obama."
The images
The McCain ad mixes scenes from Obama's speech before more than 200,000 people in Berlin last week with photos of Spears and Hilton as the narrator makes the case that Obama is a celebrity -- but may not be ready for the White House.
Analysis
By juxtaposing Obama with Spears and Hilton and calling him a "celebrity," the ad aims to plant doubts in viewers' minds about Obama's depth. Asked during a conference call with reporters Wednesday whether the McCain campaign intended to suggest that Obama is "frivolous and irresponsible" like those young women, Davis said "yeah, I mean, look -- I think it's exactly what we've been saying."
Where it's playing
McCain's Celeb ad will air on some national cable networks and locally in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Analysis by Mark Memmott
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GRAPHIC: PHOTO, B/W, Screen capture from YouTube
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USA TODAY
July 31, 2008 Thursday
FINAL EDITION
McCain ad paints Obama as a celebrity, not a leader;
Ad Watch: The McCain campiang
BYLINE: Mark Memmott
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 5A
LENGTH: 326 words
Republican John McCain's presidential campaign released a TV ad Wednesday that compares Democrat Barack Obama's popularity to that of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, and questions whether being a "celebrity" qualifies someone to be president. It's called Celeb.
The ad also makes the case, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said, that Obama is unsuited to be president like those two young pop stars and that the Illinois senator favors higher taxes.
Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor replied that McCain had launched "yet another" false and negative attack. Paraphrasing Spears' hit, Vietor said of McCain that, "oops, he did it again."
Wednesday evening, the Obama campaign released an ad, which it plans to broadcast today, called Low Road. It says McCain is "practicing the politics of the past" with his "attacks."
Celeb's script
Narrator: "He's the biggest celebrity in the world.
"But, is he ready to lead?
"With gas prices soaring, Barack Obama says no to offshore drilling. And, says he'll raise taxes on electricity.
"Higher taxes, more foreign oil, that's the real Obama."
The images
The McCain ad mixes scenes from Obama's speech before more than 200,000 people in Berlin last week with photos of Spears and Hilton as the narrator makes the case that Obama is a celebrity -- but may not be ready for the White House.
Analysis
By juxtaposing Obama with Spears and Hilton and calling him a "celebrity," the ad aims to plant doubts in viewers' minds about Obama's depth. Asked during a conference call with reporters Wednesday whether the McCain campaign intended to suggest that Obama is "frivolous and irresponsible" like those young women, Davis said, "Yeah, I mean, look -- I think it's exactly what we've been saying."
Where it's playing
McCain's Celeb ad will air on some national cable networks and locally in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Analysis by Mark Memmott
LOAD-DATE: July 31, 2008
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The Washington Post
July 31, 2008 Thursday
Met 2 Edition
As Aides Map Aggressive Race, McCain Often Steers Off Course
BYLINE: Juliet Eilperin and Robert Barnes; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1106 words
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 30
Sen. John McCain last week delivered one of his sharpest critiques yet of Sen. Barack Obama's Iraq policies, carefully reading a prepared speech that accused his Democratic rival of failing the commander-in-chief test and promoting ideas that would force American troops to "retreat under fire."
But just hours after his crisp performance, the Republican presidential candidate blurred his own message with an offhand comment to a television interviewer that Obama's proposal for a 16-month time frame for removing combat troops from Iraq might be a "pretty good timetable." That seemed to run counter to his attempts to cast Obama as naive on foreign policy, and it sent his aides scrambling.
As Election Day nears, McCain's campaign is adopting the aggressive, take-no-prisoners style of Karl Rove, the GOP operative who engineered victories for President Bush. The campaign continued the attack Wednesday with a sarcastic television ad deriding Obama as a "celebrity," part of an intensifying effort to cast him as an elitist.
But the sharp-edged approach is being orchestrated for an unpredictable candidate who often chafes at delivering the campaign's message of the day. It is that freewheeling style that has made him popular with voters and cemented his reputation for candor and straight talk.
McCain, who was most comfortable as an underdog in the unscripted environment of the New Hampshire primary, makes his advisers cringe as he delivers the attack line -- and then keeps talking. In that respect, he is no Bush, his handlers say.
The result is a presidential campaign that sometimes rolls between serious policy discussions about the nation's future and gotcha politics aimed at undermining his opponent's character. McCain himself is often caught in the middle, proclaiming his commitment to the former while participating in the latter.
For weeks, McCain's staff has been criticized for running a campaign that has no clear message. The decision by the senator from Arizona to have former Bush strategist Steve Schmidt run daily operations was described as a way to get control of the message. But some Republicans outside the campaign believe that not much has changed since then.
"It's the candidate," said one GOP strategist with close ties to the campaign, who added that efforts to identify a theme for each week quickly unravel as McCain veers off message in his public comments.
At a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania last week, McCain stood before a banner that proclaimed "Energy Solutions" and "The Lexington Project" -- the moniker his campaign coined for an energy proposal featuring a combination of conservation efforts, expanded offshore drilling and nuclear power.
McCain rambled quickly through the details and showed little appreciation for the art of "branding."
"I call it the Lexington Project, my friends, but you can call it anything you want," he said.
Several weeks ago senior aide Mark Salter said McCain would stop kicking off town hall meetings with news "ripped from the day's headlines" and would instead deliver a formal introduction on a single theme. That effort lasted just a few weeks: In his opening remarks at Tuesday's town hall, McCain hopscotched from the war to pork-barrel spending.
The campaign's focus on expanding its war chest sometimes compromises its ability to deliver a coherent message, since McCain's schedule is often dictated by the sites of fundraising events rather than an overarching theme. This week, for example, the presumptive GOP nominee has traveled from central California to San Francisco to Reno to Denver to Kansas City, holding as many fundraisers as public events.
The assault on Obama's capacity to lead continued Wednesday with the release of McCain's latest commercial, "Celeb," which compares Obama's ability to attract adoring fans to that of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.
In a news conference with reporters, campaign manager Rick Davis said the ad draws a distinction between Obama's popularity and McCain's appeal, which Davis said stems not from "celebrity" but from "actually having a political movement based on ideas and solutions for the American public."
Schmidt joined the conference call midway through to hammer the point. "There's no dispute that he's become the biggest celebrity in the world," Schmidt said of Obama. "The question that we are posing to the American people is this: Is he ready to lead yet?"
The new ad relies mainly on atmospherics, but it also delivers a harsh assessment of Obama's record, declaring that the Democrat "says he'll raise taxes on electricity." In fact, Obama opposes a "carbon tax," though he does favor a "cap and trade" plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions, which McCain also supports. The assertion is based on a comment that Obama made to a San Antonio paper in February: "What we ought to tax is dirty energy, like coal and, to a lesser extent, natural gas."
Obama's campaign responded to McCain's attacks Wednesday with an ad describing them as "the politics of the past."
On the stump in Missouri, Obama also said: "You know, I don't pay attention to John McCain's ads. Although I do notice that he doesn't seem to have anything to say very positive about himself. He seems to only be talking about me. You need to ask John McCain what he's for, not just what he's against."
But sometimes McCain is not his best spokesman.
At a town hall meeting Tuesday, a GOP voter posed a question McCain has heard everywhere from Sparks, Nev., to Dayton, Ohio: Why should Republicans support him?
"I think I speak for a lot of conservatives when I say I'm not very excited about this election," the questioner said, noting that he differs with McCain on issues including "amnesty" for illegal immigrants and the senator's support for "the global warming crowd's agenda."
But rather than rattle off his most conservative positions -- his opposition to abortion and support for the war -- he launched into a long explanation of his role in a compromise on judges, something that conservatives often criticize him for.
He sparked applause from the Republican audience by mentioning his support for conservative Supreme Court Justices John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr., but he then noted that he had backed liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer as well.
McCain finished off what was supposed to be an explanation of why conservatives should back him with a pledge to push for a cleaner planet.
"I've stood up against my party many times," he said, "because I've done what I thought was right."
Barnes reported from Washington. Staff writer Michael D. Shear in Washington contributed to this report.
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Mary Altaffer -- Associated Press; At town hall events, John McCain has sometimes taken a defensive stance.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 31, 2008 Thursday 1:00 PM EST
Slate: What should McCain do with Bush at the convention?;
What should McCain do with Bush at the convention?
BYLINE: John Dickerson, Slate Chief Political Correspondent, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2838 words
HIGHLIGHT: Slate chief political correspondent John Dickerson will be online Thursday, July 31 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his ideas about what role John McCain should want President Bush to play at the Republican National Convention.
Slate chief political correspondent John Dickerson will be online Thursday, July 31 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his ideas about what role John McCain should want President Bush to play at the Republican National Convention.
Submit your questions and comments before or during today's discussion.
What should McCain do with Bush at the convention?
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John Dickerson: Hello everyone. Lots happening in politics today. I look forward to your questions.
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Alexandria, VA: Thanks very much for attending this chat.
With the initial disclosure that I am an avid Dem, may I ask whether you think there would be value for the Dem spokespeople to entirely stop referring to McCain, and instead adopt the style of "Bush-McCain," as in "the Bush-McCain position," the "Bush-McCain platform," etc? And would it be harmful to Obama to start doing that himself as well?
John Dickerson: Very good question. It's already happening. The Obama campaign has been doing this for some time and they'll keep at it until December. Clinton did this in 96 tying Dole to Newt Gingrich.
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San Diego, CA: How long until we see a 527 ad with the creepy McCain-Bush hug photo?
John Dickerson: You don't have to wait for a 527. The hug (and the kiss) were in Obama's first ad hitting McCain.
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New York: John, hope you can take an early question. I agree Bush is unpopular, but don't the GOP stalwarts at the convention comprise that 20 percent who still like him? Thanks.
John Dickerson: Yes the convention folk still like Bush (although at 65% his approval among Republicans is low). So McCain has to be careful. He can't look like he's casting Bush aside. There will be lots of talk of his effective response to 9/11 and then they'll try to talk about popular Republicans like Arnold.
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Washington, D.C.: Will Slate be doing an Obama/Carter thing like this? When Carter was president...unemployment was double what it is now and we were literally being take hostage all over the world. Seems like a more astute comparison, considering their policy similarities.
John Dickerson: Nice try! There may be similarities but we're talking about a nearly 30 year gap. As a political matter the link to Bush is rather obvious and therefore of greater peril to the nominee whose party leader is at very low approval ratings. That isn't to say McCain didn't try to link Obama to Carter, but he ultimately dropped the idea because it didn't work.
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Kingston, Ontario: Mr Dickerson: No matter what McCain's original intentions were, it seems he is being forced back into the standard GOP playbook. The opponent cannot be trusted because 1. he is un-American, too concerned about foreigners, etc. 2. he is a defeatist, doesn't support the troops, etc. 3. he will raise taxes, believes that the government should be involved in the economy, etc. These charges have been highly successful in the past. Is there any reason to think they won't be again? Regardless of the actual facts of the case, they cater to an entrenched mindset.
John Dickerson: You've got a very good point. They might work again (though Obama's offbase charge about racism dilutes his more reasonable claims that McCain has been making a series of baseless claims recently) But I wrote last week why this is a problem for McCain: 1. His brand was supposed to be more high-minded. Lets see if independents bolt because of this new harsher attack. 2. People are sick of this kind of campaigning. McCain will be seen as the slasher and people will forget Obama took the first swings (which he did).
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Northvillle, N.Y. : Okay, an obvious question, but I'm sure others want to know: what does he do with the real president, Cheney? Prime time? Middle of the night? Other?
John Dickerson: I don't know what they do with Cheney. McCain's not a big fan of Cheney's so maybe they send him hunting.
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Champaign, Ill.: Hello Mr. Dickerson. Thank you for your great pieces at Slate. The recent polls baffle me. What effect can we expect the conventions to have on the candidates' (as of late, seemingly stagnant) popularity? Will they both receive bumps and cancel each other out, remaining strangely close in the national polls? Or will the visual difference between McCain's convention troubles that you describe here and Obama's stadium-sized victory speech lead to starker differences in popularity?
John Dickerson: The polls baffle me too. They should. It's to early. People are paying attention but not making up their minds much, I don't think. In a lot of ways the polls haven't moved or if they have the movement has been somewhat meaningless -- statistical blips or the result of low information voters picking up on the latest ad they've seen. A lot of people out there are undecided. Having said that, and adding normal pound of salt: Some things I'd like to know the answer to. The swing of independents to McCain in FL? Is that about drilling? Also, 17% of D's say they'd vote for McCain only 9% of R'say they'd pick Obama. I thought McCain had the base problem.
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New York: Bush is accused of damaging the Republican Party and diminishing its chances at gaining either the presidency or a majority in congress, but I have the feeling that he really doesn't care -- and that he never really did care. If this is true, what does he care about? Only his legacy? Or did 9/11 completely obscure any other issues/beliefs for him? Thanks.
John Dickerson: I think he does care about his party and his legacy. He thinks his legacy will be peace in the Middle East through a free Iraq. He thinks he'll be proven right after he's dead. On politics though, he used to talk about an entire generation of people who would go into the Republican party saying " I am a Bush Republican," the way they did with Reagan.
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St. Paul, Minn.: Hi John -- Thank you for taking questions today. It's always good to hear your insights on Washington Week as well. My question is a little broader than the convention, but somewhat related. It's clear that Sen. McCain, despite promises to do things differently than Bush, is adopting Bush's playbook in terms of the campaign so far (going after Sen. Obama on character issues -- witness the "skipped visit with the troops" ad, the "Obama is too famous to be president" ad). Is it your sense that, this time around, these tactics are not being well-received? And even it that's the case, might they still work well enough to hurt Obama?
John Dickerson: Hey, thanks for watching Washington Week the show in which I somehow can't talk at less than 100 mph. I think these attacks do damage to a candidate with what we might call a non-traditional resume, but McCain has a big downside I think. He can't talk about Stratight Talk when he's been running the ads he has.
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Saint Paul, Minn.: John,
Love your reporting keep up the good work!!
Do you think it's possible President Bush won't even speak at the convention? His approval ratings are as low as Nixon's, but didn't have the "benefits of resigning" (as you mentioned in your piece). Could these ratings cause McCain's campaign to ask him not to show? What do they have to lose, especially after the bad summer McCain has had thus far? If Bush does speak at the convention, will this be the first time a sitting President will significantly hurt his own party's nominee by giving a convention speech? Looking forward to my hometown being the center of the storm.
John Dickerson: He can't duck out now. It's on the schedule and the WH has announced it.
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Crestwood, N.Y.: Thanks for the article; I was wondering about this myself. Since the attendees are mostly big fans of Bush, I would think he'll give a valedictory talking about how he saved us from another attack and made the tough choices, blah blah blah with no apologies. A Giuliani speech; 911 all the time. Anything else would be hugely out of character -- can't you hear "My Way" playing in the background already?.
My question is how the nets and cable will cover it, or if they will cover it at all live.
Also, has McCain taken on so many Rove people, neocons and federalistas at this point that the strategy regarding the Bush appearance won't necessarily be that of the candidate, but one made by loyal Bushies? The guy currently calling the shots, who is behind all these crypto-racist ads, is from the Rove family; the former McCain advisers have been shunted to the side.
John Dickerson:>>behind all these crypto-racist ads, is from the Rove family
I haven't seen a single ad that fits this description or comes close.
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NYC: Bush had several heavy handed domestic policies that mostly failed (Social Security, immigration). How much do you think it hurts McCain that he's more of the same?
John Dickerson: Interesting question. SS was a huge failure. People didn't want it. For a time, the country did want "comprehensive immigration reform." McCain is all over the map on these two issues. He was fo SS reform and has talked about it recently (gettin in trouble with his base for appearing to countencance a payroll tax increase). On immigration he's moved around some but still ticks off huge portions of his base because he supported what they called amnesty.
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Re: Bush's 20 percent: His base, his supporters will be there. Will we see a convention dedicated to them or to the TV audience that checks in for about 5 minutes a night, 3 times during the week?
John Dickerson: The convention is all about the TV audience.
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St. Louis: Is the Presidential race actually closer than the polls indicate. The reason I ask is I work as a door greeter at a large "box" store, and the only Obama campaign buttons I see are worn only by African-Americans. Seems like even "yellow dog" white Democrats are hesitant about their support. Or, is my impression wrong?
John Dickerson: Hard to say where the race is. It's a horrible year for Republicans so McCain should be in worse shape. But people still have doubts about Obama. McCain is trying to increase those doubts. Here's the question though: when people pay attention to Obama will they buy in. That's what happened in many places during the primaries. He was stuck in July 07 and then he took off-- slowly up up he went.
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Pure Cynicism: Do something that temporarily worked for Clinton when the Lewinsky stuff was supposed to be first breaking: Find a new country to bomb, so he gets called away from the convention. How's that work out?
John Dickerson: My former colleague Hugh Sidey used to joke, quoting a Johnson adviser durin Vietnam: "we need a new war." Not a joke any more...
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Helena, Montana: President Bush has recently given us numerous glimpses of his sense of rhythm and tap dancing skills. I suggest giving him a 4 or 5 minute slot (and a company of backup dancers) to star in a well-produced number ala the Tony or Grammy Award shows.
This could be construed as below the US President's dignity, but it would be a fitting swan song... and party conventions are all about theatre these days anyway.
John Dickerson: There might be dancers outside the arena during the speech to distract from it.
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Alexandria, Va.: I would just like to comment that it would be a mistake to disrespect the President in any way. Even though his approval ratings are very low, there is a core group of people that really love President Bush. It's amazing to me how high his approval ratings were after 9/11, but then when having to make the tough decisions to prevent another 9/11 many people change their opinions completely. This is the price you pay by not being a poll driven President. Unlike Bill Clinton who didn't kill Bin laden when he had the chance for fear or what the rest of the world would think.
John Dickerson: I don't think there will be any disrespect. I just think the McCan camp will do everything short of putting an enormous book on page and actually having the candidate turn the page.
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Re: St. Louis: The example of "buy-in" I've seen bandied about is the 1980 example. Carter and Reagan were even going into the debates, where neither side really 'won' but people overcame their doubts. So far, it seems like people lean Obama but have doubts rather than are split between Obama-McCain.
John Dickerson: Yes, this example has gotten lots of play. Makes sense to me except for the fact that these historical analogies usually have one huge flaw which we don't discover until after the analogy breaks down. The alternative is Ford/Carter. Careter was up by a big margin but then Ford chipped away and only barely lost because people were worried about Carter's untestedness.
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Green Bay, Wisc.: It seems that the latest Republican scandals (Sen. Stevens, in particular, but also the embezzlement mess with the Republican committees, etc.) have been breaking in time to affect the convention. How will they avoid the glow of indictments and inquiries affecting their big show?
John Dickerson: By holding it in the dark? It's a problem. The Republican brand is a mess.
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Ashland, Mo: The most popular regular TV program is American Idol, which is seen by less than 15 percent of the population. Even fewer people watch the evening news. Newspaper circulation is declining. Few people read many books. This isn't the '60s (or even '70s or '80s) any more. Is it possible political reporters and politicians assume more people are paying attention than actually are? That, in fact, politically-oriented people now live in a bubble or echo chamber instead of the "real" world?
John Dickerson: You can never go wrong questioning whether we all live in a bubble. I think people aren't paying much attentntion-- certainly not now. But I think conventions play out in local papers and on the national news in a way the normal day to day doesn't play out. So I think conventions can punch through. Also, team Obama can work hard to make it stick.
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Baltimore: Love the Republican effort to tie Obama to Carter. Not only is Carter's administration ancient history for those 40 and under, but Carter (1) named Paul Volcker Fed chief with the mandate to choke off inflation, which Volcker did after years of its rise under Nixon/Ford (2) forged a still extant piece between Israel and Egypt after those countries had fought 3 wars and (3) correctly prophesied the coming energy crisis and actually began substantive work on alternative energy sources by the federal government, all of which were undone by the Reagan administration.
I would say that wasn't a bad record for four years. The fact is, if the Iranian hostage rescue had worked, Carter would have had a second term and Reagan would not have gotten 200 plus Marines blown to bits in Beirut.
John Dickerson: You make a good case though I think Obama won't make that case. He's also got to keep his distance from Carte on the Israel question. I wonder what they'll do with Carter actually. The hero of the convention will be Kennedy, if he's well enough, Carter' 80 primary opponent.
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Odessa ,Tx: Put a sack over his head & duct tape his mouth?
John Dickerson: The Secret Service discourages this behavior.
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Harrisburg, Pa.: I was just sitting at the bar with some of my fellow Pennsylvanians, debating whether today to turn to God or to our Gods to get out of our dispair, when we saw the new commercial where Britney Spears and Paris Hilton support Obama. We realized that if Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, whom we presume are Republicans, can support Obama, then Obama must not be all that bad afterall.
John Dickerson: I hear many people do still drink at lunch.
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Seattle, WA: Somewhat cynically, is there a way for Bush to speak in a way that's only covered by Fox News or other conservative outlet? That'd be my pick.
John Dickerson: I think it would only happen if Bush held up the Fox logo. It'll be interesting to see what the networks do though. Will they carry the president live?
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Dallas, Tx: Are there any updates on Debates or Co-Hosted Town Halls? Is it going to be a restrictive as 2004?
John Dickerson: There are supposed to be 4 debates but that'll shrink and the town hall idea seems dead for the moment. The Obama team kinda dinked out on it though part of the current back and forth is about whether the idea will come back
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John Dickerson: Okay everyone, I'm off. Thanks very much for your questions.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 31, 2008 Thursday 12:00 PM EST
Potomac Confidential;
Washington's Hour of Talk Power
BYLINE: Marc Fisher, Post Metro Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 9228 words
HIGHLIGHT: Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion by Metro columnist Marc Fisher who looks at the latest news with a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.
Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion by Metro columnist Marc Fisher who looks at the latest news with a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.
Fisher was online Thursday, July 31 to look at the demise of Scrabulous, the threatened partial shutdown of D.C. libraries, and the latest on Tim Kaine's possible vice presidential candidacy.
Check out Marc's blog, Raw Fisher.
Archives: Discussion Transcripts
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Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard, folks--oh my, some strange and disturbing stories out there this week, much to chew over on this mid-summer edition of the big show.
The Prince George's police are surpassing even their usual extraordinary selves, shooting up a mayor's house and dogs for no apparent purpose--the county police chief picked the right time to announce his departure. (More on this below...) A Bethesda teenager turns out to have quite the arsenal at home--and, potentially even more frightening, a list of home addresses of teachers at his D.C. private school. And we've had quite the debate all week over on Raw Fisher about the Fairfax teen who was expelled from Thomas Jefferson High School for failing to maintain a B average.
All those depressed Scrabulous players mourning the demise of their addictive online game must now turn to the alternative time-waster, the vice presidential guessing game, in which Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is getting more than his 15 minutes in the speculation chair, and Virginia Republicans, desperate for anything that looks like a victory, are almost ready to sell John McCain down the river if they can get hold of the governor's mansion through a Kaine resignation.
In the District, it's time to play budget brinksmanship, as the city's library system announces it will shut down all of its branches every Friday and slash hours throughout the rest of the week if the mayor and council don't immediately cough up millions of dollars. Will Adrian Fenty blink (the eyes may be among the few body parts he has that weren't injured in the past few weeks, as the invincible mayor has suffered two injuries during his athletic endeavors)? I wouldn't count on that happening: If it's not about the schools, I don't see Fenty going terribly far off his agenda for any other city agency or service.
On to your many comments and questions, but first, let's call the Yay and Nay of the Day, which happens to include today's most outrageous story....
Yay to the news from the Smithsonian that the American History museum is finally going to reopen, but what's this about a museum of the Armenian genocide now slated to open in the old National Bank of Washington building at 14th and G streets NW? Is there no end to the Balkanization of the city's museum scene? Armenian genocide? That will really pack in the tourists, huh?
Nay to the Prince George's sheriff's office SWAT team and county police narcotics officers who decided to shoot first and talk to any survivors later when the cops raided the home of the mayor of the little town of Berwyn Heights this week. The cops were there because a box containing 32 pounds of marijuana had been delivered to the home of Mayor Cheye Calvo, who denies any knowledge of or connection to the illegal weed. But rather than, say, knocking on the door, or asking the town's police chief if he'd get the mayor to come out and chat, the cops went in guns blazing. Quote of the day comes from the town's police chief, Patrick Murphy: "You can't tell me the chief of police of a municipality wouldn't have been able to knock on the door of the mayor of that municipality, gain his confidence and enter the residence." But it's so much more fun to shoot up some dogs and crash into the house hungry for action, isn't it?
Your turn starts right now....
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washingtonpost.com: I've Got The Scrabulous Withdrawal Shakes (Raw Fisher, July 29)
Marc Fisher: And now the Indian gents who brought you Scrabulous have a new word game up on Facebook. At first glance, it looks both remarkably like Scrabble and awfully confusing, but I'm willing to give it a try....
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washingtonpost.com: Police Raid Berwyn Heights Mayor's Home, Kill His 2 Dogs (Washington Post, July 31)
Marc Fisher: This is already turning out to be a pretty one-sided discussion, based on a quick glance at your outraged comments on this story. So consider this a special appeal to anyone who thinks the cops did the right thing--let's hear your argument.
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washingtonpost.com: Armenian Genocide Museum of America
Marc Fisher: The good news: At least something will go into that building, which has been an empty, gloomy presence on that prominent corner for far too long.
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D.C.: Marc - boy does this story out of Berwyn Heights have my blood boiling!
I lived in Berwyn Heights a few years back and would run into the mayor - before he was mayor - walking his dog all the time. He was pleasant man and the dog matched.
Most of the comments to the Post article are about the brutal shootings of Calvo's two labs. They shot one as he was running away! And the outrage is justifiable.
I'm totally disgusted and wish my old neighbor luck in suing the county for every penny he can get! The likelihood the county could charge him or anyone - the supposed package of pot was never opened; talk about deniability! - would be minimal if the case wasn't going to turn into a media circus. Now the county is going to have to find a way, any way they can, to charge the mayor or his wife so they can shield themselves from a lawsuit.
There are reasons my current house search excludes PG County... and this is just another notch.
washingtonpost.com: Police Raid Berwyn Heights Mayor's Home, Kill His 2 Dogs (Washington Post, July 31)
Marc Fisher: Of course there are good questions to be asked about why the big box of pot was addressed to the mayor's house, and if he indeed has clean hands, maybe someone else in the house--his wife and mother-in-law are being called "persons of interest" by the cops--was up to no good, but still: There is zero evidence that anyone had even the slightest suspicion that Mayor Calvo might be dangerous or uncooperative in any way.
This sounds purely like a bunch of hopped-up cops gunning for some action.
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Berwyn Heights: Marc,
What is going on over there? Why on earth was a SWAT team sent to the mayor's house, over a suspicious package? Why were the dogs shot? Is this the sort of thing that can happen to any of us if we bring in a package of uncertain origin? I do this all the time, when my husband has ordered something I don't know about. Could someone send a box of drugs to me, just to provoke the police into raiding my house, killing my pets, and holding me at gunpoint?
Were the police sure the box contained marijuana? Did they ever open it, or just confirm that a drug-sniffing dog targeted it? What if the box contains some hemp product?
Marc Fisher: Now there's an interesting possibility: A box full of hemp coffee, hemp protein powder, and hemp pet supplies (for the shot-up dogs, natch) from everything.hemp.com (I kid you not)--sounds like something that might well happen in Berwyn Heights. But no, I'm willing to at least credit the cops with having checked beforehand to be certain the package really did contain marijuana. At least I hope so. Still, I wouldn't want to be the lawyer defending the police on this one...
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Fairfax County: Full disclosure -- I am the parent of a TJ (not 4.0 GPA) graduate. Regardless of how you feel about the grade-point rule, don't you think there's a problem with the family taking their complaint to the media? I think too often people think they can shame their adversary into giving them what they want. I fault the Post for enabling the family in this case. And I fault you even more for allowing the student to vent in your blog. He comes across as a spoiled brat, and I don't see how all this attention can't do anything but hurt him in applying to colleges. I would have never allowed any of this to happen with my child, and I'd certainly never hire this kid if he applied for a job with my company. Do people not think about these things?
washingtonpost.com: At Thomas Jefferson, 2.8 Is Tantamount to Failure (Washington Post, July 26)
"Breeding Ground For Arrogance Doesn't Deserve Me" (Raw Fisher, July 30)
Marc Fisher: Well, as a reporter, I'm obviously going to be on the side of the family telling its story, but of course I understand the argument that the parents are cementing or even exacerbating the damage to their son's reputation by airing his story to the wider world. But in this case, I don't buy it: By taking a stand on the principle--that as long as they are not harming others, adolescents ought to be allowed to make mistakes and correct their ways, and that a school ought to encourage that, not make it grounds for the death penalty--Matthew Nuti and his family are presenting themselves as caring, thinking people. Yes, it exposes the young man to public ridicule, but by and large, the response to his story has been a serious discussion of the merits of TJ's policy, and that's to the credit of the Nutis.
As far as college admissions go, the way Matthew has conducted himself through this whole debate can only help him. His case comes off not as sour grapes, but as a passionate and reasoned stance on behalf of a totally legitimate argument. That's the sort of thing college admissions officers love.
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Alex., Va.: It's a bad plan by TJHS to change the academic standards in the middle of a student's academic career. If TJHS felt the need to up their standards, they should have implemented for the next Freshman class, and allowed the Sophomore, Junior, and Senior classes to progress under the standards that they were matriculated under.
Also, was the student that you covered the only one who was thrown out?
washingtonpost.com: At Thomas Jefferson, 2.8 Is Tantamount to Failure (Washington Post, July 26)
Marc Fisher: Jay Mathews' story in the Post last Saturday reported that there were a handful of TJ students who were tossed because their grades didn't reach the 3.0/B average that's now become the minimum for staying at the selective school.
I agree that a longer lead time would have helped, but I still don't see any justification for substituting a ridiculously high cutoff for the reform that TJ and many other schools really ought to make, which is restoring a meaningful and broad grading system that stops coddling students and parents with the preposterous notion that a large majority of any class could be A students.
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Washington, D.C.: Marc,
I found Matthew Nuti's letter to be well-written, and passionate. I am not really concerned with whether or not Matthew Nuti was "wronged" or not, but either way, it was an interesting read. I found, however, the loads of hate mail in the comments section to be completely ridiculous. Some of the criticism was valid, but most of it was not. And ALL of it was anonymous.
Out of curiosity, did any of the students of TJ (who seem well-represented in the anonymous comments) contact you about responding to Matt's with a signed letter of their own? The anonymous vitriol reeks with the bratty elitism of those that tend to have a hard time taking real responsibility for their actions.
washingtonpost.com: "Breeding Ground For Arrogance Doesn't Deserve Me" (Raw Fisher, July 30)
Marc Fisher: Quite a few TJ students and alumni have been active on the comment boards on this issue, which obviously hits close to home for them. But you're right--they are almost all anonymous comments, and no, very few, or perhaps none of them have seen any merit in attaching their names to their comments. That's sad, and yet it is of course the very nature of this medium and the comment boards. People gain a certain degree of courage--and brazen aggression--through anonymity. I'd much rather we had names attached to all comments, but of course that would render most comment boards pretty lonely places.
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Centreville, Va.: Other than they are friends, what does Tim Kaine bring to the Obama ticket?
washingtonpost.com: Kaine in 'Serious' Talks With Obama (Washington Post, July 29)
Marc Fisher: He's Catholic, he speaks fluent Spanish, he won in a Republican state, he's a moderate Democrat, he's likeable, he has a clean reputation in a very Obamian way, and he's simpatico with Obama in style and content.
Downsides: He has no signature success to point to in his term as governor, he's not nearly as popular as Mark Warner was before him, he's shown little ability to get the Republicans to play ball with him (a Warner strength), and his departure would return Virginia to Republican control. And it's not at all clear that having Kaine on the ticket would guarantee that Virginia go Democratic in November.
My bet: It doesn't happen.
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MD:"Well, as a reporter, I'm obviously going to be on the side of the family telling its story . . ." REALLY?????
as a reporter, aren't you supposed to gather facts from both sides and present an accurate and balanced story?
Marc Fisher: Absolutely right, and the way to get all sides of the story is to encourage everyone to tell what they know and then present those versions of reality to readers to decide for themselves. If the Nutis had not come forward, we would have no way of knowing whether the school's decision to expel Matthew had merit. Encouraging everyone to tell their story is any reporter's first obligation.
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Marc Fisher: Well, as a reporter, I'm obviously going to be on the side of the family telling its story, but of course I understand the argument that the parents are cementing or even exacerbating the damage to their son's reputation by airing his story to the wider world. : Wrong! Aren't you a COLUMNIST, not a reporter? A report shouldn't be on anyone's side. A reported job is present us with a factual, unbiased account of events. Let readers make up their mind.
Marc Fisher: A columnist is an odd hybrid--any decent columnist is always and foremost a reporter. When a columnist is merely opining on the news and isn't adding any value, taking the reader to the voices and places in the news, then your best bet is to simply turn the page. But yes, a columnist goes beyond standard reporting and speaks with a point of view--that does not, however, absolve the columnist of the obligation to present a full view of events. In this case, Post reporter Jay Mathews did the original reporting and presented the Nuti case from both the family's perspective and the school's.
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Arlington, VA: Marc-
Not to beat a dead horse, but you were way off base with your TJ column on Monday and Matthew Nuti is even more in the wrong with his take on what has transpired.
As a TJ graduate who had far from perfect grades, I can say without hesitation that any student there can meet the minimum grade requirement if s/he works hard. I spent way too much time on extracurriculars and social activities - had I applied even a fraction of that time to studying my grades would have been much better. The minimum GPA is a great incentive for students who want to be there to focus on their education.
Going to TJ is a privilege and all students there have the responsibility to make the most of the opportunity or get out of the way for someone who will. That being said, going to TJ - or not - does not determine your success or failure in the real world. No matter where you've gone to school, a strong work ethic will take you much farther than a high IQ. Unfortunately, this last point seems to be lost on both you and Matthew.
Marc Fisher: If doing the minimum work gets you a B average, something is deeply wrong with the grading system. If TJ had a full range of grades that were distributed relatively evenly, and Nuti still managed a B-minus average, that would be a slightly above average performance--certainly not the stuff of expulsions. If however a more stringent grading system resulted in him being a truly failing student, then indeed he should be culled from the class.
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Washington, D.C.: THE COPS DID DO THE RIGHT THING
IF they truly felt the dogs were threatening them in any way, then they had every right to put them down. These are animals people... not humans.
Marc Fisher: Absolutely--if the dogs were indeed threatening the cops, then they needed to protect themselves and do away with the dogs. But there's no reason for the situation to have gotten to that point: Had the police asked the Berwyn Heights chief to intercede for them, or had they simply called the mayor and asked him to come outside, or knocked on the door and asked to speak to the mayor, there'd have been no need for a scene in which, as the mayor said, "my government blew through my doors and killed my dogs."
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L' Enfant Plaza, DC:32 pounds in a lot of pot for anyone. I can understand the reasoning behind bringing the SWAT team, but it strikes me as overkill still. Could they not have just brought the drug crimes unit out? I'm curious to hear about the rest of the story as there seem to be a lot of missing parts.
So, reserving judgment for now, but not happy.
Marc Fisher: If Joe Pothead receives 32 pounds of dope in the mail and the cops get wind of it, sure, bring in the narco squad and assume that Joe is a big-time dealer who might not be happy to see the men in blue. But if the recipient is the mayor, and the mayor is known to all as a good guy who works at a school and is no gunslinger or creepy fellow, then a call to the local police chief for advice or intercession seems the prudent path, no?
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Berwyn Heights, MD: When I lived in Berwyn Heights during my time as a student at UMD it was dope. I had no idea about the chronic though.
Marc Fisher: And there we have it. Firsthand info.
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Chicago IL : What's so terrifying about this Berwyn Heights fiasco is that it exposes a fantastic way to frame somebody and get them really punished. Just ship a box of pot to some unsuspecting person. They won't know what it is, they're not expecting it and they have nothing to do with it. But try telling that to some gun-toting SWAT team and they'll just shoot your dog. What a way to play the authorities.
Marc Fisher: Several folks are asking if that scenario is plausible. Doesn't seem so to me, but surely if someone were to try that as a way to frame someone, we now know it could well have the desired effect.
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mayor issue: just to play devil's advocate: why should the sheriff's department treat the mayor differently? if this was a standard procedure for someone getting a delivery of drugs of that size, then so be it. We can debate whether the process is correct or not, but if the process exists, it should be applied to everyone. Mayors included.
Marc Fisher: Not expressly because he's the mayor, but because police usually--and correctly--make judgments about whom they are dealing with. When you go to some corrupt lawyer's office to arrest the guy for a white-collar offense, you don't assume that you are going to have to break down the office door. When you go to arrest the high school teacher who's been getting too friendly with the students, you similarly don't assume that this will be a violent encounter. But when you arrive at the gangbanger's place, you're smart to bring some backup and be ready to rumble. Same with the mayor: It's not the fact that he's a pol, but the fact that he has a reputation for being an upstanding citizen that should govern how you make your approach.
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MD: AM I the only person in the world who won't bring a package into my house that I didn't order, don't recognize an address on, etc? And I'm not the only one in the household . . . we always know when packages are expected, and if not, I'll call the shipper before I will touch it.
Marc Fisher: Before today, I'd have said you were being a touch paranoid--and I still want to believe that, but your argument does gain some ground at least for a few hours.
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DC: Marc- It is becoming increasingly common for jurisdictions, including small, relatively crime-free ones, to create SWAT teams and use them to serve many if not all drug warrants. In a disturbingly large number of instances, SWAT uses far more force than is necessary to accomplish their results. This is a case in point.
Marc Fisher: Good point--there's a fair amount of literature in police circles casting considerable doubt on the effectiveness and need for SWAT units, for exactly that reason: They do tend to ratchet up the tension and violence in some situations.
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Alexandria, Va.: A package full of marijuana - this has to be a joint agency operation right? Someone with the USPS, or UPS or FedEx or whoever delivered the package must have alerted the authorities (I would imagine that the smell of 30 lbs of marijuana would be difficult to mask). The authorities take the package, inspect it, verify it is marijuana and then they seal it back up and deliver it in a sting like operation.
With all that, how does it go so wrong? I'm not saying anyone is innocent or guilty, it just looks poorly handled at the end there.
Marc Fisher: I don't hear anyone arguing that this was a textbook example of how to do the confrontation.
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Arlington, Va.: Good reason not to have a gun in the house: you might get shot not knowing who's breaking down your door, cops or robbers.
Marc Fisher: Yes, imagine how much worse this one could have gone if the mayor had greeted the arrival of the dog-shooting cops by facing the authorities with his own weapon.
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Arlington, Va.: Since it looks like the poor mayor is the victim of a witch hunt and the writing is on the wall that the cops and prosecutors need to convict him by any mean necessary I would give them something real to charge me with. He knows the pigs who killed his dogs. I would avenge my dogs and execute these slime bags in the worst way possible and plead insanity!
I tell you if the pigs in Fairfax County harmed or killed my dogs after I got out there would be a little revenge happening for these donut eating scum!
Marc Fisher: And there's the other side of that little side issue.
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RE: Centerville : We need someone with more international policy and experience than Kaine.
The Veep has a whole lot of stuff abroad and domestic to clean up once in office.
Marc Fisher: I've thought for many months that Obama will end up picking someone with obviously strong foreign policy and military credentials, someone more along the lines of Sen. Jack Reed, Sam Nunn or Chuck Hegel. But of course if the McCain line on Obama has any truth to it, the Democratic candidate may believe that he's already taken care of any doubts about his ability to handle things foreign.
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Alexandria: While the possibility of Virginia's governor as a running mate for Obama garnered a lot of publicity, why not another hometown boy as a possible VP, though on the Republican side: Oliver North. He knows a thing or two about negotiating with Iran: selling guns to their so-called moderate mullahs to curry favor with them.
Marc Fisher: Oh sure, another failed pol turned talk show host returning to politics--just what we need.
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Washington, D.C.: Does Barry ever mention the evils of permanent charity? Does he ever mention that by providing all needs for free to people, he makes them dependent, and slaves? I count Barry as one of the worst long term influences on DC, right there with crack and the Federales, as he institutionalized a culture of handouts, charity, dependency, and permanent infancy among so many. Like the $4 he gave out, doesn't he ever consider that maybe its best to say no to such requests? I'm no conservative and I believe in charity, but in places like Ward 8 or Georgia Ave it simply has created a culture of dependency (Barry-endency?)
washingtonpost.com: D.C.'s Eternal Mayor Watches Over His Ward (Washington Post, July 31)
Marc Fisher: Ok, there's truth to your point, but what I've been struck by watching Barry over the past couple of years is the extent to which he has moved away from that old rhetoric of constantly seeking more government support for the poor. He still positions himself as the defender of the "least and the last," but like so many other liberal inner-city politicians, he has adopted the language and even some of the positions of more market-based approaches. It's something of a shocker to hear Marion Barry preaching on the benefits of bringing market rate housing to Ward 8, but that's where he is.
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Real World: I am always amazed at how much parts of the District love the "Mayor for life". He is the worst that politics have to offer. He is constantly race bating and pitting NW against the rest of the city. I don't know what's more insulting, that he actually used the message the "witch" set me up, or that people embraced his statement. I guess him and the city deserve each other.
Marc Fisher: Don't confuse the still-powerful adoration of Barry in the city's most impoverished sections with any citywide viewpoint: To the contrary, most of the District has long since tired of Barry's antics, and there's no question that he'd lose any effort to regain citywide office. The population of Washington has changed rather dramatically over the past 15 years, and racial change is the least of it--rather, there's been a big shift in class and education level among blacks and whites alike, resulting in far lower tolerance of that kind of divisive politics that Barry specializes in. The result electorally is the Fenty and Williams mayoralties.
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DC: I have a nearly irrational hatred of Marion Barry. They say that in a democracy, the people get the leaders they deserve, and by golly, Ward 8 has what they deserve thanks to their inexplicable support for the Honorable Crackhead. When you write about him in a positive way, do you find yourself admiring him in spite of yourself, or do you have to hold your nose?
What do you think is behind Ward 8's defense of this drug abusing liar?
Marc Fisher: Like many reporters, I've long had a very ambivalent view of Barry--he's a political force unlike almost any other, and has an almost magical touch with some parts of the city, yet he presided over an extremely destructive and debilitating era of Washington history, cynically enriching developers and consultants and playing a big role in creating the middle class that became Prince George's County's bedrock. He's a bundle of contradictions, and therefore an endless source of fascination as a character to write about.
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Marc Fisher: Good point--there's a fair amount of literature in police circles casting considerable doubt on the effectiveness and need for SWAT units, for exactly that reason: They do tend to ratchet up the tension and violence in some situations. :
Can you cite some examples or is this just more speculation?
Marc Fisher: Do a web search and you'll find volumes of debate on the efficacy of SWAT teams. Here's a start:
http://law.jrank.org/pages/10652/Swat-Teams.html
http://law.jrank.org/pages/1693/Police-Special-Weapons-Tactics-SWAT-Teams.html
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Washington, aka La La Land: RE SWAT. Did the SWAT team overreact, yes, that's what SWAT teams do. I am amazed by the number of people who think the mayor should have gotten special treatment. Why on god's green earth would anyone think a mayor who has a package with 32 pounds of pot in it, it was not delivered to the wrong address it was tracked from AZ, not expect to be treated like anyone else?? Should the mayor's kid get special treatment under zero tolerance at school? This was not a sting a la the Mayor for Life.
Marc Fisher: It's not that he was the mayor, it's that he is, like the town funeral home director, baker or principal, entitled to the presumption that he won't greet the cops with gunfire. Cops treat different kinds of suspects differently based on who they are--their standing in the community, their reputation as good citizens. It has nothing to do with the fact that he's a pol.
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Columbia, Md: Where have all these people complaining about police overreaction been? The over-reaction has been going on for ages. Look at the militarization of the cop forces that have been going on for the last couple of decades.
However, if they've been involved consistently they would realize that cops live in a gray area.
Not every drug dealer can be classified as "gangster" or "upstanding citizen". Saying it's over-reaction because the Mayor is involved in the community is opening the door to all sorts of lawsuits against the police. Where is the dividing line? If a drug dealer contributes money to a local school, can they expect a preliminary phone call to a raid? It's easy enough to say to use judgment from the sidelines, however it's quite different in the trenches.
So, before we go condemning the cops, let's let all of the facts come to light. The mayor may not be as innocent and upstanding as you expect. Which would support the SWAT teams approach.
Marc Fisher: Could be, and if we learn that the mayor was a hothead who had been railing against the cops and enforcement of drug laws, you'd have a strong case. But the initial reporting is quite the contrary--this mayor seems to be a responsible guy who, to all public appearances, could have been trusted to come to the door and talk things over. But the police needn't have taken that chance--they could have simply called the local police chief and asked him to help out.
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Arlington, VA: Part of the problem in Berwyn Heights is the whole SWAT mentality. There was a proliferation of SWAT units formed around the country in the 1980s not because of a perceived need but because the military was offering a lot of surplus goods. Those first generation freebies have had to be upgraded with new, more expensive toys. When you spend so much money on your toys, you feel like you need to use them. Thus you pull out the SWAT team to take down a mayor or an optometrist/bookie.
Marc Fisher: Right--see above.
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Former Berwyn Heights Resident: The PG cops made a split second decision and were right. Labs weigh up to 70 pounds and can be very vicious when defending their owner. There is no way 32 pounds of weed is addressed to the Mayor's wife by accident. Also, Berwyn Heights police department consists of 3 part time officers and they do not handle felonies. Their main focus is writing traffic tickets and teen vandalism.
Marc Fisher: Yes, a small municipality's police force is likely ill equipped to handle this kind of case--but that doesn't mean that they don't know their community well and couldn't serve as a useful resource when the big guys come in to make an arrest.
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"only' dogs were killed: Marc, there was a well-publicized case in Fairfax several years ago when a SWAT team was sent out to arrest an optometrist for illegal betting (I think). He had no arrest record and was not known to be violent. One of the SWAT team members bumped his gun getting out of the car and it went off, killing the suspect. It would be awful to have family pets killed, but maybe they should be thankful that humans were not shot. I would imagine a lot of adrenaline is pushing through the body of a SWAT team member when they are confronting someone.
Marc Fisher: Good of you to recall that case--that was a far greater tragedy, and also completely unnecessary.
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Centreville, VA: Have the Police Chief go to the door? That sounds like special treatment. The mayor should be treated the same as every other citizen who is having drugs delivered to their home. Generally the police are criticized when they DO give special treatment to politicians, now it's the other way around. Keep in mind, a judge, not the police, signed the search warrant.
Marc Fisher: You don't really believe that: Do you really want the cops to bring in the SWAT team and call a whole slew of patrol officers off their beats every time they make a drug arrest? That would paralyze police forces. Cops have to make judgments every hour of every day about how dangerous a given situation is and who might be on the other side of the door, and they are right in those judgments virtually every time--if that weren't the case, we'd have a whole lot more violent confrontations than we actually have.
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Media, PA (really - it's near Philadelphia):"Well, as a reporter, I'm obviously going to be on the side of the family telling its story . . ."
Did I misread this? I thought you meant that, as a reporter/columnist, of course you're going to be on the side of having a story told, not necessarily that you were obviously going to be on the side of the actual people who were the doing the telling.
Marc Fisher: You didn't misread it, I phrased it awkwardly: What I am saying is that a reporter's job is to encourage everyone on all sides of a story to tell what happened and then for the reporter to synthesize all that and tell the tale in a way that everyone involved would recognize as being true to his version of reality.
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San Jose, CA: Did it ever occur to you that Matthew Nuti should have never been admitted to TJ in the first place? If he thinks the school is 'elitist', why stay there? He was given enough time to improve his grades, but he decided play sports instead. My problem is having a two bit columnist and the family of a below average student telling the principal of TJ how to run his school.
Marc Fisher: Nuti had the test scores and the grades to get into Jefferson or he wouldn't have been there; it is an extremely tough place to get into. If he then proved to be inadequate to doing the school's work, then the school ought to work with him to get him back on task. And if he then continues to fail over a protracted period and proves impervious to help, that's when it becomes ok and even necessary to make room for another student who is better able to take advantage of the opportunity. This case doesn't seem to have come close to that point.
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McLean, Va.: Marc, I am a 2000 TJ grad who probably didn't have much more than a 3 average. My mother, who works at the CIA has told me about programs there that help people with alcohol and addiction problems. Obviously if they had those problems when they applied, they never would have gotten cleared to work there, but the agency doesn't immediately give up on their employees when they have been there for a while without trying to help them. In a way I feel that TJ has some responsibility to help the people it accepts. High School is four years and although you can take it year by year, I can't imagine wondering every semester, I have to get above an 84 (B-/C+ cutoff in Ffx. Co. Public Schools) to stay in school. I sincerely hope they at least tried to help him stay before punting him off to a new place.
TJ really is what students make of it. It has a strong affinity with other FCPS high schools, with an added curriculum and a slight change in courseloads. Those of us on the lower end of the grading scale were often looked at as "dumb" by our guidance counselors. Mine told me I couldn't make it into UVA, which I did. I CHOSE VT because I wanted to be an engineer, and liked the greater choice in Blacksburg. At least I WAS actually interested in Science and Tech.
Marc Fisher: Terrific comment and a strong analogy. In any selective institution, whether a school or a workplace, getting in the front door proves that you have certain aptitudes and achievements, and then life happens. Especially in a high school, kids might find that their interests change, their passions shift and outside events take them for a loop. A school's job is to work with the kid, not to heave them out the door--at least not unless or until the kid is acting against others or spurning all help over an extended period.
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Just kids: Mr Nuti and more than a few of the posters on your blog made the point that they are just kids, that cause/effect are interpreted differently, that brains don't mature until 25, etc. If that is the case, should we let these mentally immature individuals drive 2 ton Machines of Death? Should we let them vote for President, a job that could end up nuking us to smithereens? Should we even let them serve in the military, draft or volunteer, and give them access to automatic weapons in this sketchy rules of engagement world? Until recently I would have said "yes" but I'm starting to rethink.
Marc Fisher: No, we should not let them drive, at least not till they're 18 or 19. And no, we should not let them serve in the military either. But of course we are two-faced, three-faced and beyond in our inconsistent and illogical ideas about when teenagers become mature enough to drink, vote, drive, kill, etc.
In far too many cases, we give teens permission to do things mainly for the convenience of parents and other adults, not because they are emotionally or physiologically prepared for the job at hand.
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Spent One Year at TJ: I spent one year at TJHS.
The focus at TJ was to train the mind of the student body with almost an Olympic mentality. The focus was who was the best. Nothing else matter.
I have two good memories of TJ, neither involved class. One was winning a 5 OT basketball game, the other was winning the first football game by TJ students. (I was a member of TJ's second class).
I have countless positive memories of PSHS. In the class room and outside of it. They taught the whole person. Many of my most valuable experiences came from dealing with students TJ would never have let in. TJ is not good for the students. Too narrow a focus and too much pressure for a teenager. I had that opinion long before the 3.0 rule.
Marc Fisher: I'm sure you're right for yourself and for many others. And then I'm also sure--because I've seen it--that TJ is a terrific atmosphere for kids who thrive on that kind of self-imposed pressure (and who generally have zero need for the institution to add pressure of its own, such as the 3.0 rule). People are different--a good school recognizes that and works that bit of reality into its model and its approach to student behavior.
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Silver Spring: On the TJ grade point issue. I have followed this, somewhat. I always get a bump in my BS indicator when someone says they or someone else is standing on principle for something that is of direct benefit to them. Standing on principle is objecting to the policy before your kid runs afoul of it. It seemed that the parents chose TJ because of the types of polices they are now complaining about.
Marc Fisher: But the new grading system was imposed after Nuti and other current students arrived at the school. And the school had a terrific record of achievement long before it added this effort to cull the least-achieving among its students.
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Burke, VA: As a taxpayer in Fairfax County Thomas Jefferson needs to go or the county needs to spend the same amount of money and provide the same quality of teaching to all students. Provide extra resources and the best teachers to best and brightest and most motivated is discrimination! It must be stopped. These kids at TJ will succeed at any HS in the FCPS system. Let's help the students that need it!
Marc Fisher: Oh, so only kids at the low end of the achievement scale should get teaching and a community crafted to help them? Kids at the other end of the scale can just take care of themselves? Every kid deserves to be met and challenged at his level--that's what good and decent schooling ought to strive for.
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Silver Spring: Matt Nuti complained about TJ being "elitist" in the letter on your blog. He had no problem with them being elitist when he was accepted to the school at the same time that numerous others were rejected. Now that the kid gets rejected he suddenly realizes the school was "elitist"!? I actually do not have a problem with that though. I can understand how someone could be blinded by idealism or friends and recognize the problems of the group one joins or the decisions one made to join that group.
But now, after recognizing TJ for the "elitist" school that it is... he still wants back in? Marc, this makes no sense.
Marc Fisher: Let's assume you and he meant elite rather than elitist--a highly selective community, rather than a holier-than-thou attitude. In that case, yes, Nuti wanted to be part of a place that expected him to work unusually hard and be held to very high standards. He then fell short of those standards. If he wants back in, that would seem to demonstrate that he still thinks he can make it there and that he craves that sort of challenge. If he had the grades and scores to get into TJ in the first place, why shouldn't he be allowed to give it a try? If, on the other hand, he proves to be a slacker and spurns help from his teachers over an extended period, then it's not the right place for him.
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Bethesda, MD: Focus on what matters: does Manny get dealt today?
Marc Fisher: I say No, if only because the rumor mill's versions of events have become so convoluted. But I hope I'm wrong--I'd love to see Manny take his act elsewhere, both because I'm a Yankee fan and because I'm genuinely curious to see if he could stir himself to give a damn somewhere, anywhere. He's a fabulous character, with one of the most fascinating faces to watch in all of pop culture.
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Vienna, VA: I want to submit another topic for discussion. I ride the Orange line to work every day, and despite the isolated problems in June, it is a terrific way to commute. However, last night it took me 2 hours to get from Crystal City to the Vienna stations. We were not even told until we were on the platform in Rosslyn that there was a problem, and passengers on a train that unloaded them all there told us they were single-tracking and we had to go upstairs. Since then, I watched the news last night and today, read the Post, and went onto Washingtonpost.com and other news Web pages, and cannot find a single word about what happened. As usual, the biggest issue was communication. We had a train operator when I finally got onto the train that was wonderful in asking us for patience, and in explaining that in addition to the single tracking, he was having trouble opening and closing the doors, but was going to do everything he could not to shut it down, and he did.
Marc Fisher: Communication should be the easy part--and the lack of it does more to destroy the goodwill that a system such as Metro has than does any number of technical screwups. Yet Metro and other such institutions seem almost incapable of being straight with their customers. It's really not that hard.
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Bethesda, MD: Off topic, but from a born and bred DC'er.
I recently had a burger and onion rings at one of the newly fashionable gourmet burger outlets. I was more than disappointed, so I won't name it. What I'd really love is a Burger, fries, and an Orange Freeze. Do you know of any of these new burger places that do Orange Freezes, a la the Hot Shoppes?
Marc Fisher: Oh come on, name the place.
I haven't seen an Orange Freeze knockoff at any of the fancy new burger joints, not even close. Anyone?
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But of course we are two-faced, three-faced and beyond in our inconsistent and illogical ideas about when teenagers become mature enough to drink, vote, drive, kill, etc.: Exactly. People aren't mature enough to drink until 24, to vote until about 30, to drive until 19 and to kill until... wait, did you just say we are multi-faced in our ideas of when teenagers become mature enough to KILL???
Marc Fisher... he's for increasing the age for when killing is permitted. Wow.
Marc Fisher: What's the Wow for? Do you think high school seniors are by and large mature enough to be on a battlefield thousands of miles away, making split second decisions about life and death while under fire from unseen enemies? Aren't the greatest warriors and strategists always people considerably older than that?
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Fairfax, VA: You decry NIMBYism frequently in your columns. Do you think elements of a community should respond to NIMBYism beyond the narrow issue at hand, particularly when public resources are expended responding to NIMBY lawsuits? Should they shun the NIMBYites at public gatherings? Pressure public officials not to appear at "open forums" where NIMBYites are present? Monitor public actions by NIMBYites, say applications for variances, and turn out to oppose the NIMBYites?
Marc Fisher: Yes, the more overtly politicians and other citizens confront NIMBYs and call them out for what they are, broadening the debate beyond the very local issue at hand, the better the chances that the overarching policy initiatives in question will prevail over the selfish desires of those who live next to whatever's being proposed.
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washingtonpost.com: ZBurger in Tenleytown has tons of milkshake flavors, maybe they have something orange flavored? What is an Orange Freeze anyway? - Elizabeth
Marc Fisher: That would be a very good place to start this search--they do have some wacked flavors there...
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Two Things, VA:1. We lost another jazz great this week, Johnny Griffin. Are you keeping a running tally of all the towering jazz figures who have died in the last year or two? It's a long list. Has anyone replaced these people in the public consciousness?
2. About VPs, what do you think the impact would be of McCain selecting Eric Cantor? He's a long shot, but it would excite many Virginians. I'm just not sure it would excite ANYONE up here in Northern Virginia, who probably haven't heard of this up and coming GOP legislator from their own state? Also, he's Jewish, which would be a plus for a ticket with two white guys.
Marc Fisher: Sadly, the true greats are almost all gone now, and the very top of the next tier seems to be disappearing before our eyes. And no, there is no mechanism for replacing those greats in the public consciousness, as the death of jazz radio, the end of music instruction in most public schools, and the demise of record stores have virtually eliminated the main ways in which previous generations got hooked on jazz. It's almost a matter of chance now for anyone to get into any forms of music that aren't aimed at a mass market.
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McLean, VA: While we're on the subject of shootings, is it time to symbolically shoot the Nationals and put this season out our misery?
Marc Fisher: Well, it's pretty grim, but within three or four weeks, you'll start seeing some of the best prospects come up from the minors, and while that won't likely do much for the W-L record, it should be an encouraging showcase of talent that's developing for the next two or three seasons. That said, this coming off season is the time for the owners to prove that they are serious about making this team a real major league operation.
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Spent One Year at TJ: Having teenagers (or anyone) place that much pressure on themselves is not healthy. Having an A is Acceptable mentality will step people up for long term failure. (Depression, burn out, etc.)
Adults are supposed to teach children how to develop into well rounded adults. TJHS does not do that ... yes some make it through the experience, but they are the most gifted students, having some succeed is not surprising. They would succeed anywhere.
The resources tied up at TJ could be better used making sure some marginal student better, TJ students will thrive in any environment.
Marc Fisher: Nonsense. Some kids are indeed pushed by craven parents to take on more of a challenge than they want or need, but most kids who are in places like TJ love that kind of challenge and put it on themselves regardless of the policies or attitudes of the teachers, administrators or parents in their lives. Yes, TJ has an obligation to help its struggling students, but for those who thrive under those conditions, it's downright destructive to tell them that they should deprive themselves of the pressure they love.
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Armenian Genocide Museum? Really?: As an American of Armenian heritage, I am constantly amazed by how often the Armenian genocide appears on the agenda. Why on earth should there be a museum? I don't think it should swept under the carpet of history, but I hardly think it merits any more attention than countless other despicable episodes of human cruelty that have occurred in the last century - even in the last few decades, well after we supposedly learned the lessons of the Holocaust. If it must exist, I hope the museum has an explicitly much broader focus than just the Armenian genocide.
Marc Fisher: And why it ought to be on 14th and G, or anywhere in this city, is beyond me.
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"Let's assume you and he meant elite rather than elitist": Do you read your blog?
"Well, I have fallen victim to an elitist attitude, from a school."
It is in his letter above... and again:
"Elitism is always a fun topic."
and again:
"Now the administration wants to introduce arrogance and elitism to an otherwise exceptional student body."
Maybe before you take the side of Matthew Nuti you need to understand what his side is? He is calling the school "elitist" (not "elite") and he still wants back in. Do you see something wrong with that?
Marc Fisher: I think it's fair to say that he is misusing the word. I wouldn't base my judgment of him on his failure to use the right word.
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Fairfax: Re TJ cutoff: I'm the parent of a TJ graduate, but that really doesn't matter. what does matter is that no one seems to know or care what kind of grading system is used. If it's "mastery" or "criterion-referenced" then everyone who demonstrates that he/she has fully mastered the course material can and should get an A. If it's norm-referenced, or "curve" grading, then grades should be normally distributed. Unfortunately, our K-12 system typically uses some ill-defined hybrid, so it is impossible to know what a given grade means. If TJ uses mastery system, then I would expect a very high grade distribution, and it is justifiable to say that if you can't keep a 3.0 (e.g., learn material to a reasonable criterion), you're out of here. If it's on a curve, it would be absurd to keep only those who are above (TJ's) average. Lake Wobegon, here we come!
Marc Fisher: Right...
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Silver Spring:"If doing the minimum work gets you a B average, something is deeply wrong with the grading system. If TJ had a full range of grades that were distributed relatively evenly, and Nuti still managed a B-minus average, that would be a slightly above average performance--certainly not the stuff of expulsions."
Oh come on, Mark. Obviously, a B-minus GPA didn't put him in the middle of the pack, or more would be kicked. TJ doesn't grade on the Bell Curve -- so what? The point is, they set a standard that they felt would help ensure a student is in "a learning environment appropriate to their academic challenge and motivation level." While I think an argument can probably be made that a high GPA cut-off may not be the best way to determine that, in Matt Nuti's case, seems to have done exactly what it was designed to do. He is clearly not a highly motivated student! This isn't some poor kid who got good grades and signed up for extra tutoring but was denied a diploma for failing a graduation test -- now that's an arbitrary cut-off. He failed to turn in major assignments! Seems to me he's a lousy poster child for changing the rule. Those opposing it need to find some poor expelled kid who turned in all assignments and approached teachers for extra help to represent their cause -- if there is such a student.
Marc Fisher: Well, perhaps he's not as motivated as most TJ students, but reading his defense, I'd say there's a reasonable case to be made that he has a pretty good idea of what he's capable of and might turn out to be someone who gets a lot out of a TJ education.
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Grade Inflation: Not sure if this is still the case, but when I was looking at colleges, MIT had incoming freshmen take all their courses pass/fail. The grades still meant something there at the time. It turns out the top one percent of students weren't used to being in the middle of the pack. It doesn't matter how narrow your focus, there's always going to be a bottom half. The grades rightly reflected the relative performance within the class. An average grade at an excellent school is by no means an embarrassment.
If Nathaniel Hawthorne were alive today, do you think Hester Prynne would be wearing a scarlet A-?
Marc Fisher: Ha! Good comment.
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Dupont Circle: I saw your blog entry about the Third Church, but what is your impression about landmarking the Hinckley Hilton? It seems to me that only the significant works of architects should be landmarked, and this one didn't seem to fit.
I also don't understand why people would support the landmark nomination of it precludes the owner to have to deal with the parking and loading dock issues?
Marc Fisher: The preservation board seems to have been all over the place on that case. There's a far better case for preserving the Hilton than for preserving the Christian Science church, but either is a stretch, and approving the landmarking of the Hilton without providing useful guidance on the proposed expansion of the development doesn't help anyone.
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Silver Spring, MD: This is geezer talk, but when I was in high school in the early 60's a Mighty Mo, large onion rings, and an orange freeze cost just about $1.00 total. And the "Mo", though much like a Big Mac, was far tastier.
Marc Fisher: It's long before my time, but I'm told the rings were the best part of that deal.
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Orange Freeze: The chain Steak and Shake (have to go towards WV and KY to find them) used to have an orange freeze--not sure if they still do (I know they have lime though!) and I think I just saw an Arby's ad for something very similar but called something else (Orange Swirl maybe?)
Marc Fisher: Thanks--
Ok, that has to wrap things up for today. Many thanks and ritual apologies to all those I couldn't get to today.
The big show goes on its annual break and will return here on August 21. I hope you get some time off too. The blog will continue throughout, however, so please do check in over at Raw Fisher, and thanks for coming along.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 31, 2008 Thursday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Lois Romano, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2726 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Lois Romano was online Thursday, July 31 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Lois Romano: Good morning everyone. Thanks for joining us today. There are so many good questions already, so I'll get started.
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Oakton, Va.: Hi, I can't help but wonder about McCain's team when I see the new "Celeb" ad. Didn't Reagan prove that good visuals outweigh negative voice over? Because if you just look at the pictures, the "story" is that Obama is a hugely exciting person who even has celebrities come to his events. And then they cut to McCain looking alone... so very alone.
I guess my question is, why is McCain camp so bad with the visuals? First that green screen, then the golf cart with Bush Sr., the German restaurant, the cheese aisle, and now this. It will be entertaining to see what is next, but at the same time you have to cringe at the amateurishness of it all.
Lois Romano: I agree. I came away with the same impression when I first saw the ad-- Obama looks dynamic and young which obscures the message. At this point in the game, McCain is trying various strategies to see what-- if anything-- might get traction.
You will see him tarred as a liberal, an elitist, a novice and a celebrity. So far not much has stuck.
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D.C.: So Lois: tell me how this works. The McCain campaign, staffed with Rove/Bush veterans, puts out ads suggesting that Obama can't be trusted because, essentially, he's arrogant and let celebrity go to his head. The media, while not endorsing the claim, per se, repeats it and repeats it and repeats it. But, where's the media push back? Does anyone an the McCain calls ask how a candidate who wears $500 shoes, has seven homes, has a TV movie made about his life and has flown mostly on private jets over the last couple of years can claim the other candidate is arrogant or out of touch? When will the media do more than repeat the charge but question the sources? Have the Bush years and the snow job they've done on you folks had no lesson? Or, is it that the elite media don't think that $500 shoes, private planes, multiple homes are so out of touch with America?
Lois Romano: Wow - you got a lot into that question. I disagree with your premise.
First of all, I would direct your attention to a story that appear in the Post this week, calling McCain on the carpet for accusing Obama of ducking a visit to the troops.
And secondly, the celebrity ad was widely reviled everywhere and I suspect we won't be seeing much of it.
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Evanston, Ill.: The past couple of election cycles, the National Journal has crowned the Democratic presidential nominee as the "most liberal senator." Each time, this has pretty clearly not been the case. What's going on here? Is it just that campaigning requires so much time away from the Senate that they only return for votes on key liberal issues? If so, why is the NJ comfortable putting out this misleading characterization?
Lois Romano: Obama was labeled the most liberal senator before he started traveling. They analyze voting record using benchmarks set by liberal organizations such as the ADA, or ACLU.
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San Diego: How long can McCain keep running ads like he has been over the last week and a half without tarnishing his straight-talk, reformer image with independents and the media? Is he likely to pull back before the Olympics, having energized the base, or is this Steve Schmidt's plan for the entire fall?
Lois Romano: I do not think they have a plan for the entire fall. Obama is proving to be a very hard candidate to run against because people are so curious about him. That being said, so far McCain has been holding his own in the polls. Despite all the media coverage lavished on Obama, he is running just a few point ahead of McCain in national polls.
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Gettysburg, Pa.: Obama told Sarkozy that he was going to take a week off in August. I assume that this will be a week while the Olympics are on? What will the campaigns be doing, if anything, during the Olympics when even most of us political junkies will be focussed on something completely different?
Lois Romano: Plotting and planning. My guess is that McCain will be getting ready to announce his VP choice -- which he will do after the Olympics. Obama will be getting ready for the convention.
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Downtown D.C.: Dear Lois: thanks for the chat. McCain has put out a series of negative ads. The buys have been very small, the impact has been great because the media -- both MSM and internet -- have picked up the story and run the ads again and again in their effort to "report" and "analyze." The McCain people must be feeling pretty smug, not for the content of the ads but for getting such great free publicity from a media that can't seem to help itself, especially when it comes to negative ads. Can't you folks help yourself? Are you at all concerned that this cycle puts you in the position of doing a candidates work for them? I mean, shouldn't they at least have a massive state, local or national buy before the media bends over and gives them a freebie?
Lois Romano: The media always runs the ads and public decides whether they are effective. I would argue that the media also helps circulate bad ads that backfire.
The latest McCain ad "celebrity" comes to mind. I haven't see any rave reviews about it.
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Boston: The Swift Boats come out during the doldrums of late July/early August. If an attack as patently false as Swift Boats comes out this year, will the media allow itself to be used as it was in '04 when the ad ran once but the coverage was non-stop?
Lois Romano: The power of the 527s -- advocacy groups that are not restricted by FEC rules -- was not apparent until 2004. So I do think they will be approached differently by the media and candidates.
Part of the problem with the swiftboaters was that they had the microphone to themselves for weeks. John Kerry refused to respond to the attacks until it was too late. I don't think you'll Obama sitting on his hands.
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" Obama was labeled the most liberal senator before he started traveling. They analyze voting record using benchmarks set by liberal organizations such as the ADA, or ACLU.": So you agree with this labeling, that somehow he's more liberal than Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an actual socialist? Really?
Lois Romano: I haven't analyzed the voting records so don't play gotcha with me.
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D.C.: Hi Lois. I enjoyed reading your well-written profile of Patty Solis Doyle yesterday. But I felt a bit annoyed at the self-pity (hers) that seemed to seep through, as well as at her denial that she didn't know how she was perceived by the Hillary campaign team. Is she in denial, or just not terribly introspective?
washingtonpost.com: Surviving the Free Fall (Washington Post, July 30)
Lois Romano: I think she's still processing everything. Its been a tough year and she believed she was empowered by Clinton.
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RE: "Media attention lavished on Obama": Can you explain the thinking behind your statement about the media's "lavishing" attention on Obama?
To me this seems grounded in a false assumption, one conveniently being pushed by conservatives: that reporting on Obama = supporting or at least bolstering him. But of course it is the nature of this reporting matters. Non-stop (over-the-top) coverage of Jeremiah Wright is not a good thing for his campaign, whereas scant coverage of McCain's many homes and expensive tastes is a good thing for his campaign.
Lois Romano: All true. I had last week's coverage in mind. By any objective standard, he had a very good media week and McCain did not.
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Washington D.C.: Let's say for the past two months, Candidate A has been running a lot of negative ads, and Candidate B has been running a lot of positive ads. There's no formal study confirming this, but it's obvious to most people playing close attention.
Do you think news outlets have a responsibility to point this out to readers and viewers, on their own initiative? Or do you think it would be too activist-taking sides, and should wait for one of the candidates to raise the issue?
My general point is that in every campaign, I see numerous examples of misleading attacks that are only rebutted by the media if the candidate's campaign pushes back fiercely. The WP's article on McCain's extremely misleading ad was wonderful, but why are these articles the exception and not the rule? What's wrong with taking a candidate's sides for an issue if it's the byproduct of the truth?
Lois Romano: A number of news organizations -- including the WP and NYT -- regularly analyze ads for veracity. You see bigger stories when the campaigns push back because the push back becomes part of the news.
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Rolla, MO: The "town hall" format campaign visit is supposed to be McCain's strength and Obama's weakness. Yesterday Obama came to my little town in the middle of 'red' America and packed a gym with many people turned away. He did as well or better than McCain in any of the town halls I've seen (on the web). His push into rural Missouri (and I gather other rural areas in swing states) shows he's not ceding the territory or format to McCain. My question is whether McCain is also pushing into any Democratic strongholds?
Lois Romano: yes, you will see McCain push into many democratic northeast strongholds because he does very well with independents. As does Obama -- so you will them go toe-to-toe for than demographic. As we all know, elections are decided by only 15% of voters -- swing voters and independents.
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Bethesda, Md.: Do you think someone at Obama HQ is scouring the archives to see if McCain ever canceled or postponed a visit to a military hospital?
Lois Romano: Probably. But I think they are likely putting resources into finding other more powerful contradictions. McCain has been in public life far longer than Obama, so he has a rich history to study. As a newcomer, Obama's trail is short so McCain must look for errors minute to minute.
_______________________
Re: celeb ad: McCain has built up a lot of good will with the media by granting them access in the past. Is that why he's getting a free pass on his nasty new ads? What would happen if another candidate ran ads like this?
Lois Romano: You obviously have not been reading the papers and watching TV if you think McCain has been getting a free ride. The NYT all but accused him doing legislative favors for a special female lobbyist, his lobbying ties have been explored thoroughly, and his negative campaigning is being noted.
_______________________
Dunn Loring, Va.: Sen. Obama continues to reference his race and, as noted by Jake Tapper at ABC, yesterday implied that Sen. McCain and his campaign was racist. Have you seen anything from McCain and his representatives (not some someone unassociated with the campaign) that justify Obama's claims? Is this just another Obama exaggeration?
Lois Romano: I have not seen anything from McCain's camp suggesting racism. But I did not see Jake Tapper's report so I don't know what Obama did or did not imply.
_______________________
San Francisco: If McCain isn't running for Bush's third term, why is he using Bush's re-election team?
Lois Romano: Truthfully, there is a limited pool of true political pros that have been involved in presidential campaigns before. I don't know who you're referring to. But I am referring to people like Steve Schmidt who is a sharp operative -- not a Bush cheerleader.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.: Morning Lois, Got a question about campaigns: why do opposing campaigns "go dark" during a political convention? Tradition or by agreement? Thanks
Lois Romano: It's not an agreement, but a long-standing tradition. If something signifiant happens, you will hear from the other side. But generally, its understood that the convention will dominate the news so why waste time and resources to be heard.
Also, the opposition does send high profile surrogates to the conventions to respond to charges etc.
_______________________
New York: Lois, what's to be gained by picking the VP's chief of staff before picking the VP? Shouldn't VPs pick their own top people? Thanks.
Lois Romano: Usually done by the campaigns. The VP will be working for the Obama campaign -- he/she does not run a separate operaton. So to ensure that everyone is on the same page and same message, presidential candidates needs a COS who reports to him not the VP. That being said, the VP will bring a few staffers with him/her.
_______________________
London, U.K.: "liberal organizations such as the ADA" - Sorry, I know the ACLU but am drawing a blank on the group which is the ADA? I thought that generally refers to the Americans with Disabilities Act or your dental association (if I remember correctly a tube of toothpaste I purchased over there).
Lois Romano: Americans for Democratic Action
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Reading, Pa.: Lois, why isn't Bill Richardson on any of the VP lists being batted around?
Lois Romano: Who says he isn't? Don't believe everything you hear. These talks are quite private.
_______________________
Minneapolis, Minn.: They also pick the Veep's COS in advance so that they can hit the ground running without having to worry about building their staff after the announcement.
Lois Romano: Correct. Thanks.
_______________________
New York: Steve Schmidt was the Bush-Cheney 2004 Campaign's chief spokesman -- perhaps you have a different definition of "cheerleader" than the rest of us do.
Lois Romano: So? He was Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign manager too -- and George Bush and Arnold don't have much in common.
In my book, that makes Schmidt a pro not an ideologue.
_______________________
Re: "free ride": Despite what you say about the press giving McCain more scrutiny, would you not agree that his gaffes -- claiming Iraq and Pakistan shared a border, not remembering his own votes, confusing Shia with Sunni, etc. -- would completely destroy another candidate? Tell me honestly -- if Obama (or Romney or Hillary) had made these mistakes repeatedly, the press would have crucified them, righ? You can't not believe this.
Lois Romano: Good question. I'll leave that for readers to judge. But if you look at the comments on the story (online) a number of readers did note that the story said much about the Clintons.
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Winnipeg, Canada: So far McCain seems to be more error-prone than George Bush, if that's possible. Meanwhile Obama seems to be doing everything right. From this side of the border it's a mystery why McCain isn't about 30 points behind in the polls. Can you explain it?
Lois Romano: Or why Obama isn't ahead 30 points. That is a question many politicos are asking. We haven't seen the poll results yet from his trip overseas- so that could tell us something. His goal was to show himself as statesman in order to give people a comfort level. He would like to see those numbers go up 4 or 5 points.
_______________________
Anonymous: Is the gum Obama's chewing Nicorette and does he dye his hair?
Lois Romano: I think I read that it was an anti-nicotine gum. You're on your own with the second part of the question. I don't know and I don't care.
_______________________
Lois Romano: Well, its good to see so many people engaged in the process. Thank you for all your great questions. See you in two weeks.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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July 30, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
With Commercial, McCain Gets Much More Than His Money's Worth
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 15
LENGTH: 845 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
The number of times Senator John McCain's new advertisement attacking Senator Barack Obama for canceling a visit with wounded troops in Germany last week has been shown fully or partly on local, national and cable newscasts: well into the hundreds.
The number of times that spot actually, truly ran as a paid commercial: roughly a dozen.
Result for Mr. McCain: a public relations coup that allowed him to show his toughest campaign advertisement of the year -- one widely panned as misleading -- to millions of people, largely free, through television news media hungry for political news with arresting visual imagery.
Political campaigns have for years sought to broadcast their ads free by making them intriguing enough to draw wide coverage from news outlets.
And Mr. McCain's campaign has proved particularly adept at getting such free air time in recent weeks, as news stations endlessly repeat the advertisements, which feature provocative visuals that can fill time during a relative lull in the campaign season.
The campaign's success in getting such wide coverage of the ad, evident through new tracking technology, comes as it seeks to maintain parity with Mr. Obama's better-financed campaign in their intensive television advertising war.
A new study by the Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin shows that in terms of paid advertising, Mr. McCain has so far been able to nearly match Mr. Obama's volume with help from the Republican Party. But the early advertising suggests a heightened ad war this election cycle: Together, the two sides have combined to spend more than $50 million already on general-election commercials, running roughly 30 percent more spots than President Bush and Senator John Kerry had at a comparable point in 2004.
And as Mr. Obama's campaign begins to intensify its advertising drive, including a planned campaign during the Olympics in August, television's receptivity is a welcome boost for Mr. McCain.
''For McCain, it's the cheapest and most efficient way to keep himself in the game when he's up against a candidate who's essentially going to have unlimited funds,'' said Kenneth M. Goldstein, director of the Advertising Project.
New television monitoring services, put to use by The New York Times this week, vividly illustrate just how wide an audience Mr. McCain's latest spot reached at relatively little cost.
The spot accuses Mr. Obama of canceling a planned visit to wounded American troops during a visit to Germany last week because it ''seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras.'' Mr. Obama said he had no plans to bring cameras. He canceled his visit amid what he said was concern he would appear to be using wounded troops as pawns during the overtly political leg of his trip.
As an announcer says, ''He made time to go to the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops,'' the spot shows Mr. Obama playing basketball -- without noting that it was during a visit he made to active-duty troops in Kuwait earlier in the week.
Mr. McCain's campaign released the advertisement on Saturday afternoon, and it was shown on television news before it made its first appearance as a paid commercial, during ''Saturday Night Live,'' in Denver. The late local news on the NBC affiliate there, KUSA, showed much of Mr. McCain's commercial in a report about its coming run. ''He's putting it in front of your eyes here in Colorado before anywhere else,'' said the anchor, Carrie McClure. The report included a brief rebuttal from Mr. Obama.
The spot got extensive coverage on ''Face the Nation'' and ''Fox News Sunday'' the following morning. Those programs are available on scores of stations. And the Web sites of The New York Times and other news outlets posted links to it.
Yet, by the end of the day, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, it had actually run all of six times as a paid advertisement.
The free Sunday morning coverage also showed the limits of relying on news programs to carry advertising: A guest on ''Face the Nation,'' Senator Chuck Hagel, the Nebraska Republican who traveled with Mr. Obama abroad, called the spot ''inappropriate''; Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, said on ''Fox News Sunday'' that the ad was ''beneath John McCain.''
Similarly, on MSNBC, the chief foreign affairs correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, said Monday: ''Obama had no intention of bringing cameras with him. I was there; I can vouch for that.''
Nevertheless, the advertisement ran in part or in full roughly two dozen times within the news coverage of MSNBC and the Fox News Channel, and less frequently on CNN, according to a review on ShadowTV, a database of programming on cable and nearly 100 television stations.
Early Tuesday morning Brooke Wagner, an anchor at the CBS affiliate in Denver -- where the ad first ran Saturday night, on the NBC affiliate -- again introduced the spot. ''A new TV commercial from John McCain is criticizing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama,'' Ms. Wagner reported, before showing much of the ad.
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July 30, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
INSIDE THE TIMES
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LENGTH: 2248 words
International
LIVING ON IN CRIMINAL LORE,
If Not in Russian Society
Vory v Zakone, a Mafia-like caste forged in the Soviet gulag, has long held a hallowed place in Russia's criminal lore, something akin to the notorious Five Families in the annals of New York crime. But though the Vory's influence appears to have waned, Russians have long had an affinity for the group, perhaps because it has come to symbolize opposition to the country's often arbitrary political and legal practices. PAGE A8
AUSTRALIA CHANGES ASYLUM POLICY
The Australian government is ending its policy of automatic detention for asylum seekers who arrive in the country without visas, and said detention in immigration centers would be used only as a last resort and for the shortest possible time. The presumption will be that asylum seekers will remain in the country while their immigration status is resolved. Previously, illegal immigrants who made it to the Australian mainland were immediately sent to detention centers while the government sifted through their claims for asylum, a process that could take years. Above, one such refugee, bleeding from razor wire, cries out moments before a 2002 breakout from the Woomera Detention Center. PAGE A8
BUSH PRESSURES CHINA ON RIGHTS
President Bush held private talks with five prominent Chinese dissidents and urged China's foreign minister to relax restrictions on human rights. The talks are part of an intensifying effort by the White House to put pressure on Beijing before Mr. Bush travels there next month for the Olympic Games. The president has faced considerable criticism from human rights advocates and members of Congress for his decision to attend. But his meetings on Tuesday drew praise from some of those critics. PAGE A8
PALESTINIAN BOY KILLED IN PROTEST
Israeli security forces shot and killed a Palestinian boy during a demonstration against Israel's security barrier in the West Bank, Palestinian witnesses said. An Israeli Army spokeswoman said the military had no knowledge of the shooting and was waiting for the results of an autopsy. But a Palestinian group that campaigns against the barrier said that the boy was resting under a tree after the demonstration when he was shot in the head. PAGE A8
COURT PERMITS U.S. BASE TO EXPAND
The top court in Italy gave the green light to an expansion of the American military base in Vicenza. The Pentagon is seeking a larger base to house an entire brigade, now divided between Italy and Germany. But pacifists and residents of Vicenza say that the expansion will damage the environment, make Vicenza a target for terrorists and strain public services. PAGE A7
National
JOHN MCCAIN THE JOVIAL,
Meet John McCain the Not So
The happy warrior side of John McCain may still be stuck on his campaign bus from 2000, the Straight Talk Express. Recently, a much more aggressive and negative Mr. McCain has shown up on the campaign trail. He hammers Barack Obama repeatedly on things like policy differences and trustworthiness. Some Republicans worry that by going negative so early, and starting so many of the attacks himself, Mr. McCain risks coming across as angry or partisan in a way that could turn off independent voters, writes Michael Cooper. Political Memo. PAGE A15
QUAKE HITS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
The most powerful earthquake to strike Southern California since 1999 hit 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday morning. It cracked walls and floors of homes and buildings and knocked pictures off walls, but there were no reports of major injuries or damage. The earthquake registered a 5.4 magnitude, and was felt as far east as Las Vegas and south to San Diego. PAGE A11
MARRIAGE HURDLE CLEARED FOR GAYS
Massachusetts moved closer to erasing a hurdle that blocked most out-of-state gay men and lesbians from marrying in the state. Following a vote by the State Senate two weeks ago, the House voted to repeal a 1913 law that prevented Massachusetts from marrying out-of-state couples if their marriages would not be legal in their home states. PAGE A11
IOWA TOWN UNVEILS PLAN TO REBUILD
Seven weeks after Cedar Rapids, Iowa, went under water in the biggest flood ever recorded there, city officials and their consultants showed residents a framework for rebuilding. Many thousands of people remain displaced from the wreckage of their homes. The first glimpse of the redevelopment plan did little to assuage the concerns of flood victims, who say they do not know where -- or if -- they should rebuild. PAGE A10
STANDING ON PRINCIPLE TO THE END
Samuel Snow died refusing to cash the Army's check, but not before receiving a long-awaited apology. Mr. Snow, a retired janitor who was a soldier in World War II, died early Sunday, 64 years after he was wrongly convicted in connection with the death of a prisoner of war at a military post in Seattle. At a ceremony hours before Mr. Snow's death, a top Army official formally apologized to him. PAGE A10
African-Americans and AIDS A10
Mixed News for Nation's Beaches A11
Metro
FORMER COMMUNITY MEETS ONLINE
To Save an Aging Church
The roof at Holy Rosary Church in Harlem is badly in need of repairs, to the tune of $2 million. Some former residents of the neighborhood, which was part of the largest Italian American community in the country, have been organizing online to raise money for the renovations. PAGE B3
METROCARD MACHINES STILL ON FRITZ
A widespread malfunction blocking the use of credit or debit cards to purchase MetroCards from New York City subway station vending machines continued for a second straight day, delaying commutes and sending thousands of frustrated riders back to the street in search of automated teller machines or change for a $20 bill. PAGE B1
Business
IN DONE SUPERMARKET DEAL,
An Unscrambling of the Eggs
A federal appeals court ruled that a lower court had inadequately considered the effect on customers that would result in a $565 million merger between Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats Markets. The ruling cast doubt on the future of the merger, which for all practical purposes has already occurred, with 27 Wild Oats stores reflagged as Whole Foods stores and four Wild Oats locations shut down. PAGE C3
NO WAIVER FOR FARMING PENALTIES
Despite pressure from food manufacturers and politicians, the agriculture secretary, Ed Schafer, said the department would not waive penalties against farmers who planted crops on land set aside for conservation. He cited a coming harvest that was expected to be more robust than originally thought after floods ravaged fields in parts of the Midwest. PAGE C1
TELECOM EXECUTIVES TO STEP DOWN
After months of pressures from shareholders upset over billions of dollars in losses, the two top executives at Alcatel-Lucent, the French-American telecommunications company, said they would step down by the end of the year. Patricia F. Russo, the American chief executive, and Serge Tchuruk, the French chairman, engineered the $10.6 billion merger two years ago, which left analysts skeptical from the start. PAGE C1
EUROPEAN AIRLINES MULL MERGER
A proposed merger between British Airways and the Spanish carrier Iberia could herald further consolidation in Europe as the airline industry faces slowing growth and higher costs. It would be the first major alliance between European carriers since the recent surge in oil prices pushed fuel costs to record levels. PAGE C3
Weak Ad Sales Bog Down Viacom C5
Dining Out
ONCE A HOT COMMODITY,
A Seller of Meats Is On the Outs
Last summer, Jay Dines's all-beef hot dogs and thick-cut bacon was all the rage at New York City farmers' markets, earning rave reviews from food critics and bloggers alike. Fast forward a year, and Greenmarket, which runs 45 farmers' markets in New York City, kicked him out of the program. Greenmarket gave little reason in public, except the following: ''We at Greenmarket take our grow-your-own policy and standards very seriously.'' PAGE F6
A WHITE (OR BROWN) CANVAS
A thought experiment: try to name the defining characteristics of a salad. Mark Bittman can't narrow them down either, but says that those lax parameters open a world of possibilities, especially when the base ingredient is rice. Some recipes for several dishes that are easier to prepare than they may be to define. PAGE F3
BORDEAUX'S OTHER WINES
The Bordeaux region in France takes almost literally the jocular maxim that the first duty of wines is to be red. But the region is also home to some of the most thrilling, underappreciated white wines in the world, even though they often command a higher price than the reds from the same producers. Eric Asimov, The Pour. PAGE F1
Sports
IRAQ GIVEN PERMISSION
To Compete in Olympics
Iraq will be allowed to compete in the coming Beijing Games, albeit with a probable Olympic contingent of two athletes. The International Olympic Committee authorized the country's participation after it received a last-minute pledge that Iraq would properly revamp its national Olympic organization. PAGE D2
RECONSIDERING BRETT FAVRE
Brett Favre may have glittering statistics and accolades, but is he what the Jets need? Or could they take a shot at a championship with Chad Pennington or Kellen Clemens under center? If last season proved anything, it's that teams can win a Super Bowl without a great quarterback if they have a signal-caller who plays well in the postseason. William C. Rhoden, Sports of the Times. PAGE D1
FORMER N.B.A. REFEREE SENTENCED
Tim Donaghy, the former N.B.A. referee whose admissions of gambling on games he officiated led the league to change many of its policies, was sentenced to 15 months in prison. It was a relatively lenient sentence based on federal guidelines. PAGE D7
Arts
A LITTLE BIT RAFFI,
A Little Bit Rock 'n' Roll
By day, Paul and David Zablidowsky and their good friend Joey Cassata are an in-demand children's birthday party act called the Z Brothers. By night, they are a heavy metal band known as ZO2, which has opened for the likes of Kiss and Poison. Sounds like a TV show, yes? And so it is that ''Z Rock,'' an exaggerated take on the trio's experiences, will make its debut on IFC next month. PAGE E1
A REALITY SHOW FOR ROVER
Anita Gates has advice for the producers of CBS's new reality TV program ''Greatest American Dog'': more Frisbees and doggie obstacle courses, less of their annoying owners. PAGE E3
NO DISTRIBUTOR? THEN D.I.Y.
More and more, indie filmmakers who have found little success in securing conventional film deals with movie studios have decided to go it alone, distributing their work on their own. That tack is not without its pitfalls, requiring, as one screenwriter said, ''an enormous amount of work, an enormous amount of stress, no sleep and lots of people I've come to know and love who have given me millions of dollars.'' PAGE E1
A FAMILY WITH LOADS OF BAGGAGE
The James family was brilliant -- the philosopher William and the novelist Henry were among the 19th century's towering figures, and in a different time, their sister Alice would have been their equal -- but their emotional baggage was as considerable as their intelligence. Both come into focus in ''House of Wits,'' in which Paul Fisher writes about the extraordinary close family's sexual neuroses, alcoholism and penchant for mythologizing one another. A review by Charles McGrath. PAGE E1
CHRONICLING CODE RED OCCASIONS
Neil Genzlinger writes that ''Call 911,'' the new reality show on the Discovery Channel that re-enacts calls to 911, has no business being interesting. But it's ''unexpectedly addictive,'' he writes, largely because of ''the amazing array of predicaments human beings can find themselves in.'' It's also full of helpful advice should you ever need to call 911 in an emergency. (Tip No. 1: Don't shout.) PAGE E3
Obituaries
OTTO FUERBRINGER, 97
During his time at the helm of Time magazine, he shepherded the coverage of some of the seminal events of the 1960s, like the Cuban missile crisis, political assassinations, mass protests and a roiling youth culture. A proponent of the war in Vietnam since the beginning of American intervention there, he penned an article in 1968 that said the war could not be won. PAGE A18
Editorial
THE LOW-ROAD EXPRESS
Less than a month after Senator John McCain opened his doors to disciples of Karl Rove, the results are on full display. The candidate who started out talking about high-minded, civil debate has wholeheartedly adopted Mr. Rove's low-minded and uncivil playbook. PAGE A16
PROTECTING THE LITTLEST CONSUMERS
For the first time in a generation, Congress has a real chance to significantly improve the way the government protects consumers, particularly children. PAGE A16
FINE-TUNING MEGAN'S LAW
A New Jersey court has taken a step toward making Megan's Law, which requires public notification when a convicted sex offender moves into a community, a more sophisticated instrument of public safety. PAGE A16
Op-Ed
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Sometimes in politics, particularly in presidential campaigns, parties get wedded to slogans -- so wedded that no one stops to think about what they're saying and what the implications would be if their bumper stickers (''Democrats for Afghanistan'' and ''Republicans for offshore drilling'') really guided policy when they took office. PAGE A19
HALF-BAKED ALASKA
When he was 19, Toby Barlow dreamed of roughing it in the Alaskan wilderness. In an Op-Ed ''Summerscapes'' feature, he tells us how he ended up the chief steward of a cruise ship instead, trapped inside some nightmarish rerun of ''The Love Boat.'' PAGE A19
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USA TODAY
July 30, 2008 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
Obama's ad campaign extends to more states;
Dem has money to take message to traditional Republican territory
BYLINE: Martha T. Moore
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 5A
LENGTH: 679 words
More Americans will see presidential campaign ads before Election Day because of Democrat Barack Obama's deep pockets and his quest to expand the number of competitive states in his race against Republican John McCain.
Obama and McCain advertise in about a dozen battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. Obama's stronger fundraising means he can afford also to run ads in states such as Alaska and Montana that rarely see general-election TV spots -- as well as air his commercials nationally during NBC's broadcast of the Olympic Games next month.
"The one thing Obama will do differently than previous candidates is do more national television buys," says John Geer, a political advertising expert at Vanderbilt University. "Because he has a plan to go after so many different states, in some cases, it's going to be more effective" than buying ad time in individual markets.
Obama has spent about $27 million on general-election ads and McCain has spent $25 million, according to Evan Tracey of Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political ads.
Political campaigns almost always buy ad time in local markets, city by city, to target their ads more precisely. As a result, many Americans never see a presidential ad -- while some see thousands. Most political ads in June, for example, appeared on morning and evening news shows, Jeopardy and Oprah, according to Tracey's group.
Both candidates are on the air in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Obama advertises in Virginia, and McCain reaches voters in the northern part of the state by running ads in Washington. Other traditionally Republican states where Obama advertises are Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina and North Dakota.
Obama's $5 million ad buy on NBC and its cable networks includes prime-time spots during the two weeks of the Beijing Olympics, which end Aug. 24, the day before the Democratic National Convention begins. It's the first network ad by a presidential candidate since Republican Bob Dole aired commercials during the 1996 World Series.
Obama could reach 25 million viewers at once during the Olympics -- that was the average prime-time audience size for the 2004 Summer Games in Athens. By comparison, NBC's evening news show is watched by more than 9 million people, and the Super Bowl -- on which Obama bought ad time in 24 cities during the primaries -- was seen by 97.5million viewers.
Ken Goldstein of the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project, which tracks political ads, says Obama's Olympic buy means he'll reach different viewers, such as sports-loving men who might not see a political ad. "You reach people who are not watching the local news in Scranton, Pa.," Goldstein says.
On Tuesday, Obama hit back at a McCain ad blaming him for high gasoline prices: The Democrat launched a rebuttal in 10 states where McCain's ad had run. "The same old politics," it says.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton would not comment on the ad buys. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said the Republican is "trying to talk to voters in target states that we think we actually have a chance of winning and making competitive."
McCain's shorter list of targeted states reflects his financial disadvantage. Obama raised nearly $52 million in June, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, compared with $26 million for McCain. Rather than buying airtime for some ads, the McCain campaign has relied on the lower-cost alternative of launching them on Internet sites such as YouTube.
The financial disparity will continue in the fall when McCain accepts $84.1 million in taxpayer funding for the general election. Obama, who is not taking public money, will not be limited in how much he can raise and spend.
"What we haven't seen yet is what will be Barack Obama's massive advantage in ads," Goldstein says.
"McCain has to keep the field as contracted as possible," Tracey says. Obama has the opposite problem: "Can he find enough places to spend the money while not giving voters Obama fatigue?"
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The Washington Post
July 30, 2008 Wednesday
Met 2 Edition
McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence
BYLINE: Michael D. Shear and Dan Balz; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1247 words
For four days, Sen. John McCain and his allies have accused Sen. Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.
The attacks are part of a newly aggressive McCain operation whose aim is to portray the Democratic presidential candidate as a craven politician more interested in his image than in ailing soldiers, a senior McCain adviser said. They come despite repeated pledges by the Republican that he will never question his rival's patriotism.
The essence of McCain's allegation is that Obama planned to take a media entourage, including television cameras, to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany during his week-long foreign trip, and that he canceled the visit when he learned he could not do so. "I know that, according to reports, that he wanted to bring media people and cameras and his campaign staffers," McCain said Monday night on CNN's "Larry King Live."
The Obama campaign has denied that was the reason he called off the visit. In fact, there is no evidence that he planned to take anyone to the American hospital other than a military adviser, whose status as a campaign staff member sparked last-minute concern among Pentagon officials that the visit would be an improper political event.
"Absolutely, unequivocally wrong," Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in an e-mail after McCain's comments to Larry King.
Despite serious and repeated queries about the charge over several days, McCain and his allies continued yesterday to question Obama's patriotism by focusing attention on the canceled hospital visit.
McCain's campaign released a statement from retired Sgt. Maj. Craig Layton, who worked as a commander at the hospital, who said: "If Senator Obama isn't comfortable meeting wounded American troops without his entourage, perhaps he does not have the experience necessary to serve as commander in chief."
McCain's advisers said they do not intend to back down from the charge, believing it an effective way to create a "narrative" about what they say is Obama's indifference toward the military.
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said again yesterday that the Republican's version of events is correct, and that Obama canceled the visit because he was not allowed to take reporters and cameras into the hospital.
"It is safe to say that, according to press reports, Barack Obama avoided, skipped, canceled the visit because of those reasons," he said. "We're not making a leap here."
Asked repeatedly for the "reports," Bounds provided three examples, none of which alleged that Obama had wanted to take members of the media to the hospital.
The McCain campaign has produced a television commercial that says that while in Germany, Obama "made time to go to the gym but canceled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras." The commercial shows Obama shooting a basketball -- an event that happened earlier in the trip on a stopover in Kuwait, where the Democrat spoke to troops in a gym before grabbing a ball and taking a single shot. The military released the video footage.
A reconstruction of the circumstances surrounding Obama's decision not to visit Landstuhl, based on firsthand reporting from the trip, shows that his campaign never contemplated taking the media with him.
The first indication reporters got that Obama was planning, or had planned, to visit the hospital came last Thursday morning, shortly after the entourage arrived in Berlin. On the seats of the media bus were schedules for his stop in Germany and the final entry -- a Friday-morning departure -- indicated that the senator's plane would fly from Berlin to Ramstein Air Base.
When a reporter asked spokeswoman Linda Douglass that morning about the trip to Ramstein, she said that the trip had been considered but that Obama was not going to go. At that point, the campaign provided no other information.
Later that night, after Obama gave a speech in Berlin, a campaign source spoke about the canceled stop on the condition of anonymity. The official said that the trip was canceled after the Pentagon informed a campaign official that the visit would be considered a campaign event.
Overnight, the Obama team issued two statements, one from senior campaign official Robert Gibbs and the other from retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, an Obama foreign policy adviser who was on the trip.
Gibbs's statement said the hospital visit, which had been on the internal schedule for several weeks, was canceled because Obama decided it would be inappropriate to go there as part of a trip paid for by his campaign. Gration said the Pentagon had told the campaign that the visit would be seen as a political trip.
Those two statements, while not inconsistent, did not clarify whether the visit was canceled in reaction to Pentagon concerns or because of worries about appearances. They also opened Obama's camp to charges that it was offering slightly different reasons at different times.
Gibbs said yesterday that the campaign had planned to inform the traveling media members sometime on the morning of the flight to Ramstein that Obama was intending to visit the hospital but had made no plans to take reporters, including even the small, protective press pool that now accompanies him most places.
Reporters, he said, probably would have been able to get off the plane but not leave an air base facility close by. "We had made absolutely no arrangements to transport the press to the hospital," he said.
On Friday afternoon, en route from Berlin to Paris, Gibbs briefed reporters traveling with Obama. He noted that the candidate had visited wounded soldiers several weeks earlier at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District and at a combat support hospital while in Iraq earlier in the week -- both times without reporters.
At one point, a reporter asked, "Why not just say it is never inappropriate to visit men and women in service?" -- a key McCain charge -- "What is your response to that?"
Gibbs replied: "It is entirely likely that someone would have attacked us for having gone. And it is entirely likely -- and it has come about -- that people have attacked us for not going."
On Saturday in London, Obama addressed the controversy during a news conference. He said Pentagon concerns about Gration's status triggered the decision not to visit Landstuhl.
"We got notice that [Gration] would be treated as a campaign person, and it would therefore be perceived as political because he had endorsed my candidacy but he wasn't on the Senate staff," Obama said. "That triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political, and the last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not, or get caught in the crossfire between campaigns."
Obama's explanation, which came after more than a day of controversy, was the clearest in noting that it was Pentagon concerns about Gration accompanying him to the hospital that forced Obama to reconsider and, ultimately, cancel the visit.
Gibbs was asked yesterday about the continuing allegations from McCain that the real reason was a desire to bring a media entourage to the hospital.
"That's completely untrue, and I think, honestly, they know it's untrue," Gibbs said.
Staff writer Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.
LOAD-DATE: July 30, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Virginia
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Max Whittaker -- Getty Images; Sen. John McCain, shown at a campaign stop at Reed High School in Sparks, Nev., alleges that his rival canceled a trip to a military hospital because he was not allowed to take a media entourage with him.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 30, 2008 Wednesday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Michael D. Shear, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2574 words
HIGHLIGHT: Washington Post national political reporter Michael D. Shear was online Wednesday, July 30 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Michael D. Shear was online Wednesday, July 30 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
The transcript follows
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
____________________
Michael D. Shear: Hi everyone. A few technical glitches, but I'm here now. There have been a lot of developments on the campaign trail recently, including from my own Virginia (Vice President Kaine?) and some continuing fallout over Sen. Obama's non-visit to the military hospital. So let's get at it. Mike
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University Park, Md.: Good morning. Thanks for taking this question. Last week, Obama visited the military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. He decided to skip a military hospital in Berlin for whatever political reasons. Republicans are trying to make this a big deal. Please clarify the differences in visiting Afghanistan/Iraq and Landstuhl.
Michael D. Shear: OK. Lot's of questions this morning about the story I wrote with my colleague Dan Balz about the McCain attacks on Obama's decision to skip the hospital visit.
The Republicans -- and especially Sen. McCain -- are indeed trying to make a big deal out of this. Their argument is that Obama's decision shows an arrogance and indifference to the plight of the troops.
It is true, thought, that Sen. Obama did visit wounded soldiers in Baghdad and, I believe, Afghanistan too. So the Obama response is that any notion that he doesn't care about the troops is countered by those visits.
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Houston: So, John McCain issues his own "no new taxes." How on earth does he propose to pay for two wars WITHOUT raising taxes? Why don't Americans understand that, in order to spend more, you have to take in MORE? You absolutely cannot spend more and, by lowering taxes, take in LESS.
Michael D. Shear: Sen. McCain -- and other supply-siders -- would disagree strongly with your contention, Houston. They would argue that by reducing taxes, economic growth will be stimulated and that the government will actually take in more: less from the lower tax rate, but more because the economic activity generated will then be taxed, bringing more into the government coffers.
I'm certainly no economist, but that's the essence of how McCain proposes to pay for two wars (and everything else). He also talks a lot about cutting "waste" and "earmarks" from federal spending, thereby reducing the need for tax increases.
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Carlsbad, Calif.: Good morning Michael. Thanks for taking the question. As a life-long observer and student of American politics, I am surprised that the Democrats have developed a "Southern strategy." The Republican party loyalty in the South, especially the deep South, is near absolute. What is your opinion of the Obama campaign's expenditure of money in states like Missouri, North Carolina and Georgia?
Michael D. Shear: This will either turn out to be a brilliant strategy on the part of Obama or a total waste of time. The Republicans have had much success in presidential politics in the South, and most people think it's not a good way for Obama to spend money to go after places like Georgia.
Having said that, the South is changing in places, too. Take Virginia, where Democrats are on an upswing in state politics and the growth of Northern Virginia is shifting the demographic profile of the state. Obama has a decent chance of winning Virginia despite its history. And with the imbalance in money that he is expected to have, taking the chance is probably worth it.
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Obama Presumptuous?: Thanks for taking my question. What are your thoughts on Milbank's article today? I know that there are compromises that have to be made along the way, and that he is smart to begin meetings with officials, but the bubble around him and secrecy makes me uncomfortable considering the Bush horror show that we've been living through.
washingtonpost.com: President Obama Continues Hectic Victory Tour (Post, July 20)
Michael D. Shear: Dana is a wonderful observer of political life. I would encourage everyone to read his column. He has an amazing way of capturing just the right moment.
Regarding the presumptuousness that he wrote about today: This is a big danger for Sen. Obama. People expect their candidates (if not their politicians) to be humble. If there is a sense that Obama is taking the election for granted, or beginning to believe his own hype, it will not be good for him.
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Do I hear ticking?: Hey, what would Jack Baeur (WWJB)do about the problems at DOJ. I'm concerned because I'm not sure another Batman movie is going to come out in time to show us the way so Jack's all I got.
Michael D. Shear: A personal secret here: I love "24" and am crrently re-watching season 3 -- the one with the deadly virus being released in Los Angeles.
As to what he would do about Justice? After six seasons, my sense is he'd probably kill a bureacrat, torture several others and make a dozen calls to the president along the way.
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Re: Obama's "Southern strategy": Michael, what I think is being missed when discussing the Southern strategy is the likely effect of a large turnout of black voters, almost all of whom will vote for Obama. By Election Day, I believe most blacks will face incredible pressure to "honor the struggles of their ancestors" and make history by voting for Obama. Almost all of them are likely to be more than willing to do so. I predict Obama will get 90-95 percent of the black vote, which changes the dynamics in any number of states.
Michael D. Shear: Of course, I should have mentioned this. The expected surge in turnout among African Americans could have a dramatic shift in the outcomes in some of these southern states. But that kind of surge is not a certainty. I recall, for example, the expected surge in youth turnout for John Kerry that did not appear to materialize on election day.
We'll have to see what happens, and whether, Obama does in fact get the kind of percentage you suggest.
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Kansas City, Mo.: Not be a cynic, but does it even matter if McCain's charges are true or disproved? The charges are out there and Obama is spending time defending his actions. Among small number of voters this may be how they make up their minds and Florida showed a small number can make a difference. Seems like classic Bush campaign strategy, make an accusation and let others try to disprove.
Michael D. Shear: It's true that the charges about Obama's hospital visit are out there now. And it's also true that our coverage of it (and the coverage of others) does perpetuate a discussion that the McCain camp is happy to see.
Having said that, I think we in the media have a responsibility to point out when there are allegations that have little basis in fact.
It's true, of course, that Obama did not go to the hospital in Germany, and it's fair to ask why. The point of our story was to point out that there is no evidence to support the idea that Obama had planned to take reporters and television cameras to the hospital and canceled the trip because he could not.
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Denver, Colo.: Is there a feeling in Washington that Kaine and Obama would be two relatively inexperienced candidates?
Michael D. Shear: Good. Some Tim Kaine questions.
Yes. In fact, I already had a discussion with a key Republican yesterday who suggested that an Obama-Kaine ticket would be "the most inexperienced in the history of the world."
A bit of hyperbole there, but that is definitely one of the lines of attack that Kaine would engender. There are other ways in which Kaine might help Obama, but there's no question that the addition of a one-term governor would be an issue.
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Pittsburgh: Isn't Tim Kaine anti-abortion? It's been noted that a Vice Presidential nominee rarely helps the top of the ticket, but can harm it. So wouldn't an anti-abortion VP nominee turn off a lot of potential Obama voters? (Likewise if McCain chose pro-choice Tom Ridge for VP).
Michael D. Shear: I believe Kaine is not anti-abortion. He calls himself pro-choice. But it is true he has supported some restrictions on abortion (ban on partial birth) that have angered some abortion-rights groups.
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From today's article ::"Gibbs said yesterday that the campaign had planned to inform the traveling media members sometime on the morning of the flight to Ramstein that Obama was intending to visit the hospital but had made no plans to take reporters, including even the small, protective press pool that now accompanies him most places".
What does " small protective press pool " mean ?
Michael D. Shear: A couple of questions about this. (To be honest, I thought editors had taken the word out, to avoid confusion.)
When covering presidential candidates (or the president) journalists often form a small group called "a pool" to cover events that won't allow the entire, large group to attend. Their reports, called "pool reports" are sent back to the entire group of reporters for their use as they see fit.
A "protective pool" is a similar group that is assigned to a candidate when there's nothing going on, simply to be with the candidate in case something happens. Thus, when a candidate travels from a hotel to the airport, there is a "protective pool" along just in case he gets into an accident or something. It's the same thing when you see a small group of reporters at the president's ranch.
The confusion is with the word "protective." The reporters are clearly not there to "protect" the president or the candidates, who clearly have their own protection. I believe the history of the term is that it's to "protect" the news organizations against something important happening without them being there.
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Arlington, Va.: I see lots of stories about McCain getting a mole removed from his face. During the primaries McCain allowed a pool of reporters to view all of his medical records and made his Dr. available for questions until the press had no more to ask. Obama released a one page medical summary saying everything is fine. When will the press get access to Obama's medical records and talk to his Doctor? We know he smokes, what else is being hidden?
Michael D. Shear: I was in the pool of reporters who reviewed the many McCain documents. I do not know whether we will get a similar stack of records from Sen. Obama.
But I will say this: very, very few of the documents I looked at had anything to do with Sen. McCain's general health. Almost all of the thousands of documents had to do with his cancer, the subsequent follow-ups and the back-up materials from lots of different specialists.
The basic checkups were fairly routine and short. Given that, and given that there's no indication that Sen. Obama has had any major health issues, I'm not sure how much there would actually be to see.
Still, as a repoter, I'm eager to see everything there is, regardless.
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Boston: This Kaine boomlet seems like a classic red herring and I think the Governor is close enough to Sen. Obama to allow himself to be used in this way so as to maximize the time and attention given to his true VP choice. Why isn't anyone talking about Claire McCaskill, for instance? She's been Obama's most effective surrogate, represents a classic swing state and is very good on TV. Did I mention that Obama is in Missouri today? Thoughts?
Michael D. Shear: It's certainly possible that the Kaine talk is a head-fake from the campaign. We'll see.
My colleagues say they don't hear much about Claire McCaskill. And the consensus seems to be that Obama would run into difficulty by picking a woman who is not Sen. Clinton. But who knows? Maybe there could be a surprise.
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Seattle, Wash.: The News outlets are filled with Veepstakes talk, but if you were a betting man, would you put money on either of them announcing before or after the Olympics begin?
Michael D. Shear: My conversations with Republicans and McCain officials suggest that they are wary of announcing their choice during the Olympics, since there are so many events that could steal the attention of the media.
Since the Olympics end the day before the Democratic convention begins, that would seem to argue that they would do it before the Olympics.
The Democrats seem less worried about the possibility of conflicting with the Olympics, but the schedule for both is really kept very secret.
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Cleveland Park, Washington, D.C.: Michael -
I understand that Post reporters do not create the headlines for the articles they write, so I was wondering what you and Dan Balz thought of the headline for your article that appeared in today's paper regarding the McCain ad? It seems rather weak to me and could even be read to suggest that the allegations in the ad are true.
washingtonpost.com: McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence (Post, July 30)
Michael D. Shear: Interesting.
I think the headline accurately reflected the story, which said that there was no evidence to support the claim that Obama decided not to visit because he couldn't bring the press.
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St. Paul: Hi Michael -- Thank you for taking questions today. The illegal activities of Monica Goodling and her crew have been in the news the last few days. Can the Obama campaign get any mileage out of that, or is it not that helpful, given that he's running against McCain and not Bush? Can he argue that with another Republican administration we're only going to see more of that same politicization of government, or is that going too far out on a limb? My sense is that there is severe "Bush scandal fatigue" among voters right now and he's best to just let it sit there, but what do you think?
Michael D. Shear: My sense is that you will see Democrats, and Sen. Obama, continue to try and get mileage out of the president's low popularity. He says frequently, for example, that he disagrees with "Bush-McCain" policies, attempting to link the two together in the minds of voters.
I do agree, however, that there is a certain fatigue out there, and that there's also anger and frustration with Congress. You can see that the Republicans are trying to capitalize on the extremely low approval rating for Congress by trying to link candidates to Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Reid.
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Charlottesville, Va.: Hi, Isn't it a little misleading to refer to Kaine as a "one term governor" as though that were a shortcoming? All Virginia governors are one term, by our constitution.
Michael D. Shear: Aha. An astute reader. It is true, all Virginia governors can only serve one consecutive term (in theory, they can leave and come back.) But that doesn't take away from the fact that he has only that much experience. From the perspective of Obama and his foes, Virginia's constitutional limitations are of little concern.
_______________________
Michael D. Shear: Gotta go jump on a conference call.
See everyone next week.
Mike
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
July 29, 2008 Tuesday
Late Edition - Final
Can Obama Run the Offense?
BYLINE: By BOB HERBERT
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 19
LENGTH: 768 words
Let's see if I've got this straight. Barack Obama is a United States senator, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his party's candidate for president of the United States -- and yet it was somehow presumptuous of him to meet with foreign leaders last week during his trip to the Middle East and Europe.
I'll say this about Senator Obama. He sure raises people's hackles. I've never seen anyone so roundly criticized for such grievous offenses as giving excellent speeches and urging people of different backgrounds to take a chance on working together. How dare he? And 200,000 people turned out to hear him in Berlin. Unforgivable.
The man has been taken to task for promoting hope, threatened with mutilation by Jesse Jackson for suggesting that a lot of black fathers could do better by their kids and had his patriotism called into question because he wants to wind down a war that most Americans would dearly love to be rid of.
John McCain can barely stop himself from sputtering at the mere mention of Senator Obama's name. He actually ran an ad blaming Mr. Obama for high gasoline prices. Even Republicans had a good laugh at that one.
And yet Mr. Obama continues to treat Senator McCain respectfully. As far as personal character is concerned, Mr. Obama has scored very well, indeed.
What remains to be seen, now that the overseas tour is over, is whether Team Obama can play offense here at home and pile up enough points to win this election. Mr. McCain has been a surprisingly inept candidate (riding on a golf cart with Poppy Bush was almost as deadly an image as the helmeted Mike Dukakis bouncing around in a tank), but he has stayed within striking distance.
And you can't trust any of the polls this year. I was in New Hampshire when the polls and the pundits said Mr. Obama was a lock to win that primary. He lost. And I was in California on Super Tuesday when the polls said he was closing fast. He wasn't.
So this is not your ordinary election. Senator Obama will have to turn people on big-time just to win by a little. And for all the tedious talk about timelines and what the surge in Iraq has or has not accomplished, the top three issues in this campaign are still the economy, the economy and the economy.
Americans are losing jobs, losing the equity in their homes, losing their retirement nest eggs, and tragically, in increasing numbers, actually losing the family home itself. This is the issue on which the Obama people should long since have pounced.
A recent survey found that an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that the social contract of the 20th century -- in which the government, employers and the society as a whole pulled together to see that those who worked hard and played by the rules were afforded the basic necessities of daily life and a shot at the American dream -- ''appears to be unraveling.''
Nearly 80 percent of those who responded to the survey, conducted for the Rockefeller Foundation and Time magazine, said they are facing greater financial risks now than in the past.
This anxiety is pervasive, and it was clearly evident a little more than two weeks ago when Phil Gramm, then John McCain's key economic adviser, callously remarked that we were suffering from a ''mental recession'' and that the U.S. had become ''a nation of whiners.''
The Obama crowd should have instantly seen the Gramm gaffe for what it was, a gift from the political gods. They should have run with it. I would have dragged out that old Maxine Brown song with the lyric: ''Maybe it's all in my mind.''
The Democrats could have had some fun and made political hay, using the Gramm comments to highlight what has happened to working people under Republican rule. But the Obama folks let the matter drop, and instead of an endless loop of ''mental recession,'' what we've heard incessantly over the past couple of weeks has been Mr. McCain pounding on Mr. Obama about the surge.
The word is that an economic offensive may finally be coming from the Obama campaign.
Anna Burger, the secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, was part of a wide-ranging group of advisers on economic issues who met with Mr. Obama in Washington on Monday. ''He has very serious policies, not sound bites, for addressing the long-term and short-term issues that are having such a dramatic effect on people who are working and trying to make ends meet,'' she said.
Translating those ideas into a compelling economic narrative for his campaign -- something Mr. Obama has not yet done -- is the key to defeating John McCain.
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LOAD-DATE: July 29, 2008
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The New York Times
July 29, 2008 Tuesday
Late Edition - Final
A Canceled Obama Visit, And the Story Behind It
BYLINE: By JEFF ZELENY
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; CHECK POINT; Pg. 15
LENGTH: 655 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
For four days, Senator John McCain has sought to keep alive a story about how Senator Barack Obama called off a visit to American troops recuperating from war wounds at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
Last week, Mr. McCain's aides took pains to stay away from the controversy. But by Monday, the criticism had been turned into a television commercial and the McCain campaign had tapped a retired soldier to add a personal face to the story.
''I'm sure that Senator Obama could have made no better use of his time than to meet with our men and women in uniform there,'' Michael J. Durant, a retired Army soldier, said in a statement released by the McCain campaign. ''That Barack Obama believes otherwise casts serious doubt on his judgment and calls into question his priorities.''
Mr. Durant said the stop ''was canceled after it became clear that campaign staff and the traveling press corps would not be allowed to accompany Senator Obama.''
That assertion is not correct, Mr. Obama's advisers say. Before his visit to Ramstein Air Base, which is near the medical center, was canceled, the plan called for reporters to stay behind at an airport terminal while Mr. Obama and one adviser met with the troops. Why? The Pentagon does not allow reporters and photographers inside Landstuhl.
For weeks, Mr. Obama had been planning to visit wounded troops in Germany, just as he did in Afghanistan last week and previously had done at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Yet the Landstuhl visit carried more risk because it was to come in the middle of an overseas campaign trip.
Robert Gibbs, a senior strategist for the campaign, said Mr. Obama thought he could carry out the visit without being perceived as politicizing it.
But two days before the visit, Pentagon officials told the campaign that only Mr. Obama would be allowed inside the medical center in his capacity as a senator. The adviser who had intended to join Mr. Obama, Scott Gration, a retired major general in the Air Force, was told he could not go along because he was a volunteer campaign adviser.
Mr. Obama was asked by reporters to explain the matter on Saturday in London.
''That triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political, and the last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not or get caught in the crossfire between campaigns,'' Mr. Obama said. ''So rather than go forward and potentially get caught up in what might have been considered a political controversy of some sort, what we decided was that we not make a visit and instead I would call some of the troops that were there.''
The McCain television commercial, which asserts that Mr. Obama chose to go to the gymnasium over visiting troops, is not entirely accurate. Instead of going to Landstuhl on Friday morning, Mr. Obama also conducted an interview with CNN in his hotel in Berlin.
Assertions in early news reports that the Pentagon had told Mr. Obama he could not visit the medical center were incorrect, said Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman. He said the military personnel in Germany had made arrangements for Mr. Obama's visit and were surprised when it was called off.
The cancellation provided one of the few sour notes in an overseas trip that otherwise seemed to be well orchestrated. It offered an opening on a subject, military affairs, that the McCain campaign believes Mr. Obama is vulnerable on.
If the story behind the story of the canceled troop visit has run its course, one question remains: Why didn't Mr. Obama leave his aides behind, even the retired general, and make the visit by himself?
''Even him going alone would likely be characterized by some as a political event,'' Mr. Gibbs said in an interview on Monday, adding, ''He decided not to put the troops in that position.''
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USA TODAY
July 29, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
McCain attack ad cheapens campaign. More to come?
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 11A
LENGTH: 620 words
Ever since gasoline prices crossed most people's pain threshold earlier this year, the hunt for scapegoats has been in full swing. First it was oil executives, who were hauled before congressional committees, just as they are every time prices go up. Then came speculators, who were supposedly driving up prices by bidding up the price of oil on commodities markets.
Now Republican presidential candidate John McCain thinks he's found the real villain -- his rival, Democrat Barack Obama.
In a McCain TV ad, "Pump," that hit the airwaves and YouTube recently, a narrator ominously intones that gas prices have gone to "$4, $5 [with] no end in sight, because some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America. No to independence from foreign oil." Then the announcer asks, "Who can you blame for rising prices at the pump?" A crowd chants, "Obama, Obama," and Obama's face appears.
Even by the elastic standards of political ads, this is more than a stretch. It's baloney. It's also a marker on the path toward the kind of simplistic, counterproductive demonizing that many expect will poison the fall campaign.
Perhaps the silliest implication in the ad is that any one person, even a U.S. senator, is singlehandedly responsible for rising gasoline prices. That discounts factors such as America's own diminishing oil production, increasing demand from China, India and other developing nations, supply disruptions and uncertainties in volatile areas such as Iraq, Iran and Nigeria, and -- more to the point -- decades of feckless energy policy by Congress and a succession of presidents.
McCain himself has said this nation's dependence on foreign oil has been "more than 30 years in the making," an awkward assertion in light of the fact that he's been a member of Congress for 25 of those 30 years -- not that he's solely accountable either.
The ad is right, at least in our view, in saying more drilling would help. But any implication that drilling alone would solve the energy problem is simply fiction that distracts attention from actually fixing the problem.
Significant production from new offshore areas is years away, and while proof that the U.S. is finally getting serious about its energy problems would send a valuable signal to the markets, its effect on prices in the short term would likely be negligible. McCain himself recently conceded that drilling would have only a "psychological impact" now.
Any major effect on future prices is equally improbable. A report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration says that by the time any significant production occurs -- likely around 2030 --the impact on prices would be "insignificant" in the context of the world market, of which U.S. supplies make up just a small part. The primary goal of drilling isn't to lower prices, but to develop supplies that aren't subject to the whims of an unstable global market.
Further, if offshore drilling is the answer -- and it is now the focus of the drilling debate -- McCain has long been part of the problem himself. He opposed it until he changed his view this year.
The pity of misleading ads like this is that McCain and Obama have both shown signs that they can embrace good ideas and elevate the debate. McCain supports more nuclear energy, Obama wants to require utilities to produce a portion of their electricity with renewable fuels, and both men support tax incentives for solar, wind and other forms of energy. The best approach would combine all of those tactics, and that still might not be enough to solve the problem.
If "Pump" represents the standard of truth in advertising for this presidential campaign, it's going to be a long and distressingly fact-free three months until Election Day.
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USA TODAY
July 29, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
Ad confronts the inevitable
BYLINE: Douglas Holtz-Eakin
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 11A
LENGTH: 384 words
John McCain's television ad ("Pump") provides important insights into who is best equipped as president to lead America's economy in the 21st century. The ad focuses on one of the most pressing issues facing our families and businesses: what will happen to the future price of gasoline.
The ad opens with an assessment of one possible future -- gas prices rising from $4 to $5 or even higher. This is a truly frightening prospect for our economy, and the ad points directly to one source of this threatening outlook: those in Washington saying no to oil and gas drilling in America.
Barack Obama opposes new oil exploration and new natural gas drilling. He is the leader of a Washington establishment that views every issue through the lens of politics and believes that the facts have not changed, and so his opposition has not. Indeed, he has supported higher taxes on coal and natural gas and believes that the problem with high gas prices is only that the rise happened so fast.
"Pump" is about our future, a future that Obama has the ability to influence and is seeking the privilege to lead us into. Sadly, Americans will know it has become merely politically expedient to support drilling on that day in the near future when Barack Obama embraces relief from high gas prices.
The ad reflects another reality of this campaign. Americans are weary and distrustful of a Congress and an administration that are unable to address important national challenges. John McCain has proposed the Lexington Project, a declaration of independence from our reliance on imported oil. But more important, he is committed to reversing three decades of bipartisan leadership failure that transformed the need to import 30% of our oil in the 1970s into a crippling dependence on imports for 60% of our oil.
Unlike his opponent, John McCain has been willing to rise above the demands of financial backers, personal political ambition and party affiliation to provide real, bipartisan leadership that generates results ranging from campaign finance reform to Supreme Court justices to a successful strategy in Iraq.
"Pump" should make Barack Obama uncomfortable. It is telling in its honest depiction of our choices for the future.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin is a senior policy adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
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The New York Times
July 28, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
Popular Demand
BYLINE: By SHELLY FREIERMAN
SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 98 words
The news of the day drives search, and controversies over the July 21 cover of The New Yorker, above left, and comments made by the Rev. Jesse Jackson on July 6 quickly rose to the top of the search heap. In the four weeks that ended July 19, 6,180 search terms included the word ''obama,'' compared with 2,095 that included ''mccain.''
Vanity Fair's reaction to The New Yorker flap came with a fictional magazine cover on its Web site, above right, that featured Senator John McCain using a walker and a copy of the Constitution burning in the fireplace (vanityfair.com). SHELLY FREIERMAN
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LOAD-DATE: March 10, 2011
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS CHARTS: LOOKING FOR OBAMA: Top search terms, June 22 - June 19.
MAGAZINES: Ad pages, July 2008.
BROADCAST TELEVISION: July 14 through 20.
MOVIE BOX OFFICE: Weekend estimates in millions.
MUSIC ALBUMS: July 14 through 20.
CABLE TELEVISION: July 14 through 20.
DVD RENTALS: July 14 through 20.
MUSIC DOWNLOADS: July 14 through 20. (Sources: Nielsen Media Research (television)
Hitwise (Popular Demand)
Screenline (movies)
Home Media Magazine (DVD rentals)
Mediaweek (magazines)
Nielsen SoundScan/Billboard (music))
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
779 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The New York Times
July 28, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
INSIDE THE TIMES: July 28, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 2263 words
International
TWO BOMBS KILL 16 AND WOUND
More Than 150 People in Istanbul
Turkey suffered what appeared to be its worst terrorist attack in nearly five years when two bombs exploded 10 minutes and 20 yards apart in Istanbul. At least 16 people were killed and more than 150 wounded. There were no immediate claims of responsibility, although Kurdish separatist militants were suspected. The first explosion, which witnesses said was relatively minor, attracted scores of onlookers. Many of the curious were hit by flying shrapnel and debris from the second, more powerful blast. PAGE A5
A SHRINE FOR CASTROS AND FOES
In the foothills of the Sierra Maestra in Cuba, the Virgin of El Cobre is the country's most cherished shrine. What offering would the Virgin, believed to be the mother and protector of all Cubans, most prefer?
a. A lock of hair.
b. Ernest Hemingway's Nobel Prize.
c. Toe-nail clippings.
The truth is, no one knows. Nonetheless, she has been given them all and more. PAGE A6
RUSSIA TRIES TO BYPASS NATO
Russia has put together a set of proposals that seeks to diminish the influence of NATO and similar security groups by promoting a broader security organization. Since there is virtually no chance of the proposals being adopted by Europe or the United States, the Kremlin's efforts are an attempt to reassert Russia's presence on the world stage and challenge Europe's security architecture. PAGE A6
QANTAS URGED TO INSPECT CANISTERS
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Australia has asked Qantas Airways to inspect oxygen canisters carried on every plane in the company's fleet of 747s. A large hole burst open in a Qantas airliner while it was flying at 29,000 feet on Friday, and investigators suspect that an exploding oxygen canister was responsible. The plane, traveling from Hong Kong to Melbourne, landed safely in Manila. PAGE A5
IRAN EXECUTES 29 IN ONE DAY
At dawn on Sunday, Iran executed 29 people convicted of drug smuggling and other crimes, state media reported. Executing several people at once is common in Iran, but executions on such a scale are rare. In 2007, Iran executed more people than any other country except China. Iranian police have arrested dozens of people in recent weeks in a new drive against what the authorities call ''immoral behavior.'' PAGE A8
Ruling in Egypt on Ferry Sinking A7 Elections in Cambodia as Expected A8
Severe Flooding in Ukraine A9
National
FOR MCCAIN AND OBAMA,
Not to Early to Count Chickens
Both John McCain and Barack Obama have begun affecting some of the public imagery and routines reserved for the president. Mr. McCain has begun delivering a weekly radio address. Mr. Obama has spoken at lecterns with a faux-presidential seal. It's all part of the first general election matchup in 56 years that will not include a sitting president or vice president, where two senators with minimal executive experience seem to be falling all over themselves to playact the role of president. PAGE A14
A RAUCOUS MAINE TRADITION
The all-volunteer Bath Municipal Band is part of the landscape in Maine, playing at ship launchings and Christmas concerts, clam festivals and the changes of commands at military posts. The members grow older, fall ill, and the ranks change, but their music sheets are passed along, and the band plays on -- with liberal helpings of Sousa -- on its rickety, decades-old portable stage. Dan Barry, This Land. PAGE A10
TWO KILLED IN CHURCH SHOOTING
A gunman who entered a Knoxville, Tenn., church with a 12-gauge shotgun killed two people and wounded several others during a Sunday morning children's performance before he was tackled by congregants, who wrested away the gun. The suspect was charged with first-degree murder. PAGE A10
Rabbis' Joint Immigrant Rights Rally A11
Metro
AN INFLUX OF POLICE INVESTIGATORS
At a City Child Welfare Agency
The Administration for Children's Services has recruited 60 former police investigators, like Robert Figueroa, above, to bolster its 1,300 caseworkers. The infusion of law enforcement expertise was part of an overhaul of the child welfare agency in response to the case of Nixzmary Brown, a 7-year-old girl who was beaten to death by her stepfather in Brooklyn in January 2006 after missed warning signs and bureaucratic lapses. PAGE B1
TWO DEMOCRATS VIE FOR HOUSE SEAT
Much has been made of the disarray among Republicans in trying to find a candidate to run for the Congressional seat of disgraced Representative Vito J. Fossella. Less attention, though, has been paid to the contentious battle between Stephen A. Harrison and Michael E. McMahon, the two Democratic candidates vying for a chance to represent Mr. Fossella's largely Republican district. PAGE B4
BUSINESS
INVESTORS ARE CONSIDERING
Any and All Predictions
Amid a financial crisis in which the unthinkable has seemingly become routine, Wall Street forecasters -- and even the markets themselves -- are struggling to grasp what will happen next. A result has been a flood of brash pronouncements as the Cassandras of the financial set try to outdo each other with increasingly outlandish predictions. PAGE C1
MOURNING THE CASSETTE
There was a funeral the other day in the Midtown offices of Hachette, the book publisher, to mourn the passing of what it called a ''dear friend.'' Nobody had actually died, however. The gathering of the black-clad was for the cassette tape, a piece of technology that was dumped long ago by the music industry, but which has lived on until recently among publishers of audio books. PAGE C7
EXCHANGES FOR LEFTOVER AD SPACE
As advertising exchanges -- where companies bid to place their online ads on space provided by publishers -- gain popularity, Madison Avenue is borrowing tactics from Wall Street: Traders who analyze advertising now spend their days in front of two computer screens, feeding their systems data and trying to perfect their trading algorithms. PAGE C1
GOOGLE ALUMNI PREPARE RIVAL
Former Google employees are unveiling a search engine that they promise will be more comprehensive than Google's and that they hope will produce more relevant results. Their company, Cuil (pronounced cool), is the latest in a line of companies that have been founded with the goal of competing with Google. None have made a dent in the search market, but analysts say Cuil has potential because of the pedigree of its founders. PAGE C3
L.E.D.'S ARE ALL AROUND US
L.E.D.'s have already replaced standard bulbs in many of the nation's traffic lights. Now they are showing up in more prominent spots: The ball that descends in Times Square on New Year's Eve is illuminated with L.E.D.'s, and the managers of the Empire State Building are considering a proposal to light it with L.E.D. bulbs. PAGE C3 THE NEW 'JUMPED THE SHARK'
The movie ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' has produced a term, ''nuked the fridge,'' that is rapidly going mainstream. (The movie's hero survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator.) Newsweek has described it as a synonym for ''movie-franchise meltdowns,'' while nukingthefridge.com defines it as ''used by movie fans and critics alike to denote the point in which a film or television program veers off into the realm of the ridiculous and stupid.'' PAGE C4
Bollywood Meets Hip-Hop C6
Arts
A HOUSE, A PRAIRIE,
With Detours Into Song
The Ingalls clan has survived the perils of the frontier, the death of a baby boy and the cruelest Midwestern winters. But can the beloved ''Little House on the Prairie'' characters survive their transition to a musical? A new production of the family's exploits is under way at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, updated in a way its producers hope will attract 21st-century audiences. Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls in the television series, returns as Ma Ingalls. PAGE E1
MTV TACKLES POST-IRAQ LIFE
MTV has scaled back its news and documentary programming in recent years. The ''10 to the hour, every hour'' newsbreaks have mostly vanished because of a focus on ratings hits like ''Laguna Beach'' and ''My Super Sweet 16.'' Still, the network is once again ramping up its get-out-the-vote campaign, ''Choose or Lose,'' with a focus on the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. PAGE E1
AROUND THE WORLD, PLUCKILY
Michael Evan Haney's production of ''Around the World in 80 Days'' with the Irish Repertory Theater makes up in creativity and zeal what it lacks in expensive effects and backdrops: The elephant who helps the characters bridge a railway gap is made of a few tables and a chest. And the play's 30-plus characters are inhabited by five actors. Rachel Saltz writes that despite a tendency to push the slapstick into chaos, it matters less in this less-serious take on the Jules Verne classic. PAGE E6
BETTER IN THEORY
''King Roger,'' an opera created by the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, was first staged in 1926, but has been little performed since. Anthony Tommasini writes that after long fantasizing about what it would look like performed live, he found that the first performance of ''King Roger'' at the SummerScape festival on the campus of Bard College made him wonder if he were better off with his own imagination. PAGE E5
THE ECHOES OF VIOLENCE
Like many of his novels, George Pelecanos's tight, suspenseful ''The Turnaround'' deals with the reverberations of a lethal event in the lives of its survivors. In this case, it's an ugly race-baiting incident in 1982 that forever changed the six teenage boys who were involved. A review by Janet Maslin. PAGE E1
CRY HER NO RIVER
Lina Koutrakos's new show ''Torch'' offers a very different take on one of cabaret's oldest cliches with a style that is blunt and aggressive instead of coy and flirtatious, dry-eyed instead of tear-soaked. Stephen Holden, though, points out that ''dry-eyed'' doesn't mean without drama. PAGE E5
'Dark Knight' on Top, Again E1
Sports
A BITTER AFTERTASTE
That Lasted for Four Years
The linchpins of the United States' men's basketball team -- Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James, above -- watched most of the team's third-place finish in 2004 from the bench. They're still trying to get over the bitter taste of that experience, and have vowed to vindicate themselves in Beijing. ''We have to go over and prove to the world that we're just not high-paid showboat athletes,'' Wade said. ''There's a lot riding on this for the future of USA Basketball.'' PAGE D1
THE RELUCTANT ROLE MODEL
When Robin Roberts, a co-host on ABC's ''Good Morning America'' and a former college basketball standout, learned she had breast cancer, she said she felt as if her body had let her down. And though she didn't want a big deal made of her treatment, she slowly came to embrace her place as a role model for cancer survivors. George Vecsey, Sports of the Times. PAGE D7
SAVING MINUTES, NOT STROKES
Checking your gloves. Double-checking your clubs. Answering the cellphone. Bill Pennington has a suggestion: stop it and play, already! There are many experts on the pace of play in golf, which is apparently quite a problem, and even more annoying, considering taking your time does little to improve play. PAGE D5
LIKE FACEBOOK FOR FOOTBALL
A video system called Huddle -- part video library, part picture montage, part video game, part instant messenger, part calendar, part playbook -- won rave reviews of everyone from Microsoft's Bill Gates to the Jets head coach Eric Mangini, whose team is the first in the N.F.L. to use it. PAGE D1
Obituaries
YOUSSEF CHAHINE, 82
The Egyptian filmmaker was a pre-eminent figure in Arab cinema. He shifted deftly from urban realism to florid melodrama, from historical allegory to musical comedy. ''All my projects are high risk, and I fight like mad,'' he said in a 1997 interview. ''I spend 80 percent of my time on politics, 20 percent making movies. Raising money is politics; every penny I make goes back into cinema. I can't afford to stop.'' PAGE A17
ROGER HALL, 89
Best known for a humorous memoir of his experience as a spy titled ''You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger,'' he poked fun at ''groupthink'' in the espionage world. According to Mr. Hall, the book had become part of C.I.A. training. Instructors would hold the book up in a roomful of newly minted agents and tell them, ''Never let this happen again.'' PAGE A17
Editorial
STARTING OVER
Pakistan and the United States need to recast their relationship. President Bush can start by making clear that he is committed to strengthening Pakistan's democracy and its ability to fight extremism. Pakistan's leaders need to tell their people that the fight against Al Qaeda is also their own. PAGE 18
Op-Ed
WILLIAM KRISTOL
It will become increasingly obvious, as we approach November, that the Democrats will continue to control Congress for the next couple of years. But if the voters elect Barack Obama as president, they will be putting Mr. Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in untrammeled control of our future. PAGE 19
PAUL KRUGMAN
So the big housing bill has passed Congress. That's good news. Fannie and Freddie had to be rescued. But let's hope nobody thinks that Congress has done all, or even a large fraction, of what needs to be done. PAGE 19
FREEDOM FROM MILDEW
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is falling part. This is an insult to the man who gave us the New Deal, the greatest investment in our nation's modern development, writes Nick Taylor. PAGE 19
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: July 28, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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USA TODAY
July 28, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
Obama defends his trip; changes focus to economy
BYLINE: Kathy Kiely
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 2A
LENGTH: 445 words
CHICAGO -- Barack Obama offered a spirited defense Sunday of his international travels and the campaign he's running as the first biracial presidential nominee of a major presidential party.
Returning from a 10-day trip overseas Obama told a convention of minority journalists here that his journey "doesn't necessarily translate into higher poll numbers here in the United States," where he said voters are more concerned with pocketbook issues such as the price of gasoline and home foreclosures.
His campaign will focus on the economy "for the duration," Obama said. He'll host a conference today in Washington with former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin and billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
Obama said he was "puzzled" by the suggestion from the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain that the trip was little more than a "premature victory lap" by an overly confident candidate. "I basically met with the same folks John McCain met with after he won the nomination," Obama said of his trip.
"Now I admit, we did it really well," said Obama, who drew an audience of 200,000 in Berlin. "But that shouldn't be held against me. If I was bumbling and fumbling through this thing,I would have been criticized."
At this year's Unity: Journalists of Color convention, Obama said he finds himself in a "no-win" situation on the issue of race. Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts asked why Obama isn't "challenging the implicit assumption that there's something wrong with being a Muslim." Obama's father was Muslim; Obama is a Christian. "My credentials on supporting Muslim Americans are strong," Obama said. "I just don't like the idea of anybody falsely denying my religion."
Reminded that he was challenged at a debate last year about whether he was "black enough," Obama interjected: "Now I'm too black."
"I'm just teasing," Obama said as the audience laughed. "But there is this sense of going back and forth depending on the time of day in terms of assessments of my candidacy."
Also Sunday, Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican supporting Obama, said Obama "did the right thing" by canceling a visit to wounded troops in Germany.
McCain began running an ad criticizing Obama for finding time to shop and go to a gym in Berlin but not visit wounded troops at U.S. military hospitals at Ramstein and Landstuhl after being told he could not bring news media.
"I think John is treading on some very thin ground here," Hagel said on CBS' Face the Nation.
Obama said he canceled the visit after Pentagon officials raised concerns that his trip would be political and not in his official capacity as a senator.
LOAD-DATE: July 28, 2008
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USA TODAY
July 28, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
100 days to go;
Red-letter days for this record-setting presidential campaign. What you can expect -- and possibly can't.
BYLINE: Susan Page
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 2237 words
WASHINGTON -- The longest presidential election season in American history is about to enter its final stretch.
Count 'em: 100 days to go.
In the time before Nov. 4, running mates will be chosen and platform skirmishes fought, economic reports released and as many as one-third of votes cast early by absentee ballot and at registrars' offices. Will more U.S. troops be pulled out of Iraq? Could a so-called October surprise be sprung, by calculation or catastrophe, that reshapes the campaign's close?
Both campaigns are acutely conscious of the passage of time. At Barack Obama's headquarters in Chicago, a countdown calendar hangs just outside campaign manager David Plouffe's office. The same count appears on white boards throughout John McCain's headquarters in a Virginia suburb of Washington.
"The momentum and intensity of the campaign builds almost every day as you approach the election," says Tad Devine, a strategist for Democrats Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. "You spend a lot of time planning for the events you know about, and you spend a lot of time reacting to the events that just happen."
Some of the customary rhythms of a presidential campaign were disrupted this year after the Summer Olympics were pushed back two weeks. That squeezed the end-of-summer interval for the political conventions and prompted the GOP to schedule the first major-party convention to take place after Labor Day.
Not that either side has been waiting for the traditional Labor Day kickoff to the general-election campaign. By measures such as money raised and field forces deployed, the 2008 campaign already is setting records.
Obama has been campaigning for nearly two years, since acknowledging on NBC's Meet the Press in October 2006 that he was considering a bid for the Democratic nomination. McCain effectively has been running even longer, since his embrace of former rival President Bush at the 2004 Republican convention made it clear the Arizona senator was positioning himself for his second White House run.
Obama holds a lead over McCain, 49%-40%, in Gallup's most recent tracking poll.
"Neither campaign has made the sale," says Republican strategist Ed Rollins, who helped run presidential campaigns for Ronald Reagan in 1984, Ross Perot in 1992 and Mike Huckabee this year. "The battle is the independent vote, and they don't make up their minds until late."
As they do, here are events to watch between now and Nov. 4.
*Aug. 8 Fighting Olympics fever
The opening of the Summer Olympics creates a black hole for politics as voters tune in to gymnastics and swimming instead of town halls and attack ads. "The Olympics generally suck all the air out of a political campaign," Rollins says.
How can a candidate break through during the Olympics' two-week run?
One strategy: join the Games. The Obama campaign is buying a $5million Olympics ad package on NBC that includes time on the broadcast network and its cable affiliates. The McCain campaign isn't ready to disclose its plans for the Olympics time period, spokesman Brian Rogers says, though it's unlikely to include such a pricey buy. Some advisers suggest unveiling his choice of running mate before the Games begin to seize attention.
The benefits of such advertising include wide reach, especially among women. (Past TV ratings indicate women are more likely than men to watch the Summer Olympics.) The downside is the high cost and the fact that the campaign will be paying to reach voters in states so overwhelmingly Democratic or Republican that they aren't in play.
That's why no previous campaign bought a significant amount of national Olympics time. Doing so underscores the advantages of Obama's fundraising muscle -- he raised $52million last month, more than twice as much as McCain -- and Obama's decision not to accept public financing, which limits overall spending. It also reflects his campaign's determination to reach into states from Alaska to Georgia that Democrats traditionally write off.
"As far as summer viewership and reach and exposure and the fact that not just sports fans watch the Olympics, it's a very good vehicle for national politics," says Evan Tracey, CEO of Campaign Media Analysis Group, a news media-tracking firm.
He cautions, "I don't think you can stick your John McCain-is-wrong spot on the Olympics coverage. It has to be in line with the goals of the event, which would mean positive, uplifting, patriotism kind of messages."
*Sept. 15 Bringing more troops home
By week's end, the last of the additional U.S. combat forces deployed to Iraq last year are scheduled to have been withdrawn. That will start a 45-day "pause" U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus requested before considering more reductions of the 140,000 American troops that will remain in the war zone.
So in mid-September, if levels of violence stay relatively low, Petraeus could well recommend that more troops be pulled out -- perhaps a brigade or two by the end of the year. That could free up forces to be dispatched to the war in Afghanistan, where the Pentagon says they're needed.
Michael O'Hanlon, a national security analyst at the Brookings Institution who has taken the administration and its critics to task on Iraq, says he doubts Bush would make a decision whether to pull out more troops for political reasons. He notes the president repeatedly has defied public opinion when it comes to Iraq.
Even so, there would be political repercussions from a move to bring more troops home.
"It would prove McCain right and Obama wrong on the surge," which McCain supported and Obama opposed, O'Hanlon says.
"But Americans always care more about the future than the past," he says, and an administration proposal to withdraw more troops would bolster Obama's argument for a pullout. "It makes it harder to criticize his plan as being strategically imprudent. It allows him to essentially turn the issues back toward domestic policy and the economy."
And polls show those issues overwhelmingly favor Democrats.
*Sept. 22 The vote is in the mail
Voters who can't make it to the polls on Nov. 4 -- troops heading abroad, students away at school, arrestees in jail awaiting trial -- can begin casting ballots in Virginia on this day. That opens a voting season that starts long before Election Day in states across the country.
In the 2002 elections, 14% of voters nationwide cast early ballots; in 2004, that number rose to 20%; in 2006, to 25%. This time, "it will certainly be over 30%, and it could be as high as a third," says Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon.
Early voting has been most prevalent in Western states, but voting changes in Florida and elsewhere after the disputed 2000 presidential election have spread the trend.
Both campaigns have intensive early-voting operations underway, including efforts aimed at reaching the approximately 500,000 active-duty military personnel deployed overseas. The growing number of Americans who vote in the weeks before Election Day has affected the way ads are scheduled and mobilization efforts launched.
"Everybody recognizes that it's changed the game a little bit in terms of how you do your get-out-the-vote," says Rogers, the McCain spokesman.
Early voting can make get-out-the-vote efforts on Election Day easier because some voters -- usually the most committed and partisan ones -- have cast their ballots, enabling campaigns to concentrate on others. It also offers some protection from the repercussions of a last-minute gaffe or disclosure that casts a candidate in a negative light. "You really can't wait until the last minute anymore" to make an accusation, Gronke says.
*Sept. 26 Easier to lose than win
When McCain and Obama sit down at the University of Mississippi for the first of three scheduled debates, it will be the first time since such forums began to be televised in 1960 that it won't include a sitting president or vice president. That raises the stakes, says David Lanoue, a University of Alabama political scientist and co-author of a book about presidential debates.
"Voters try to use debates to gain information about people they don't know very well," he says. "To some extent, that applies to John McCain -- I think there's still a lot people don't know about him -- but the obvious person is Barack Obama." After a rapid rise from Illinois state legislator to presidential contender, he is "an unknown quantity" for many voters.
Lanoue sees parallels to the 1980 campaign. Voters "wanted a change but they were worried whether Reagan was the right guy." When the former California governor seemed reassuring during his only debate with President Carter, "the undecideds break and he wins in a landslide."
The debate at Ole Miss is to focus on domestic policy; the third debate, at Hofstra University on Long Island, is on foreign policy. In between, the debate at Belmont University in Nashville is a town-hall-style meeting, McCain's preferred format.
Past debates are most remembered for missteps: Richard Nixon visibly sweating in 1960, Al Gore audibly sighing in 2000, President Ford mistakenly declaring Poland free of Soviet control in 1976.
"Debates are far more often lost than won," Lanoue says.
*Oct. 1 An October surprise?
Campaign strategists spend a lot of time scripting every moment, from making sure McCain is photographed surrounded by voters at his town-hall-style meetings to scheduling Obama's convention acceptance speech at Denver's Invesco Field, a dramatic setting that will echo John F. Kennedy's nomination in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum nearly a half-century ago.
They also spend a lot of time worrying about what they can't script, particularly the sort of late-breaking development known as an October surprise. "You do think about and preliminarily plan for how the campaign would react to one of those big, top-tier events," says Devine, the Democratic strategist.
This year, those "top-tier events" would include a terrorist attack, a major U.S. military operation -- for instance, on Iran -- or a decisive turn in Iraq or Afghanistan. And there's always the prospect of some last-minute disclosure about either candidate.
In 2004, the October surprise came from Osama bin Laden, who released a video on Oct. 29. Although it was a reminder that the Bush administration had failed to capture or kill the al-Qaeda leader, it helped Bush by spotlighting the threat of terrorism. "It did have a real impact on the campaign," Devine says.
*Oct. 30 Watch your pocketbook
On the Thursday before the election, the Commerce Department issues its advance estimate of third-quarter GDP, a broad measure of the economy's health. A contracting economy could signal the start of a recession, defined as back-to-back quarters of negative growth.
Defined by economists, anyway. A cascade of distressing news -- falling home prices, faltering financial institutions and record gas prices -- already has convinced most Americans that the economy stinks. In the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, 52% called the economy "poor," the highest number with such a dark view in 16 years.
Last-minute good news could counter some of that gloom, but more bad news would reinforce it. Economic anxiety traditionally hurts the party that holds the White House.
During the final full week before the election, the government releases a string of reports on economic fundamentals: new home sales on Monday, consumer confidence on Tuesday, durable goods orders on Wednesday and jobless claims on Thursday.
"We are at a point where people are really hurting in their pocketbooks," says Sung Won Sohn, an economist who served on the White House Council of Economic Advisers for President Nixon and teaches at California State University-Channel Islands. "It is the most important driver in the election, and it could tip the boat in either direction."
Republicans could have "a dream come true" if there were a dramatic drop in the price of oil, he says, which would ease other economic problems.
The chances of that? "I would say virtually none," Sohn says.
From now to Nov. 4
Aug. 1 -- Democratic national platform hearing in Cleveland
Aug. 4 -- Barack Obama's 47th birthday
Aug. 8 -- Summer Olympics opening ceremonies in Beijing
Aug. 16 -- Obama and John McCain at a forum hosted by evangelical leader Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.
Aug. 25 -- Democratic convention opens in Denver
Aug. 28 -- Obama accepts Democratic nomination at Invesco Field at Mile High
Aug. 29 -- McCain's 72nd birthday
Sept. 1 -- Republican convention opens in St. Paul
Sept. 4 -- McCain accepts Republican nomination at Xcel Energy Center
Sept. 11 -- Seventh anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks
Sept. 12 -- Values Voter Summit opens in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the conservative Family Research Council
Sept. 18 -- Google/YouTube candidates' forum in New Orleans
Sept. 26 -- First presidential debate sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, at the University of Mississippi in Oxford; on domestic policy
Oct. 2 -- Vice presidential debate sponsored by the debates commission, at Washington University in St. Louis
Oct. 7 -- Second presidential debate, at Belmont University in Nashville; town-hall format
Oct. 15 -- Third and final presidential debate, at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.; on foreign policy.
Oct. 23 -- Final pre-election campaign-finance reports due to Federal Election Commission
Nov. 4 -- Election Day
LOAD-DATE: July 28, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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PHOTO, Color, Obama by AFP/Getty Images
PHOTO, Color, McCain by Bloomberg News
PHOTO, B/W, Peter Macdiarmid, Getty Images, for Meet The Press
PHOTO, B/W, Carolyn Kaster, AP
PHOTO, B/W, 2001 photo by Alex Fuchs, AFP
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The Washington Post
July 28, 2008 Monday
Suburban Edition
McCain Says Obama Plays Politics on Iraq;
Some Fellow Republicans Question Tactics
BYLINE: Juliet Eilperin; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: FOREIGN; Pg. A08
LENGTH: 902 words
In his most direct challenge yet of his Democratic presidential rival's Iraq policy, Sen. John McCain suggested yesterday that Sen. Barack Obama had crafted a war strategy designed to further his own political advancement.
McCain also intimated that Obama skipped a visit of wounded U.S. troops in Germany last week because it would not generate sufficient publicity for his campaign, a charge that the Republican made the centerpiece of a new television ad.
Obama's call for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, McCain said, "was political" and was made "in order to help him get the nomination of his party." In a different interview, McCain said that "Senator Obama just views this war as another political issue with which he can change positions."
McCain's comments came days after he said in New Hampshire, "It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign." They appear to reflect the campaign's belief that it can make inroads with voters by keeping the focus on foreign policy issues after Obama's return from a week-long trip to Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East and Western Europe. The moves puzzled some GOP strategists, who said McCain would be better off touting a more positive message, and the senator from Arizona drew a strong rebuke from a longtime ally, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who traveled with Obama last week to Afghanistan and Iraq as part of a congressional delegation.
"I think John is treading on some very thin ground here when he impugns motives and when we start to get into 'You're less patriotic than me. I'm more patriotic,' " Hagel said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "I admire and respect John McCain very much. . . . John's better than that."
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said that McCain is not living up to the standards he set out at the outset of the general-election campaign, when he repeatedly called for a "civil" and "respectful" debate. "John McCain is an honorable man running an increasingly dishonorable campaign," Vietor said. "I think a lot of people are wondering what happened to the civil campaign John McCain said he was going to run."
McCain, a supporter of the war in Iraq who later criticized the way it was waged and supported sending more troops there, said he based his own approach to the war on principle, while Obama developed a strategy aimed at appealing to voters. "I say that it was very clear that a decision had to be made, and I made it when it wasn't popular. He made a decision which was popular with his base. And that is a fundamental difference," McCain said in a taped interview on ABC.
He took his argument a step further on CNN, saying that Obama's support for a withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months would squander the efforts of Americans who died fighting the war there.
"I'm not prepared to see the sacrifice of so many brave young Americans lost because Senator Obama just views this war as another political issue with which he can change positions," McCain said.
McCain's new ad questions why Obama decided to exercise during a stopover in Germany late last week rather than visit wounded soldiers. In the ad, a narrator says that Obama "made time to go to the gym but canceled a visit with wounded troops." The ad continues: "Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras. John McCain is always there for our troops. McCain -- country first."
Obama and his aides -- who provided different explanations for the event in recent days -- said they had been trying to arrange a private visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center but canceled it upon learning that the military regarded one of Obama's military advisers as a campaign staffer. Obama said the distinction "triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political" and therefore the campaign called off the visit.
Hagel said the ad is not "appropriate," adding that if Obama had gone ahead with the visit he would have laid himself open to another line of criticism. "It would be totally inappropriate for him on a campaign trip to go to a military hospital and use those soldiers as props," Hagel said.
McCain's campaign has continued to press the point, however, circulating ahead of ABC's broadcast a partial transcript of its interview. In it, the presumptive GOP nominee remarked: "I think people make a judgment by what we do and what we don't do. He certainly found time to do other things. . . . If I had been told by the Pentagon that I couldn't visit those troops, and I was there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event."
One GOP strategist with close ties to McCain's campaign said the new line of attack reflected the operation's "schizophrenic" nature. He said that tendency was also on display last week, as McCain spoke at length about media coverage of Obama rather than sticking with his plan to focus on the economy.
"They couldn't help themselves," the strategist said, adding that the ad over the hospital visit is "churlish and unlike McCain, and hardly will resonate with the swing voters who are going to decide this election." The strategist continued: "They're doing it because the candidate, and the campaign, is not happy with where they are and they're lashing out."
If McCain hopes to win the election, the strategist added, "he needs to be a happy warrior."
Staff writer Michael D. Shear contributed to this report.
LOAD-DATE: July 28, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Carolyn Kaster -- Associated Press; Sen. John McCain boards his plane Friday in Aspen, Colo. Over the weekend, the GOP candidate continued to attack Democratic Sen. Barack Obama on foreign policy.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 28, 2008 Monday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Dan Balz, Washington Chief Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2122 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post congressional Dan Balz was online Monday, July 28 at 11 a.m. ET.
The transcript follows
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Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Avon Park, Fla.: Much has been made that Barack Obama "only" has a single-digit lead in what should be an overwhelming Democratic year. Why are pundits basically saying that the cup is half-empty for Obama? Could the race's closeness be due to the fact that John McCain isn't a conventional Republican? Keep in mind that at this point in 1980 Reagan wasn't blowing out Carter.
Dan Balz: Good morning to everyone. I spent the last week traveling with the Obama campaign to the Middle East and Europe and haven't quite made it back to Washington yet. I'm doing this chat from an undisclosed location.
This is a good question to start on. I think what goes into that assessment -- of a race that is still relatively close -- are a couple of realities. One is that the overall climate is very, very favorable for the Democrats. President Bush's approval rating alone would make it very hard for a Republican candidate to win. The so-called right track/wrong track poll question shows how far off track people think things have gotten. A bad economy generally works against the party that holds the White House. Finally, it's hard for any political party to win three straight terms. So for all those reasons, the wind is at Barack Obama's back.
The reason people call this race relatively close is that we've seen leads of far greater size evaporate quickly. Summer polling is not at all predictive. If Obama were to win this race by eight points, people will say it is a handsome victory. But a six or seven point lead in July is different than a seven or eight point victory in November.
We know that there are questions people still have about Obama. He's well aware of that and talked about it when I interviewed him last Friday on his way from Paris to London. John McCain is not running a good race right now, but we also know that McCain is a survivor. If he can turn things around, and Obama cannot satisfy the doubts about him, then this will be a competitive race to the end.
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Washington, D.C.: Dan, are the efforts of Hillary's supporters (and probably the Clintons themselves, albeit behind the scenes) to persuade/force Obama to choose her as VP unprecedented? I do remember a discussion of Reagan choosing Ford as VP in 1980, but as I recall, it was brief and high level. I can't think of another effort similar to the "Draft Hillary for VP" movement? Can you?
Dan Balz: Oh, I doubt that what Senator Clinton's supporters are doing is unprecedented. John Edwards ran a pretty aggressive campaign for the vice presidency four years ago and it paid off. Senator Clinton has earned a good, hard look. Everybody talks about the mistakes she and her campaign made but the truth is she came within a whisker of winning the nomination and clearly has the qualifications to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. So why shouldn't her supporters push for her to be on the ticket. Senator Obama is presumably strong enough not to make his selection just on the basis of a vocal constituency in behalf of someone.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Dan, good morning and thanks for taking my question. John McCain's TV ad blames high gas prices on Barack Obama and claims that "drilling America" is going to lower prices at the pump. The implication is that there will be a big effect right away, and there is no mention of what happens when we're all tapped out. If I were an undecided voter, this ad would make me less likely to vote for McCain. Do you see any evidence that people actually believe this stuff?
Dan Balz: I'm sure there are many people who believe that this country ought to be more aggressive in producing more energy of its own, whether through more drilling, development of clean coal technology, alternatives, etc. There is no overnight solution but there is no solution that doesnt' require taking steps now that will return dividends some time in the future. Now as to the question of whether drilling is the right or wrong way, that is a debate on which people differ. There are obvious tradeoffs but there is nothing wrong with advocating it. Let voters decide whose energy strategy they prefer.
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Gettysburg, Pa.: This morning on MSNBC, someone said that this election could be like 1980, with the possibility of Obama breaking it open late in the season. I could see the debates working the same way they did for Reagan in 1980 -- that people see him on stage next to McCain and he looks presidential (and a whole lot younger) and any undecideds break for Obama at the end (unless Obama makes a serious gaffe). What's your take on this? Absent any significant mistakes by either side, could this election end up being an Obama blowout? Any chance of a McCain blowout (absent a serious mistake or scandal involving Obama)?
Dan Balz: The 1980 analogy is one that is very topical these days. It took Ronald Reagan almost the entire campaign to overcome questions about whether he could be trusted to have his finger on the button. Barack Obama faces related questions about whether he's ready to be commander in chief and whether the country would be comfortable with a president who has such an unusual biography. The theory is that, like Reagan, if Obama can satisfy those concerns, the election might not be close for all the reasons I mentioned in an earlier answer. John McCain has a history of continuing to plug along in the face of adversity and getting it together when it counts. As I said earlier, his campaign is not working well right now, but given his own biography and his history, if he finds his true voice, he can make this a very competitive race.
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Chicago: The National Association of Minority Journalists invited both McCain and Obama to its meeting yesterday which is held once in four years. Obama showed even after the grueling trip he just finished. McCain claimed a "scheduling conflict". Will the press pound on this as they did with the lack of a troop visit in Germany by Obama?
Dan Balz: I don't think the press "pounded" on the Landsthul visit and I doubt the press or others will pound on McCain's decision not to attend the Unity convention. He did speak to the NAACP (which he skipped last year).
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Polling: Smells to me like the networks (and even some Grey Ladies) are cherry-picking polls they want to use to sell their narrative of a close race (particularly the usually ignored Q-polls). I mean, from what I saw (and I am a media hound) they all but ignored the Rasmussen and Gallup polls from Friday that once again show Obama maintaining his consistent lead over McCain -- and even getting a bounce from his overseas trip. I'm sure they know that the real picture requires looking at all the polls, not just the ones they like... but maybe that's the whole idea?
Dan Balz: My complaint about the interpretation of polls this cycle is that there is a tendency to seize on outliers rather than looking broadly across a spectrum of results. Here's an example: Newsweek had a poll in June that showed the race at 15 points, which got some attention when it was clearly off the mark. Then Newsweek's last poll showed the race at three points, which McCain partisans seized on as evidence of a tightening race, which was not necessarily the case. If you read as many polls as it sounds ike you read, you probably have a pretty good sense of where the race is.
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Seattle: Good Morning, Dan. Lots of rumors that the VP choices will be unveiled this week. Do any of these rumors have some actual scoop to them?
Dan Balz: My guess is that Obama will wait a few weeks. Hard to tell about McCain but it's not clear what the value is of making his pick this week. I know people are spooked by the Olympics and the idea that nothing will break through the pagentry and competition. I'm skeptical of that, frankly. I think a vice presidential pick will get major play, at least for a few days. There are some smart Republicans who believe McCain should wait as long as possible to announce his pick -- certainly after Obama has picked his VP. If McCain were to wait until, say, the Sunday between the two conventions, he might arrest any bounce that Obama has gotten and could overshadow President Bush's appearance at the Republican convention early the next week. If McCain were to pick now, it would be a signal that the campaign does not have a better way to attract attention.
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New York, N.Y.: I know you spent much of the last few days covering Sen. Obama on his International trip (like most of world), but what is your sense of how Sen. McCain faired while the eyes of the media and globe were pointed at Sen. Obama? And do Sen. McCain's comments about Sen. Obama's response to the surge come off as effective or make McCain seem a little bitter for losing out on the spotlight all week?
Dan Balz: Senator McCain was clearly frustrated by all the attention Senator Obama got last week. Anybody would be. From what I could see from where I was, it did not look as if they had a coherent strategy for the week, or if they did, they quickly got blown off course.
I believe there are good questions about Obama and the surge, which he has not answered well or fully. Senator McCain has a legitimate right to raise them. But he runs a risk of sounding peeved about some of this and that's not when he's at his best.
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McCain is a Survivor?: Other than the 2000 primaries, has John McCain ever faced a halfway decent opponent? The 2008 GOP primaries was a vote to see who was less worse. The great hope Fred Thompson was so good he isn't even mentioned for Veep. You can say the same thing for the long-time front-runner and 6 percent vote-getter Rudy G. So what politically has McCain survived?
Dan Balz: You rightly mention 2000 when he was a very good candidate but one finally undone by the Bush operation. You're also right that he needed and got a lot of breaks in winning the nomination this year. That said, his ability to keep his candidacy afloat after the implosion of July 2007 and to hunker down and to double down on the surge and to run his campaign on pennies suggests a durability that ought not to be ignored.
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Anonymous: Dan, word is that Obama let his hair down a bit more on this overseas trip -- did you learn anything new about him that you can share ?
Dan Balz: I wouldn't say he let his hair down that much, though he was fairly accessible. He did tons of interviews -- tv, print, etc. -- and has press conferences or press avails on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. He came back on the plane on Thursday heading from Israel to Germany. But I don't think he showed off a personality different than we've seen before.
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St. Paul, Minn.: As a business executive, I just cannot help but marvel at the management effectiveness of the Obama camp. After spending a week in close quarters with the campaign, who are the cogs in the machine? Who gets credit for running the railroad?
Dan Balz: I agree with your premise and the names are probably too numerous to list here. But this was a big, comomplicated and very well executed trip overseas. We all wrote that it was a presidential-style undertaking without all the levers that a White House can bring to bear. Any trip like this is a challenge of staging, but there are a host of little details that I noticed that showed good management. Obama himself mentioned this when I talked to him on Friday, saying he hoped people recognized that he has put together a very good staff.
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Dan Balz: That's all for today. I have to cut it a little short to get out of my undisclosed location. Thanks for all the good questions and apologies for not getting to a lot of them today. Have a great week.
Dan Balz
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The New York Times
July 27, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Black Radio's Zeal for Obama Is Left's Answer to Limbaugh
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1427 words
DATELINE: ATLANTA
Warren Ballentine, one of black talk radio's new stars, was on a tear against Senator John McCain as he broadcast from the Greenbriar Mall here last week, blithely dismissing Mr. McCain's kind words about Senator Barack Obama at the recent N.A.A.C.P. national convention.
''He came out talking about how good of a race Barack Obama was running, and how proud he was of Barack,'' Mr. Ballentine said. ''You know he went back home and said, 'I can't believe I spoke in front of all those Negroes today!' ''
''He was pandering to the crowd, talking about how he felt when Martin Luther King Jr. died,'' Mr. Ballentine went on. ''However, he didn't vote for the holiday of Martin Luther King Jr.''
Rush Limbaugh, meet your black liberal counterprogramming. Mr. Ballentine is one of the many African-American radio hosts and commentators who are aggressively advocating for Mr. Obama's election on black-oriented radio stations daily.
Since Mr. Limbaugh first flexed his tonsils two decades ago, Democrats have publicly worried about their lack of an answer to him and his imitators, who have proven so adept at motivating conservative Republicans to go to the polls, especially for President Bush.
Now it is Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, who has a harmonious chorus of broadcast supporters addressing a vital part of his coalition, feeding and reflecting the excitement blacks have for his candidacy in general. Mr. Obama is getting support from white liberal talk radio hosts as well, but the backing he is getting from black radio hosts could be especially helpful to his campaign's efforts to increase black turnout and raise historically low voter registration enough to change the math of presidential elections in battlegrounds and traditionally Republican states like this one.
''Urban stations can be in '08 what Rush Limbaugh delivered for conservatives a generation ago,'' said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has a two-year-old radio program that is now syndicated on stations throughout the country, including in states like Georgia, Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina. ''If you look at the political map of where our shows are, it matches the gap of unregistered voters.''
Mr. Limbaugh and other conservative hosts generally support Mr. McCain, though perhaps with less enthusiasm than they displayed for the man he hopes to replace.
When it comes to criticism from black radio hosts like Mr. Ballentine, Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, said, ''John McCain believes every person is entitled to their opinion, no matter how outrageous.''
''But John McCain is an inclusive candidate,'' Mr. Bounds added, ''and he will be the president of all Americans.'' (Mr. Ballentine was correct that Mr. McCain voted against the Martin Luther King holiday, in 1983 -- but Mr. McCain later expressed regret and supported the holiday in his home state.)
While debate may continue over whether Mr. Obama is drawing an inordinate share of attention from mainstream news and entertainment outlets, there is generally little pretense of balance in major African-American media outlets. More often than not, the Obama campaign is discussed as the home team.
Mr. Obama conducted frequent interviews with black radio personalities during the primary season, appearing on programs like ''The Tom Joyner Morning Show,'' where his swing through the Middle East was referred to as a ''pre-victory tour'' on Friday; the ''Michael Baisden Show,'' where the host has joked that the savings from the gasoline tax suspension Mr. McCain supports would help him buy a pack of ''Now & Laters'' candy, and ''The Steve Harvey Morning Show.''
Those three shows report reaching a combined audience of nearly 20 million, though industry analysts say exact, national numbers are hard to peg and programs generally are known to exaggerate their audiences.
The favoritism extends beyond talk radio.
This month's Ebony magazine lists Mr. Obama first among the ''25 Coolest Brothers of All Time,'' alongside Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X. Caribbean stations play songs about him, like ''Barack Obama'' by Cocoa Tea and ''Barack the Magnificent'' by the calypso star Mighty Sparrow. ''We spin them three, four times a day,'' said Sir Rockwell, the morning D.J. at WDJA in Delray Beach, Fla.
Earlier this year, attendees of the Black Entertainment Television network's annual awards program, including the stars Alicia Keys and P. Diddy, turned it into an impromptu rally for the candidate (''Obama, y'all!,'' Ms. Keys shouted upon receiving an award before a television audience of nearly six million people).
The network is planning to show Mr. Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic convention live, but not Mr. McCain's. ''This is an historic occasion, so that demands some special treatment from us,'' Debra L. Lee, the BET chairman, said of the Democratic convention. Her smaller rival, TV One, said it would not cover the Republican convention at all.
Within the black media, there have been questions about whether Mr. Obama is keeping his distance from them and their audiences to avoid being too identified by race. Some black radio hosts now complain that he is avoiding them at worst and taking them for granted at best as he courts white voters through more mainstream outlets.
''There is the appearance he will go to a Larry King before he will go on black radio in, say, Arkansas,'' said Bev Smith, a black talk radio pioneer based in Pittsburgh. She placed the blame on Mr. Obama's staff, not the candidate, who has occasionally visited her program. The Obama campaign has come under similar criticism from some members of the major trade group for black newspaper owners, the National News Publishers Association, after Mr. Obama declined invitations to appear at the group's events.
Aides to Mr. Obama said he has been busy transitioning to a general election footing, part of which has included outreach to other voter groups less familiar with Mr. Obama. But, earlier this week the campaign hired a new communications strategist, Corey Ealons, to focus exclusively on black media and help with an intensified effort to take advantage of their excitement about Mr. Obama's candidacy.
''As Senator Obama expands his outreach to voters during the general election, African-American media will continue to be a very important part of expressing his priorities for the community,'' Mr. Ealons said. Mr. Obama is to appear Sunday at a gathering of minority journalists in Chicago called the Unity '08 Convention. Mr. McCain declined an invitation to speak to the group.
Whatever criticism the black media has of the Obama campaign, it has generally not shown up heavily on the air or in print. Earlier this year, the PBS and public radio host Tavis Smiley, one of the best known black radio and television voices, resigned as a regular commentator on Mr. Joyner's show after receiving a hail of angry e-mail messages and phone calls for questioning Mr. Obama's commitment to black issues.
One caller to Mr. Ballentine's show last week laid out some boundaries for him, as well: ''All of us coming down on him and criticizing him before we give him a chance, you know, that might hurt his campaign -- let's get him in there first,'' the caller said. Mr. Ballentine responded, ''Brother, I would never criticize him -- until he's in the White House.''
Mr. Ballentine, who says he has an audience of three million people nationally, usually broadcasts from his home town of Durham, N.C. His special appearance at the mall here -- with a predominantly black clientele -- provided a vivid example of just how helpful hosts like him can be.
''Even if you are a convicted felon, you can go and vote,'' he told his listeners, although the laws vary from state to state. ''We need to be registering people with tremendous numbers.''
At each commercial break, he invited his local audience to come to the mall to register; he did not mention that the man signing up voters was an Obama staff member.
Mr. Ballentine has plenty of company in the registration drive. ''I really push to get out the vote,'' Ms. Smith, the host from Pittsburgh, said. Ms. Smith said Mr. Obama could turbo-charge the efforts by appearing on black radio more, though she understood the complexities.
''Barack Obama is walking a thin line because whites will accuse him of being too black and blacks will accuse him of being too white,'' she said. ''I think he's a godsend -- whether he's on my show or not, I'm going to talk about him every day.''
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Warren Ballentine conducting a nationally syndicated radio show at Greenbriar Mall in Atlanta. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIK S. LESSER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.A19)
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The Washington Post
July 27, 2008 Sunday
Met 2 Edition
Embraced Overseas, But to What Effect?;
Obama Says Voters Still Question Him
BYLINE: Dan Balz; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1587 words
DATELINE: LONDON, July 26
By almost every measure, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's overseas tour that concluded here Saturday was a clear success, with meticulously planned and deftly executed events designed to beam back images to the United States of a politician comfortable on the world stage.
What isn't measurable is whether it worked. Will a week of one-on-one meetings with foreign officials, cheering crowds, favorable and voluminous media coverage on both sides of the Atlantic and plain good fortune on the debate over getting out of Iraq overcome the doubts he faces at home about his readiness to be president? And if it doesn't, what will?
As Obama moved from Iraq and Afghanistan to Jordan and Israel and then to three European capitals before flying back to Chicago on Saturday night, strategists back home measured the political fallout for the senator from Illinois and for the presumptive Republican nominee John McCain on an almost hourly basis. Their consensus was that the week turned into a near-rout for Obama.
John Weaver, who once was McCain's top political strategist, said his old boss made a big mistake by virtually daring Obama to go to Iraq and Afghanistan, only to see Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki generally embrace the Democrat's plan for withdrawing combat forces when he went there.
"McCain lost the week badly, let's be honest," Weaver said in a message on Friday. "John [McCain] is still in striking distance, thanks to his own character, biography and memories of the McCain of previous election cycles. But he cannot afford another week like this one."
Alex Castellanos, another Republican strategist, agreed that Obama had acquitted himself well overseas. " 'Barack goes global' is working," he noted. But he sounded a cautionary note, nonetheless. Obama, unlike McCain, he said, remains a work in progress who is still trying to answer the question, "Who is this guy?"
"I think voters see this difference between the two men," he said in a message. "John McCain is complete. Barack Obama is completing himself. The question is, will he finish that job by November?"
Obama himself foresees no quick payoff from his foreign trip. Aboard his campaign charter, as he prepared to leave Paris for London on Friday afternoon, he talked about what he had seen and how he thought it might play at home.
"I'm not sure there's any short-term [political gain], and I know that seems strange since obviously we put a lot of work into it," he said. "I don't think that we'll see a bump in the polls. I think we might even lose some points. People back home are worried about gas prices; they're worried about jobs."
Obama's assessment is that the payoff from one of the most ambitious foreign trips ever undertaken by a presumptive nominee could come much later. "The value to me of this trip is, hopefully, it gives voters a sense that I can in fact -- and do -- operate effectively on the international stage," he said. "That may not be decisive for the average voter right now, given our economic troubles, but it's knowledge they can store in the back of their minds for when they go into the polling place later."
Given the mismatch between the Obama and McCain campaigns over the past week, the other question for Obama is why the race for president remains as relatively close as it does. Obama said he believes that is because voters still have enough questions to keep them from committing.
Despite the pace he kept up all week, Obama was thoroughly familiar with the results of a new NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, which showed him leading McCain 47 percent to 41 percent.
"The point is, with change comes some risk, and I combine two things," he said. One is a shift in policies, the other a biography he said will take people time to process. "They're going to keep their powder dry and get as much information as they can the next three months," he added.
McCain advisers complained through much of the week about what they labeled "a premature victory lap," and McCain made a joke of it.
At his closing news conference in London, Obama pushed back against suggestions that there was something inappropriate about his week abroad.
"It is hard for me to understand Senator McCain's argument," he said. "He was telling me I was supposed to take this trip. . . . John McCain has visited every one of these countries, post-primary, that I have. He has given speeches in Canada, in Colombia, Mexico, he made visits. And so it doesn't strike me that we have done anything different than the McCain campaign has done."
The difference, of course, was the scale and ambition of Obama's tour. He flew in a chartered plane with the words "Change We Can Believe In" on the fuselage and with a sizable press corps. He traveled with a retinue of senior foreign policy advisers, who were veterans of the Clinton administration, as well as his top political advisers. McCain had nothing in comparison.
From a sheer logistical challenge, what Obama attempted was unprecedented, a presidential-style trip without the resources and clout of the White House. But the result was a series of meetings with foreign leaders who seemed to go out of their way to court their guest, as well as stunning visual images, from a news conference on a hillside in Jordan, with the ruins of the Temple of Hercules in one direction and the city of Amman as a backdrop, to the sea of humanity -- estimated at 200,000 -- that turned out in Berlin on Thursday night for Obama's only major public event of the trip.
The policy highlight was Iraq and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's embrace of a timetable for withdrawal akin to Obama's 16-month plan. The visual highlight was Berlin.
"The speech in Berlin and that stirring picture of the crowd lined up a mile long will be the enduring image or memory of this trip," Democratic strategist Dan Gerstein said. "That said, 'America is back' -- or more accurately, 'America will be back' -- in world esteem more than any nifty turn of phrase Obama and his excellent speechwriters could have ever come up with."
But Republican strategist Alex Vogel called the Obama strategy "the hope of audacity" and said it may not work. "Taking a page from the Clinton campaign's inevitability strategy, the Obama folks are hoping that voters will substitute symbolism for experience," he said.
The message Obama hoped to send was that, after eight years of President Bush and rising anti-American sentiment in many countries, the United States could have a president the rest of the world admires.
"What I thought was useful was to give the American people some sense of how I was approaching these issues, but also to give them a sense that the world can be responsive to this approach and that it will make a difference," Obama said.
"[French President Nicolas] Sarkozy is much more likely to be able to provide more troop support in Afghanistan if his voters are favorably disposed towards us," he added.
But a Democrat who supported another candidate during the nomination battle had a more skeptical assessment of all the imagery. He argued that the Obama team is mistaken in believing that meetings with foreign leaders will help overcome a relatively thin résumé in foreign affairs.
"It's not whether he has experience or is presidential; it's whether voters can relate to him, given his unusual background and his often seeming arrogance. Talking to Germans and having Sarkozy embrace you make this problem worse, not better. If I were the RNC [Republican National Committee], I'd use the German-language Obama flier in an ad to make him appear more foreign, more distant."
The trip went smoothly save for one flap with the Pentagon over a planned visit by Obama to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Pentagon officials raised concerns about campaign aspects of the visit, and Obama's team scrubbed it, then tried to explain what they had been told that forced them to back away.
Looking for an opening, McCain accused Obama in a new ad of "going to the gym" while in Germany instead of visiting the wounded troops, and of doing so because the hospitals would not let television cameras film the event.
McCain said in an interview to be aired Sunday morning on ABC's "This Week" program that "if I had been told by the Pentagon that I couldn't visit those troops, and I was there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event," according to the Associated Press.
Substantively, the trip left questions for Obama. He struggled to square his opposition to the troop buildup in Iraq with the successes he witnessed and talked about. Obama initially said the buildup might even increase violence. Now that it has helped produce the opposite, McCain, rather than Obama, can claim he had superior judgment.
His willingness to pledge to make the Middle East one of his administration's top priorities leaves open how he can fulfill that promise, given the urgency he would face as president to deal with the economy and with all the potential complications of drawing down U.S. forces in Iraq and augmenting them in Afghanistan.
He went to countries to offer reassurances, but as he noted Saturday morning at his news conference, in answer to a question about British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's political troubles, the realities of governing are different. "I will tell you that you are always more popular before you are actually in charge of things," he said. "And then, you know, once you are responsible, then you are going to make some people unhappy."
LOAD-DATE: July 27, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Cate Gillon -- Getty Images; Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) emerges from a London TV studio where he was interviewed. Around him are security personnel and U.S. reporters who followed him abroad.
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The New York Times
July 26, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
Americans Move to the Middle
BYLINE: By CHARLES M. BLOW
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 17
LENGTH: 461 words
Can you hear that? I can. It's the sound of political action committees and party extremists sharpening their wedge issues and setting the timers on their bombshells. The fall's battle is looming. It's going to get ugly.
Once again they'll cast the opposition as binary caricatures to rally their bases, swing the independents and capture the defectors.
The left will be reduced to fist-bumping blacks and intellectual elites with gun aversions and gay agendas. An amoral, tale-tucking lot that coddles criminals, raises taxes and has gone Chicken Little over global warming.
The right will be lambasted as ultra-conservative cretins who want to conflate the Constitution and the Bible, are pro-life before birth and pro-death after trial and blindly follow war-hungry fear-mongers who obsess over ''terrorists'' like a Tootsie Roll commercial.
And, never the twain shall meet. Left or right? That narrow view is just wrong. Americans are much more complex. Sadly, battle cries drown out nuance in campaigns.
So, in these relative calm days of summer, with Barack Obama on his way back from a rock-star tour of the other side of the pond and John McCain shadowboxing the media stateside, let's pause and recognize that Americans overwhelmingly agree on many of the big issues and are changing their minds on others. It's just that those shifting views, when taken as a whole, don't neatly line up with either party's platform.
Here are a few examples, according to Gallup polls taken over the last eight years:
Six in 10 Americans believe that conservation should be emphasized to solve the energy problem, 7 in 10 favor the death penalty for murder and don't want to ban the sale of handguns, and 8 in 10 believe in God but also believe that abortion should be legal, at least under certain circumstances.
Nearly half now believe that we are unlikely to win the war in Iraq and that the war has made us less safe from terrorism.
An increasing number of people believe that religion as a whole is losing its influence on American life and an increasing number want it to have less influence.
While more bemoan the worsening state of moral values in the country, we are increasingly shifting our opinion on what is morally acceptable. Now most believe that getting divorced, engaging in premarital sex and having babies outside of marriage are morally acceptable. Nearly half also say that gay relationships are morally acceptable.
Remember this when the attack ads start up and the divisive rhetoric starts to bore into our brains. Remember that campaigns are not just about the people on the placards but about parties and power, and that the wizards behind the curtains specialize in amplifying differences that stoke our fears. Remember, and resist.
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LOAD-DATE: July 26, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
July 25, 2008 Friday 11:56 AM EST
How to Get Away With Torture
BYLINE: Dan Froomkin, Special to washingtonpost.com, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: OPINION
LENGTH: 2476 words
HIGHLIGHT: Here's the official policy on torture from the administration that decries moral relativism: It's in the eye of the torturer.
Here's the official policy on torture from the administration that decries moral relativism: It's in the eye of the torturer.
The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday released three heavily blacked-out documents it received as a result of its ongoing, four-year-old Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. One document is a previously undisclosed August 2002 memo to the CIA from the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel, which essentially offers a guide to how to torture and get away with it.
Here's an excerpt:
"To violate the statute, an individual must have the specific intent to inflict severe pain or suffering. Because specific intent is an element of the offense, the absence of specific intent negates the charge of torture. As we previously opined, to have the required specific intent, an individual must expressly intend to cause such severe pain or suffering. . . . We have further found that if a defendant acts with the good faith belief that his actions will not cause such suffering, he has not acted with specific intent. . . . A defendant acts in good faith when he has an honest belief that his actions will not result in severe pain and suffering. . . . Although an honest belief need not be reasonable, such a belief is easier to establish where there is a reasonable basis for it.
"Based on the information you have provided us, we believe that those carrying out these procedures would not have the specific intent to inflict severe physical pain or suffering. . . .
"Furthermore, no specific intent to cause severe mental pain or suffering appears to be present. . . . Prolonged mental harm is substantial mental harm of sustained duration, e.g. harm lasting months or even years after the acts were inflicted upon the prisoner."
A 2004 memo from the CIA to the OLC notes the 2002 Justice Department opinion that OK'd interrogation techniques "including the waterboard."
To put this in context, recall that waterboarding has been an archetypal form of torture dating back to the Spanish Inquisition. It involves strapping someone to a board and essentially drowning them. The U.S. government, along with most other civilized nations, has historically considered it a war crime.
Joby Warrick writes in The Washington Post: "Lawyers for the Bush administration told the CIA in 2002 that its officers could legally use waterboarding and other harsh measures while interrogating al-Qaeda suspects, as long as they acted 'in good faith' and did not deliberately seek to inflict severe pain, according to a Justice Department memo made public yesterday.
"The memo, apparently intended to assuage CIA concerns that its officers could someday face torture charges, said interrogators needed only to possess an 'honest belief' that their actions did not cause severe suffering. And the honest belief did not have to be based on reality."
The newly disclosed memo, signed by then-Assistant Atty. Gen. Jay Bybee -- now a federal appeals court judge -- was issued the same day Bybee signed a previously disclosed memo defining torture as "extreme acts" causing pain equivalent to death or organ failure. That opinion was withdrawn two years later.
Scott Shane writes in the New York Times that the August memo "is believed to describe in detail the methods the C.I.A. was using on Abu Zubaydah, a Qaeda logistics specialist captured in Pakistan in 2002."
Shane focuses on newly disclosed reporting requirements: "When Central Intelligence Agency interrogators used waterboarding and other harsh techniques on Qaeda suspects, agency rules required detailed records of each method used, its duration and the names of everyone present, according to one of three heavily redacted government documents made public on Thursday."
Spencer Ackerman writes in the Washington Independent: "'This is a critical piece of the story,' said Jameel Jaffer, head of the national security project at the American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained the memorandum under a Freedom of Information Act filing. 'This is the most explicit statement out there that the CIA waterboarded prisoners because the Justice Dept. authorized them to do so.' . . .
"Herman Schwartz, professor of law at American University, said the legal advice on display in the memorandum amounted to 'out-and-out-fraud.' . . .
"Schwartz also took exception to the memorandum's definition of torture. 'Their definition is outrageous,' he said in a phone interview. 'Excruciating pain even for 30 seconds will induce people to say anything.'"
Glenn Greenwald blogs for Salon: "What's particularly notable here -- beyond the fact that this is further proof that our Government has engaged in deliberate, systematic and illegal torture -- is what a closed, secretive society we've become. Even the memos which the ACLU obtained -- between four to six years old -- are heavily redacted, with the vast bulk of the legal conclusions of our Government simply blacked out. We just don't live in an open society, as most of the most consequential actions in which our Government engages are undertaken behind an increasingly impenetrable wall of secrecy.
"The vast bulk of these memoranda consist of nothing more than legal arguments as to why the Bush administration claimed it had the authority -- as the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer put it -- 'to permit interrogators to use barbaric methods that the U.S. once prosecuted as war crimes.' There is absolutely no justification whatsoever for these Memoranda to be concealed from the public. All they do is set forth the Executive Branch's purported understanding of the law. How can legal arguments about the President's alleged authority possibly be secret? . . .
"It has been left to the ACLU and similar groups (such as the Center for Constitutional Rights and Electronic Frontier Foundation) to uncover what our Government is doing precisely because the institutions whose responsibility that is -- the 'opposition party,' the Congress, the Intelligence Committees, the press -- have failed miserably in those duties."
Dahlia Lithwick writes for Slate: "There's not much dispute that domestic and international laws were broken in pursuit of the war on terror. . . .
"[T]he question for most of us now is not whether laws were broken, but what to do about it. . . .
"There is a small but growing constituency for the prosecution of torture memo author John Yoo; Jim Haynes, former general counsel at the Defense Department; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; David Addington, the vice president's general counsel; and others. . . .
"At the other end of the spectrum are the suggestions of an amnesty deal for everyone who had any sort of finger in the torture pie. . . .
"In Newsweek last week, my colleague Stuart Taylor wrote that the president 'ought to pardon any official from cabinet secretary on down who might plausibly face prosecution for interrogation methods approved by administration lawyers.'
"Taylor would do away with any possibility of criminal prosecution in favor of a truth commission. Nicholas Kristof also seeks a 'truth and reconciliation' commission, modeled after the South African response to apartheid. Such a commission would 'lead a process of soul searching and national cleansing.'
"I don't know about you, but sometimes I believe there's nothing quite as cleansing to the soul as an indictment. I am less sanguine than Taylor that a promise of sweeping prospective immunity for all Bush administration wrongdoers would lead to a great outpouring of candor and revelations. For one thing, the Bush administration has already sought to immunize itself for every kind of lawbreaking -- often within hours of violating the law -- and yet still it has classified or claimed privileged in relation to almost every aspect of the war on terror under some shape-shifting theory of state secrecy or executive privilege. To Taylor's and Kristof's suggestions that truth will out if some formal bipartisan body with subpoena power is empaneled, I'd respond that we have such a body. It's called Congress. . . .
"[W]e need careful investigation before we take the possibility of criminal prosecution off the table."
The House Judiciary Committee today is holding a hearing on the " Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush and possible legal responses." ( Live video.)
Among the 13 witnesses: Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who advocates impeachment for both Bush and Vice President Cheney, as well as anti-war Republican Rep. Walter Jones.
Keith Perine writes for CQ: "In prepared testimony for a committee hearing, Kucinich said Bush should be held accountable for leading the nation into an unwarranted invasion of Iraq. . . .
"Lamar Smith , the top Republican on the panel, said 'Nothing is going to come out of this hearing with regard to impeachment of the president. I know it, the media knows it, even the Speaker knows it.' Smith added that the hearing 'will only serve to impeach our own credibility.'"
John Dean writes for Findlaw that he was going to appear, but got the flu. He writes that what he would have done is point out that unlike Watergate, when Republicans finally turned against Richard Nixon's lawlessness, "today's Republicans . . . have no moral lines that they will draw."
Dana Milbank sketches the hearing for washingtonpost.com.
Carrie Johnson writes in The Washington Post: "Two leading Senate Democrats asked Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey yesterday to 'exercise vigilance' and ensure that political appointees do not improperly wheedle their way into permanent slots at the beleaguered Justice Department. . . .
"'It would be very damaging to Justice Department morale to allow any burrowing in at all,' said Paul C. Light, a New York University professor who has studied the phenomenon. 'Wrong signal, wrong time.'"
Laura Litvan writes for Bloomberg: "In 2006, Republican Representative Marilyn Musgrave welcomed President George W. Bush to her Colorado district for a rally on the weekend before Election Day. In the run-up to this year's balloting, Musgrave has bucked Bush by voting to override his vetoes of Medicare and farm bills.
"In Oregon, Republican Senator Gordon Smith is running a commercial highlighting his support for federally funded embryonic stem-cell research, which Bush opposes. Even Kansas Republican Pat Roberts, who has been a loyal Bush backer in the Senate, is running ads promoting his work, over White House objections, to expand health insurance for children.
"As Bush nears the end of his presidency with one of the lowest public-approval ratings in polling history, Republican lawmakers striving to save their jobs are proclaiming their independence from the White House on issues from health care to the rescue plan for mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."
Julie Hirschfeld Davis writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush pulled the rug out from under Republicans this week when he abruptly dropped his opposition to a massive housing rescue. Their reaction? Good riddance.
"Three-quarters of House Republicans defied Bush and voted against the package. . . .
"The split reflected an every-man-for-himself mentality that has taken hold in GOP circles in a challenging political environment in which Bush, with record-low approval ratings, is seen as an albatross around the necks of vulnerable Republicans.
"'For these members -- particularly those on the bubble -- there's no percentage in being seen as a Bush lackey,' said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va."
But wait, not so fast. Jackie Kucinich writes for The Hill: "Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee are asking President Bush to reconsider his pledge not to veto a housing bill that passed the lower chamber on Wednesday."
Anne Gearan writes for the Associated Press: "Barack Obama wants to sound like the voice of reason on U.S. foreign policy -- the guy who would abandon Bush administration policies he sees as shortsighted, self-defeating or just plain wrong. Problem is, George Bush keeps beating him to it.
"The administration's turnabout on a timeline for a U.S. troop withdrawal in Iraq and its new willingness to sit down and talk with adversaries Iran and North Korea make it hard for Obama to define himself as the clear alternative.
"The shifts don't help John McCain, either.
"As the White House blurs formerly sharp lines, Bush's would-be Republican inheritor is left to defend positions that the administration has left behind. In the case of Iraq, McCain now stakes a position more absolute than Bush and less popular with voters."
But wait, not so fast. How about the issue of human rights?
Tabassum Zakaria writes for Reuters: "President George W. Bush on Thursday urged his successor to carry on what he called his 'freedom agenda' of promoting human rights, democracy, and free trade around the world.
"Bush, with six months left in office, peppered a speech to mark 'Captive Nations Week' with the phrases 'in the years ahead' and 'the challenge for future presidents and future Congresses' -- a nod to his waning White House days. . . .
"'Over the past seven years, we've spoken out against human rights abuses by tyrannical regimes like those in Iran, Sudan, and Syria and Zimbabwe,' Bush said."
But as Zakaria points out, understatedly: "Human rights activists and others have criticized Bush for setting up the detention facility at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where terrorism suspects have been held for years in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
"They said harsh treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq and the practice of secretly flying detainees to third countries where critics say they were tortured undermined the credibility of the United States as a defender of civil rights."
The latest Fox News poll finds Bush's approval rating at an all-time low of 27 percent, with disapproval at an all-time high of 66 percent.
Andrew Klavan writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: "There seems to me no question that the Batman film 'The Dark Knight,' currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.
"And like W, Batman understands that there is no moral equivalence between a free society -- in which people sometimes make the wrong choices -- and a criminal sect bent on destruction. The former must be cherished even in its moments of folly; the latter must be hounded to the gates of Hell."
Tom Toles on the Bush/Cheney Obama critique; Alan Moir and Adam Zyglis on Bush's "time horizon"; and Nick Anderson on Bush's idea of a joke.
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The New York Times
July 24, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
Spotlight on Gas Prices, And Parties in Stalemate
BYLINE: By CARL HULSE
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; CONGRESSIONAL MEMO; Pg. 18
LENGTH: 917 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
Congressional Republicans and Democrats agree that high gasoline prices are the driving domestic political issue of the moment, spurring new campaign advertisements and maneuvering almost every day. But that is about all they can agree on when it comes to the national panic at the pump.
Making it increasingly clear that the Congressional debate is more a matter of political positioning than policy creation, the Senate failed Wednesday to come to terms on the ground rules for considering an energy bill, delaying a proposal to curb speculation in oil futures and stymieing a broader review of energy initiatives.
The stalemate is drawing sharp contrasts for the November election. On the one side is the Democratic leadership, pushing its view that oil companies must be pressed to explore their current holdings and that the nation should pursue more alternative energy sources without opening areas now off limits to drilling. On the other are Republicans with their dominant message: Drill.
''We should come out for developing more American energy, and not rely on expensive foreign sources,'' said Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, senior Republican on the Appropriations Committee. ''We can develop our offshore resources far from the coastline in the Gulf of Mexico, for example, and add to our energy supply.''
Republicans say they are willing to back alternative energy proposals and conservation as well but drilling has been their priority. And in an election season when the terrain has been steeply tilted against them, Republicans say they have finally struck pay dirt on an issue they can exploit with some success. Polls show that Americans want cheaper gasoline and that many are willing to embrace new drilling if it can bring down the price.
Democrats, worried about defections in the ranks, are scrambling to avoid votes on expanded drilling and this week canceled a series of Senate committee sessions that could have provided an opening for Republicans. In the House, Democrats are increasingly bringing legislation to the floor under rules that deny Republicans the chance to counter with a drilling proposal.
''What does Nancy Pelosi have to fear from allowing the House to vote?'' Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, asked Wednesday as he and some Republican colleagues rallied outside the Capitol, taunting the speaker of the House for her opposition to a vote on expanded offshore drilling.
Some Democrats grudgingly concede that Republicans have finally gotten a little traction on an issue after struggling for months to find their footing. But they say it is far from enough to fundamentally alter the election landscape.
And they point to the fact that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are closely identified with the oil industry, a tie that makes it unlikely the high price of gasoline is going to be pinned on Democrats, especially when Republicans had full control of Washington for much of the current Bush era.
''With the election now set between change versus status quo, drilling is not the silver bullet for our energy policy or the Republicans' political misfortunes,'' said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
Democrats also say that most voters can be persuaded that expanded offshore domestic drilling is no solution to a gas price crunch that calls for innovation and exploration of new ways of powering America.
''Why are they clinging to this?'' asked Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, referring to the Republican emphasis on drilling. ''They are mired in the past.''
As they step up their cooperation with Senator Barack Obama's campaign, leading Democrats also say they believe Mr. Obama can carry a debate with Senator John McCain over offshore drilling, arguing that allowing additional coastal exploration would have no immediate impact on gas prices. They say the energy issue can be cast as a generational one, with Mr. Obama representing a shift away from a focus on oil while his opponent, Mr. McCain, is embracing new drilling as the chief solution to gas prices.
But Mr. McCain evidently sees the issue breaking in his favor as well. He has begun using an advertisement on drilling, is discussing drilling at his campaign appearances and was planning a trip to an oil drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday until weather conditions postponed that visit.
He is not the only Republican emphasizing the gasoline issue. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader who is in a re-election fight, has made gasoline prices the subject of a major television commercial buy. At the same time, a conservative group is paying for a radio advertisement being heard in Washington urging Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, to allow more oil drilling.
In the Senate, talks between the two parties about the number and content of competing alternatives they could offer as part of the speculation legislation went nowhere and the bill appeared likely to stall. In the House, Democrats planned to offer a proposal Thursday to remove some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to lower prices. But that measure could sink as well since Democrats are thwarting Republican amendments.
The back and forth is not doing much to reduce the cost of gasoline or the drain on the family budget. Whether it will determine the political fortunes of either party in November will be gauged later.
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LOAD-DATE: July 24, 2008
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GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Senator Byron L. Dorgan conducting a Capitol Hill news conference Monday on gas prices
Senator Amy Klobuchar is at right.(PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
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The New York Times
July 24, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
The Oil Man Cometh
BYLINE: By TIMOTHY EGAN.
Gail Collins is off today.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 25
LENGTH: 762 words
There he is, the sound of money in a wizened Texas drawl, the tired realist looking a bit like the John Huston character from ''Chinatown'' as he warns in national television ads that we should just listen here and do as he says.
And what the 80-year-old T. Boone Pickens says, in a $58 million campaign, is that we can't drill our way to lower gas prices. By implication, anybody who tells you otherwise -- including the fellow Texan he helped put in the White House -- is a fraud.
This is a political parable for the ages: the guy who was behind one of the knockout punches to John Kerry four years ago is now doing Democrats the biggest favor of the election by calling Republicans on their phony energy campaign.
''Totally misleading'' is the way Pickens describes Republican attempts to convince the public that if we just opened up all these forbidden areas to oil drilling then gas prices would fall. He's not against new drilling, but he is honest enough to say it wouldn't do anything.
Republicans are furious at their longtime benefactor. Senator John McCain is currently running an ad in which he directly blames Barack Obama for $4-a-gallon gas at the pump -- as bogus a claim as anything yet made in 2008.
Then along comes Pickens, Texas oilman and billionaire corporate raider, overwhelming the McCain attack with a saturation message that has the added value of being true, as Henry Kissinger once said about another matter.
Pickens was a geologist before he found a deep pool of money, so when he says ''the geology just isn't there'' to reduce oil imports through new drilling in offshore areas, he has some cred.
But, more importantly, Pickens is betting $10 billion in constructing what he says will be the world's largest wind farm in the gusts of West Texas. If the mighty winds of the American midsection were harnessed, it could free up plentiful natural gas for vehicles -- a relatively quick step away from foreign oil.
Would it enrich him further? Yes. But perhaps it's not about money. In ''Chinatown,'' the old man played by Huston was asked by Detective Jake Gittes what more he could possibly buy at his age.
''The future, Mr. Gittes. The future.''
But before T. Boone poses for his statue, he has to answer to his past. Pickens was the moneybags, to the tune of $3 million, behind the Swift Boat attacks that made Senator Kerry's honorable service in Vietnam sound like Rambo tangled up in lies. He even promised to pay $1 million to anyone who could challenge the veracity of the claims.
After a group of veterans presented him with documents identifying 10 lies of the Swifties, Pickens broke his promise. The vets misunderstood the precise details of the $1 million offer, he said last month. Sorry, but thanks for your service, boys!
The old-fashioned term for this is welshing on a bet, which dishonors Wales.
Because so much is at stake in the energy debate, some are quick to embrace Pickens. An endorsement from Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, is prominently displayed on the Pickens Web site.
''To put it plainly,'' Pope says, ''T. Boone Pickens is out to save America.'' I asked Pope why he lent his words to someone who had so much to do with giving us another four years of the oil intransigence of the Bush administration.
''Ten billion dollars gets my attention,'' he said.
No doubt, the Pickens plan makes sense. Just last week, Texas state officials gave preliminary approval to the biggest investment in clean energy in American history, backing a $4.9 billion plan to build transmission lines for wind energy.
Meanwhile, looking bravely to the past, Bush and McCain are trying to convince us that more oil drilling will save us from $5-a-gallon gas. History says otherwise. The number of oil and gas permits on federal land doubled in the last five years, with no effect on price or supply. And Bush's own Energy Information Administration says increased drilling wouldn't move the market in the short term.
McCain knows this, despite the brazen lie in his Obama gas ad. He now says drilling offshore would have ''a psychological impact.'' Just like that ''mental recession'' his former chief economic adviser Phil Gramm spoke of. These guys need to get off the couch.
It's sad to see McCain go down this path, an easy sell for a fast-food nation. Straight talk distress.
Winning the argument may depend on who has the bigger megaphone. Advantage Pickens. Which means advantage Obama. Unless, of course, McCain wants to Swift Boat him, and then he knows who to turn to.
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The New York Times
July 24, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
Inside the Times, July 24, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; 4A; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 2386 words
INTERNATIONAL
CORRUPTION AND DIVISION CITED
In Afghan Narcotics, Official Says
Corrupt Afghan officials, a reluctant military and divisions over policy, as much as the Taliban, have contributed to a failing policy to fight narcotics in Afghanistan, a former Bush administration official says. The government of President Hamid Karzai has shielded the cultivation of poppies from American eradication efforts, writes the official, Thomas Schweich, and the combined failure has turned Afghanistan into a virtual narco-state. PAGE A12
IRAQ HEAD VETOES ELECTIONS LAW
Iraq's president vetoed legislation on provincial elections, sending it back to lawmakers for revisions as political leaders continued to try to strike a deal that would allow the vote to be held this year as planned. Provincial elections are seen as central to political progress in Iraq, but their timing was thrown into doubt on Tuesday when Kurdish lawmakers boycotted the parliamentary vote on the legislation, insisting that it be rewritten. PAGE A8
CLERIC LOSES APPEAL IN BRITAIN
An Egyptian-born Muslim cleric fighting extradition to the United States on terrorist charges failed in his bid to take the case to Britain's highest appeals court in the House of Lords. One of the country's most senior judges ruled that there was ''no point of law or general importance'' that justified a further appeal. The ruling moved the 51-year-old cleric, known by the pseudonym of Abu Hamza al-Masri, a step closer to facing trial in the United States. PAGE A10
KARADZIC MAY DEFEND HIMSELF
A lawyer for Radovan Karadzic said that his client would defend himself in any war crimes trial if he were handed to the United Nations tribunal. ''He is convinced that with the help of God he will win,'' the lawyer said. PAGE A6
WINEMAKERS' RELATIONSHIPS SOUR
A French court's ruling has set winemaking families in the French medieval village of St.-Emilion against one another after some lost promotions they had been given in the 2006 classification of the region's wines. The area, which contains 770 winegrowers and produces more than 30 million bottles a year of some of Bordeaux's most expensive wines, represents an enormous collective business and, now, judicial and commercial confusion. PAGE A10
QUAKE SHAKES NORTHERN JAPAN
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 jolted northern Japan, injuring at least 91 people, trapping hundreds in halted trains and temporarily cutting off electric power to thousands of homes. The Japan Meteorological Agency said there was no threat of a tsunami. PAGE A14
Rice Meets Korean Counterpart A14
National
MCCAIN CAMPAIGN STOP ON OIL RIG
Is Thwarted by Hurricane Dolly
Senator John McCain had plans designed to steal at least a little attention from Senator Barack Obama's speech in Berlin: He was to travel to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and meet with a possible Republican vice-presidential pick. But Hurricane Dolly thwarted the presumptive Republican nominee's plans to talk up offshore drilling and why he says it is safe. PAGE A21
NEWSOM. GAVIN NEWSOM.
Whoever casts the next James Bond movie may want to consider Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, for the title role. Mr. Newsom was enlisted on Monday afternoon to coax a secret code out of a city engineer who prosecutors say has effectively hijacked a large part of the city's computer systems. And where computer technicians and private hackers failed, Mr. Newsom succeeded. PAGE A17
CAN MCCAIN COUNT ON ARIZONA?
For a presidential candidate, home is where the Electoral College votes are. Or they should be, at least. So John McCain should be able to count on his home state of Arizona for its 11 votes in the Electoral College. But a variety of factors have thrown a dash of doubt into that equation. PAGE A21
OBAMA MEETS MIDDLE EAST LEADERS
Barack Obama met with the leaders of both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Continuing his much-scrutinized trip abroad, Mr. Obama said it was in Israel's interest to make peace with the Palestinians. He also emphasized that Israel has a right to defend itself. PAGE A20
CRIME AND TERROR BATTLE FOR FOCUS
Like most of the country's more than 18,000 local law enforcement agencies, the Providence Police Department went to war against terror after 9/11, embracing a fundamental shift in its national security role. But much has changed. Now, police officials in Providence express doubts about whether the imperative to protect domestic security has blinded federal authorities to other priorities. The department is battling homicides, robberies and gang shootings that the police in a number of cities say are as serious a threat as terrorism. PAGE A17
5 IN POLYGAMOUS SECT FACE ARREST
Texas rangers and prosecutors prepared to arrest five members of a polygamous Mormon sect indicted the day before with their imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs. The charges are related to underage marriages and bigamy. PAGE A2
An Awakening. A Surge. PAGE A2
Judge Rules on Berkeley Tree PAGE A19
NEW YORK REPORT
GATES AND BLOOMBERG PLEDGE
$500 Million to Prevent Smoking
Bill Gates and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced that they would spend $500 million to stop people around the world from smoking, which the World Health Organization estimates will kill up to a billion people in the 21st century. Mr. Bloomberg's foundation plans to commit $250 million over four years on top of a $125 million gift he announced two years ago. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is allocating $125 million over five years. PAGE B1
THE LITTLE TRAIN THAT CAN
With its two cars, single track and four stops, the Franklin Avenue shuttle in Brooklyn looks less like a part of the New York City subway system than a way to get around Mister Rogers's neighborhood. But the little shuttle is punctual: it has been named the most on-time train in the subway system by New York City Transit. PAGE B1
Rebuilding Ground Zero Church B2
BUSINESS
FORD CHIEF SLASHES AND BURNS
To Grow His Company
In less than two years, Ford's chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, has mortgaged the company to raise cash, sold off three brands and slashed truck production in the face of rising gas prices. Industry analysts are beginning to see him as an executive who is willing to take big chances to reinvent a way of doing business in Detroit. PAGE C1
SALES OF HIP PARTS SUSPENDED
Shares of Zimmer Holdings Inc., the nation's biggest producer of orthopedic devices, fell as the company announced it was suspending sales of an artificial hip component. The company said it was halting sales of a hip socket known as the Durom cup after some doctors have complained that the device was failing. PAGE C1
A MORE SOCIAL FACEBOOK
Facebook unveiled a new feature, Facebook Connect, a way that other Web sites can integrate parts of Facebook's service, in order to broaden its reach online and to recalibrate its sometimes contentious relationship with the thousands of developers writing programs for the service. PAGE C8
A MISSION BEYOND PROFITS
Cities have long offered tax incentives to encourage companies to stay and newcomers to relocate. But another option is gaining currency in old manufacturing cities looking to prop up their struggling economies: homegrown nonprofit groups that nurture new businesses from the ground up. PAGE C5
ARTS
SUMMER OF THE SUPERHERO
May Face Its Autumn
As Comic-Con begins in this season of superheroes -- Batman, The Hulk, Iron Man, Hancock and Hellboy have all made appearances -- A.O. Scott asks: Are the Caped Crusader and his colleagues basking in an endless summer of triumph, or is the sun starting to set? PAGE E1
A MEMOIR OF FORGERIES
Signed with a swooping ''Noel,'' a short, gossipy letter appears alongside hundreds of others in ''The Letters of Noel Coward,'' an acclaimed volume published by Alfred A. Knopf last year. But the letter, and another much like it, were actually written by Lee Israel, a biographer and editor in New York who spent two years writing forgeries and selling them to autograph dealers. Or so Ms. Israel says in her new memoir, ''Can You Ever Forgive Me?'' PAGE E1
HUNT FOR EQUITY IN ARTS FINANCING
The Cultural Equity Group, a coalition of arts organizations in New York City, is seeking to shift the arts funding paradigm to get more money and technical assistance for groups specifically run and served by blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Americans and Native-Americans. Its quest has reignited a lively debate in the arts world about just what cultural equity means. PAGE E1
Charles Isherwood Samuel Beckett's 'First Love' E1
Styles
AMID CURRENT LAYOFFS,
Pointers for Friendly Firings
In an economy like this one, where the news is filled with people losing their jobs, is there a right way to fire someone? New York City is expected to lose 33,000 finance jobs this year and Starbucks will shutter 600 locations around the country. But for every person who is fired, there is someone whose job it is to fire them, and those who have dismissed colleagues say it is something they dread. PAGE G1
NOVELS WITH FASHION SENSE
A look at the current batch of Romantic novels, which includes Lauren Weisberger's ''Chasing Harry Winston,'' James Patterson's ''Sunday at Tiffany's,'' and Jane Green's ''The Beach House.'' Although the plots are at times thin, the books are faithfully informed by the values and brands of the fashion world and its parallel universes of entertainment, media and publishing. PAGE G1
HALF-MARATHONS RACE WITH WHOLE
Half-marathons -- races of 13.1 miles -- have been growing in popularity, among runners who consider them a friendlier challenge than a whole marathon. Mary Wittenberg, the president of the New York Road Runners, which organizes the city's Marathon and Half-Marathon, said ''We believe the half-marathon is the new hot distance.'' PAGE G8
HOME
A GEIGER COUNTER FOR THE KITCHEN COUNTER?
As the popularity of granite countertops has grown -- demand for them has increased tenfold in the last decade, according to the Marble Institute of America -- so have the types of granite available. And with increased sales and variety, there have been more reports of ''hot'' or potentially hazardous countertops. ''I had them ripped out that very day,'' said one woman, after an inspection revealed her counter had elevated levels of radon. PAGE F1
TIME TO WORRY ABOUT HEAT BILLS
It may seem like an odd time to be thinking about heating your home, but this is a good moment to do so, before the frigid weather sets in and you're wondering why the heating bill is so huge. One thing to consider is switching to an electric-powered heat pump for all or part of your home, writes Jay Ramano in The Fix. PAGE F2
GARDENS HARVEST RAINWATER
The construction is simple: rainwater flows down a spout from the roof until it reaches a T, where a filter catches leaves and other matter. The water is then directed into a tank and then into the ground. There is not enough pressure to power a sprinkler, but there is enough for 150 feet of soaker hose, which is why many community gardens are starting to rely on the systems. PAGE F7
Obituaries
VICTOR A. MCKUSICK, 86
A cardiologist who went on to become a founder of medical genetics and helped make the discipline a central part of medicine, he was a proponent of mapping the human genome 34 years before the feat was achieved. He also influenced the training of the vast majority of medical geneticists through his textbooks. PAGE B6
CHARLES Z. WICK, 90
The longest-serving director of the United States Information Agency, he was a friend of Ronald Reagan, a relationship that led to his appointment and gave him influence to recharge the agency with bigger budgets, superior technology and aggressive policies. PAGE B6
Sports
PINE TAR BAT INCIDENT REVISITED
It remains one of baseball's most riveting images: George Brett, eyes bulging with rage, bolting out of the visiting dugout at Yankee Stadium, intent on enacting a most primal impulse. He wanted to kill the ump. The object of Brett's fury, Tim McClelland, was back in the Bronx this week, working his first series at Yankee Stadium as a respected crew chief. PAGE D4
FOLLOW THE YELLOW JERSEY
With a formidable display of climbing prowess on the toughest mountain in this year's Tour de France, Carlos Sastre took the race leader's yellow jersey and set up a four-man showdown for the Tour victory in Saturday's final time trial. PAGE D1
Editorial
A LESSON NOT LEARNED
The controversy over Florida's infamous butterfly ballots should have led to sweeping reforms. Years later, ballots around the country are still far too confusing, and poor instructions have disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters. Page A24
I'M COMFORTABLE, HOW ABOUT YOU?
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is right to demand full accountability from the Air Force. . We recommend that the new leaders start by questioning at least four generals about how ''comfort capsules,'' luxury pods for the top brass, will help defeat Al Qaeda. Page A24
ONE VERY SCARY JALAPEnO
Federal health officials have finally found a jalapeno pepper tainted with the rare form of salmonella that has poisoned more than 1,200 people since April. But finding one bad pepper cannot close the lid on the largest outbreak of food-borne illness in America in a decade. Page A24
Op-Ed
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
On his visit to the Middle East, Barack Obama gave ritual affirmations of his support for Israeli policy. But what Israel needs from America isn't more love -- it's tougher love. Page A25
TIMOTHY EGAN
A political parable for Campaign '08: T. Boone Pickens, the guy behind one of the knockout punches to John Kerry four years ago, is now doing Democrats the biggest favor of this election by calling Republicans on their energy campaign. Page A25
PAYING DOCTORS TO IGNORE PATIENTS
By reimbursing doctors for each individual service they provide, Medicare encourages them to order unnecessary tests and treatments. A better approach, writes Peter B. Bach, an Op-Ed contributor, would be to reimburse doctors a set amount for each patient based on the person's condition. It would save Medicare money and encourage better patient care. Page A25
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
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USA TODAY
July 24, 2008 Thursday
FINAL EDITION
Best ideas are ideology-free;
T. Boone Pickens' plan for energy independence may or may not force Washington to tackle, rather than talk to death, this issue. But Cal and Bob agree that big problems require big -- and bipartisan -- solutions.
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 11A
LENGTH: 1287 words
Cal Thomas is a conservative columnist. Bob Beckel is a liberal Democratic strategist. But as longtime friends, they can often find common ground on issues that lawmakers in Washington cannot. They co-wrote the book Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America.
Today: The battle for energy independence.
Bob: It's funny how a crisis focuses the mind. Two months ago, when we wrote about the politics of energy and the lack of a detailed energy plan, things were bad.
Cal: Since then, oil has flirted with $150 a barrel but recently settled in near $130, and the greater economy is paying the price. If there is any good news in this -- and you know conservatives tend to be optimists -- it's that politicians are paying attention, and the phrase "energy independence" has moved from the back page to the front page. Hardly a day goes by in which either John McCain or Barack Obama doesn't mention gas prices and the energy crisis. Necessity is, indeed, the mother of strange bedfellows, to mix a metaphor.
Bob: You're not kidding. One of your conservative heroes, T. Boone Pickens, has stepped forward to take the lead on energy independence where Washington has failed, even appearing on Capitol Hill earlier this week. And this man, who has made his money in oil, said something you rarely -- outside of this column, anyway -- hear people say: "This is not about Republicans vs. Democrats."
Cal: Pickens may be the equivalent of Richard Nixon opening the door to China nearly 40 years ago. He offers a comprehensive plan that includes wind farms and natural gas as two ways to generate cheap and always available electricity. The wind energy would be used instead of natural gas to generate electricity, and that freed-up natural gas could then be used for transportation fuel. He envisions cutting oil imports by a third in just a decade. It will take a thinker like Pickens joining others who have innovative proposals if we are to move toward energy self-sufficiency.
Bob: He's not the first, nor last, to suggest this. What makes this any different from past efforts?
Cal: Two things: The depth of his plan and the megaphone that comes with being a billionaire. Think about it, if billionaire Ross Perot could bankroll a presidential run and get Americans interested in the national debt, imagine what Pickens could do when it comes to gas prices and pocketbook (and environmental) issues that affect all Americans.
Bob: Good point. And he's already running print ads and TV spots and has launched a website devoted to this issue. If Pickens can get Obama and McCain thinking big about energy independence -- as he clearly has -- it will be money well-spent.
Cal: Most important is whether he can get the American people on board. What's striking is that he sees what you and I have been preaching for years now: The nation's biggest problems are not insurmountable if they are tackled by folks on both sides of the aisle. Granted, he's a lifelong Republican, but as he told USA TODAY two weeks ago, "This has to be a bipartisan effort."
Bob: Pickens may be talking about energy independence, but the big problems in our country today provide a target-rich environment. We don't even need the 3 a.m. phone call to tell us that. Health care reform and Social Security reform are enough to keep any president -- or should I say, most presidents -- up at night.
Cal: President Bush tried to reform Social Security with a sensible privatization plan, but Democrats would have no part of it. They played the fear card with voters, and where did we end up? Back at Square One.
Bob: And President Clinton -- well, Hillary Clinton -- tried to put forth a far-reaching health care reform in the early '90s, and that effort went careening off a cliff.
Cal: A Democratic-majority Congress assisted by a conservative ad campaign defeated that effort. We can argue about whether either of those plans was right for the country, but one thing they had in common was partisan politics. Once partisanship takes over, it's difficult to undo the negative effect.
Bob: So how can the country use Pickens' wake-up call to move ahead on energy independence?
Cal: The value in his message will be in talking to all Americans with one voice. Now I know that in the months ahead, the candidates will air slickcommercials about "One America" and bathe themselves in red, white and blue, but voters already see the candidates through clouded lenses. Pickens doesn't have that kind of baggage. He's not liberal billionaire George Soros, after all, who uses his money to divide rather than to unite people.
Bob: Anyone who can come up with realistic ideas for alternative energy is welcome, whether from the right, left or center. I have long advocated nuclear power to the distress of my liberal friends. I grew up next to the first nuclear power plant in Connecticut, and it was run safely and efficiently. (Some conservatives have suggested that living that close to a nuclear power plant explains why I'm a misguided liberal! Not true.) I disagree about the push for offshore drilling and especially drilling in Alaska, but we don't have to agree on everything to move forward with something.
Cal: That's what I like about Pickens' plan. Like a good offense in football, he wants to have many options. If the receiver is covered, dump the ball off to the running back out in the flat. Don't limit yourself. So Pickens says we should use wind and natural gas, but he's open to nuclear, ethanol and renewables. Conservation? Sure. Do it all. I just don't like seeing Democrats in Congress repeating the same play when it comes to an energy plan.
Bob: I agree. That's about as effective as throwing the Hail Mary every play, which is what the Drill Now crowd -- largely Republicans -- is doing.
Cal: Another problem standing in the way of energy independence is the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome. We want wind energy, but not the windmills. We want cheaper gas, but not the refineries. We want more oil, but not offshore drilling. This is a national problem, one that requires a national -- meaning all-American -- solution.
Bob: And as we both know, NIMBY knows no party affiliation.
Cal: So true. When a wind farm was proposed off Nantucket, Mass., Republican Gov. Mitt Romney and Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy opposed the idea, arguing that wind turbines are ugly and would harm tourism. In January, the U.S. Minerals Management Service found that such a wind farm would have little lasting impact on wildlife or tourism.
Bob: One thing we had better be clear on is that all sides in the energy debate are going to have to get out of the "backyard" mentality. But I'm optimistic, too. That's right, Cal, liberals aren't all pessimists. We're optimistic realists! The energy crisis may provide us with a unique opportunity to let the creative talents of Americans come together to find new energy alternatives, and leave politics out of it. Political leadership may one day emerge on this issue, but we've been hearing the "energy independence" vow since Nixon. And as President Bush once said in butchering the original saying, "Fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." Or was that Yogi Berra? You get the point.
Cal: I think you're right about this being a unique opportunity, one of those rare moments in time when the stars have aligned in a way that a common ground approach to energy self-sufficiency could work. The public wants this and must demand that our leaders move forward. The Pickens plan may or may not be the answer to this decades-old problem, but whether you agree with the details of his plan or not, his approach -- one free of ideology -- is a winner.
Bob: Amen.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 24, 2008 Thursday 1:00 PM EST
Washington Sketch
BYLINE: Dana Milbank, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2304 words
HIGHLIGHT: Post columnist Dana Milbank, who serves as the capital's foremost critic of political theater in his Washington Sketch columns and videos, was online Thursday, July 24 at 1 p.m. ET to take your questions and comments about the things politicians say -- and the absurd ways they find to say them.
Post columnist Dana Milbank, who serves as the capital's foremost critic of political theater in his Washington Sketch columns and videos, was online Thursday, July 24 at 1 p.m. ET to take your questions and comments about the things politicians say -- and the absurd ways they find to say them.
The transcript follows.
Subscribe to this discussion
____________________
Dana Milbank: Good afternoon, chatters. I am sitting in my gym shorts and T-shirt now on the steps of the Cannon House Office Building. I am doing this because I just participated in a House fitness hearing and exercise rally with the aging fitness buff, Richard Simmons. I selected this for tomorrow's Sketch over another tantalizing possibility, a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on polygamy. I had secretly hoped that they would combine the two hearings into one, and call it "Polygamy for Exercise and Fitness," but this did not in fact occur.
Please send me your questions. The folks at the Web site tell me traffic for these chats has been "solid," which I take to mean "poor." So today I propose a trick I learned from my former colleague John Harris, now at Politico.com. I intend to lavish praise on Matt Drudge in hopes that he will link to this column, thereby increasing the traffic. So please preface your questions with praise for Mr. Drudge. If you are congenitally unable to do this, it is also permissible to praise Arianna Huffington.
Thank you for your cooperation.
_______________________
Washington: Are you going through Dana withdrawal? How will you make it through the chat? And how will you answer questions about the Hamdan trial all by your lonesome?
Dana Milbank: Yes, I'm on my own this week, a solo Dana chat. The other Dana has returned to winning Pulitzers. I, however, am perfectly capable of answering questions about Hamden. It is a lovely town in Connecticut just down the road from my in-laws, who live in North Haven. I had not heard that Hamden was on trial.
_______________________
Dunnellon, Fla.: Well Mr. Drudge certainly gets my vote, but for what I cannot say -- it's a secret ballot, after all. Elvis used to throw his sweaty hankies to the audience. Don't generals do that, too?
Dana Milbank: Yes, the general in my sketch this week dropped his nervous perspiration washcloth on the floor while testifying about Walter Reed.
Drudge, however, does not need a perspiration rag because he is a wonderful and confident man. Possibly he could throw his hat into audiences, but this could get expensive.
Did I mention that I got a hug from Drudge at the Hillary farewell event? He was not wearing a hat. I like him very very very much, with or without hat. He rules our world.
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Austin, Texas: Reading some of the things that Ms. Donnelly was saying made me wonder -- has there ever been anything said during a hearing you were covering that was so ridiculous that it just made you laugh out loud?
Dana Milbank: This actually happened at yesterday's hearing, but it wasn't Donnelly. It was reading the written testimony of the sergeant major who definitely did not want gay people in the military because it would harm the esprit de corps. But his written testimony said "esprit decor," as if it were some Laura Ashley design. I laughed out loud at a completely inappropriate moment.
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New York: I'm sure the never-sleeps Matt Drudge will headline the bias CBS showed towards McCain by editing out his wrong answer on the surge in Iraq.
Dana Milbank: Possibly, and if he does do that I would alter my own reporting to reflect the new reality he creates. Matt Drudge rules my world. I should point out, however, that he has never been a great fan of McCain, who he once accused of appearing in a "raunchy sex film" or some such because of his cameo in Wedding Crashers.
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Washington: If you squint real hard and reverse the order, "Dana Milbank" looks a lot like "Matt Drudge." Come to think of it, that works for the faces, too.
Dana Milbank: I am blushing.
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You know what would be really good?: If you could work out with Arianna Huffington, Matt Drudge, and Richard Simmons -- wouldn't that be great? Okay, now I have to scrub my mind's eye out with bleach. How's that, a two-fer?
Dana Milbank: That'll help with the Google optimization. Thanks.
Speaking of scrubbing the mind's eye, picture the 60-year-old Simmons on the Cannon terrace in a tight spandex tank top with glitter, leg warmers, and red and white striped '70s short shorts.
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Re: Esprit Decor: Wouldn't gays in the military improve the Esprit Decor? They could really use it, too -- camouflage coloring is soooo last year.
Dana Milbank: Yes, and the generals need new perspiration washcloths. Gen. Rubenstein, the deputy army surgeon general who dropped his sweat cloth at the hearing, has a badly discolored rag.
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Astounded in Washington: Please, please tell me that the unbelievably funny piece about Elaine Donnelly was all made up. Please tell me that Elaine Donnelly is all made up. If you can't, please tell me anything you can which would provide comfort. I mean, wow!
Dana Milbank: As noted, I suspected a trick by Democrats to put an actor on the panel as a sort of parody. But the Republicans said they did indeed sign off on her. Maybe they were part of the scheme, too. That would be the sort of juicy tidbit you'd find on the Drudge Report, my first source for everything that rules my world.
_______________________
Washington: Wow. Your "don't ask, don't tell" piece today was um ... amazing. I won't say I'm shocked people still think this way, but here's what I can't get over: If Ms. Donnelly's premise is true, how do gay people in any industry manage to hold down any job when it seems they're conspiring to have or actively are having gay sex 24 hours a day, 365 days a year?
Dana Milbank: As author of "Homo Politicus," I believe I am something of an authority on this. As we learned from the sergeant major's testimony, gay people are sometimes distracted from their sex acts by a need to improve the esprit decor.
_______________________
Baltimore: I'd like your opinion on Robert Novak mowing down a pedestrian and claiming he didn't see the guy plastered on his windshield.
washingtonpost.com: Novak Cited for Hitting Pedestrian (Post, July 24)
Dana Milbank: From the story: "A police official identified him as Don Lilkinquist, 66, who has no fixed address."
Of course not -- because everybody knows "Don Lilkinquist" is one of Joe Wilson's aliases.
_______________________
Sitting there in your tiny shorts...: Dana, do you ever worry that The Post is treating you like nothing more than eye candy for the visually impaired ?
Dana Milbank: You are making me self conscious and I am going to put on my leg warmers now.
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Iowa: I see by the new McCain commercial that Obama is responsible for high gas prices. If he's that powerful already, imagine what he'll be like if he's elected president! I thought W was the decider and he just last week lifted his father's ban on offshore drilling, but maybe I have that wrong. Could you ask Matt Drudge?
Dana Milbank: I am certain the Matt Drudge, master of all he surveys, will know the answer to this, but I don't. I must say, though, that Obama looked sharp in that white yarmulke he wore in Israel. And I fear that McCain's attack on him may be motivated by anti-Semitism.
_______________________
Boston: I was really hoping for video on the Elaine Donnelly piece. Why no video there?
Dana Milbank: As it happens, I am sitting down to lunch now with the video guy extraordinaire, Akira Hakuta (we've moved from Cannon to Cosi for lunch; I answered one question on each street corner along the way). Akira tells me he was busy at home yesterday, playing video games and napping. Actually, we were saving up our energy for today's Richard Simmons video. And Simmons did not let us down. Please watch for tomorrow's video. If it is really good it might even get a Drudge link.
_______________________
Seattle: How close were the congressmen to openly mocking Donnelly? From the sound of it, I would have expected someone to say "according to psychologists, you know what homophobia really means, right?"
Dana Milbank: There was a bit of grinning and smirking on the dais, but open mockery was difficult. In fairness to Donnelly, her disapproval goes well beyond sexual orientation. She has tried to keep all women, straight and gay, out of combat.
_______________________
Don't ask, don't tell: Everyone seems to forget that "don't ask, don't tell" actually was an effort at compromise. Before that law came into effect, homosexuals were just barred from the military, period. You were asked about your sexual orientation on your enlistment questionnaire, and gay people who did lie about their sexual orientation in order to enlist could be investigated based on suspicions. I joined the military in 1980 and saw a number of gay colleagues forced out.
Anyway, I'd like to see homosexuals able to serve openly. As a young woman at my first base, my roommate was gay. She never told me she was gay or behaved inappropriately toward me, but I kind of figured it out after a while. I could see young straight men being a little freaked out at sharing a room and showering with men who might consider them potential sex partners -- I don't know the answer to that one, seems like a privacy issue. How do the Brits handle it? Would it bother you to take a shower or room with a gay man?
Dana Milbank: According to Donnelly, the British military is populated with transgendered persons as a result of its admitting openly gay people.
It would not bother me to shower or room with a gay man (and, on a related point, while reporting a story in Sweden once, my wife and I were required to shower with a large group of men and women). But it would terrify me to be in the military.
_______________________
New York: Dana, It seems that esprit decor is alive and well in the Air Force, according to the "comfort pod" story ... maybe the gays unwanted in the Army should transfer?
washingtonpost.com: Terrorism Funds May Let Brass Fly in Style (Post, July 18)
Dana Milbank: Good point! They did want the color of the leather changed.
An army guy wrote to me after the story about the general's handkerchief, and informed me of three mottos: Army -- die for your country. Marines -- die for the Marines. Air Force -- die for air conditioning.
_______________________
Missed Opportunity: Dana, you made a big mistake that I am sure Matt Drudge never would make when you chose exercise over polygamy. Who would give up a chance to see Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members in person and maybe even speak to them? Yes that's right, they came to the hearing, where witness after witness essentially accused them of organized crime. Awesome.
Dana Milbank: Yes, but I'll bet they were not wearing glittery tights.
_______________________
Washington: Could you please ask Matt Drudge why the D.C. police gave Novak a $50 ticket, instead of driving him home as the Capitol Police did when Rep. Patrick Kennedy wrecked his car?
Dana Milbank: Excellent random use of Drudge references. Has anybody e-mailed him a link to this chat yet? It would be a shame if he didn't know about it.
_______________________
Chicago: Last week the photo still for the "dueling Danas" video really made you look bad by comparison. On MSNBC they crop in your head and leave out the rest. I can now see why.
Dana Milbank: Wait until you see tomorrow's video -- all of me, baby!
Matt Drudge and Richard Simmons, at least, love me even if I'm not as pretty as the other Dana.
_______________________
Rolla, Mo.: Gee, what are the odds that Bob Novak's Corvette would be black?
Dana Milbank: That's our Prince of Darkness.
Let me stipulate that there are a lot of Novak questions today that will not be answered, unless the Drudge mentions are very prominent.
_______________________
Boston: Oh man, Dana, I loved the column today. I cannot believe that woman is a real human being and actually said those things in front of, you know, other people -- let alone a congressional committee. On a side note, I'm originally from Connecticut. Who knew Chris Shays was such a bad ass?
Dana Milbank: Yes, I bet Shays knows a thing or two about Hamdan, Connecticut. I have found that whatever side of an issue he is on, he speaks with great rectitude.
_______________________
Chicago: Hey Dana, "The Daily Show" ripped off your reporting this week. They did a segment on the farce that passes for congressional hearings, and clearly lifted from your material. Maybe that will impress Drudge.
Dana Milbank: One hopes the Master of my Universe has taken note of this.
_______________________
Campaign stops: Senator Obama is speaking in Berlin. Senator McCain is having bratwurst at Schmidt's Restaurant in German Village, Ohio. What are you doing to further the cause of German-American relations today?
Dana Milbank: I watched Richard Simmons sing "Yankee Doodle" while performing an aerobics maneuver called the "rumble."
_______________________
Anonymous: Not to drudge up bad memories but how was the colon exam?
Dana Milbank: Well, you know that when we get to the colonoscopy question -- even one that cleverly mentions Drudge, Lord of the Universe and Creator of the Fruit of the Vine -- that this chat is approaching the end of the alimentary canal. So thanks for chatting and, as Richard Simmons says, take care of your body.
_______________________
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 24, 2008 Thursday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Shailagh Murray, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 1946 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Shailagh Murray was online Thursday, July 24 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
____________________
Shailagh Murray: Hi everyone. Thanks for joining today. What's on your mind?
_______________________
Baltimore: Should we really expect the crowds for Obama's Berlin speech to be very large? If I understand history correctly, Germans aren't enthusiastic about gathering in large groups in tough economic times to hear a charismatic, foreign-born politician give inspiring speeches about uniting like sticks in a fasces.
Shailagh Murray: Baltimore, it's time to move on. My sense is that Obama captivates Europeans because he represents a romanticized view of the U.S. as a nation of immigrants and minorities that actually seeks to overcome its history, as opposed to reliving it with every new generation.
_______________________
Chicago: Good morning and thanks for chatting. I've been reading a lot about McCain's "gaffe" in his interview with CBS -- saying the surge led to the Anbar awakening when the latter preceded the former by six months. However, I think the interesting question is why CBS deleted the "gaffe" when it put the story on the air. They actually substituted McCain's answer to another question instead of airing the answer than contained the "gaffe." Journalistically, what do you think of the way CBS edited the interview, substituting the answer to one question with the answer to another question? Could such a thing happen at the Post?
Shailagh Murray: I was kind of surprised by the CBS decision, although I'm not going to judge it one way or another, because I don't know the circumstances. But I would not use quotes out of context -- especially from a presidential candidate, and especially on an issue like Iraq.
_______________________
New York, N.Y.: How in the heck can the media still try to preserve the illusion of a toss-up; we keep seeing 'Obama Leads, But Voters Have Concerns' headlines (and will continue to, I bet). But when Democrats are winning blood-red congressional districts in Mississippi and Louisiana, when the Republican president is down to 28 percent, when the economy is tanking and world affairs keep breaking Obama's way, it shouldn't be heresy to recognize that McCain needs an improbable series of breaks, if he has any chance at all of winning. Analysts get paid to analyze, and cable news has airtime to fill, so pundits have an incentive to make politics seem complicated. In the end, though, it's really pretty simple. Isn't it?
Shailagh Murray: Well, you make a good point -- the race does seem a little out of balance these days. My colleague Mike Shear wrote a great story this morning about McCain's bad luck, like the oil spill that prevented him from visiting that offshore rig today.
On the other hand...this is politics! Which means anything can happen. Having covered Obama for nearly a year now, would I be surprised if he committed some game-altering gaffe? Yes I would. Whatever you think of his politics, he's an exceptionally disciplined candidate. But don't discount his vulnerabilities -- he is traveling in uncharted waters. And in that context, anything could happen.
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washingtonpost.com: McCain Still Waiting for His Turn at Good Luck (Post, July 24)
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Obama VP?: Has anyone mentioned Kent Salazar as a VP candidate for Obama? It just occurred to me he'd be perfect for several reasons--Latino, Colorado, moderate, defense-oriented, etc.
Shailagh Murray: I have heard his name, but I don't think he's a serious contender. If Obama were going to pick a freshman senator, there are several to whom he is very close -- like Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who also represent important swing states, are moderates, etc., etc.
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Alexandria, Va.: Is Sen. Lieberman scheduled to speak at the GOP convention?
Shailagh Murray: Not yet, but he's offered.
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New York, N.Y.: Hi, Shailagh. Thanks for the chat. Is there any way you can you explain to me how McCain ever developed a reputation for being a "respectful" campaigner? From my reckoning, he's always been a hothead, someone who wears his disdain for others on his sleeve. I'm glad that at least one mainstream reporter (Joe Klein) has now noticed how undeserved that reputation was. What's your take?
Shailagh Murray: I think that's more a reflection of his distaste for the "personal destruction" approach to campaigning, which Obama seems to share -- so I doubt we'll see much of it. At least from the candidates. Outside groups are another story, and as we've seen in the past, a very little bit of money can go a long way in this media age.
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Charles Town, W.V.: With the explosion of energy prices and the tanking of the economy (similar to the oil embargo during Carter's administration), is there a growing assurance that we will turn to solar, wind, and geothermal energy sources? Carter developed an energy policy with tax incentives for solar, wind, and insulation. These were promptly scrapped when Reagan came into office. Do you think this time will be different? Is there real desire in congress?
Shailagh Murray: Energy is an issue that I'm not sure Congress is prepared to fully confront.
Here's why: for decades energy has been a regional issue, another form of pork distribution similar to farm and transportation aid. That makes it very difficult to conceive and execute a national policy, for instance on developing alternative energy sources. Or look at what's happened to the offshore drilling debate -- like nuclear power, you just can't have a rational discussion about it.
Think about it, these three issues -- farm, transportation and energy policy -- are all linked to each other, but are treated by Congress as one big earmark chase, often to the great detriment of the many people who aren't benefiting directly.
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Fairfax, Va.: Interesting poll results just posted on washingtonpost.com. Obama has dropped a lot in key swing states like Minnesota, Michigan, and Colorado over the last two weeks. Reason(s) for the drop? Has McCain found an opening with drilling and the success of the surge reducing casualties (thus keeping Iraq out of the evening newscasts)?
washingtonpost.com: Battleground Soundings (Post, July 24)
Shailagh Murray: Not sure about those numbers -- especially Minnesota. That said, I do think energy is a good issue for McCain, and for Republican candidates in general. People want gas prices to come down, and Democrats saying no to offshore drilling is bound to resonate with some folks.
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Chicago: Hey Shailagh. If Obama starts to pull ahead, how will the media reign him in? I mean an uncompetitive race is horrible for the media because no one will be interested. So, if that happens, how will the media make it a race?
Shailagh Murray: As I said in a previous post, this election is going to be determined on Nov. 4, and not a day sooner. The environment is just too volatile. We've seen so many twists and turns this year. You have to take it one day, or one news cycle, at a time.
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Dear Fairfax...: Polling is really wacky, these days. And news organizations have had egg on their faces since Obama's Iowa blowout. We see huge shifts across the polling gamut - even from day to day. I'm not sure why news organizations don't just pool dollars and invest in a few, better, polls with larger samples and cell phones included? That would, in the long run, be more accurate. But maybe the business problem for media is that there would be fewer polls showing daily public opinion shifts that the media could then wildly exaggerate and aggressively misinterpret. After all, that's really the point of polls, anyway... or am I just being cynical?
Shailagh Murray: Polls are snapshots in time, no more or less. What's different this year is its "firstness" -- framed by the Clinton/Obama primary, and making it very difficult to use any previous election as a frame of reference. Don't kid yourself, reporters are as overwhelmed by this as anyone.
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New York, N.Y.: Shailagh, can you please explain to dumb old me how more offshore drilling (that can't commence for years) would do anything to bring down the price of gas -- even within the next decade? Just wondering.
Shailagh Murray: It takes five years to build a freeway, or develop a new drug, but that doesn't stop us, does it?
What's more, look at the way the R and D "pipeline" of a drug company affects its stock price. If company X has a couple of promising cancer treatments, that's going to influence investors now. They're not going to wait until the drug goes on the market.
The message also is important. Our domestic sources may be meager, and may reside in vulnerable places, but what would it say to OPEC if we decided to move forward anyway?
I'm not advocating drilling or not drilling, just pointing out the other side of the story.
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Helena, Mont.: Drilling -- every night when I watch news on the broadcast stations, there is an ad from T. Boone Pickens which states, "we can't drill our way out of our problems." This is not pro-Obama (Pickens funded the Swift Boaters in 2004). I have thought that this ad from an oilman would step all over McCain's theme that we have to put oil derricks on every piece of land on the North American continent. What do you think?
Shailagh Murray: To continue from previous posts...
Your question goes back to the "big picture" that has been missing from the political debate on energy -- of course there's no single answer to high gas prices, or global warming. But if you're looking for evidence of a leadership vacuum created by both parties, this is it.
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Re: Polls: I'm a mathematician and I understand polling very well. What makes anyone think the poll respondants aren't lying to pollsters? The long campaign has burdened the public. Also, there are some questions involving feelings toward the candidates that people may not respond the same as they will in a private voting booth.
Shailagh Murray: That's true, and I think it cuts both ways for Obama. I'm sure race will be a factor, but I also buy that Obama will expand the electorate. Hey, I'm just amazed they pay me to do this.
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Houston: And isn't the oil market a global market, so if we start drilling for new oil, there's no legal way to make sure it all stays here, right?
Shailagh Murray: That's right. Lots of smart comments this morning. Just as an aside, I watched Joe Biden explain at a town hall in rural Iowa in December how world oil markets work -- it lasted 30 minutes, and was absolutely mesmerizing.
Have a great weekend folks and stay in touch. Thanks for participating -- cheers, Shailagh.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: July 25, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Web Publication
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USA TODAY
July 23, 2008 Wednesday
Correction Appended
FINAL EDITION
Spending on vets exceeds 1947high;
U.S. still not meeting needs, lawmaker says
BYLINE: Gregg Zoroya
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 489 words
WASHINGTON -- The federal government is spending more money on veterans than at any time in modern history, surpassing the tidal wave of spending following World War II and the demilitarizing of millions of troops.
Expenditures hit $82 billion in 2007, because of the rising cost of health care, the expense of caring for an aging population of mostly Vietnam War veterans and a new crop of severely wounded troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That exceeds the $80 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars spent in 1947 after most of the 16.1million Americans serving in World War II left the service, according to a Congressional Research Service report submitted to Congress last month.
An 11% hike in spending to $91 billion is slated for this fiscal year, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has proposed $94billion for 2009. And still more is needed, says U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who is seeking an additional $3.3billion for the 2009 budget.
"While we are spending more than in previous years, we are still not meeting many of the health care and benefits needs of our veterans," Murray says.
Last month's passage of a new G.I. Bill will add $100 billion in education benefits for veterans over the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office says.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his Democratic opponent Barack Obama clashed over the bill last month. McCain opposed it, saying its increased education benefits might encourage troops to leave the military. Obama backed the bill, saying it would boost the number of people interested in serving.
Also, medical costs could climb because of unanticipated long-term problems from wounds such as traumatic brain injuries, which remain little understood, says Adrian Atizado, assistant legislative director with the Disabled American Veterans.
Annual costs for a severe head injury can reach $400,000, according to a study released this year by RAND Corp., a think tank.
About 1.6 million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 325,000 of those veterans use VA health care, records show. There are 5.5 million veterans of all ages now receiving VA health care and 2.9 million receiving compensation. Those populations overlap and the VA does not have a current figure on total number of veterans served.
Costs soared in 1947 because of a massive exodus of troops from the military, all entitled to education, training and loan guarantee benefits under the then-new G.I. Bill, the report says. Actual dollars spent in 1947 were $8.4 billion, the report says. Then, health care was only 12% of the veterans budget, says Dan Tucker, deputy assistant secretary for budget at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Now health care costs make up 44% of the budget.
Costs fell precipitously after 1947, surging slightly in 1975-76 because of Vietnam-era veterans, the report says. Roughly a third of the nation's 23.5 million veterans served in Vietnam.
LOAD-DATE: August 14, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
CORRECTION-DATE: August 1, 2008
CORRECTION: The number of U.S. military personnel who served in the Vietnam War was about 2.7 million. The Department of Veterans Affairs provided an incorrect figure for a 1A story July 23 on the cost of veterans' benefits.
GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC, Color, Julie Snider, USA TODAY, Source: Congressional Research Service (Bar graph)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: NEWSPAPER
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Washingtonpost.com
July 23, 2008 Wednesday 1:00 PM EST
Real Life Politics
BYLINE: Ruth Marcus, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3842 words
HIGHLIGHT: Washington Post opinion columnist Ruth Marcus was online Wednesday, July 23 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss her recent columns and the latest news.
Washington Post opinion columnist Ruth Marcus was online Wednesday, July 23 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss her recent columns and the latest news.
The transcript follows.
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Ruth Marcus: Hi everybody. I may be the only writer not on the Obama plane, but glad to be here and chatting!
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Washington: You didn't like history class, did you? It was too complicated, there were too many details to remember for the tests. I may be parroting the comments section after your column, but you cannot compare Baghdad to the 1948 Berlin Airlift! The analogy fails miserably. When you get home at night, turn on the History Channel and learn something. Learn anything better than the "facts" you put in your column.
Ruth Marcus: Ouch. Actually, I did like history class. I was a history major in college. What do you mean, "cannot compare"? Of course, as I said, all historical analogies are imperfect -- and this analogy, as I also said, can be read to offer different lessons, both supporting and undercutting Sen. Obama.
I do like the History Channel, though.
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Helena, Mont.: I read, then re-read your opinion piece today and cannot figure out what your aim is. I think you are equating the Berlin Airlift of 1948 to the Iraq war of 2002-2008 and counting, equating Truman's resolve of maintaining the airlift over Republican Congress's objections to Bush's resolve of continuing an unpopular war in Iraq, and equating the Republican Congress that Truman had to the Democratic Congress of 2008. But these things are not equal in any sense of the term, so the analogy fails.
Ruth Marcus: Well, I guess all I can say is thank you for reading twice!
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Princeton, N.J.: The trouble with your analogy is that in Baghdad today, we are the ones building the walls. In fact, the walls of Baghdad are much more extensive and divisive than the Berlin Wall. So in your analogy, which side corresponds to the USSR and which side corresponds to the Allies? Which side favors unity of the Iraqi people and which side favors ethnic cleansing?
washingtonpost.com: From Berlin to Baghdad (Post, July 23)
Ruth Marcus: Look, I made clear that no historical analogies, including this one, are perfect. But your Berlin Wall/Baghdad walls comparison is really offensive. Agree or disagree about the wisdom of being in and staying in Iraq, but the U.S. is no Soviet Union.
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Richmond, Va.: Did John McCain's and the GOP's taunts to Obama to go to Iraq, etc., turn out to be the worst taunt in history (okay, not the worst, but bad)? Do you think they underestimated Obama (though why should they have -- he beat the Clinton machine)? In any case, would you say Obama has done well on this trip, and increased his "foreign policy" presidential credentials?
Ruth Marcus: I believe Sen. Obama would have gone anyway, so I wouldn't fault the McCain campaign for taunting -- in fact, the taunting managed to convey the sense that Obama was to some degree bullied into going. I would fault the McCain campaign for then attacking Obama for taking the very trip that it suggested.
More broadly, the trip so far has been a big plus for Obama, in my view, and I suspect that the Berlin speech will add to the glow. He hasn't made any mistakes, he's conducted himself well, and he sunk that three-pointer. I think Berlin, handled right, will show that he can give some tough love to the Europeans -- maybe a Frau Soljah moment? -- while providing some reassurance to Americans dismayed about America's reduced standing in the world.
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San Francisco: Senator McCain pledged to run "a respectful campaign." Saying Senator Obama "would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign" doesn't seem very respectful.
Ruth Marcus: There was also some Obama would be soft on genocide suggestions from the McCain campaign today after his Yad Vashem visit. I think everyone should tone things down, and get substantive -- but I also remember campaigning with the first President Bush as he called Clinton and Gore "bozo" and "Ozone man." So ... plus ca change. And I'm not suggesting that this is a partisan issue, either. There's been nastiness to go around on both sides.
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cartercamp: Another lesson of the airlift might be that politicians should be strong enough to overrule generals and CIA advice. Obama seems to know who's in charge in a democracy.
Ruth Marcus: I did think that was very interesting.
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Ruth Marcus: sSrry for the time-out, folks. I had to take a call frommy daughter at sleepaway camp! That's why this is real-life politics. She sprained her finger ... but isn't homesick, so I am one relieved mommy.
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Linda7: I am old enough to remember the airlift -- the newsreels at the movies brought it home to us at the time. Truman was much maligned for many of his policies. My husband was a paratrooper in the Korean War when Truman extended his stay, and needless to say, he was not a happy camper at the time. But not too many years later he expressed admiration for the little guy from Missouri. The candidates today should adhere to Truman's simplicity, instead of grandstanding for high ratings in the polls.
Ruth Marcus: Sharing this post...
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Hamilton, N.J.: Isn't it true that Iraq is central to energy and political concerns in the world, and not secondary to Afghanistan as Obama suggests? Why aren't you and the rest of the news media properly informing us to this fact.
Ruth Marcus: Please read The Washington Post's editorial today, which points out that "Mr. Obama's account of his strategic vision remains eccentric. He insists that Afghanistan is "the central front" for the United States, along with the border areas of Pakistan. But there are no known al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan, and any additional U.S. forces sent there would not be able to operate in the Pakistani territories where Osama bin Laden is headquartered. While the United States has an interest in preventing the resurgence of the Afghan Taliban, the country's strategic importance pales beside that of Iraq, which lies at the geopolitical center of the Middle East and contains some of the world's largest oil reserves. If Mr. Obama's antiwar stance has blinded him to those realities, that could prove far more debilitating to him as president than any particular timetable."
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Clifton, Va.: McCain and the GOP need to go all out on Obama's tax plan. Raising the effective tax rate on the richest Americans during a recession will turn that recession into a Depression. Along with renegotiating trade pacts, it will make the resulting Depression will be worse the Great Depression. How can you encourage investment in alternative forms of energy, etc., if you double the capitol gains tax rate? I am a middle-class federal worker, but even I know the middle class does not create jobs, and they usually don't start businesses, nor invest in risky new businesses. Taxing the very rich will get you into a Depression, not out of a recession!
Ruth Marcus: I'm listening right now to a Web cast from the wonderful Tax Policy Center, which has just released a fascinating analysis of the two candidates' tax plans. I agree with you about the importance of trade. However, I do not agree about the alleged horror of returning tax rates on the wealthiest Americans to the level of the Clinton administration, when, as I recall, we were not in a depression! I agree that this needs to be done wisely, perhaps gradually, and with regard to the underlying economic climate but the opposition to Sen. Obama's tax plan from Republicans has been the same with or without a looming or ongoing recession.
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RoyFan: You must have run out of real ideas. Comparing the Berlin airlift to the Baghdad occupation is like comparing anything at all to anything at all. Let's compare Baghdad to the British occupation of New York, shall we? In truth, Baghdad would be a peaceful and prosperous city if Bush had not been put in office. A million more Iraqis would be alive today and many millions more still would be in their homes if Bush, McCain, Cheney and the rest of their ilk had been denied the levers of power.
Ruth Marcus: Peaceful and prosperous? Ask the victims of Saddam Hussein how they would feel about that. Whether or not you think the war was a good idea, I don't think pre-war Iraq was this paradise of your suggestions.
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Berlin: History Channel is all right sometimes, but there's too much Nazi stuff and stupid nonhistory on it, like the conspiracy/entertainment rubbish about JFK. Considering how appallingly ignorant so many Americans are about their own history -- many think that slavery was abolished in the '30's, and maybe half can name more than ten presidents -- this would seem to be a lost opportunity. PBS, with "The American Experience," does a far better job.
Ruth Marcus: Okay, can't win here. I do watch a lot of PBS.
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Crestwood, N.Y.: This may be an uncomfortable subject for some, but its relevant: How does McCain get away with endorsing coverage for Viagra, but not for birth control? I have several tasteless remarks that fit here, but you get the point. Why isn't this a huge, huge story? His is not a responsible or defensible position, and it gives ammunition to those who say that the former maverick is now a craven politician who has caved in to the religious right. (Although the Viagra angle makes it utterly bizarre.) How could any woman covering this campaign allow this to be, in effect, covered up by the media?
Ruth Marcus: I don't think you have characterized McCain's position correctly. I happened to be at the breakfast with Carly Fiorina, his co-chairman, which triggered all of that. She actually, and probably foolishly, raised the Viagra/birth control analogy on her own. Her point, which has been lost in the mostly ill-informed uproar, was not that insurance companies should be required to cover one and not the other, but that health care consumers should be free to shop among plans that fit their needs rather than having insurance companies mandated to cover certain sets of services. McCain, asked to comment on her remarks, flubbed his answer. However, he did not endorse coverage for Viagra but not birth control.
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Washington: I asked Anne Kornblut this question, but she didn't respond, so please let me emphasize that I'm not being snarky or snide: I want to know if you and your colleagues are at all disturbed by the Rasmussen Report's finding than just under half of the public think that the media are cheerleading for Obama (my phrase, not theirs). Regardless of the truth of this perception, the mere fact that the public thinks this would give some pause to the media, I'd think. Your thoughts?
Ruth Marcus: I can only speak for myself. I do think we all -- especially my colleagues back over in the news side, where I spent most of my career -- need to be very attentive to whether we are ... to use a dangerous phrase ... fair and balanced in our reporting. But I also think that people will find whatever bias fits into their preconception. For instance, I get e-mails and comments from Republicans calling me a biased knee-jerked liberal, and emails and comments from Democrats calling me a biased knee-jerk neo-con.
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Atlanta: Since you have mentioned and quote today's Post editorial, can you tell us if you had a hand in writing it?
Ruth Marcus: Fair question. The policy of the editorial board is not to say who wrote what editorial. I think it's an interesting question in the current day and age whether we should be willing to step out a little bit from behind the editorial curtain, but that's the current policy.
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Washington: Iraq has a good portion of the world's oil reserves, but it's in Iraq, not here. The U.S. has more coal reserves than any other nation, mostly in the Rocky Mountains. If America insists on burning the fossil fuels until those fuels are gone, Americans should first burn their own fossil fuels before they attempt to steal someone else's fuel.
The Union Pacific railroad has added a fourth rail line in the Powder River basin in an attempt to meet the demand for coal. Americans want to destroy someone else's land before they destroy their own. That is why the Iraq war is so distasteful and immoral. Maybe it's time to supplement the history education of The Washington Post's reporting staff. Also, fire Fred Hiatt!
Ruth Marcus: Fire Fred Hiatt? It's much more likely (and maybe possible after this chat!) that Fred Hiatt would fire me. He's my boss.
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Prescott, Ariz.: One of the McCain campaign's themes has been that "government-run" health care is no good. McCain's dad was military, meaning that he was on "government-run" health care from birth. McCain went on to join the military, and then Congress. By my estimate, McCain has thus been on "government-run" health care his entire life. Has he ever discussed what in his experience with his own health care has turned him off so much (and why has he stuck with it if it is so lousy)? And I guess this brings up a side point: If he has had lousy health care his entire life, how healthy could he really be? Should his lack of good health care his entire life raise any red flags?
Ruth Marcus: I could be forgetting some rhetoric, but I think that the McCain campaign has been much lighter on the government-run health care theme than, say, the Giuliani campaign, with all the silly talk about socialized medicine.
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Richmond, Va.: No, you are wrong that Obama hasn't made any mistakes on this trip. You are simply unwilling to see how he is letting the Iraqi government help him win the election while conveniently forgetting how the Republican surge policy put him in a position so favorable to a timetable in the first place. The media need to call him out on this, but they are clearly in the tank for Obama! Obama simply is playing president before he has won.
Ruth Marcus: I meant no mistake as a short-hand. No mistakes that are costing him in the press. To which you will respond, I suspect, that the press is so in love with him that they would not leap on any mistakes. I would disagree with that -- a good flub would be good copy, presswise. I will say that I was puzzled about Obama's decision to give a speech before Iraq, rather than after, and disappointed that he is so churlish in acknowledging the positive effects of the surge.
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Saddam was not a nice guy: The world is truly better off without Hussein, but the facts are that he was executed for crimes in which Reagan and Rumsfeld were complicit -- for example, gassing the Kurds. It's also a fact that the U.S. embargo in the 1990s against the Iraqis killed many more innocent people than Hussein ever did, with the exception of the reckless unprovoked war against the Iranians, which we were not totally uninvolved in either.
But because your editorial page says we really only care about their oil anyway, it didn't matter what kind of guy Hussein was -- we're there for our own interests, not for those of the ordinary people. Ten years from now, they'll all be getting murdered and exploited by the Sunni/Shiite/Kurd leadership of the region that they happen to find themselves in, no matter what future we think we'll be able to impose on them. And like the Vietnamese today, they'll be much better off without us, though hardly in Nirvana.
Ruth Marcus: You left out a piece of the editorial's point -- that Iraq "lies at the geopolitical center of the Middle East."
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annetta3: My former husband was not born American, and while he admired many things about America he often commented that we were quick to either tell other countries how to live or pressure them to do what we think is right. He also said that Americans then tend to move on to some new challenge, and leave the people of the country we pressured to live the way we thought they should to learn to live with the chaos and challenges that we caused.
I fear that after disrupting Iraq with our invasion we are on the verge of dusting our hands and saying to them, "deal with any insurrection created by our interference; learn to live without electricity and utilities that you had before we came; rebuild the hospitals and shops destroyed in our efforts to save you and raise your children to not emulate those who we have given reason to hate us." It's a heck of a lot easier to smash a society than it is to pick up the pieces and help set them on course again. Too bad we don't remember that before we go in, or when we pack up and go home.
Ruth Marcus: A good reminder of the Pottery Barn rule.
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Arlington, Va.: I do not agree with The Post's editorial today regarding Sen. Obama's position on the need to concentrate on Afghanistan, and I am reminded that the Post's editorials regarding the Iraq war and other issues haven't always proven to be "spot on." Because you answered a question by directing the poster to that same editorial, does that mean you agree with the editorial?
Ruth Marcus: I think that is a fair question, but I think I'm going to give you an evasive answer, and then explain why. I did send the poster to the editorial, because the question was why the press was hiding this point of view. That did open the door to ask me what my view is.
Here's why I don't think it's a good idea to answer: No one who's a member of a thoughtful editorial board -- and I know I'm going to incur the wrath of the blogosphere on that self-description, but I'm standing by it -- possibly could agree with every editorial that is written. You wouldn't want an editorial board whose members all think exactly alike. I wouldn't, anyway, and I don't work for one that works that way. We have a variety of views that we are encouraged to express around the table. However, if I say I agree with Editorial A, then you are free to ask me if I agree with Editorial B. And then, what if I don't? I think it's better to keep whatever disagreements there are within the family, so to speak.
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Re: Prescott: McCain backed way, way off his criticism of government-run health care after Elizabeth Edwards pointed out that neither he nor she ever could obtain health care on the private market, one having cancer and the other having had cancer. His response essentially was to say he would create some government-run health care plans.
Ruth Marcus: I think his big argument has been that it is important to have competition in the health care marketplace, transparency, and skin in the game for consumers in order to get costs under control. Elizabeth Edwards's fair point was that McCain has been awfully unspecific about how his approach would ensure coverage for high-risk and otherwise uninsurable individuals.
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Warrenton, Va.: Where's the outrage? Obama is so slick, it is easy to see why the Republicans can't seem to get a grip on him lately. Can't people see that Maliki's government is trying to help Obama win the election and that Obama conveniently is forgetting how he got to the Iraq withdrawal timetable position he now advocates (namely, ignoring the successful Bush and McCain surge that made all this possible). The Republicans really need to call him on that. Obama will shape-shift shamelessly in order to win. Hopefully the Republicans will put out a TV ad blitz in the fall to expose Obama's now-evident character flaws.
Ruth Marcus: I think you can be assured of a TV ad blitz, and earlier than the fall.
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McCain and Birth Control:"However, he did not endorse coverage for Viagra but not birth control." Yes, he did. He did it the way senators endorse things -- he voted against having birth control covered. Whatever he says is irrelevant when he has a record of voting against women's health issues.
Ruth Marcus: He voted against requiring insurance companies to cover contraception. I am all in favor of contraception. I am all in favor of insurance companies covering contraception. But I think that is a different issue than requiring them to do so, even though I think I would come out on the opposite side of Sen. McCain on that one.
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Re: Evasive Answer to Arlington: Decent attempt to respond without answering. My take on blogosphere's criticism of the media is that the media often tells us that it is monolithic, and that we don't need to "pay attention to the people behind the curtain," whereas bloggers have learned to pay close attention to those people behind the curtain. But at least you acknowledged that this was a group decision and have accepted responsibility, in part, for the group's decision.
Ruth Marcus: My problem with the bloggers -- and now I can feel that torrent of e-mails coming -- is that they are so willing to impute ill and evil motives, and in the alternative, complete and utter stupidity, to the folks behind the curtain. People, even editorial writers, can get things wrong without being either venal or stupid. People can come out on a different side of the issue from whatever side you might be one without being either venal or stupid. But the blogosphere -- and I think the left side of the blogosphere is worse on this than the right -- does not accommodate that kind of thinking.
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St. Paul, Minn.: Hi Ruth -- Thank you for taking my question. I enjoyed seeing you filling in on the NewsHour a while back. As a journalist, what do you think about Diane Sawyer not correcting Sen. McCain on his geography gaffe (Iraq and Pakistan are neighbors), and CBS news editing out his misstatements about the surge that are in the news today? Is it the job of journalists to point those mistakes out and correct them at the time they're made, or to just let them hang there for others to comment on? While I can see Sawyer not bothering to jump in, I'm really troubled by Couric and company taking it on themselves to shape his answers. Who's biased against whom?
Ruth Marcus: Thanks -- I really enjoy being on the NewsHour because it's a forum for intelligent discussion. Certainly, it's the job of journalists to correct misstatements, politely. I need to look more closely at the Couric editing issue -- I got some other questions about it today -- but I am completely, totally in favor of posting full transcripts, tapes, underlying documents and everything else on the web so people can make judgments for themselves. I think that's one of the many wonderful aspects of the Internet. And on that cheery note, see you in a few weeks!
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 23, 2008 Wednesday 12:56 PM EST
Bush's YouTube Moment
BYLINE: Dan Froomkin, Special to washingtonpost.com, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: OPINION
LENGTH: 3990 words
HIGHLIGHT: At his press conference two weeks ago, President Bush stiffly acknowledged that these were difficult times for many American families, while strenuously insisting that the economy is "basically sound."
At his press conference two weeks ago, President Bush stiffly acknowledged that these were difficult times for many American families, while strenuously insisting that the economy is "basically sound."
But in private -- as captured on a video surreptitiously shot at a closed-door fundraiser last week -- a much more relaxed-looking president can be seen joking about the housing crisis and comparing Wall Street to an alcoholic.
The video was apparently shot on a cell phone, despite Bush's request to turn off all recording devices, and was obtained by Houston television reporter Miya Shay.
"It is uncertain, there's no question about it," Bush says at the beginning of the clip, apparently responding to a question about the economy. "Wall Street got drunk -- that's one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras. It got drunk and now it's got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up, and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments.
"And then we got a housing issue. Not in Houston -- and evidently not in Dallas -- because Laura was over there trying to buy a house today." Much laughter ensues among the well-heeled GOP donors, gathered in the $5 million home of a former energy company executive.
Someone yells out a question about Crawford and Bush replies: "I like Crawford. Unfortunately after eight years of asking her to sacrifice, I'm now no longer the decision maker. She'll be deciding, thanks for the suggestion. I suggest you don't yell it out when she's here. Later, I was telling her 'Hey honey, we've been on government pay now for 14 years, so go slow!'
"It's uh -- caused me to lose my train of thought."
Julie Mason and Alan Bernstein write in the Houston Chronicle: "The president's blunt remarks were a sharp departure from the more measured tones he uses publicly to discuss the economy and national housing market collapse."
Matt Jaffe blogs for ABC News: "Bush's remarks are a departure from the more conservative tone he usually takes when speaking to the press. Earlier last week, in fact, the president preached optimism about the economy in a nationally-televised news conference. . . .
"He acknowledged that the economy was experiencing 'a tough time', but did not compare the current situation to a hangover."
Stephanie Kirchgaessner writes in the Financial Times: "Mr Bush has rarely been caught on video making such frank remarks before a friendly audience about a politically sensitive topic, proving that even the carefully guarded White House is susceptible to being caught off guard in the new era of the endless internet campaign."
Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times: "The sentiments were no different from those Mr. Bush has voiced in public, said Tony Fratto, the deputy White House press secretary.
"'The president has made this point before,' Mr. Fratto said, adding, 'What the president is referring to is the fact that the markets were using very complex financial instruments that had grown up over the years, and when confronted with the shock of this housing downturn, they did not fully understand what the consequences were going to be.'"
Ironically, that very morning, at a fundraiser in Tucson, Bush had explicitly noted the threat posed by YouTube. As Daniel Scarpinato reported for the Arizona Daily Star: "So sensitive were Republicans about information getting out about the goings-on at the Tucson fundraiser . . . even W. himself made sure to ask the 400 or so people at the event to turn off any recording devices.
"'I don't know a lot about technology,' the president said, according to one insider, 'but I do know about YouTube.'"
This wasn't Bush's very first YouTube moment -- that honor belongs to amateur video of Bush in white tie and cowboy hat, crooning a ballad about all the scandals that had beset his administration to an appreciative crowd of journalists at this March's off-the-record Gridiron Club dinner.
But it does add to the body of evidence that Bush sometimes doesn't take serious things seriously -- especially when sacrifices are being borne by those who don't share his privileged background.
Less than two days after repeating a veto threat against a bipartisan housing bill, Bush abruptly buckled this morning.
Lori Montgomery writes for The Washington Post: "The White House announced this morning that President Bush will sign a massive package of housing legislation expected to be approved this week by Congress, despite his opposition to $3.9 billion in aid to communities hit hard by a housing crisis that has spawned 1.5 million foreclosures.
"White House press secretary Dana Perino said the president was persuaded that the parts are of the bill the administration favors -- including broad new authority for the Treasury Department to lend money to troubled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are too important and urgently needed to engage in 'a prolonged veto fight.'"
Benton Ives wrote for CQ on Monday that the White House had reaffirmed the veto threat. "'We have a veto threat on the bill -- that provision is one of the major concerns with the bill,' White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
"Still, many lawmakers have said they doubt the president would follow through on that threat, given the ongoing housing slowdown and the inclusion of numerous White House priorities in the housing package."
Carol D. Leonnig writes in The Washington Post: "Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers' on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins.
"The agency did not disclose the proposal, as required, in public notices of regulatory plans that it filed in December and May. Instead, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao's intention to push for the rule first surfaced on July 7, when the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) posted on its Web site that it was reviewing the proposal, identified only by its nine-word title.
"The text of the proposed rule has not been made public, but according to sources briefed on the change and to an early draft obtained by The Washington Post, it would call for reexamining the methods used to measure risks posed by workplace exposure to toxins. The change would address long-standing complaints from businesses that the government overestimates the risk posed by job exposure to chemicals. . . .
"The department's speed in trying to make the regulatory change contrasts with its reluctance to alter workplace safety rules over the past 7 1/2 years. In that time, the department adopted only one major health rule for a chemical in the workplace, and it did so under a court order. . . .
"[T]he fast-track approach has brought criticism from workplace-safety advocates, unions and Democrats in Congress. Some accuse the Bush administration of working secretly to give industry a parting gift that will help it delay or block safety regulations after President Bush leaves office. . . .
"Last week, the proposal was defended in an opinion piece in the New York Sun written by Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a fellow at the conservative-leaning Hudson Institute. She. . . did not mention in the article that she was one of the consultants who worked with Labor beginning in September 2007 on a $349,000 outside study of the risk-assessment process. . . .
"The July submission of its proposal broke a deadline set by White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten, who had ordered that all agencies submit proposed regulations before June 1 and 'resist the historical tendency of administrations to increase regulatory activity in their final months.'"
Last month over at NiemanWatchdog.org, where I am deputy editor, I suggested that midnight rulemaking was one of several ways Bush officials might well try to cement their policies beyond January.
Tim Shorrock writes for Salon that "in the twilight of the Bush presidency, a movement is stirring in Washington for a sweeping new inquiry into White House malfeasance that would be modeled after the famous Church Committee congressional investigation of the 1970s. . . .
"Looking forward to 2009, when both Congress and the White House may well be controlled by Democrats, the idea is to have Congress appoint an investigative body to discover the full extent of what the Bush White House did in the war on terror to undermine the Constitution and U.S. and international laws. The goal would be to implement government reforms aimed at preventing future abuses -- and perhaps to bring accountability for wrongdoing by Bush officials.
"'If we know this much about torture, rendition, secret prisons and warrantless wiretapping despite the administration's attempts to stonewall, then imagine what we don't know,' says a senior Democratic congressional aide who is familiar with the proposal and has been involved in several high-profile congressional investigations."
Shorrock also writes: "A prime area of inquiry for a sweeping new investigation would be the Bush administration's alleged use of a top-secret database to guide its domestic surveillance. Dating back to the 1980s and known to government insiders as 'Main Core,' the database reportedly collects and stores -- without warrants or court orders -- the names and detailed data of Americans considered to be threats to national security. . . .
"Some . . . former U.S. officials interviewed, although they have no direct knowledge of the issue, said they believe that Main Core may have been used by the NSA to determine who to spy on in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Moreover, the NSA's use of the database, they say, may have triggered the now-famous March 2004 confrontation between the White House and the Justice Department that nearly led Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI director William Mueller and other top Justice officials to resign en masse."
Shorrock notes how his reporting builds on previous stories, including a July 2007 article in the New York Times in which Scott Shane and David Johnston wrote: "A 2004 dispute over the National Security Agency's secret surveillance program that led top Justice Department officials to threaten resignation involved computer searches through massive electronic databases, according to current and former officials briefed on the program."
Siobhan Gorman wrote in the Wall Street Journal in March: "According to current and former intelligence officials, [the NSA] now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records.... The NSA's enterprise involves a cluster of powerful intelligence-gathering programs, all of which sparked civil-liberties complaints when they came to light.... The effort also ties into data from an ad-hoc collection of so-called 'black programs' whose existence is undisclosed, the current and former officials say. Many of the programs in various agencies began years before the 9/11 attacks but have since been given greater reach."
And Christopher Ketcham wrote in Radar in May: "According to a senior government official who served with high-level security clearances in five administrations, 'There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. The database can identify and locate perceived 'enemies of the state' almost instantaneously.' . . . One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of a national emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even detention."
Randall Mikkelsen writes for Reuters: "Congress should explicitly declare a state of armed conflict with al Qaeda to make clear the United States can detain suspected members as long as the war on terrorism lasts, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said on Monday.
"Mukasey urged Congress to make the declaration in a package of legislative proposals to establish a legal process for terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo, in response to a Supreme Court ruling last month that detainees had a constitutional right to challenge their detention.
"'Any legislation should acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us,' Mukasey said in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute.
"'Congress should reaffirm that for the duration of the conflict the United States may detain as enemy combatants those who have engaged in hostilities or purposefully supported al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated organizations,' he said."
The ACLU called Mukasey's proposal "an enormous executive branch power grab. . . .
"'Mukasey is asking Congress to expand and extend the war on terror forever. Anyone that this president or the next one declares to be a terrorist could then be held indefinitely without a trial,' said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. 'This is clearly the last gasp of an administration desperate to rationalize what is a failed legal scheme that was correctly rejected four times by the Supreme Court. With as little as five work weeks left in this Congress, there are more important issues than helping the lame-duck president cook up an indefensible plan to lock people up forever and throw away the key with no due process rights and limited judicial review.'"
Mukasey appears before the House Judiciary Committee today.
Eric Lichtblau writes for the New York Times: "From fending off calls to investigate accusations of torture to resisting a nationwide strategy against mortgage fraud, Mr. Mukasey has taken a go-slow approach that has surprised even some admirers, who see him as unwilling to break from past policies and leave his own imprint in the closing months of the Bush administration. . . .
"Halfway through his term, Mr. Mukasey has defended or let stand some of the most controversial policies that he inherited from [Alberto] Gonzales, including the treatment of detainees, the broad surveillance powers claimed by Mr. Bush and the White House's use of executive privilege in warding off demands from Congress for information.
"Last week, Democrats charged that Mr. Mukasey was using the shield of executive privilege to 'cover up' possible wrongdoing by the White House. The result, critics say, is that investigations have languished on some critical issues.
"Mr. Mukasey's approach stands in contrast, some observers say, to the more aggressive tack taken by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who moved to repudiate some positions of his controversial predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, after taking over at the Pentagon in December 2006."
Matt Spetalnick writes for Reuters: "The White House said on Tuesday that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's high-profile visit to Iraq may have been a 'distraction for many' but not for President George W. Bush.
"The Bush administration sought to play down the significance of Obama's trip after he ended it reaffirming that if elected he would withdraw U.S. troops in 16 months, something the White House opposes as an 'arbitrary' timetable. . . .
"Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Obama and other U.S. lawmakers traveling with him on Monday he hoped U.S. combat troops could be out of Iraq in 2010, a goal not far from Obama's own pledge on withdrawals.
"But White House spokeswoman Dana Perino denied any major differences between Bush and Maliki on the issue, saying they agree that any troop drawdown would depend on security gains."
John D. McKinnon, Yochi J. Dreazan and Elizabeth Holmes write in the Wall Street Journal: "Rapid developments in recent days are narrowing political differences over the way forward in Iraq and suggesting the outlines of a possible consensus on the coming end of U.S. combat involvement.
"President George W. Bush's announcement late last week that he will agree to a ' time horizon' for withdrawing U.S. combat troops was the first sign of coalescing. In the days that followed, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki publicly endorsed a target date for withdrawal -- the end of 2010, roughly in line with the mid-2010 time frame advocated by Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate. . . .
"For their part, Bush aides seemed somewhat impatient with all the talk of pullout scenarios, and sought more recognition for their surge strategy."
Eugene Robinson writes in his Washington Post opinion column: "His new 'time horizon' formulation is just smoke, intended to obfuscate and stall. In six months, Iraq becomes somebody else's problem.
"The shift does put loyal supporters of Bush's Iraq policy in an untenable position, though. Their mantra has been that anyone who suggests a date for U.S. withdrawal, however vague or distant or aspirational, is being 'defeatist.' Now, logically, they ought to be saying the same thing about the president."
Walter Pincus writes in The Washington Post: "The Bush administration should stop talking about a military attack as an option if negotiations do not immediately halt Iran's uranium reprocessing program, two former national security advisers said yesterday.
"'Don't talk about "do we bomb them now or later?" ' said Brent Scowcroft, adviser to presidents Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush, during a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the negotiations between the United States and Iran.
"Scowcroft added that by mentioning that threat, 'we legitimize the use of force . . . and may tempt the Israelis' to carry out such a mission. . . .
"Zbigniew Brzezinski, adviser to President Jimmy Carter, described the Bush administration's policy of maintaining the option of military action as 'counterproductive.' . . .
"He added that a U.S. attack on Iran would be a 'disaster,' suggesting it could result in the U.S. fighting 'for at least two decades' on four fronts -- Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Brzezinski said he fears that if negotiations break down between now and the end of the year, some in the Bush administration might believe 'it justifies doing something.'"
Jesse Drucker writes in the Wall Street Journal: "In a new sign of increasing inequality in the U.S., the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross income for two decades, and possibly the highest since 1929, according to Internal Revenue Service data.
"Meanwhile, the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years. The group's share of the tax burden has risen, though not as quickly as its share of income."
Jacob Leibenluft writes for Slate: "[C]an a president really pardon someone who hasn't even been charged with a crime?
"Yep. In 1866, the Supreme Court ruled in Ex parte Garland that the pardon power 'extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment.' . . .
"While pre-emptive pardons remain very rare, there are a few notable exceptions. Perhaps the most famous presidential pardon of all time occurred before any charges were filed. Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon absolved the former president of 'all offenses against the United States which he . . . has committed or may have committed or taken part in' between the date of his inauguration in 1969 and his resignation in August 1974. "
Jonathan Turley blogs: "With many Democrats still fuming over the refusal of Democratic leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi to allow even impeachment hearings into detailed allegations of crimes by President Bush in office, close Obama adviser (and University of Chicago Law Professor) Cass Sunstein recently rejected the notion of prosecuting Bush officials for crimes such as torture and unlawful surveillance. After Sen. Obama's unpopular vote on the FISA bill, it has triggered a blogger backlash -- raising questions about the commitment of the Democrats to do anything other than taking office and reaping the benefits of power."
Johanna Neuman blogs for the Los Angeles Times: "With the House Judiciary Committee planning a hearing Friday on the Bush administration's use of executive privilege, public pressure is building to urge the committee to jail Karl Rove, the Bush White House political maestro.
"A coalition of organizations gathered 80,000 signatures on a petition calling on the committee to hold Rove in contempt for his refusal to obey its subpoena. Brave News Films, author of an earlier Internet effort to kick Joseph Lieberman out of the Democratic Party after his endorsement of Republican John McCain, released its petition, Send Karl Rove to Jail, in hopes of compelling Rove to testify under oath about his involvement in the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman."
The New York Times editorial board blogs: "It does not take a lot of imagination to see the new Batman movie that is setting box office records, 'The Dark Knight', as something of a commentary on the war on terror. . . .
"Seven years after Sept. 11, the United States is caught up in a misbegotten war in Iraq, is granting immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the Bush administration illegally spy on the public, and is unwilling to unequivocally renounce torture as a tactic.
"That may explain why this summer's box office sensation is not a white knight, but a dark one. Call it cinema verite."
Film critic Dave Kehr asks in his blog: "Is the Dark Knight just George Bush with a better outfit, demanding that he be allowed all of the available 'tools' to combat terrorism, even if they include torture and eavesdropping?"
Spencer Ackerman writes in the Washington Independent that "the concepts of security and danger presented in Christopher Nolan's new Batman epic, 'The Dark Knight,' align so perfectly with those of the Office of the Vice President that David Addington, Cheney's chief of staff and former legal counsel, might be an uncredited script doctor."
Andrea Higbie writes for Salon: "On Memorial Day, President Bush paid tribute to the troops and their families at Arlington National Cemetery. Of the men and women buried there, President Bush declared, 'They're an awesome bunch of people, and the United States is blessed to have such citizens.'
"What else is awesome? Just about everything. 'Thank you, Your Holiness,' the president publicly said to Pope Benedict XVI in mid-April when he became only the second pope in history to visit the White House. 'Awesome speech.' . . .
"In the waning days of George W. Bush's regime, it's worthwhile to examine his legacy: a devastating war, a ruined economy, soaring oil prices. But one way he has triumphed is by continuing to spread a certain word across this great land of ours. You can barely swing a Republican by the tail these days without hitting something, or someone, described as 'awesome.'"
Here's Jon Stewart on administration officials' amazing lack of recall before the House Judiciary Committee. John Oliver tells Stewart: "I just hope everyone at home appreciates the magnitude of what they're witnessing here: Seven straight years this administration has been untouchable in hearings. . . . We're in a golden age of obstructed politics, and we don't even know it. So let's spend these last six months appreciating how lucky we are to have borne witness to this incredible low point in American democracy."
Mike Luckovich, Stuart Carlson and Nick Anderson on time horizons; Tom Toles, Ann Telnaes and Ben Sargent on Bush's Maliki problem; Jim Morin and Pat Bagley on McCain's Bush problems; Steve Sack on Bush's sudden conversion to diplomacy; Joel Pett on alternative energy.
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The New York Times
July 22, 2008 Tuesday
Late Edition - Final
Conservative Group Takes On Obama in Ad and Film
BYLINE: By MICHAEL FALCONE
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 310 words
An independent conservative group went on the air with a new advertisement on Monday to be followed by a full-length documentary film that tries to portray Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, as an overhyped media darling.
The group, Citizens United, which also produced a film this year critical of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, is spending $250,000 to run the commercial on Fox News through the end of the week.
The 30-second spot features a mix of conservative voices, including J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's former secretary of state; the Rev. Joe Watkins, a Republican strategist; and the commentators Tucker Carlson and Dick Morris. They accuse the news media of harboring a pro-Obama bias, or as Mr. Carlson puts it: ''The press loves Obama. I mean not just love, but sort of like an early teenage crush.''
The commercial is a prelude to the film, ''Hype: The Obama Effect,'' which Citizens United plans to release in early September. According to the film's Web site, it will ask -- and purport to answer -- a few questions about Mr. Obama, including whether he is ''the uniter the country begs for, or a liberal divider.''
Will Holley, a spokesman for the group, said the film would be released in theaters in select markets across the country and offered for sale on DVD.
The Obama campaign declined to comment on the film.
Independent groups like Citizens United are increasingly inserting themselves into the contest between Mr. Obama and the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain. Another advocacy organization, Let Freedom Ring, plans to begin broadcasting a commercial on Tuesday accusing Mr. Obama of being a flip-flopper. The group, Vets for Freedom, is spending $1.5 million on an advertising and grass-roots effort trumpeting what they say is the success of the troop buildup in Iraq.
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The New York Times
July 22, 2008 Tuesday
Late Edition - Final
McCain Links Obama and High Gas Prices
BYLINE: By LARRY ROHTER
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE AD CAMPAIGN; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 464 words
This advertisement for Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, is to be broadcast on national cable networks and locally in 11 swing states, including economically battered Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Called ''Pump,'' it is 30 seconds long.
PRODUCER Foxhole Productions
SCRIPT ''Gas prices. $4, $5, no end in sight. Because some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America. No to independence from foreign oil. Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump? (chant) Obama, Obama. One man knows we must now drill more in America and rescue our family budgets. Don't hope for more energy, vote for it. McCain.''
THE SCREEN A lone gasoline pump materializes above a shimmering, golden surface, as if part of a mirage. In the background, as a female announcer speaks, a crowd buzzes. The screen blackens momentarily, then returns to an image of numbers whirring rapidly on a pump, followed by a second brief blackout and more numbers flashing. Mr. Obama then appears on screen, smiling, a gas pump to the left, as the buzz resolves into loud chanting of his name. Another quick blackout, and then, as the words ''one man'' are uttered, Mr. McCain appears, microphone in hand, the first of four images of him that dominate the remainder of the commercial.
ACCURACY Mr. Obama is not against all drilling for oil and gas, only drilling offshore, a crucial word in the debate on energy policy but one never mentioned here. Increasing domestic oil production is also by no means the only or even main road to long-term energy independence, as both candidates have emphasized on the campaign trail by endorsing alternatives like solar and wind power and corn-based ethanol (in Mr. Obama's case) and nuclear energy (Mr. McCain). Mr. Obama, who has proposed a $150 billion decade-long government-backed effort to help develop clean-energy sources, does oppose the temporary gasoline tax rebate that Mr. McCain favors, calling it an election-year gimmick that does not bring meaningful relief to ordinary Americans. But that is a position many economists and energy experts share. Finally, even before the recent spike, oil prices had been rising for a decade, the result of a variety of political and economic factors in places as far afield as China, India, Venezuela and Nigeria. So it is difficult to understand how Mr. Obama, a first-term senator, can be held responsible for that phenomenon.
SCORECARD Aside from correctly stating current gasoline prices, ''Pump'' is misleading on nearly every substantive point. But it is shrewdly conceived and may prove to be effective with undecided voters upset about having to pay as much as $100 to fill their gas tanks, yet uncertain as to the causes of the squeeze on their budgets. LARRY ROHTER
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USA TODAY
July 22, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
Top political donors cut way back;
As actions of 527s studied, funding slips from '04 pace
BYLINE: Matt Kelley and Fredreka Schouten
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 418 words
WASHINGTON -- Top donors to independent groups that sought to influence the last presidential campaign are giving less than one-fifth of what they shelled out in 2004, according to a USA TODAY analysis.
The six biggest contributors from each side in the past three federal elections gave more than $100million to outside political groups in 2004, according to the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute. Less than four months before the end of this year's campaign, they have given $17.2million, an analysis of campaign-finance and tax records show.
Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain have denounced spending by independent political groups -- known as 527s for the section of the tax code that governs their activity -- because the groups can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money with little federal scrutiny and have a history of financing attack ads.
Two billionaires who have been large benefactors to political groups have said they're scaling back or abstaining from such donations this year.
Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, who gave $4.6million to Republican-leaning groups in 2004, won't give anything, spokesman Jay Rosser says. The top overall political donor, financier George Soros, has no plans to match the $24million he spent in 2004, spokesman Michael Vachon says.
"He's focused on business and philanthropy rather than politics," Vachon says of Soros.
Pickens is focusing on promoting his plans for wind-generated electricity and natural gas-powered vehicles.
There's plenty of time left for big donors to help fund the ad campaigns and phone banks used by independent groups.
Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, who has been the top donor to GOP-leaning groups since 2004, gave $16.9million to independent groups in the last four months before the 2004 and 2006 elections. Perry "hasn't made any commitments to make further donations this year," says spokesman Anthony Holm. Perry gave more than $4million to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose ads in 2004 claimed that Democrat John Kerry lied about incidents while serving on a patrol boat in Vietnam.
"Despite some of the candidates throwing cold water on outside groups, there is no way they can stop them," says campaign-finance lawyer Kenneth Gross. "This can happen and will likely happen late in the game."
Some help in other ways. Three of the six top GOP donors are raising money for McCain. None of the top six Democrats is an Obama fundraiser.
The Price of Power is an ongoing series tracking the role of money in politics
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The Washington Post
July 22, 2008 Tuesday
Met 2 Edition
McCain Urges More Drilling, Blames Obama for Gas Prices
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 328 words
The Ad: (Narrator) Gas prices -- $4, $5, no end in sight, because some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America. No to independence from foreign oil. Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?
(Chant) Obama! Obama!
(Narrator) One man knows we must now drill more in America and rescue our family budgets. Don't hope for more energy, vote for it. McCain.
Analysis: John McCain may try in this ad to blame rising gas prices on Barack Obama, but after 7 1/2 years of the Bush administration, that's a stretch. McCain himself said last week that America's "dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making"; Obama has been in Washington for less than four.
It's a bit audacious for McCain to charge that "some in Washington" still oppose offshore oil drilling, since that was his position, most notably in his 2000 presidential campaign, until he reversed himself last month and called for a lifting of the 27-year federal ban on such energy exploration. (He still opposes drilling in Alaskan wildlife refuges.) Nor is there any evidence that Obama opposes "independence from foreign oil," although his energy plan is very different. The senator from Illinois has called McCain's plan for a temporary gas-tax holiday a gimmick.
Drilling off the coasts would increase U.S. oil production but would have no short-term impact on gas prices. While some analysts disagree, an Energy Department report last year said production would not start until 2017 and have no "significant" effect on prices or supplies until 2030.
By picturing Obama next to a gas pump, using audio of his supporters chanting, and invoking the Democrat's signature word "hope," McCain is trying to present himself as a hardheaded realist who would boost production. That argument may have some appeal at a time of public frustration with energy prices, but less so in such states as Florida and California, which would bear the environmental impact of renewed drilling.
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The Washington Post
July 22, 2008 Tuesday
Suburban Edition
An Oilman's Bet Against Oil;
Pickens Reinvents Himself With Alternative-Energy Campaign
BYLINE: Steven Mufson; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: FINANCIAL; Pg. D01
LENGTH: 1071 words
T. Boone Pickens has played a lot of odd roles over the years.
There was the geologist who made most of his early money by snapping up the stock of big, undervalued oil and gas companies, a practice known as "drilling on Wall Street." The wealthy corporate raider who said he was defending the rights of ordinary shareholders. And, recently, the influential TV commentator on oil prices who places enormous and mostly lucrative bets on where those prices are going.
But perhaps the strangest role the 80-year-old, Oklahoma-born Pickens has fashioned for himself is his current one: the billionaire speculator as energy wise man, an oil-and-gas magnate as champion of wind power, and a lifetime Republican who has become a fellow traveler among environmentally minded Democrats -- even though he helped finance the "Swift boat" ads that savaged the campaign of the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.)
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), a vociferous critic of speculators, who he says are inflating the price of oil, last week called Pickens "my political friend." The Sierra Club's executive director recently flew in Pickens's private plane. And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) invited him to speak to the Democratic caucus tonight.
Pickens has lubricated his latest transformation with a $58 million ad campaign to rally support for building enough wind turbines to provide 20 percent of America's energy. He says that would free up enough natural gas to replace most of the oil imports that Pickens says will otherwise "break" the U.S. economy, while endangering national security.
"I feel like I'm in the Niagara River in a boat and I don't have a motor and I don't have an oar and I'm getting pretty close to the falls," Pickens said yesterday during a visit to The Washington Post. "I'm drifting, drifting, drifting, and it's gone on for 40 years as far as energy is concerned. . . . We're dead in the water if we don't do anything."
Pickens said he launched his campaign, known as "the Pickens plan," because "this is the last chance for me. I'm 80, and I have the money to do this." He said: "It's not anything for Boone Pickens to make money. I got plenty of money." Besides, he said, his estate will go to charity. Instead, he said, he wants to "elevate the debate" because the presidential candidates "do not have much of an energy plan for the short term, and the short term has to be addressed."
In the ads, Pickens says: "I've been an oilman my whole life, but this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of. And I have a plan. In the coming weeks, I'm going to share the details of that plan to use American technology and alternative energy to slash our dependency and break foreign oil's stranglehold on us."
This isn't the ad campaign some GOP operatives wanted Pickens to underwrite. Republicans were counting on him to play a central role in the presidential campaign, hoping he would pour millions of dollars into ads attacking Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.).
Instead, as Pickens recalled, he was sitting in a Dallas conference room in May with other wealthy Republicans discussing plans for financing an ad campaign to support Arizona Sen. John McCain's bid for president, when it hit him -- ending the nation's dependence on foreign oil was more important than who reaches the White House in 2008.
Now that he is running a different kind of ad campaign, he has received some kind words from Democrats. "He's making us think different about an energy policy that's been stuck in neutral for seven years," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), who is introducing a bill with tax credits for natural gas fuel pumps and cars.
"We need good ideas, like those offered by T. Boone Pickens and others," Reid said at a meeting last week. "As most know, T. Boone Pickens is an oilman and a staunch conservative. But T. Boone Pickens realizes the enormity of our energy crisis. That is a pretty good model for the kind of bipartisanship it will take to solve this problem."
On Sunday's "Meet the Press," Al Gore drew some distinctions between his plan and Pickens's vision for U.S. energy but added: "I don't see him as a competitor on this. There are really a lot of common features in what he's saying."
McCain, by contrast, made a slightly sulky reference to the oil magnate while talking about the importance of renewable energy during a town-hall meeting last week in Warren, Mich. "I'm glad Mr. Pickens is spending some of his money to advertise and have his face on television here," McCain said. "Good."
Pickens wouldn't be Pickens if he didn't have some money at stake. He has plans for a $10 billion, 4,000-megawatt wind farm that would be the world's biggest. He has contracted to buy $2 billion in wind turbines from General Electric. Acquaintances disagree about whether it's a case of Pickens putting his money where his mouth is or putting his mouth where his money is.
He said he will go ahead with or without government help, but the government could certainly help. If Congress extends the production tax credit for wind, that would be worth hundreds of millions or more to his project over a period of years. Pickens also said he is planning to buy right of way for a 250-mile power line to carry half of the wind farm's power to the Texas electricity grid. There, it would meet a new line financed by Texas. He would still need an interstate line to carry the rest of the wind farm's power to other markets.
In addition, Pickens has long advocated natural gas vehicles. He invested in a company that went public as Clean Energy, a firm that provides the fuel for natural-gas-fired vehicle fleets. There are only 142,000 natural-gas-fueled vehicles in the United States.
But Pickens insisted, "I'm not here trying to get anything for myself." He runs a hedge fund, BP Capital, that has made far more money than anything he did as an oil executive. It manages $7 billion in assets, about half or more of which is his own. He has already given away $700 million, he said, including $165 million to his alma mater, Oklahoma State University and $50 million to each of two Texas medical centers.
Instead, he said, this is about the nation's interest. "If $7 trillion go out of this country in 10 years, you can quit talking about health care," he said. "You're going to be broke."
Staff writer Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.
LOAD-DATE: July 22, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Ed Ou -- Associated Press; "This is the last chance for me. I'm 80, and I have the money to do this," says T. Boone Pickens.
IMAGE; By Frank Franklin Ii -- Associated Press; T. Boone Pickens says he wants to "elevate the debate" about energy policy in the presidential campaign.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 22, 2008 Tuesday 1:00 PM EST
Cindy McCain Finds Her Perfect Part
BYLINE: Libby Copeland, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3203 words
HIGHLIGHT: She's been a candidate's wife for almost the entire course of her 28-year marriage. She looks perfect for the part. The perfection of Cindy McCain is a theme that repeats itself in interviews with those who know her -- this woman who hid her drug addiction from her husband for years, who fought her fear of campaigning via small planes by getting her pilot's license without telling her husband.
She's been a candidate's wife for almost the entire course of her 28-year marriage. She looks perfect for the part. The perfection of Cindy McCain is a theme that repeats itself in interviews with those who know her -- this woman who hid her drug addiction from her husband for years, who fought her fear of campaigning via small planes by getting her pilot's license without telling her husband.
Washington Post staff writer, Libby Copeland was online Tuesday, July 22 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss today's article about Cindy McCain and her role in her husband's career.
The transcript follows.
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Libby Copeland: Welcome everyone. Cindy McCain is an interesting and complicated figure and I hope this piece gets at some of that. I'm curious to hear your thoughts about this propective first lady. What are the popular images of her? Are there perceptions you've had that you think are inaccurate? What do you want to know about her? How do you feel about her versus Michelle Obama, who's had a different public image in many respects?
I wanted to explore this concept of Cindy McCain's seeming "perfection" because I think that's one of the primary media images we've seen of her. I recall a few media protrayals I noticed in reporting this story, including one that asked something like, "Can Cindy McCain possibly be that perfect?" and another in which a television reporter -- noting that McCain had left her shoes in a pile in the middle of her apartment floor -- informed her (and I paraphrase): "That's so *normal*!"
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Arlington, Va.: How long were you working on this piece? Since you couldn't speak directly with Cindy, it must have taken a while to piece together the story.
Libby Copeland: A long time. About six or seven weeks of solid reporting (with, um, some vacation right in the middle.) It is often difficult to report around a subject. You can't ask them the questions that are most on your mind. You can't get them to reflect on themselves, and those reflections can be quite revealing.
But the flip side is that -- if the subject doesn't talk -- you often wind reporting more thoroughly because you are forced to talk to people you might not otherwise talk to in an attempt to reconstruct the subject's life. A lot of people helped me with this story by discussing Cindy McCain as far back as her middle school years.
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Richmond: I really want to know the outcome of her drug stealing incident. The article I read said she repaid the medical charity she stole the narcotics from and did community service. But, it didn't say if she was ever charged, or if they agreed to not charge her if she repaid. If she was charged, were the charges dropped, or did she just get all probation? I'd be pretty angry if she wasn't ever charged, obviously because of her wealth and power.
Libby Copeland: She was not charged, as I wrote in my story. She reached an agreement with federal authorities, and there were a number of terms she agreed to, including paying restitution and doing community service.
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Lusby, Md.: Why isn't mainstream press or the conservative news crews talking about Cindy's drug addiction? I wasn't aware of her addiction or her charges for stealing drugs. If this was Michelle Obama the press would be calling for Barack to drop out of the race during the primary. What gives?
Libby Copeland: I couldn't tell you what the stories would look like if this situation involved Michelle Obama.
I can tell you that Cindy McCain's addiction and the fact that she stole painkillers from the charity she'd founded was in my story, as it has been in many of the profiles I read, and that the reason you know about it is because the press reported it (and has continued to report it) in the first place.
As for the TV talkers -- the folks who usually "call" for stuff -- I can think of two reasons why they might not think this is as salient a topic as you might expect. One is just time. The news of Cindy McCain's addiction broke 14 years ago, in 1994.
The other is that when John McCain ran in 2000, the story of Cindy McCain's addiction was rehashed. So it might not feel as new to the talkers as it did in 2000.
And a third reason I just thought of: The McCains and their campaign have been very good at getting out in front of the story. Cindy McCain speaks openly about her addiction and how harrowing that time in her life was. A willingness to confront and discuss an issue can tend to defang it, so to speak.
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Albany, N.Y.: Did Cindy really adopt a child without first consulting and coordinating that choice with John?
Libby Copeland: That is the story they both tell. I do know that other close friends knew she was bringing Bridget home, though it isn't clear if they knew she was adopting the child, or just bringing her home for medical treatment. Bridget was born with a severe cleft palate that needed to be repaired.
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Libby Copeland: An an addendum to the Bridget question: the McCains tell a story that Cindy McCain brought Bridget to the U.S. and then told Sen. McCain that she hoped to bring the child home with them. Presumably the actual adoption was a longer process that involved both of them, and that happened later.
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Rockville, Md.: Your puff piece on Cindy McCain is shameful. To most people, Cindy McCain is the woman that had an affair with a married man almost double her age, an opportunistic harlot who stole a man from his wife who needed him most, and who had waited faithfully and patiently for her husband to return from captivity. Your article failed to mention how Cindy McCain's beer fortune has helped McCain's candidacy during difficult times, and that she still refuses to release her complete tax returns till this day (even though we know she has benefited from investments in rouge nations like Somalia). I was expecting some balance from a Washington Post article, but it seems that the character traits and actions of Cindy McCain adhere to a different standard than the rest of us, including Michelle Obama.
Libby Copeland: I am surprised you think of it as a puff piece. I tried to create an honest and nuanced portrait of a woman whose life has included struggles. I urge you read the entire thing, if you haven't already.
I received an angry email from a reader who wanted to know why I thought Cindy McCain was "perfect." I think my response to this reader might also help answer your note. What I wrote was this:
"I urge you to rethink whether the article was really pointing to 'perfection,' or playing with the notion of seeming perfection -- and by this, getting at some deeper themes."
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River City: Wow, perfect is the last word I'd use to describe her. She started dating McCain, knowing he was still married with kids, still living wiht his wife (the official line is he was separating, not separated). His ex says she didn't know the marriage was over at that time. How is that perfect? She has about the worst record of any first lady... drug addict, stealing narcotics, committing adultery. Where does perfect come in, besides her make-up?
Libby Copeland: See the previous question.
The point, again, is not perfection, but the pervasiveness of the notion of Cindy McCain's perfection (see the many accusations that she's a "Stepford Wife"), both in media portrayals of her and in accounts from those who know her. What does that tell you about her and the people around her, about her world, about the image that's been constructed about her? I'm not offering any conclusions, since my reporting certainly couldn't support them, but I am encouraging you to think about her in a complex and careful fashion. I think she's a fascinating figure.
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Richmond: She seems very sheltered in her privileged rich world when she said "you have to have your own airplane to get around in Arizona!" How does she think real folks get around? Is she really that clueless about regular working people?
Libby Copeland: She did say that, or something along those lines, during a recent TV interview. I can guess that what she might have meant is that when you're campaigning for office statewide, it's easier to fly, and it might be difficult to fly commercial. Of course, many candidates can't afford to buy their own planes.
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Gaithersburg, Md.: Did the Hensley family (particularly, Mrs. McCain's sister and her son) talk to you about your article? Were they helpful?
Libby Copeland: I'm sorry, but I can't tell you who I spoke with and who I didn't, unless it's in the story.
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Wilmington, N.C.: You wrote: McCain "by some accounts, was separated from his wife, Carol Shepp" when he met Cindy. The LA Times reported 2 weeks ago: "An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had "cohabited" until Jan. 7 of that year -- or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley." And referring to the nine months of the affair:"Carol McCain later told friends, including Reynolds and Fitzwater, that she did not know he was seeing anyone else."
My question is, are the "some accounts" you refer to reliable and accurate?
Libby Copeland: Yeah, this is a matter I have not reported in great depth, but I can tell you there are differing accounts.
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Framingham, Mass.: When comparing Cindy and Michelle it's sort of no contest for me. Michelle is just so Impressive -- smart, accomplished, and pretty amazing in her own right. She went to Harvard Law for goodness sake. With Cindy, while I respect her choices and her charitable works, I'm not nearly as impressed. The drug habit doesn't taint her for me as much as the fact that she and her husband don't seem to have much of a partnership. They just don't seem on equal footing. And I find her lack of confidence off-putting. For the record, I'm a 27, female, white, professional. I'm also from New England. Maybe that colors my judgment, but I'm more impressed by a woman who is something in her own right, and not just a candidate's wife.
Libby Copeland: Thanks for your thoughts. It's interesting how much latitude first ladies and prospective first ladies have these days in their roles as compared to thirty years ago. I'm also interested to read you characterize Cindy McCain as having a "lack of confidence." What aspects of her personality/identity point you in that direction? Are there certain things you're thinking of?
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Bethesda,Md.: Is she still withholding her tax return information from the public? What does she need to hide?
Libby Copeland: She is not. If the producer has a moment, I will see if she can post our story on that. She did release her tax returns some time back, after initially resisting, citing her desire for privacy.
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Bethesda, Md.: It's interesting that McCain's campaign has tried to dance around the issue of Cindy's wealth. Did they ever release her tax returns? Do you think that issue will rear its head again before the campaign is over? And how will the pending sale of Budweiser (her stock) to InBev affect her personal wealth?
Libby Copeland: Oh boy. To back up, Cindy McCain's father ran a company that distributed Budweiser; now (since her dad's death in 2000) she is chairwoman of the company.
The InBev thing has been really hard for me to follow. I'm embarrassed to confess that I read a few articles about this and haven't quite been able to figure out the bottom line. If it hadn't been somewhat beyond the scope of the profile I was doing -- which I thought of as more a profile of her identity and personality -- I'm sure I would have had to buckle down and do the math.
Cindy McCain's wealth -- which may exceed $100 million -- does seem to be a prevailing theme for stories about McCain and his campaign. I imagine it will not go away easily.
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washingtonpost.com: Cindy McCain Reported Income Exceeding $6 Million in 2006 (Post, May 24)
Libby Copeland: Thanks.
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Wilmington, N.C.: On the question of separation at the time he met Cindy, it's interesting where the sources of the differing accounts diverge. It seems those who knew McCain through the office believed they were separated, while those who knew them as a couple, and Mrs. McCain believed they were together. This is not an unusual state for this type of situation. Do you think Sen. McCain might have been the only spouse aware of the separation?
Libby Copeland: Again, this is somewhat beyond the scope of my reporting, but I think some of the confusion on this issue may have to do with what people mean when they say "separated." Do they mean living apart? Or do they mean living together but emotionally estranged and/or with an understanding? Or something else?
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Lack of confidence: That was me. It's more intangible, I think. The way she talks, about herself, her husband, her role. Also, the way she carries herself. I found the quotes you used about her apologizing to be very telling. Maybe it's not a lack of confidence, maybe it's assertiveness? Hard to put my finger on it, but it sort of plays into the hole "perfect" thing. No one is perfect, and anyone who puts on that front isn't going to carry it off.
Libby Copeland: Just posting this observation. Thanks for following up. I think the persona of any public person can be a fascinating issue to discuss. Who is the person, how do they see themselves, how do they and others construct their image, how does it get interpreted, how do people respond to it...?
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Boston: I'm an Obama fan, but some of these comments really bother me. I absolutely appreciate that the R's go after wives like dogs (see Hillary, Teresa, Michelle). And it's tempting to want to retaliate.
But Cindy McCain is neither perfect nor a monster. She's done some regrettable things but she's also used her money to make a big difference in a lot of people's lives. I do have a question, though. The talking heads keep saying that Michelle is fair game because she's out stumping. Is Cindy not stumping for McCain at all?
Libby Copeland: Cindy McCain has done campaigning for her husband, but she tends to do few large events on her own as compared to Michelle. She often introduces the senator briefly, and then sits. She also has traveled abroad, doing philantropic work, granting media interviews along the way. It's a way of attempting to humanize herself outside of a campaign setting.
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Pittsburgh, Pa.: How aware was John McCain of Cindy's painkiller addiction at the time? Did he play any role in her getting off painkillers? I recall that Gerald Ford and the Ford children held an intervention where they confronted Betty, which led to her going to rehab and a life helping addicts to various substances onto the road to recovery.
Libby Copeland: He has said he did not know. He and Cindy McCain have said on a number of occasions that she called him and told him approximately a year after she stopped taking painkillers. He has since said he believes he should have known, and that there were clues along the way.
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Fairfax, Va.: I'm sure Cindy McCain is a lovely person. I admire her for the work she's done with Operation Smile and other charitable organizations. However, the way the media portrays her as the "Little lady" who can do no wrong, versus the treatment of Michelle Obama, the "Angry Black Woman" is unfair, unwarranted, and tinged with racism. I admit that Hilary Clinton was vilified the same way that Michelle Obama is being vilified in the media when her husband ran for president. What I don't understand is how in this day-and-age strong females aren't lauded but instead slammed and told to "know their role." It makes me sick. Michelle Obama isn't any different from many women I know, black, white, green, purple, and polka-dotted. Nor is Hilary Clinton. Cindy McCain is not extraordinary to me and again, except for her volunteerism, she's not someone I would want my daughter to emulate. I hope the Post will consider devoting an entire hour chat to Michelle Obama. Thanks for your time.
Libby Copeland: Michelle Obama is as underserved by simplistic generalizations of her character as Cindy McCain. And so are we underserved.
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Baltimore: Your portrait of Cindy seemed familiar to me, reminded me of someone I know who survived spousal abuse. I've heard rumors that John has been verbally abusive towards Cindy -- have you heard any corroboration for this?
Libby Copeland: I have not pursued this line of reporting.
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Washington, D.C.: I sort of think it is irrelevant what each candidate's wife is like -- what is more telling is what the relationship is like and what that tells us about the candidate, not the spouse. The fact that McCain was committing adultery with respect to his previous spouse while carrying on with his current spouse is bothersome, but ultimately not so damning. What is more bothersome to me is Senator McCain's abandonment of the moderate views that endeared him to non-Republicans in his attempt to woo the conservative right. Guess he just can't be very faithful.
Libby Copeland: Just posting this one. Thanks for joining in.
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Washington, D.C.: I wonder if part of the reason Cindy McCain's drug use hasn't been trumpeted is because the Obama campaign is taking the high ground in terms of its messaging. I'm not a Democrat, but I've been impressed that Obama and his people haven't stooped to conquer, at least not yet. I hope the same would hold for the McCain campaign.
Libby Copeland: Just posting this one, too.
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Reston, Va.: During your reporting/research, what did you personally find to be the most interesting nugget?
Libby Copeland: There are a lot of aspects that I find interesting to her, including her childhood and her brief period as a teacher, which I was not able to find out as much about as I would have liked.
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Libby Copeland: Alrighty. That's it. Thanks for joining and...happy readin'.
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Reston, Va.: It's interesting how many people want to sling mud through this chat.At least you did your research to do the article as opposed to the individuals using half-truths. How many half-truths and muddied truths did you need to wade through in order to get this story? There seems to be a bunch of 'colored' information out there.
Libby Copeland: One more...hold on....
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Libby Copeland: I wanted just to answer that last question, which is a smart one.
Very tough story to report, because, yes, everyone's got an opinion or a theory, and not all of them are true or can be confirmed.
Signing off.....Ciao for now.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: July 23, 2008
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The New York Times
July 21, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
New Regulator In Rescue Plan Spurs Debate
BYLINE: By STEPHEN LABATON
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1565 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
When the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., orchestrated a rescue effort for the nation's two largest mortgage finance companies last week, most of the attention was focused on the infusion of cash and credit that the government would provide. But his plan also relies on the creation of a new regulatory agency to control the companies more tightly over the long term and to limit the risk they pose to the country's financial system.
Under the measure, Congress would lose some of its authority to oversee the companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including the right to determine how much capital they must keep as a cushion against losses. That role would shift to the new regulator, which would be called the Federal Housing Finance Agency; the director of the agency would be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
While experts on the companies agree that the proposed regulator would be stronger than the existing one, housed in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, some contend that the legislation does not go far enough.
These critics say that the measure tilts in favor of the companies, even as it tries to strike a balance between promoting affordable housing -- a primary mission of the government-sponsored mortgage giants -- and setting limits on them to diminish the risks they pose to the world financial system. A new regulator, they say, would have significant new powers, but still less than bank regulators now have.
As a result, the companies, which have a reputation for retaining some of the most influential lobbyists in Washington, could continue to exploit those weaknesses to their advantage, these people say, potentially encouraging them to take on more risks that could ultimately require a taxpayer bailout.
''The new law will not give the regulator either the mandate or the capacity of a bank regulator,'' said Thomas H. Stanton, an authority on the companies who has written several books on them. ''The new law creates a cumbersome regulatory process to implement many parts of the bill,'' he said, adding, ''I'm afraid we will need to revisit the issue of the proper regulatory framework for the companies.''
Even Mr. Paulson, in a television interview on Sunday, conceded that tougher regulation was secondary to reassuring the financial markets of the fiscal health of Fannie and Freddie, which provide financing for roughly 80 percent of all new home loans in the country.
''You know, the second part of this is having a strong regulator with real teeth, with real responsibilities and powers,'' Mr. Paulson said on ''Face the Nation'' on CBS. ''And this is going to be key to putting us in a position where we can address the risks that they pose and that have been focused on. But our first priority today is the stability of the capital markets.''
There have been previous efforts to tighten regulations and establish more independent oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including a 1992 law that established the current regulatory framework for the companies. Congress and the White House have tussled for decades over which branch of government should control the companies. Now the Bush administration is urging lawmakers to act swiftly to calm jittery markets.
The legislation, which Congress is expected to approve as early as this week, would make it more difficult for the companies to intimidate or weaken the regulator by attacking its budget in Congress. Instead, they would be assessed fees directly by the regulator, just as commercial and investment banks are by their regulators.
Lawmakers were negotiating through the end of last week over differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation. One detail still on the table is whether the measure would become effective immediately, as the Senate bill provides, or in six months under a new president, as the House bill stipulates.
As a practical matter, though, Bush administration officials acknowledge it will take many months to set up a new regulatory office and begin to consider new rules, forestalling any immediate effort to rein in the companies well into 2009.
Moreover, the administration has little incentive to curb Fannie and Freddie because it is relying on them more than ever to pull the ailing housing market out of its slump by buying most of the mortgages that banks are issuing.
House and Senate lawmakers also were considering whether to add last-minute provisions that would give the new regulator the authority to cut the dividends issued by the companies or reduce the millions of dollars in compensation provided annually to top executives.
As the only big players in the so-called secondary market for home loans, Fannie and Freddie buy billions of dollars in mortgages from lenders. They hold some of those mortgages in their own portfolios as investments; those portfolios now hold about $700 billion in mortgages apiece.
Other mortgages are used as collateral for securities that are guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie and sold to investors. Money from those sales is then plowed back to the lenders to finance new mortgages.
The legislation would set up protracted procedures that critics say would enable Fannie and Freddie to continue to use their enormous political clout with Congress to beat back proposals that their executives view as onerous. For instance, it would require the new regulator to go through a lengthy process to raise the companies' capital standards -- the amount of money that the companies need as a buffer against losses.
Capital standards are the lever a regulator uses to control the overall size of a financial institution. Higher rates leave a company with less money to lend. In setting new rules, the regulator would have to focus in particular on the health of the companies and on their mission of helping to finance housing, rather than on the overall risks the companies pose to the financial system.
In recent days, the administration has proposed that the new regulator consult with the Federal Reserve, which looks at larger systemic risks. Congressional aides were discussing late last week whether the legislation should include that provision, which, in any event, does not give the Fed significant authority to alter new regulations.
The Bush administration has long sought to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac more closely, and the plan was revised a week ago to give the administration authority to inject billions of dollars in loans and investments in the two companies to answer concerns about whether they were short on capital.
As the housing market has steadily declined, reducing the value of the $5 trillion in mortgages the two companies own or guarantee and the $1.5 trillion in debt outstanding, they have struggled to shore up confidence in their stock and debt.
Critics say that by relying too heavily on the two companies to pull the country out of its housing slump, the administration postponed longer-term problems.
''Hank Paulson is running the Treasury the way he ran Goldman,'' said L. William Seidman, the top regulator during the bailout of the savings and loan industry in the 1980s and early 1990s. ''He's doing everything he can to meet next quarter's numbers. I might do the same thing in his position. But it postpones a lot of bigger problems to the future, when he will be gone.''
Administration officials said that Mr. Paulson had been seeking an overhaul of the companies for more than a year, and that it was not the administration's fault that Congress had moved so slowly. They also said that the legislation was the product of the typical compromises that accompanied the writing of any law.
''We think that this will put us in a substantially stronger position than the current regulatory scheme,'' said Michele Davis, a Treasury Department spokeswoman.
As they grow larger, the companies pose bigger risks to the financial system, particularly as they continue to suffer losses that erode their capital cushion. That cushion is significantly smaller than that required of banks.
With the crucial questions about the companies most likely falling to the next president, senior aides to the presidential campaigns of Senators John McCain and Barack Obama said they wanted legislation that would ultimately give the new regulator broad authority to control the companies.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Mr. McCain's chief domestic policy adviser, said he hoped the legislation would give the regulator the authority to force the companies to reduce their large portfolios. Mr. Holtz-Eakin, echoing others' concerns, including those of the former Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, has said those portfolios pose the most significant risk to taxpayers.
''They were quite rapidly grown in the 1990s and they provide a return to private shareholders, but it is not something from which taxpayers benefit,'' Mr. Holtz-Eakin said.
Jason Furman, Mr. Obama's economic policy director, said Mr. Obama supported taking steps to ensure that management did not benefit at the expense of taxpayers, for example, by giving the government the authority to curtail executive compensation under certain circumstances.
''These companies play a very vital role,'' Mr. Furman said, ''but they also have a set of incentives that heads, their investors win, and tails, the taxpayers lose.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: July 21, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: The Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., on ''Face the Nation'' on Sunday. (PHOTOGRAPH BY KARIN COOPER/''FACE THE NATION'') (pg.A13)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
804 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The New York Times
July 21, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
From a Heckler to a Deal Maker
BYLINE: By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 2737 words
Senator John McCain was all but a sworn enemy of Senator Trent Lott, the former Republican leader.
Mr. Lott had quashed Mr. McCain's most cherished legislative goals. And, worse, Mr. McCain believed that in the 2000 Republican primaries, Mr. Lott had spread rumors about his colleague's mental stability on behalf of his rival for the nomination, George W. Bush.
But when Mr. Bush turned on Mr. Lott in 2002, helping to push him out of the leadership over a racially insensitive remark, Mr. McCain saw a shared grievance and found an opportunity. He leapt to Mr. Lott's defense, urging Republicans to stick by him.
''He said, 'I know how you are feeling; you have been treated unfairly,' '' Mr. Lott recalled. ''I am a grateful guy, and I will never forget it.'' A legendary dealmaker with a deep store of chits, Mr. Lott became a valuable ally to his former foe, backing him in public debates and less visible Senate intrigues.
Their alliance was just one step in the political reinvention of Mr. McCain, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Previously a marginal player better known for heckling the Senate than for influencing it, Mr. McCain returned from the 2000 campaign with a new national reputation and a new political sophistication.
Over the next eight years, he mastered the art of political triangulation -- variously teaming up with Mr. Lott against the president or the new Republican leaders, with Democrats against Republicans, and with the president against the Democrats -- to become perhaps the chamber's most influential member.
''He was looked upon as the magic ingredient in any legislative deal; the addition of John McCain was going to greatly improve its chances of success,'' said Ross K. Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist who studies the Senate.
Former Senator Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader until 2004, agreed. With the possible exception of the two party leaders, he said, ''I can't think of many senators more influential.'' Mr. Daschle said that Mr. McCain's power easily surpassed that of Mr. Lott's successor as leader, Bill Frist, because many senators discounted Mr. Frist as the White House's agent.
To partisans on either side, Mr. McCain's path could be puzzling, even infuriating. On the defining issue of the Iraq war, he hammered both sides: the White House for its execution of the conflict and the Democrats for their opposition. On immigration, he joined the Democrats and the White House to battle his own party. And to the Republican leaders, he was a serial turncoat on other domestic matters, marching at the head of a Democratic column into fights over tax cuts, campaign finance restrictions, Alaskan oil drilling, access to generic drugs, gun-show sales, pollution caps, the 9/11 commission and the use of torture.
''I returned to the Senate with greater influence than before I ran, and I used that influence to work with senators on both sides of the aisle,'' Mr. McCain said in an e-mail message. ''I don't believe in hoarding political capital just for the sake of possessing it.''
Now his Senate record itself is up for debate in the presidential race. Mr. McCain's supporters argue that he demonstrated the kind of bipartisan bridge-building that his Democratic rival for president, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, has often pledged but seldom displayed. Democrats counter that Mr. McCain, of Arizona, was a fickle gadfly who ultimately traded his independence to pander to the right, in particular by pledging this year to retain tax cuts he once faulted as favors to the rich.
''You couldn't tell which John McCain would come to work on any given day,'' said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, a Democrat close to Mr. Obama.
Mr. McCain's friends say his record reflects his singular personality -- a reverence for principle and a willingness to change, a drive to solve problems and an impulse for mischief. But they agree that a very different John McCain returned from his first presidential race to become a central player in almost every high-profile debate of the Bush administration.
''John McCain prior to 2000 would not be known for his legislative skills or achievements,'' said John Weaver, a former McCain adviser. ''He voted with his party, and people ran to him on national security. But being the swing guy after 2000, he knew his turf was valuable, and he could use it to achieve things.''
He learned how to play the game, said Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska. ''He is a lot more savvy than a lot of people realize -- targeted, tactical, strategic -- and sometimes only he knows what his real objective is,'' Mr. Nelson said.
Once, a Party Loyalist
Mr. McCain, 71, acquired the sobriquet ''maverick'' about a decade ago. When he was first elected to the Senate in 1986, after two terms in the House, he was in the mainstream of his party. He even made a credible, though unsuccessful, run for a party leadership post.
But his popularity did not last. First, there was his ''truculent nature,'' as he calls it. His Republican colleagues call him aggressive, brusque and abrasive. He later adopted the habit of publicly scolding other senators about their special privileges, from pet spending projects to airport parking spots. What Mr. Lott called his ''cuddling up'' to the Democrats has further strained Mr. McCain's relations with Republicans.
''I suppose over the last 10 years he has passed more significant legislation than any senator around,'' said Senator Judd Gregg, a conservative New Hampshire Republican frequently at odds with Mr. McCain. ''But that doesn't necessarily entail being liked.''
Some call him aloof. Former Senator Lincoln Chafee, a soft-spoken Rhode Island Republican, said, ''I always imagined that I was the plebe and he was the senior at the Naval Academy: you knew your rank and you were supposed to respect that.'' (Mr. Chafee is now supporting Mr. Obama.)
But his heroism as a prisoner of war in Vietnam has given Mr. McCain a special prestige, and he has made a point of cultivating junior members in the Senate, whether Democrats like Russ Feingold of Wisconsin or Republicans like Susan Collins of Maine, unaccustomed to the attention of a senior lawmaker. ''He is smart enough to know that in the Senate every vote counts the same,'' said Ms. Collins, now a close friend.
Before the 2008 campaign heated up, Mr. McCain would go to dinner about twice a month in Washington -- he favors spicy Vietnamese food, the movie ''Borat'' and trading jokes about colleagues -- with a small group of Republicans that included Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Senator Michael DeWine of Ohio and the actor and former Senator Fred D. Thompson (who briefly jumped into this year's Republican primaries himself). Entertaining guests at his property in Sedona, Ariz., he invariably drags them for long walks to indulge his passion for bird watching. ''If you took all the people at Gitmo, put them in the cabin for a weekend and made them listen to John talk about the birds, they would all spill their guts,'' Mr. Graham said.
Mr. McCain's friends say his ideology has always been ad hoc -- limited-government conservative by default, but open to expanding government authority if the goal seemed important. But aside from pushing various campaign finance overhauls, he was a reliable Reaganite until around 1998 -- his first big break from his party -- when the Republican leaders chose him to negotiate a bill that would address tobacco lawsuits and finance public health programs.
As conservatives outmaneuvered him on the floor, Mr. McCain lashed out at his fellow Republicans, accusing them of turning a cold shoulder to children's health. The Democrats rose in a standing ovation.
Three years later -- the Monday after President Bush's first inauguration -- Mr. McCain held a news conference that amounted to a declaration of his independence from either political party.
He would respect the new president's agenda, but not because he was a Republican, Mr. McCain said. He would have respected a Democrat's just as much. ''But,'' he added, ''I also have a mandate.''
He returned from the 2000 campaign full of new motivations. Although he had spent 18 years in Congress, Mr. McCain's advisers say the campaign was his first face-to-face confrontation with domestic issues like global warming and health insurance costs.
''He had been in the Navy or the Senate his whole career, and he hadn't had a lot of chance to get out there and find out what the American people are thinking,'' said former Senator Warren B. Rudman, Republican of New Hampshire, who said he had watched Mr. McCain revise his views as he moved through scores of town-hall-style meetings.
Mr. McCain's assessment of his political prospects had changed, too. The 2000 Republican primary had cemented Mr. McCain's maverick image. He had made overhauling campaign finance the cornerstone of his campaign and started attacking upper-income tax cuts, corporate greed and Christian conservatives. Returning to the Senate, Mr. McCain wondered if he had alienated his former base.
Crossover Appeal
John Zogby, a pollster Mr. McCain often consults, told him that the race had inverted his political profile: Democrats and independents liked him more than Republicans did. But he was also one of the most popular politicians in the country, and his biography as a war hero had kept a solid floor under his conservative support.
''It suggested that he would be able to finesse conservatives,'' Mr. Zogby recalled in an interview. He told Mr. McCain that continuing to buck his party would be ''very astute.'' (The 2008 primary was a close call, but Mr. Zogby argues that he was vindicated: Mr. McCain won.)
Mr. McCain needed little encouragement. He still smoldered over what he considered the dirty 2000 primary, especially the slander campaign he believed had been waged against him. He had been liberated from party loyalty, Mr. Graham said.
''There was almost a sense of freedom,'' Mr. Graham said. ''It reinforced his impulse: I am going to be me.''
Mr. McCain's friends say the senator has always been drawn toward conflict. On Senate breaks, one of his favorite pastimes is official travel to war zones. Within days of returning from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. McCain rushed up to tell Ms. Collins, ''Did you see there is still trouble in Sudan? We need to go there next!'' she recalled.
Mr. Graham said, imitating Mr. McCain's husky, hurried voice, ''If there is a '500 people killed in government protests' article in the paper, John will always call me up: 'We need to go there! Sounds like it's interesting!' ''
Now a similar impulse drew Mr. McCain into Senate battles as well, Mr. Graham said. ''The man will run across the street to get in a good fight,'' he said.
Mr. McCain wasted no time. For most of his career, he had kept his distance from Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, wary of his record of pulling Republicans into grand compromises. ''I have watched other people fall under that guy's sway, but I am not going to,'' Mr. McCain used to tell his aides, recalled Mark Salter, his chief of staff.
After the 2000 election, however, Mr. McCain pulled up a chair at Mr. Kennedy's desk near the back of the Senate floor. ''Ted,'' Mr. McCain said, according to a Kennedy aide present, ''patients' bill of rights, I want to work with you.''
Mr. McCain had opposed the proposals, which would make it easier for patients to sue insurers, and the White House promised a veto. But soon he was huddling with Mr. Kennedy and the bill's other sponsor, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, each morning, plotting strategy.
''He would say, 'O.K., this guy in my caucus is a lawyer and he is going to say this. Who do we got that is a lawyer to talk to him?'' Mr. Salter said. '' 'Who do we got? Who do we got?' It is like laying out a battle plan.'' When the bill passed with nine Republican votes, Democrats credited Mr. McCain. (The measure died in conference with the House, though.)
Stepping Over Party Lines
Soon he was cooperating with the Democrats on so many issues that he made a habit of stopping by Mr. Daschle's office ''to tell me what was going on in his caucus, give me advice, give me reports on a lot of the things he was working on, how the negotiations were going,'' Mr. Daschle said. ''Of all the Republicans with whom I worked, he was the most cooperative.''
When Mr. Daschle and Mr. Kennedy tried to persuade Mr. McCain to switch parties, Mr. McCain listened and his advisers spread the word around. Speculation about whether he would defect increased his leverage with Republican leaders.
Mr. McCain collected on debts earned during the election, too. He refused to stump for Republicans unless they agreed to support his ''reform agenda,'' and he boasted that his unwillingness to campaign for Senator Slade Gorton of Washington contributed to his narrow loss in 2000.
After their rapprochement, Mr. Lott often began supporting Mr. McCain, too: on a campaign finance rule, during the immigration debate and in criticizing Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary. ''When people looked up and saw those two working together, a lot of them were shocked,'' Mr. DeWine said.
Other times, however, Mr. McCain used his bipartisan appeal to put pressure on his Democratic friends on behalf of the White House. ''He was a tremendous resource,'' said Nicholas E. Calio, a former White House legislative liaison to the Senate, adding that Mr. McCain helped round up Democratic votes for trade agreements, domestic security measures and the Iraq war.
Mr. McCain lobbied his Democratic friends to vote to authorize the invasion, even berating them, several Democrats said. ''He was very forceful,'' said former Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida. ''He told me the issue was over: 'We ought to get on with the vote, stop this meaningless pontification.' ''
When Mr. McCain campaigned for President Bush's re-election in 2004, Democrats accused him of hypocrisy. ''After what happened to him eight years ago and some of the statements he made, I couldn't quite understand the things he was doing, the appearances he was making with the president,'' Mr. Durbin said.
But Mr. McCain was still a frequent impediment to the White House. In 2005 and 2006, for example, he spearheaded battles to prod the administration to sign laws banning the use of torture on military detainees. His talks with Vice President Dick Cheney on the subject degenerated into shouting matches, aides on both sides say. He felt that negotiating about torture with Mr. Cheney ''was like negotiating bank reform with Bonnie and Clyde,'' Mr. Weaver, the former McCain adviser, said.
Other times, Mr. McCain worked behind the scenes. In 2005, Mr. Frist, then the Republican leader, staked his reputation on a standoff with Senate Democrats over several of the president's judicial nominees that escalated into threats about rewriting Senate rules or shutting down all debate.
Both Mr. McCain and Mr. Lott publicly supported Mr. Frist. But both also had an interest in his failure, Mr. McCain because Mr. Frist was a potential presidential rival and Mr. Lott because he had taken his leadership post.
Mr. McCain, who had never taken much interest in judicial confirmations or Senate traditions, set out to lead a bipartisan group that could find middle ground. Participating risked the wrath of partisans and interest groups on either side, and the senators involved pledged confidentiality.
But several now say that the Democrats involved negotiated on behalf of their leaders, and that the Republicans, including Mr. McCain, worked against Mr. Frist.
Mr. Lott publicly disavowed the effort. But he helped recruit some Republican allies to complete the group, and helped fashion the ultimate deal, according to several involved.
The group, dubbed the Gang of 14, emerged from Mr. McCain's office with a deal to confirm some of the judges and stop Mr. Frist from rewriting the rules. Editorials across the country hailed Mr. McCain as a champion of bipartisanship and moderation. And political analysts began to write off Mr. Frist.
Mr. Lott, who declined to comment about his role in the Frist episode and the details of the 2000 race, commended Mr. McCain. ''I don't want to call it Machiavellian, but it was quite a snooker play,'' he said.
Mr. Weaver was more grandiose. ''Lyndon Johnson would be proud of that move,'' he said.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: November 18, 2010
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Senator John McCain, right, struck an alliance with Senator Trent Lott, once a foe. (PHOTOGRAPH BY CAROL T. POWERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.A1)
John McCain has cultivated junior senators, including Democrats like Russ Feingold, right, unaccustomed to the attention of a senior lawmaker. (PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL HOSEFROS/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Senator Trent Lott said Mr. McCain had strained ties with his party by ''cuddling up'' with Democrats. (PHOTOGRAPH BY CAROL T. POWERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Mr. McCain worked with Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the ''patients' bill of rights'' after having kept his distance. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMIE ROSE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.A15)
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Series
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
805 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The New York Times
July 21, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
From a Heckler to a Deal Maker
BYLINE: By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE LONG RUN; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 2769 words
Senator John McCain was all but a sworn enemy of Senator Trent Lott, the former Republican leader.
Mr. Lott had quashed Mr. McCain's most cherished legislative goals. And, worse, Mr. McCain believed that in the 2000 Republican primaries, Mr. Lott had spread rumors about his colleague's mental stability on behalf of his rival for the nomination, George W. Bush.
But when Mr. Bush turned on Mr. Lott in 2002, helping to push him out of the leadership over a racially insensitive remark, Mr. McCain saw a shared grievance and found an opportunity. He leapt to Mr. Lott's defense, urging Republicans to stick by him.
''He said, 'I know how you are feeling; you have been treated unfairly,' '' Mr. Lott recalled. ''I am a grateful guy, and I will never forget it.'' A legendary dealmaker with a deep store of chits, Mr. Lott became a valuable ally to his former foe, backing him in public debates and less visible Senate intrigues.
Their alliance was just one step in the political reinvention of Mr. McCain, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Previously a marginal player better known for heckling the Senate than for influencing it, Mr. McCain returned from the 2000 campaign with a new national reputation and a new political sophistication.
Over the next eight years, he mastered the art of political triangulation -- variously teaming up with Mr. Lott against the president or the new Republican leaders, with Democrats against Republicans, and with the president against the Democrats -- to become perhaps the chamber's most influential member.
''He was looked upon as the magic ingredient in any legislative deal; the addition of John McCain was going to greatly improve its chances of success,'' said Ross K. Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist who studies the Senate.
Former Senator Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader until 2004, agreed. With the possible exception of the two party leaders, he said, ''I can't think of many senators more influential.'' Mr. Daschle said that Mr. McCain's power easily surpassed that of Mr. Lott's successor as leader, Bill Frist, because many senators discounted Mr. Frist as the White House's agent.
To partisans on either side, Mr. McCain's path could be puzzling, even infuriating. On the defining issue of the Iraq war, he hammered both sides: the White House for its execution of the conflict and the Democrats for their opposition. On immigration, he joined the Democrats and the White House to battle his own party. And to the Republican leaders, he was a serial turncoat on other domestic matters, marching at the head of a Democratic column into fights over tax cuts, campaign finance restrictions, Alaskan oil drilling, access to generic drugs, gun-show sales, pollution caps, the 9/11 commission and the use of torture.
''I returned to the Senate with greater influence than before I ran, and I used that influence to work with senators on both sides of the aisle,'' Mr. McCain said in an e-mail message. ''I don't believe in hoarding political capital just for the sake of possessing it.''
Now his Senate record itself is up for debate in the presidential race. Mr. McCain's supporters argue that he demonstrated the kind of bipartisan bridge-building that his Democratic rival for president, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, has often pledged but seldom displayed. Democrats counter that Mr. McCain, of Arizona, was a fickle gadfly who ultimately traded his independence to pander to the right, in particular by pledging this year to retain tax cuts he once faulted as favors to the rich.
''You couldn't tell which John McCain would come to work on any given day,'' said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, a Democrat close to Mr. Obama.
Mr. McCain's friends say his record reflects his singular personality -- a reverence for principle and a willingness to change, a drive to solve problems and an impulse for mischief. But they agree that a very different John McCain returned from his first presidential race to become a central player in almost every high-profile debate of the Bush administration.
''John McCain prior to 2000 would not be known for his legislative skills or achievements,'' said John Weaver, a former McCain adviser. ''He voted with his party, and people ran to him on national security. But being the swing guy after 2000, he knew his turf was valuable, and he could use it to achieve things.''
He learned how to play the game, said Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska. ''He is a lot more savvy than a lot of people realize -- targeted, tactical, strategic -- and sometimes only he knows what his real objective is,'' Mr. Nelson said.
Once, a Party Loyalist
Mr. McCain, 71, acquired the sobriquet ''maverick'' about a decade ago. When he was first elected to the Senate in 1986, after two terms in the House, he was in the mainstream of his party. He even made a credible, though unsuccessful, run for a party leadership post.
But his popularity did not last. First, there was his ''truculent nature,'' as he calls it. His Republican colleagues call him aggressive, brusque and abrasive. He later adopted the habit of publicly scolding other senators about their special privileges, from pet spending projects to airport parking spots. What Mr. Lott called his ''cuddling up'' to the Democrats has further strained Mr. McCain's relations with Republicans.
''I suppose over the last 10 years he has passed more significant legislation than any senator around,'' said Senator Judd Gregg, a conservative New Hampshire Republican frequently at odds with Mr. McCain. ''But that doesn't necessarily entail being liked.''
Some call him aloof. Former Senator Lincoln Chafee, a soft-spoken Rhode Island Republican, said, ''I always imagined that I was the plebe and he was the senior at the Naval Academy: you knew your rank and you were supposed to respect that.'' (Mr. Chafee is now supporting Mr. Obama.)
But his heroism as a prisoner of war in Vietnam has given Mr. McCain a special prestige, and he has made a point of cultivating junior members in the Senate, whether Democrats like Russ Feingold of Wisconsin or Republicans like Susan Collins of Maine, unaccustomed to the attention of a senior lawmaker. ''He is smart enough to know that in the Senate every vote counts the same,'' said Ms. Collins, now a close friend.
Before the 2008 campaign heated up, Mr. McCain would go to dinner about twice a month in Washington -- he favors spicy Vietnamese food, the movie ''Borat'' and trading jokes about colleagues -- with a small group of Republicans that included Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Senator Michael DeWine of Ohio and the actor and former Senator Fred D. Thompson (who briefly jumped into this year's Republican primaries himself). Entertaining guests at his property in Sedona, Ariz., he invariably drags them for long walks to indulge his passion for bird watching. ''If you took all the people at Gitmo, put them in the cabin for a weekend and made them listen to John talk about the birds, they would all spill their guts,'' Mr. Graham said.
Mr. McCain's friends say his ideology has always been ad hoc -- limited-government conservative by default, but open to expanding government authority if the goal seemed important. But aside from pushing various campaign finance overhauls, he was a reliable Reaganite until around 1998 -- his first big break from his party -- when the Republican leaders chose him to negotiate a bill that would address tobacco lawsuits and finance public health programs.
As conservatives outmaneuvered him on the floor, Mr. McCain lashed out at his fellow Republicans, accusing them of turning a cold shoulder to children's health. The Democrats rose in a standing ovation.
Three years later -- the Monday after President Bush's first inauguration -- Mr. McCain held a news conference that amounted to a declaration of his independence from either political party.
He would respect the new president's agenda, but not because he was a Republican, Mr. McCain said. He would have respected a Democrat's just as much. ''But,'' he added, ''I also have a mandate.''
He returned from the 2000 campaign full of new motivations. Although he had spent 18 years in Congress, Mr. McCain's advisers say the campaign was his first face-to-face confrontation with domestic issues like global warming and health insurance costs.
''He had been in the Navy or the Senate his whole career, and he hadn't had a lot of chance to get out there and find out what the American people are thinking,'' said former Senator Warren B. Rudman, Republican of New Hampshire, who said he had watched Mr. McCain revise his views as he moved through scores of town-hall-style meetings.
Mr. McCain's assessment of his political prospects had changed, too. The 2000 Republican primary had cemented Mr. McCain's maverick image. He had made overhauling campaign finance the cornerstone of his campaign and started attacking upper-income tax cuts, corporate greed and Christian conservatives. Returning to the Senate, Mr. McCain wondered if he had alienated his former base.
Crossover Appeal
John Zogby, a pollster Mr. McCain often consults, told him that the race had inverted his political profile: Democrats and independents liked him more than Republicans did. But he was also one of the most popular politicians in the country, and his biography as a war hero had kept a solid floor under his conservative support.
''It suggested that he would be able to finesse conservatives,'' Mr. Zogby recalled in an interview. He told Mr. McCain that continuing to buck his party would be ''very astute.'' (The 2008 primary was a close call, but Mr. Zogby argues that he was vindicated: Mr. McCain won.)
Mr. McCain needed little encouragement. He still smoldered over what he considered the dirty 2000 primary, especially the slander campaign he believed had been waged against him. He had been liberated from party loyalty, Mr. Graham said.
''There was almost a sense of freedom,'' Mr. Graham said. ''It reinforced his impulse: I am going to be me.''
Mr. McCain's friends say the senator has always been drawn toward conflict. On Senate breaks, one of his favorite pastimes is official travel to war zones. Within days of returning from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. McCain rushed up to tell Ms. Collins, ''Did you see there is still trouble in Sudan? We need to go there next!'' she recalled.
Mr. Graham said, imitating Mr. McCain's husky, hurried voice, ''If there is a '500 people killed in government protests' article in the paper, John will always call me up: 'We need to go there! Sounds like it's interesting!' ''
Now a similar impulse drew Mr. McCain into Senate battles as well, Mr. Graham said. ''The man will run across the street to get in a good fight,'' he said.
Mr. McCain wasted no time. For most of his career, he had kept his distance from Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, wary of his record of pulling Republicans into grand compromises. ''I have watched other people fall under that guy's sway, but I am not going to,'' Mr. McCain used to tell his aides, recalled Mark Salter, his chief of staff.
After the 2000 election, however, Mr. McCain pulled up a chair at Mr. Kennedy's desk near the back of the Senate floor. ''Ted,'' Mr. McCain said, according to a Kennedy aide present, ''patients' bill of rights, I want to work with you.''
Mr. McCain had opposed the proposals, which would make it easier for patients to sue insurers, and the White House promised a veto. But soon he was huddling with Mr. Kennedy and the bill's other sponsor, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, each morning, plotting strategy.
''He would say, 'O.K., this guy in my caucus is a lawyer and he is going to say this. Who do we got that is a lawyer to talk to him?'' Mr. Salter said. '' 'Who do we got? Who do we got?' It is like laying out a battle plan.'' When the bill passed with nine Republican votes, Democrats credited Mr. McCain. (The measure died in conference with the House, though.)
Stepping Over Party Lines
Soon he was cooperating with the Democrats on so many issues that he made a habit of stopping by Mr. Daschle's office ''to tell me what was going on in his caucus, give me advice, give me reports on a lot of the things he was working on, how the negotiations were going,'' Mr. Daschle said. ''Of all the Republicans with whom I worked, he was the most cooperative.''
When Mr. Daschle and Mr. Kennedy tried to persuade Mr. McCain to switch parties, Mr. McCain listened and his advisers spread the word around. Speculation about whether he would defect increased his leverage with Republican leaders.
Mr. McCain collected on debts earned during the election, too. He refused to stump for Republicans unless they agreed to support his ''reform agenda,'' and he boasted that his unwillingness to campaign for Senator Slade Gorton of Washington contributed to his narrow loss in 2000.
After their rapprochement, Mr. Lott often began supporting Mr. McCain, too: on a campaign finance rule, during the immigration debate and in criticizing Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary. ''When people looked up and saw those two working together, a lot of them were shocked,'' Mr. DeWine said.
Other times, however, Mr. McCain used his bipartisan appeal to put pressure on his Democratic friends on behalf of the White House. ''He was a tremendous resource,'' said Nicholas E. Calio, a former White House legislative liaison to the Senate, adding that Mr. McCain helped round up Democratic votes for trade agreements, domestic security measures and the Iraq war.
Mr. McCain lobbied his Democratic friends to vote to authorize the invasion, even berating them, several Democrats said. ''He was very forceful,'' said former Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida. ''He told me the issue was over: 'We ought to get on with the vote, stop this meaningless pontification.' ''
When Mr. McCain campaigned for President Bush's re-election in 2004, Democrats accused him of hypocrisy. ''After what happened to him eight years ago and some of the statements he made, I couldn't quite understand the things he was doing, the appearances he was making with the president,'' Mr. Durbin said.
But Mr. McCain was still a frequent impediment to the White House. In 2005 and 2006, for example, he spearheaded battles to prod the administration to sign laws banning the use of torture on military detainees. His talks with Vice President Dick Cheney on the subject degenerated into shouting matches, aides on both sides say. He felt that negotiating about torture with Mr. Cheney ''was like negotiating bank reform with Bonnie and Clyde,'' Mr. Weaver, the former McCain adviser, said.
Other times, Mr. McCain worked behind the scenes. In 2005, Mr. Frist, then the Republican leader, staked his reputation on a standoff with Senate Democrats over several of the president's judicial nominees that escalated into threats about rewriting Senate rules or shutting down all debate.
Both Mr. McCain and Mr. Lott publicly supported Mr. Frist. But both also had an interest in his failure, Mr. McCain because Mr. Frist was a potential presidential rival and Mr. Lott because he had taken his leadership post.
Mr. McCain, who had never taken much interest in judicial confirmations or Senate traditions, set out to lead a bipartisan group that could find middle ground. Participating risked the wrath of partisans and interest groups on either side, and the senators involved pledged confidentiality.
But several now say that the Democrats involved negotiated on behalf of their leaders, and that the Republicans, including Mr. McCain, worked against Mr. Frist.
Mr. Lott publicly disavowed the effort. But he helped recruit some Republican allies to complete the group, and helped fashion the ultimate deal, according to several involved.
The group, dubbed the Gang of 14, emerged from Mr. McCain's office with a deal to confirm some of the judges and stop Mr. Frist from rewriting the rules. Editorials across the country hailed Mr. McCain as a champion of bipartisanship and moderation. And political analysts began to write off Mr. Frist.
Mr. Lott, who declined to comment about his role in the Frist episode and the details of the 2000 race, commended Mr. McCain. ''I don't want to call it Machiavellian, but it was quite a snooker play,'' he said.
Mr. Weaver was more grandiose. ''Lyndon Johnson would be proud of that move,'' he said.
THE LONG RUN
A Political Reinvention
The Long Run: This is part of a series of articles about the life and careers of contenders for the 2008 Republican and Democratic presidential nominations.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: November 25, 2010
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Senator John McCain, right, struck an alliance with Senator Trent Lott, once a foe. (PHOTOGRAPH BY CAROL T. POWERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.A1)
John McCain has cultivated junior senators, including Democrats like Russ Feingold, right, unaccustomed to the attention of a senior lawmaker. (PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL HOSEFROS/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Senator Trent Lott said Mr. McCain had strained ties with his party by ''cuddling up'' with Democrats. (PHOTOGRAPH BY CAROL T. POWERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Mr. McCain worked with Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the ''patients' bill of rights'' after having kept his distance. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMIE ROSE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.A15)
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The Washington Post
July 21, 2008 Monday
Suburban Edition
Cybersecurity Will Take A Big Bite of the Budget
BYLINE: Walter Pincus
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A13
LENGTH: 598 words
President Bush's single largest request for funds and "most important initiative" in the fiscal 2009 intelligence budget is for the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, a little publicized but massive program whose details "remain vague and thus open to question," according to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
A highly classified, multiyear, multibillion-dollar project, CNCI -- or "Cyber Initiative" -- is designed to develop a plan to secure government computer systems against foreign and domestic intruders and prepare for future threats. Any initial plan can later be expanded to cover sensitive civilian systems to protect financial, commercial and other vital infrastructure data.
"It is no longer sufficient for the U.S. Government to discover cyber intrusions in its networks, clean up the damage, and take legal or political steps to deter further intrusions," Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell noted in a February 2008 threat assessment. "We must take proactive measures to detect and prevent intrusions from whatever source, as they happen, and before they can do significant damage." His conclusions echoed those of a 2007 interagency review that led to CNCI's creation.
During debate on the intelligence authorization bill last week, Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), a member of the House intelligence committee and chairman of the Homeland Security subcommittee on emerging threats, described cybersecurity as "a real and growing threat that the federal government has been slow in addressing."
Without specifying funding figures, which are classified, Langevin said the panel approved 90 percent of the funds requested for CNCI but warned that the committee "does not intend to write the administration a blank check."
The committee's report recognized that as the initiative develops, "it will be imperative that the government also take into account the interests and concerns of private citizens, the U.S. information technology industry, and other elements of the private sector."
Such a public-private partnership will be "unlike any model that currently exists," said the committee, which recommended a White House study leading toward establishment of an oversight panel of lawmakers, executive branch officials and private-sector representatives. The panel would review the intelligence community's development of the initiative.
The committee said it expects the policy debates over the initiative to extend into the next administration, and major presidential candidates have addressed the issue.
On the same day the intelligence bill passed the House, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) told an audience that, "as president, I'll make cybersecurity the top priority that it should be in the 21st century." He vowed to appoint a national cyber adviser to coordinate policy to secure information -- "from the networks that power the federal government, to the networks that you use in your personal lives."
In a July 1 speech, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) addressed cybersecurity, as well. "To protect our energy supply, air and rail transport, banking and financial services, we need to invest far more in the federal task of cyber security," he said. Neither Obama nor McCain mentioned the cybersecurity initiative underway.
National security and intelligence reporter Walter Pincus pores over the speeches, reports, transcripts and other documents that flood Washington and every week uncovers the fine print that rarely makes headlines -- but should. If you have any items that fit the bill, please send them to fineprint@washpost.com
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Washingtonpost.com
July 21, 2008 Monday 12:00 PM EST
Critiquing the Press
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3691 words
HIGHLIGHT: Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Reality Show: Insider the Last Great Television News War," "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."
Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Reality Show: Insider the Last Great Television News War," "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."
The transcript follows.
Media Backtalk transcripts archive
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Plymouth, Minn.: Hello. My question is, what does a candidate do when his opponent has hogged the entire (world) news? I have a feeling the McCain camp will almost do anything at this juncture to defuse the news blitz from Obama. What, in your opinion, do you expect will happen here?
Howard Kurtz: Well, the first thing he does is go on all three network morning shows, which McCain did this a.m. I don't suppose that "Today," "Good Morning America" and the "Early Show" felt they could turn the senator down. A little guilt factor, perhaps?
Diane Sawyer asked McCain whether the press coverage of Obama's trip has been unfair. McCain said that would be up to the American people. I guess he sees no percentage in getting into a public argument about media treatment.
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Ashland, Mo.: Why is the media reporting the prospect of withdrawal from Iraq on the horizon as a "dramatic" shift by the Bush administration? The agreement basically contains no firm deadline and calls for withdrawal as events on the ground warrant. Hasn't that pretty much been the Bush position throughout? Just another example of the modern media's propensity to hype small differences as the end of the world as we know it?
washingtonpost.com: U.S., Iraq Agree To 'Time Horizon' (Post, July 19)
Howard Kurtz: I don't think it's been hyped; I think the coverage has been a tad understated. Every story has made perfectly clear that there is no firm timetable (linguists can debate the difference between timetables and "time horizons," between goals and "aspirational goals." But after five years of we-must-achieve-victory, this is at a minimum a tonal shift by the Bush administration. And it comes at a time when Maliki (though he later disputed the translation) is telling Der Spiegel that he agrees with Obama's plan for a 16-month timetable for withdrawal.
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You almost got it right...: I generally enjoyed your discussion on the TV show about the media overdoing it on Obama, but was dismayed that you neglected the other half of the story. If you break down the media into the Big 3 networks, non-Fox cable, Fox, talk radio, and the print media less the Washington Times and the right-wing weeklies, it is obvious that Obama has dominated coverage across the board. However, that coverage is not all positive -- Obama is under a microscope and he and his spokespeople always are defending his fitness to be president.
Except for most of the print media and the Big 3, McCain talking points usually are repeated verbatim as fact and Obama et al have to defend. I see very little coverage (except for Olbermann) of the many McCain gaffes, bad jokes, flip-flopping, inaccuracies, and other generally negative aspects to an otherwise abysmal campaign. By the way, try to find someone -- other than the Frums of the world, who add little except the tiresome rant -- who thinks that the media is always for the Democrat and against the Republican. Yawn...
Howard Kurtz: I did mention on "Reliable Sources" that more coverage is not always positive coverage for Obama. I don't agree that the mainstream media is repeating McCain talking points or giving him a pass on his mistakes. The flip-flop on offshore drilling, Carly Fiorina's Viagra moment and the flap over Phil Gramm's "nation of whiners" comment (the former senator would not have quit the campaign had this not remained a media issue) are just a few recent examples.
But there is simply no question that Obama is getting far more coverage, both positive and negative.
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To Plymouth: Let's just remember that everything positive that is happening for Obama on this trip -- the schmoozing of the media and the glowing coverage that will follow, the framing of Obama as capable to act on a world stage, etc. -- is a direct result of an unforced error on the part of the GOP and the McCain campaign. They were the ones who demanded he go there; they were the people who thought it would be cute to place a countdown ticker on their Web sites. Well, now he's gone and done it -- and Maliki has given him blessed political ammo. Be careful what you ask for!
Howard Kurtz: I wouldn't say McCain "demanded" that he go there, but he clearly baited Obama by repeating that he hadn't been to Iraq in two years and had never been to Afghanistan. I don't know whether Obama would have at least done a European trip anyway, or included Iraq and Afghanistan, given his perceived need to shore up his national security credentials. But it makes it harder for McCain to criticize the trip after having chided his rival for not personally inspecting the much-mentioned "facts on the ground."
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Arlington, Va.: Hey Howard, how about I get half of today's questions out of the way: How come the media is so biased toward Obama? And how come the media is so biased toward McCain? Okay, we get it, everyone thinks the media is for the other guy! Now you can answer all the other questions.
Howard Kurtz: Haven't gotten too many "media biased toward McCain" questions lately, but I'm sure they'll be back. We did have one questioner who says the media repeat McCain talking points.
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Seattle: I heard at the recent Television Critics Association convention that there was a lot of talk about how coverage for Obama seemed to change after the infamous "Saturday Night Live" skit. Was it just that, or was it also Hillary Clinton complaining about it?
Howard Kurtz: Both. I've said many times I think the "Saturday Night Live" skits had an impact. Hillary working the refs probably had less impact. And Obama started getting kicked around more when his primary winning streak ended and news outlets just happened to start focusing on Jeremiah Wright. Still, mockery can be a powerful weapon.
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Obama's Trip: With all the coverage Obama is getting, wouldn't it make sense for McCain to go to Iraq and Afghanistan too? ... What? He's been there? I hadn't heard...
Howard Kurtz: As you obviously know, he was there in March (and also visited Israel and Europe), was accompanied by zero anchors and got precious little coverage. The media have a bit of an alibi in that the Democratic contest was still raging hot and heavy at that point while McCain had wrapped up the GOP nomination (though the imbalance between that trip and Obama's current journey could not be more evident). But how about McCain's recent trip to Colombia and Mexico, which came after Obama sewed up the nomination? Some networks didn't even bother to send correspondents.
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Hampton Cove, Ala.: On press bias, I am remembering the Sen. Allen/Jim Webb campaign of 2006. The Webb campaign frequently referred to Allen as "George Felix Allen" in press releases to stir up anti-Semitism among Virginia voters, and The Washington Post went on a "he's ashamed of his Jewish roots" campaign. Yet today, if we say Barack Hussein Obama, we are racist hatemongers. Are The Washington Post's reporters ever embarrassed by their lack of objectivity?
washingtonpost.com: Allen Says He Embraces His Jewish Ancestry (Sept. 20, 2006)
Howard Kurtz: Just to refresh your faulty memory, The Post didn't go on some "campaign" about George Allen's heritage. This is how it unfolded in 2006:
Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) said for the first time publicly yesterday that he has Jewish ancestry, a day after responding angrily to an exchange that included questions about his mother's racial sensitivity and whether his family has Jewish roots.
At a campaign debate with Democratic challenger James Webb on Monday, a reporter asked Allen whether his mother's father, Felix Lumbroso, was Jewish. He became visibly upset, saying his mother's religion was not relevant to the campaign and chiding the reporter for "making aspersions about people because of their religious beliefs."
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Columbia, Md.: Great segment yesterday on the pro-Obama news coverage. Something that continues to irritate me, though, are the constant statements from reporters defending their coverage and coming up with a myriad of excuses, but never stating the obvious one. It seems like many reporters (including yourself), refuse to state that the real reason for the slanted coverage in favor of Obama is the fact that members of mainstream news organizations are overwhelmingly liberal, and they nearly all want Obama to win. Why can't they just admit that and stop making all these other lame excuses? David Frum tried to broach this yesterday but immediately was shot down by the other two guests.
Howard Kurtz: Well, we did discuss it, and I explicitly put the question to Michael Crowley of the New Republic after David Frum accused the media of being biased. I don't know whether most political journalists want Obama to win or not; remember, they've known McCain forever and it was not so long ago that they were being accused of a love affair with him.
ABC's Martha Raddatz made the point that with much of the Obama trip coverage likely to consist of photo ops, the interviews by the three anchors (and Lara Logan and, it turns out, ABC's Terry Moran) represent the only chance to ask him tough questions and hold him accountable. But the larger point is that with Brian, Katie and Charlie going on the trip, their newscasts will originate from Europe and the Middle East and certify that the trip is a major news event.
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South of the Border: A bit of hyperbole, but other than Nixon's trip in the 1950s, when was the last time the American media covered an American leader in South America?
Howard Kurtz: When was the last time a presidential candidate went to Latin America in the thick of the campaign? Campaigns, oddly enough, are usually fought out on U.S. soil.
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Long Island, N.Y.: After four years and God knows how many articles, the courts threw out the FCC's fines of CBS related to the "wardrobe malfunction" heard 'round the world. Is anyone surprised that these fines couldn't handle the court's scrutiny? It makes me wonder if Infinity Broadcasting should have litigated all those Howard Stern-related fines.
Howard Kurtz: Hmm: Does this mean the networks have an excuse to start running and rerunning footage of Janet Jackson's breast yet again?
Here's what happened: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said the U.S. Federal Communications Commission "arbitrarily and capriciously departed from its prior policy" that exempted fleeting broadcast material from actionable indecency violations.
I've always wondered how a network could be blamed for something that happened in real time where it had no advance warning.
But wait - it's just a federal appeals court. Bring on the Supremes! Team coverage! Janet Jackson exclusives! It could dwarf Obama.
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"Working the Refs": That's brilliant! Can we just use that, or even better just "WtR," every time somebody complains about biased coverage?
Howard Kurtz: Free of charge.
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Baltimore: What's the track record for memoirs by "recovering" alcoholic journalists? Do those usually sell? How are they critically received? I thought your article today was good, but in the end I think Carr still is trying to get one over on people -- this time, his readers. All I know after reading your piece is that I won't be giving him any of my money anytime soon.
Howard Kurtz: I disagree. First of all, it's a searingly honest book, and David Carr doesn't sugarcoat even his relapse, which occurred while he was working for the New York Times. Second, why expose yourself and all your ugly past behavior to the public in such detail? He couldn't fully answer that question. Obviously he wants to sell books, but believe me, there are easier books to write.
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Germantown, Md.: Hi Howie. I heard Gloria Borger say on CNN that the Obama/McCain difference in covering their foreign tours can be attributed to Obama's decision to offer sit-downs to all the anchors. Are others making this argument? How much do you think is the fawning of the press versus smart media relations by Obama's team? Thanks!
Howard Kurtz: Well, obviously it's smart press strategy by the Obama team, but I would wager serious cash that John McCain would have been more than happy to sit down with any and all network anchors on any of his foreign trips. Maybe he just didn't have the audacity to hope that they'd come.
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Rolla, Mo.: Okay, the press didn't make much of McCain saying "Czechoslovakia" in current terms twice in two days, but today we have him saying that Pakistan and Iraq share a border. Ugh. These gaffes should receive significant coverage because they get to the very heart of his candidacy -- his foreign policy expertise -- correct?
Howard Kurtz: Sure. Gaffes matter if they betray a lack of knowledge, especially if there's a pattern. An isolated flub, not so much.
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Ann Arbor, Mich.: Any plans to write a sordid tell-all memoir a la David Carr? You could sell a lot of books, Howie!
Howard Kurtz: I could barely fill a chapter. My childhood was disturbingly normal. I've had a series of respectable jobs, and I don't do more than the occasional glass of wine. So there's no deep, dark place for me to have triumphed over. Very frustrating.
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Bremerton, Wash.: I know the crew who wrote the 12-part series on Chandra Levy are going to be chatting later, but what has the talk been in The Washington Post's newsroom about whether this was front-page worthy or just tabloid?
washingtonpost.com: Discussion: Chandra Levy Series (washingtonpost.com, Live NOW)
Howard Kurtz: It's certainly fair to question whether 12 parts is excessive, but I wouldn't call the series tabloid. It was a sensational story that ignited a tabloid frenzy seven years ago, but now? The tone has been one of a sober look back at an unsolved mystery.
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Old-Fashioned: Don't TV networks still have morals clauses in their contracts with on-air talent? I've stopped watching CBS News in order to avoid Lara Logan, who while still married got pregnant by a man who was married and had a child. By the way, I would agree that if it were the man who was the reporter in a similar situation (although I realize he wouldn't be the adulterer whose belly would get swollen, so at least it wouldn't show), he ought to be sacked too -- so there's no double standard as far as I'm concerned.
washingtonpost.com: Back From War, Into Tabloid Territory (Post, July 8)
Howard Kurtz: You're entitled to your opinion. I would just point out, as the only reporter to have interviewed Lara Logan on the subject, that both she and her new partner were long separated from their spouses before the affair began. And that we should keep in mind that Logan has risked her life for years in a war zone, which is what prompted her marriage to fall apart, as has happened with many war correspondents. And I can think of very prominent (male) news executives who began affairs while married to their first wives, and it got a smidgen of coverage.
As for a "morals clause" -- are you serious? We live in a society where OK Magazine just put Jamie Lynn Spears on the cover -- and is reported to have paid her $1 million -- because she had a baby at 17.
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Somerdale, N.J.: "But how about McCain's recent trip to Colombia and Mexico, which came after Obama sewed up the nomination? Some networks didn't even bother to send correspondents." Why is going to Mexico and Columbia newsworthy? It's not a war zone, and from what I understand, McCain granted "60 Minutes" an exclusive of his trip and didn't offer the same to the network anchors. Obama offered them exclusives -- maybe that's why they are going. The Liberal Media myth just keeps on going and going and going...
Howard Kurtz: First of all, it's not very exclusive if Katie, Brian and Charlie each get an interview. Second, why is Obama going to Britain or Germany inherently so newsworthy? And third, McCain went to Latin America to talk about a controversial free-trade pact and the war on drugs, which are substantive issues.
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Seattle: In Sunday's Paper, Sophia A. Nelson wrote about how Michelle Obama doesn't seem to have any media models out there, and is thus thought of as "angry." Should we ask Phylicia Rashad if she can do a new sitcom just for this? (Maybe without Bill Cosby this time?)
washingtonpost.com: Black. Female. Accomplished. Attacked. (Post, July 20)
Howard Kurtz: I'd just note that the author mentioned her as the actress who played Clair Huxtable, pointing out that her run as Cosby's TV wife ended 16 years ago.
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San Francisco: When you wrote up your flattering portrayal of McCain's latest ad about Barack Obama, did you consider including the rebuttal statement by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joe Biden (D-Del.) that any Afghanistan discussions would be held by the full committee, not by the subcommittee that Sen. Obama chairs? That seems germane to the claim of "accuracy" you make about the ad.
Howard Kurtz: Yes, but you can only cram so many facts into the small space allotted for ad watches. Since I pointed out problems with the ad, as I often do with commercials by all candidates, I'm going to assume you read it as a "flattering" assessment because you're an Obama fan.
Here's my oh-so-flattering lead:
This McCain commercial tries to paint Obama as inexperienced and anti-military, in part by taking a protest vote out of context. Obama has frequently voted to finance the war but was one of 14 Senate Democrats to oppose a war-funding bill last year -- after Republicans removed troop withdrawal deadlines -- saying he did not want to be "validating the same failed policy in Iraq."
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Media Ire: As a former member of the mainstream media, I always am sort of amused/saddened by the ire people show when a news outlet does something out of the box, like the Chandra Levy series. I think it's interesting, good reading, and well written and reported. But people seem be up in arms because there are serious, important and newsworthy things happening in the world -- as if the Levy story prevents the paper from covering other things, like the campaign. Last I checked, the campaign is front-page news every day.
The Post has a lot of pages to fill every day, and has a variety of readers who like to read a variety of things. Do people honestly believe that the world is so zero-sum? That Chandra is preventing The Post from covering all these important events that I'm pretty they would see in the paper every day if they actually bothered to look for them? Does this surprise you as well, or is it just me?
Howard Kurtz: Again, the Chandra series is fair game for criticism, but it hardly stopped the paper from covering other important things locally, nationally and internationally. We have a pretty big staff.
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Ellicott City, Md.: Hello. Is the new president of MSNBC really not a fan of Chris Matthews? Will he force Chris Matthews off the network? Is there any truth to the rumor of Matthews running for the Senate from Pennsylvania? Are there any nationally known pundits who have made the crossover from TV to the Senate? Thanks for the answers and for your weekly chats.
Howard Kurtz: It's actually the opposite. Phil Griffin, who was already running MSNBC before being given the title of president last week, is a huge Matthews fan. He was Chris's producer on Hardball for years. Matthews has handled questions about the Pennsylvania Senate seat by saying he always wanted to be a senator, but I'll tell you one thing: The job pays a heckuva lot less than what he makes now. About 25 times less.
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Anonymous: A question about a term that has been used often during this election season: Who exactly is an "evangelical" voter? I am a minority, native-born American who attends church on a semi-regular basis. I would categorize myself as a Christian, and I vote Democrat. Would you place me in the box marked "evangelical"? It seems that the media uses the term "evangelicals" to describe someone who is conservative, right-wing and religious, but there are people (like me) who are liberal, left-leaning and religious. Are people like me "evangelicals"? It just seems like a lazy and incomplete depiction of the people it is meant to describe. Your thoughts?
Howard Kurtz: I don't think evangelical means conservative, although maybe it gets used erroneously as shorthand that way since evangelical Christians play a bigger role in the Republican Party than evangelical liberals do in the Democratic Party. It refers to someone's religious beliefs and the type of church that person attends.
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Washington:"We have a pretty big staff." Yeah, they're working on that too -- the last round was the last of the buyouts, but it wasn't the end of the downsizing.
Howard Kurtz: I've detailed my thoughts on the downsizing (which, unlike the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, has avoided layoffs). I sure hope it is the last round for some time to come. Believe me, it's painful. But The Post still has one of the largest newspaper staffs in the United States. (Maybe I shouldn't say that out loud, in case the bean-counters get any more ideas.)
Thanks for the chat, folks.
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The New York Times
July 20, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
McCain Confronts Obama on War Hearings and Troop Votes
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE AD CAMPAIGN; Pg. 18
LENGTH: 587 words
This advertisement for Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, was introduced on Friday and is running on national cable networks and on television stations in 11 battleground states, including Ohio and Pennsylvania.
PRODUCER McCain Media Team
THE SCRIPT A man announces, ''Barack Obama never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan. He hasn't been to Iraq in years, he voted against funding our troops -- positions that helped him win his nomination. Now Obama is changing to help himself become president. John McCain has always supported our troops and the surge that's working. McCain: Country first.'' Mr. McCain says, ''I'm John McCain, and I approve this message.''
ON THE SCREEN The advertisement opens on a cut-out photograph of Mr. Obama holding a microphone and grinning as the screen behind him changes from a map of Afghanistan to a map of Iraq. The background flashes negative messages -- ''Hasn't Been to Iraq in Years,'' ''Against Troop Funding'' -- and opinionated newspaper headlines about him, including one that reads ''Obama, the Candidate of 'Change My Mind.' '' After another photograph of Mr. Obama grinning, the advertisement switches to still photos of Mr. McCain in front of flags, ending with a new slogan for him, ''Country First.''
ACCURACY Mr. McCain's regular assertion that Mr. Obama has not held hearings on Afghanistan during his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's subcommittee on European affairs is accurate. And Mr. Obama has not tended closely to his duties as chairman of that subcommittee, focusing instead on his presidential campaign. But Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and a spokesman for his Republican predecessor as chairman, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, have called the charge that he was negligent unfair, since such hearings have been held at the committee level. Mr. Obama missed two of the three hearings that the committee held in the last two years. But ABC News reported in the past week that Mr. McCain missed all six hearings on Afghanistan that were held by the Senate Armed Services Committee, of which he is a member, during the same time period. Mr. Obama's trip to Iraq will be his second; he went there in 2006. Mr. Obama has voted for various bills to finance troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, including a bill that President Bush vetoed in 2007 because it included mandates to withdraw troops from Iraq. Mr. Obama, who opposed the increase in troops, voted against the compromise bill to pay for the war that is cited in this advertisement and did not include those mandates, arguing that he did not want to give Mr. Bush ''a blank check.'' He has followed a similar voting pattern since.
SCORECARD This is Mr. McCain's first confrontational advertisement that directly names Mr. Obama. With it, he is meeting his strategic imperative to insert himself into the political dialogue while Mr. Obama is overseas with a huge contingent of reporters and television correspondents who promise to give him the lion's share of news coverage in the coming days. The accusation that Mr. Obama is against financing the troops is of the sort that proved damaging to Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004. Yet that was a different time, and whether this sort of charge will hurt Mr. Obama in a year when the American presence in Iraq is unpopular in spite of improved conditions there remains to be seen.
JIM RUTENBERG
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
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The Washington Post
July 20, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
A Vote for Coverage of Substance
BYLINE: Deborah Howell
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. B06
LENGTH: 948 words
The Post needs to tell us more than we know about John McCain and Barack Obama: what they stand for, what voters are thinking about them and what each is likely to do if elected.
Post reporters are good at the daily political stories and at covering the latest gaffes, and chief political reporter Dan Balz is the best at seeing through and beyond what is happening today. But what I'm more concerned about is something I've harped on repeatedly -- more biography and more substantial issues coverage.
Readers submit complaints and advice daily, wanting The Post to be fair to their preferred candidates, though that often means: Tilt toward my guy.
Readers backing Barack Obama think the press loves John McCain. Reporters enjoy mixing it up with McCain, something Obama doesn't do as much. But that doesn't mean they're cutting McCain slack.
Readers who support McCain are right to say that Obama has gotten more coverage, mainly because McCain is so much better known than Obama, the phenom; in addition, the long primary campaign brought Obama heightened visibility. The Project for Excellence in Journalism has documented the coverage disparity in the past five weeks among national news media.
A frustrated reader, Michael Gabel of Cheverly, wrote last week to complain that while The Post had written about Obama's mortgage, nothing had been written recently about McCain's many homes (that's right), his first marriage (that's right) and that property taxes had not been paid until recently on a condominium in La Jolla, Calif., owned by a trust controlled by his wife, Cindy (an Associated Press story about this appeared on washingtonpost.com).
Liberal Web sites were critical of a Washington Post-ABC News poll question they said favored McCain on Iraq. The question: "Obama has proposed a timetable to withdraw most U.S. forces from Iraq within 16 months of his taking office. McCain has opposed a specific timetable and said events should dictate when troops are withdrawn. Which approach do you prefer -- a timetable or no timetable?" The question didn't seem unfair to me.
My monitoring of political stories since Nov. 12, done with my assistant Jean Hwang, shows that almost twice as many "horse race" stories (675) have been written as stories on issues (295) and biographical background (99). Part of that reflects the long primary campaign and the number of candidates.
Horse-race stories aren't all bad. It's important to know what is happening in the campaigns; that's often reported in The Trail blog. I've read elsewhere that relations are still rocky and uncertain between supporters of Obama and Hillary Clinton, but I haven't seen that story in The Post.
The New York Times' "The Long Run" delved deeply and early into candidates' backgrounds. The Post has not done nearly as much. For instance, McCain has been a smart aleck since high school. How would that persona affect the way he would operate as president? Obama had an exotic childhood. How did growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia shape him as an adult?
Bill Hamilton, The Post's assistant managing editor for politics, said, "We have every intention of telling the life stories of Obama and McCain, but at a time when readers are most focused on the election. And the same goes for exploring the issues that are driving this campaign." He said that two fine writers, Michael Leahy on McCain and David Maraniss on Obama, have been assigned to do biographies.
Candidates' policy speeches often end up being covered in short stories without detail or context as to whether what is being proposed might work. The policy papers should be dissected. A good start were recent pieces on Social Security and quoting fiscal experts as saying that it will be tough for the new president to launch any initiatives.
You have to look beyond the paper's news pages for analysis. When McCain said that he would balance the budget by 2013, the plan wasn't critically examined except in an editorial; the Ideas Primary editorials have provided much-needed insight into the issues. Much of The Post's accountability coverage is done in Michael Dobbs's Fact Checker, which unfortunately is seldom in the paper. Neither is media writer Howard Kurtz's Ad Watch. If you're not looking online for Post coverage, you're missing some of the best stuff.
Voters want to know, especially in a troubled economy, about their pocketbooks. I admired a Wall Street Journal story and another on National Public Radio that reported how Obama and McCain might be expected to change tax policy. The Post needs to do these kinds of stories.
Their voting records should be explored extensively. Is Obama really relentlessly liberal? Is McCain really so conservative? Are both posing as centrists? While The Post has written about who advises the two candidates, I want to know what the advice is and whether it is being taken.
Tom Huff of Bealeton, Va., wrote recently and got it just right: "I really hope The Post's coverage of the election doesn't sink into a quagmire of process, politics and inside-the-Beltway chess games at the expense of issues that really affect our lives. . . . If all the news outlets want to talk solely about insider issues, that's all we'll know about. But if the focus is kept as keen as a laser beam on the critical issues of our times, then that's what the campaign will be about. That's what it has to be about. If The Post's staffers are true watchdogs of government, then that is the job that should be done. That's what we pay for with our subscription. Please tell your writers not to blow it this time."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Deborah Howell can be reached at 202-334-7582 or at ombudsman@washpost.com
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The Washington Post
July 20, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
Risk Aversion;
U.S. financial stability is in doubt. The candidates should tell us what they'd do about it.
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. B06
LENGTH: 573 words
YOU KNOW the financial system is in trouble when Washington has to insist that it's not. Last week, President Bush found himself obliged to remind people that their bank deposits were federally insured. After a hearing Tuesday on bailing out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) announced that "the Fannie and Freddie situation is actually a lot better than certainly the fear would have indicated."
Do they protest too much? Certainly, last week's turbulence shows that the financial stability of the United States is in doubt -- and that political leadership can help restore it. At some point, however, government must move beyond reassuring words and episodic bailouts and address the fundamental problem: The financial system has taken on more risk than its capital base will support. In the long run, the United States needs to modernize financial regulation so that unsustainable risks are not only swiftly corrected but prevented. There is no more important economic issue facing the country; financial crises, including a Fannie-Freddie crunch, may occupy the next president's first 100 days.
Barack Obama and John McCain have made plenty of promises about jobs, taxes and the housing market. But on the big picture they've had less to say. In March, Mr. Obama gave a thoughtful speech in which he argued for regulating financial institutions based on their actual function in the economy, not on whether they are labeled investment banks or commercial banks. Equally wisely, he proposed linking government bailouts with tighter government regulation for the recipients. Less convincingly, he called for a commission to warn about broad risks to the financial system. It's unclear whether the panel would have any power, or simply duplicate the many fine reports on systemic risk already produced by think tanks.
Mr. McCain also last addressed financial stability in the early spring, speaking with a stronger free-market accent and in even less detail than did Mr. Obama. He was right to say that "government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk that would endanger the entire financial system and the economy." But that does not necessarily rule out very many bailouts, all of which tend to be justified on that basis. He would encourage increased capital in financial institutions "by removing regulatory, accounting and tax impediments to raising capital" and suggested that current "mark to market" accounting rules might be "exacerbating the credit crunch."
Neither candidate has addressed the growing role of the Federal Reserve in financial oversight. Are these prospective presidents comfortable with the Fed as a guarantor against "systemic risk," as some have suggested? Or would that conflict with the Fed's inflation-fighting mission and draw it into political battles? Both campaigns told us these were legitimate questions; neither would answer them. Even on the prospect of a massive taxpayer bailout for Fannie and Freddie, the candidates are reticent. Mr. Obama has said that he might be for it, if it protects taxpayers and does not bail out shareholders and management. Mr. McCain, who has supported reining in government-sponsored enterprises as a senator, says about the same. The voters are entitled to a much more robust debate on the country's financial stability, and sooner rather than later.
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The New York Times
July 19, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
McCain Co-Chairman, Under Fire, Steps Aside
BYLINE: By LARRY ROHTER
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 12
LENGTH: 847 words
Former Senator Phil Gramm resigned late Friday as a co-chairman of Senator John McCain's presidential campaign, capping a day filled with controversy for Mr. McCain, the presumed Republican nominee.
''It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Senator McCain on important economic issues facing the country,'' Mr. Gramm said in a statement issued by the campaign. ''That kind of distraction hurts not only Senator McCain's ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country's problems, it hurts the country.''
Mr. Gramm, a multimillionaire banker, has been under fire since last week, when he dismissed concerns about the troubled economy by referring to ''a mental recession.'' He also said the United States had become ''a nation of whiners,'' a remark providing fodder for Democrats to portray Republicans as out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Americans.
Since the start of his campaign, but particularly since the onset of the most recent economic turmoil, Mr. McCain has been struggling to convince voters of his ability to manage the economy, an area he has acknowledged in the past as a weakness. Mr. Gramm, in addition to being a close friend, helped design his economic program and, until last week's gaffe, was being mentioned as a possible treasury secretary in a McCain administration.
Democrats quickly criticized Mr. Gramm's blaming them Friday for his resignation. ''The question for John McCain isn't whether Phil Gramm will continue as chairman of his campaign, but whether he will continue to keep the economic plan that Gramm authored and that represents a continuation of the polices that have failed American families for the last eight years,'' said Hari Sevugan, a spokesman for the campaign of Senator Barack Obama.
The Gramm resignation followed a series of sharp exchanges between the two parties about Mr. Obama's long-anticipated trip abroad, including expected stops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In remarks in Michigan and in an advertisement made public Friday, Mr. McCain accused Mr. Obama of neglecting his responsibilities and suggested that he was undermining the war effort.
When initially asked Thursday about Mr. Obama's trip, Mr. McCain described it as long overdue but also welcome. But he began almost immediately to step up his criticism, a process that continued Friday, when he took part in a town-hall-style meeting at the General Motors Technical Center in suburban Detroit.
The session was intended to be about energy independence and an electric-powered car that General Motors is developing. But when Mr. McCain's positions on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the possibility of conflict with Iran, were questioned, he responded by attacking Mr. Obama and seeking to justify his support for the Iraq war, which Mr. Obama says was unnecessary and fought on false pretenses.
''Every intelligence agency in the world believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,'' Mr. McCain replied, adding that the Hussein government had also violated human rights. He then quickly shifted to the need to persevere, saying he expected attacks by Al Qaeda in Iraq ''so they can erode support for the al-Maliki government'' during the American election campaign.
''We will come home with honor and victory, and it will be dictated by facts on the ground,'' he continued. ''We have succeeded, and I am confident we will win victory, and that is all contingent on our commitment to making sure we withdraw according to conditions on the ground.''
In a speech at a fund-raising luncheon in Detroit, Mr. McCain also implicitly criticized Mr. Obama in suggesting that his trip to Iraq -- the schedule for which remains undisclosed, partly for security reasons -- might be at hand.
''I am sure,'' Mr. McCain added, ''that Senator Obama is going to arrive in Baghdad in a much, much safer and secure environment than the one that he would have encountered before we started the surge.''
The McCain campaign also infuriated the Obama camp with the new advertisement, which accused Mr. Obama of ''voting against funding our troops'' and said he was abandoning his original positions on the war ''to help himself become president.''
Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, described the ad as ''patently misleading,'' and campaign officials issued a phrase-by-phrase rebuttal.
Those salvos were preceded by an interview, published Friday in The Kansas City Star, in which Mr. McCain suggested that Mr. Obama might be a socialist. At a campaign event in Kansas City on Thursday, Mr. McCain accused Mr. Obama of having the ''most extreme'' voting record in the Senate. When The Star asked about the comment, he said Mr. Obama had taken positions ''more to the left than the announced socialist in the U.S. Senate, Bernie Sanders of Vermont.''
The reporter then asked Mr. McCain if he thought Mr. Obama himself was a socialist. ''I don't know,'' Mr. McCain answered. ''All I know is his voting record, and that's what people usually judge their elected representatives by.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: July 19, 2008
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GRAPHIC: PHOTO: At a town-hall-style meeting Friday on energy, John McCain found himself questioned instead on his wartime positions.(PHOTOGRAPH BY CAROLYN KASTER/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Phil Gramm
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The Washington Post
July 19, 2008 Saturday
Regional Edition
McCain Strafes Obama on War
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A06
LENGTH: 280 words
The Ad: Barack Obama never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan. He hasn't been to Iraq in years. He voted against funding our troops. Positions that helped him win his nomination. Now Obama is changing to help himself become president. John McCain has always supported our troops and the surge that's working. McCain. Country first.
Analysis: This McCain commercial tries to paint Obama as inexperienced and anti-military, in part by taking a protest vote out of context. Obama has frequently voted to finance the war but was one of 14 Senate Democrats to oppose a war-funding bill last year -- after Republicans removed troop withdrawal deadlines -- saying he did not want to be "validating the same failed policy in Iraq."
The ad is accurate in saying that Obama, who has spent most of the past two years campaigning, has not held a hearing on Afghanistan in the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee he chairs. His only visit to Iraq was in 2006, and the ad is timed to cast doubt on his trip there next week.
Obama has been criticized for saying recently that he would "refine my policies" for a 16-month withdrawal from Iraq, although he maintains that his position is unchanged. The ad puts up what appear to be news headlines -- "Obama's Disingenuous 'Change' Agenda," "Obama the Candidate of 'Change My Mind' " -- that are actually from opinion pieces in the New York Post and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, respectively.
The tagline -- "country first" -- is a not-so-subtle attempt to suggest that the former Navy aviator, pictured against American flag images, is more patriotic than Obama, who did not serve in the military and spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.
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USA TODAY
July 18, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
Telling moments, or trivial pursuits?
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 8A
LENGTH: 432 words
Eight seconds of dead air is an eternity on TV, so when Republican presidential candidate John McCain struggled that long to answer a reporter who had just asked whether it's fair that some health insurance plans cover Viagra for men but not birth control medication for women, it drew plenty of attention. It even spawned an attack ad from Planned Parenthood.
"I'll try to get back to you on it," McCain finally gasped, ducking another question about how he had voted against requiring insurance companies that pay for erectile dysfunction drugs to also pay for birth control.
Revealing gaffe or inconsequential flub? Senior moment or understandable lapse?
Because most of what voters see are speeches, TV ads and interviews in which the contenders rarely stray off message, it's no wonder that these little unscripted moments loom so large. Opponents mine them for their "gotcha" value, of course, but voters also get -- or sometimes only think they get -- a little clue about what the guy is really like.
McCain, a risk-taker since he flew jets on and off aircraft carriers, provides more of these than Democratic candidate Barack Obama, whose careful style only occasionally cracks -- such as when he told an audience of wealthy campaign donors that blue-collar whites "cling" to guns and religion.
McCain provided more grist for the mill in a candid interview published Sunday in The New York Times. He revealed that he's just barely able to use the Internet and never uses e-mail. Does that reinforce perceptions that, at 71, he's too old to adapt to changes around him -- or is it irrelevant for someone who wouldn't be e-mailing in the Oval Office?
In the same interview, McCain said he opposed adoptions by gay couples, raising a question about whether as president he'd seek to ban them. After furious protests, he retreated to the safe answer he has given on other polarizing cultural issues, such as gay marriage: It's up to the states to decide, not the federal government. Deliberate wink to cultural conservatives on a defining issue, or meaningless slip?
Whatever you make of such moments -- and we would have preferred a more inclusive view on gay adoption -- they shouldn't be made too much of. They usually have more to do with politics than with governance.
In one of the most dangerous times in decades for the United States -- with a faltering economy, out-of-control oil prices, a persistent terrorist threat and two wars -- what matters is how the candidates approach issues of peace and prosperity, not whether they know how to reply to an e-mail or a question about Viagra.
LOAD-DATE: July 18, 2008
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USA TODAY
July 18, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION
This time, all politics isn't local
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 8A
LENGTH: 417 words
Normally, an overseas congressional fact-finding mission is about as interesting as a subcommittee report on how paint dries. And, normally, candidates don't run for president at home by going abroad.
But this year, politics seems to begin, not end, at the water's edge.
Witness John McCain's recent trips to Canada and Latin America, or Barack Obama's upcoming foray to Afghanistan, Iraq and several other countries. Obama's trip, part fact-finding mission and part celebrity tour, is generating huge anticipation in Europe, and all three U.S. network anchors plan to tag along.
What gives? The easy explanation is that McCain wants to portray himself as more experienced on foreign policy and national security matters, and Obama wants to stop him from doing that. McCain has criticized Obama for not having been to Iraq since 2006 -- and Obama is responding with speeches, a new TV ad and now this tour, all focused on national security, diplomacy and global economics.
But more is at play than short-term campaign tactics. This year's presidential race finds an American public caring far more than usual about the rest of the world, and the U.S. image in it.
American troops are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Terrorism and nuclear proliferation are unavoidable concerns. Oil prices have surged largely because of rising demand in India and China. And economies and financial markets have become linked together as never before.
A president simply must be seen as competent on both the economic and national security dimensions of a world growing smaller by the day.
In the past, incumbent presidents used foreign trips to tout their experience and stature as elections approach. And in some parts of the country, ethnic ties have prompted local candidates to run off to foreign locales. But non-incumbent candidates for the White House generally left foreign policy to the occasional speech.
Though crises and political stagecraft might be driving this shift at the moment, it is without doubt a healthy development. Like it or not, globalization is a reality. Americans can no longer think of themselves as buffered from the rest of the world by two oceans, an enviable social fabric and enterprising culture. They must engage foreign countries and cultures, not only to reduce the chance of conflict but also to enhance the nation's economic future.
A presidential candidate can help focus attention on the threats and opportunities beyond America's shores. Sometimes, purpose and politics overlap.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 18, 2008 Friday 11:00 AM EST
Pearlstein: The Economic Crisis
BYLINE: Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 5127 words
HIGHLIGHT: Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein was online Friday, July 18 at 11:00 a.m. ET to discuss oil prices, the Fannie and Freddie rescue and the unfolding financial crisis.
Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein was online Friday, July 18 at 11:00 a.m. ET to discuss oil prices, the Fannie and Freddie rescue and the unfolding financial crisis.
Read today's column.
A transcript follows.
About Pearlstein: Steven Pearlstein writes about business and the economy for The Washington Post. His journalism career includes editing roles at The Post and Inc. magazine. He was founding publisher and editor of The Boston Observer, a monthly journal of liberal opinion. He got his start in journalism reporting for two New Hampshire newspapers -- the Concord Monitor and the Foster's Daily Democrat. Pearlstein has also worked as a television news reporter and a congressional staffer.
Pearlstein was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his columns about mounting problems in the financial markets. His award was one of six Pulitzer Prizes won by The Washington Post this year.
Read Pearlstein's latest columns.
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Anonymous: Steven:
What is your take on Wall Street's definition of the Middle Class income being between $6000.00 and 30,000.00 per year?
Thanks,
Clark Hudson Washington
Steven Pearlstein: Doesn't sound right, does it. Who says that is Wall Street's definition? I sort of doubt that.
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Reston, Va.: Steve,
Tell us the UPSIDE of all this doom and gloom and unwinding. For instance, I'm not convinced 4 dollars for a gallon of gas is all bad, because it's finally forcing people to make real choices and may be a catalyst for genuine change.
Many thanks.
Steven Pearlstein: The upsides have to do with repricing things to better reflect their real costs and real value. So in the case of gasoline, as you suggest, the cost takes in the environmental harm caused by burning fuel. We'll use less as a result, which is good, and move to other fuels, which is good. But unfortunately, because we have a low fuels tax right now, most of the benefit of that expensive fuel goes to the people who have the oil. That's a mistake.
On the other hand, housing had got too expensive for many families, and had distorted decisions about where people lived because they had to keep going farther away from where they worked to get something they wanted at a price they could afford. As house prices come down relative to everything else, that will be a boon to those who don't now/yet own and will gradually end this geographic distortion which in general leads to sprawl.
Its hard to think of too many other upsides.
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Springfield, Va.: Perhaps this a good time to look at the energy "crisis" and the "housing" crisis as intertwined "crises." The activities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; and the non-business home mortgage interest deduction, are contributing factors to urban sprawl. The sprawl has resulted in over large homes on over large lots in outer suburban fringes. Public transportation is inadequate to move all of these people into the inner city so many of them drive alone in their big SUV's to work.
If Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's charters were changed then maybe a more rational home ownership subsidy program could be developed. Furthermore, it's also a good time to debate whether maximizing the rate of homeownership is the best policy.
Steven Pearlstein: Well, your question anticipated my last answer in some respects. But I don't think we can layer onto Fannie and Freddie, which already have a hard enough time juggling their dual mission (providing liquidity to the housing market when it most needs it and generating a decent return to its investors) by adding on more mandates. Fannie and Freddie are big and powerful in the context of housing finance, but they don't set the terms of who gets mortgages for what houses under what conditions, except to the extent they relate to good basic underwriting.
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Washington, D.C.: Given the current turbulent state of the stock market, is it a good time to be aggressive with a portfolio and invest heavily in domestic stocks; or is this a time to be conservative and invest this money in Bonds?
Steven Pearlstein: Don't think you want to rush into either right now -- not stocks because the economy really hasn't bottomed out yet and that could take a while, and not bonds because of inflation, which is a worry. Insured bank deposits are nice. Short-term treasuries held till maturity.
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University Park, Md.: Your columns are some of the best I've ever read, you do a good job explaining things that really don't make much sense, but which have a huge impact on our lives. I know you're not a financial advice guy, but I am wondering when you think money inflow will start pushing the U.S. stock market up. A year ago, spooked by the global credit mess you so artfully helped to explain, I took most of my govt. TSP out of stocks. Even though the market went up, I felt OK because I'm still alarmed. (for example, I never heard of auction rate securities a year ago) Well it seems like they're lending big chunks of dough for dubious business propositions like the InBev deal, so is that a good sign? I'm retiring at the end of the year, but I don't intend to touch this TSP for 10 years or so. My idea a year ago was to wait for a drop, now that's about 13%, and put it back in slowly over a year or so. I have never tried to time the market before, but formulas like, 'no-doc' loans = AAA bonds continue to freak me out.
Steven Pearlstein: Thanks for the kind words. As I said above, it is probably a bit early for individual investors without a lot of experience to be getting back in. It's not true that you can't use common sense to time markets, as long as you don't try to time them too closely. You got out at a good time and you'll probably know when it's a good time to start buying again. Be patient. That is the key. Don't get fooled by sucker rallies. Just keep an eye on the fundamentals.
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Anonymous: Steven........I know you have said that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may need help in the near future, but what about the view expressed in the Post that many people see this as privatizing the profits and socializing the losses? Who is out there working for the taxpayers? Thank You.
H. Harrison Savannah, Georgia
Steven Pearlstein: Nobody is more attuned than I am to situations where profits and privatized and losses socialized. Critics have always used this phrase against Fannie, because they basically don't like the structure of a government sponored enterprise that has private shareholders and an implicit government guarantee of its debt. But in those cases, the gains are not all captured by the shareholders and the executives. The bulk of the gains are captured by homeowners, who because of the efficiency of the housing finance capital markets and because of Fannie and Freddie's lower borrowing cost, enjoy lower interest rates and a pretty sure supply of mortgage funds, even when a lot of private investors are not interested in mortgage backed securities (like now). Nor is it clear the losses are all socialized: the stock investors in Fannie and Freddie certainly don't feel that way, I can tell you that.
Yes, the bondholders of the two companies do have an implicit guarantee, for which they receive a lower interest rate, just like the Treasury. But we don't say that people who buy Treasury bonds are the beneficiary of a scheme that "privatizes the profits." So you have to be clear what you are saying.
The reason we have these institutions is because, from time to time, the secondary market in mortgages -- the engine of housing finance -- collapses. It happened before, and it led to the creation of Fannie and Freddie (they used to have different missions, but there is really not much of a distinction now). And we need them now -- they are providing the funding, indirectly, for 80 percent of all new mortgages at the moment. That is why the government set them up, with the idea that they are working for the public and the economy at large. And those are all taxpayers.
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Springfield, Va.: Steven, I enjoy reading your columns. Many who are are opposed to bailouts for the financial companies are portrayed as class warriors or simpletons who don't understand the magnitude of the fallout from failing financials. However, I believe that people realize that the economic mess was caused by financial institutions making bad financial decisions, i.e. making bad loans (they made their bed, let them sleep in it). These companies reap the benefits from wise business choices, let them feel the pain of foolish business decisions.
I think people would be more understanding if the financial companies were in a bind because of outside forces such as a world-wide drought or other type of catastrophe.
Do you believe that people are more inclined to oppose bailouts for this reason?
Thanks.
Steven Pearlstein: Yes, we all oppose bailouts for that reason. But be clear about who is getting bailed out. The shareholders -- and the executives with stock and stock options -- aren't getting bailed out. They are taking it on the chin, as a result of the dramatic fall in share prices. Many are losing their jobs. Yes, they took money out during the good years and no, we don't have a mechanism for going and getting that back. But that would be true even if we let these insitutions go under. The "bailouts" as you call them don't change that.
The people getting bailed out here are lenders and bondholders of these institutions, not the people who ran them. They also made "bad decisions," in the sense of bad underwriting and investment decisions. But it is more indirect than your complaint suggets. Would it be better if they were punished some as well? Yes. But if the tradeoff is a meltdown in the global financial system, then maybe its an unfairness that we have to live with because otherwise a lot of innocent people are going to get hurt.
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Salt Lake City, Utah: Mr. Pearlstein:We appear to have learned little from the Savings & Loan Crisis, the Russian Crisis, the Mexican Crisis, the Far East Crisis, crisis ad nauseam. Seems to me that a significant part of the problem with the FED/Treasury (both mean us...!) having to bail out Fannie, Freddie and Bear and goodness knows how many subsequent financial institutions, is that Washington has not only allowed but in fact encouraged these investment challenged institutions to grow 'too big to fail'. So when they inevitably do through their greed and callous disregard for risk, then we're all in a fix where we have to bail them out so as not to dump the economy. Why not just bust them all down to about 1/10 their present mass, introducing more competition and when they do fail, their investors and mangers take the full brunt? P. Ogden SLC
Steven Pearlstein: I agree that Fannie and Freddie were allowed to grow their balance sheets too large when the private sector was plenty interested in buying up mortgages. That was a mistake and we can only hope that the new regulator, with his new powers, won't let that happen again. But having said that, even restraining Fannie and Freddie would have still left them very, very, very big players -- so big that they would STILL present systemic risks. Remember, they insure lots of mortgages that they don't hold on their balance sheets. That's probably a good thing.
By the way, the Fed stepped in to prevent a failure at Bear Stearns, on the assumption that that relatively small investment bank and primary dealer was too big to fail. So it's not something government can really control. The system now is dominated by large players and it is very interconnected. That's the reality. We need to get used to it, we need better regulation to prevent bubbles and busts, but in the end, there will be crisis and government will have to step in from time to time. And the reason we accept that is because the alternative -- no regulation, no rescues -- generates an outcome that is less good for everyone. How do I know that? Because we tried that during the 19th and early 20th century, and decided that the booms and busts were simply too devastating to ordinary people, who supported politicians and institutions and programs that sacrificed a bit of economic efficiency to attain a pretty good level of economic security. It is a tradeoff, I admit. But those who get all huffy about government intervention and bailouts don't acknowledge that there is a tradeoff, and that their rigidly free market model does leave people more exposed to the harsh winds of the boom and bust cycle. Just once I'd like to see themn acknowledge it.
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Bangor, Maine: Mr. Pearlstein:
After looking at U.S. oil production/export figures and worldwide trends, it appears that energy prices are less a problem of supply and demand, and more a problem of currency manipulation by a global banking elite. It is curious that our elected officials continue to be reluctant to point a finger at the Federal Reserve (a private bank) and the system of central banking as root causes of our current economic plight, as well as many other societal ills. The history of such usury is well documented.
Steven Pearlstein: I don't agree and I see no evidence of widespread and successful price manipulation. An excess of investment, yes. Speculation, yes. But not manipulation.
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West Palm Beach, Fla.: If the government, through our tax dollars, bails out private firms like Fannie and Freddie, which are billion dollar for-profit corporations, does this not undermine private enterprise? Why not use the money to bail out private citizens instead who are in financial trouble? That might help the economy, too! Or is it because private citizens do not contribute as much to the election campaigns as the big corporations?
Steven Pearlstein: First, these companies are not being bailed out in the sense that I think you mean it. Right now, they are being provided with access to borrowed money that the market wouldn't otherwise provide. Borrowed means they pay interest rate, they post collateral and they pay it all back. At some point, the government might decide to invest some equity capital in them, on terms that the Secretary of the Treasury would consider a good business deal -- that is, if it is patient, the taxpayers will wind up making a profit. That's helpful, it's unusual, it's not a free market solution -- but I'm not sure I'd call it a bailout, either. I like rescue. Now at some point, if things get really bad, the government might have to make good on its implicit guarantee of Fan and Fred's debt to bondholders. THAT would be a bailout, because it would cost taxpayers money. But the people getting bailed out won't be Fan and Fred or its shareholders -- it will be the bondholders. And who holds Fan and Fred bonds. Banks, central banks, money market funds, pension funds, etc. Those are intermediaries for lots of ordinary people. High rollers don't generally make a lot of money buying Fan and Fred bonds. A few hedge funds do, I admit, using a huge amount of leverage. But a couple of those that tried this recently went belly up, with the supposedly smart guys losing all their money.
Again, I'm happy to talk about all of this, but please let's use language which is a bit more precise.
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Toronto: I don't get it. It seems to me that Republican economic policies and their ideology of unfettered capitalism has harmed pretty much everyone except for those enrolled in the No Crony Left Behind program. So why are opinion polls showing McCain only slightly behind Obama? Is it because of an uninformed electorate or latent racism or what?
Steven Pearlstein: Thats's a fairly common Canadian view. But I think you are reaching in drawing your conclusions. And every indication I see is that Obama will enjoy a siginficant victory in November.
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Sunrise, Fla.:1) Why is it that some articles and programs in the media are calling for Fannie and Freddie to be capitalized as banks? The two entities have a mono line business that resembles a fixed income fund manager and an insurer (guaranteed CMOs.) What are your thoughts about the adequate level of capitalization for those two entities?
2) Where is the oil price heading by 2010 - 2012?
Steven Pearlstein: You make a good point. The amount of capital Fan and Fred hold is roughly what a bank would have to hold if all it had on its balance sheet were mortgages and mortgage backed securities. That said, it doesn't hold enough capital to support its insurance function, given what we know now about the possibility of a 25 percent national decline in average house prices and the default rate that would accompany that. The private insurance firms probably don't have enough capital either -- that's why their losses on housing are eating into the capital they have to back up their insurance of municipal bonds. So it's a problem, but not one unique to GSE's. The "free market" didn't solve that problem either.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Steve.. great column. You attribute the recent drop in oil prices to congress starting to talk about getting tough. However, I recall reading that the drop coincided with a notably better than expected report on US supplies from the energy department. Instead of using up 2 million barrels of supply we gained 2 million. Ever since gas hit $2 people have said - when will it affect demand? $3? $4? Is the recent drop not just that the answer to that question is about 4 bux? Transit ridership has soared in just about every city in the country. Toyota can't keep Prius on the lots. People are taking shorter vacations. Airlines are cutting back on flight schedules. How much of the recent drop do you think is actually just good ole supply and demand? We'd played catchup with increasing prices because 99 cent gas never really made any sense in the supply/demand equation and now we're getting back in line with demand decreasing a little bit?
Steven Pearlstein: I think it is both. These things aren't perfectly linear. In a bubble, there are lots of people who invest into it who know it is a bubble and know it can't last, but they want to stay around as long as possible. And that fact is self-fulfilling -- its extends the bubble. But these people are always on the lookout for the thing that might burst the bubble. And a change in regulation that would restrict speculation in commodities is just such a thing, since it will reduce the pressure on the long side of this market. That's why I think the threat of legislation/regulation has had an immediate effect, against a backdrop in which everyone can see that demand is responding to higher prices. That means that when the bubble does burst (we'll see whether it has over the next few weeks), the prices will decline sharply.
Think of these things in terms of tipping points.
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D.C.: Do you think any of the local banks, besides Wachovia, are in trouble?
Steven Pearlstein: Don't really know. Sorry.
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Reston, Va.: As the new administration sets up shop in January, you are given the option of Chairman of the Fed or Sec. of the Treasury. Which would you take? And what actions would you take to steady the economy?
p.s. Thank you for your wonderful columns.
Steven Pearlstein: I would say, given my snarky columns about the two ranking members of the Senate Finance Committee, that I am unconfirmable for any high economic position in government. But thanks for thinking of me.
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Cherbourg, France: French reports indicate that there is neither an oil shortage nor a food shortage. They say that 40% of the price of oil is due to speculation, and that the oil companies have upped what their refineries charge for processing the oil by up to 400%. They say the Hedge Funds are the major speculators. Isn't it time to introduce SEVERE controls and penalties, including long prison terms, for those who run the hedge funds and a BIG windfall profits tax on all their ill gotten gains?
Steven Pearlstein: I think we can get a handle on this without criminalizing people for making smart investment decisions.
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Falls Church, Va.: Let's say you had more than the FDIC insured limit in your bank account. Would you rush out and open another account in order to keep both below the 100k threshold?
Steven Pearlstein: The chance of any one particular bank failing is pretty low, but if you're worried about it, do it. You'll sleep easier.
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Pompano Beach, Fla.: As foolish as this may sound - weren't we better off when OPEC was setting the price of oil as opposed to Wall Street?
Steven Pearlstein: Good question. OPEC doesn't like these prices because it can see that people and businesses are now making permanent changes in the way they live and operate that will depress demand significantly over the long term. They like prices to rise steadily and slowly, so we just accept the price increases and don't change our behavior much.
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Pleasantville, N.Y.: The accounting scandals that Fannie and Freddie were involved in several years ago stemmed not from credit losses but from the interest-rate risk they took on when they ramped up their on-balance sheet holdings of mortgages and MBS and their attempts to hide huge financial impacts (Fannie: $9 billion loss, Freddie: $6 billion gain) from so doing through the infamous technique of "earnings smoothing".
The current problem the GSEs face does seem mainly to be credit loss-related, but it seems to me that any fix should incorporate prohibiting the further taking on of mortgage assets and the orderly sale over a number of years of the assets they now hold.
The administration and the Fed have made it as clear as possible without explicitly stating it that they will stand behind the GSE's guarantees and senior obligations. The capital markets, continuing to be comfortable with these implied assurances, can absorb $1.5 trillion of additional mortgage-related assets over time.
The only reason the GSEs put mortgage assets on their balance sheets was the desire to make money. The "G-fee", the fee they charge for their guarantees, is 20-25BP, while the nominal spread between their on-balance sheet mortgages and the liabilities supporting them can be far higher if those liabilities aren't co-terminous with the assets (which I don't think they ever are except in the case of participation certificates). In their arrogance, the GSEs felt they could greatly reduce the interest-rate and prepayment risk on these assets through callable debt and derivatives. They were wrong. We as a nation are lucky that the debacle of several years ago wasn't far worse.
From reading the papers and watching TV, I understand that the sub-prime crisis is spreading into prime mortgages, the traditional purview of the GSEs, and I infer, perhaps incorrectly, that their current credit losses are a combination of prime business and some sub-prime that leached onto their balance sheets in the past several years. I'm five years removed from making a living looking (indirectly) at the GSEs, but I suspect that loan losses alone aren't going to drive them into the arms of Uncle Sam. However, when you add interest-rate and prepayment risk to the mix, you have a potentially deadly combination.
The mission of Fannie and Freddie is to support the U.S. residential housing market. They can do this perfectly adequately through guarantees alone. What do you think of this statement, and what do you think of making the GSEs divest themselves of their on balance sheet mortgages?
Steven Pearlstein: A very intelligent and reasoned analysis. I would say, however, that Fan and Fred have hedged a lot of their interest rate and prepayment risk. The real risk, as I understand it, is in a rising default rate on the mortgages they have guarateed, and secondarily, on having to take mark to market losses on assets on their balance sheets that they don't really want to hold to maturity.
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Falls Church, Va.: You briefly mentioned it in your column today, but I haven't seen it said much - every bubble is described as "different this time" while we're in it. The tech stock bubble was different because it was a new economy, the housing bubble was different because "there's a limited supply of housing", and now the commodity bubble is different because of China and India and the growing world middle class. Alternately, it's different because people really have to take delivery of commodities, they're not just paper. I guess my question is - is this one really different?
Steven Pearlstein: You got that right -- they always say it's different this time. When you hear that with great frequency, it's usually a big sell signal.
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Baltimore, Md.: In all the housing crisis bailout commentary, I rarely see any mention of the impact on renters. I've been a renter most of my life, recognizing that I don't want to make the sacrifices necessary at my income level to own a property in the kind of neighborhood I like. I can afford rent there (barely!). What really peeves me is that homeowners got the tax deduction, speculators helped drive rents up because more rehabbed properties became available, so renters are penalized in many ways. Now, my taxes will be used to bail out these same people. I'm furious and feel powerless. If the mortgage deduction went away balance might be restored. Your thoughts?
Steven Pearlstein: Well, you are right to be upset that renters (who as a class are poorer than homeowners) subsidize homeowners through the tax code. It's regressive and leads to over-investment in housing (particularly, investment in too much house) and to higher-than-necessary housing prices, putting houses even farther out of the reach of renters. Bad public policy, no doubt about it.
As for your tax money being used to bail out homeowners, first, no tax money has been used yet and second, to the degree it is done to prevent a meltdown in the financial system, and the secondary effects on the overall economy, that might be a use of government powers and funding that you would benefit from along with everyone else.
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New York, N.Y.: Steve, What bothers me significantly about the current crisis (aside from losing money) is that while Wall Street, Freddie, Fannie, are running to the taxpayers with a tin cup for donations during bad times, are they going to cough up some money to the taxpayers during good times? These companies took stupid, outlandish risks so let them, their shareholders and their employees pay for it. Didn't you once say the modus operandi of these firms is "Privatize the gain, socialize the losses." On a related note, I work in Lower Manhattan near firms such as Goldman, Merrill, etc. It bugs me that NYC is giving Goldman $500 million for a new building. Wouldn't that money be better used for schools or hospitals or the subway? Thanks!!!
Steven Pearlstein: I've answered the first part of that several times. As for New York subsidizing Goldman, I couldn't agree more.
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Washington, D.C.: Steven, thank you for your columns, I believe you are performing a public service in addition to your spot on reporting and analysis.
Question - we are in a situation with negative real interest rates, which is putting so much pressure on the dollar. Do you believe the Fed has it in them to at least raise the interest rate 25 basis points in order to give some semblance of supporting the green back?
If not, what are the consequences for continuing negative real interest rates?
Have a great weekend!!!
Steven Pearlstein: Negative real federal funds rate, if it persists too much longer, is a small problem. Rates for the rest of us aren't negative. I suspect the Fed will have to start raising them soon, unless the economy really craters.
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Richmond, Va."More recently, some of those same people have been saying that the big flow of investment capital into commodities futures had little, if anything, to do with the dramatic run-up in the price of oil and other commodities -- that it's really all about the growing gap between stagnant supply and surging demand from China, India and other developing countries."
What's your take on the premise that the Wall Street Journal Editoral page has been promoting that a significant chunk of the commodity price increases, especially oil are due to Federal Reserve interest rate policy since August of 2007?
Steven Pearlstein: It may be a factor, but not the dominant factor. The transmission mechanism there is the dollar, but the changes in the dollar over the last six months can't explain most of the oil price runup.
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Richmond, Va.: Is the proposal to get Freddie and Fannie into mortgages that were previously considered "jumbo" (I think Pelosi wanted something like $750)k now dead, or still alive?
Does any of this affect what the FHA does?
Steven Pearlstein: The bill now raises it, but not as much as the temporary authority granted a few months ago. It's a compromise. So, to answer your question, its half-alive.
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Seattle, Wash.: Great column, per usual, but I don't think that pessimists have been "overly" pessimistic. Their analysis has been accurate so far (which is depressing) and as non-optimists who have looked at the relevant history know, housing markets take a much longer time to react than optimists are claiming, so the bad news isn't quite over and it's still unclear how much worse things will get. Pessimistic, yes. Overly, that's a value-judgment that probably isn't warranted.
Steven Pearlstein: Look, as one of the pessimists, I'd love to agree with you. There is reason for pessimism. But there is no reason to assume the worst about everything, like that all the banks and Fannie and Freddie are insolvent.
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Dallas, Tex: Any chance of bringing back the Glass-Spiegel Act? Would that type of regulation do any good?
Steven Pearlstein: I think its Glass-Steagel (not sure how to spell it, actually), not Spiegel, which conjured up visions of banks offering household goods through a catalogue. But anyway, that genie is probably out of the bottle at this point. We need to move on.
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Steven Pearlstein: That's all the time we have for today, folks. Good discussion. "See" you next week.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 18, 2008 Friday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Chris Cillizza, Washingtonpost.com Political Blogger, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2840 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Chris Cillizza, washingtonpost.com political blogger, will be online Friday, July 18 at 11 a.m. ET.
Read Chris Cilliza's blog, The Fix
Submit your questions and comments before or during today's discussion.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Chris Cillizza: Good morning!
Lots of great questions in the queue already -- keep them coming.
As for me, the question that I have been pondering over the last few days: Could you just listen to Bob Dylan tunes for the rest of your life and be satisfied? I vote yes.
Anyone agree or disagree?
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Northville, N.Y.: Chris, we love ya, but please: Don't do any more Gov. Crist articles. The comments were excruciating to read -- and like a four-car pile-up, I couldn't avert my eyes, though I tried.
washingtonpost.com: Charlie Crist for vice president? The Fix's cases for and against. (washingtonpost.com, July 16-17)
Chris Cillizza: Well, I won't be making the case for or against Crist any time soon. Been there, done that.
But, Crist is a fascinating figure because he provokes such strong reactions. Some of his allies ardently believe he is BY FAR the best pick; many of his detractors believe picking him would be an total disaster.
It's rare that opinion is so divided about a guy with a relatively limited national profile.
And speaking of my case for/case against Crist, this is as good a time as any to plug the new "Veepstakes" section at The Fix. We have everything you need to know about the race for second place there -- including a series of cases for/cases against for the major contenders.
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Providence, R.I.: It seems that Obama has to make a choice between experienced Hill veterans and fresh new faces as he scans his potential running mates. Which of these two potential vice presidential categories do you think would be more effective in attracting swing voters?
Chris Cillizza: Shailagh "Shazelle" Murray and I wrote a piece about Obama's decision and the choice between change and experience in yesterday's paper.
The choice is stark: Does Obama double down on fresh faced change or go for an elder statesman to sure up doubts about his experience?
If you believe public polling that shows Obama ahead of John McCain by mid single digits, then the so called "safe" option might have a bit of an edge as the Illinois Senator wants to minimize the risks -- believing that if nothing major goes wrong he will win on Nov. 4.
I'll be rolling out my latest veepstakes Line this afternoon . Make sure to check it out.
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washingtonpost.com: The Running-Mate Question: Hill Veteran or Change Agent? (Post, July 16)
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Arlington, Va.: My Dylan lyric to live by: "I try to be just as I am/But everyone wants you to be just like them." -- "Maggie's Farm"
Chris Cillizza: Well said.
My favorite Dylan line: "Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky/with one hand waving free." (Mr. Tambourine Man)
Give me chills.
Keep them coming.
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Washington: I don't understand your weird attraction to Kathleen Sebelius -- do you have a mother complex? Kansas hasn't got enough votes to matter in the Electoral College, so on what grounds could she be vice president except for your pushing her? That video interview was sad.
Chris Cillizza: Nice!
I don't "think" I have a mother complex -- although that Maryellen Cillizza is one heck of a great mom.
My quick take on Sebelius' pros:
1. She is a two-term governor of a red state -- reinforcing Obama's 50 state rhetoric.
2. She has picked two former Republicans as her running mates in 2002 and 2006. That sort of post-partisanship is in keeping with Obama's pledge for a new kind of politics.
3. Obama clearly has warm feelings toward her. Go an check out the interview he gave with a Kansas City TV station a few weeks ago. He absolutely gushes about Sebelius.
4. Intangibles: Obama's mom is from Kansas.
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Waterville, Maine: Good morning Chris -- I'm a big fan of "The Fix" from Maine. What is the chance that Obama will make an "off the radar" surprise pick for a running mate. I'm thinking either former majority leader Dick Gephardt or Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas. Has the recent controversy about the abortion doctor in Kansas diminshed the chances of Gov. Sebelius (who I think would be a great pick)? I'm looking forward to your vice presidential picks this afternoon in The Fix.
Chris Cillizza: Helloooooo Waterville!
As I mentioned above, as long as Obama is ahead in national polls and competitive in key states -- Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio -- I can't see him making a long shot pick.
If he did, I think Edwards would be a good one. He has no national profile but Nancy Pelosi is pushing for him (seriously) and there are a bunch of people in the Washington chattering class who think Obama should at least consider him.
ur favorite wild card? Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar. Whyis this guy not being mentioned more?
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McLean, Va.: Chris Dodd?! Why in heaven's name would Obama consider Dodd as a running mate, especially with his mortgage-crisis baggage? If he wants a foreign-policy graybeard, he should go with Joe Biden.
Chris Cillizza: There's no question that Dodd's Countrywide connections do not help his cause at all.
That said, Dodd has a few things going for him:
1. He speaks fluent Spanish.
2. The liberal left loves him; he was one of the main opponents on the re-upping of FISA.
3. He has policy chops from years on the Hill and political chops from his chairmanship of the Democratic National Committtee.
4. Intagibles: He is from Connecticut -- the best state in the union.
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"VP Mystery Date": When was the last time the media successfully named any vice presidential running mate before it was announced by the candidate? Just wondering. I think your veepstakes idea is a big waste of time/energy. Might as well talk about when the next hurricane will hit Ohio, or something.
Chris Cillizza: Terrific!
I think covering the Veepstakes the way we do on The Fix acknowledges the fundamental unknowableness (is that a word?) of the process.
That said, there is little question that it is the topic of conversation inside (and outside) the Beltway these days so for a blog that devotes itself to covering the granular level of politics it would be sort of weird to ignore it.
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Minneapolis: Providence, R.I., asked a good question. My answer is to ask, who can satisfy both requirements? Thus the dark-horse pick of Bill Bradley...
Chris Cillizza: Or Evan Bayh -- a serious policy guy who is young enough (52) to allow Obama to make the case that the ticket is a generational change.
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Minnesota: Other than Salazar, I wanted your take on why we hear nothing about low-key, safe choices for Obama who would help him: Steny Hoyer, Chris Dodd or Jack Reed.
Chris Cillizza: I can't give away all the good stuff for this afternoon's Veepstakes Line...On Reed though, I think he is getting hot at the right time. Check The Fix this afternoon for more.
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Seattle: Barring some miracle or a total collapse of epic proportions, why not retire the No. 1 spot on the Senate line? Isn't Warner just gonna crush Gilmore?
Chris Cillizza: Let's move into the Senate arena... Yes, Mark Warner is a heavy favorite this fall against Jim Gilmore. But, "retire" the No. 1 slot? Here are three reasons not to do that: 1. It would be weird to end on No. 2. 2. UNLV vs Duke in the 1991 NCAA Basketball national semifinals. 3. Catholic University vs Salisbury University in field hockey in 2006.
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Vienna, Va.: Why is Tom Allen faring so poorly in his race against Susan Collins? Do you see a campaign shakeup in the works?
Chris Cillizza: I don't think Tom Allen is "faring so poorly"; it's just that Collins is running a terrific race.
Maine politics is an entirely different world. While President Bush is extremely unpopular there, both Collins and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) have built their own unique brand in the eyes of voters so they are less tarnished by the struggles of the national party than GOP incumbents in other states.
Democrats remain optimistic that once the race truly engages, which it hasn't yet, the numbers will close.
Maybe.
But Collins is very well liked and it will be tough for Allen to make the case that she should be fired.
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Fairfax, Va.: I've seen in several places that the Democrats have reserved $6 million in air time for the North Carolina Senate race. Is that just a head fake, though? Are they pretending they're going to invest heavily in a state to force the GOP to devote some of its limited resources there?
Chris Cillizza: I don't think it's a head fake. National Democrats believe that Kay Hagan has a serious chance to beat Elizabeth Dole in the fall. Dole recently spent a bundle on television ads that bumped her numbers up nicely but this is a race that seems destined to be close. On how much money the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will ultimately spend in the state, we don't know until they actually begin their TV ads. Party committees can move money from state to state throughout the summer and fall. But, I would bank on the DSCC spending real money (millions) in the Tarheel State.
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Fairfax, Va.: Does Sen. Stevens have a primary challenger? If so, is there any chance he doesn't capture the nomination?
washingtonpost.com: The Fix's Friday Line: Top Senate Races (washingtonpost.com, July 18)
Chris Cillizza: Stevens doesn't have any serious primary opposition -- unlike Rep. Don Young who is being challenged by Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell in the August Republican primary.
That Stevens is the all-but-certain Republican nominee should worry GOP strategists. The ethics scandal that has ravaged the state Republican party claimed another state senator in the last week.
Stevens' ties to the scandal remain amorphous but the longer it stays in the news, the worse for the incumbent.
And, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) raised more than $1 million in the last three months and is already on television statewide.
This is a major (and unexpected) problem spot for Republicans.
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Washington: Chris, thanks for taking my question about polls being released by congressional campaigns. In a nutshell: How reliable are they? Congressional campaigns are putting out polls steadliy in recent days that either show their candidate ahead or closing in on the opponent. Should all of this be taken with a grain of salt? What do you look at when you look at someone else's polling results? Thanks.
Chris Cillizza: Great question.
Usually in a House or Senate race, a campaign releases polling for one of two reasons: to raise money and to counter a public poll that offers a variant view on the race.
The reality is that most campaigns -- especially well funded Senate races -- are polling all the time; they are testing various messages, campaign commercials and potential attacks on their opponents.
Most of that polling never sees the light of day as it is meant to provide a blueprint for how to win as opposed to a snapshot in time.
Always remember that polling is equal parts art and science. How the numbers are interpreted are just as important as what the numbers say.
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Ann Arbor, Mich.: Somebody needs to re-write Dylan's best song -- "All I Really Want to Do" -- for the veepstakes. As in: "I don't want to campaign with you, fly with you, smile with you..."
Chris Cillizza: Now there is an idea.
Although, re-writing any Dylan song is a dangerous proposition since the guy is a lyrical genius.
Quick Fix/Bob Dylan update: Favorite Dylan song is currently "Boots of Spanish Leather."
Of love gained and lost.
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Central Massachusetts: Ixnay on Jack Reed -- Rhode Island has a Republican governor who would appoint a Republican senator.
Chris Cillizza: Gotta love Pig Latin!
Fair point on the naming of Reed. But, remember that Democrats are heading toward a minimum three seat gain this fall. Giving up a Dem seat when you are at 51 in the Senate is different than giving one up when you are at 56.
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Baltimore: Democratic veepstakes: Why did Jim Webb take himself out of consideration last week? Had he already been told he wasn't going to be picked and they gave him the opportunity to declare he was not interested? I thought he would be a good counterpoint to Obama.
Chris Cillizza: I think Webb's decision was a two-parter:
1. He genuinely enjoys being in the Senate and sees a chance to build a bipartisan legacy for himself there.
2. He knows that past comments he has made about women serving in the military and affirmative action would be re-litigated in the national media, forcing him to explain just what he meant when he said those things.
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Nashville, Tenn.: The Republican National Committee boasts a huge fundraising advantage over the Democratic National Committee. Will they use it to keep the Senate close? In which Senate races is the RNC investing the most coin? Also, where does McCain help down-ticket races?
Chris Cillizza: To be honest, I think the RNC is going to spend all the money they have on the presidential race.
The Senate and House party committees are likely on their own - a dangerous proposition given the huge financial leads Senate and House Democrats have at the moment.
As for the McCain down ballot effect, he could help Sen. John Sununu in new Hampshire a bit and probably helps Tim Bee, who is challenging Rep. Gabby Giffords (D) in Arizona's 8th district.
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Seattle Again: Okay, how does Warner lose? (Not that Gilmore necessarily will win...)
Chris Cillizza: How could a team of unknown Americans beat the mighty Russians?
How could Catholic University beat Salisbury in field hockey when the Sea Gulls who had won three consecutive national championships and not lost a home game in six years?
Upsets happen.
To be clear, I am not saying it will. But, insisting that any political race is over four months before a ballot is cast is crazy.
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Dylan Lyrics: Every line in the song "Hurricane" gives me the chills.
Chris Cillizza: No kidding. Just listened to it this morning.
"Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night/ Enter patty valentine from the upper hall."
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Monmouth, Ore.: Hi, Chris -- I recall that around when Reagan was elected and everything seemed to be going that way, a number of "Democrats" (mostly from the South) such as Shelby, Gramm, Lott and others, switched their affiliation to "Republican." With many indications that this year could be the same type of tidal wave, do you see any Republicans suddenly "seeing the light" and switching to the Democratic Party? Possibly Sen. Snowe of Maine, Rep. Kirl of Illinois or any remaining Republicans in New England, parts of the West Coast or Midwest? (Sen. Smith would have just undergone an re-election, and so might not be interested.) If so, would we be closer to a true parliamentary political divide, or would it be more of a geographical one? Thanks.
Chris Cillizza: A very interesting question that I don't know the answer to. Will do some digging and make it a Fix post down the line.
Thanks for the idea. :)
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Chris 'n' Chris?: After the DAY-na 'n' DAN-na online chat yesterday, is there a Chris at The Post you could team up with?
Chris Cillizza: A quick search shows there are 13 people named Chris (other than me) at The Post.
A few other options:
1. Christian Pelusi: He works at washingtonpost.com and, like The Fix, appreciates the great genius of the one, the only Ric Flair.
2. Josh Freedom Du Lac: Not only does he have the single greatest byline in world history, he is also The Post's music critic -- The Fix's dream job.
3. Mrs. Fix: Who wouldn't want to see me put in my place for an hour by my kick-butt wife?
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Chris Cillizza: Folks, That's all I have time for today. Don't forget to check out The Fix this afternoon for the latest and greatest Friday Line. And, we can't possible leave without a bit more self promotion. Here'sThe Fix fan page on Facebook, The Fix on YouTube and The Fix on Twitter.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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USA TODAY
July 17, 2008 Thursday
FINAL EDITION
Obama prepares tour of Middle East, Europe;
News media on board; overseas observers abuzz
BYLINE: Kathy Kiely
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 547 words
WASHINGTON -- For Barack Obama, the road to the White House is about to take a 12,000-mile detour.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee will try to boost his resume next week with a five-country European and Middle Eastern tour that threatens to turn into Obamapalooza.
In contrast to the low-key coverage of Republican John McCain's European and Middle East trip in March, Obama will be accompanied by a campaign plane of reporters and trailed by three network broadcast anchors. McCain got some headlines but did not have a traveling press corps.
Obama is "going to be a rock star," said James Thurber, an American University political scientist who recently taught a course in Brussels. "Expectations are high," agreed Christian Hacke, a retired professor of foreign policy at the University of Bonn. "I think too high."
Obama lived in Indonesia as a child but lacks the foreign policy experience of McCain, a Navy veteran and the top-ranking GOP member of the Senate's Armed Services Committee.
Obama leads McCain in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. But when asked whether each candidate can handle the responsibilities of being commander in chief, 80% said McCain could, compared with 55% for Obama.
This week, Obama delivered two foreign policy speeches and began airing a TV ad touting foreign policy plans. On Wednesday, he told an Indiana audience he would try to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
Obama is discovering that travel abroad can be both a broadening experience and potentially hazardous. He has ruffled feathers in Jerusalem by telling U.S. Jewish leaders last month that he regards the ancient city as Israel's undivided capital -- and then amending his statement after Palestinian protests.
In Germany, an Obama plan to speak before the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of German reunification, "went over like a lead balloon," said Janet Day-Strehlow, an American voter who lives in Munich and supports the Democrat. Still, Day-Strehlow added, "I think there will be a good bit of forgiveness because he's new on the world scene."
Overseas interest in Obama's visit is high. "Germany is Obama-land," Karsten Voight, a German official in charge of relations with the U.S., told a German newspaper earlier this year. A May poll of more than 6,000 Europeans for London's Daily Telegraph showed Obama favored over McCain by wide margins in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.
In the Arab world, Obama's candidacy has left many "pleasantly surprised with him and the United States," said Hussein Ibish, senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine. Ibish cited Obama's Arabic middle name, Hussein.
While foreign experience can enhance a candidate's stature, history shows it can also backfire.
In 2004, stories about Democratic nominee John Kerry's family ties to France hurt him. In 1999, a hug between then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Suha Arafat, wife of then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, nearly derailed Clinton's fledgling Senate campaign in New York.
For Obama, a rapturous overseas reception may be exhilarating, but "whether blue-collar workers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan think it's great is questionable," says American University's Thurber.
Contributing: William Risser;
Jeffrey Stinson in London;
Martha T. Moore in New York
LOAD-DATE: July 17, 2008
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The Washington Post
July 17, 2008 Thursday
Suburban Edition
In a Red State, Obama Tackles Issues of National Security
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A06
LENGTH: 860 words
AN INDIANA ROUNDTABLE
In a Red State, Obama Tackles Issues of National Security
WEST LAFAYTETTE, Ind. -- Barack Obama promoted his proposals to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to countries unfriendly to the United States and to address other security threats at a campaign event in this traditionally Republican state. The Democratic candidate is targeting GOP strongholds early in the general-election battle.
Only a few days before a planned trip abroad to highlight his foreign policy credentials, Obama led a roundtable discussion that included Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and former Georgia senator Sam Nunn on the campus of Purdue University. Nunn has long worked on nonproliferation issues, and Bayh has served for years on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The senator from Illinois called for a renewed effort to secure nuclear weapons materials over the next four years from places such as the former Soviet Union. He also proposed convening a U.N. summit on the spread of nuclear terrorism and vowed to aim for a "nuclear-free world" by stopping the development of nuclear weapons.
Obama also suggested appointing a "national cyber-adviser" who would report to the president on computer security issues.
"We've had the debate about terrorism dominate so much of our politics over the last eight years, and rightfully so," he said. "What this panel emphasizes is -- because a small group of individuals has the capacity to create great havoc -- it is important we don't approach this as an either-or proposition but a 'both'-'and' proposition. Yes, we must hunt down terrorists, but we also have to deal with the weapons they might use and take them out of circulation."
Obama's campaign last week started running an ad touting his work on nuclear nonproliferation issues that noted his alliance in this cause with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), a popular politician in his home state. The commercial is running in the 18 states that the Obama campaign is now targeting with advertising, which include traditional swing states such as Ohio but also Indiana, Montana, Alaska and North Dakota, which have long voted Republican in presidential elections.
The campaign also plans to start running another ad touting his national security credentials Thursday on national cable channels. "Forty years ago it was missile silos and the Cold War. Today it's cyber-attacks, loose nukes, oil money funding terrorism," the ad's announcer says. "Barack Obama understands our changing world."
-- Perry Bacon J r.
'I NEED YOUR GOODWILL'
Before the NAACP, McCain Talks Education
CINCINNATI -- John McCain called for wide-ranging education reforms Wednesday in a speech before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a group that he said "means more to me than any other," despite his history of opposition to many of its policies.
McCain, who has received a grade of F from the NAACP for his votes in each of the past four Congresses, acknowledged that he may not win the votes of the group's members in his race against Obama. McCain apologized for skipping the NAACP's convention last year, saying he "was a bit distracted at the time dealing with what reporters uncharitably described as an implosion in my campaign."
Accompanied by former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele, who is black, McCain said: "I am a candidate for president who seeks your vote and hopes to earn it. But whether or not I win your support, I need your goodwill and counsel."
McCain faces an uphill battle in winning over black voters, given that he faces the first-ever African American nominee from a major political party. In a Washington Post-ABC poll released this week, black registered voters backed Obama over McCain by 94 percent to 2 percent.
The Republican candidate focused his remarks on the issue of education, saying he would push for federal vouchers for private schools, greater leeway in teaching certification and an expansion of charter schools.
"You know better than I do how different the challenges are today for those who champion the cause of equal opportunity in America. Equal access to public education has been gained. But what is the value of access to a failing school?" he said, prompting applause.
McCain suggested that by changing the way schools pay teachers, they could promote greater academic achievement. "We will pay bonuses to teachers who take on the challenge of working in our most troubled schools, because we need their fine minds and good hearts to help turn those schools around," he said. "We will award bonuses as well to our highest-achieving teachers. And no longer will we measure teacher achievement by conformity to process. We will measure it by the success of their students."
And while he has blasted Obama several times this week for his stance on immigration and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, McCain lavished praise upon his rival this morning. "Don't tell him I said this, but he is an impressive fellow in many ways," McCain said. "He has inspired a great many Americans, some of whom had wrongly believed that a political campaign could hold no purpose or meaning for them."
-- Juliet Eilperin
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IMAGE; By Scott Olson -- Getty Images; John McCain: "Equal access to public education has been gained. But what is the value of access to a failing school?"
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Washingtonpost.com
July 17, 2008 Thursday 2:00 PM EST
Project Runway: Season Five Premiere;
Time to Make It Work Again
BYLINE: Robin Givhan, Washington Post Fashion Editor, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: ARTSANDLIVING
LENGTH: 4003 words
HIGHLIGHT: It was back to the supermarket aisles in a blast-from-the-past challenge on the first episode of Season Five of Project Runway.
It was back to the supermarket aisles in a blast-from-the-past challenge on the first episode of Season Five of Project Runway.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post Fashion Editor Robin Givhan was online Thursday, July 17 to discuss the season premiere, which she reviewed in Wednesday's Post. She also welcomes your dish about the hosts, judges and new cast of designers -- and your speculation about what a move to a new city and network will mean for the future of the fiercest reality show of all time.
A transcript follows.
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Robin Givhan: Hello Project Runway fans,
I'm curious to hear if you all enjoyed the first episode last night or if you're starting to feel like the show's getting a bit stale. Let's chat!
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Leesburg, Va.: I know the quick-moving fine-print in the credits says that the producers have input into the final decision of the judges, but how much input do the producers have? Can they completely override the judges?
In the last couple of seasons, it seemed several times like the designer of the truly worst outfit didn't get voted off if the designer was one of the more dramatic or controversial characters. Even breaking the rules didn't get someone voted off.
Last night's premiere seemed to do that again. Jerry's outfit was bad, but at least it had several separate pieces and some sewing. Stella's outfit was just trashbag strips and Tanning-Guy's diaper outfit was trashed by all the judges, yet they both survived. But Jerry was a quiet older man while the other two are the punker-Cher and the new Christian Soriano-like annoying kid.
How much of the judging is talent-based and how much of it is purely for ratings?
Robin Givhan: Oh, Leesburg, you're sounding like such a cynic! My understanding is that the producers have some input but none that ultimately affects the outcome of the show. Now, I'm not sure if that's the final outcome....as in who wins. Or the outcome of each and every challenge. But I also think the judges see things we as viewers don't. After all, they can eyeball the construction of these garments and we cannot. And frankly, if it came down between two awful outfits and one designer was more entertaining than the other....I'd boot off the boring one. But I've always felt the most deserving designer ultimately ends up winning.
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Virginia: I felt really overwhelmed by the sheer number of contestants this season. Is 16 larger than the starting number in the past?
Robin Givhan: I know what you mean. The first episode is always a dizzying array of trash talk and angst. I'm not positive but I do think that there are a couple more designers than usual. But I also think that this crop had far fewer designers who were immediately memorable.
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Alexandria, Va.: Hi Robin,
A little constructive (I hope) criticism: nice summary of the show last night. The only problem is that your column ran before it aired. Couldn't you let me have a little smile of surprise that Austin S. was the 3rd judge? Or wonder if the punker would pull it off? The show is tired enough as it is, it was hard to get through it knowing the entire plot.
Robin Givhan: Dearest Alexandria,
A little constructive advice: If you're reading a preview of a television show....you might expect that parts of the storyline are going to be revealed. Several seasons ago, I revealed the winner of the challenge and people went berserk. I took my spanking like a woman. But on this issue....sorry.
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Alexandria, Va.: I just got back from the grocery store. (I really did have to go!) By the time I was finished I'd mapped out a flapper number with barbecue skewers, electrical cords for straps, and cut up frozen blueberry package wrappers for decoration at the top of the bust.
I also left thinking "How could someone spend 30 minutes and $75 and only buy black trash bags?... and survive to see Episode 2?"
Robin Givhan: Ha!
Yes, I have no idea what Stella/Cher spent her $75 on. It couldn't have just been trashbags. Maybe she bought some snacks to keep her going?
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Washington D.C.: Hi Robin, I am a huge fan of yours and Project Runway. I was wondering if you agreed with the judges' decisions of whom to oust and whom to reward?
Robin Givhan: Thank you so much! Generally I agree with the judges decisions. Of all of them, I'm probably most in sync with Nina. But I would have been hard-pressed not to send garbage bag woman home. That was a monstrosity in both execution and creativity.
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DC-licious: sorry, had to. Each year, more of the designers seem to already have well established careers (own shops, own lines etc). I kinda liked it when it was more a bunch of unknowns who hadn't dressed celebrities. Your thoughts?
Robin Givhan: I"m ambivalent on this subject. I think it would be a fairer, more brass ring kind of show if the designers were less experienced. But having more experienced designers tend to make for better results in the challenges. Although, in the case of Jerry, who actually has a design business, his experience and "seriousness" worked against him, I think.
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Washington, D.C.: How can you even write a review before the show airs? Do you get some sort of special pre-screening of each episode?
Robin Givhan: I just intuit what might happen.....I'm kidding. I watched a screener of the episode on Tuesday morning.
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Bethesda: The women with the garbage bag dress should have been sent home. It took her all day to make that? But she seems like she will add drama to the show, so of course they couldn't kick her off yet.
Robin Givhan: I agree on all points. The dress was hellacious. But she practically had a nervous breakdown over it so that suggests many more entertaining moments. When she first opened her trash bags and found them to be so thin I thought: What, she had $75 and she bought generic trashbags? She didn't splurge on Hefty? And then I thought, why doesn't she just double them up?
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Plymouth, Mich.: Do you think Project Runway's impending move to Lifetime and subsequent change of production companies spells doom for the franchise?
Robin Givhan: After watching the first episode, I actually think the move and the freshness of LA might be good for the show. I think it's still entertaining, but there weren't many surprises. And frankly I'm sick of the "Atlas luxury apartments."
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Washington, D.C.: I'm frightened of tanorexic Blayne. Why do they keep show him sniffling? And why does "Suede" keep referring to himself in the third person? Is it so he can remember his own made-up name? And how come these people want to design clothes for me to wear, yet most of them look like homeless people? Help!
Robin Givhan: Be very afraid. Suede seems to be one of those people who thinks that this is how a designer is supposed to act: all diva- like, etc.
Blayne is rather scary, but as I said in the review I'm glad he explained his tanning addiction, otherwise I would seriously have been wondering why that man is orange.
I think a lot of these people have succumbed to the reality-show-itis, which is the idea that you have to play a character instead of just being yourself. And to some extent it works. Bye-bye boring Jerry. And meanwhile Blayne and Stella/Cher are unpacking their bags.
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random: What is your opinion on pleated pants?
Robin Givhan: unless your name is MC Hammer, just say no.
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A little off topic...:
How do you pronounce your last name?
Given? Giv-ahn?
Robin Givhan: Accuracy is never off-topic: Givhan rhymes with on.
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Chicago, Ill.: Please, please, please don't give the whiny trash bag lady any more face time. She's like a bad commercial, I want to change the channel when she comes on.
Robin Givhan: I'm so sorry, but for as long as Stella/Cher survives, I must poke at her like a science project. She is fabulous.
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Arlington, Va.: Does anyone know when the season 4 DVD is coming out? They are going to release one, aren't they? Thanks!
Robin Givhan: If anyone knows, please speak up and I'll pass it along.
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Washington, D.C.: Dearest Robin: don't you think the show has become somewhat of a self parody? I mean, I met one castoff from season 2 en route to Athens and you would think she was Madonna.
Robin Givhan: I'm assuming you mean she was mobbed and not that she was walking around with A-Rod. I wouldn't blame the show for people's inability to distinguish between celebrity and importance. That said, I do think the show is having a hard time getting contestants who aren't playing up to the cameras and coming off as caricatures. See Blayne.
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Houston, Tex.: I knew they were moving to Lifetime, but I didn't know they were also moving to a new city. Where are they moving?
It was so good to see Little Lord Fauntleroy last night! I love Austin and his lisp.
Robin Givhan: Yes, the contestants will be ensconced somewhere in LA. Where, I do not know.
I think Austin is one of the creepiest characters to ever come out of Project Runway. The man looks like a wax figurine.
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Chapel Hill, N.C.: I'm with you on the less than memorable cast. I think Bravo did less previews that focused on the cast and more on just the show coming back on (Even before Season 4 aired, my friends and I loved to tell one another we were "kind of a big deal," a la Christian Soriano, and I knew from the moment he spoke that Ricky would be my LEAST FAVORITE CONTESTANT EVA!). I'm hoping that these blah personalities will compensate when it comes to the clothes. I did finish the episode kind of attached to leopard tube dress/gold headband girl, if only for her personal outfits (but of course I can't remember her name).
Robin Givhan: I think this season is especially difficult for PR because last season's cast was really talented - or at least knew how to whip up some pretty eye-popping projects. But who knows, maybe these characters are just late bloomers. There may be a Santino lurking in the bunch. I think blue Mohawk boy has possibilities... as does the former model.
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Springfield, Ill: BPR said ProjectRunway.com said November for the Season 4 DVD.
Robin Givhan: fyi:
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Shaw, D.C.: So does Wesley make his own skinny Eddie Munster shorts or does he buy them? and, um, why?
Robin Givhan: Oh Shaw, it was my great sorrow that I did not have ample space for a detailed discussion of Wesley and those aptly named Eddie Munster shorts. Either he packed a whole suitcase of them or he plans to wear the same two pair all season. I don't trust any designer who looks like he should have a widow's peak and a cape.
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Washington, D.C.: So I am one of those people who watched it twice last night so I could get to know the characters better after seeing their final creations, and I thought the best moment was when Jerry at the beginning said that Project Runway would be a great platform to showcase his designs and his business. Is it wrong that I'm glad he was booted because of that comment? I'm sure all the other contestants feel the same, it just felt really smug coming out of his mouth.
Robin Givhan: I don't blame you for watching it twice...but wasn't that painful? Let's be honest. Jerry was a bore who's outfit looked like it was for Mary Poppins' crazy half-sister the flasher. He should have known better. And accessorizing it w/yellow rubber gloves? Whaaaaa?
Jerry definitely came across as calculating. He did not have the bright-eyed hopefulness of some of the other contestants. He seemed a bit battle worn. But that's what a few years in the biz can do to you.
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Chantilly (lace?): FWIW, I think the right person won (although I can't remember her name -- see above re: unmemorable characters). The cup dress was awesome, but the winner took -several- things and made them into garment material. I mean, hooks and eyes out of the spine of a spiral notebook? Awesome.
Robin Givhan: Yes, we have not discussed the wonders of the vacuum cleaner bags, coffee filters and thumb tacks. That was some creative wackiness. Highly impressive.
I completely agreed with the judges regarding the plastic cup. You're set loose in a supermarket for dressmaking materials and you make a beeline for the plastic cups?! That's nerve. And, as Tim Gunn would say, he made it work.
I actually liked the macaroni/oven mitt dress, too. But maybe it's because the designer is from my hometown, Detroit.
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New York:1: Robin, your commentary is fabulous. Project Runway should definitely have you as a guest judge!
2: I do wish we heard more from the judges on the middle set of outfits. The braided mop by Teri was so well done and I thought the paper towel dress was adorable. What are your thoughts on the outfits that were not discussed by the judges?
Robin Givhan: On point one: From your mouth to Harvey Weinstein's ears!
On point two: The tragedy of the crowded field is that a lot of the interesting stuff in the middle went undiscussed. I agree on the mop head sweater. Even one of the other contestants complimented it. As I said earlier, I liked the macaroni dress. The paper towel dress was ok. But I also like the tablecloth, plastic cup, fly swatter extravaganza. I think it was by Eddie Munster.
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Portland, Ore.: In a notable column during the primaries, you discussed Hillary Clinton's attire and wondered if she was deliberately lowering the neckline of her blouses to look more feminine.
I'm wondering if you will turn that same razor-sharp focus to Cindy McCain - whose $3,000 a piece outfits are designed for her by a German designer. Don't you find that interesting, especially in light of the fact that many are trying to call the Obamas the elitists?!
washingtonpost.com: Here's a piece Robin did on Cindy McCain's spread in VOGUE: Letting Her Hair Down, but Still Keeping Up Appearances (The Washington Post, May 18).
Robin Givhan: Uh, Portland.....waaaay off topic! But yes, I expect I will have much to say re: Cindy McCain. I have already written about her Vogue glamour shots and her elaborate hairdos. And the German design house of which you sneer is Escada, I believe.
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Washington, D.C.: I loved your comment about hoping for an Afro-Ozark look this season. It would be such a hoot if you and Lisa DeMoraes could do a live blog one show. I can only wish.
Robin Givhan: Oh, that DeMoraes would leave me in her wickedly funny dust. But what a devilish idea...
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DC: Loved Shaw's shorts. But former model man = Patrick Robinson Doppleganger!!
Robin Givhan: Patrick Robinson? mmm, maybe. in dim lighting. I think Patrick is better looking.... but I like former model man better when he had bigger hair.
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D.C.: In regards to Nina's move to Marie Claire, what really happened? Does an editor choose to leave a magazine or are they a bit like creative directors of labels where if the "company chooses to go in a new artistic direction" they are expected to pack up their bags as well? Thanks, always love your writing!
Robin Givhan: As they say in politics, Nina is leaving Elle to spend more time with her family...ha!!! Elle has a new creative director. He and the editor are also working on a reality show project w/Tyra Banks about people competing to be a junior editor/assistant/indentured servant at Elle. Apparently there was not enough room at the inn for Nina. And I'm sure she has a deep and abiding passion for Marie Claire. (In legalese, I believe that is the CYA sentence.)
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Anonymous: Robin :
You know the show is in trouble when they start publicizing Ru Paul as a "celebrity" judge -- doesn't he work as kitchen help somewhere ?
Robin Givhan: Oooh, that's brutal. But I am looking forward to a drag queen challenge. Now we're talkin'.
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Washington, D.C.: Hi Robin --
Do you know where I can obtain the July 2008 edition of Italian Vogue? I cannot find this magazine in a 25 mile radius.
Thanks!
Robin Givhan: oh baby you and about a zillion other black model loving folks are hunting for that mag. My only advice is to get yourself on a waiting list - I understand that additional mags are being shipped - or get yourself an Italian pen pal.
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Arlington, Va.: No -- you can't hate Austin Scarlett! Actually, he used to creep me out too, until he won my heart after having modeled (fiercely, I must say) Jay's post office design when Jay's model didn't show. Hilarious.
Robin Givhan: I'm not saying Austin doesn't have a big heart. Just that it's made out of wax.
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Confused: I watched it last night on Bravo, but will I have to turn to Lifetime for future episodes? When will the show move from NY and Bravo?
Robin Givhan: Season 6 begins the Lifetime era.
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Hollywood: I predict the guy who did the fly swatter dress will be in the finals. He said he worked for some famous designer for a year. By the way how can they seriously be bringing " Top Design " back -- yuck !
Robin Givhan: The best thing about Top Design is Jonathan Adler. Big kiss, Johnny!
Fly swatter boy worked for a year for Marc Jacobs. He very well might make it to the finals, but he'll be two hours late for it! ha!
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Rockville, Md.: Is it just me, or is Tim Gunn becoming more and more p.o.'ed with each season's contestants' lack-luster efforts and lack of creativity (i.e. picnic table cloth meltdown)? (plastic-cup dress man exempted)
Robin Givhan: I don't think I'd go that far, but I think he was really disappointed w/all that gingham in the workroom, especially since this was a reprise of a challenge. The contestants should have known better. But I did love Momolu's solution. I wonder if her friends call her Momo? I hope so.
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Washington, D.C. : I just thought that Jerry looked sad ALL the time!? I laughed every time I saw his face. I'm sure he is very nice though.
I know it is going to be a while before the season finale, but are you planning on having a pre-screening for the finale and write up a preview for the Post?
One of my votes is on Daniel. I loved his solar-cup dress!
Robin Givhan: I plan to go to the Bryant Park finale and then tell everybody who won before it airs... just kidding. I will do my best to get to the finale... but it often conflicts with the Ralph Lauren show. I know. PR versus RL. It's a toss up.
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Logan Circle: Seems like a young group this year, as compared to seasons past. I actually like seeing people with solid experience in the biz, using the show to get to the next level in their careers. . .
Robin Givhan: I was thinking that as well. I can't give you an average age, but there's no 21-year old wunderkind a la Christian. Most contestants are in their 20s. I believer there are two people in their 30s (well, one now, because I think Jerry was thirty-something) and two in their 40s (Stella/Cher and Detroit-boy.)
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Houston, Tex.: Please tell me that you are doing weekly chats for the full season of Project Runway. Love ya!
Robin Givhan: I love you back Houston. I'm always happy to chat. Can't promise weekly though. I don't have TiVo.
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Washington D.C.: So I was reading earlier an a typically unreliable newsite based out of NYC (eh hem, not so blind item) that Apolo Anton Ohno of speedskating fame will be a guest judge this season. What? Does involvement in Dancing With the Stars really get you that great of a publicist/agent? I was just surprised by that.. and the headshot of RuPaul.. sans makeup. Such great freckles he has!
Robin Givhan: Apolo Anton Ohno is one of the promised judges. Sounds like they'll be doing some sort of Olympic costuming challenge. Yikes!
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Venting: I cannot stand whatever the blonde overtanned dude's name is. How many episodes do you think he's going to last before he goes through withdrawals from tanning or other substances (see: all that freaking sniffing).
Robin Givhan: Isn't that sniffling suspicious?! I'm not accusing. I'm just sayin'. His name is Blayne and I suspect the longer he annoys...the longer he stays.
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Hillside, New Jersey: WHY are there no designers of COLOR (Hispanic, black/African, Indian)???? It's seriously pathetic yet strange to know these cultures don't qualify to enter such a competition. Only one race of people (designers and judges) every season?? I used to be hooked on this show but now my friends and I are totally turned off! To exclude other segments of society speaks volumes.
Robin Givhan: Come on now Hillside, get down off that soap box. Previous judges of color: Teri Agins, Wall Street Journal. Patrick Robinson, Gap. Francisco Costa, Calvin Klein. And that's just off the top of my head.
Each season has had contestants of color. None of have won but who could forget crying Ricky. And hello: this season 2 black women and one black guy, including the marvelous Korto Momolu of Liberia/Little Rock who created a tablecloth kimono trimmed in kale.
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Washington D.C.: ROBIN!!! I have a dream contest... Can the Washington Post give away a trip to NYC fashion week with you? C'mon, I'll go out right now and sell a corporate sponsorship... please?!
Robin Givhan: The WP GIVE a trip away? yea, they're going to be doing that right after I get my clothing allowance...but I love your optimism and enthusiasm...
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Richmond, Va.: Do you think Project Runway will continue to be must-see television when it moves to Lifetime? Also, I'm wondering how Lifetime will get the word out about time and date of the next season, since there's probably not much overlap in audience between that network and Bravo.
Robin Givhan: I'm sure Lifetime will have some sort of advertising blitz. Hard to say how well PR will do on Lifetime. It's not exactly still a bright shiny penny anymore.
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Houston, Tex.: You don't have TiVo?!?!?!
Call cable co. NOW and get a DVR!
Robin Givhan: yea. I know. I'm a luddite.
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D.C.: I understand the general frustration with Blayne but I was also a bit excited. It seems no one has attempted to bring street wear with more of an athletic/urban flair to Project Runway in recent memory (correct me if I'm wrong). I'd love to see that aesthetic... something different!
Robin Givhan: I'm all for street wear but I have yet to see any adult on the street wearing a diaper. But Blayne certainly has nerve so perhaps he'll settle down and produce magic. I suspect that's why he was kept on and Jerry got the boot....big white rubber boots, to be exact.
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Springfield, Ill.: Who do you think will be kicked off next and who do you think will be in Top 3/4/5 this season?
Robin Givhan: I didn't think there were any obvious favorites based on the first episode. Daniel has lots of nerve and creativity. I think Momo has an interesting aesthetic. Mophead woman was interesting. And Blayne might be able to turn it around. He's either going to be incredible or horrific.
Next to go? Maybe one of those brown-haired girls in the middle of the pack who all blurred together. But I'm betting on Stella/Cher. She does not seem to work well under pressure.
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Washington, D.C.: Chloe Dao is a person of color, and she won.
Robin Givhan: ah yes, thank you!
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Re: clothing allowance: Does this really happen?! Elsewhere, obviously..
Robin Givhan: Indeed....elsewhere.
Thanks for chatting folks. It was a dee-lite.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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820 of 972 DOCUMENTS
Washingtonpost.com
July 17, 2008 Thursday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Anne E. Kornblut, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4689 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Anne E. Kornblut was online Thursday, July 17 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
The transcript follows.
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Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Anne E. Kornblut: Greetings, all! Never a dull moment around here, so let's get started.
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Nattering Nabobs of Negativity: Today's announcement that the Obama campaign raised over $52 million dollars is yet another instance of the press (David Gregory) and pundits anxious willingness to paint the Obama campaign in a negative light. When the Wall Street Journal reported that Obama had only raised $30 million in June, the media was ready to report that this was further evidence of the waning of Obama's fundraising juggernaut. Also, the New York Times lede on its polling data was that Obama was failing to narrow the racial divide, when the numbers showed he was winning white voters by a greater percentage than Gore or Kerry. Why the negative spin on all things Obama?
Anne E. Kornblut: It's a great point -- although to be fair, this is actually a better example of the media being spun by the campaign, which was downplaying expectations for many weeks leading up to the $52 million announcement. I actually had one Obama person tell me just days ago -- on background, though, so I cannot use the name -- that they were worried about the direction things were going in. So, points to the Obama campaign for managing expectations; and another warning to the rest of us to stop predicting things we have no hard evidence of.
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Evanston, Ill.: Hey Anne, what do you think Hillary Clinton's chances of getting the vice presidential slot are? Apparently the odds in London are 3 to 1. Seems like easy money to me.
Anne E. Kornblut: I am no gambler, but I think the odds are a lot, lot longer than that.
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San Diego: Hello Ms. Kornblut, thanks for taking my question. Sen. McCain famously said that Sen. Obama's plan to talk directly with Iran demonstrated his "dangerous naivety" and lack of experience. Now that President Bush has decided to send an envoy to talk directly with Iran, does that call into question Sen. McCain's judgment on foreign policy? Can he win by "out-Bushing" Bush? What is your opinion of the value of talking directly with our adversaries as well as our friends in the world?
Anne E. Kornblut: This is a really good question -- one that political strategists on both sides are getting their heads around right now. Obviously the Obama folks are thrilled by that recent development, which they see as confirmation they were right. McCain has had a more qualified view, that preconditions are necessary. I think the outcome of this weekend's meeting also will help dictate the domestic politics of it, and how it plays out...
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OMG!: In response to a question about his possibly being Sen. Obama's vice presidential candidate, Sen. Evan Bayh said, "I think any questions about the vice presidential thing are understandable and it's good for my ego, but I should probably let Sen. Obama and his campaign address those sorts of questions." Did the notoriously boring Bayh kinda, sorta make a joke?!
Anne E. Kornblut: I know, he made a funny, right? He also -- facing similar questions back during the primary -- said that this was the first time his name had been associated with any vice. Another funny! Okay, it's sort of "dad" funny, circa 1950, but still, you're right.
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Jacksonville, Fla.: Liddy Dole wants to name an AIDS funding bill after Jessie Helms? Isn't that like naming a wing of the African-American Museum after David Duke?
Anne E. Kornblut: LOL...
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Portland, Ore.: Is there any polling evidence of the so-called Bradley-Wilder effect in the current presidential campaign? If so, is it large and will it be decisive? Thanks.
Anne E. Kornblut: This is a great question and I'm not entirely sure we know the answer yet. In order to know, we really have to compare the polling numbers, close to the election, to the election results themselves, and see if there is a disparity.
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Richmond, Va.: Is it just me? I have yet to feel an enthusiastic support for Obama from Hillary Clinton (don't expect one from Bill) or her supporters. Have you? Have I missed it?
Anne E. Kornblut: It's always dangerous to try to measure someone's emotions (who knows what's inside their heads?) so I won't speak to Clinton's actual enthusiasm, but I do think she has probably done more to help Obama than meets the eye. After all, it's in her best interest not to look like a spoiler. I think the convention should be a telling event; stay tuned.
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Alexandria, Va.: Obama raised $52 million. A lot of your fellow cocktail party devotees look awfully stupid this morning.
Anne E. Kornblut: See earlier posting. ... It's a weak defense, but again I'll say, the Obama folks were talking the number down! Excellent spin management on their part.
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St. Paul, Minn.: Hi Anne -- Thank you for taking questions today. I've been reading here and there about how some of Sen. McCain's more "off-color" (to put it mildly) jokes from the past are resurfacing, several of which the average person would find offensive to women. Are we going to see more of this stuff coming out? If so, does it have the potential to alienate those disaffected Sen. Clinton supporters who say they plan to vote for him rather than Sen. Obama? Also, are comments he may have made 10-20 years ago fair game and relevant?
Anne E. Kornblut: I fully expect that we'll see everything McCain has ever said (and Obama, too) revived in the months ahead. The challenge for McCain is staying ahead of the anticipation curve, given that he has said so much over so many years. In short, to your point, yes, I think he has to worry about some of his statements affecting the target Clinton demographic -- but they are appear to be slipping away from him increasingly anyway.
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Washington: I don't understand the tactics of the "Hillary for vice president" crowd. They threaten Obama with reprisals if he doesn't choose her. Wouldn't that make him look weak if he caved and chose her? Don't these tactics make it less likely she will be chosen?
Anne E. Kornblut: I think the Clinton folks want to make sure her strengths aren't overlooked, and many of them deeply feel she deserves the offer -- whether or not that's a smart strategy for actually getting her the job. At this point, it seems as if the bigger stumbling block for Clinton is the role her husband would or would not play if she were picked. But again, it seems like a pretty long shot, if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly, which I may not be.
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Claverack, N.Y.: If you were covering one Senate race to the exclusion of all else, which would you choose?
Anne E. Kornblut: I recently saw Kay Hagan speak in North Carolina, and that race seems interesting; I'm especially intrigued by women candidates this year, and how they fare and run their campaigns in the wake of Clinton's campaign. What race are you most interested in?
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Asheville, N.C.: When Bush launched his "surge" it was in response to an Iraq Study Group report challenging his premise on the use of military power to bring peace, and an election he had lost, big-time. Now, with a presidential election in the offing, he's quickly changed horses about diplomacy with Iran, too. How can this be the strong, steady, principled leadership he's defined for the office he holds?
Anne E. Kornblut: It sounds to me -- and I don't cover the White House anymore, but still talk to people there -- like Bush is rushing to accomplish some things in the final months of his term and is feeling the strain of not having gotten more done. He wouldn't be the first to do so. I vividly recall spending weeks outside Camp David in the summer of 2000 as Bill Clinton tried to accomplish something on the Middle East. I'd imagine Bush is under more pressure than even Clinton was then.
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Evanston, Ill.: Hey Anne, why is Obama condemned when he suggests certain segments of the country (white underclass) are bitter, but lauded when he talks about the pathologies of the black underclass?
Anne E. Kornblut: Good question. Don't you think this is a case of being able to criticize one's "own" more easily than being able to criticize others?
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Durham, N.C.: I wanted to know if you thought McCain's comments on Afghanistan on Tuesday shifted his previous positions closer to Obama's thinking on the matter. At the very least, his comments (and later clarifications) seemed confused. What is your take on the foreign policy debate this week?
Anne E. Kornblut: It did seem as though McCain was struggling to bring clarity to the issue -- I couldn't tell, at the end of the day, whether he really wanted to shift U.S. troops to Afghanistan or not. Certainly the Obama campaign was thrilled to see him shift back and forth. Not McCain's best moment.
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Washington: As far as I know Hillary has not released her delegates, and some stories suggests she wants her name placed in nomination at the convention next month. Is Hillary trying to test the waters to see if delegates are getting buyer's remorse, or hoping to blackmail Obama into making her the vice-presidential nominee?
Anne E. Kornblut: I have to say, I think it's neither -- my understanding is that she wants to be respected at the convention, her victories honored, so to speak, but that she has zero claim on the nomination. She really does seem to have moved on in my view. Her supporters are another matter.
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Washington: So let me get this straight: McCain goes on a foreign trip and it is covered appropriately by the media -- not a ton of coverage, but I think The Post and others did their job; Obama goes on a foreign trip and the media just explodes in enthusiasm, with CBS, ABC and NBC sending their nightly news anchors, the "big three." Whether there is bias in the media in favor of Obama is no longer the question; now the question is what the ramifications of such swooning will be in the future.
Anne E. Kornblut: I don't know that I'd equate news interest with approval -- just going on the trip isn't swooning, it's a reflection of interest in this candidate's first big overseas trip as a candidate. (By your measure, the media was truly swooning over Clinton, whose departure speech got more attention than some State of the Union addresses). This actually raises the stakes much higher; I suspect even the tiniest gaffe on the trip will echo around the globe in a way it wouldn't on a smaller tour. But to your exact question, I think we'll have to wait and see how the coverage goes to know exactly what the ramifications are.
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Southwest Nebraska: Can the administration do any mischief when Obama visits Iraq and Afghanistan, e.g. find only negatively responding military for him, offensive backgrounds, etc.? How about in Europe? I expect crowds will be cheering, but what about the leaders of European countries? With such a large press following, can that be spun as merely photo ops anyway? Is it merely for the photo ops that he's going?
Anne E. Kornblut: All good questions. And you're right, this is a tricky one for the Bush administration, which is still in command of U.S. forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq. My sense is that the administration would not try any "mischief" -- which would be revealed the minute Bush left office anyway -- but that troops on the ground who support the Republicans surely would know how to help Obama or not if they were in a position to. As for photo ops: Yes, of course. The point of this trip is for Obama to demonstrate his leadership, and to show he is a plausible president, and pictures will be as big a part of that as anything.
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Washington: Okay, I don't get the Bayh joke. What did he say that was funny? Also, I'm absolutely no fan of Jesse Helms, but he did do a lot of work on providing funding for AIDS relief -- seriously.
Anne E. Kornblut: Right. It wasn't that funny a joke. It was that being mentioned as a vice presidential candidate was good for his ego. Maybe more like slight sarcasm. And thanks on the Helms point. This is not my area of expertise.
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Alexandria, Va.: The question of Senator Clinton releasing her delegates has come up in these chats before, and if I remember correctly, the logical answer was that as long as she still "officially" was a candidate, she could still raise primary money, which could be applied to the campaign's debts. But there was no question that she would release her delegates for the convention.
Anne E. Kornblut: My understanding is that her delegates will be released at some point -- the question is whether that is before the convention or during. Anyone care to challenge?
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Albany, N.Y.: Anne, Obama's family roots in the white working class are deeper than in the so-called black underclass. He was raised in large part by his working class grandparents from Kansas, so it seems to me the perception that he is an outsider says more about the perceptions of those "bitter" people than of him.
Anne E. Kornblut: Which is why he is such a fascinating candidate, with so many different elements to him. (Like so many of us, right?) This is one reason his biographical ad running in so many states right now features his grandparents -- to remind people of his claim to that demographic as well.
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Boston: Anne, in 2004 I volunteered for Kerry in New Hampshire and Miami. My weekends in New Hampshire were coordinated through Kerry's Boston headquarters. In Miami, the Coral Gables precinct was run out of my mom's dining room. Meanwhile, the Bush folks had rented a Mazda dealership! Now in 2008 it seems that Obama and the Democratic National Committee finally have decided to put together a real ground game. On the flip side it seems McCain and the GOP have devolved into the traditional Democratic ground strategy. My question is, with the GOP's long history of working the ground, can McCain mount a comeback before November? Also, how much do you think the the ground game accounts for in elections?
Anne E. Kornblut: Short answer: a lot. Of course McCain can mount a comeback, but it's true that Obama has a head start organizationally, with offices in many states and a network that grew during the extended primaries. Here's a good test for you: What are McCain's Boston offices like?
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Riverdale, N.Y.: Ms. Kornblut, I'm old enough to remember the William Scranton candidacy being destroyed by one simple statement about being "brainwashed" by PR people in Vietnam. Years later, the bottom fell out of another candidate's support when he gave a legalistic, bloodless answer to a hypothetical question about how he would react to the rape and murder of his wife.
If your colleagues want to, you can blow up any inartful statement by a candidate, and pump his negatives up to intolerable levels (see Gore, Al). So why all the shyness about McCain? On a daily basis, he's having all kinds of trouble out there on the trail distinguishing Sunni from Shiite, forgetting how Social Security works, and repeatedly pledging to defend the defunct country of Czechoslovakia and generally having senior moments all over the place. Some of his "jokes" lately are downright alarming.
Not so long ago we had a president who feigned memory loss to escape prosecution for Iran-Contra, then apparently suffered real memory loss, which tended to convince some people that he wasn't feigning at all, and that he simply was not mentally alert enough to handle the job in his last few years. McCain is approximately the same age as Reagan when he began his mental decline. How can it be responsible for the media to ignore this very real campaign issue? This current squeamishness in exploring the natural effects of aging reminds me of the press's reticence many years ago to fully vet the late Paul Tsongas, who in retrospect was not physically sound enough to run for the office.
Anne E. Kornblut: It's a good point; I do think that a lot has been said and written about McCain's age, both by reporters and partisans. The Obama campaign never misses an opportunity to talk about McCain's "30 years in Washington," which is a reminder of how old he is in a more subtle fashion. Of course, the key is to be able to ask honest questions about his age and mental state without perpetrating false prejudice against older people.
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Helms and AIDS: Helms only began supporting AIDS relief in Africa late in his career and life; a life and career that routinely bashed gay people and other races. Naming an AIDS bill after him is very, very insulting to those of us on the other side of Helms' hatred.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another point of view. Thank you for this.
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Bloomington, Ind.: Hello Anne, Has anyone at the Post ever thought of having these discussions in a live video format? You could read the questions and answer accordingly. You would be great. Also, a few weeks ago, in one of Dana Milbank's discussions, Dana quoted a poem he attributed to you. It started with the words: "I think we all agree, the past is over." It was a hoot! Can you give us some background on that? And might we see some more prose in the future?
Anne E. Kornblut: Dana! I didn't know he'd done that. In 2000, I wrote a satirical Bush "acceptance" speech based on some of his past malapropisms. I'll see if I can dig it up. Assuming that's what he was referring to. Re: Video -- but then we'd have to brush our hair!
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Reston, Va.: Hi Anne. Do you think Obama's comments about Iraq being a "distraction" might come back and bite him as he visits the troops who are fighting in that mere "distraction"? Or do you think his handlers will make sure he is surrounded by people who wouldn't be critical of that statement and position on the war?
Anne E. Kornblut: If they were smart, they'd have a soldier ask him about it, and let him answer it in a way that puts the question to rest. But hey, I'm no Obama adviser. Good question.
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Wimbledon, U.K.: Any word on when Sen. Obama will be over here, and if he'll be giving a speech or some such we can attend? I couldn't find anything on his campaign Web site, although I may have been looking in the wrong places. Thanks!
Anne E. Kornblut: He'll be there soon, but I'm not sure if he'll be holding any public events. Keep an eye out for the next few days.
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Gaithersburg, Md.: Gotta ask it again today because I still haven't seen the issue addressed by the parties. Why are my tax dollars being used to bail out housing, mortgage and banking industries that I responsibly did not become a part of? I'm a liberal who believes in safety nets and a managed economy but this only benefits those who were most irresponsible. If the Democrats and Republicans pass this bailout for people they failed to regulate, I'm gonna be forced to either run myself or go third-party!
Anne E. Kornblut: I have been wondering the same myself, and the answer I keep getting back, particularly from market-minded conservatives, is that it's better to bail out the banks and industries now than to suffer the long-term consequences if the entire economy collapses. The trick, though, is to do so without removing the incentives for making safe bets in the first place, as people like you and I did.
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ROTFL to Washington's Outrage: Coverage of McCain's "foreign" trip was extensive, but it wasn't "sexy" (free trade isn't the most exciting subject) -- it just got overshadowed by the hostage return in Columbia (which I think was actually designed as a media "avail" for him). But this is Obama's first trip to Iraq, where an actual war is being waged ... of course the media is gonna be all over that like a terrier on a sweat sock. Don't worry, McCain's still getting his donuts (with sprinkles) from the media ... it's just a bit harder for him to break through, when there doesn't seem to be much point (or drama) to his foreign junkets.
Anne E. Kornblut: Thanks for this.
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Alexandria Va.: Why hasn't more been made of Russia and China's veto in the U.N. Security Council of sanctions against Mugabe in Zimbabwe, especially with the Olympics coming up? I had to hear about it from the New York Times's Friedman op-ed yesterday.
washingtonpost.com: So Popular and So Spineless (New York Times, July 16)
Anne E. Kornblut: Great question, to which I have no answer, but I will post this here.
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Canton, N.Y.: Hi Anne. I know it's just politics, but who does President Bush think he's fooling when he blames congressional Democrats for blocking attempts to allow offshore drilling? Bush had a GOP Congress for much of his term, so if it was that important to him, why didn't he push this earlier than six months before he leaves office?
Anne E. Kornblut: A good point...and a familiar political question when it comes to who's really to blame in Congress...
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To Washington: Helms "did do a lot of work on providing funding for AIDS relief -- seriously." Yes, towards the end, he did some work to stop AIDS ... in Africa! But he voted time and again against AIDS funding in the U.S. In fact, he never voted for any funds for U.S. AIDS victims or research. Try again, Washington!
Anne E. Kornblut: And another...
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Arlington, Va.: I just don't understand what Obama supporters don't get about the whole Rev. Wright thing. I never will vote for Obama because of his 20 year association with the racist, anti-Semitic black separatist movement he was a part of. Not just Wright, his church also gave awards to Farrakhan, and he had no problem with it until just two years ago, when it became public.
Worse, he sent his children there? What if McCain sent Megan to a white supremacist camp? Wouldn't that basically disqualify his from the election? I know a lot of people who feel the way I do. Obama's playing up the the radical, left-wing victim/race movement -- the only goal of which is to stir up racial tension for financial gain -- has disqualified him to many ... including me.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another example of the strong feelings this has evoked. Thanks for writing in.
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Arlington, Va.:"I actually had one Obama person tell me just days ago -- on background, though, so I cannot use the name -- that they were worried about the direction things were going in." Given that this source lied to you, will you print the next tip he provides to you on background? Sources who lie to reporters deserve to be exposed and shamed.
Anne E. Kornblut: Good point! This is why we are extra careful to confirm information, with documents if possible, before printing it. And we get to know our sources over time, and keep track of their accuracy. Partisans all over the place express their "feelings" about things in an effort to shape our coverage -- without putting their names to it -- and it's our job to be skeptical of it. This story is a great reminder of that.
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Chicago: Hey Anne, what do you make of Hillary voting against Barack on the telecom immunity? For months she would wait to see how he voted so as to not allow any distance. Now she is taking the opposite tack. Does anyone doubt she would have voted for telecom immunity if she were the nominee and was moving to the center?
Anne E. Kornblut: I was wondering the same thing. No way to know for sure, but it will be fascinating to watch her now that she is unshackled this way.
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Evanston, Ill.: Thanks for answering my question; I think you are right on. It's just a little depressing that we have such a double standard. Obama is half white and was raised by white Americans, but can't criticize them because he's not one of "them."
Anne E. Kornblut: On the other hand, we're actually having a conversation about it, which means it could evolve.
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Sacramento, Calif.: Is the election Obama's to lose?
Anne E. Kornblut: I would not go that far. It's definitely a Democratic year, and Obama has all sorts of advantages. But the polls are tight, and this is a topsy-turvy year already. So I'd say... stay tuned.
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Correction:"Ms. Kornblut, I'm old enough to remember the William Scranton candidacy being destroyed by one simple statement about being "brainwashed" by PR people in Vietnam." Actually it was Mitt Romney's dad that said that and killed his campaign. I'm reading a great book right now, "Nixonland," that covers it.
Anne E. Kornblut: Wonderful, thanks for this.
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Olney, Md.: When Republicans raise a lot of money, it's usually stated in an insulting way, like "the Republican Money Machine," or people attending expensive dinners, etc. The truth always has been that no one could contribute more than $2,300, and no corporations could contribute anything. When Sen. Obama's campaign raises a lot of money, and despite there being many small-amount contributors, at least half the money has come from that same type of $2,300 contributors at expensive dinners. Why isn't there a mention of the "Democratic Money Machine"? That to me is the most obvious example of the media skewing left.
Anne E. Kornblut: Terrific observation. I will say, back during the bad old soft money days, there was plenty of talk about the Democratic money machine -- usually code for George Soros and Hollywood. But the Obama machine has yet to have a new lexicon assigned to it.
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Albany, N.Y.: I can sorta see why neither Obama nor McCain would want to say much in public about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the credit issue more generally, but will they be able to avoid it for the entire campaign? Whichever one gets elected is going to inherit this problem; wouldn't there be some political interest in how they propose to manage it?
Anne E. Kornblut: Well, I for one am interested. But you're right -- they're both due to say more.
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Dripping Springs, Texas: Anne, nice chat today. Thoughtful answers to even the mainstream-media-bashing questions. Thanks for taking the time and making it one of the best places to find diverse questions and informative answers. No question, just a thank you.
Anne E. Kornblut: This is so nice! Thank you. And you know, we love doing these (or I do, anyway).
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Olney, Md.: Someone wondered why Sen. Obama was criticized for mentioning white bitterness and clinging to guns and religion and not for criticizing people who father children and take no responsibility. The difference is the former is a distorted characterization of something that is not in itself bad (religion, protection) except to liberals, while the latter (pregnancy outside of marriage) is a fact and is in and of itself a bad thing, according to most people.
Anne E. Kornblut: Another good point. Thank you.
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Anne E. Kornblut: Okay folks, I have to run, but thanks so much for being here today. See you again next week!
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July 16, 2008 Wednesday
Suburban Edition
Warner Has Cash Lead In Virginia Senate Race
BYLINE: Tim Craig; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: METRO; Pg. B01
LENGTH: 823 words
DATELINE: RICHMOND, July 15
With a little more than 100 days remaining until the Nov. 4 election, Republican U.S. Senate candidate James S. Gilmore III is struggling to keep pace with his Democratic opponent Mark R. Warner in the money race, and the presidential candidates are stepping up their spending in Virginia.
In campaign finance reports released Tuesday, Gilmore had $117,000 in the bank as he prepared to enter the next phase of the campaign, including a debate with Warner this weekend at the Homestead Resort in the western part of the state.
Warner, who like Gilmore is a former governor, has $5.1 million in the bank, giving him a commanding advantage in his ability to reach out to voters.
Warner launched his second major advertising blitz of the campaign Tuesday, releasing a 30-second TV spot focusing on his plans for reducing gas prices and reforming the nation's energy policies.
Gilmore has yet to air a TV ad, instead using his resources to send out targeted "robocalls" to voters to try to get out his message about the need to drill for more oil in the United States.
"It's like everything else. You would like to have more money to spend than you have, but I think the key for us is we've got enough money to deliver our message when the voters are listening, and that really isn't . . . until October," M. Boyd Marcus, a Gilmore strategist, said, commenting on Warner's 44-to-1 money advantage. "People are maybe paying some attention to the presidential race, but they are not paying much attention to anything else."
With Virginia possibly up for grabs in the presidential race, Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) have started investing in TV ads in the state.
Obama released a 30-second TV ad Tuesday that will air statewide. In it, he talks about his vision for protecting national security and his efforts in the Senate to try to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorists' hands. Since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee, Obama has aired three ads in Virginia, including in the expensive Washington media market.
McCain went up with his first Virginia ad last week, a one-minute biographical spot that has been airing in the Washington area.
If the presidential contest appears competitive in Virginia into the fall, political analysts say, Obama and McCain could each spend well more than $10 million in the state.
By the end of this week, McCain will have regional offices in Fairfax, Richmond, Fredericksburg and Virginia Beach. The Obama campaign, which has dozens of paid staffers working in the state, plans to announce a major expansion of its Virginia effort Wednesday, according to Democratic officials.
Both political parties also are expected to pour money into Virginia, which hasn't supported a Democratic presidential nominee since 1964.
According to federal finance reports, the Virginia Democratic Party has a 9-to-1 advantage over the state Republican Party in money that can be used to try to influence the outcome of the presidential, Senate and congressional races. Virginia Democrats, who are trying to raise at least $3 million for their coordinated campaign, have $841,000 in their federal account, compared with the state GOP's $92,000.
"We are going to be using our resources to reach out to voters to make sure we elect Democrats up and down the ticket, from Obama to Warner to our congressional candidates," said Levar Stoney, executive director of the Virginia Democratic Party, which has opened 10 regional offices focused on this fall.
GOP officials said the Republican National Committee, which has $53 million in the bank, can transfer money to the Virginia state party at any time to offset the Democrats' early money advantage.
"We are confident that Virginia will have more than enough resources to help lead John McCain to victory in November," said Katie K. Wright, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, who noted that the Democratic National Committee has $4 million in the bank.
Rebecca Fisher, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said the committee has not decided whether it plans to spend money to try to boost Gilmore.
In Northern Virginia's 11th Congressional District, GOP nominee Keith S. Fimian has an early fundraising advantage over Democratic candidate Gerald E. Connolly, the chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Fimian, a wealthy businessman, said he has about $1 million in the bank for his race.
Connolly, who just finished a costly battle for the nomination against former U.S. representative Leslie L. Byrne, has $271,000 on hand. But Connolly, whose fundraising is expected to pick up over the summer, will probably be able to count on help from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Last week, DCCC officials said they had reserved $1.3 million in airtime in the Washington media market to run ads this fall aimed at the 11th District, which includes most of Fairfax and part of Prince William County.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 16, 2008 Wednesday 12:00 PM EST
The Reliable Source
BYLINE: Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts, Washington Post Staff Writers, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 6899 words
HIGHLIGHT: In today's column: James Brown's estate puts his Kennedy Center Honor medallion up on the auction block! Hillary changes her hair. Kimmel and Silverman -- game over. Satire has always been a tricky business. And The Palm accidentally gets the crank calls meant for Nancy Pelosi.
In today's column: James Brown's estate puts his Kennedy Center Honor medallion up on the auction block! Hillary changes her hair. Kimmel and Silverman -- game over. Satire has always been a tricky business. And The Palm accidentally gets the crank calls meant for Nancy Pelosi.
In Wednesday's column: James Brown's estate puts his Kennedy Center Honor medallion up on the auction block! Hillary changes her hair. Kimmel and Silverman -- game over. Satire has always been a tricky business. And The Palm accidentally gets the crank calls meant for Nancy Pelosi.
In recent days: Angelina Jolie finally has those babies -- welcome, Knox and Vivienne. John Lewis goes bare-legged. Michelle Obama pledges a sorority. Foreign policy hottie Samantha Power gets hitched in Ireland. Tommy Bromwell can't come to the phone 'cause he's in jail. Fringe Festival monologuist gets busted -- or his prop does, anyway -- by the TSA. Carla Bruni wants to give you her chrysanthemum.And finally, sad news to those Tony Reali stalkers stalkers who lurk in this chat -- the young ESPN star went and got married.
A transcript follows.
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Reliable Source Columns
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Amy Argetsinger: Good morning everyone! How slow is it in July? It's SOOOO slow, that yesterday People.com's big breaking news was the fact that two weeks ago a member of Menudo got kicked off of a Delta flight because he refused to turn off his iPod. Actually, this was a more interesting story than it should have been because (1) who knew that iPods are a prohibited portable electronic device? (2) who knew that Menudo was still proliferating? Anyway, let's get it started.
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Bored at lun, CH: What, no side by side picture of Hilary's hair? No greatest hits of parts and poofiness?
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, doh. Of course there are photos, and of course they ended up in print only. I'll beg our cousins over at wpni to add the pics, and will let you know if they're up by the end up the hour.
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What did you mean: when you put in the column the other day, "(oooh -- you hear that, Deltas?)" Which Deltas?
Amy Argetsinger: Delta Sigma Theta -- rival to the Alpha Kappa Alphas, who just gave Michelle Obama an honorary membership.
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Brangelina twins: I enjoyed all the tabloid stories about how Brad wouldn't let Angie's brother, James, in the delivery room like he did for Shiloh's birth. That is bizarre -- I would not have wanted my brother around during any of my C-sections, and he wouldn't have been interested. And I think very highly of my brother.
Roxanne Roberts: I'm with you. There are things brothers (or any other family member) just don't need to see. Of course, a woman can invite anyone she wants and I think the baby's father should be there is he wants---but anyone else but hospital staff----eh. That what waiting rooms are for.
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Hillary's hair: I thought your coverage of this change was interesting. My husband said, "So?" and I explained that changing your part is not as easy as it sounds -- I know that when my part is not in its natural place, it just feels weird. Shorter is interesting, too -- do you think it's just for summer, or she let it be longer when campaigning to look more feminine?
washingtonpost.com: Hillary After and Before
Amy Argetsinger: Thank you very much, glad you liked the item. I think it must be a new day in America, because instead of getting hundreds of angry e-mails saying "how DARE you trivialize the accomplishments of a female politician by focusing on her hairstyle; you would never do this to a man!" (uh, yes we would) -- we only got ONE angry e-mail from someone saying "how DARE you run such an unflattering photo of Hillary Clinton!"
Sorry, we didn't mean to. The truth is that it was damn hard to get any photo of the new hairstyle, the only option being a CSPAN screengrab, and you take what you can get there, unfortunately.
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Roll Call: Is Ms. Roberts late AGAIN? Detention for you!
Amy Argetsinger: No, she's just a slow typer.
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Pledging: Isn't it a little late to join a sorority? It's an experience to have when you are a single college girl. BTW, were either of you ladies sorority chicks in college?
Roxanne Roberts: The interesting thing about historically African-American sororities is the work they do AFTER they leave college: A huge amount of community service, mentoring, networking, etc. That's part of the ongoing loyalty so many members feel over their lifetime.
And, no, I wasn't a sorority chick, mostly because I have a checkered college career. Amy spent four years at UVa, but never joined the Greeks.
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Silverman/Kimmel: I am really sad about this break up. They seemed so cute and normal. And of course funny. But what do I know?
Amy Argetsinger: I sort of know what you mean. Isn't it funny how we project certain assumptions on celebrities -- i.e., "he seems smart" or "she seems so sensible" or "they seem like good parents" or "they seem like a good couple." -- based really only on seeing them on a couple of talk shows or paparazzi shots. When really, that's just their charisma talking. And of course we don't even really know what's going on inside our own friends' relationships, but we think we know with celebrities.
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Falls Church, Va.: I'm pretty sure anything that sends out an electronic current is "prohibited" during takeoff and landing.
Also, I think what they do in Puerto Rico is take kids and put them in baseball camps, and if they can't play, they're kidnapped and taken to be a member of the "new" Menudo.
Roxanne Roberts: Do we think Ricky Martin would have been better off as a left-fielder?
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iPod: Um, Roxanne. I think the problem with the iPod was that he was going to use it during take off when no one is allowed to use electronic devices.
Roxanne Roberts: Um....did I say otherwise? Or do I strike you as electronically challenged? (I am, but I try to hide it.) And no, I don't own an IPod but am thinking about it.
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Michelle Obama: I love Michelle Obama, can't stand the AKA's (My mom's a Delta, they're fierce rivals...and have a better call too!) Anyway, "Honorary" is just that, "Honorary." It's just like when Harvard issues an Honorary Ph.D. You can't actually use it. Your income isn't going to go up. It just means that Harvard thinks you're awesome. That's what Michelle's getting. Indication that she's awesome (Which she is!). I'll still love the future first lady in that horrible pink and green.
Amy Argetsinger: Remind me of the Delta call, can you? I can remember the AKA one, which was catchy ("we're the soul-stepping sorors of the A-K-A" -- or something like that.)
It's been fun seeing all the flocks of pink-and-green ladies walking around town this week.
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Helen Mirren and her Bikini: So have you seen the photos of Helen Mirren vacationing with her husband and wearing a bikini? This woman needs to share her DNA with the world for the good of science. She looks fabulous and still age-appropriate.
washingtonpost.com: Mirren in Bikini ( Daily Mail, July 15)
Amy Argetsinger: Dang.
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AKA, rush bait: You know the AKA's did that at least in part to say Ms. Obama's a member when rushing. Who doesn't want the (potential) first African American First lady as a member? Back when I was doing the rushing for Pi Phi, we always heralded Mary Margaret Truman (daughter of the Pres) and made sure everyone knew Cindy Crawford "pledged." No one was sure what happened after her pledging...
Amy Argetsinger: I was going to say, somebody better offer Cindy McCain a bid -- but of course, she's always a Kappa Alpha Theta, University of Southern California chapter.
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Washington, D.C.: So is the new Pitt boy pronounced Knox Lee-on or Knox Lee-own?
Amy Argetsinger: I assume it's the full-on French pronounciation -- lay-ON. But what do I know. Hey, notice that all of Angelina's boys have "X" names? Knox, Maddox, Pax.
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Dexterity: Nancy Pelosi must be ambidextrous if she can loll in a bubble bath, eat chocolates and read. Or do a crossword puzzle? My book always falls in the water and I wouldn't even try to fill out a puzzle (have to engage too many brain cells). Doesn't help that the cat is sitting on the edge of the tub eyeing the bubbles while his tail floats in the water.
Roxanne Roberts: Maybe she has one of those tub trays that you can put stuff on. I'm a big bubble bath fan but tend toward magazines, which are less problematic when wet. My cats have had their share of tub mishaps and now steer clear until I drain out the water, then they spend 20 minutes rolling in the warm, empty tub. Very cute, if you like that sort of thing.
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It just means that Harvard thinks you're awesome. : Not even that. It just means Harvard needs a popular speaker.
Roxanne Roberts: That too.
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After and Before: Let's hope After is bad because it is a screen grab. It does look dreadful, and she is actually a good looking woman. I applaud your attempts to provide pictures, however.
I've gotten obsessed with the Chandra Levy case again. Gene Weingarten claims that the WaPo series solves the mystery, but that the murderer will never be prosecuted. Thoughts?
Amy Argetsinger: I tried to tease this news out of Sari Horwitz, one of the brains behind the Chandra series (and it is truly riveting), but she won't tell. They're keeping it pretty close to the vest, which suggests that there will be some stunning revelations out of this. It is beginning to sound more and more like a random-violence crime, isn't it?
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Sororities: Actually, some sororities, like mine, Gamma Phi Beta, have what's called "Alumnae initiates." Essentially, that's someone who joins post-college. There are a lot of reasons why that might happen -- no interest in college, networking, philantropy, daughter/sister/niece/etc. a member...
Speaking for myself, I've found the sorority alumnae group to be a good support network -- an "old girls club" if you will. Not all sorority alumna groups are simply "ladies who lunch." Particularly in this area, there are a lot of professional women who are members, and use it as a support and networking venue. (Also, for the moms in the group, the college members are a great source for babysitters!)
Roxanne Roberts: I think former sorortiy members fall into two camps: Professional and community support, or ladies who drink. Lunch is never a big factor.
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Amy Argetsinger: Good news! Our kin at wpni have put the Hillary before-and-after photos up on the web -- click back on today's column to see.
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Des Moines, Iowa: Sorry, but I think we all knew that iPods were a restricted electronic device. I even had to turn off my little battery-operated Yatzhee (sp) game on a flight once. Concerning iPods, since most people play them so loud I can hear them two rows away I wish they would ban them for the entire flight.
Amy Argetsinger: Yeah, well, I don't have an iPod. And my non-existent iPod doesn't have Menudo on it.
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Roxanne and iPod: The largest groups of people in the world: Those who are planning to attend law school; Those who plan to write a book someday; Those who are thinking about getting an iPod
Roxanne Roberts: Law school is out for me. Might write a book...someday. So, should I get an IPod and download all my old-fashioned geezer music and podcasts....or will it ruin my life and cut me off from civilization?
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Jen and John: What would their celeb couple nickname be? Any news on the pair, if they even still are one?
Amy Argetsinger: Hmmm... Meyerston? Jehn? There's just nothing with the magical ring of Vaughniston, is there?
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RE: Honorary Delta Membership: Personally, if the Faber College chapter of the Delta fraternity grants Michelle's husband an honorary membership, I'll consider voting for him.
-The Grumpy Repbublican
Amy Argetsinger: Thanks for weighing in, Grumpy Repbub.
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Downtown, D.C. -- Please help!: I know this probably doesn't fall under the realm of 'gossip' but I figured you high fashion ladies or a reader would know (and since it's a slow day...) -- where can I go in D.C. to get a suede Coach purse cleaned? I searched the archives of the WP chats and couldn't find an answer.
Roxanne Roberts: Have you tried a good shoe repair shop? They should be familiar with cleaning and repairing all sorts of skins, including suede.
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Menudo: This is Puerto Rico's version of a student travel program. But just for guys.
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, okay. I thought it was more like a Destiny's Child for guys, but without a Beyonce anchor.
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washingtonpost.com: Hillary After and Before
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Chandra Levy: But GW's point was that the person couldn't be/wasn't going to be prosecuted. If it's random violence, that would probably mean that the police botched the investigation completely, rendering good evidence unusable in court. Fruit of the poisonous tree, etc., in lawyer-speak.
Amy Argetsinger: If it was random violence, then it's always hard to find the culprit, especially when time has washed away all the usable evidence, as was probably the case here. I don't know, and neither does Gene. We're all just waiting for the end of the story.
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Woodbridge, Va.: I see Lou Pearlman is in prison for 25 years for fraud.
I wonder if any Backstreet Boy or 'NSync-er will visit him in the slammer?
Amy Argetsinger: Or Menudo?
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Re:Pledging: Isn't it a little late to join a sorority?: It's not just AKA that does lots of community service, it's all the 26 National Panhellenic Conference (NPC)groups, each has a national philanthropy. My sorority's is the Susan G. Komen Foundation(breast cancer research), and we staff the National Race for the Cure and the Redskins Think Pink with the NFL. In addition, my local chapter adopts a family for the holidays, volunteers at Bethesda Cares and makes mailbox gifts for the kids at Childrens' Inn. So for all of you who thought that a sorority was silly songs and matching shirts at college, uh, no, it's about giving back to others, not the crap you see on some cable show about a rogue local college group. And we do have special initiates as alumnae. Rant over, thanks.
Roxanne Roberts: No problem.
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Fairfax, Va.: The Menudo news brings a great question -- in your expert opinion -- what was the best of the boy bands? New Kids? New Edition? Backstreet Boys? Jackson 5? Menudo?
Amy Argetsinger: Hard to beat the Jackson 5, who actually had good music. But we're forgetting so many others. What about the Osmonds? Musical Youth? Herman's Hermits? Okay, Herman's Hermits come in a close second to the Jackson 5.
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Rox -- get an iPod: I have mine filled with Geezer music! (Do you think ZZ Top ever envisioned old chicks like me jogging to their music?) My son takes pity on me sometimes and adds some cool tunes. But the iPod has made my workout so much easier. And you can also download stuff from NPR if you want a more serious tone.
Roxanne Roberts: Like.....hmmmm, like the oh-so-serious "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me."
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Glover Park, D.C.: I have not had the time to make it through the whole Washington Post series, so I am relying on you guys. Does your paper actually answer the question of who killed Chandra Levy? And if so -- who did?
Amy Argetsinger: I don't know -- like I said, they're keeping this all a secret. Often we can sneek a peak at stories while they're in the system here -- but not this time. Rats.
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All in favor of the 'Pod: Got an iPod years ago, now have my entire CD collection on it (well over 7,000 songs). I can honestly say it will change your life...for the better.
Amy Argetsinger: So what if you lose the iPod? Do you still have the CDs?
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washingtonpost.com: Who Killed Chandra Levy?
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Re coach purse: Iwould also contact a local Coach store or stop by one (mmmm new coach smell) to get their advice. They may have some do it yourself tips or could point you in the right direction.
Roxanne Roberts: Or even send it to Coach? A lot of established companies will repair their products for a fee, and you've got experts working on it.
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iPods and Flying: I read yesterday that Rahm Emanuel told Sen. Obama (who famously uses his iPod) to keep his earbuds in his ears if he wants to be left alone on the campaign plane. Do you think this means he has to turn his off when the campaign plane is taking off and landing, or is that just for commercial flights?
Amy Argetsinger: Good question. I think the rules are completely different when you're on a campaign charter. Like, you can keep talking on your cells, and you can stand up during takeoff and surf down the aisles on the food trays, and you can just go crazy with gels and liquids.
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Jen and John nickname: Animeyer, of course!
Amy Argetsinger: Yes, I think that's the best we can do.
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All this sorority talk today: I fell like I am smack in the middle of that crappy Tom Wolfe novel...I mean, I saw this guy at the party, and I was so like, oh my God!
I've been forced to give up Celebritology because I favor pleated pants. Don't make me drop you guys too.
Roxanne Roberts: C'mon---this is the good side of sororities, not the spoiled mean chick bratty side. But I'm not clear how pleated pants or lack thereof fits in here....
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Ellicott City, Md.: When and where are you guys appearing on TV these days? Where is Tucker now?
Amy Argetsinger: WRC Channel 4 on Friday afternoons around 4:15, generally. Here and there on random MSNBC shows or sometimes important investigative news programs like CNN Showbiz Tonight. Tucker last I saw was still doing talking-head punditry on other people's MSNBC shows.
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Jen and John: It's Johnifer.
Roxanne Roberts: By the time we decide on one, they'll break up.
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Waldorf, Md.: What do you all think Tony Danza has on his iPod?
Amy Argetsinger: I don't know, but I do think about this a lot. I'd say... show tunes and Journey.
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I don't know, and neither does Gene. We're all just waiting for the end of the story. : Yikes, a little snarky there aren't we? Taking a swipe at Gene? Or are you just jealous that he knows the ending and you don't?
Roxanne Roberts: Amy is not be any snarkier than usual. She doesn't know, and we're pretty sure Gene doesn't either....unless he did it!
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Herman's Hermits: was a boy band?
Amy Argetsinger: Maybe the original boy band. I think they were all under 18 when they formed; Peter Noone was only 15. And oh, if you ever see one of the old '60s TV clips, they LOOKED so young.
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Reston, Va.: Another over-40 iPod user. Yes, get an iPod! And yes, I listen to Roxanne kick butt on Wait, Wait every week.
Roxanne Roberts: Sweet of you to say, even though I'm not on every week and don't always kick butt. But let's keep the myth going....
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Re: Wait, Wait: I'll back up the plug for your show as a running companion, Roxanne. My husband and I are training for the Marine Corps Marathon and time the last hour or our long runs to be with "Wait, Wait" (we have Mp3 players with radios -- one reason NOT to get an iPod). We look oddly anti-social running together with headphones on, and then look like crazy people as we wildly laugh at the exact same time. Thanks for helping us through excruciating hours of exercise on Saturday mornings!
Roxanne Roberts: I love that! And isn't it great you have the same sense of humor?
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Washington: I have a question about your jobs. It seems that everyone is on vacation this time of year -- does that make your job that much harder trying to find something interesting to write about? What can we do to help?
Amy Argetsinger: Yes. Not much is going on, but we still have the same amount of space to fill. It forces us to be more enterprising and creative, since news isn't just dropping from the trees, and sometimes we end up coming up with better stuff than in the fat, busy days of April and October, when it all just comes too easily. But still, we could use your help. The best way you can help is by punching a VIP in the face, preferably at The Palm or the Four Seasons, or possibly breaking up a power couple. Then contact us at reliablesource@washpost.com
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Weekend entertainment: Momma Mia or The Dark Knight? Now there's a clear cut choice.
Roxanne Roberts: So Dark Knight.
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And you can just go crazy with gels and liquids. : Wow, fun! Shampoo fight at 3,000 feet!
Roxanne Roberts: Or something.
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Matthew McConaughey: is the new voice of beef. Isn't that redundant?
Amy Argetsinger: Yes, doing radio spots for the National Cattleman's Beef Association. Bad choice, actually. Separated from images of his abs, McConaughey's voice is actually kind of unimpressive.
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John and Jen: It's Johnaniston.
Amy Argetsinger: Yes. Maybe. I've got the feeling we won't have to worry about this too much longer.
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Wait, wait: Amy - are you jealous that Roxanne is on and not you? Why don't they put you on as a team? Or do you get tired of being together?
Amy Argetsinger: Wait Wait has been Rox's gig for decades, since long before I ever knew her, since long before either of us did this column.
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The John Lewis UPS story: I enjoyed this piece in your column, but it made me wonder....What other politician would look good in those UPS shorts?
washingtonpost.com: A Congressman Spends a Day in Uniform ( Reliable Source, July 15)
Amy Argetsinger: Good question. You really don't know until they don the shorts, though, you know?
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New Yorker cover: Everyone else in the media universe has weighed in. Did you think it was funny, offensive, or missed the mark entirely?
Amy Argetsinger: It didn't offend me. Thought it was passably amusing. But I think Phil Kennicott (link to follow) made a good point in saying that it wasn't really satire, because satire holds up a mirror to let us see our own foibles whereas this was more the New Yorker letting its smug readers laugh at the fallacious assumptions of the yokels in fly-over country.
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Indianapolis, Ind.: This might not fall under the category of gossip, but I just read that William Peterson is leaving CSI, and that Laurence Fishburne and John Malkovich are in talks to replace him. Who do you think would be better? I'm torn -- I like the show, but don't really like either of them.
Roxanne Roberts: I think Malkovich looks more like a dude who would enjoy murder investigations. Actually, looks more like a murderer, but you didn't ask that.
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Snarky in Chevy Chase: So, if Brangelina has more kids (God forbid -- shades of Mia Farrow kid hoarding), how about they name the next boy Xerox?
Roxanne Roberts: Gotta be Xerxes.
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Logan Circle, D.C.: I just moved to town and know few people. A couple girlfriends are coming to visit from home this weekend and want to go lively places where we would find lots of cute guys. Any suggestions?
Amy Argetsinger: Well, there are certainly lots of lively places filled with cute guys in the Logan/Dupont area. But.. not the kinds you're looking for. Anyone else?
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Washington: Would you prefer if I were to punch a celebrity in the face at the Palm or at Camelot?
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, do I really have to choose just one?
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washingtonpost.com: Kennicott: It's Funny How Humor Is So Ticklish ( Post, July 15)
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So what if you lose the iPod? Do you still have the CDs? : The songs are also stored on your computer in iTunes. I keep all my CDs just in case I have an iPod and computer crash. They are all in notebooks made for CD storage, and kept in a closet.
Roxanne Roberts: Very organized of you. Does that come naturally?
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Cindy McCain: As a kite-gal (Kappa Alpha Theta) she cannot accept another membership. Rules, you know.
Amy Argetsinger: Yes, rules.
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Washington: Do us loyal readers expect to see any changes in your column or chat as a result of the management shakeups at your newspaper?
Amy Argetsinger: Nah, I don't think so. (She said with her head in the sand.)
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Falls Church, Va.: (sob)Please post my comment...both Tom Seitsma and Michael D. Shear dissed me today. I'm feeling unloved. (sob)
Helen Mirren is just awesome! I could never look like that in a million years (being pregnant at the moment doesn't help). Mostly pictures of women in bikinis just make me snarky, but I find that photo really inspirational. Beauty in all forms should be appreciated.
Roxanne Roberts: I would have posted this even if you hadn't begged, if that makes you feel any better.
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Dupont, D.C.: Did Amy Foster have a response on whether Congress should cut off funding for the military in Iraq? Or whether the Palm will bring back its arugula and endive salad?
Amy Argetsinger: I bet she'll be ready with an answer next time.
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Silverman: Sarah is cute alright but normal? I sure don't think so.
Roxanne Roberts: Exhibit A: Her superlative turn in "The Aristocrats."
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Washington: Anyone heard that new Jacob Dylan song? I heard it on the radio a moment ago and it is uncredible how much he sounds just like his father -- except you can understand what he is actually saying.
Amy Argetsinger: Uncredible, indeed. That song drives me up a wall. "Something Good This Way Comes" -- that title/refrain is a nonsensical reference to the Shakespearean "something wicked this way comes" (also the title of the great Ray Bradbury novel), and it doesn't even fit the meter of the song. Which sounds vaguely like a melodic rip-off of his dad's "On a Night Like This" or one of his other lesser, formulaic contract-fulfilling toss-offs. And you know, for some reason I expect more of Jakob Dylan. Not that I've given this any thought.
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Brangelina kids: Xavier, Nixon, Kleenex?
Roxanne Roberts: Axle?
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"Roxanne Roberts: I think Malkovich looks more like a dude who would enjoy murder investigations. Actually, looks more like a murderer, but you didn't ask that.":"In the Line of Fire"; a 1990s film set and shot in the District with Clint Eastwood and Rene Russo as Secret Service agents and John Malkovich scary-good as a would-be pPresidential assassin.
Roxanne Roberts: I saw that. He's got the super smart-crazy thing down pat.
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Very organized of you. Does that come naturally?: Probably. I'm a librarian and catalog/organize books and stuff for a living.
Roxanne Roberts: I knew it!
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Twins: Personally, I would be much more excited if Mei Xiang (Tai Shan's mom) had twins than I am about the Brangelina offspring.
Roxanne Roberts: Wouldn't that be adorable? Two baby pandas rolling around? I'm with you---baby animals are much cuter than human babies.
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Falls Church, Va: re: Herman's Hermits a boy band...
Using that criteria The Beach Boys are a boy band. Please leave the esoteric music analysis to Mr. J. Freedom du Lac.
Amy Argetsinger: What, you want us to go back to talking about sororities we weren't in? And what's your complaint -- that "boy band" is a disparaging comment? Herman's Hermits were fantastic -- but they were also a way-underaged band that was marketed as catnip for little girls.
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Brooklyn, N.Y.: re: New Yorker cover
Don't you think that if you have to explain the gag to everyone, that it's not much of a gag?
Roxanne Roberts: That's the problem.
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Cute guys in the city: There's alwyas ESPN Zone.
Or go to a place like Buffalo Billiards and try to get a dart game going. That's how I met my husband.
Amy Argetsinger: Okay, thanks. ESPN Zone is kind of terrifying. I think it is, however, a good place to meet an underaged millionaire athlete -- seems to be where they have their parties to watch the big game or watch the draft, completely with hot wings and lemonade.
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Boy bands: I thought Peter Noone was eternally like 50? And they only had three good songs, so I don't know that Hermans's Hermits counts.
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, they had about five great songs. How many great songs did NKOTB have? Uh, ZERO.
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Please leave the esoteric music analysis to Mr. J. Freedom du Lac.: I thought Amy's review of Jakob Dylan's song was quite good.
Amy Argetsinger: Thank you. Not bad for something just off the top of my head, a topic into which I had put absolutely no thought.
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Chicago, Ill.: After Obama's kids were interviewed on Access Hollywood, are you now free to write about them and for SNL to make fun of them, like they did with Chelsea Clinton in the 90s?
Roxanne Roberts: That's probably one of the reasons the campaign pulled back so quickly. But no---the kids are still young enough that I don't expect much humor at their expense. Maybe as teenagers, but not yet and only if he wins the election.
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Wapo mgt shakeups: I'm not worried, since I'm sure that all mgt are very concerned with keeping the Reliable Source fans, chatters, and subscribers as happy as possible.
Amy Argetsinger: No kidding -- it's all about you guys. All six of you!
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Houston, Tex.: Needing advice -- I loaned someone a DVD I had gotten from Netflix, and it has been weeks and it does not look like it has been returned. What is the proper way to bring that up? In her defense, it is a 2 1/2 hour movie with subtitles, so I can see how it would take a while to get through.
Amy Argetsinger: Wow, that's awkward. I think you should stop talking to her, except through your lawyer, and take her to small-claims court.
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Sarah Silverman:"Her superlative turn in "The Aristocrats..."
OMG! Which character's voice did she do?
Roxanne Roberts: Not "Aristocats." The other one.
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Brangelina boyz: Max, Dax, Lax, Sax, - oh, wait - Isn't that "Make Way for Ducklings?"
Roxanne Roberts: I forgot about that!
Amy Argetsinger: Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack. Re-read that book recently. Holds up well.
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Smell Paso: Here a promotional line for Matthew to deliver:
Aged Beef: It keeps getting older, but I stay the same age.
Amy Argetsinger: Not bad.
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WaPo mngmt shake-ups:7! All seven of us - you forgot to count me!
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, whoops -- didn't see you over there.
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Why not sell the naming rights?: Exxon.
Roxanne Roberts: You're on to something here: Could feed millions of starving third-world babies.
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Love that! And isn't it great you have the same sense of humor?: True! I also wish we shared the same sense of cleanliness, or the same sense of needing to go to the grocery store, or the same sense of the importance of watching Project Runway. Oh, the joys of marriage.
Roxanne Roberts: Ha!
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Losing your iPod ... : Your tunes, etc. Are still on iTunes. Just load up a new pod. An iPod is something you MUST have.
Amy Argetsinger: You see, I never had a Walkman either, though. I have no interest in walking around with earbuds. Isn't the real purpose of an iPod so that you have a portable method with which to demonstrate to people how cool -- and eclectic! -- your taste in music is?
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Places to meet young guys: Umm, obviously Nationals Park and a D.C. United soccer game.
Amy Argetsinger: Okay. Good idea.
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UPS Shorts: You could PhotoShop a bunch of pictures of celebs into UPS shorts. There are those great pictures of Bill and Hillary on a beach several years ago. How about some athletes? I'm guessing that if Madonna saw a picture of A-Rod in a UPS uniform, she might reconsider her recent actions.
Amy Argetsinger: Chris Cooley would happily don the UPS shorts, though they might be too long for him.
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Not "Aristocats." The other one. : Oh, the disgusting dirty joke one? Aaah. Yeah, she's so normal.
Roxanne Roberts: I had a joke there, but it was too dirty for a family chat.
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What is the proper way to bring that up?: How about "Hey friend, did you return my Netflix movie yet?" That would be good start.
Amy Argetsinger: Wait, don't we want to keep it passive-aggressive? That's so much more fun.
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Brangelina Babies: The thing that I don't get is that there ARE fairly normal "x" names out there - Felix, Alex and Max spring to mind.
Roxanne Roberts: Since when do celebs want to be "fairly normal?"
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Boy Bands: I'm not defending NKOTB, but it's not like Hermans'Hermits had a huge catalog here. Just Henry VIII, I'm Into Something Good, Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daugeter, and Silhouettes on the Shade -- am I missing anything here?
Amy Argetsinger: Also "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat" and "Listen People." You think you don't know them, but you'd recognize them in a second.
I was also about to credit them with the very lovely "Ferry Cross the Mersey" -- but no. Gerry and the Pacemakers.
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UPS : should just do a calendar.
Amy Argetsinger: Totally.
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Aristoc(r)ats: Oh, that may be the funniest thing I've ever read in your chat! I cannot think of two more different movies! Hee!
Roxanne Roberts: Both.....nah, I just can't.
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Re: Netflix: If you really want to avoid a confrontation, I would call Netflix! They really pride themselves on customer service, and my experience with them has been great (turns out I have some organization issues and have routinely sent back the wrong DVD or sleeve -- I should get together with the librarian). They may just be happy to count it as a "lost" DVD and send you a new one.
Amy Argetsinger: But wait, does Netflix has the power to arrest me. I mean, this person?
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Places to meet young guys: The Porsche club's racing at Summit in West Virginia
Amy Argetsinger: Huh. Good call.
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Places to meet young guys: In my single days, I met the nicest guys by playing on softball teams with them. I was on three different teams one summer. Of course, I met my husband on a blind date, but we played softball with his friends after we started dating.
Amy Argetsinger: Other youngsters vouch for kickball and soccer teams.
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Boy Ba, ND: Wikipedia (for what THAT's worth) says the term "boy band" wasn't around until the 90s, but that the Monkees are (is) considered a precursor group. Many of the groups from the 60s were pretty young when they got started, but the term seems to be associated with a producer starting with a concept and then recruiting "talent" to fill it.
Amy Argetsinger: Duh -- the Monkees. Of course. I have no problem with applying the term retroactively.
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Employed but Bored: Seriously, someone does need to punch a celebrity -- I am going crazy with nothing to do and nothing to read. Improve my mind, you say! Hah!
Amy Argetsinger: Maybe you should step it up and make this happen. Just a thought.
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Umm, obviously Nationals Park and a D.C. United soccer game.: Yeah, if you like drunk and sweaty, go for it.
Amy Argetsinger: All right, then -- happy hunting at the bookstore poetry readings and free jazz concerts.
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New York: Hey, do they still have free taco night the the National Press Club on Fridays?
Amy Argetsinger: I think so. Have never been.
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Angie: I prefer Dulcolax ... so soothing and French!
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, yuck.
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Borrowed Netflix DVD: Mary, is that you on the chat? No, I haven't sent it back yet, but will do it when I get home.
Amy Argetsinger: I think we just found the solution to this problem.
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If you really want to avoid a confrontation, I would call Netflix!: But don't tell them you loaned it to someone else. You're not supposed to do that. You might get in serious trouble.
Amy Argetsinger: Is this more or less serious than refusing to turn off you iPod during takeoff?
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Washington: I think the Vienna Boys Choir is the original boy band.
Amy Argetsinger: Yes.
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Washington: Angelina is the daughter of a celeb. How come she doesn't have a stupid name?
Amy Argetsinger: She was born into a different era. Back then they only had Moon Unit Zappa and Zowie Bowie.
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But the term seems to be associated with a producer starting with a concept and then recruiting "talent" to fill it.: That makes sense. The Beach Boys started themselves. The others didn't, and some couldn't even play instruments when recruited.
Amy Argetsinger: Useful definition, yes.
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There are 8 of us today: You have printed every one of my snarks, except the one about my college sorority, Gabba Gabba Hey. Rox should get that reference...
Amy Argetsinger: Just didn't get around to it, sorry.
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Office Gossip: don't know who to tell, but my boss doesn't wash his hands after urinating.
And people need to learn to flush. What kind of adult doesn't flush a urinal or a terlet?
Amy Argetsinger: If you read the Style section today, you already know that we are in End Times -- people caught on video ignoring other people dying, the G4 network running a new game show about people vomiting... I mean, you could talk to your boss, but it's just fruitless at this point. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
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At the playground: boy band: ABC
another bad creation
Amy Argetsinger: No, they don't count. And they were great.
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Porsche Club races at Summit Point: This chatter's definition of young guys must be a little different from mine. This is something my 40 year-old brother-in-law and 50 year-old neighbor do. (You know, the folks who have the money to actually own and drive a Porsche around in circles.)
Amy Argetsinger: Fair warning.
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The Monkees : Okay, but this is getting a little confusing. The Monkees weren't really a band, as they didn't actually play their instruments. So can we really consider them a "boy band"?
Amy Argetsinger: Did NKOTB play any instruments? And no, don't answer that, we're almost out of time, I'll look it up myself later.
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washingtonpost.com: The Impassive Bystander ( Post, July 16)
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washingtonpost.com: 'Hurl!': Gag Reflux ( Post, July 16)
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Passive agressive, much: Holy crap! Going through a chat to do that may be the most passive agressive thing I've ever seen. And I WAS in a sorority in college. This chat has been awesome.
Amy Argetsinger: Thank you so much. But if you think that's passive-aggressive? We haven't even taken our gloves off yet.
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Speaking of Chris Cooley's shorts: It's been over a year, and the Cooley Hot Pants have not become a major fashion trend (thank God!).
Amy Argetsinger: Just wait.
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Coach bag: I brought in a Coach bag to the Coach store ask for help with a repair (the trim has come loose). They refused to repair it, even for a fee, but told me that if I would "surrender" the bag to them, I would receive a 40 percent discount off a new bag. Not a great deal, in my opinion.
Roxanne Roberts: Good to know. I'd call headquarters, just to make sure.
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Beauty in all forms should be appreciated. : Er, yes, but she IS beautiful. Appreciating beauty in all forms would be calling a fat KIND woman in a bikini beautiful.
Roxanne Roberts: Doesn't happen, does it?
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Arlington, Va.: A few thoughts:
Places to meet guys: I met my husband at Madam's Organ (the old location).
Wasn't here a character in Dead Poet's Society named Knox Overstreet -- preppy, cute. I think they could have chosen a worse name.
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, he was the cute one. Played by Josh Charles, as in "whatever happened to Josh Charles?"
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Since when do celebs want to be "fairly normal?" : I hope never, because then what will we chat about?
Roxanne Roberts: Exactly! When little Sunday Rose and Knox Leon grow up and briefly date causing a media frenzy by spilling the ancient beans about Tom Cruise....well, won't that be fun? Anyway, we've got tomorrow's column to write, so enough giggles for one week. Like Amy said: Send in every photo or tip to reliablesource@washpost.com and we'll all make it through the summer. Cheers.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: July 17, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Web Publication
Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
All Rights Reserved
823 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The Washington Post
July 15, 2008 Tuesday
Met 2 Edition
Fox to Comedy Writers: Let's Try This at Home
BYLINE: Lisa de Moraes
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C01
LENGTH: 1026 words
DATELINE: BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., July 14
Fox will tackle the comedy-series crisis by taking meetings with sitcom writers at their homes, or in restaurants of their choosing, to make them more comfortable, the head of Fox Entertainment told TV critics at Thank God I'm Working Summer TV Press Tour 2008.
And one of the stars already has been recast on J.J. Abrams's new Fox drama series, "Fringe."
Meanwhile, the slings and arrows of TV critics bounced right off Karl Rove (who appears to lack nerve endings) during a Fox News Channel Q&A session. But they appeared to land on Chris Wallace, who was rattled by the questions and comments directed at on-air talent and a network exec.
About the sorry state of comedy series on network TV, Fox Entertainment division chief Kevin Reilly said: "I can't even go to the platitude of 'it's cyclical, it's going to come back.'
"A lot of confidence has left the creative space on a day-to-day basis. I see really talented people coming in, very skittish, not knowing what to pitch and what will sell. I see executives trying to figure out where is that nerve to hit."
The solution? "We're not going to take most of our [comedy] pitches in our office," Reilly said. "We're going to go out and meet the writers on their own turf. And that could be a restaurant, that could be -- if they want to do it in their house, we'll do it in their house. Anything that gets it out of a sterile environment and try something different."
Reilly said he's heartened by the whole Sarah Silverman-having-sex-with-Matt Damon/Jimmy Kimmel-having-sex-with-Ben Affleck dueling-video thing, and all the stuff comedy writers put on YouTube and other Web sites during the writers' strike. It appears comedy writers still know funny and now all they have to do is figure out how to shove an ad break in every seven minutes and, presto, you've got a sitcom revival.
To that end, Fox is going to throw some money at comedy writers to go out and shoot something before they even come in to pitch it -- or, more accurately, meet Fox suits in their family room to pitch it.
"Go shoot something and then put it in the machine, even if it's not for air -- we've got to do anything to mix it up," explained Reilly, who said he had high hopes for one of his midseason comedies, "Boldly Go Nowhere." He described it as " 'The Office' in space -- petty jealousies and incompetencies on a long-term mission to wherever they're going."
With regard to the "Fringe" recasting: We're speaking, of course, of the cow that, some critics believe, steals at least one scene in the pilot. (You can see a bootlegged version online, though it's not the finished product.)
The cow had to be recast when the sci-fi-ish show moved from Vancouver, B.C., where the pilot was shot, to New York. The cow was not permitted to travel, the show's producer told TV critics, without elaboration. But pilot director Jeff Pinkner told critics they've had conversations about using makeup on the new cow if viewers notice its spots aren't in the same place in the second episode. You can just imagine the mythological implications.
Former White House adviser Rove seemed unfazed by critics' questions in re whether having someone with his "political baggage" hurts the credibility of Fox News Channel, for which he is a contributor.
Congress subpoenaed Rove in May to get him to talk about whether he had a part in prosecutors' decision to pursue cases against Democrats, or in the firing of federal prosecutors considered disloyal to the Bush administration, the Associated Press reported.
Rove told TV critics that in letters to the House Judiciary Committee, "my lawyer has offered for me to go up to visit with members of Congress, visit with the staff or respond to written questions without foreclosing any future action by Congress."
Fox News Executive Vice President John Moody answered the question by saying the situation is between Rove and Congress and does not involve the cable news channel. At which point Rove sprang into action, insisting it's not personal at all.
"It's not between me and Congress. I've not asserted any personal privilege -- this is between the White House and Congress," he said. It's about "the ability of the president to receive advice from senior advisers and for those senior advisers not to be at the beck and call of Congress for testimony."
Rove and Howard Wolfson, Sen. Hillary Clinton's former campaign strategist, came to the press tour to talk about Fox's election coverage. But they never seemed to get around to that. Mostly they defended just being there.
Wolfson acknowledged he wants Barack Obama to become the next president.
Rove said he's not formally working with Sen. John McCain's campaign but that he has frequent contact with those who are. Moody jumped in and said Rove wouldn't get information any quicker than the channel's correspondents covering the presidential race anyway. Critics seemed to buy that one, but when he said, "I don't think Karl would cross the ethical line like that," it set off guffawing in the Beverly Hills hotel ballroom.
Moody was asked about the reference by one air-talent, a while ago, to a possible "terrorist fist jab" between Democratic contender Barack Obama and his wife. Moody said he wished that had not happened, calling it "regrettable."
Wallace, who was on the panel, got kind of knicker-knotted by the end of the session, which was surprising, given the general softball-ness of the questioning.
"I think sometimes there's a double standard here," Wallace vented. "I think that MSNBC and its coverage of this campaign went so far over the line in terms of being in the tank for Barack Obama it lost a lot of credibility." He noted Keith Olbermann's involvement in that competing cable network's election news coverage; Olbermann is also "delivering 10-minute screeds against President Bush, telling him to shut the hell up and Hillary Clinton to get out of the campaign," he said. "The fact is that there was something of a firewall" on FNC, and a reason why "Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity don't anchor the election coverage at Fox.
"Our feeling is the opinion-makers should deliver their opinions and the journalists should cover the news."
LOAD-DATE: July 15, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Charles Krupa -- Associated Press; A moooo point: A cow, much like this Holstein, was recast in the Fox show "Fringe" when show production moved from Canada to New York.
IMAGE; By Frederick M. Brown -- Getty Images; Karl Rove was undaunted by questions about his Fox News role and potential conflicts of interest.
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The Washington Post
All Rights Reserved
824 of 972 DOCUMENTS
Washingtonpost.com
July 15, 2008 Tuesday 12:00 PM EST
Chatological Humor: In Which Gene Downed Two Bottles of Wine and Still Chatted With Nary a Typo (UPDATED 7.16.08)
BYLINE: Gene Weingarten, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 10278 words
HIGHLIGHT: Daily Updates: WED
Daily Updates: WED
Gene Weingarten's humor column, Below the Beltway, appears every Sunday in The Washington Post magazine. It is syndicated nationally by the Washington Post Writers Group.
At one time or another, Below the Beltway has managed to offend persons of both sexes as well as individuals belonging to every religious, ethnic, regional, political and socioeconomic group. If you know of a group we have missed, please write in and the situation will be promptly rectified. "Rectified" is a funny word.
On Tuesdays at noon, Gene is online to take your questions and abuse. He will chat about anything. Although this chat is updated regularly throughout the week, it is not and never will be a "blog," even though many persons keep making that mistake. One reason for the confusion is the Underpants Paradox: Blogs, like underpants, contain "threads," whereas this chat contains no "threads" but, like underpants, does sometimes get funky and inexcusable.
This Week's Poll (Please enter via the appropriate door): Women, 36 and Younger Women, 37 and Older Men, 36 and Younger Men, 37 and Older
Not chat day? Visit the Gene Pool.
Important, secret note to readers: The management of The Washington Post apparently does not know this chat exists, or it would have been shut down long ago. Please do not tell them. Thank you.
Weingarten is also the author of "The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death" and co-author of "I'm with Stupid," with feminist scholar Gina Barreca.
New to Chatological Humor? Read the FAQ.
P.S. If composing your questions in Microsoft Word please turn off the Smart Quotes functionality or use WordPad. I haven't the time to edit them out. -- Liz
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Gene Weingarten: Good afternoon.
Three weeks ago, in the Gene Pool, I offered this challenge to readers.
The nature of the stunt became apparent in my column on Sunday. I used a driving simulator to test my judgment and reflexes behind the wheel of a car, as I got progressively drunker.
The readers' guesses, to be blunt about it, were rather lame, and none merited a t-shirt. However, inasmuch as a t-shirt was promised, it goes to the funniest and most prescient entry, by jhbyer, who proposed that a booby prize be awarded, and that she gets it because she has boobies. A second t-shirt goes to Horace LaBadie, who came up with the idea and passed it on to me. Will both those people please email their addresses to weingarten(at)washpost.com?
There is a story behind this column. It's about the process of big time journalism. When I first proposed the idea to Tom the Butcher, he was very concerned about one possible result: What if I continued to ace the test, well into staggering drunkitude?
"Well," I said, "I can make that funny."
"I'm sure you can," he said, "but I will not publish it."
A spirited and enlightening conversation ensued, the details of which I cannot go into here for reasons of propriety. In essence I was arguing for the transcendence of truth, and the Butcher was arguing for the transcendence of moral and civic responsibility. Both arguments had merit, but he had rank. No conclusion was reached - I was not about to throw this test, nor was he asking me to -¿ but we agreed we would revisit the conversation after the deed was done.
I do believe there is a God of journalism; He has intruded in my life several times, and in this case his methods were stealthy and subtle. He caused The Rib to sustain a bad head cold the night before this event, and her coughing and misery kept me up almost all night. This would help push the results in one direction. In addition, I decided not to eat anything all day prior to the test. (This was not manipulation; I seldom if ever eat anything during the day. It would have been manipulation if I HAD eaten.)
The results were as you saw. To elaborate on my eventual condition after a bottle and a half of wine: While walking down a hall, I needed the wall to remain on my feet.
Second best expense account item of my life.
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Quick. Take today's Instapoll!
I shall give the correct answers are during the chat. Yes, there are correct answers, whatever you might have read elsewhere.
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Today is Murphy's second birthday. Here is the birthday girl, in photos taken this morning: Pic 1 | Pic 2.
Now I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that only a complete douchenozzle would abuse his exalted position to post photos of his dog. And you would be right, if it were not for the fact that this is, primarily, a public service announcement. The dog pictured above NEVER has diarrhea or constipation, and the reason is this.
I was alerted to this food by Molly exactly a year ago; the vet students had heard a presentation from representatives of this company, and Molly had been so impressed by the content of this food that she called me and suggested we try it. Great food. Expensive but not inordinately so. Murphy loves it, and she has thanked us with delightful turds ever since. So now you know.
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Entirely on my own, while researching something unrelated, I discovered a highly unusual name. It is not exactly an aptonym, but it is evident that this man's parents were the most literal humans on the face of the earth. And their son may have reacted badly to his name by becoming an expert in cloning, which is reproduction without the benefit of sexual congress. His name is "Peter N. Poon."
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In a related matter, we have this from Bruce Alter.
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And this important photo from my friend Bill Dedman, the investigative reporter for MSNBC. Bill grew up in Chattanooga, where this sign still stands:
And yes, one day, Bill's name will become an aptonym.
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The Clip of the Day is this, an absolutely brilliant bit of theatrics that can be equally enjoyed by people young and old.
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Please take today's poll. We will discuss it throughout the chat. The poll has established a new milestone, though. I have resolved how we will, now and in the future, create age splits. From now on, the split will occur in such a matter that Chatwoman always remains in the young group. So today, it is "36 and under." In two weeks, it is going to become "37 and under.") If we are still together doing this chat in 20 years, "young" will be defined as "57 and under."
A very good comics week. CPOW is Saturday's Candorville. First Runner Up is Sunday's Doonesbury. Honorables: Sunday's Get Fuzzy. Saturday's Rhymes With Orange, Friday's Nonseq, Saturday's Pearls Before Swine. Today's Frank and Ernest, Monday's Rhymes With Orange and Monday's Sally Forth.
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Uh, OK: While I personally support your article from Sunday and the admissions you made therein as interesting journalism, I have to think that you and your paper will be facing a lot of criticism. Do you think it's worth it? I think you could have done the article without mentioning that you used to drive drunk. Why include that information? I couldn't believe I was actually seeing somebody admit that. Sure hope the statute of limitations has run out on that particular type of crime.
Gene Weingarten: I needed to say that in order to set up the dynamic of the challenge: Why was I doing this? What was I trying to prove and to whom? What were the stakes, for my ego? We have not heard much or any criticism yet, probaly because the column made it quite clear that drunk driving is asinine; the results confirm that handsomely I would say.
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DWI (Driving While an Idiot): In past chats you have made the case that drunk driving is not that big a deal, and that the blood-alcohol levels that establish drunkenness are not fair because people are impaired at different levels, blah blah blah. Did your column research change your mind at all?
Gene Weingarten: It did, mostly because it underscored something: Whatever happens or does not happen to your reflexes and driving ability, your judgment is definitely impaired. I genuinely thought I was okay toward the end. I was definitely not okay.
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The outfit: Gene,
I am Chandra Levy's age (if she were alive today). I'm shocked that her jeans didn't registered with more people. In 1987 yes, that picture would have been normal, but not in 2000. And who the heck tucks in shirts on jeans that hit at the rib cage?
The pose is odd/unnatural, but not for glam shots.
There is a great SNL commercial about Mom Jeans. Chandra would have been their spokesmodel.
Gene Weingarten: This is exactly right, and was an amazing poll result. The oddity of Chandra's jeans was pointed out to me by Rachel Manteuffel, who is a twentysomething woman. I had no idea what she was talking about, but she advised me to check with other young women. So I asked Caitlin Gibson, also a twentysomething, and Liz, who is now by definition ALWAYS a young woman. They all found the pants immediately and were having the greatest time talking amongst themselves, through me, about this OUTRAGEOUS, SCREAMINGLY OBVIOUS and TOTALLY INEXPLICABLE BREACH OF FASHION. The poll confirms this. ONLY the younger women saw this in the plurality, and by a large margin. Older women did barely better than older men, who were, typically, completely clueless. Liz, can you link to the SNL Mom jean ads?
washingtonpost.com: Mom Jeans
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Washington, D.C.: All hail Chatwoman for making me young again. I shall now always remain in the cool hip youngster Chatwoman gage roup in polls rather than stodgy geezer Gene age group.
Gene Weingarten: Chatwoman is the leading edge of young, and will forever be.
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Boston: Isn't this the best response so far to the Obama New Yorker cover?
Gene Weingarten: Hahahahaha.
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Eugene, Ore.: Hypothetically, if you were diagnosed with cancer would you accept chemotherapy? It seems like one of those things that historians are going to look back and say, "I can't believe they actually did that to people."
By the way, I almost wrote "God forbid" to start this question but realized that wouldn't do you much good...
Gene Weingarten: I would accept whatever the most advanced medicine at the time suggested. Because it's a crapshoot anyway, and that gives you the best chance.
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DeLand, Fla.: My parents turned me (and my mutt) onto Bill Jacks years ago. My dog had constant stomach problems until the switch. Not one barf-fest since. Thanks for spreading the word.
Gene Weingarten: It's amazing stuff!
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Greenbelt, Md.: I've thought about the Chandra Levy article and I've decided I don't like the format - it's too short and the cut off points annoy me.
On a separate rant, I'm 29 and I'm sick of hearing about how people are so busy they can't take five minutes to read a 4 page news article (the horror!). I would be curious as to their definition of busy. I personally don't consider texting all day to be busy. I honestly feel it's a matter of priorities - if you really want to do something, you'll make time for it. If you don't want to read the newspaper, cutting an article down to a page isn't going to change that.
Gene Weingarten: I am really on the fence on the issue of length. I do feel they are too short, maddeningly short, but I do like the serial feel a lot. By the way, those of you who think it is "to sell more papers" are showing a fundamental misunderstanding of the business of newspapers. Impulse sales account for a very small portion of sales. I doubt if circulation fluctuates much at all on days with a big story on page one. I have not asked for an official reason why The Post is trying this, but I think those of you who guessed they are simply trying to create an interesting package are closest to the truth. I think this is an experiment, and a fascinating one.
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Colorado: Gene,
In the process of moving yesterday, I noticed an interesting architectural detail on the outside of the older home (built in 1905) I am now renting: a swastika. The symbol is not merely painted on; it's built into the brick pattern itself. I had not noticed it before signing the lease, or I would likely not have decided on the place. I, like 99.9 percent of Americans today (I'm just guessing), associate the swastika with Nazism, and view it as a symbol of hate -- not exactly my cup of tea (or preferred decorating motif, for that matter).
That being said, I understand that the swastika has been used by many cultures over thousands of years as a symbol representing everything from religious ideation to the Finnish Air Force. It is quite likely that this swastika (my swastika, if you will), which clearly predates Nazism, was intended to bestow good luck, as was a common use for the symbol by Southwestern American Indians in particular before the Nazis appropriated it.
So what do I do? If I go to my landlord, that leaves the possibility of him opting to do nothing about it, thereby rendering me stuck with it until my lease expires. Do I surreptitiously paint over it (defacing my landlord's property), or do I seek comfort in the fact that its origin was innocent? And if I cover it up, will that mean the Nazis have won?
Gene Weingarten: I think you need to demolish the building. Get a bullhorn and give people a good 10 minutes to evacuate with their pets. Then swing the wrecking ball.
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How many errors does that article contain?: I notice the caption on one of the Chandra Levy photos says "A 1995 high school photo taken of Chandra in Davis, Calif."
Chandra Levy went to Grace M. Davis High School. Davis High School is in Modesto.
Davis, California, is not Modesto. It's a completely different city, in Yolo County, around a hundred miles from Modesto (in Stanislaus County). All of that is pretty easy to find out, even without, you know, actually talking to anyone from Modesto.
Maybe the high school she went to isn't a big part of the story, but if that was included without checking, what else in that article is wrong?
Gene Weingarten: Uh, I think what you might have here is part of a bigger story. The Post is cutting back on copy editors, as I wrote in a column some weeks ago. Reporters do not write photo captions, copy editors do.
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No more Chandra Levy, please: Let me begin by saying that I love The Washington Post. I am a native Washingtonian, and have read it voraciously for decades, and do so online now.
I am appalled, however, that The Post has seen fit to make this overdone rehashing of the Chandra Levy story front page news when there is so much more which is important to discuss.... McCain and Obama, deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy, gas prices, the Olympics, bank collapses. The list is nearly endless of more fitting stories.
Moreover, the overt disdain for women of color who die or disappear, and are relegated to a few sentences in the back of the Metro section is absolutely heartbreaking. Why is this woman, who is not even a Washingtonian, so much more important than our own citizens? The salaciousness of the affair with the Congressman notwithstanding (and I understand that sex scandal adds a little extra life to any story), this is a seven-year-old story. Can you honestly say that there are no other women whose lives were found interesting enough, or whose deaths were poignant enough to warrant this kind of coverage? Just who wants to read this series?
I would not be able to live with myself had I not shared how deeply mistaken I think WaPo is on this issue. I read every one of your columns and chats, and appreciate your letting me get this off my chest.
Gene Weingarten: Do you think The Post has been UNDERcovering McCain and Obama, deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy, gas prices, the Olympics, bank collapses?
Gene Weingarten: I don't think it is possible to overstate the importance -- in the sense of newsworthiness -- of the Gary Condit connection here. There was a real possibility of An American Tragedy sort of event here, and it made the story extremely compelling from the start. I do believe that if Chandra Levy had been black and from Southeast, and the facts of the story were otherwise similar it would have been covered just as emphatically. I do not doubt that in general the deaths of poor and unknown and unconnected people are undercovered.
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Washington, D.C.: How many Pulitzer Prize winners do you know personally? Well enough to say hello to on the street. Can you name them all? I'm guessing 12.
Gene Weingarten: Twelve! Hahaha. From papers other than The Post, or currently book writing/academia: Dave Barry, Garry Trudeau, Berkeley Breathed, Sydney Freedburg, Dale Maharidge, Madeleine Blais, Maureen Dowd, Michael Ramirez, Bill Dietrich, Leonard Pitts, Tim Page, Eileen McNamara, Barry Bearak. From The Post: Bob Woodward, Michael Williamson, David Finkel, Robin Givhan, David Maraniss, Jeff Leen, Kevin Sullivan, Mary Jordan, Colby King, Tom Shales, Stephen Hunter, Dana Priest, Anne Hull, Sari Horwitz, Scott Higham, Carol Guzy, Michel DuCille, Steven Pearlstein, Bart Gellman, Steve Fainaru, Henry Allen. Deceased: Gene Miller, Jeff MacNelly. So, that's 36. It's not counting people who won as part of a large team. That would bring it over 45, I think. And I know I have forgotten some people.
Gene Weingarten: Also Jim Morin, Lucian Perkins, Liz Balmaseda, Michael Dirda, Jonathan Yardley and Alan Kriegsman. I think I might hit sixty if I remembered everyone.
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Are you a good speller? (From the Manchester Guardian): Are you a good speller? Following the success of Lynne Truss's grammar bible Eats Shoots and Leaves, and the American spelling bee documentary Spellbound, Bloomsbury have published the first dictionary of misspelt words. It lists 1,000 words where people often incorrectly expect to find them. Do you need it? Try our quiz, set by Vivian Cook, author of spelling compendium Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary, and find out.
The correct spelling is:
desiccate desicate dessicate
The correct spelling is:
ecstacy ecstasy exstacy
The correct spelling is:
millennium milenium millenium
The correct spelling is:
dumbel dumbbell dumbell
The correct spelling is:
seperete seperate separate
The correct spelling is:
necessary necesary neccesary
The correct spelling is:
minuscule minniscule miniscule
The correct spelling is:
adress adres address
The correct spelling is:
accomodate accommodate acommodate
The correct spelling is:
irresistible iresistible irresistable
The correct spelling is:
liaison liason liaision
The correct spelling is:
harrass harass harras
The correct spelling is:
definately difinately definitely
The correct spelling is:
occurence ocurence occurrence
The correct spelling is:
embarass embaras embarrass
The correct spelling is:
pronunciation pronounciation pronounceation
The correct spelling is:
independent indipendent independant
The correct spelling is:
questionnaire questionaire questionairre
The correct spelling is:
wiered weird wierd
The correct spelling is:
brocolli broccoli broccolli
The correct spelling is:
reffering referring refering
The correct spelling is:
recomend reccommend recommend
The correct spelling is:
cemetary semetary cemetery
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Gene Weingarten: This covers most of the most frequently misspelled words; I see the correct answers instantly -- the misspellings leap out. Tom the Butcher would score less than 50 percent on that, and he'd only do that well because I have taught him some tricks.
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From the Insi, DE: I come at the poll from an interesting perspective. My SO won a significant national award this year for a multi-day newspaper story. The editors worked the original concept over the coals, cutting the content into smaller and smaller bits. This killed the original narrative and much of what my SO thought was good about the work. By the time the story published, my SO was contemplating either suicide or spousicide.
BUT--all that chopping may have made for better newspaper reading. Each day's set of stories were compelling, and the overall impact of the story was significant. Almost every day I see another story that touches on my SO's reporting.
I don't think that shortening stories or spreading them out over more time is necessarily bad. It takes good editors and good reporters to make that work, but the same goes for a more long-format piece compressed into fewer days. I just wish the process were easier, so that I didn't have to sleep in a bullet-proof vest.
Gene Weingarten: This is ridiculous. You do not need a bullet-proof vest. The vest is pointless. If he is serious about it, he will put two in the head.
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Mens Wear Dept, Tysons Corner: Taking a moment to perform the math, it seems that Liz's Mom was Liz's Dad's Trick or Treat for Halloween 1970.
Gene Weingarten: Okay!
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Just Curious: Hey Gene, how do you know if you drink too much?
Gene Weingarten: I think if it's affecting your life in a bad way, you are drinking too much. You may also be drinking too much if you are wondering if you are drinking too much. Hey Liz about a year ago, in an update, I published my test for whether one is an alcoholic. Can you find it? You can search for "egg sac."
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Lightweights-ville: So, a bottle and a half causes you to stagger such that you need the wall to stand up straight? Did you chug it or what?
Gene Weingarten: I chugged it, yes. Drank very quickly on no sleep and no food. Listen, dude. A bottle and a half is a lot of wine.
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Washington, D.C.: Her jeans only strike people as unusual because they are dated. But the fact that this picture was used the most is what is striking - because it's a highly sexualized picture. She had an affair! With a married man! An older married man! An older married Congressman! Let's show her crotch!
It reminds me of a rape case a few years ago where the defense attorney unsuccessfully argued that the sex had been consensual. After all, she hadn't worn panties that night. And only girls who like to have wanton, consensual sex with men who've just broken their nose don't wear panties.
Gene Weingarten: Wow. Good kicker, there. I don't see this photo of Chandra as particularly sexualized. If that were the intend, I am not sure why she'd be wearing Mom Jeans.
Gene Weingarten: Intent.
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Fairfax, Va.: As a portrait photographer, I am glad you have raised the issue of the "Glam Photograph." I do not know where it was taken, but in my opinion there is far too much airspace between the knees. It looks awkward and too frankly suggestive. As a rule of thumb, I feel that the legs should always be in a parallel configuration in such shots. The exposed crotch simply invites unseemly visualizations that I find inconsistent with any sense of true glamor.
Gene Weingarten: Well, okay. Maybe I'm wrong!
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washingtonpost.com: The Alcoholic Test
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Chandra: The Chandra Levy story wasn't overexposed and endlessly covered because she was white. It was overexposed and endlessly covered because she was absolutely smoking hot. If she had been gorgeous and black, the story would have been just as endless. If she was unattractive and white, it wouldn't have made past page 3 of the Metro section.
washingtonpost.com: Smoking hot? I beg to differ.
Gene Weingarten: Me, too. I think she was kind of plain. Sweet looking but kind of plain.
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New Yorker: Isn't it disingenuous (at best) for the editor to say his mag is NOT written for the upper-west side? I love the mag and still feel at least that that socio-economic group is its target. Sure, WE don't need an explanation; plenty of others might.
Thoughts, o' arbiter o' humor?
Gene Weingarten: Yeah, I don't want to speak at enormous length about this, because you've already heard from Kurtz and Achenbach and today, a very thoughtful piece from Kennicott. To be brief: Of course it was a mistake. A minor mistake, but a mistake nontheless. The New Yorker has no words on its cover, meaning the cover art alone must carry its message. Obviously, the devoted reader of this particular magazine is going to understand this is satire; but this is a magazine sold on newsstands, and a lot of eyes might look at it without the benefit of background. I disagree with Achenbach on one point: I think the image is pretty funny, particularly the depiction of Michelle Obama as though she were Angela Davis. It actually took me a second to get that joke, and then I laughed. Those who are trying to make this out as a big deal, a gigantic blunder, are political zealots trying to make a point. Once explained, The New Yorker's intent was clear, and benign.
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Bethesda, Md.: Hasn't anyone mentioned that all dogs have birthdays and Murphy's b-day is nothing special?
washingtonpost.com: Oooh, ZING!
Gene Weingarten: Heh. But, see, this was not ABOUT her birthday. It was about her anus.
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You seem to have strong opinions: I also have strong opinions. Am currently dating a man who does too. Unfortunately, his beliefs and opinions are diametrically opposed to mine on a lot of issues we both believe strongly in. That being said, I think we both like to argue about things. What are the chances our differing opinions will kill the relationship?
Gene Weingarten: Liz and I are still in love.
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Drivers, Ed: Your drunken experiment in the simulator reminded me of when I was a sophomore in high school. We had to do some sort of "research" project for driver's ed, and my best friend and I decided to do ours together. We used his Super-8 camera to film ourselves playing a crude video-game driving course (this was 1978): first sober, then after 1 beer, then 2, and so on. At the more drunken levels, we intercut little stop-motion scenes of toy cars running into train-set trees and bursting into flame. The instructor was not amused by our project, but lucky for us this was 1978, the authorities were not called in, the course was pass/fail, and we passed. By the way, I've never once driven drunk.
Gene Weingarten: I think this was very creative.
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Pleated pants: Just wanted to mention that I (a man) bought a pair of flat front pants yesterday. My wife took one look at me wearing them and stated that I look better in pleated pants. Given that I'm having sexual relations with that woman and not Chatwoman, she is correct about pleated pants and Liz is wrong.
washingtonpost.com: Your wife must love you very much.
Gene Weingarten: I agree. This is one issue on which Liz and I are not an inch apart.
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And another thing about Chandra Levy story: Gene, readers of this chat... I must humbly submit to all of you: the first couple of installments of this story may be exhaustively researche, accurate, and all that... but the writing is bad. Like, just almmost unreadably bad. Uncharacteristically bad, as far as Post quality goes.
Am I such a curmudgeon at this point that I am completely alone in this?
Thank you for the chance to rant.
Gene Weingarten: I think you are TOTALLY wrong. I'm liking the writing, and I know writing.
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Bethesda, Md.: To follow up on Greenbelt's post about the Chandra Levy stories. I am 30 and I enjoy this format. I am busy in the morning because I have an 11-month old and my time is limited in getting her ready for the day. My standard so far has been to read Sports (the MLB pages/box scores) and Style (comics first, then as much as the rest I have time for).
The Chandra Levy stories have led me to crack the front page at home, in the morning, for the first time in ages.
Gene Weingarten: Good to know. I think that's why they did it.
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Washington, D.C.: Gene--I really doubt that you will post my comment, and if you do post it, I doubt you will give an honest answer, but here goes. Do you think you are sexist?
Gene Weingarten: Liz, I dare you to post this response. I dare you!
washingtonpost.com: Just try and stop me, big boy.
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Rockville, Md.: Hi Gene, Do you know if this Bil-Jac food would reduce the chance that our 10-year-old shepherd mix will be incontinent? It happens about once or twice a week. We feed her Iams currently; vet has not found anything abnormal. Thanks
washingtonpost.com: Has the vet checked for crystals in her urine?
Gene Weingarten: I'm not sure this would affect incontinence, sorry. Unless it is incontinence linked to diarrhea. Sorry, eaters.
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That Chandra Levy article: Gene,
I haven't thought about Chandra Levy in some years but this week's series has reminded me of something that on some level makes me feel guilty, and that is: I am seriously bugged by the fact that neither Chandra nor, near as I can tell, anyone in her family saw anything the least bit wrong (in the sense of immoral, as opposed to "bad for her" because he was using her) with her sleeping with a married man. Don't get me wrong -- obviously Condit is a sleaze and a worse offender than her, and obviously she didn't deserve to die for this or any other sin -- but I have a hard time looking at her picture and seeing anything other than a self-centered twit who could describe a married father as "my guy" without any twinge of conscience. No one she confided in seems to have seen anything wrong with it either.
I expect that had she lived long enough to see through Condit, meet some nice young man, settle down and have kids of her own, she would some day have come to view her actions in the light that I saw them at the time. On the other hand, she was 27, not 17. Doesn't anyone get held accountable for homewrecking any more? Or am I just a prude who needs to get with the times?
Gene Weingarten: I think she was 24. Gary Condit allegedly told her that he was going to leave his wife and marry her. I understand the "my guy." As to the morality of being a "homewrecker," I think there is a complicated set of facts in every case. I'm not sure why the woman, and not the man, is always considered the "homewrecker." It's in his power, not hers, to wreck or not to wreck.
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Doppelganger, Calif.: I recently started a new job and there is another person in the office who looks EXACTLY like me. I mean EXACTLY. Same height. Same hair. Same weight.
We look like identical twins, except that we are not related at all.
I do not know who he is. I don't work with him, but I see him in the hall every so often.
My wife finds this incredibly funny and wants to take a picture of us together.
I'm just a little skeeved out by this whole thing and would prefer to stay in my office the whole day so I don't have to see him at all.
I leave it up to you to decide.
Is this funny enough that I will want a picture of us together? When I'm 80, will I wish I took this picture?
Thanks
Gene Weingarten: You definitely want the picture, and you want to send it into the chat next week. I will post it. We will all laugh, but it will be with you, not at you.
Gene Weingarten: My guess is that no one will think that the two of you look as much alike as you think you do. This is a gauntlet.
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Washington, D.C.: My friend's condo building has "swastika" tiles scattered throughout-- it's an egypto-deco motif. Some residents tried to have them removed, but the building is on the historic register, so they were told to blow it out their... ears. As it should be.
Gene Weingarten: Yeah. I mean, please.
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Rallye, N.C.: I enjoyed the NYT Magazine article on Rush, it made many of the points you do. He's an entertainer first, and an ideologue is his role. I do find something a little creepy about a guy that has his lifestyle, big houses, tons of cars, but lives alone. I wonder if he is buddies with Governor Charlie Crist? I loved the part of the story where he is avoiding commenting on Bill O'Reilly, then finally comes out with "Well someone has to say it, he is Ted Baxter." I bet O'Reilly's head exploded when he read that.
Gene Weingarten: It was the best line in the piece. He IS Ted Baxter, but much more angry. He is like Ted Baxter with a really painful hemorrhoid.
washingtonpost.com: Late Period Limbaugh, (NYT Magazine, July 8)
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Washington, D.C.: So, I have a good friend who is a newspaper reporter. Like you, I think she would have no issues with dogs peeing on graves. However, when I informed her that cats, after having surgery, use shredded newspaper instead of kitty litter, and that there was, in fact, a brand of kitty litter made from old newspapers, she was quite disturbed. I think she thought it was a metaphor for the print news industry...
Gene Weingarten: Oh, man. She doesn't get it. I LOVE that newspaper has many uses, including drying shoes, being pooped on by birds, etc. Anything that makes the product more versatile and popular. The Rib is reading a book about how certain tribes leave their dead bodies out for the wolves. I like that, too.
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It's not just the jeans: I couldn't pick what was wrong with that picture of Chandra Levy, because the whole thing screams 1984. It's not just the jeans. It's the big hair parted rising in a cloud off her head; it's the tank top TUCKED IN; it's the pose; and it's even something in her facial expression. I simply cannot, cannot believe that this picture was taken in the 21st century.
Gene Weingarten: That seems to be the consensus of young women, and no one else. And the young women appear to be right. One other observation is that Chandra might have liked those jeans because: 1. They accentuated her wasp waist, or 2. Gary might have liked old fashioned jeans.
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Silver Spring, Md.: You're probably right that The Post is not stretching out the Chandra Levy story to sell more papers. At the same time, I think that motivation completely explains the New Yorker cover for me.
Gene Weingarten: They'll never admit it, but I think the New Yorker editors regret it now. Even the lefty media is opining that they erred in judgment.
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Arlington, Va.: re: the Chandra photo. Besides the pants (which I got right in the old man poll, maybe it's because I'm gay...) the thing that strikes me about that photo is how terrible composed it is. She's cut off on the right side with too much blank space on the left. I found that to be very distracting. Whoever this "glam" photographer was, he was clearly not very good.
Gene Weingarten: Noted.
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Washington, D.C.: I know that the New Yorker cover is satire.
But I also know that swing voters are the stupidest, most gullible slackjaws ever to have stained U.S. soil. This is a group that bases its decisions on swift boating and illegitimate black babies and ambiguous bar-hopping-compatibility metrics. This election is too important and too close for the New Yorker to decide, against all evidence, that swing voters will spontaneously sprout the ability to grasp nuance and irony.
I'm sure this brands me as an elitist "just like" Obama. But the fact that swing voters view unusual skill and talent as a LIABILITY for presidential candidates just proves my point.
Gene Weingarten: Also, noted.
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Ambivalent, Calif.: I'm the ME of a community weekly and here's my take on the Levy series: Solid reporting, fine writing and of very dubious merit. I mean, what, exactly, is its point? You guys burying the lede at the end of its 43 chapters?
Yeah, what happened to that smart, foolish young woman is a tragedy, but come on -- it was seven years ago. Has the Post not noticed the country is disintegrating?
I kinda feel bad Downie's gonna go out with this one.
Gene Weingarten: I think The Post has noticed the country is disintegrating. I don't really understand this sort of complaint. It's one story of maybe a thousand every week.
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Seriously?: Chandra Levy? Seriously? When I saw this yesterday, my eyes rolled so far back in my head I wasn't sure they'd straighten out again. I'm still tired of that story from 2001. Yes, it's terribly unfortunate that a young woman disappeared and was murdered. Maybe Condit did it, maybe not. I doubt we'll ever know for sure. But really, what's next week, Natalee Holloway? There's a war going on, an economic recession, a historic presidential campaign, and THIS is the best the WaPo can do? I'm actually really, really disappointed. I expect better news judgment from this paper. I can't even believe YOU devoted a whole quiz to it. For shame.
Gene Weingarten: I think you are going to find some surprises in this story. I think by the end of it, we are going to feel certain we know who killed Chandra Levy, and why, and why that person is never likely to be charged. That's my guess. Now don't you think that might be worth the space?
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Obama Cover: I don't think the cover is particularly funny, but I'm OK with it as a cover. I do think it is irresponsible imagery. I know that we'll see right wing reprints of this cover for the next few months, and Michael Savage fans will frame it and hang it in their offices if(when?) he wins. It will be an enduring and disrespectful image that will live on through an Obama presidency.
Gene Weingarten: Hm. Interesting. It reminds me of someething. I was recently sent, by a friend, a hilarious anagram of the name of someone famous. My friend had created it himself. It's spectacular, really. Very naughty. I wanted to share it with people in this chat; in this forum, people would know it was not delivered in a mean spirited way. I decided I could not let it out, because it would be appropriated by mean-spirited people and used in a bad way.
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I look like Chandra Levy: Well, not really but I do have curly dark hair and I suppose that is enough. As a result, I was stopped with some frequency on my way to work, which was on the Hill. When people asked where I was going, I would always say, truthfully, "to see my powerful boyfriend."
Gene Weingarten: You know who has the same hair? Pat the Perfect.
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37-ville: So I turned 37 a couple days ago. I never cared too much about my age and I was already clicking "35 and older" but somehow having the split now follow me to be 36/37 really makes it personal. What gives? Will it move up to 37/38 next year?
Gene Weingarten: As I said, in two weeks when Liz hits 37.
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Greenbelt, Md.: Aaaaaaaannnnnnnd? What was the best expense account item of your life?
Gene Weingarten: Whorehouse.
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Too much Chandra?: Chandra: I'd rather have fewer, longer pieces than drag out the story over 12 episodes. Feels like a soap opera and not a serious investigative series deserving of front-page coverage.
I would have skipped it altogether if it hadn't been the subject of the poll. Now I will probably read it through to the end to see if my opinion changes.
Gene Weingarten: Okay. I think this is a reasonable point.
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Washington, D.C.: About a certain Nazi symbol: I noticed a swastika motif this weekend on one of the objects in the wonderful National Gallery show of treasures from Afghanistan's National Museum. The design apparently dates from Neolithic times. A pretty cool bit of graphic design until a certain A. Hitler appropriated it.
Until the late '70s or so it could be seen on a flag flying from the Arlington headquarters of the American Nazi Party, in a building now home to such hip Clarendon area establishments as the dog-friendly Java Shack.
washingtonpost.com: Indeed.
Gene Weingarten: Indeed, indeed.
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Interesting Poll Demographi,CS: Have you looked at the poll numbers?
As of 11 a.m., the women 36 and under are approx twice as large as women over 36 OR men 36 and under... BUT NOT men over 36! You seem to attract opposite demographics -- young hot women (throwing "virtual" panties) and "old coots"... how do you explain that?
Gene Weingarten: Don't EVER say "twice as large" when referring to women. In any context, even an innocent one. I have known about this demographic anomaly for some time. I, um, like it.
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Liar, liar, pants on Fi,RE: Gene Weingarten: I think you are going to find some surprises in this story. I think by the end of it, we are going to feel certain we know who killed Chandra Levy, and why, and why that person is never likely to be charged. That's my guess.
If this were true, and we knew, then The Post wouldn't drag this out over a series of diary-like entries about someones life. If there were evidence pointing to what happened here, you would have put a big front story headline out there saying "So and So did it, So and So, Jr. covered it up, and Mr. Big jerkface is to blame"
But that isn't happening. So this is probably just to sell papers. Fill space. Or as an excuse to show how badly girls dressed in the 90s.
Gene Weingarten: Well, I think you're wrong. We will see, won't we?
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Matrimoni, AL: Have you seen the Hax-Philes discussion on "wifely duties"? What is your take on this? Do husbands have a reasonable expectation to get some on a regular basis? And how often is regular?
washingtonpost.com: Hax-Philes: Wifely Duties
Gene Weingarten: I think sex and intimacy is very important. I also think it's a complicated dynamic between every couple, and I wouldn't want to generalize. Gina Barreca says this, ominously: "If there is no sex within a marriage, there will be sex outside the marriage."
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New York, N.Y.: Please tell me Tom the Butcher is to blame for the unfortunate use of "zitfaced" to mean "roaring drunk," rather than the obvious rhyming word. On second thought, don't. What kind of editor would use "zitfaced," which isn't a word, over "zit-faced" or simply "zit faced?"
Both semantically and syntactically incorrect usage in one word? Good lord.
Gene Weingarten: I wrote it that way for a reason. I didn't mean zit faced, which is a skin condition. I meant (rhymes with) zitfaced. The word I was suggesting is also one world.
Gene Weingarten: Word.
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Wine whine: I am a 27-year-old female weighing 150 lbs at 5'5". On Saturday I drank almost three bottles of wine over the course of about 4-5 hours, while eating a lot of food. I pretty much blacked out by the end of the night. I don't recommend doing this.
Gene Weingarten: That's pretty much the rate I was going, only I hadn't eaten.
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Bowie, Md.: Re: Chandra's 80s look
Maybe I'm missing the point...
I always assumed young women who are after older men adopt the look of when the man was the age she is now.
Gene Weingarten: As I said, this is one extant theory!
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Don't EVER say "twice as large" when referring to women: thank you! I was reading that wondering if he'd realize...
Gene Weingarten: Guy's a rookie, I assure you.
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New York, N.Y.: I graduated from GW in 2000 and all I remember as a 22 year old Jewish woman about the Chandra Levy case was between her and Monica they were giving the rest of us working in D.C. a bad rap.
Gene Weingarten: Yeah, I understand. Chandra for the goyim. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. hahahahah. Okay, Jew humor.
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Swas Tikka Masala: All (almost all?) Hindu temples have swastikas on/in them and many Hindu households have them as well. It's a symbol of Ganesh, the elephant-headed god who removes obstacles from Hindus' paths.
How many wrecking balls will we need?
Gene Weingarten: As many as necessary. There is work to be done!
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Allentown, Pa.: Could you tell us the name of the famous person, and let us figure out the naughty anagram?
Or tell us another anagram with the name so we'd have to figure out the name as well?
Gene Weingarten: Nope. This is dynamite. And I won't send it privately to anyone, either.
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Doppleganger, redux: On the plane home from our honeymoon, there was a man who looked so much like me, my wife thought it was me, even though I was sitting right next to her.
We spoke at the baggage carousel. It was creepy at first, but then it was fun. We never got a picture of us together. I really regret that. So, take the picture. You will appreciate it in the future, and might even make a new friend.
But, we did get to freak out his wife, thought, when she came to pick him up. We stood shoulder to shoulder, and it stopped her in her tracks.
Gene Weingarten: Uh, this sure suggests a Playboy letter scenario, doesn't it?
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Washington, D.C.: Hey Gene - What's the best ice cream in town? I want to take my boyfriend out for dinner and ice cream, but don't want to end up at Coldstone or Baskin Robbins.
Gene Weingarten: I am not sure. Nominations?
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Gene Weingarten: Aaargh. I just got an email from a young friend wanting to know who Ted Baxter is. A stupid, clueless newscaster from the old Mary Tyler Moore show. Circa 1975.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Gene, glad to see you're going to weigh in on the Chandra Levy pieces. I'm horribly conflicted about it. On the one hand, as the father of a daughter, I have thought about this case and similar ones a lot over the years, and the Post seems to be focusing on the relevant elements--the reliability of public servants and officials to attend to our children like they'd want their own taken care of. On the other hand, the details ARE lurid and mostly irrelevant to what I turn to the Post for. If anyone can execute this in a meaningful way, the Post can do it, but I'm a little worried. What's next? An expose on strippers' behavior on Spring Break, with all the relevant sociological insight we need to make future decisions about public policy?
Gene Weingarten: You know, almost any subject can be made compelling and universal, in the hands of the right writer. One of my favorite stunts was an assignment I handed out when I was the editor of the Sunday Style section. I assigned five really good writers to take a hammer and a nail and whang that nail into the phone book. Whatever name they came up with, they had to profile that person and turn it into a compelling story. All succeeded. One of my favorites was by Peter Carlson; Peter's guy was simply (on the face of it) uninteresting. An ordinary family man, with an ordinary family, living an ordinary life. Peter produced something extraordinary, and I am hereby challenging Lizzie to find this piece. Would have been mid-nineties.
Gene Weingarten: She won't find it. I didn't give her enough information.
Gene Weingarten: Only a GENIUS link monkey could find this.
washingtonpost.com: Funny, you are. Tom Doherty: Oh Dad, Poor Dad, (Post, March 16, 1997)
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The Empress of The Style Invitational, Forbidden Palace, Md.: Youze opinion, please:
I had some good entries recently from a brand-new Style Invitational entrant from California. Nurturing Earth Empress that I am, I enclosed a note with his Honorable Mention magnet encouraging him to send more stuff for future contests.
He then sent me an e-mail saying he wouldn't enter the Invitational again because he did not want to give out the information necessary to register on washingtonpost.com (someone had e-mailed him the initial contest).
Should I e-mail him a copy of the contest, or should I wish him good riddance? Does anyone know of people who refuse to register on post.com?
Gene Weingarten: In my opinion, you need to wish him good riddance. No one deserves special treatment, other than someone with, say, a disability. If he chooses to be a paranoid, he must take the consequences. I do throw that last question out for general consumption.
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Polls: Gene or Liz, I have been curious about some posts about your polls. Some people seem to know what other demographics answered. Are they going in as, for example, a 36-year-old-plus man after they answered as a 36-year-old-plus woman and redoing the poll to see the results? The results I see don't break down what cross section of people answered what, just the total numbers. Am I missing something?
Gene Weingarten: You can go into any door of the poll and, without voting, see how the other people are voting. Just don't answer the poll and click on "see results." Nothing wrong with that. I do it constantly.
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Springfield, Va.: Have you "had your way" with the Comics Riff blog meister yet?
washingtonpost.com: Comic Riffs
Gene Weingarten: I am watching with interest. He has my support. I thought his first post, expressing exhaustion with meta-gats in strips, was a smart idea.
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washingtonpost.com: A clip featuring a bit of classic Ted Baxter.
washingtonpost.com: A clip featuring a bit of classic Ted Baxter.
Gene Weingarten: Excellent. Thank you.
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Best ice cream: Lazy Sundae in Falls Church. The gelato place in Clarendon is mediocre and overpriced, which breaks my heart.
Gene Weingarten: Okay. Any more?
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Ice Cream: Skip the ice cream and get frozen custard at the Dairy Godmother in Del Ray (Alexandria).
Gene Weingarten: Okay.
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McLean, Va.: Gene, Did you have any role in the creation of the Comic Riffs blog?
Gene Weingarten: Nope. Not even a heads up. So I can't answer for it, but I'm happy it's there. Can't overcover the comics.
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Best Ice Cream: What is this, Ask Tom?
Thomas Sweets in DC Lazy Sundae in Falls Church The Dairy Godmother in Del Ray
Gene Weingarten: Okay.
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Vaudeville, Md.: Sex is an important part of marriage. My wife and I have sex every other day. I have sex on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and she has it on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you.
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Best ice cream: Moorenko's in downtown Silver Spring, a five minute walk from the Metro. Or Giffords downtown, on E street near the cinema.
Gene Weingarten: I've had that Giffords. Quite good.
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New Yorker: I think it would have made a big difference if the New Yorker printed the title of the cartoon on the cover: "The Politics of Fear." Too bad they seem to have a tradition of no text on the cover.
Personally, I found it shocking for one to two seconds, and then hilarious as I found the flag in the fireplace, OBL's portrait on the wall, Michelle's afro... I think it fits right in with Blitt's other cartoons and the New Yorker's tone.
Gene Weingarten: You are right about the caption, but they NEVER have captions. That would have changed everything.
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Colorado: Hi -- I need relationship advice and you are the only person to do it.
I just started dating someone. He's in his mid-50's (I'm mid-40's), he's Jewish, grew up in Brooklyn. I'm a WASP. He's recently widowed after a long happy marriage, has two adolescent kids, a huge ego, and seems to believe that his opinions are facts. He has a great sense of humor, and is a big flirt.
I've never been a panty-flinger, but it seems to me that short of doing several illegal and immoral things, this is as close as I can come to dating YOU.
Assuming we keep his kids out of this as long as possible, and do whatever we can to protect them from instability and so on, what other advice would you offer?
Gene Weingarten: It would take an illegal act to date me? What, you would have to abduct me? I think you're doing swell. Can you cook well? If so, he is not only me, but you are the Rib.
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A 1940s Electro Freeze machine: still in use at Carl's Frozen Custard in Fredericksburg.
Gene Weingarten: Oooh. The purist in me loves this. But how is the ice cream?
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Levy the Seri, AL: This is a TERRIBLE format for an "in depth" story. Just as you get drawn in, the story breaks off. It's like watching some TV serialization or bad soap opera. What next? Sesame Street articles, where no subject occupies more than 50 seconds? Does the Post think its readers are preschoolers?
Gene Weingarten: I think this is the most valid criticism of the form. I am still on the fense though, because, so far, the writers have managed to end with something intriguing and suspenseful each time. Serializations have a degree of power, if they are done well.
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Hail, Empress: Although I don't know of people who won't register for Post.com, I do know of plenty who suppress their cookies so their browsing on post.com can't be tied to their registration.
"Suppress their cookies" sounds like a euphemism.
Gene Weingarten: It's holding down vomit till you can get to the bathroom. Sorry, eaters.
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Monkey County: re: Best ice cream
Jimmie Cone in Damascus. But, if you are limited to D.C., I'd go for the gelato place at Union Station. Tiramisu gelato!
Gene Weingarten: I've had that tiramisu gelato. I'm afraid to go there too often.
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Age Divi, DE: Spiffy.
My wife's 36 and I'm 39. Now and forevermore I'll be "old" and she'll be "young."
Thanks, Gene. Thanks a lot.
Gene Weingarten: I'd like to hear from her.
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Cantgetenough, Va.: Gene, Where can we find more information about the Chandra Levy case? A 12-part article simply can't quench our thirst for information on this story that is so important to America's future.
Gene Weingarten: You will need to personally interview all the participants. Road trip.
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Kensington, Md: re: Saturday's Frazz. My husband and I were glad we didn't have to explain a masturbation joke to our kids, they're with Grandpa for two weeks.
washingtonpost.com: Frazz, (July 12)
Gene Weingarten: I don't think this is remotely a masturbation joke.
Gene Weingarten: Well, okay, by extreme extension it is a masturbation joke. But a single man living alone doesn't need swimsuit magazines.
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Anonymous: Thank you for telling us who Ted Baxter is.
So, who's Mary Tyler Moore?
Gene Weingarten: Hahaha.
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To the Empress: Some people insist on using bugmenot.com instead of registering with anyone.
Gene Weingarten: I will trust that this is not a link to porn.
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Oenophile, Pa.: "Listen, dude. A bottle and a half is a lot of wine."
I like drinking wine in the evening and regularly have a bottle, it doesn't seem like a huge amount of alcohol but it is a lot of calories. I can't imagine drinking a bottle of grape juice every evening.
As I live in a city with good public transportation drinking and driving really isn't a problem.
Gene Weingarten: Would you have a bottle and a half over an hour and a quarter? That's what I did.
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washingtonpost.com: Re: Ice cream -- Make Your Own
washingtonpost.com: Re: Ice cream -- Make Your Own
Gene Weingarten: Okay.
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WKRAP: I am sure you saw the WKRP episode where Johnny does the same test - and his reflexes DO get better the more he drinks. It is hilarious.
Gene Weingarten: You just reminded me of it, yes.
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I am still on the fense though,: Teacher: Use the following words in a sentence: defeat, deduct, defense, detail.
Johnny: Defeat of deduct went over defense before detail.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you.
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Alexandria, Va.: I am a woman over age 36. Well over, actually. There was no appropriate answer, for me, to the question about whether it is appropriate to give the Chandra Levy so much space. For me, the true answer would be "I like it, even though I know it's lurid and trivial." That doesn't mean I think newspapers should do more of it. My prurient interest trumps my good judgment every so often; doesn't mean newspapers have to pander to it.
Gene Weingarten: Boy. I see no pandering here.
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Betrayal Creaming (celebrity anagram): Caramel Betraying also works. Anyhow, is it Dr. Sunken Tits for Kirsten Dunst? Because that one's already out there.
Gene Weingarten: Mine is not out there. It is a googlenope, and will remain so. My friend is not putting out there either.
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Lawton, Okla.: I am sitting in a darkened motel room, drinking straight bourbon and eating chips and salsa. Is three weeks on the road too long (I've got a week to go).
Gene Weingarten: Apparently, yes.
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Medina, OH: Yay Bil-Jac! From the home of the Battling Bees!
Gene Weingarten: Is that the major industry there? Dog food?
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byool, IN: "The thing about Nabokov that really steams me is that he is a vastly better writer than I will ever be AND ENGLISH IS NOT HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE."
Maybe so, but you still have the opportunity to improve, whereas Nabokov hasn't written a thing in -years.- Quitter.
Gene Weingarten: It's the ONLY GOOD THING about Nabokov.
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Ice Cream: The Dairy Godmother, in Del Ray. Best frozen custard and sorbets I've ever had.
Gene Weingarten: This is the second such nomination.
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Anagram: If your anagram involves a hyphen and a Mc-name, then I've already come up with it also and will not reveal it as it IS damaging.
Gene Weingarten: No one has come up with this. No one will. And it is GREAT.
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Falls Church, Va.: Can the ice cream maker be used to make other frozen concoctions, such as frozen margaritas or frozen mojitos?
washingtonpost.com: The Cuisinart model can, yes.
Gene Weingarten: Noted.
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Young, MAN: I saw the mom jeans. I noticed that they were high. But I never thought that they were the odd thing you were looking for.
Women think about things that I cannot even begin to imagine thinking about.
Gene Weingarten: And don;t you even TRY to figure out what, either.
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Chandra for the goyim?: Omigawd, that was really awful. Even for you. I love it.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you. And I love you. We're done for the day. Thank you all. See youse in the updates.
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UPDATED 7.16.08
Gene Weingarten: Wow, this is fabulous, and looks real.
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Copy Edit, OR: Gene, I am no where near being the grammar police, but you can DEFINITELY tell The Post got rid of some mighty fine staff that impacted the polish of the newspaper. Here is an example from the second article related to the Nationals' bus accident:
"Meanwhile, police said they are investigating whether the vehicle had enough clearance to drive under the 11th Street overpass on its way to Friday night's Washington Nationals baseball game, officials said yesterday. "
Gene Weingarten: Okay, that's bad, but so is "impacted the polish."
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Alexandria, Va.: Can you ask Molly if Bil-Jac has a similar cat food that will provide antiemetic benefits? I think I may be single-handedly making of the manufacturers of SpotShot carpet cleaner rich.
Gene Weingarten: Many people asked about cat food. Yes, Bil-Jac also makes cat food, though I don't know if it will stop Fluffykins from puking. Google Bil-Jac cat food for details.
To answer another question many people asked: No, neither Molly nor I has any connection to this company, and yes, I will donate to a shelter any free thank-you food they might send me.
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Aldie, Va.: Let me be the 50th person to ask if you drove home after your "event"?
Gene Weingarten: I did not. I had a lift to and from.
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Pleated Pants: For proof that pleated pants are ridiculous, watch this (hilarious) video and see how WRONG it is to see supposedly hot men dancing around in pleated pants. They just look all bulbous and wrong.
Gene Weingarten: Okay, the pants are bad, but this video is astonishingly weird in a mega-nerdly way. It cost some company a LOT of money. It is a sexy and suggestive and utterly serious song and dance about a new automated pipette system for medical lab technicians. On this site you can also download the tune into your phone as a ringtone.
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WpgManCDA: Dear Mr. Weingarten,
You're a hard-bitten old cynic like me, so perhaps you can use your verbal skills to explain to me why, despite my cynicism, I really enjoyed the weekly column by Jeanne Marie Laskas. Shouldn't I have been feeling that it was way too touchy-feely?
Gene Weingarten: I can explain.
Jeanne Marie is a very skillful essayist. Her columns frequently were about topics that seemed extremely parochial and self-interested -- her family, her circle of friends, etc. -- but she managed, week after week, to universalize these columns. In small, measured doses, they were all about the meaning of life, which is quite an achievement. She is good. I, too, am an unreconstructed cynic, and I, too, will miss her column.
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Annandale, Va.: Gene, You need to know about this.
Gene Weingarten: Indeed. I DID need to know about this.
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Next Week's Chat
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: July 16, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Web Publication
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825 of 972 DOCUMENTS
Washingtonpost.com
July 15, 2008 Tuesday 11:34 AM EST
Bush Addresses Economy
BYLINE: CQ Transcripts Wire, washingtonpost.com
LENGTH: 7179 words
HIGHLIGHT: PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Good morning.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Good morning.
It's been a difficult time for many American families who are coping with declining housing values and high gasoline prices. This week my administration took steps to help address both these challenges. To help address challenges in the housing and financial markets we announced temporary steps to help stabilize them and increase confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
These two enterprises play a central role in our housing finance system, so Treasury Paulson has worked with the Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke so the companies and the government regulators -- put the companies and the government regulators on a plan to strengthen these enterprises. We must ensure they can continue providing access to mortgage credit during this time of financial stress.
I appreciate the positive reaction this plan has received from many members of Congress. I urge members to move quickly to enact the plan in its entirety, along with the good oversight legislation that we have recommended for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
We will work to ensure that they remain shareholder-owned companies.
To help address the pressure on gasoline prices, my administration took action this week to clear the way for offshore exploration on the outer continental shelf. It's what's called OCS. Congress has restricted access to key parts of the OCS since the early 1980s. I've called on Congress to remove the ban.
It was also an executive prohibition on exploration, offshore exploration. So yesterday, I issued a memorandum to lift this executive prohibition.
With this action the executive branch's restrictions have been removed, and this means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress.
Bringing OCS (ph) resources on the line is going to take time, which means that the need for congressional action is urgent. The sooner Congress lifts the ban the sooner we can get these resources from the ocean floor to the refineries, to the gas pump.
Democratic leaders have been delaying action on offshore exploration and now they have an opportunity to show that they finally heard the frustrations of the American people.
They should match the action I have taken, repeal the congressional ban and pass legislation to facilitate responsible offshore exploration.
Congress needs also to pass bills to fund our government in a fiscally responsible way. I was disappointed to learn the Democratic leaders in the House postponed committee consideration of the defense appropriations bill, and they did so yesterday.
They failed to get a single one of the 12 annual appropriation bills to my desk. In fact, this is the latest that both the House and the Senate have passed any of their annual spending bills in more than two decades.
They're just 26 legislative days left before the end of the fiscal year.
BUSH: This means that to get their fundamental job done, Congress would have to pass a spending bill nearly every other day. This is not a record to be proud of, and I think American people deserve better.
Our citizens are rightly concerned about the difficulties in the housing markets and high gasoline prices and the failure of the Democratic Congress to address these and other pressing issues.
Yet, despite the challenges we face, our economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience. While the unemployment rate has risen, it remains at 5.5 percent, which is still low by historical standards. And the economy continued to grow in the first quarter of this year. The growth is slower than we would have liked, but it was growth nonetheless.
BUSH: We saw the signs of a slowdown early and enacted a bipartisan economic stimulus package. We have now delivered more than $91 billion in tax relief to more than 112 million American households this year.
It's going to take some time before we feel the full benefit of the stimulus package, but the early signs are encouraging. Retail sales were up in May and June and should contribute -- and will contribute -- to economic growth.
In the months ahead, we expect more Americans to take advantage of these stimulus payments and inject new energy into our economy.
The bottom line is this: We're going through a tough time. But our economy has continued growing, consumers are spending, businesses are investing, exports continue increasing, and American productivity remains strong.
We can have confidence in the long-term foundation of our economy, and I believe we will come through this challenge stronger than ever before.
And now, I'd be glad to take some questions from you.
QUESTION: Mr. President, are America's banks in trouble? And does the rescue of Freddie Mae (sic), Fannie Mac (sic) make more bailouts inevitable, by sending the message that there are some institutions that are too big to fail and that it's OK to take risks?
BUSH: First, let me talk about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
I -- a lot of people in the country probably don't understand how important they are to the mortgage markets. And it's really important for people to have confidence in the mortgage markets and that there be stability in the mortgage markets.
And that's why Secretary Paulson announced the plan this weekend, which says that he needs authorities from the Congress to, you know, come up with a line of credit for these institutions if needed, and that he ought to have the authority to invest capital if needed.
And so, the purpose was to send a clear signal that, one, we understand how important these institutions are to the mortgages markets, and, two, to kind of calm nerves.
The truth of the matter is, by laying this out, it makes it less likely we'll feed to use this kind of authority to begin with -- which, by the way, is temporary authority.
As you talked about banks. Now, if you're a commercial bank in America and you have a deposit in a commercial bank in America, your deposit is insured by the federal government up to $100,000. And so, therefore, when you hear nervousness about your bank, you know, people start talking about how nervous they are about your bank's condition, the depositor must understand that the federal government, through the FDIC, stands behind the deposit up to $100,000. Therefore, which leads me to say, that if you're a depositor, you're in -- you're protected by the federal government.
I happened to witness the bank run in Midland, Texas, one time. I'll never forget the guy standing in the bank lobby say, "Your deposits are good, and we've got you insured. You don't have to worry about it, if you've got less than $100,000 in the bank."
The problem was, people didn't hear, and there's -- you know, became nervous.
My hope is, is that people take a deep breath and realize that their deposits are protected by our government.
So these are two different instances, mortgage markets on the one hand, banking on the other.
QUESTION: And banking, do you think the system is in trouble?
BUSH: I think the system basically is sound. I truly do.
BUSH: And I understand there's a lot of nervousness, but the economy's growing, productivity's high, trade's up, people are working -- it's not as good as we'd like.
And to the extent that we find weakness, we'll move. That's one thing about this administration: We're not afraid of making tough decisions. And I thought the decision that Secretary Paulson recommended on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was the right decision.
Matt?
QUESTION: Mr. President, you mentioned the latest retail sales, but they actually showed a smaller boost than economists expected from the government rebate checks.
Given the latest economic data, are you still insisting that the United States is not headed for a recession? And are you willing to consider a second stimulus package if needed?
BUSH: Matt, all I can tell you is we grew in the first quarter. I remember holding a press conference here and that same question came about, assuming that we weren't going to grow. But we showed growth. It's not the growth we'd like.
BUSH: We'd like stronger growth. And there are some things we can do. One is wait for the stimulus package to fully kick in and not raise taxes.
If the Democratic leaders had their way in Congress, they would raise taxes, which would be the absolute wrong thing to do.
Secondly, they can pass housing legislation that reforms FHA, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
And, by the way, a part of that, as I mentioned in my opening statement, part of that reform will be a strong regulator to help these institutions stay focused on the core mission which is mortgages.
Now, they can pass energy legislation. I readily concede that, you know, it's not going to produce a barrel of oil tomorrow, but it is going to change the psychology that, you know, demand will constantly outstrip supply.
As I said in my remarks, it's going to take a while to get these reserves on line, but it won't take a while to send a signal to the world that we're willing to use, you know, new technologies to find oil reserves here at home.
And the other thing Congress can do is work on trade legislation. One of the policies in the economy right now is the fact that we're selling more goods overseas, and they need to open up markets to Colombia and South Korea and Panama.
John?
QUESTION: Mr. President, this is a follow-up on Terry's question a little bit. You talked about the mortgage markets and banks. Are there other entities in the economy that are so crucial to the stability and confidence in the economy -- I'm thinking particularly General Motors, which today is cutting jobs (inaudible) go into the credit market to raise billions of dollars.
Are there other entities that are so crucial to stability that require government action to show support for them?
BUSH: Government action -- if you're talking about bailing out -- if your question is, "Should the government bail out private enterprise?" the answer is no, it shouldn't.
And, by the way, the decisions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- I head some say "bailout." I don't think it's a bailout. The shareholders still own the company. That's why I said we want this to continue to be a shareholder-owned company.
In this case, there is -- you know, there is a feeling that the government will stand behind mortgages through these two entities. And therefore we felt a special need to step up and say that we are going to provide, if needed, temporary assistance, through either debt or capital.
In terms of private enterprises, no, I don't think the government ought to be involved with bailing out companies. I think the government ought to create the conditions so that companies can survive. And I listed four.
BUSH: And one of the things I'm deeply troubled about is people who feel like it's OK to raise taxes during these times. And it would be a huge mistake to raise taxes right now.
QUESTION: Mr. President, you just said twice that the -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should remain shareholder-owned companies. If that's the case, because of the implicit government guarantee that they have or that is understood -- has been understood by the markets, their exposure is higher and their reserves are lower than any normal businesses.
Should they be privatized altogether and be subject to normal business rules?
BUSH: Well, the first half is to make sure that there's confidence and stability in the mortgage markets through the actions that we have taken.
BUSH: Secondly, we strongly believe there ought to be a regulator. That's something -- this is a position I have been advocating for a long time. And the reason why is, it's going to be very important for these institutions to focus on their core mission, which is to provide refinancing for the mortgage industry. And, hopefully, these measures will instill the confidence in the people. And we'll see how things go.
QUESTION: (inaudible) still have that public guarantee then?
BUSH: You know, there is an implicit guarantee, as you said. They ought to be focusing on the missions they're expected to do. We have advocated reform for a long period of time. But these need to remain private enterprises, and that's what our message is.
QUESTION: Mr. President, in February you were asked about Americans facing the prospect of $4 a gallon gasoline and you said you hadn't heard of that at the time.
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: I've heard of it now.
QUESTION: Gas prices are now approaching $5 a gallon in some parts of the country. Offshore oil exploration is obviously a long- term approach. What is the short-term advice for Americans? What can you do now to help them?
BUSH: First of all, there is a psychology in the oil market that basically says supplies are going to stay stagnant while demand rises. And that's reflected somewhat in the price of crude oil. Gasoline prices are reflected -- the amount of a gasoline price at the pump is reflected in the price of crude oil. And, therefore, it seems like it makes sense to me to say to the world that we're going to use, you know, new technologies to explore for oil and gas in the United States -- offshore oil, ANWR, oil shale projects -- to help change the psychology, to send a clear message that the supplies of oil will increase.
BUSH: Secondly, obviously, good conservation measure matter. I've been reading a lot about how the automobile companies are beginning to adjust. People are -- consumers are beginning to say, "Wait a minute. I don't want a gas guzzler anymore. I want a smaller car."
So the two need to go hand in hand.
There is no immediate fix. This took us a while to get into this problem. There is not short-term solution.
I think it was in the Rose Garden where I issued this brilliant statement: If I had a magic wand -- but the president doesn't have a magic wand. You just can't say, "Low gas." It took us awhile to get here, and we need to have a good strategy to get out of it.
QUESTION: But you do have a strategic oil petroleum reserve. What about opening that?
BUSH: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is for emergencies, but that doesn't address the fundamental issue.
Which I, frankly, have been talking about since I first became president, which was a combination of using technology to have alternative sources of energy but at the same time finding oil and gas here at home.
And now's the time to get it done. I heard somebody say, "Well, it's going to take seven years." Well, if we'd have done it seven years ago, we'd be having a different conversation today.
I'm not suggesting we'd have completely created a -- you know, changed the dynamics in the world, but it certainly would have been we'd have been using more of our own oil and sending less money overseas.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning.
BUSH: Thank you.
QUESTION: It is a good morning.
BUSH: It is. I always think it's a good morning when you get to serve the country.
QUESTION: Absolutely. And we know you prize loyalty in that, so I wonder whether you felt betrayed by Scott McClellan's assessment of the war in Iraq.
And, moving forward, since there have been positive signs on the ground in Iraq, Senator Obama's about to take a trip there, what would be your advice to him as he tries to assess the situation on the ground?
BUSH: I have had no comment -- and no comment now on Scott's book.
Secondly, I would ask him to listen carefully to Ryan Crocker and General Petraeus. It's -- you know, it's a temptation to let the politics at home get in the way, you know, with the considered judgment of the commanders.
That's why I sternly rejected an artificial timetable of withdrawal, it's kind of like an arbitrary thing. You know, it's we will decide in the halls of Congress how to conduct our affairs in Iraq, based upon, you know, polls and politics.
And we're going to impose this on people," as opposed to listening to our commanders and our diplomats, and listening to the Iraqis, for that matter.
You know, the Iraqis have invited us to be there. But they share a goal with us, which is to get our combat troops out, as conditions permit.
Matter of fact, that's what we're doing. Return on success has been the strategy of this administration, and our troops are coming home, but based upon success.
And so I would ask whoever goes there, every elected official who goes there to listen carefully to what is taking place; and understand that the best way to go forward is to listen to the parties who are actually on the ground.
And that's hard to do. I understand for some in Washington, you know, there's a lot of pressures.
BUSH: You got these groups out there, MoveOn.org, you know, banging away on these candidates. And it's hard to kind of divorce yourself from the politics. So I'm glad -- I'm glad all the -- a lot of these elected officials are going over there, because they'll get an interesting -- they're get an interesting insight, something that you don't get from just reading your wonderful newspapers or listening to your T.V. shows.
QUESTION: Mr. President...
BUSH: That what you call them, T.V. shows? Newscasts, yes.
QUESTION: Following up on the question about oil, in the past, when oil prices have gone up a lot, they've wound up going down a lot afterward. But I wonder if you're able to say that oil prices in the future are going to come down a lot.
BUSH: I can't predict it. I mean, my attitude is, is that unless there is a focused effort in the short term, unless there's a focused effort to bring more supplies to market, there's going to be a lot of upward pressure on price. We've got 85 million barrels a day and -- of demand -- and 86 million barrels of production. And it's just -- it's too narrow a spread, it seems like to me.
BUSH: Now, I'm encouraged by, you know, the Caspian Basin exploration. I'm encouraged that the Saudis are reinvesting a lot into their older fields. And remember, some of these old fields get on a decline rate which -- which requires a lot of investment to keep their production up to previous levels.
So one thing we look at is how much money is being reinvested in some of those fields. I'm encouraged by that.
I'm discouraged by the fact that some nations subsidize the purchases of a product like gasoline, which therefore means that, you know, demand may not be causing the market to adjust as rapidly as we'd like.
I was heartened by the fact that the Chinese the other day announced that they're going to start reducing some of their subsidies, which, all of a sudden, you may have some, you know, demand-driven changes in the overall balance.
BUSH: But, look, if we can serve and find more energy, we will have done our part to address the global market right now.
And the other thing is, is this is just a transition period. And all of us want to get away from reliance upon hydrocarbons. But it's not going to happen overnight.
You know, one of these days, people are going to be using battery technologies in their cars. You've heard me say this a lot. I'm confident it's going to happen.
And, you know, the throwaway line, of course, is that your car won't have to look like a golf cart.
But the question, then, becomes, where are we going to get electricity?
And that's why I'm a big believer in nuclear power to be able to make us less dependent on oil and better stewards of the environment.
But there is a transition period during hydrocarbon (ph) era, and it hasn't ended yet, as our people now know. Gasoline prices are high.
Again, I don't want to be a told-you-so, but if you go back and look at the strategy we put out, early on in this administration, we understood what was coming.
We knew the markets were going to be tight. And therefore we called for additional exploration at home, plus what has been happening, which is acceleration of new technologies, including ethanol technologies, to get us less dependent on crude oil from overseas.
QUESTION: Mr. President, thank you.
I wonder, in light of the Supreme Court's decision, if you could tell us what you plan to do with Guantanamo.
BUSH: We're still analyzing -- we being the Justice Department -- are still analyzing the effects of the decision, which, as you know, I disagreed with.
And, secondly, we're working with members of Congress on a way forward. This is a very complicated case. It complicated the situation in Guantanamo.
My view all along has been either send them back home or give them a chance to have a day in court. I still believe that makes sense. We're just trying to figure out how to do so in light of the Supreme Court ruling.
QUESTION: Mr. President, last week China joined Russia in blocking the sanctions (inaudible) Mugabe in Zimbabwe. I can't imagine this pleased you very much.
Do you have any reaction to particularly the Chinese move? And also where do you go from here to try to make sure that the regime doesn't...
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: You read my reaction right. I was displeased.
We spent a lot of time on this subject at the G-8. And there was great concern by most of the nations there -- well, the G-8 nations that were there about what was taking place in Zimbabwe. And it's, frankly, unacceptable, and it should be unacceptable to a lot of folks.
And so we discussed the need for U.N. Security Council resolutions. And I was disappointed that the Russians vetoed. I didn't -- I hadn't spent any time with the Chinese leader talking about -- specifically talking about any Security Council resolutions. I'd had with President Medvedev.
BUSH: And so I think the thing we need to do now is for us to analyze, you know, whether or not we can have some more bilateral sanctions on regime leaders. After all, these sanctions were not against the Zimbabwe people. These were against the people that, you know, in the Mugabe regime that made the decisions it made. Get the Treasury Department, State Department -- are now working on potential -- potential U.S. action.
Bret?
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. I have a two-part question on the war in light of increasing violence in Afghanistan.
Do you believe current U.S. troop levels in Iraq are hindering efforts to put more U.S. troops into Afghanistan?
And, secondly, this morning in his prepared remarks, Senator Obama will say this: "By any measure, our single-minded, open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe. In fact, as should have been apparent to President Bush and Senator McCain, the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq and it never was."
BUSH: Well, as you know, I'm loath to respond to a particular presidential candidate. And so, I will try not to.
My view is is that the war on terror is being fought out on two simultaneous fronts that are noted -- noticeable to the American people, and on other fronts that aren't.
And so, the first question that anybody running for president gets is, "Is this a way," you know, "or is this like law enforcement? Is it a -- does this require, you know, full use of U.S. assets in order to protect the American people?"
As you know, I made the decision that it does require those assets.
Secondly, that these are two very important fronts, both of which, you know, are important to the future of the country. And therefore we got to succeed in both.
Thirdly, one front right now is going better than the other, and that's Iraq, where we're succeeding. And our troops are coming home based upon success.
And Afghanistan's a tough fight. It's a tough fight because, one, this is a state that had been just ravaged by previous wars, and there wasn't a lot of central government, you know, outreach to the people.
BUSH: Secondly, there is a tough enemy, and they're brutal. And they kill at the drop of a hat, in order to affect behavior.
It's a little bit reminiscent of what was taking place in Iraq a couple years ago, where, you know, the enemy knows that they can affect the mentality of the American people if they just continue to kill innocent folks.
And they have no disregard (sic) for human life. And it's really important we succeed there, as well as in Iraq. We do not want the enemy to have safe haven -- unless, of course, your attitude is, this isn't a war, so if that's the case, it wouldn't matter whether we succeed or not.
But it is a two-front war. And I say there's other fronts, but there's other fronts where we're, you know, taking covert actions, for example.
QUESTION: Should Americans expect a troop surge in Afghanistan?
BUSH: We are surging troops in Afghanistan. We're committed.
But we'll analyze the situation, of course, make a determination based upon the conditions on the ground. But we did surge troops. We surged troops. France surged troops. I said in Bucharest we'll add more troops.
And then, of course, we've got to make sure the strategy works. You know, have a counterinsurgency strategy that not only provides security but also provides economic follow-up after security has been enhanced.
You know, the question really facing the country is will we have the patience and the determination to succeed in these very difficult theaters. And I understand the exhaustion. And I understand people getting tired.
But I would hope that whoever follows me understands that we're at war and now is not the time to give up in the struggle against this enemy. And that while there hasn't been an attack on the homeland, that's not to say people don't want to attack us. And safe havens become very dangerous for the American people and we've got to deny safe haven and at the same time win the struggle by advancing democracy.
This is an ideological struggle we're involved in.
BUSH: These people kill for a reason. They want us to leave. They want us to -- not push back. They don't want democracy to succeed. And yet, if given a chance, democracy will succeed.
So these two theaters are the big challenge of the time, and the war itself is the challenge.
Yes, Roger?
QUESTION: Thank you, sir.
I want to follow up on Matt's question about a second economic...
BUSH: On who's question?
QUESTION: Matt's question about a second economic stimulus package.
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: ... start quoting me, you know.
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: Congratulations.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Maybe I missed it, but did you (OFF-MIKE)
BUSH: I said we ought to see how this first one works. Let it run its course.
QUESTION: Is it too late to consider a second one in your administration?
BUSH: You know, we're always open-minded to things, but -- we'll see how this stimulus package works. And let us deal with the housing market with good piece of housing legislation and the energy issue with good energy legislation, and the trade issue with good trade legislation.
BUSH: People say, oh, man, you're running out of time; nothing's going to happen. I'll remind people what did happen.
We got a good troop-funding bill with no strings; got a G.I. bill. We got FISA.
What can we get done?
We can get good housing legislation done. We can get good energy legislation done. We can get trade bills done.
I mean, there's plenty of time to get action, with the United States Congress. And they need to move quickly.
We can get judges approved. And so, you know, we'll see what happens up there. I'm confident that, if they put their mind to it, we can get good legislation.
QUESTION: Mr. President, understanding what you say about energy supplies being tight and the debate over energy, which has gone on for years and will continue long through the campaign and into the next administration, one thing nobody debates is that if American use less energy...
BUSH: Correct.
QUESTION: ... the supply/demand equation would improve.
Why have you not served calls on Americans to drive less and to turn down the thermostat?
BUSH: They're smart enough to figure out whether they're going to drive less or not.
I mean, you know, it's interesting what the price of gasoline has done, is it caused people to drive less. That's why they want smaller cars: They want to conserve.
But the consumer's plenty bright. The marketplace works.
Secondly, we have worked with Congress to change CAFE standards, and had a mandatory, you know, alternative fuel requirement.
So, no question about it what you just said is right. One way to correct the imbalance is to save, is to conserve.
You noticed my statement yesterday, I talked about good conservation and -- you know, people can figure out whether they need to drive more or less, they can balance their own checkbooks.
QUESTION: But you don't see the need to ask -- you don't see the value in your calling for a campaign...
BUSH: I think people ought to conserve and be wise about how they use gasoline and energy, absolutely.
BUSH: And there's some easy steps people can take.
You know, if they're not in their home, they don't keep their air conditioning running. I mean, there's a lot of things people can do.
And -- but my point to you is that, you know, it's a little presumptuous on my part to dictate to consumers how they live their lives. The American people are plenty capable and plenty smart people, and they'll make adjustments to their own pocketbooks.
That's why I was so much in favor of letting them keep more of their own money, you know. It's a philosophical difference: Should the government spend their money or should they spend their own money? And I've got faith in the American people.
And, you know, as much as I, you know, regret that gasoline prices are high -- and they are -- I also understand that people are going to make adjustments to meet their own needs.
BUSH: And suspect you'll see in the whole Americans using less gasoline. I bet that's going to happen.
And in the meantime, technologies will be coming on the market that'll enable them to drive and save money compared to the automobiles they're using before. And as you noticed, the automobile industry is beginning to adjust here at home as consumer demand changes.
And the great thing about our system is it's the consumer that drives our system; it's the individual American in their collection that end up driving the economy.
QUESTION: Could I follow up on a couple of points please?
BUSH: OK.
QUESTION: You never mention oil companies. Are you confident that American oil producers are tapping all of the sources they have out there, including offshore?
And on Iraq, will you sign an interim agreement with Prime Minister Maliki on American operations in Iraq, leaving it to your successor to do a more permanent agreement?
BUSH: There are -- let me start with Iraq.
We're in the process of working on a strategic framework agreement with the Iraqi government that will talk about cooperation on a variety of fronts: diplomacy, economics, justice.
Part of that agreement is a security agreement. And I believe that, you know, they want to have an aspirational goal as to how quickly the transition to what we have called overwatch takes place. Overwatch will mean that the U.S. will be in training mission, you know, logistical support, as well as special ops.
In order for our troops to be in a foreign country, there must be an understanding with the government.
with the government.
BUSH: There must be authorities to operate, as well as protections for our troops.
We're in the process of negotiating that, as well. And it needs to be done prior to the year, because -- unless, of course, the U.N. mandate is extended.
And so there are two aspects to the agreement. People seem to conflate the two, and we're working both of them simultaneously.
Let's see here...
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
BUSH: What was the question, again, on that?
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
BUSH: Do I think they're investing capital to find more reserves, with the price at $140 a barrel?
Absolutely.
Take an offshore exploration company. First of all, it costs a lot of money to buy the lease. They tie up capital.
BUSH: Secondly, it takes a lot of money to, you know, do the geophysics, to determine what the structure may or may not look like. That ties up capital.
Then they put rig out there. Now, first of all, in the federal offshore lease if you're not exploring within a set period of time you lose your bonus, you lose the amount of money that you paid to get the lease in the first place.
And once you explore -- in your first explore (inaudible) if you happen to find oil or gas, it is -- you'll find yourself in a position where a lot of capital's tied up. And it becomes in your interests, your economic interest to continue to explore so as to reduce the capital costs of the project on a per barrel basis.
And so I think -- I think they're exploring. And, hopefully, a lot of people continue to explore so that the supply of oil worldwide increases relative to demand.
Now, people say, "What about the speculators?" You know, I think you can't help but notice there is some volatility in price in the marketplace, which obviously there's some people in the -- you know, buying and selling on a daily basis.
BUSH: On the other hand, the fundamentals are what's really driving the long-term price of oil, and that is demand for oil has increased and supply has not kept up with it. And so part of our strategy in our country has got to be to say, OK, here are some, you know, suspected reserves and that we ought to go after them in an environmentally friendly way.
Buddy of mine said, "What about the reefs?" So I'm concerns about the reefs. I'm a fisherman. I like to fish. Reefs are important for fisheries. But the technology is such that you can protect the reefs. You know, you don't have to drill on top of a reef. You can drill away from a reef and then, you know, have a horizontal -- horizontal hole to help you explore -- explore a reservoir.
It's like in Alaska.
BUSH: You know, in the old days, you would have had to have a -- if you ever go out to west Texas, there's like a rig every 20 acres, depending upon the formation.
In Alaska, you can have one pad with, you know, a lot of horizontal drilling, which enables you to exploit the resources in a way that doesn't damage the environment.
These are new technologies that have come to be, and yet we've got an old energy policy that hasn't recognized how the industry has changed. And now is the time to get people to recognize how the industry has changed.
QUESTION: Mr. President?
BUSH: Yeah?
QUESTION: Two questions, one on energy, another on Sudan.
BUSH: On what?
QUESTION: Not energy, I'm sorry, the economy. When, in your guesstimation, will this country see turnaround, as it relates to the softening economy? When will it become strong again?
And, also, on the Sudan, the Sudanese government is looking to the United Nations for help in the situation with the ICC.
QUESTION: And this is a body that they have ignored before. What are your thoughts about what's happening with the Sudan?
BUSH: Well, we're not a member of the ICC. So we'll see how that plays out.
My thought on Sudan is, is that the United Nations needs to work with this current government to get those troops in to help save lives, an A.U. hybrid force.
I talked to, you know, Williamson, who's the special envoy to Sudan, yesterday. There's two aspects to the Sudanese issue.
One is the North-South Agreement. And, you know, he was talking about the need to make sure that there is a clear understanding about how oil revenues will be shared between north and south in a certain part of the border region there, so as to make sure that there is -- that this agreement that Ambassador Danforth negotiated stays intact and stays full.
And the other aspect, obviously, is Darfur. And that's a very, very complex issue. And we're trying to work with the rebel groups so that they speak more with one voice. We're trying to work with Bashir to make sure he understands that there will be continued sanctions if he doesn't move forward.
We're trying to help get these A.U. troops in Africa, throughout Africa, into Sudan.
BUSH: And we're working with the French on the issue of Chad. And it's a complex situation, and, sadly enough, you know, innocent people are being displaced and are losing their life. And it's very difficult and unacceptable.
As you know, I made the decision not to unilaterally send troops. Once that decision was made then we had to rely upon the United Nations. And I brought this issue up at the G-8 with our partners there. There's same sense of consternation and the same sense of frustration that things haven't moved quicker.
I talked to Ban Ki-moon about the issue and he told me -- I think he told me that by the end of this year, you know, a full complement of A.U. troops will be there. Then the question is, will the government help, you know, expedite the delivery of humanitarian aid?
Anyway, other question?
QUESTION: Yes...
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: When will the economy turn around?
QUESTION: Yes.
BUSH: I'm not an economist. But I do believe that we're growing. And I can remember -- you know this press conference here -- people yelling "recession" that as if you're economists. And I'm an optimist. I believe there's a lot of positive things for our economy.
But I will tell you it's not growing the way it should, and I'm sorry people are paying as high gasoline prices as they are.
And all I know is good policy will help expedite -- will strengthen our economy.
QUESTION: Do you think it'll change when you leave office?
BUSH: I certainly hope it changes tomorrow, but it's -- I'm also realistic to know things don't change on a dime.
But, nevertheless, the economy is growing. There's obviously financial uncertainty. We've talked about the decisions on the GSEs here. People need to know that if they've got a deposit in a commercial bank the government will make good up to $100,000 worth of their deposit.
You know, there's no question this is a time of uncertainty. There's a lot of events taking place at the same time. But we can pass some good law to help expedite the recovery.
BUSH: One such law is a good piece of housing legislation. The Congress needs to get moving on it.
Another such law is to send a signal that we're willing to explore for, you know, oil here at home. I fully understand this is, you know, a transition period away from hydrocarbons. But we ought to be wise about how we, you know, use our own resources.
I think it would be a powerful signal if we announced that we're going to, you know, really get after it when it comes to oil shale. There's enormous reserves in the western states. And I think if the world saw that we're willing to, you know, put a focused, concerted effort on using new technologies to bring those reserves to bear, which would then relieve some pressure on gasoline prices, it would have an impact.
The other thing is is that -- I'm sure you know this -- but we haven't built a refinery, a new refinery in the United States, since the early '70s. It makes no sense.
And yet, you try to get one permitted, it is unbelievably difficult to do. People aren't willing to risk capital if they're deeply concerned about how their capital is going to be tied up in lawsuits or regulations.
BUSH: And we import a lot of gasoline, refined product, from overseas. So there's some things we can do to send signals that it's important that we can get the economy -- you know, take advantage of the positive aspects and getting moving stronger again.
The other things is trade. It is -- I don't understand the decision on the Colombia free trade market -- free trade agreement.
The Congress has given preferential treatment to goods coming out of Colombia through the Andean Trade Preference Act.
In other words, Colombian businesses can sell into our country relatively duty-free. And yet we don't have the same -- we don't get the same treatment.
Now, why does that make sense? It doesn't.
You know, trade -- our trade, our exports have helped to keep the economy growing, (inaudible) as it may be.
Shouldn't it make sense for us to continue to open up further opportunities to sell goods?
BUSH: I think it does.
I do not understand why it's OK for Colombia to be able to sell into our country close to duty-free and we don't have the same advantage.
And secondly, turn our back on somebody like Uribe makes no sense at all. I mean, he was a courageous fighter against terrorists. And yet our Congress won't even bring up a free trade agreement with Colombia.
Anyway, politics is just choking good sense.
And the other thing is, is that once we get moving on Colombia, we need to get moving on, you know, Panama and South Korea. It's in our country's interest we do that.
QUESTION: Yes, sir. A follow-up on...
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Following up on...
BUSH: (inaudible)
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Yes, sir. Following up on Bret Baier's question...
BUSH: What was the question, Olivier? I'm 62. I'm having trouble remembering a lot of things.
QUESTION: It was about Afghanistan, sir.
BUSH: Good. Yes.
QUESTION: Afghan president...
BUSH: Remembering now.
QUESTION: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has blamed Pakistan's intelligence services for a recent terrorist attack in his country. And recent reporting suggests that Al Qaida has regrouped to pre- September 11th levels along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Is President Karzai correct? And do you think the new president, the new government in Pakistan is willing and is able to fight the terrorists?
BUSH: First of all, we'll investigate his charge and we'll work with his service (ph) to get to the bottom of his allegation.
No question, however, that some extremists are coming out of parts of Pakistan into Afghanistan. And that's troubling to us, it's troubling to Afghanistan, and it should be troubling to Pakistan. We share a common enemy; that would be extremists who use violence to either disrupt democracy or prevent democracy from taking hold.
Al Qaida is -- they're there. We have hurt Al Qaida hard -- hit them hard and hurt them around the world, including in Pakistan.
BUSH: And we will continue to keep the pressure on Al Qaida with our Pakistan friends.
I certainly hope that the government understands the dangers of extremists moving in their country. I think they do. As a matter of fact, we'll have an opportunity to explore that further on Monday with the prime minister of Pakistan.
Pakistan is an ally. Pakistan is a friend. And I repeat, all three countries -- the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- share a common enemy.
I remember very well the meeting I had at the White House with President Musharraf and President Karzai, and we talked about the need for cross-border cooperation to prevent dangerous elements from training and coming into Afghanistan -- and then, by the way, returning home with a skill level that could be used against the government.
And, you know, there was some hopeful progress made. Obviously, it's still a tough fight there. And we were heartened by the provincial elections in that part of the world.
BUSH: We will continue to work to help the government on the one hand deal with extremists and on the other hand have an effective counterinsurgency strategy that uses aid to foster economic development.
And that's a challenge. And the three of us working together can deal with the challenge a lot better than if we don't work together.
OK. I've enjoyed it. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it.
Yeah?
QUESTION: Come back soon.
BUSH: I will.
LOAD-DATE: July 17, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
July 15, 2008 Tuesday 11:34 AM EST
Bush Remarks on the Economy
BYLINE: CQ Transcripts, washingtonpost.com
LENGTH: 7180 words
HIGHLIGHT: PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Good morning.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Good morning.
It's been a difficult time for many American families who are coping with declining housing values and high gasoline prices. This week my administration took steps to help address both these challenges. To help address challenges in the housing and financial markets we announced temporary steps to help stabilize them and increase confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
These two enterprises play a central role in our housing finance system, so Treasury Paulson has worked with the Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke so the companies and the government regulators -- put the companies and the government regulators on a plan to strengthen these enterprises. We must ensure they can continue providing access to mortgage credit during this time of financial stress.
I appreciate the positive reaction this plan has received from many members of Congress. I urge members to move quickly to enact the plan in its entirety, along with the good oversight legislation that we have recommended for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
We will work to ensure that they remain shareholder-owned companies.
To help address the pressure on gasoline prices, my administration took action this week to clear the way for offshore exploration on the outer continental shelf. It's what's called OCS. Congress has restricted access to key parts of the OCS since the early 1980s. I've called on Congress to remove the ban.
It was also an executive prohibition on exploration, offshore exploration. So yesterday, I issued a memorandum to lift this executive prohibition.
With this action the executive branch's restrictions have been removed, and this means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress.
Bringing OCS (ph) resources on the line is going to take time, which means that the need for congressional action is urgent. The sooner Congress lifts the ban the sooner we can get these resources from the ocean floor to the refineries, to the gas pump.
Democratic leaders have been delaying action on offshore exploration and now they have an opportunity to show that they finally heard the frustrations of the American people.
They should match the action I have taken, repeal the congressional ban and pass legislation to facilitate responsible offshore exploration.
Congress needs also to pass bills to fund our government in a fiscally responsible way. I was disappointed to learn the Democratic leaders in the House postponed committee consideration of the defense appropriations bill, and they did so yesterday.
They failed to get a single one of the 12 annual appropriation bills to my desk. In fact, this is the latest that both the House and the Senate have passed any of their annual spending bills in more than two decades.
They're just 26 legislative days left before the end of the fiscal year.
BUSH: This means that to get their fundamental job done, Congress would have to pass a spending bill nearly every other day. This is not a record to be proud of, and I think American people deserve better.
Our citizens are rightly concerned about the difficulties in the housing markets and high gasoline prices and the failure of the Democratic Congress to address these and other pressing issues.
Yet, despite the challenges we face, our economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience. While the unemployment rate has risen, it remains at 5.5 percent, which is still low by historical standards. And the economy continued to grow in the first quarter of this year. The growth is slower than we would have liked, but it was growth nonetheless.
BUSH: We saw the signs of a slowdown early and enacted a bipartisan economic stimulus package. We have now delivered more than $91 billion in tax relief to more than 112 million American households this year.
It's going to take some time before we feel the full benefit of the stimulus package, but the early signs are encouraging. Retail sales were up in May and June and should contribute -- and will contribute -- to economic growth.
In the months ahead, we expect more Americans to take advantage of these stimulus payments and inject new energy into our economy.
The bottom line is this: We're going through a tough time. But our economy has continued growing, consumers are spending, businesses are investing, exports continue increasing, and American productivity remains strong.
We can have confidence in the long-term foundation of our economy, and I believe we will come through this challenge stronger than ever before.
And now, I'd be glad to take some questions from you.
QUESTION: Mr. President, are America's banks in trouble? And does the rescue of Freddie Mae (sic), Fannie Mac (sic) make more bailouts inevitable, by sending the message that there are some institutions that are too big to fail and that it's OK to take risks?
BUSH: First, let me talk about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
I -- a lot of people in the country probably don't understand how important they are to the mortgage markets. And it's really important for people to have confidence in the mortgage markets and that there be stability in the mortgage markets.
And that's why Secretary Paulson announced the plan this weekend, which says that he needs authorities from the Congress to, you know, come up with a line of credit for these institutions if needed, and that he ought to have the authority to invest capital if needed.
And so, the purpose was to send a clear signal that, one, we understand how important these institutions are to the mortgages markets, and, two, to kind of calm nerves.
The truth of the matter is, by laying this out, it makes it less likely we'll feed to use this kind of authority to begin with -- which, by the way, is temporary authority.
As you talked about banks. Now, if you're a commercial bank in America and you have a deposit in a commercial bank in America, your deposit is insured by the federal government up to $100,000. And so, therefore, when you hear nervousness about your bank, you know, people start talking about how nervous they are about your bank's condition, the depositor must understand that the federal government, through the FDIC, stands behind the deposit up to $100,000. Therefore, which leads me to say, that if you're a depositor, you're in -- you're protected by the federal government.
I happened to witness the bank run in Midland, Texas, one time. I'll never forget the guy standing in the bank lobby say, "Your deposits are good, and we've got you insured. You don't have to worry about it, if you've got less than $100,000 in the bank."
The problem was, people didn't hear, and there's -- you know, became nervous.
My hope is, is that people take a deep breath and realize that their deposits are protected by our government.
So these are two different instances, mortgage markets on the one hand, banking on the other.
QUESTION: And banking, do you think the system is in trouble?
BUSH: I think the system basically is sound. I truly do.
BUSH: And I understand there's a lot of nervousness, but the economy's growing, productivity's high, trade's up, people are working -- it's not as good as we'd like.
And to the extent that we find weakness, we'll move. That's one thing about this administration: We're not afraid of making tough decisions. And I thought the decision that Secretary Paulson recommended on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was the right decision.
Matt?
QUESTION: Mr. President, you mentioned the latest retail sales, but they actually showed a smaller boost than economists expected from the government rebate checks.
Given the latest economic data, are you still insisting that the United States is not headed for a recession? And are you willing to consider a second stimulus package if needed?
BUSH: Matt, all I can tell you is we grew in the first quarter. I remember holding a press conference here and that same question came about, assuming that we weren't going to grow. But we showed growth. It's not the growth we'd like.
BUSH: We'd like stronger growth. And there are some things we can do. One is wait for the stimulus package to fully kick in and not raise taxes.
If the Democratic leaders had their way in Congress, they would raise taxes, which would be the absolute wrong thing to do.
Secondly, they can pass housing legislation that reforms FHA, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
And, by the way, a part of that, as I mentioned in my opening statement, part of that reform will be a strong regulator to help these institutions stay focused on the core mission which is mortgages.
Now, they can pass energy legislation. I readily concede that, you know, it's not going to produce a barrel of oil tomorrow, but it is going to change the psychology that, you know, demand will constantly outstrip supply.
As I said in my remarks, it's going to take a while to get these reserves on line, but it won't take a while to send a signal to the world that we're willing to use, you know, new technologies to find oil reserves here at home.
And the other thing Congress can do is work on trade legislation. One of the policies in the economy right now is the fact that we're selling more goods overseas, and they need to open up markets to Colombia and South Korea and Panama.
John?
QUESTION: Mr. President, this is a follow-up on Terry's question a little bit. You talked about the mortgage markets and banks. Are there other entities in the economy that are so crucial to the stability and confidence in the economy -- I'm thinking particularly General Motors, which today is cutting jobs (inaudible) go into the credit market to raise billions of dollars.
Are there other entities that are so crucial to stability that require government action to show support for them?
BUSH: Government action -- if you're talking about bailing out -- if your question is, "Should the government bail out private enterprise?" the answer is no, it shouldn't.
And, by the way, the decisions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- I head some say "bailout." I don't think it's a bailout. The shareholders still own the company. That's why I said we want this to continue to be a shareholder-owned company.
In this case, there is -- you know, there is a feeling that the government will stand behind mortgages through these two entities. And therefore we felt a special need to step up and say that we are going to provide, if needed, temporary assistance, through either debt or capital.
In terms of private enterprises, no, I don't think the government ought to be involved with bailing out companies. I think the government ought to create the conditions so that companies can survive. And I listed four.
BUSH: And one of the things I'm deeply troubled about is people who feel like it's OK to raise taxes during these times. And it would be a huge mistake to raise taxes right now.
QUESTION: Mr. President, you just said twice that the -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should remain shareholder-owned companies. If that's the case, because of the implicit government guarantee that they have or that is understood -- has been understood by the markets, their exposure is higher and their reserves are lower than any normal businesses.
Should they be privatized altogether and be subject to normal business rules?
BUSH: Well, the first half is to make sure that there's confidence and stability in the mortgage markets through the actions that we have taken.
BUSH: Secondly, we strongly believe there ought to be a regulator. That's something -- this is a position I have been advocating for a long time. And the reason why is, it's going to be very important for these institutions to focus on their core mission, which is to provide refinancing for the mortgage industry. And, hopefully, these measures will instill the confidence in the people. And we'll see how things go.
QUESTION: (inaudible) still have that public guarantee then?
BUSH: You know, there is an implicit guarantee, as you said. They ought to be focusing on the missions they're expected to do. We have advocated reform for a long period of time. But these need to remain private enterprises, and that's what our message is.
QUESTION: Mr. President, in February you were asked about Americans facing the prospect of $4 a gallon gasoline and you said you hadn't heard of that at the time.
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: I've heard of it now.
QUESTION: Gas prices are now approaching $5 a gallon in some parts of the country. Offshore oil exploration is obviously a long- term approach. What is the short-term advice for Americans? What can you do now to help them?
BUSH: First of all, there is a psychology in the oil market that basically says supplies are going to stay stagnant while demand rises. And that's reflected somewhat in the price of crude oil. Gasoline prices are reflected -- the amount of a gasoline price at the pump is reflected in the price of crude oil. And, therefore, it seems like it makes sense to me to say to the world that we're going to use, you know, new technologies to explore for oil and gas in the United States -- offshore oil, ANWR, oil shale projects -- to help change the psychology, to send a clear message that the supplies of oil will increase.
BUSH: Secondly, obviously, good conservation measure matter. I've been reading a lot about how the automobile companies are beginning to adjust. People are -- consumers are beginning to say, "Wait a minute. I don't want a gas guzzler anymore. I want a smaller car."
So the two need to go hand in hand.
There is no immediate fix. This took us a while to get into this problem. There is not short-term solution.
I think it was in the Rose Garden where I issued this brilliant statement: If I had a magic wand -- but the president doesn't have a magic wand. You just can't say, "Low gas." It took us awhile to get here, and we need to have a good strategy to get out of it.
QUESTION: But you do have a strategic oil petroleum reserve. What about opening that?
BUSH: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is for emergencies, but that doesn't address the fundamental issue.
Which I, frankly, have been talking about since I first became president, which was a combination of using technology to have alternative sources of energy but at the same time finding oil and gas here at home.
And now's the time to get it done. I heard somebody say, "Well, it's going to take seven years." Well, if we'd have done it seven years ago, we'd be having a different conversation today.
I'm not suggesting we'd have completely created a -- you know, changed the dynamics in the world, but it certainly would have been we'd have been using more of our own oil and sending less money overseas.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning.
BUSH: Thank you.
QUESTION: It is a good morning.
BUSH: It is. I always think it's a good morning when you get to serve the country.
QUESTION: Absolutely. And we know you prize loyalty in that, so I wonder whether you felt betrayed by Scott McClellan's assessment of the war in Iraq.
And, moving forward, since there have been positive signs on the ground in Iraq, Senator Obama's about to take a trip there, what would be your advice to him as he tries to assess the situation on the ground?
BUSH: I have had no comment -- and no comment now on Scott's book.
Secondly, I would ask him to listen carefully to Ryan Crocker and General Petraeus. It's -- you know, it's a temptation to let the politics at home get in the way, you know, with the considered judgment of the commanders.
That's why I sternly rejected an artificial timetable of withdrawal, it's kind of like an arbitrary thing. You know, it's we will decide in the halls of Congress how to conduct our affairs in Iraq, based upon, you know, polls and politics.
And we're going to impose this on people," as opposed to listening to our commanders and our diplomats, and listening to the Iraqis, for that matter.
You know, the Iraqis have invited us to be there. But they share a goal with us, which is to get our combat troops out, as conditions permit.
Matter of fact, that's what we're doing. Return on success has been the strategy of this administration, and our troops are coming home, but based upon success.
And so I would ask whoever goes there, every elected official who goes there to listen carefully to what is taking place; and understand that the best way to go forward is to listen to the parties who are actually on the ground.
And that's hard to do. I understand for some in Washington, you know, there's a lot of pressures.
BUSH: You got these groups out there, MoveOn.org, you know, banging away on these candidates. And it's hard to kind of divorce yourself from the politics. So I'm glad -- I'm glad all the -- a lot of these elected officials are going over there, because they'll get an interesting -- they're get an interesting insight, something that you don't get from just reading your wonderful newspapers or listening to your T.V. shows.
QUESTION: Mr. President...
BUSH: That what you call them, T.V. shows? Newscasts, yes.
QUESTION: Following up on the question about oil, in the past, when oil prices have gone up a lot, they've wound up going down a lot afterward. But I wonder if you're able to say that oil prices in the future are going to come down a lot.
BUSH: I can't predict it. I mean, my attitude is, is that unless there is a focused effort in the short term, unless there's a focused effort to bring more supplies to market, there's going to be a lot of upward pressure on price. We've got 85 million barrels a day and -- of demand -- and 86 million barrels of production. And it's just -- it's too narrow a spread, it seems like to me.
BUSH: Now, I'm encouraged by, you know, the Caspian Basin exploration. I'm encouraged that the Saudis are reinvesting a lot into their older fields. And remember, some of these old fields get on a decline rate which -- which requires a lot of investment to keep their production up to previous levels.
So one thing we look at is how much money is being reinvested in some of those fields. I'm encouraged by that.
I'm discouraged by the fact that some nations subsidize the purchases of a product like gasoline, which therefore means that, you know, demand may not be causing the market to adjust as rapidly as we'd like.
I was heartened by the fact that the Chinese the other day announced that they're going to start reducing some of their subsidies, which, all of a sudden, you may have some, you know, demand-driven changes in the overall balance.
BUSH: But, look, if we can serve and find more energy, we will have done our part to address the global market right now.
And the other thing is, is this is just a transition period. And all of us want to get away from reliance upon hydrocarbons. But it's not going to happen overnight.
You know, one of these days, people are going to be using battery technologies in their cars. You've heard me say this a lot. I'm confident it's going to happen.
And, you know, the throwaway line, of course, is that your car won't have to look like a golf cart.
But the question, then, becomes, where are we going to get electricity?
And that's why I'm a big believer in nuclear power to be able to make us less dependent on oil and better stewards of the environment.
But there is a transition period during hydrocarbon (ph) era, and it hasn't ended yet, as our people now know. Gasoline prices are high.
Again, I don't want to be a told-you-so, but if you go back and look at the strategy we put out, early on in this administration, we understood what was coming.
We knew the markets were going to be tight. And therefore we called for additional exploration at home, plus what has been happening, which is acceleration of new technologies, including ethanol technologies, to get us less dependent on crude oil from overseas.
QUESTION: Mr. President, thank you.
I wonder, in light of the Supreme Court's decision, if you could tell us what you plan to do with Guantanamo.
BUSH: We're still analyzing -- we being the Justice Department -- are still analyzing the effects of the decision, which, as you know, I disagreed with.
And, secondly, we're working with members of Congress on a way forward. This is a very complicated case. It complicated the situation in Guantanamo.
My view all along has been either send them back home or give them a chance to have a day in court. I still believe that makes sense. We're just trying to figure out how to do so in light of the Supreme Court ruling.
QUESTION: Mr. President, last week China joined Russia in blocking the sanctions (inaudible) Mugabe in Zimbabwe. I can't imagine this pleased you very much.
Do you have any reaction to particularly the Chinese move? And also where do you go from here to try to make sure that the regime doesn't...
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: You read my reaction right. I was displeased.
We spent a lot of time on this subject at the G-8. And there was great concern by most of the nations there -- well, the G-8 nations that were there about what was taking place in Zimbabwe. And it's, frankly, unacceptable, and it should be unacceptable to a lot of folks.
And so we discussed the need for U.N. Security Council resolutions. And I was disappointed that the Russians vetoed. I didn't -- I hadn't spent any time with the Chinese leader talking about -- specifically talking about any Security Council resolutions. I'd had with President Medvedev.
BUSH: And so I think the thing we need to do now is for us to analyze, you know, whether or not we can have some more bilateral sanctions on regime leaders. After all, these sanctions were not against the Zimbabwe people. These were against the people that, you know, in the Mugabe regime that made the decisions it made. Get the Treasury Department, State Department -- are now working on potential -- potential U.S. action.
Bret?
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. I have a two-part question on the war in light of increasing violence in Afghanistan.
Do you believe current U.S. troop levels in Iraq are hindering efforts to put more U.S. troops into Afghanistan?
And, secondly, this morning in his prepared remarks, Senator Obama will say this: "By any measure, our single-minded, open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe. In fact, as should have been apparent to President Bush and Senator McCain, the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq and it never was."
BUSH: Well, as you know, I'm loath to respond to a particular presidential candidate. And so, I will try not to.
My view is is that the war on terror is being fought out on two simultaneous fronts that are noted -- noticeable to the American people, and on other fronts that aren't.
And so, the first question that anybody running for president gets is, "Is this a way," you know, "or is this like law enforcement? Is it a -- does this require, you know, full use of U.S. assets in order to protect the American people?"
As you know, I made the decision that it does require those assets.
Secondly, that these are two very important fronts, both of which, you know, are important to the future of the country. And therefore we got to succeed in both.
Thirdly, one front right now is going better than the other, and that's Iraq, where we're succeeding. And our troops are coming home based upon success.
And Afghanistan's a tough fight. It's a tough fight because, one, this is a state that had been just ravaged by previous wars, and there wasn't a lot of central government, you know, outreach to the people.
BUSH: Secondly, there is a tough enemy, and they're brutal. And they kill at the drop of a hat, in order to affect behavior.
It's a little bit reminiscent of what was taking place in Iraq a couple years ago, where, you know, the enemy knows that they can affect the mentality of the American people if they just continue to kill innocent folks.
And they have no disregard (sic) for human life. And it's really important we succeed there, as well as in Iraq. We do not want the enemy to have safe haven -- unless, of course, your attitude is, this isn't a war, so if that's the case, it wouldn't matter whether we succeed or not.
But it is a two-front war. And I say there's other fronts, but there's other fronts where we're, you know, taking covert actions, for example.
QUESTION: Should Americans expect a troop surge in Afghanistan?
BUSH: We are surging troops in Afghanistan. We're committed.
But we'll analyze the situation, of course, make a determination based upon the conditions on the ground. But we did surge troops. We surged troops. France surged troops. I said in Bucharest we'll add more troops.
And then, of course, we've got to make sure the strategy works. You know, have a counterinsurgency strategy that not only provides security but also provides economic follow-up after security has been enhanced.
You know, the question really facing the country is will we have the patience and the determination to succeed in these very difficult theaters. And I understand the exhaustion. And I understand people getting tired.
But I would hope that whoever follows me understands that we're at war and now is not the time to give up in the struggle against this enemy. And that while there hasn't been an attack on the homeland, that's not to say people don't want to attack us. And safe havens become very dangerous for the American people and we've got to deny safe haven and at the same time win the struggle by advancing democracy.
This is an ideological struggle we're involved in.
BUSH: These people kill for a reason. They want us to leave. They want us to -- not push back. They don't want democracy to succeed. And yet, if given a chance, democracy will succeed.
So these two theaters are the big challenge of the time, and the war itself is the challenge.
Yes, Roger?
QUESTION: Thank you, sir.
I want to follow up on Matt's question about a second economic...
BUSH: On who's question?
QUESTION: Matt's question about a second economic stimulus package.
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: ... start quoting me, you know.
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: Congratulations.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Maybe I missed it, but did you (OFF-MIKE)
BUSH: I said we ought to see how this first one works. Let it run its course.
QUESTION: Is it too late to consider a second one in your administration?
BUSH: You know, we're always open-minded to things, but -- we'll see how this stimulus package works. And let us deal with the housing market with good piece of housing legislation and the energy issue with good energy legislation, and the trade issue with good trade legislation.
BUSH: People say, oh, man, you're running out of time; nothing's going to happen. I'll remind people what did happen.
We got a good troop-funding bill with no strings; got a G.I. bill. We got FISA.
What can we get done?
We can get good housing legislation done. We can get good energy legislation done. We can get trade bills done.
I mean, there's plenty of time to get action, with the United States Congress. And they need to move quickly.
We can get judges approved. And so, you know, we'll see what happens up there. I'm confident that, if they put their mind to it, we can get good legislation.
QUESTION: Mr. President, understanding what you say about energy supplies being tight and the debate over energy, which has gone on for years and will continue long through the campaign and into the next administration, one thing nobody debates is that if American use less energy...
BUSH: Correct.
QUESTION: ... the supply/demand equation would improve.
Why have you not served calls on Americans to drive less and to turn down the thermostat?
BUSH: They're smart enough to figure out whether they're going to drive less or not.
I mean, you know, it's interesting what the price of gasoline has done, is it caused people to drive less. That's why they want smaller cars: They want to conserve.
But the consumer's plenty bright. The marketplace works.
Secondly, we have worked with Congress to change CAFE standards, and had a mandatory, you know, alternative fuel requirement.
So, no question about it what you just said is right. One way to correct the imbalance is to save, is to conserve.
You noticed my statement yesterday, I talked about good conservation and -- you know, people can figure out whether they need to drive more or less, they can balance their own checkbooks.
QUESTION: But you don't see the need to ask -- you don't see the value in your calling for a campaign...
BUSH: I think people ought to conserve and be wise about how they use gasoline and energy, absolutely.
BUSH: And there's some easy steps people can take.
You know, if they're not in their home, they don't keep their air conditioning running. I mean, there's a lot of things people can do.
And -- but my point to you is that, you know, it's a little presumptuous on my part to dictate to consumers how they live their lives. The American people are plenty capable and plenty smart people, and they'll make adjustments to their own pocketbooks.
That's why I was so much in favor of letting them keep more of their own money, you know. It's a philosophical difference: Should the government spend their money or should they spend their own money? And I've got faith in the American people.
And, you know, as much as I, you know, regret that gasoline prices are high -- and they are -- I also understand that people are going to make adjustments to meet their own needs.
BUSH: And suspect you'll see in the whole Americans using less gasoline. I bet that's going to happen.
And in the meantime, technologies will be coming on the market that'll enable them to drive and save money compared to the automobiles they're using before. And as you noticed, the automobile industry is beginning to adjust here at home as consumer demand changes.
And the great thing about our system is it's the consumer that drives our system; it's the individual American in their collection that end up driving the economy.
QUESTION: Could I follow up on a couple of points please?
BUSH: OK.
QUESTION: You never mention oil companies. Are you confident that American oil producers are tapping all of the sources they have out there, including offshore?
And on Iraq, will you sign an interim agreement with Prime Minister Maliki on American operations in Iraq, leaving it to your successor to do a more permanent agreement?
BUSH: There are -- let me start with Iraq.
We're in the process of working on a strategic framework agreement with the Iraqi government that will talk about cooperation on a variety of fronts: diplomacy, economics, justice.
Part of that agreement is a security agreement. And I believe that, you know, they want to have an aspirational goal as to how quickly the transition to what we have called overwatch takes place. Overwatch will mean that the U.S. will be in training mission, you know, logistical support, as well as special ops.
In order for our troops to be in a foreign country, there must be an understanding with the government.
with the government.
BUSH: There must be authorities to operate, as well as protections for our troops.
We're in the process of negotiating that, as well. And it needs to be done prior to the year, because -- unless, of course, the U.N. mandate is extended.
And so there are two aspects to the agreement. People seem to conflate the two, and we're working both of them simultaneously.
Let's see here...
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
BUSH: What was the question, again, on that?
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
BUSH: Do I think they're investing capital to find more reserves, with the price at $140 a barrel?
Absolutely.
Take an offshore exploration company. First of all, it costs a lot of money to buy the lease. They tie up capital.
BUSH: Secondly, it takes a lot of money to, you know, do the geophysics, to determine what the structure may or may not look like. That ties up capital.
Then they put rig out there. Now, first of all, in the federal offshore lease if you're not exploring within a set period of time you lose your bonus, you lose the amount of money that you paid to get the lease in the first place.
And once you explore -- in your first explore (inaudible) if you happen to find oil or gas, it is -- you'll find yourself in a position where a lot of capital's tied up. And it becomes in your interests, your economic interest to continue to explore so as to reduce the capital costs of the project on a per barrel basis.
And so I think -- I think they're exploring. And, hopefully, a lot of people continue to explore so that the supply of oil worldwide increases relative to demand.
Now, people say, "What about the speculators?" You know, I think you can't help but notice there is some volatility in price in the marketplace, which obviously there's some people in the -- you know, buying and selling on a daily basis.
BUSH: On the other hand, the fundamentals are what's really driving the long-term price of oil, and that is demand for oil has increased and supply has not kept up with it. And so part of our strategy in our country has got to be to say, OK, here are some, you know, suspected reserves and that we ought to go after them in an environmentally friendly way.
Buddy of mine said, "What about the reefs?" So I'm concerns about the reefs. I'm a fisherman. I like to fish. Reefs are important for fisheries. But the technology is such that you can protect the reefs. You know, you don't have to drill on top of a reef. You can drill away from a reef and then, you know, have a horizontal -- horizontal hole to help you explore -- explore a reservoir.
It's like in Alaska.
BUSH: You know, in the old days, you would have had to have a -- if you ever go out to west Texas, there's like a rig every 20 acres, depending upon the formation.
In Alaska, you can have one pad with, you know, a lot of horizontal drilling, which enables you to exploit the resources in a way that doesn't damage the environment.
These are new technologies that have come to be, and yet we've got an old energy policy that hasn't recognized how the industry has changed. And now is the time to get people to recognize how the industry has changed.
QUESTION: Mr. President?
BUSH: Yeah?
QUESTION: Two questions, one on energy, another on Sudan.
BUSH: On what?
QUESTION: Not energy, I'm sorry, the economy. When, in your guesstimation, will this country see turnaround, as it relates to the softening economy? When will it become strong again?
And, also, on the Sudan, the Sudanese government is looking to the United Nations for help in the situation with the ICC.
QUESTION: And this is a body that they have ignored before. What are your thoughts about what's happening with the Sudan?
BUSH: Well, we're not a member of the ICC. So we'll see how that plays out.
My thought on Sudan is, is that the United Nations needs to work with this current government to get those troops in to help save lives, an A.U. hybrid force.
I talked to, you know, Williamson, who's the special envoy to Sudan, yesterday. There's two aspects to the Sudanese issue.
One is the North-South Agreement. And, you know, he was talking about the need to make sure that there is a clear understanding about how oil revenues will be shared between north and south in a certain part of the border region there, so as to make sure that there is -- that this agreement that Ambassador Danforth negotiated stays intact and stays full.
And the other aspect, obviously, is Darfur. And that's a very, very complex issue. And we're trying to work with the rebel groups so that they speak more with one voice. We're trying to work with Bashir to make sure he understands that there will be continued sanctions if he doesn't move forward.
We're trying to help get these A.U. troops in Africa, throughout Africa, into Sudan.
BUSH: And we're working with the French on the issue of Chad. And it's a complex situation, and, sadly enough, you know, innocent people are being displaced and are losing their life. And it's very difficult and unacceptable.
As you know, I made the decision not to unilaterally send troops. Once that decision was made then we had to rely upon the United Nations. And I brought this issue up at the G-8 with our partners there. There's same sense of consternation and the same sense of frustration that things haven't moved quicker.
I talked to Ban Ki-moon about the issue and he told me -- I think he told me that by the end of this year, you know, a full complement of A.U. troops will be there. Then the question is, will the government help, you know, expedite the delivery of humanitarian aid?
Anyway, other question?
QUESTION: Yes...
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: When will the economy turn around?
QUESTION: Yes.
BUSH: I'm not an economist. But I do believe that we're growing. And I can remember -- you know this press conference here -- people yelling "recession" that as if you're economists. And I'm an optimist. I believe there's a lot of positive things for our economy.
But I will tell you it's not growing the way it should, and I'm sorry people are paying as high gasoline prices as they are.
And all I know is good policy will help expedite -- will strengthen our economy.
QUESTION: Do you think it'll change when you leave office?
BUSH: I certainly hope it changes tomorrow, but it's -- I'm also realistic to know things don't change on a dime.
But, nevertheless, the economy is growing. There's obviously financial uncertainty. We've talked about the decisions on the GSEs here. People need to know that if they've got a deposit in a commercial bank the government will make good up to $100,000 worth of their deposit.
You know, there's no question this is a time of uncertainty. There's a lot of events taking place at the same time. But we can pass some good law to help expedite the recovery.
BUSH: One such law is a good piece of housing legislation. The Congress needs to get moving on it.
Another such law is to send a signal that we're willing to explore for, you know, oil here at home. I fully understand this is, you know, a transition period away from hydrocarbons. But we ought to be wise about how we, you know, use our own resources.
I think it would be a powerful signal if we announced that we're going to, you know, really get after it when it comes to oil shale. There's enormous reserves in the western states. And I think if the world saw that we're willing to, you know, put a focused, concerted effort on using new technologies to bring those reserves to bear, which would then relieve some pressure on gasoline prices, it would have an impact.
The other thing is is that -- I'm sure you know this -- but we haven't built a refinery, a new refinery in the United States, since the early '70s. It makes no sense.
And yet, you try to get one permitted, it is unbelievably difficult to do. People aren't willing to risk capital if they're deeply concerned about how their capital is going to be tied up in lawsuits or regulations.
BUSH: And we import a lot of gasoline, refined product, from overseas. So there's some things we can do to send signals that it's important that we can get the economy -- you know, take advantage of the positive aspects and getting moving stronger again.
The other things is trade. It is -- I don't understand the decision on the Colombia free trade market -- free trade agreement.
The Congress has given preferential treatment to goods coming out of Colombia through the Andean Trade Preference Act.
In other words, Colombian businesses can sell into our country relatively duty-free. And yet we don't have the same -- we don't get the same treatment.
Now, why does that make sense? It doesn't.
You know, trade -- our trade, our exports have helped to keep the economy growing, (inaudible) as it may be.
Shouldn't it make sense for us to continue to open up further opportunities to sell goods?
BUSH: I think it does.
I do not understand why it's OK for Colombia to be able to sell into our country close to duty-free and we don't have the same advantage.
And secondly, turn our back on somebody like Uribe makes no sense at all. I mean, he was a courageous fighter against terrorists. And yet our Congress won't even bring up a free trade agreement with Colombia.
Anyway, politics is just choking good sense.
And the other thing is, is that once we get moving on Colombia, we need to get moving on, you know, Panama and South Korea. It's in our country's interest we do that.
QUESTION: Yes, sir. A follow-up on...
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Following up on...
BUSH: (inaudible)
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Yes, sir. Following up on Bret Baier's question...
BUSH: What was the question, Olivier? I'm 62. I'm having trouble remembering a lot of things.
QUESTION: It was about Afghanistan, sir.
BUSH: Good. Yes.
QUESTION: Afghan president...
BUSH: Remembering now.
QUESTION: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has blamed Pakistan's intelligence services for a recent terrorist attack in his country. And recent reporting suggests that Al Qaida has regrouped to pre- September 11th levels along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Is President Karzai correct? And do you think the new president, the new government in Pakistan is willing and is able to fight the terrorists?
BUSH: First of all, we'll investigate his charge and we'll work with his service (ph) to get to the bottom of his allegation.
No question, however, that some extremists are coming out of parts of Pakistan into Afghanistan. And that's troubling to us, it's troubling to Afghanistan, and it should be troubling to Pakistan. We share a common enemy; that would be extremists who use violence to either disrupt democracy or prevent democracy from taking hold.
Al Qaida is -- they're there. We have hurt Al Qaida hard -- hit them hard and hurt them around the world, including in Pakistan.
BUSH: And we will continue to keep the pressure on Al Qaida with our Pakistan friends.
I certainly hope that the government understands the dangers of extremists moving in their country. I think they do. As a matter of fact, we'll have an opportunity to explore that further on Monday with the prime minister of Pakistan.
Pakistan is an ally. Pakistan is a friend. And I repeat, all three countries -- the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- share a common enemy.
I remember very well the meeting I had at the White House with President Musharraf and President Karzai, and we talked about the need for cross-border cooperation to prevent dangerous elements from training and coming into Afghanistan -- and then, by the way, returning home with a skill level that could be used against the government.
And, you know, there was some hopeful progress made. Obviously, it's still a tough fight there. And we were heartened by the provincial elections in that part of the world.
BUSH: We will continue to work to help the government on the one hand deal with extremists and on the other hand have an effective counterinsurgency strategy that uses aid to foster economic development.
And that's a challenge. And the three of us working together can deal with the challenge a lot better than if we don't work together.
OK. I've enjoyed it. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it.
Yeah?
QUESTION: Come back soon.
BUSH: I will.
END
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The New York Times
July 14, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
Anheuser-Busch Agrees to Be Sold to a Belgian Brewer for $52 Billion
BYLINE: By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 13
LENGTH: 1026 words
Anheuser-Busch agreed on Sunday night to sell itself to the Belgian brewer InBev for about $52 billion, people briefed on the matter said, putting control of the nation's largest beer maker and a fixture of American culture into a European rival's hands.
The all-cash deal, for $70 a share, would create the world's largest brewer, uniting the maker of Budweiser and Michelob with the producer of Stella Artois, Bass and Brahma. Together, the two companies would have sales of more than $36 billion a year, surpassing the current No. 1 brewer, SABMiller of London.
The combined company is expected to be named Anheuser-Busch InBev, fulfilling a promise by the Belgian company to include the Anheuser name in the new brewer's title, people briefed on the matter said. Anheuser will be given two seats on the board, including one for August A. Busch IV, the company's chief executive and a scion of its controlling family.
For millions, Budweiser is synonymous with American beer. Because of Anheuser's huge advertising budget and strong distribution network, few brands are as omnipresent in daily life as Budweiser and its more popular sibling, Bud Light.
Several American beer giants have already been taken over by larger overseas rivals in the last decade. The Miller Brewing Company was sold to South African Breweries in 1999, and the Adolph Coors Company was bought by Molson of Canada in 2005. (Last year, Molson Coors agreed to merge its United States operations with those of SABMiller.)
Anheuser's concession caps a wave of consolidation within the beer industry. InBev and SABMiller, themselves the products of mergers this decade, have led efforts to gain distribution channels across the globe. The rising cost of beer ingredients like grain has also driven companies to seek greater scale and purchasing power.
The deal marks a sharp reversal for Anheuser, based since it was founded in St. Louis. When InBev announced its initial $46.3 billion offer last month, Anheuser mounted a fierce defense. It drew upon its heritage and its history as a major benefactor of its hometown, and argued that it could increase its profits alone.
Many politicians, including Matthew R. Blunt, the Republican governor of Missouri, and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, expressed support for keeping Anheuser independent.
Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has major ties to Anheuser. His wife, Cindy, is the chairwoman of Hensley & Company, a large Anheuser distributor, and holds a significant amount of Anheuser stock.
The battle grew nasty early on, as both Anheuser and InBev resorted to lawsuits as bludgeons. Last week, InBev began a campaign to oust Anheuser's board, while Anheuser accused its suitor of lying about its financial commitments and criticized its beer business in Cuba.
But Mr. Busch, the company's chief executive whose family has controlled Anheuser for more than a century, was facing pressure to consider a deal. Anheuser's stock had remained mostly stagnant in recent years, but has climbed since InBev made its offer public last month.
Several of Anheuser's large shareholders, including the billionaire Warren E. Buffett, had indicated that they were leaning toward supporting InBev, people briefed on the matter said. The talks were confidential.
Anheuser approached InBev last Wednesday, seeking the company's best and final offer, these people said. InBev responded by raising its bid to $70 from $65.
Though InBev professed a desire to make a friendly deal, it showed little hesitation in going hostile. It nominated an uncle of Mr. Busch's as a member of its proposed slate of directors.
But InBev pledged to keep Budweiser as the new company's flagship brand and St. Louis as its North American headquarters.
One unresolved matter, however, is Anheuser's ties to Grupo Modelo, the Mexican brewer of Corona. Through Anheuser's stake in Modelo, the Mexican company has both a right to approve a change in control and the right of first refusal to buy back Anheuser's 50 percent holding. Talks may begin soon, a person briefed on the matter said.
Anheuser had once sought to acquire the remaining half of Modelo it did not own, as a means to make itself too expensive for InBev, but those talks faltered.
Since 1860, Anheuser has been controlled by members of the Anheuser or Busch families, which expanded the company from a small Midwestern brewer into a beer juggernaut. On the back of Budweiser, Anheuser steadily pushed aside competitors like Schlitz with a mix of brute force and marketing guile.
One of the company's hallmarks is its omnipresent advertising. Last year, it spent about $24 million on ads, according to TNS, a market research company, and it is the biggest buyer of Super Bowl ads. Dozens of its commercials, like those featuring Clydesdales, Spuds MacKenzie and the ''Wassup'' guys, have been ingrained in pop culture.
Yet the domestic beer market has struggled recently as customers drifted toward wine and spirits, craft brews and imports. Though Anheuser holds significant stakes in Modelo and Tsingtao of China, the bulk of its sales come from the United States.
InBev has its own long history, with its predecessor having been founded in 1366. But the modern company sprang from the 2004 union of Interbrew of Belgium and AmBev of Brazil. Though the combined company remains based in Leuven, its chief executive is Carlos Brito, who led AmBev before the merger.
Mr. Brito, an engineer by training, is known for his skills in both deal-making and cost-cutting. Yet analysts have questioned how much he can cut costs at the combined company, because of the limited overlap of Anheuser's and InBev's markets.
InBev is taking on about $45 billion in debt to finance the deal. In a sign of confidence that the deal would go through, the company began syndicating those loans to other banks on Friday.
The two companies already share some ties. InBev distributes Budweiser in Canada, and Anheuser imports InBev beers like Bass. In 2006, InBev sold its Rolling Rock brand to Anheuser-Busch for $82 million.
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The Washington Post
July 14, 2008 Monday
Regional Edition
The Week July 14 - 20
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A03
LENGTH: 595 words
14.The American Civil Liberties Union will announce today at the National Press Club that the U.S. government's terrorist watch list has added its 1 millionth name. The estimate stems from a Justice Department inspector general's report last year that put the watch list roster -- four years after its creation -- at more than 720,000 in April 2007, and growing by 20,000 records a month.
The list is used by the Transportation Security Administration in determining who may be blocked from flying on commercial airlines or who must undergo additional screening before boarding a plane. Critics such as the ACLU have accused federal officials of ignoring systemic problems with the list and say these errors mean far too many travelers are unfairly subjected to increased scrutiny by virtue of an incorrect listing.
16.U.S. trade with Africa will be discussed through Wednesday as officials and business executives come to Washington to take part in the seventh annual AGOA Forum.
The sessions are a legacy of the 2000 trade deal known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Currently, 41 sub-Saharan nations are eligible for trade benefits under the act, the State Department says, and more than 98 percent of imports from AGOA countries entered the United States duty-free in 2007.
This year's forum, "Mobilizing Private Investment for Trade and Growth," will bring together not only senior administration officials and African government ministers, but also U.S. and African civil society and business stakeholders to discuss the African business climate and access to capital.
Total trade between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa reached $81 billion last year, with most of that coming from AGOA countries. But oil accounts for too much of the imports to the United States, critics say, and forum participants will discuss ways to improve the flow of agricultural products, which has been hampered by the need to meet U.S. standards.
16.The NAACP convention continues through Thursday in Cincinnati, with both presumptive major-party presidential nominees scheduled to appear.
Sen. Barack Obama, the first African American to head a major-party presidential ticket, will address the conference tonight, following a "Youth Public Mass Meeting" on the state of young black America and its views on the 2008 elections. Sen. John McCain is expected to address a special plenary session Wednesday that will focus on the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act.
McCain's appearance offers the opportunity to distance himself from President Bush, who in 2004 snubbed the convention, becoming the first sitting president since Herbert Hoover to do so, according to news reports at the time. Bush's snub led Kweisi Mfume, then the president of the civil rights group, to roundly castigate the president; his comments helped spark an IRS investigation of the organization's nonprofit status.
17.On Thursday, the third annual liberal blogger convention formerly known as Yearly Kos, and now called Netroots Nation, will kick off in Austin. Last year's convention in Chicago featured a presidential candidate forum that marked the emergence of lobbying as a major concern in the pre-primary period. The issue of candidates and committees taking money from or employing lobbyists has remained a significant point of contention in the year since.
This year, fewer sparks but more attendees are expected at the sprawling conference, which will draw Democratic and independent political technologists and activists to the Lone Star State's liberal capital.
-- Garance Franke-Ruta
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Ted S. Warren -- Associated Press; TSA workers screen passengers at a Seattle airport in 2007. The ACLU says the government's terrorist watch list has 1 million names. The list can indicate who undergoes extra scrutiny before flying.
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The Washington Post
July 14, 2008 Monday
Suburban Edition
Candidates Pushing Hard for the Latino Vote
BYLINE: Perry Bacon Jr. and Juliet Eilperin; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A06
LENGTH: 1043 words
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO, July 13
Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) are aggressively courting Latino voters in the early stages of their election contest, as the presumptive Republican nominee looks to hold on to Latino-heavy states, such as New Mexico, that Obama hopes to turn blue.
"Make no mistake about it: The Latino community holds this election in its hands," Obama said Sunday at a conference of the National Council of La Raza, one of the nation's largest Latino civil rights groups. "Some of the closest contests this November are going to be in states like Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico -- states with large Latino populations."
The two men face very different tasks. Obama is seeking to solidify his standing among a group that has historically leaned Democratic, whereas McCain is working to convince Latinos that he deserves their support, based on his stance on immigration and experience as a border-state lawmaker.
McCain will address La Raza on Monday, the third time in as many weeks the candidates will have courted Latino activists. They spoke last Tuesday in Washington at a conference of the League of United Latin American Citizens, and last month to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
On Friday, McCain's campaign began running ads appealing to Latinos in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, key states that backed President Bush in 2004 but which Obama hopes to pick off with a strong Latino turnout. The Democrat is running ads in those states as well, but none yet with Latino themes.
"If you have any doubt about whether you can make a difference, just remember how, back in 2004, 40,000 registered Latino voters in New Mexico didn't turn out on Election Day," Obama said Sunday in San Diego. He noted that Democratic candidate John F. Kerry "lost that state by fewer than 6,000 votes -- 6,000 votes."
Despite becoming the nation's largest minority group over the past decade, Hispanics lag behind other groups in voting. According to the Census Bureau, 58 percent of eligible Hispanics were registered to vote in 2004, compared with 75 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 69 percent of blacks.
A recent Gallup poll showed Obama leading McCain by 30 percentage points among Latinos, a larger margin than Kerry's 20 points over Bush in 2004 exit polls. But Obama lost badly to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) among Hispanics in Democratic primaries and told reporters Saturday night on the way to San Diego, "I'm not as well known in that community as I would like to be."
In his speech on Sunday, Obama cast his positions on spending more federal money to expand health care, create jobs and improve education as important for the Latino community as well as other Americans, and discussed his support for creating a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. His aides said they plan to start running ads on Spanish-language radio stations next week in key states and will keep them going through November.
McCain's aides acknowledge that he is trailing Obama among Latino voters, but they view this effort as crucial to making inroads so that he can hold on to states such as Florida and Colorado.
In a news conference with reporters Sunday, former U.S. treasurer Rosario Marin, a McCain supporter, said she is confident some independent and Democratic Latinos will back the Republican once they learn more about his record.
"The ones that know what the senator has done in this regard, they're very supportive of him," Marin said, referring to his work on immigration.
McCain's first televised ad in the general election -- named after his military identification number 624787 -- featured a Spanish-language narrator who testified to his courage as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
The commercial, which ran in New Mexico, featured archival footage of McCain -- with much of his body wrapped in a cast -- being interviewed by a captor. The campaign has run several other ads in which McCain praises Latinos for having entrepreneurial spirit and for being willing to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan with only green cards. During one of his speeches, the camera pans to Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), an opponent of illegal immigration, who looks on sulkily as McCain extols Hispanics' contributions to U.S. society.
"I want you the next time you're down in Washington, D.C., to go to the Vietnam War Memorial and look at the names engraved in black granite. You'll find a whole lot of Hispanic names," McCain says in a new spot airing in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. "When you go to Iraq or Afghanistan today, you're going to see a whole lot of people who are of Hispanic background."
The campaign has directed its appeals to Latinos to reflect that its members span the political spectrum. A radio ad running in Florida woos conservative Cubans with a testimonial from a former prisoner of Fidel Castro, and a Nevada radio commercial features an announcer who notes that when Latinos go shopping in the supermarket or fill up their gas tank, "We're not Republicans, Democrats or independents -- we're Hispanics, and we're suffering together in these uncertain economic times. We need someone with a good economic plan. This someone is John McCain."
This week, McCain is to embark on a one-week "opportunity" tour in which he will talk about "bolstering the opportunities across the country for people of all constituencies," an aide said. He will conduct several interviews with Hispanic media outlets, and he will have breakfast Tuesday with Latino small-business owners in Albuquerque.
But McCain's aides remain frustrated that his work on immigration has not translated to greater popularity among Latinos. Conservative media outlets and pundits sharply criticized McCain for the immigration bill he co-authored with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).
But McCain's decision to "secure our borders first" before pushing for comprehensive immigration-law change, a position he adopted after coming under fire from fellow Republicans during the primaries, has alienated some Hispanics.
Obama also has touted his work on last year's immigration bill: Although not a key player like McCain, he participated in the process.
Eilperin reported from Seattle. Staff writer Dan Balz in Washington contributed to this report.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 14, 2008 Monday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Ben Pershing, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3306 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Ben Pershing, washingtonpost.com congressional blogger, was online Monday, July 14 at 11 a.m. ET.
Read Ben Pershing's blog, Capitol Briefing
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
____________________
Ben Pershing: Happy Monday everyone. Lots of interesting political stories this week, with the housing crisis headlining on the Hill and the campaign trail. Let's get started.
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San Francisco: Hi Ben, thanks for chatting today. You mentioned Friday that Harry Reid seemed exhausted and frustrated. Any chance he'll tend to his 2010 home fires and step aside as Majority Leader to avoid being targeted like Tom Daschle was?
washingtonpost.com: Capitol Briefing's Player of the Week: Edward Kennedy (washingtonpost.com, July 11)
Ben Pershing: Good question. Reid's advisers claim that he's sticking around and has no plans to retire in 2010. But even if he was planning to leave, he certainly wouldn't telegraph that decision now and make himself a lame duck. I do think there's a decent chance he could decide that this term is his last, whether because he's worried about his reelection or just because he's tired and ready to go home. We won't know for sure for quite awhile, though.
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Charlottesville, Va.: A month ago Newsweek told us Obama had a huge 16 point lead over McCain. Now we hear they're tied. Isn't that massive, unprecedented, overnight shift in public opinion newsworthy? Why the silence in The Washington Post?
Ben Pershing: For what it's worth, most political analysts considered that previous Newsweek poll, the one that showed Obama with a huge lead, to be an outlier. It didn't match most of the other national poll results that were coming in at the time. So don't read to much into the apparent contrast between the latest Newsweek poll and the previous one. Most every poll has shown Obama with a small, single-digit lead for awhile now.
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Rockville, Md.: Hi Ben. Should Democrats be concerned about the Green Party's nominee for president, Cynthia McKinney? could she be a spoiler for Obama, especially in Georgia, or could Bob Barr be the real spoiler for McCain?
washingtonpost.com: Green Party names McKinney as presidential pick (Reuters, July 12)
Ben Pershing: Funny that two former House members from Georgia with controversial histories are both on the ballot, isn't it? I suppose it's possible that McKinney could attract at least some of the African-American vote in her home state, just as Barr could attract some of the conservative/Libertarian vote. At this point I'd guess that Barr will have a slightly bigger impact nationwide on the race than McKinney, but that's just a guess. And don't forget about the ever-present Ralph Nader.
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Richmond, Va.: It has been reported that much of the housing crisis, which has precipitated the Freddie Mac/Fanny Mae slide and the failure of the thrift in California, was caused by lack of oversight by the government (under the president and the GOP majority) -- and Federal Reserve regulators. Why isn't Obama shouting that from the rooftops? I would have thought that would be a winning strategy, and yet I hear nary a whisper about this from him. Any thoughts?
washingtonpost.com: U.S. Unveils Plan to Aid Mortgage Giants (Post, July 14)
Ben Pershing: It would be tough for Obama to complain too much about lack of government/congressional oversight of Fannie and Freddie, since he's been in the Senate and hasn't done too much about it either. There have been a few sharp critics on the Hill in recent years who have complained that the government sponsored enterprises were headed for disaster (ex-Rep. Richard Baker comes to mind), but they didn't get too much traction with their colleagues.
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Lyme, Conn.: If President Obama is worried about what to do with former President Clinton, has anyone in the Obama camp mentioned considering appointing Bill Clinton as ambassador to the United Nations? He would do very well there with his reputation as a former president and his knowledge of international issues. Plus he would be in New York, not attempting to hog the Beltway limelight from President Obama -- nor Vice President Hillary Clinton, should Bill be the problem that is keeping Hillary from being considered for the ticket.
Ben Pershing: It's hard to imagine Obama wanting to put Bill Clinton in the Cabinet. As a general rule, most White Houses don't want people in their Cabinet who might outshine the president himself. And do you think Clinton would really keep quiet and toe whatever line or policy the administration wants him to?
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St. Paul, Minn.: Hi Ben -- thanks for chatting today. Lots of talk about the cover of the New Yorker today. In the interests of equal time, are we likely to see a future cover featuring a doddering John McCain and an out-of-it Phil Gramm? Or the American public on a psychiatrist's couch being told our current economic troubles are all in our head?
washingtonpost.com: Magazine's 'satirical' cover stirs controversy (AP, July 14)
Ben Pershing: In the interests of equal time, perhaps the New Yorker should consider your suggestion. This whole debate about what the magazine cover really means reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine is complaining that she doesn't understand what a New Yorker cartoon means, because it's so strange and intellectual.
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Alexandria, Va.: Could we please stop whining about troops getting killed or whether the Fannie/Freddie buyout will impact the fall elections? Focus on what's important -- what exactly did Condit provide Chandra Levy while they were courting?
washingtonpost.com: Who Killed Chandra Levy? A 13-Part Investigative Series
Ben Pershing: I'm glad to see you've got your priorities straight. If you want to know more about the Condit-Levy relationship, you'll just have to keep reading that Washington Post series to its conclusion.
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Harlem, N.Y.: Ben: Will we see any fallout from the Charlie Rangel apartments mess in New York? It seems to me the questions of propriety and legality would rock any other lawmaker, but Rangel is just too powerful and he knows it, right?
washingtonpost.com: Rangel: Not unfair to have four rent-stabilized apartments (AP, July 11)
Ben Pershing: That's certainly an interesting little scandal there, which was broken by the New York Times and which I wrote about on the Capitol Briefing blog last week. What usually keeps a story like this moving is some sort of official investigation. It's possible the House ethics committee will get involved, but it seems that the substantive charge is that he might have violated New York state and city rent stabilization laws (particularly by using one of the apartments as a campaign office). So I'll be watching to see if there's any official action by the state or the city against him.
_______________________
Anonymous: Where's this papers coverage of the Ron Paul march? Why so quiet?
Ben Pershing: I don't get to make such coverage decisions, but I'd imagine that most of our political reporters are busy out on the campaign trail right now. It's true that Paul has drawn a lot of followers and showed himself to be a potent political force. But at the same time, he's not really a presidential candidate anymore so most of the news coverage will be devoted to the candidates who are still in the race. I'll bet you can find plenty of reporting on the march elsewhere on the Web. Hooray for the blogosphere, right?
_______________________
Drilling: Can Bush really circumvent congressional approval to lift his dad's executive order banning offshore oil drilling? Can he just hand out drilling contracts without a go-ahead from Congress?
Ben Pershing: I'm just reading about this now in an alert from the AP. The procedure here is complicated. The annual spending bill for the Interior Department has always included a ban, so according to Bloomberg News, Bush will simply refuse to sign the 2009 Interior bill if it still includes the ban. What complicates this is that it's unlikely an Interior bill will actually reach Bush's desk this year, since Congress likely won't be moving many appropriations bills at all. So I'm not sure how Bush can pull this off if there's no bill to sign (or veto).
_______________________
Penfield, N.Y.: Remembering the wonderful state roll calls of the '40s and the '50s (the Kefauver-Kennedy battle for the vice presidential slot in 1956 comes to mind as one of the most dramatic), I guess my previous prediction of a possible battle in Denver has gone down. But why do you think some Hillary enthusiasts have been pushing for a roll call now that only will result in her certain defeat, rather than a lovefest kind of introduction and a stirring primetime speech.
Ben Pershing: I suppose some Hillary Clinton backers just want some sort of public display at the convention of how much support she still has within the party. But nothing that appears divisive will be allowed to happen at the convention, since that would hurt her prospects for another presidential race if she decides to run again. Clinton herself and her senior people will be taking of nothing but unity in Denver.
_______________________
Anonymous: Govs. Kaine or Richardson as Obama's vice president? Even money on both?
Ben Pershing: Tim Kaine is definitely seen as a very viable candidate. I believe my colleague The Fix had him ranked as the No. 1 Democratic VP contender last week. Richardson seems to be off the map. He's got a great resume, but he doesn't seem to be under serious consideration.
_______________________
Chicago: Thanks for taking my question. A lot has been written about how this election is all about Obama -- that if the American people are comfortable that he would be commander in chief, he will win, in what is shaping up to be an overwhelmingly Democratic year. But couldn't the election also be a referendum on whether the country wants another four years of GOP leadership, or whether McCain is up to the job?
Ben Pershing: I think the answer is that most polls show voters don't want another four years of GOP leadership (or more specifically, another four years of Bush's policies). But that doesn't mean Democrats automatically win. If Obama doesn't appear experienced enough or competent enough to be a good president, he can still lose. That's why there's so much focus on Obama.
_______________________
For Charlottesville, Va.: Last month's Newsweek poll had more Democrats than Republicans. This week's had Democrats and Republicans even. A large part of the difference was how the poll was weighted.
Ben Pershing: Good point, though I've read some conflicting information about just how different those two samples were. Logically, it does seem likely that there is some methodological reason why that first Newsweek poll was so different from the second one (and every other major poll taken at the same time).
_______________________
San Francisco: Hi again, Ben -- my question was unclear, I guess. I meant, what are the odds Sen. Reid will step down as Majority Leader for the 111th Congress in order to fight a re-election battle without the baggage of being leader?
Ben Pershing: Sorry if I missed your point. I think there is very little chance that will happen. Reid will stay as Majority Leader in the 111th Congress regardless of whether he runs for re-election or retires in 2010. It can be tough to juggle both jobs, but if he was giving up the Majority Leader job, why would he bother staying in the Senate at all?
_______________________
Waterville, Maine: Good morning. When Sen. Obama decided to opt out of federal funding for the general election, it was assumed by many that this would be a huge advantage, because he could compete in far more states than Sen. McCain. However, there have been recent reports that Obama's vaunted fundraising slowly but steadily has decreased compared to the stratospheric numbers his campaign posted during the first quarter of the year. Could it be because many of his donors are from the Netroots and are tapped out or frustrated with his more moderate positions of late, or is this simply a matter of a summer drought (in comparison)? Lastly, he seems to be playing defense to McCain's advertising. Could it be that he is actually tight on money?
Ben Pershing: No, I don't think Obama is really tight on money. It's true that the financial gap between the candidates has closed, but Obama has the advantage. A lot of the McCain campaign's spin on this topic has focused on the fact that the Republican National Committee has vastly outraised the Democratic National Committee, but in a head-to-head financial race just between the two campaigns, Obama will still raise more money. It looks like both candidates will have plenty of money to spend.
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Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: You made it sound like Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader was a done deal until he retires. Can't the House and Senate members throw out Nancy and Sluggo whenever they wish for whatever reasons they wish? I didn't just wake up in the Soviet Union this morning, did I? Thanks much.
Ben Pershing: Yes, Democrats in the House and Senate could throw out Reid and Nancy Pelosi. I just don't think they will. Most members are pretty happy with both leaders, even if party activists sometime aren't, and it's likely the party is going to pick up seats in both chambers in November. Why punish the leaders who just helped you get a bigger majority?
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Rangel Scandal: Didn't Rangel buy that seat from the estate of Adam Clayton Powell? It's gonna take a lot more than some bogus real estate deals to take him down.
Ben Pershing: It's true that Rangel has been a very powerful figure in Harlem politics for a long time. I don't think this story is going to "take him down." It just might bring him some unwanted negative publicity for awhile. He definitely doesn't have to worry about getting reelected.
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San Francisco: What would be the procedure for Barr, McKinney or Nader to get onstage for a presidential debate this fall? Is there an actual threshold of support they'd need, or is it up to some commission, or would it be up to the major party candidates (ha!) to decide to include them?
Ben Pershing: The general election debates are run by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which was set up by the Republican and Democratic parties. In past years, third-party candidates had to meet some sort of threshold in national polls in order to get on stage. I know that Ralph Nader has sued over this before, complaining that his 1st amendment rights were violated, but I believe he has lost those challenges. So I'd expect that Nader, Barr and McKinney would have to register some viable level of support in the polls if they want to get in on the debates.
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Silver Spring, Md.: It doesn't seem like any of the Hillary-for-veep commentators and pundits ever address the real deal-killer for the idea: Her comments during the primary run. It's like throwing the GOP a life preserver in the form of TV ad fodder: "Don't take our word for it, take his running mate's (fade in picture of Hillary as her voice intones): 'John McCain and I have decades of experience, Barack's got a speech he gave in 2002...' " And so on (there's loads more where that came from). It seems like she made her bed with the over-the-top stabbing she did of her fellow Democrat. Am I missing something?
Ben Pershing: I think you're right that Clinton's comments during the primary hurt her VP chances. Particularly the one about McCain being qualified to be commander-in-chief, while Obama wasn't. But I expect you'll hear the GOP pull that quote out again soon anyway, regardless of whether she's on the ticket.
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Anonymous: Gov. Kaine opposes abortion. Is he for overturning Roe v. Wade?
Ben Pershing: Kaine's abortion views will be interesting fodder for both sides of the debate if Obama picks him for VP. During his run for governor, Kaine said he was opposed to abortion but did not want to make it a crime to get or perform an abortion. I think he's largely avoided dealing with the Roe v. Wade question. I imagine Obama's people will make the argument that presidents nominate Supreme Court justices, not vice presidents, so Kaine's views won't matter. But I'm not sure whether Obama's pro-abortion rights supporters will buy that argument.
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Arlington, Va.: I'm surprised more hasn't been made of President Bush's "goodbye from the world's biggest polluter" flippant parting shot to his follow leaders at the G8 Summit. The remark was the lead in many international papers' coverage of the last day of meetings. Did I miss something over the weekend?
Ben Pershing: I did see the "polluter" comment mentioned a couple of places, including in an item on The Trail yesterday. Apparently Hillary Clinton has been mentioning the Bush polluter comment in speeches.
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Why punish the leaders who just helped you get a bigger majority?: Hmm, and I thought all along that was done by Rahm Emanuel and Sen. Crayfish from New York. What's his name? I thought Reid and Pelosi were just carpetbaggers who went along for the ride. Thanks much.
Ben Pershing: Obviously there are lots of reasons why Democrats appear to be in good shape for November, and lots of members who will get some credit for it. Rahm Emanuel did do a good job in 2006, and Schumer is doing well too, but Chris Van Hollen runs the party's campaign efforts now, not Emanuel. And Pelosi and Reid have a big influence on how those campaign committees are run, not to mention the fact that they set the agenda and floor schedules. If Democrats gain seats, Pelosi and Reid will definitely get some credit for it.
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Anonymous: Pawlenty cuts his mullet and Crist gets engaged. Romney converting to Catholicism next?
Ben Pershing: An interesting prediction. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that if Romney converted from being a Mormon to something else in the middle of the campaign, that might hurt him a bit more than it helps him. Pawlenty's haircut, on the other hand, was a stroke of genius.
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Westcliffe, Colo.: Why aren't Bob Wexler or Roy Romer ever mentioned as possibilities to be Obama vice presidential candidate? One is exciting and all fired up; the other has two lifetimes of good governing and leadership experience.
Ben Pershing: Roy Romer is actually a very good suggestion, and I have no idea why his name hasn't been mentioned. He was the popular governor of a swing state (Colo.) and has been working in a bipartisan way on a crucial issue -- education reform. Wexler, on the other hand, is probably more liberal and more "fired up" than Obama really wants on his ticket.
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washingtonpost.com: The Trail: Clinton Says GOP Should Apologize to America (washingtonpost.com, July 13)
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Ben Pershing: Thanks for the great questions everyone.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The Washington Post
July 13, 2008 Sunday
Suburban Edition
Ads Hope to Inject U.S. School Challenges Into White House Race
BYLINE: Michael Alison Chandler; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: METRO; Pg. C07
LENGTH: 537 words
Amid a presidential campaign dominated by debate about the economy and the war in Iraq, an advertising campaign scheduled to debut in Northern Virginia and elsewhere tomorrow is seeking to spotlight challenges facing U.S. schools.
A 30-second television spot shows a blond-haired boy raising the flags of dozens of countries, including Finland and South Korea and Japan, onto one flagpole as ominous orchestral music plays in the background. In a voiceover, actress Jamie Lee Curtis says: "This boy's future isn't looking so good. The schools in every one of these countries are outperforming ours."
In the final shot, an overcast sky looms behind the flagpole and the Stars and Stripes ripples at the bottom.
The $5 million "One Nation Left Behind" campaign is being launched by Strong American Schools, a nonpartisan organization formed a little more than a year ago to boost political discourse about education -- a topic that has received sporadic attention from the two major presumptive presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
The group has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other philanthropic groups.
The flag-waving theme is meant to foreshadow the Beijing Olympics, where Americans will be focused on winning, said Marc Lampkin, executive director of the organization.
"If China and India were running away" with the medals, "we would be outraged." The campaign aims to create a similar fervor around what he described as a crisis in education and the ability of the United States to compete internationally in business and technology.
The commercial shows how the United States stacks up against 30 other industrialized countries, based on the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment, an exam that ranked U.S. students 25th in math and 21st in science.
Some analysts question the significance of international results, saying a nation's education system should be judged on other measures. But Strong American Schools points to such test results and high U.S. high school dropout rates as evidence of a problem.
It advocates more uniform and rigorous academic standards, more time for students in school, and differential pay to help recruit and retain quality teachers.
The organization said the campaign will start tomorrow in seven battleground states and will use radio, print and online ads as well as television ads.
Northern Virginia was selected because it is emerging as a key campaign region for Obama and McCain and because its population is politically engaged. But the area has well-funded and well-regarded schools, so an educational crisis might not be readily apparent to some.
George Wolfe, director of the Academy of Science in Loudoun County, a magnet school formed in 2005, said he applauds efforts to improve public schools but thinks there are some positive trends in math and science education.
His school has hosted delegations from six countries who want to know how U.S. students learn to innovate and think creatively, skills that help give the United States an edge in technology and business.
"As a math and science educator, I'm more interested in how they think, not how they perform on a standardized test," he said.
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July 13, 2008 Sunday
Bulldog Edition
Emitters Protection Agency;
The EPA's call for public input on greenhouse gas regulation continues a pattern of avoidance.
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CARBON DIOXIDE and other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change are a danger to public health and welfare. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson could have come to that conclusion. The science certainly would have been on his side. But Mr. Johnson opted to ignore the urgings of EPA experts when he announced Friday that the agency would seek public comment on the threat posed by global warming, thus pushing regulation of greenhouse gases to the next administration. This move makes President Bush's signing of the Group of Eight declaration on climate change on Tuesday look like an empty gesture.
We agree that the Clean Air Act doesn't provide the ideal way to regulate greenhouse gasses and wasn't designed for that purpose. But the Bush administration has only itself to blame for this regulatory mess. Rather than go to Congress with a rational plan for a cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, it played games.
In April 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act. In addition, the court said that the agency must determine whether those emissions endanger public health and welfare by contributing to climate change. If they do, the EPA must devise standards to regulate them. If not, the court required the agency to ground its explanation in science.
Here's what got the White House spooked: If the EPA classified carbon dioxide from motor vehicles as a pollutant that threatens public health or welfare, then the agency would have to regulate greenhouse gases from all other sources as well. Sections 108, 109 and 111 of the Clean Air Act deal with regulating emissions from stationary sources, such as residential and commercial buildings, establishing national ambient air quality standards and setting source performance standards, respectively. Each of these complicated regulations has its own complex implementation process.
Ever since the Supreme Court's ruling, the administration, using the limited discretion granted by the high court, has punted on meaningful decision-making. Mr. Johnson initially said that an endangerment finding would be made by the end of 2007. Because Friday's newly announced process for public input will last 120 days, Mr. Johnson has effectively kicked a final decision to the next administration.
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the presumptive Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, both recognize climate change as a threat to the nation's security and way of life. No matter which man is elected, the see-no-evil approach of the Bush administration will come to a merciful end.
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The Washington Post
July 13, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
Kennan Had a Vision. Things Aren't So Clear Now.
BYLINE: Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier
SECTION: OUTLOOK; Pg. B03
LENGTH: 1242 words
James Monroe had one, and so should we.
That seems to be the theory behind the rampant and premature speculation among national security wonks about what kind of new doctrine President Obama or President McCain would use to guide U.S. foreign policy. But let's not get carried away thinking about what a McCain or Obama doctrine might be. In today's complex world, a president doesn't need to have a one-size-fits-all template for handling foreign affairs. In fact, the next president would be better off without one.
During the Cold War, Americans grew accustomed to presidents having big, broad doctrines to organize their thinking. Sometimes these were tailored to particular places, such as Jimmy Carter's vow to protect U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf, by force if necessary, after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Other doctrines were more sweeping, such as Harry S. Truman's determination to support free peoples against communist usurpers or Ronald Reagan's pledge to assist anticommunist insurgencies worldwide. All these principles were proclaimed within the context of Washington's overarching Cold War strategy to contain Soviet communism, famously articulated in 1947 by the legendary diplomat George F. Kennan.
Over the almost 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, foreign policy experts have all aspired to be the next Kennan. But that communal nostalgia for the supposed simplicity of the Cold War and elegance of Kennan's containment doctrine is misplaced. A single template was one thing during the long twilight struggle against a single heavyweight rival. But since the collapse of communism, the effort to impose one grand theory on global politics has proven deeply frustrating -- and foolish.
In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton was desperate to outline what he called a "theory of the case," a simple notion to help the American people make sense of a rapidly changing world. He constantly complained to his aides about their failure to come up with anything. In speech after speech, he and his advisers tried out many slogans, including "democratic enlargement," the "age of hope" and the "third way." None ever took hold, and at least one Clinton speechwriter, Robert Boorstin, told us that he found the whole effort to come up with a new bumper sticker "a waste of time."
Ultimately, the Clinton team came to embrace the view that deeds mattered more than words. During the 1999 war over Kosovo, Clinton officials rebuffed pressures from the media and the foreign policy cognoscenti to couch the conflict in terms of a new foreign policy doctrine -- which senior administration aides referred to dismissively as the D-word. "We tried to establish common law rather than canon law," then-national security adviser Sandy Berger told us. "We set out to build a new role for the U.S. in the world by experience rather than doctrine."
The results were rather good -- the United States entered the 21st century with significant global support and respect -- but some conservatives argued that avoiding doctrinal vision showed indecision and weakness. When George W. Bush took office more than seven years ago, his new administration believed that Clinton's failure to define a clear foreign policy framework had helped squander U.S. influence.
The Bush team set out to speak explicitly about doctrine, emphasizing U.S. dominance of the world system, a willingness to go it alone and an insistence that Washington was entitled to take preemptive action to fight emerging threats. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, offered Bush a historic pretext for articulating this set of ideas, which were trumpeted in the administration's now infamous 2002 National Security Strategy. Influential commentators and historians (such as Yale's John Lewis Gaddis) swooned, calling the Bush doctrine a major innovation in national security thinking. Many liberals were cowed, believing that opposing it would seem weak.
Today, however, the Bush doctrine is in tatters: Reeling from Iraq, abandoned even by many conservatives, the administration is adopting 11th-hour positions that are far from doctrinaire on issues including China, Iran and North Korea. The new policies are more ad hoc, embracing multilateral approaches and tailoring solutions to specific challenges -- something suspiciously like the Clinton approach Bush used to sneer at.
Even the Bush doctrine's encapsulating phrase, the "war on terror," has lost support. Some of Washington's closest allies reject the premise that the animating feature of world politics today is a war on radical Islam. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has banished the phrase from his lexicon, and retired and active-duty military leaders have warned that casting the fight against al-Qaeda as a war implies, wrongly, that force alone can vanquish global jihadism. Strikingly, several former top Bush officials, including former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and former secretary of state Colin L. Powell, have joined the chorus. "I don't think I would have called it a 'war on terror,' " Rumsfeld admitted as he left the Pentagon in 2006. And Powell told us that "war on terror" is "a bad phrase. It's a criminal problem. This is not the Soviets coming back. . . . Let's not hyperventilate."
No matter who is elected in November, the next president will unceremoniously jettison the Bush doctrine. (McCain is hawkish, not suicidal.) But he will be prodded by advisers and provoked by pundits to replace it with a new one. Policy wonks will destroy scores of trees, consume untold megabytes and crowd the airwaves trying to do so. Our advice to Obama and McCain: Change the channel. The last thing the American people need is another bumper sticker.
As Bush has so painfully demonstrated, the quest to define a simple, Kennan-esque concept to guide U.S. foreign policy is fruitless, overrated and even dangerous in the complex world of the 21st century. The search for the single simple rubric has helped leave the country in deep trouble.
Solving problems is more important than laying out all-encompassing ideological pronouncements. The world we live in is too diverse for anything else. The United States faces a range of difficult challenges, including Islamist extremism, a surly Russia, the rise of China and India, the quest for energy security and the fight against global warming -- all while trying to make sense of globalization. No single doctrine can hope to address these myriad problems.
The person who best understood the dangers of trying to cram a teeming world into a lone phrase was the very man whom so many foreign policy thinkers have tried to emulate, the late George Kennan. During the Cold War, Kennan grew deeply frustrated by the ways in which containment was used to justify policies that he believed were ill-advised. In the early 1990s, members of the Clinton team met with Kennan in hopes that the sage of strategy could help them come up with a concept to replace the one he had coined. The old diplomat's wise advice: Don't try to boil things down to a bumper sticker. Instead, he said, try for a "thoughtful paragraph or two."
dchollet@cnas.org; jimg@gwu.edu
Derek Chollet is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. James Goldgeier is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a professor at George Washington University. They are co-authors of "America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11."
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The Washington Post
July 13, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
More Story Than a Loan Merited
BYLINE: Deborah Howell
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. B06
LENGTH: 1499 words
Returning from vacation, I found many complaints from readers -- more than 1,700 comments online -- who saw unfairness and negativity in a July 2 story on Page A3 by national reporter Joe Stephens on a discounted mortgage rate for Sen. Barack Obama's home.
C.C. Benedict of the District said it was an "incredibly irresponsible story from any reasonable perspective. The fact is the rate was completely in line."
Stephens reported from documents off Obama's Web site that Obama and his wife, Michelle, locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on a $1.32 million, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage from Northern Trust of Chicago when they bought their $1.65 million Chicago home. He paid no discount points or origination fee. The deal offered the Obamas saved them about $300 a month on their mortgage payment. The average interest rate in Chicago on smaller mortgages in June 2005 was between 5.93 and 6 percent, the story said, and it noted that modest adjustments in mortgage rates are common when financial institutions compete for a borrower's business.
Readers also objected to the story's prominent mention of controversial mortgage loans given two other senators and a prominent Obama supporter by the troubled Countrywide Financial Corp. James Duemer of Potsdam, N.Y., said that "the inclusion of information in the story about Countrywide is irrelevant: the Obamas got their loan from Northern Trust. The rhetorical purpose of the details about Countrywide is to create an appearance that the Obamas got a special deal because Mr. Obama is a senator."
Of the seven financial and mortgage experts I talked to, three were former reporters. The reporters thought the rate was low enough to merit a story. Financial experts who weren't journalists thought the rate was normal and something that any other wealthy, smart borrower might have gotten.
Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH Associates, was quoted in Stephens's story as saying that Obama "did better than average. It's a good deal." Gumbinger also told me that the rate "was not out of the boundaries" of what other borrowers were offered. "Frankly, any reasonably savvy borrower should have been able to do better than average. That context was missing" from the story, he said.
The story quoted an Obama spokesman as saying that the rate was lower because of a competing offer. It is common for borrowers to shop for the best rate. The story noted that the Obamas had enjoyed a surge in income. This came through higher-paying jobs for both and a $2.27 million book deal for him.
Northern Trust Vice President John O'Connell said in an interview, "This was not a unique situation -- it is common and consistent business policy which shows no favoritism toward politicians, celebrities or any public figures. His rate was based on the fact this is a client who could potentially bring us more personal business." The Obamas since have invested about $3 million with Northern Trust, the Obama spokesman said.
O'Connell said that Northern Trust's rate on this type of mortgage at the time was 5.81 percent and that a discount of 0.125 percent was available to clients or prospective clients based on the potential for more personal business; 0.060 percent was subtracted from the rate because it was a competitive bid.
Bob Bauer, the Obama campaign's general counsel, is familiar with the mortgage and reviewed the loan with bank officials. He said that the story "tilted over, to any reader, into a story of preferential treatment, not justified by the facts. The fact that Obama is a U.S. senator is immaterial." After reviewing the loan file from an ethics point of view, he said, "it was a walkaway, a piece of cake." To Bauer, the rate Obama got wasn't as relevant as whether another borrower in the same circumstances would have received the same treatment and gotten a loan at the same rate.
Then why hadn't the Obama campaign complained about the story? Bauer, an expert on ethics and campaign finance, said a Columbia Journalism Review critique of the story was so good that "we didn't have a whole lot to add." CJR's Campaign Desk blog said that there "there doesn't seem to be much of a story here" and that the story raised more questions than it answered.
Christopher Cruise of Silver Spring, a national trainer of mortgage brokers and loan officers, thought the story was "fair, broad and deep." A former reporter, Cruise suggested that Obama should not have bargained for a lower rate if for no other reason than to avoid the appearance of preferential treatment.
Holden Lewis, a reporter who covers mortgages for Bankrate.com, said, "I realize that the story annoyed some people, but this was a case of an enterprising reporter asking a question that had to be asked and who got it answered thoroughly. I wish I had written the story."
Would he have done anything differently with the story? "I would have stressed that the mortgage rate was normal for someone who has $3 million invested with the brokerage lending the money. The money they invested was more than the mortgage, so they are incredibly good credit risks.''
Guy Cecala, owner of Inside Mortgage Finance newsletters in Bethesda, said the rate was not typical for most lenders to offer good customers. "It certainly raises eyebrows and suggests that Obama got the deal because he was a U.S. senator," he said. "I don't think you will find that Northern Trust handed out any other 5.625 percent, 30-year fixed-rate loans that day or week." Cecala said he had negotiated hard with banks himself for several loans and the most he had ever gotten was an eighth of a percentage point discount.
O'Connell said information about the other loans given that week is not easily available. He said Cecala's statement does not reflect an understanding of Northern Trust's business. "Our core business is wealth management, and mortgages are one of many services we provide to our clients," he said.
Jill Hoogendyk, president and owner of HomePoint Mortgage Co. in Phoenix, said, "It's nothing for one borrower to get a quarter percentage point lower than another borrower on any given day. The industry is set up in such a way that owners have that kind of flexibility. If you have a high-net-worth customer, it makes perfect sense to develop a business relationship that would bring in more business to the bank" by giving a break on a rate. "There's nothing unethical or scary or anything else about it. It's good business. If you take away the fact that he's a U.S. senator, no one would have a problem with that."
I asked the advice of my longtime financial adviser and CPA, Stephen B. Smith of Williams-Keepers in Columbia, Mo., only because Smith is about the most Republican Republican I know when it comes to financial matters. And he's no Obama fan. After reading the article, he said: "No story. It's a very normal mortgage gotten by normal people, not even a sweetheart deal. The story quotes average rates. Averages have a range in this context. The rate charged is probably within the range of others in the sample who had no reason to get a favor. That is not a rate to shock the conscience."
Several other readers brought up the "average" rate. Sarah Zielinski of the District wrote: "When banks are making loans, they are giving people with better credit a better rate and those with worse credit a higher rate. Yes, some people are probably getting special consideration and others, definitely, were getting scammed. But with no other evidence than a slightly better rate for the senator -- who I would not be surprised to discover has a good credit rating -- the article's premise seems unfounded and useless."
The Post has teams of reporters on each candidate. Stephens, who came from the investigative unit, has been assigned to report on Obama; another reporter, Kimberley Kindy, is doing the same on McCain. There are some facts that Stephens did not have for the story, such as Obama's credit score; he said he is continuing to report on the issue.
To Stephens, "given the Countrywide controversy and the Senate's prohibition on accepting gifts of any size, it was a no-brainer to ask the presidential candidates whether they had home loans and whether their lenders had given them discounts. In Obama's case, the answers were yes, he had a million-dollar mortgage, and yes, he received a discount. That was worth getting on the public record."
Readers deserve to know everything pertinent The Post can find out about Barack Obama and John McCain's finances. In that context and in the context of the home mortgage crisis, the story had news value. McCain doesn't have any mortgages, due to his wife's wealth; that's not uncommon for rich people, I'm told.
Still, the story had a negative cast to it. It also lacked the important context that other wealthy and savvy borrowers could have done as well under similar circumstances.
A longer version of this column appears on washingtonpost.com. Deborah Howell can be reached at 202-334-7582 or at ombudsman@washpost.com
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The New York Times
July 12, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
Friendly Campaigning, Only Not So Much
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; POLITICAL MEMO; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 1163 words
WASHINGTON -- Senators Barack Obama and John McCain have pledged to wage respectful, dignified and honest presidential campaigns.
Yet there was Mr. Obama this week, sarcastically calling Mr. McCain's chief economic adviser, former Senator Phil Gramm, ''Dr. Phil'' -- a reference to the touchy-feely television psychologist Phil McGraw -- for saying that recent economic woes were based on a negative national mind-set.
''He's 'Dr. No,' '' Mr. McCain shot back, using his new pet name for Mr. Obama -- based on a villain in the 1962 James Bond movie -- because of his opposition to various proposals from Mr. McCain.
What's a little name-calling between transcendent political figures?
Every presidential election year, the nominees of the major parties vow to run cordial campaigns only to behave otherwise when the battle finally joins.
This campaign, though, had held out more promise than most previous election cycles to be something different, with two candidates whose pledges to change ''politics as usual'' have been central to their political identities. Mr. Obama has regularly inveighed against ''all the petty bickering and point-scoring in Washington''; Mr. McCain, whose bus and plane are streaked with the words ''Straight Talk,'' has talked about running ''a respectful campaign,'' what he has called ''an argument among friends.''
But roughly a month into the general election campaign, the Obama and McCain campaigns are already locked in a minute-by-minute fight, trading advertisement for advertisement, sound bite for sound bite, press release for press release -- and, yes, insulting name for insulting name -- with rhetoric that can be as harsh and misleading as that of any previous campaign.
At play, beyond real policy differences over major issues like taxes and Iraq, is a fierce competition to win the moment in a hypercharged news environment driven not only by cable and the evening newscasts but also by the scores of Web sites that now cover politics by the minute with screaming headlines attached to the smallest developments.
The tone of the discourse seems to carry risks for two men who in part became their parties' presumptive nominees by speaking against partisan bickering, said Matthew Dowd, a former strategist for Mr. Bush.
''The reason why each of these candidates won was for the exact opposite reason from how they've been acting lately,'' Mr. Dowd said. ''They need to say to themselves, 'Listen, what made me special, what made it work for me, was this, and I'm going to have to have a disciplined approach that matches my rhetoric.' ''
For their part, the campaigns blame each other for setting a combative tone that makes turning down the volume the equivalent of unilateral disarmament.
Behind the scenes are amped-up campaign war rooms that between them send dozens of attack e-mail messages to reporters on a given day. The force behind some of the harder-charging rhetoric may be no different than what prompted allies of John Quincy Adams to run searing attack pamphlets against Andrew Jackson nearly 200 years ago: It works.
''As long as it continues to work,'' said Prof. William D. Harpine, the chairman of the department of communications at the University of South Carolina, Aiken, ''there will be some temptation by even the most high-minded candidates to engage in unfair, negative campaigning.''
The early talk of an unusually dignified campaign year had caused worry at places like FactCheck.org, a group devoted to highlighting false and misleading campaign statements under the auspices of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
''If the dialogue becomes too elevated, I'll have to retire,'' said Brooks Jackson, the FactCheck.org director. ''So far, no danger there.''
The group has had a particularly busy couple of weeks, with Mr. McCain's campaign and the Republican Party providing much of the fodder recently.
There was the party-sponsored television advertisement and a McCain-sponsored Web video that said Mr. Obama was opposed to ''innovation'' on energy policy, the development of electric cars and nuclear power. (Mr. Obama has proposed a $150 billion investment in the accelerated development of alternative energy sources, including hybrid-electric car engines, and does not oppose nuclear energy.)
There was a McCain campaign claim that Mr. Obama voted 94 times ''for higher taxes'' (the tally includes nearly two dozen instances in which Mr. Obama simply did not go along with proposed cuts by Republicans), and a McCain and Republican Party radio advertisement that said Mr. Obama supported raising taxes on people who made as little as $32,000. The bill in question was a nonbinding budget resolution that did not propose raising taxes on anybody who made less than $41,500.
Mr. Obama's campaign began running a response radio ad on Friday citing the critique by FactCheck.org of that accusation, with one character equating the Republican claim with the tactics of President Bush's former strategist Karl Rove.
Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party have also taken their lumps for misstating Mr. McCain's positions. Mr. Obama said last month that Mr. McCain's campaign was ''fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs''; such donations accounted for a small percentage of Mr. McCain's campaign money, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
On Thursday, Mr. Obama said Mr. McCain believed the economy had made ''great progress.'' He was quoting from an interview Mr. McCain gave to Bloomberg Television last spring in which he referred to job creation under Mr. Bush but added that it was ''no comfort to families now that are facing these tremendous economic challenges.''
The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee also sought this week to portray Mr. McCain as being against the Social Security system for saying ''it's an absolute disgrace'' that ''we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers.'' The Democratic Party held a news conference to criticize Mr. McCain's ''statement that Social Security is an 'absolute disgrace.' '' (Mr. McCain's aides said he was trying to describe projected shortfalls that could leave the system depleted when younger workers retire.)
Each side said it could support its accusations with facts and blamed its opponent for breaking vows to raise the level of discourse.
''It's clear that Senator McCain and his campaign treat straight talk like a slogan and not as a standard they adhere to,'' said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Mr. Obama.
Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Mr. McCain, said: ''Barack Obama has shown he's the type of politician who will advance himself before he advances the debate or the issues. Let's drop the pretense that he stands for a new type of politics.''
Mr. Bounds said Mr. McCain had nonetheless made ''a very serious and genuine effort to raise the debate,'' with his offer to hold a series of 10 town-hall-style debates before the conventions.
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Senators Barack Obama and John McCain vowed to keep their presidential campaigns clean of ''petty bickering'' and remain cordial, but recent, and continual, namecalling and attack ads suggest otherwise. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAE C. HONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The New York Times
July 12, 2008 Saturday
Correction Appended
Late Edition - Final
Native Tongues and More
BYLINE: By MICHAEL POWELL
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE CAUCUS; Pg. 11
LENGTH: 339 words
Republicans have gone into high dudgeon over Senator Barack Obama's suggestion at a town-hall-style meeting this week in Georgia that Americans might profitably emulate the European dexterity with language. (Many Europeans speak more than one foreign language, while Americans tend to know none, aucun, ningunos.)
''You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is 'merci beaucoup,' '' Mr. Obama said to laughter from the crowd.
Mr. Obama, who does not speak French, has been known to speak some Spanish and Bahasa, the national language of Indonesia. He emphasized that immigrants here must learn English, but his opponents were quick to jump.
The Weekly Standard featured his comments in its ''Obama Snobbery Watch'' (''Is he embarrassed by immigrants to the United States who can't speak English?'' a blogger for the magazine asked) and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York opined, ''I mean, the reality is that this is a country that should speak English.''
Mitt Romney of Massachusetts said this week on ''Hannity & Colmes'' on the Fox News Channel, ''I do think that, frankly, Barack Obama looks toward Europe for a lot of his inspiration.'' Mr. Romney, below, added, ''I think John McCain is going to make sure that America stays America.''
But hold the nativism and pass the parlez-vous. Mr. Romney also let Sean Hannity in on a secret: ''I'm proud to say I can say a little bit more than 'merci beaucoup.' '' And he understated it. As The Washington Post reported in 2005, Mr. Romney met a French speaker in New Hampshire and promptly broke into French, noting that he had lived in Paris, ''which he said was fore-mi-dahb.'' (Translation: So cool.)
During the Republican primary season, Mr. Romney and Mr. Giuliani inveighed against cracks in the facade of English as the country's first language -- until they alighted in Florida and ran Spanish-language commercials.
MICHAEL POWELL
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CORRECTION: A report in The Caucus column on July 12 about Republican criticism of Senator Barack Obama after he said that Americans would profit from learning foreign languages gave an incorrect name for the national language of Indonesia. It called Bahasa Indonesia, or Indonesian -- not simply Bahasa, which means ''language.''
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July 12, 2008 Saturday
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Emitters Protection Agency;
The EPA's call for public input on greenhouse gas regulation continues a pattern of avoidance.
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CARBON DIOXIDE and other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change are a danger to public health and welfare. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson could have come to that conclusion. The science certainly would have been on his side. But Mr. Johnson opted to ignore the urgings of EPA experts when he announced yesterday that the agency would seek public comment on the threat posed by global warming, thus pushing regulation of greenhouse gases to the next administration. This move makes President Bush's signing of the Group of Eight declaration on climate change on Tuesday look like an empty gesture.
We agree that the Clean Air Act doesn't provide the ideal way to regulate greenhouse gasses and wasn't designed for that purpose. But the Bush administration has only itself to blame for this regulatory mess. Rather than go to Congress with a rational plan for a cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, it played games.
In April 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act. In addition, the court said that the agency must determine whether those emissions endanger public health and welfare by contributing to climate change. If they do, the EPA must devise standards to regulate them. If not, the court required the agency to ground its explanation in science.
Here's what got the White House spooked: If the EPA classified carbon dioxide from motor vehicles as a pollutant that threatens public health or welfare, then the agency would have to regulate greenhouse gases from all other sources as well. Sections 108, 109 and 111 of the Clean Air Act deal with regulating emissions from stationary sources, such as residential and commercial buildings, establishing national ambient air quality standards and setting source performance standards, respectively. Each of these complicated regulations has its own complex implementation process.
Ever since the Supreme Court's ruling, the administration, using the limited discretion granted by the high court, has punted on meaningful decision-making. Mr. Johnson initially said that an endangerment finding would be made by the end of 2007. Because yesterday's newly announced process for public input will last 120 days, Mr. Johnson has effectively kicked a final decision to the next administration.
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the presumptive Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, both recognize climate change as a threat to the nation's security and way of life. No matter which man is elected, the see-no-evil approach of the Bush administration will come to a merciful end.
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The New York Times
July 11, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
U.S. Weighs Takeover Plan For Two Mortgage Giants
BYLINE: By STEPHEN LABATON and STEVEN R. WEISMAN; Charles Duhigg and Jenny Anderson contributed reporting from New York; Michael Cooper from Livonia, Mich.; and David M. Herszenhorn from Washington.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1
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WASHINGTON -- Alarmed by the growing financial stress at the nation's two largest mortgage finance companies, senior Bush administration officials are considering a plan to have the government take over one or both of the companies and place them in a conservatorship if their problems worsen, people briefed about the plan said on Thursday.
The companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have been hit hard by the mortgage foreclosure crisis. Their shares are plummeting and their borrowing costs are rising as investors worry that the companies will suffer losses far larger than the $11 billion they have already lost in recent months. Now, as housing prices decline further and foreclosures grow, the markets are worried that Fannie and Freddie themselves may default on their debt.
Under a conservatorship, the shares of Fannie and Freddie would be worth little or nothing, and any losses on mortgages they own or guarantee -- which could be staggering -- would be paid by taxpayers.
The government officials said that the administration had also considered calling for legislation that would offer an explicit government guarantee on the $5 trillion of debt owned or guaranteed by the companies. But that is a far less attractive option, they said, because it would effectively double the size of the public debt.
The officials also said that such a step would be ineffective because the markets already widely accept that the government stands behind the companies.
The officials involved in the discussions stressed that no action by the administration was imminent, and that Fannie and Freddie are not considered to be in a crisis situation. But in recent days, enough concern has built among senior government officials over the health of the giant mortgage finance companies for them to hold a series of meetings and conference calls to discuss contingency plans.
A conservatorship or other rescue operation would be the second time in four months that the Bush administration has stepped in to engineer a rescue to prevent the financial system from collapsing. Last March, it forced the sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase to avert a bankruptcy of that venerable investment house.
Officials have also been concerned that the difficulties of the two companies, if not fixed, could damage economies worldwide. The securities of Fannie and Freddie are held by numerous overseas financial institutions, central banks and investors.
Under a 1992 law, Fannie or Freddie could be put into conservatorship if their top regulator found that either one is ''critically undercapitalized.'' A conservator would have sweeping powers to overhaul them, but would not have the authority to close them.
The markets showed fresh signs on Thursday of being nervous about the future of the companies. Their stock prices continued a weeklong slide, hitting their lowest level in 17 years. The debt markets, meanwhile, pushed up the two companies' cost of borrowing -- their lifeblood for buying mortgages.
The companies are by far the biggest providers of financing for domestic home loans. If they are unable to borrow, they will not be able to buy mortgages from commercial lenders. In turn, that would make it more expensive and difficult, if not impossible, for home buyers to obtain credit, freezing the United States housing market. Even healthy banks are reluctant to tie up scarce capital by offering mortgages to low-risk home buyers without Fannie and Freddie taking the loans off their books.
Together the two companies touch more than half of the nation's $12 trillion in mortgages by either owning them or backing them. They hold more than $1.5 trillion of the mortgages as securities. Others are sold to investors in the form of mortgage-backed bonds.
In recent weeks, the companies have spiraled downward, undermined by declining confidence in their future and shaken by sharp declines in their assets as the housing markets have continued to slide and foreclosures have risen.
In the last week alone, Freddie has lost 45 percent of its value, and Fannie is off 30 percent. Expectations of default at the companies have also risen; it costs three times as much today to buy insurance on a two-year Fannie bond as it did three years ago.
Analysts expect the companies to announce a new round of write-downs and possibly be forced to raise capital by issuing additional shares, which would dilute their value for current shareholders.
Despite repeated assurances from regulators about the financial soundness of the two institutions, financial markets have concluded that by some measures they are deeply troubled.
Freddie, for instance, is technically insolvent under fair value accounting rules, in which the company puts a market value on assets as if it had to sell them now.
Although Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, passed up invitations by lawmakers on Thursday to seek legislation to deal with the crisis, officials said that the administration had been privately considering a government takeover should the markets continue to turn against the companies.
At a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday, both Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke were guarded, carefully trying not to say anything that could further erode confidence in Fannie and Freddie. They both said that the regulator of Fannie and Freddie had found that they were, in the words of Mr. Paulson, ''adequately capitalized,'' meaning that they had sufficient cash and other assets to withstand the turbulence in the markets.
''Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are also working through this challenging period,'' Mr. Paulson said.
Neither official would address a question posed by Representative Dennis Moore, Democrat of Kansas, who asked whether the failure of either institution would pose a risk to the financial system.
''In today's world I don't think it is helpful to speculate about any financial institution and systemic risk,'' Mr. Paulson said. ''I'm dealing with the here and now, and the important role that they're playing and other financial institutions are playing.''
Mr. Bernanke said that Fannie and Freddie ''are well-capitalized in the regulatory sense'' but added that they, and other major financial institutions, needed to raise their capital levels further.
Despite repeated denials by officials in the Bush and prior administrations, financial markets have long assumed the government would stand behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in times of difficulty, both because they are integral to the housing and financial markets and because the companies have a line of credit to the Treasury.
But Congress set that credit more than 38 years ago, long before the companies rose to such size and prominence, and its limit, $2.25 billion for each, has become a tiny fraction of the companies' overall debt.
Some analysts have begun to propose that the Fed also permit the two companies to borrow from it, as Wall Street investment banks began doing after the rescue of Bear Stearns. But there is no indication that the Fed is contemplating such a move.
On Thursday, the rapid sell-off of shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac came after a former central banker made comments that the companies might not be solvent, and an analyst at UBS issued a report critical of Freddie Mac.
The turmoil also shook the debt of the companies, with one main measure indicating that their cost of borrowing has risen to the highest level since mid-March, when the government rescued Bear Stearns. Throughout the day, senior officials sought to reassure the markets about the financial health of Fannie and Freddie.
Later in the afternoon, James B. Lockhart, the regulator who oversees the two companies, issued a statement that his agency was carefully watching the companies' ''credit and capital positions'' and said that they were adequate to get through the current turmoil.
Fannie Mae issued a statement saying that it remained financially strong.
''Our company has raised more than $14 billion in capital since November 2007, including $7.4 billion most recently in May,'' the company said. ''As our regulator has stated, and has reiterated in public statements this week, we are adequately capitalized.''
Sharon McHale, vice president for public relations at Freddie Mac, said: ''Our regulator has emphasized that we have continued to maintain the highest capital rating, and we are in the market every day. We'll continue to do so.''
Shares of Freddie Mac plunged more than 30 percent and Fannie Mae's more than 20 percent in the first hour of trading on Thursday. By the close of trading, Fannie shares had fallen nearly 14 percent, and Freddie shares had dropped 22 percent. It was the second straight day of declines for the companies.
While their stocks trade on the New York Stock Exchange, Congress created the two companies to promote housing, and the marketplace has long come to believe that they would be bailed out should they become insolvent. They hold a far lower level of capital than banks do. In recent years, they have both suffered from accounting scandals and management shake-ups.
Neither Mr. Paulson nor Mr. Bernanke, at the hearing on Thursday, would answer a question about whether Congress needs to give the regulators more tools to deal with the possible insolvency at either company.
''I don't think we should be speculating or talking about what-if's with any particular institutions, and so with Fannie or Freddie, what I'm emphasizing is that the tool that I want is the reform and the reform legislation that would inject confidence into the marketplace,'' Mr. Paulson said, referring to a measure that would revamp the oversight of the companies.
The problems of the two companies spilled onto the campaign trail on Thursday when Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, said he supported federal intervention to save Fannie or Freddie from collapsing.
''Those institutions, Fannie and Freddie, have been responsible for millions of Americans to be able to own their own homes, and they will not fail, we will not allow them to fail,'' Mr. McCain said during a stop at the Senate Coney Island Restaurant in Livonia, Mich. ''They are vital to Americans' ability to own their own homes. And we will do what's necessary to make sure that they continue that function.''
Jason Furman, the economic policy director for the Democratic presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, said that Mr. Obama ''believes the Bush administration's willful neglect of warning signs in housing, in financial markets and in the job market, have compromised the nation's housing finance system.''
''The challenges facing Fannie and Freddie are part of the broader weakness in our economy,'' Mr. Furman said.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York and chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said that the markets should rest assured that the mortgage giants have a ''federal lifeline'' and would not be allowed to fail -- though he said he thought a government rescue would not be needed and should be a last resort.
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Henry Paulson, left, and Ben Bernanke at a House hearing. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS)(pg. A1)
Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., center, talked with Kevin I. Fromer, an assistant secretary, at Thursday's House hearing.(PHOTOGRAPH BY DANIEL ROSENBAUM FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)(pg. C6) CHARTS: Tumbling Shares: Little more than a year ago, shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were trading above $60. Since then both have lost more than 75 percent of their value. Chart details FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC statistics.(Source: Bloomberg)
Understanding Fannie's Role . . .: Fannie Mae was originally formed by the federal government in 1938 in order to supply liquidity to the mortgage market. Since 1968, it has been a private corporation. Here is how it works.
. . . And Its Looming Problems. Chart details the following within two line graphs and bar graphs: GUARANTEED MORTGAGES: Fannie Mae's exposure to the housing market has soared. Its outstanding guaranteed mortgages tripled from 1998 to 2007.
DELINQUENCY RATES: The delinquency rate on Fannie Mae mortgages is rising. This increases the chance that the company will have to make good on its guarantees.
BORROWING COSTS: Borrowing costs are volatile and rising, reflecting investor concerns about Fannie Mae's health.(Sources: Fannie Mae
Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight
Bloomberg)(pg. C6)
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The Washington Post
July 10, 2008 Thursday
Met 2 Edition
McCain Gets a Third-Rail Shock
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LENGTH: 528 words
'ABSOLUTE DISGRACE' OF SOCIAL SECURITY
McCain Gets a Third-Rail Shock
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) once said economics was not his strong suit -- and yesterday Social Security became a problem for the presumptive Republican nominee as well.
In remarks at a town hall meeting in Denver on Monday, McCain laid out what he likes to call "a little straight talk."
"Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace, and it's got to be fixed," he said.
Reaction to McCain's statement was slow to build, but fiery when at last it came yesterday.
"What I don't understand is why reporters don't ask: If Senator McCain doesn't want payroll taxes to fund Social Security (as has long been the case), then how does he propose to pay for it?" Reed Hundt, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and a supporter of Barack Obama, said on the Talking Points Memo blog. And the Democratic National Committee convened a conference call with a union leader and liberal economist to blast McCain's comments.
McCain sought to clarify his remarks yesterday afternoon on the Straight Talk Express. Young people, he said, "are paying so much that they are paying into a system that they won't receive benefits from on its present track that it's on -- that's the point."
The Social Security trustees "have clearly stated it's going to go bankrupt," he said, adding that this is what he meant when he called the system a disgrace. "I don't think that's right," he said. "I don't think it's fair, and I think it's terrible to ask people to pay in to a system that they won't receive benefits from. That's why we have to fix it."
-- Jonathan Weisman and Michael D. Shear
MCCAIN'S SENATE RECORD TARGETED
New Battleground Ads From AFL-CIO
The AFL-CIO will launch television ads today in six battleground states that take aim at separating John McCain's military service from his Senate record. The commercials' release is timed to coincide with the launch of the AFL-CIO Veterans Council -- a group designed to communicate with the more than 2 million union veterans and those serving in the military.
"Every vet respects John McCain's war record," Jim Wasser, a Navy veteran who saw combat in Vietnam, says in one of the spots. "It's his record in the Senate that I have a problem with."
Wasser goes on to detail McCain's support for spending $10 billion a month in Iraq, "just like Bush," and adds that he sided with the president "against increasing health benefits for veterans." As Wasser utters those words, a picture of a person who lost both legs is shown.
"People should let John McCain know," Wasser says at the ad's end. "His agenda is not what we need. Not now."
The ads will run on stations in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin for the next three weeks.
"Our nation's veterans deserve much better than the failed Bush economy has given them," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said of the new ads.
The AFL-CIO would not disclose the amount being spent on the buy, only that it is a "significant targeted buy."
-- Chris Cillizza
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IMAGE; John McCain said the way Social Security is set up hurts young workers.
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July 10, 2008 Thursday 3:00 PM EST
Election 2008: Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader
BYLINE: Ralph Nader, Independent Candidate for President, washingtonpost.com
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HIGHLIGHT: Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader was online Thursday, July 10 at 3 p.m. ET to take your questions about his campaign, platform and why he's running.
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader was online Thursday, July 10 at 3 p.m. ET to take your questions about his campaign, platform and why he's running.
The transcript follows.
Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author, and has been named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th century. His books include "Unsafe at Any Speed," which documented safety defects in U.S. cars and led to the passage of the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. This is his fifth campaign for president, including unsuccessful runs as an independent in 2004 and the Green Party candidate in 2000.
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Ralph Nader: Ralph Nader will be chatting live at 3pm EST.
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Los Angeles: Ever heard of the Nader game? Whenever you give an interview and bring up "Taft-Hartley," everyone drinks. What exactly do you have against this 60-year-old bill?
Ralph Nader: The Taft-Hartley act of 1947 is the most anti-worker/anti-union law in the Western world. It is a major obstacle that has kept a number of unionized workers in the United States at the lowest level in the Western world. Specifically, among it's many obstructions; is the prohibition on secondary boycotts, additional provisions enabling employers to interfere in organizing efforts by workers and even allows employers to have an expansive definition of managerial employees, and enables employers to call a prematurely early union election before the organizers are ready. It is full of such mischief.
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Olney, Md.: Mr. Nader, I voted for you in the past two elections and I applaud your efforts to challenge the status quo. However, I wonder if some of the issues you care about might be addressed more effectively through local politics, which then could lead to larger, national movements. Have you considered running for elected office as either a senator or governor? Would you consider doing so if your bid for the presidency is unsuccessful this year?
Ralph Nader: My purpose is to have a national impact to arouse people all over the country to challenge the two-party dictatorship and to encourage people to run as independents and third-party lines at the local state and national level. In this manner, you stimulate the local through the national and the national through the local. This could not be done running in a state for senator or governor.
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Ligonier, Pa.: Do you believe that you will be able to get on the ballot in all 50 states?
Ralph Nader: I believe we are on the course for the Nader/Gonzalez ticket to be on the ballot of 45 states.
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Staten Island, N.Y.: Mr. Nader, what exactly is your plan for withdrawal from Iraq, and how long do you think it would take to implement it? Thank you.
Ralph Nader: The Nader/Gonzalez plan for the military and corporate withdrawl from Iraq would be on a six-month timetable. During that period, we urge UN-sponsored elections, continuation of humanitarian aid, since we owe it to the devestated Iraqi people, and negotiations with the three groups: Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds regarding a level of autonomy within the overall framework of a unified Iraq. All three groups want a unified Iraq but they want some autonomy. By returning Iraq and the oil back to the Iraqis, the bottom will fall out of the insurgency since its only objective is to evict the invader/occupier.
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Pikesville, Md.: I am a 28-year-old father, husband, student and educator. Would you be in favor of repealing No Child Left Behind? Do you believe -- as many educators do -- that NCLB punishes lower-income students/schools while rewarding the schools that already have a wealth of money and community support? Explain.
Ralph Nader: The Nader/Gonzalez campaign favors repeal of the No Child Left Behind law. Narrowly-based multiple choice standardized tests rupture the relationships between teachers and students and forces the teachers to teach to the test which themselves are of poor design. States are gaming the law, violating it and the overwhelming number of teachers are opposed to it - for good reason. There are far better ways to stimulate higher qualities of education and their assesment.
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New York: Many people I've spoken to have seen your presidential campaigns as nudging elections toward the republican candidate and not nearly achieving the votes needed to get third-party status. Can you explain why they're wrong, or why this time will be different?
Ralph Nader: As long as liberal voters continue to vote for the Democratic party no matter how badly the party behaves, so long as the Republicans are worse, the Democratic nominee will take these liberal votes for granted and move toward right-wing positions and also move toward the corporate interests that are tugging at the candidate. The only way this can change is if liberal or progressive voters signal to the Democratic nominee that they have somewhere else to go. That somewhere else can be the progressive Nader/Gonzalez campaign otherwise the liberal/progressive voters will be in a trap and will be taken for granted. This is already happening with the liberal progressive voters' relationship with Barack Obama. So it is up to these voters to generate leverage instead of surrender.
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Takoma Park, Md.: What's the difference between your health care reform plan and Obama's and McCain's?
Ralph Nader: The Nader/Gonzalez healthcare plan is what is often called a "single-payer" plan, that is, full government health insurance or full medicare for all. With free choice of hospitals and doctors, greatly reduced administrative expenses, elimination of the huge computerized billing fraud and abuse, and a more facilitative database to determine outcomes which encourage prevention of diseases and injury.
Obama's plan basically pumps more public money on top of a rotten, wasteful, corrupt and redundant healthcare system dominated by giant HMOs, health insurance companies and drug companies at the expense of the professional judgements of physicians and nurses.
McCain's plan is even worse and does nothing to control the spiraling costs of healthcare. It's the dream of the giant corporations that dominate our healthcare system. For more detail, go to the Physicians for National Health program or ask your member of congress for HR676, the single-payer legislation.
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Arlington, Va.: How should our electoral system be changed to allow voters to express their preferences without unintended side-effects, and what will it take to start making these reforms? Many Nader supporters in swing states surely will consider voting Democratic as a defensive move against the Republican candidate. The electoral college system is not serving us well when it compels people not to cast their vote for their first-choice candidate in order to avoid helping their least-favorite candidate.
Ralph Nader: I believe people should vote for candidates they believe in. The problem is that many voters are hereditary voters voting automatically for the Republican or Democratic nominee, or tactical voters who are voting for the least-worst candidate of the two major party candidates without demanding anything from their least-worst choice.
Having said that, in over 30 states that are overwhelmingly Democrat or Republican, given our electoral college system, voters could vote their conscience and support the Nader/Gonzalez campaign. We believe the electoral college should be abolished but in the meantime, instant-runoff voting (IRV) or a variation could ensure that the winner receives the majority vote and reduce political bigotry against third-party and independent candidates.
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Burbank, Calif.: Why did you leave the Green Party? It seems that both you running and the Green Party runing a candidate only dilutes the protest vote from the environmental voting block.
Ralph Nader: I never was a member of the Green Party. As an independent and its nominee, I worked in 2000 to give it visibility and nearly three million votes. Afterwards, I attended over forty fundraisers in many states to help keep the Green Party's momentum going. Unfortunately, internal bickering drove away many good Green's and the party lost whatever ability it had to take advantage of the 2000 momentum and lost much of its discipline and focus, that its excellent agenda would have warranted.
A third party much have maturity and discipline to survive in a rigged, two-party dominate system. I wish the Green party good luck.
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Anchorage, Alaska: Have any physicians' groups publicly supported the Nader/Gonzalez health care plan? Thanks.
Ralph Nader: Yes.
The Physicians for a National Health Program led by Harvard medical school professors Stephanie Wohlander and David Himmelstein and Dr. Quentin Young from Chicago are the intellectual and practical architects of a comprehensive single-payer health plan in America.
The website is PNHP.org. For further documentation and motivation, check out their website.
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Farmington, Conn.: Mr. Nader, I find myself disillusioned by the two major party candidates right now, and am considering all of my options in the upcoming election. One of my biggest issues as an american Jew is continued support of Israel. What is your position on econimic, political and military support of Israel?
Ralph Nader: To attain peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, the US government must replace its support for the militaristic domination, occupation, destruction and colonization of the Palestinian people and its economy. With up-front support of the Israeli and Palestinian peace movements who have worked out a two-state solution most prominently described in the Geneva Accords. A two-state solution returning back to the 1967 borders is supported in polls by Jewish-Americans, Arab-Americans and the Palestinian people.
Both McCain and Obama pandered to the AIPAC organization at its convention recently in such a way as to signal a continuation of the failed US policy toward that conflict. The Washington puppet show should be replaced by a robust Washington peace show to resolve a 60 year festering conflict that is radiating opposition and problems to the United States well beyond that region.
For more information, please see:
http://www.votenader.org/issues/foreign-policy/israel/
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Slinger, Wis.: Ralph: Why did you choose Gonzalez as your running mate?
Ralph Nader: I choose Matt Gonzalez as my running mate because he is a leading civil rights lawyer in California, former elected member of the San Francisco city council and previously a dedicated public defender. At age 42, he has a very promising political future. Which is one of the purposes of our campaign, to bring a new generation of political leaders who view politics cleanly as an antidote to autocracy and as a service to the people. For example, Matt Gonzalez was a leader in advancing the living wage in San Francisco. He made the minimum wage in that city the highest in the country, considerably higher than the laggard, inflation-depleted federal minimum wage that is now at $6.55 an hour.
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New York: Do you concede even a smidgeon of the truth concerning Obama, in terms of his organization and support residing in no small part outside the (corrupt) Beltway?
Ralph Nader: Obama and his associates have run a brilliantly tactical campaign. It is now time to bring the general rhetoric of his campaign, which has obviously produced mass enthusiasm amongst millions of people, down to the ground, unfortunately, in recent weeks he has filled out the blanks in ways that have delighted the concentrators of power and the mega-corporate interests that have donated more to his campaign than they have to the campaign of John McCain. Senator Obama's voting record has not been encouraging (http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2008/Obama-Craze-Gonzalez27feb08.htm). He knows full well about the gross disparity in power and wealth between the few and the many but he has been reluctant to speak truth to such power. If you support Obama, you better make 'em better by making demands on him, otherwise the corporate lobbies will be making him worse day-after-day.
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Washington: What are you doing to identify and promote third-party candidacies besides your own?
Ralph Nader: We will be working with former congressman Bob Barr, of the Libertarian party, and other third parties to highlight the need for ending ballot access obstructions and moving toward one federal ballot access standard for all candidates seeking federal office whether for congress or the White House.
I also favour public funding of public campaigns, IRV, an end to gerrymandering and binding none of the above on each ballot line to give voters the choice of voting no to all candidates on that ballot line.
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Ligonier, Pa.: Mr. Nader, I agree that the long term solution to our energy problems lies in alternative fuels and eneergy, but unfortunately that would take years to have any meaningful impact. Wouldn't drilling in ANWR, building additional refinieries and increasing offshore drilling more imediately help the average person who is struggling to fill their tank and buy groceries?
Ralph Nader: Unfortunately you're having a bad dream. Drilling in ANWR won't produce one barrel of oil for at least ten years whereas energy conservation from the way motorists drive to the cars that the auto companies can give you very soon will save far more fuel than any new wildlife refuge in Alaska will produce.You should be able to buy cars now that get 50 MPG or more. For several years, the hybrid cars have been meeting that level and the auto companies should move quickly into hybrid car and other high-efficiency motor vehicles that their engineers have known how to build for years.
More efficient energy technologies from household appliances to heating and AC systems, to the way that homes and other buildings are constructed will save more amounts of energy quickly, safely and less expensively than constructing more generating plants or drilling for more fossil fuels.
As far as gas prices are concerned, stopping the speculation on Wall St. and oil futures would cut the price of a barrel of oil in half. Even Exxon-Mobil testified to that figure recently in Congress. That would mean $65 barrels of oil instead of $130 or more. This would reduce gasoline to the range of $2 a gallon. I do agree with you that tight refinery capacity has helped keep gas prices up, a situation the oil companies have learned how to game. Over 30 refineries have been closed in the last 35 years without being replaced in the United States. Federal policy should move toward expanding refinery capacity.
For more information on my energy policies see: http://www.votenader.org/issues/environment/new-energy-policy/
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Amherst, Ohio: It is fashionable to attribute much of our difficulties to "corporations" and "big business." Are corporations evil? Is it wrong to want to make a living and pursue the American Dream? Haven't lawsuits by so-called consumer advocates also become a big and profitable business (for example, in the areas of asbestos, tobacco and medical malpractice)?
Ralph Nader: When corporations are not required to adhere to decent boundaries enforced by law they can become reckless and take hundreds of thousands of lives and cause injuries annually from hazardous workplaces, defective consumer products, toxic chemicals in the environment and medical-hospital negligence. When regulators fall down on the job, the courts are the last recourse for compensatory justice on behalf of the wrongfully injured victims. Remember, every major in the world has warned its inherents not to give too much power to the merchant class. The subordination of commercial values to civic values advance a just society. The reverse is what has been happening in our country. Including the corporate crime wave from Enron to Wall St. and the hijacking of our government by global corporations.
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Silver Spring, Md.: It seems that Jesse Jackson was saying much the same thing you said about Obama -- namely that he was ignoring the problems in urban and rural America in favor of white votes. Is there a way to criticize Obama's record and platforms without being called a heretic or racist?
Ralph Nader: My record fighting for civil rights and and improving the plight of low-income Americans goes back 50 years. This experience has enabled me to include all politicians, whatever their race, color, creed as being subject to equal opportunity criticism if they turn their back on the people and prostrate themselves before corporate lobbyists. No one gets a free ride because of their color, gender, or ethnic background. They have to earn the public trust.
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Ralph Nader: Thank you for your questions, if you'd like more details about the many purposes of the Nader/Gonzalez campaign for shaping a more just and respectful future for our country, sign up for our email list and visit our vivid website for an independent evaluation of this year's presidential campaigns. And lastly, remember ancient Chinese proverb: "To know and not to do is not to know."
Please visit our website: http://votenader.org or our page on Digg.com: http://digg.com/users/RalphNader08
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The New York Times
July 9, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
A Focus on the '60s, When McCain Was a P.O.W.
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE AD CAMPAIGN; Pg. 18
LENGTH: 656 words
This 60-second commercial for Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, began running on stations in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and is expected to be included in Mr. McCain's regular advertising rotation on television stations in more than a dozen swing states, and on national cable networks.
PRODUCER McCain campaign media team.
THE SCRIPT A male announcer says, ''It was a time of uncertainty, hope and change, the summer of love. Half a world away, another kind of love, of country: John McCain, shot down, bayoneted, tortured. Offered early release, he said, 'No.' He'd sworn an oath. Home, he turned to public service. His philosophy: Before party, polls and self, America. A maverick. John McCain tackled campaign reform, military reform, spending reform. He took on presidents, partisans and popular opinion. He believes our world is dangerous, our economy in shambles. John McCain doesn't always tell us what we hope to hear. Beautiful words will not make our lives better. But a man who has always put his country and her people before self, before politics, can. Don't hope for a better life, vote for one. McCain.'' Mr. McCain says, ''I'm John McCain, and I approve this message.''
ON THE SCREEN The spot opens with grainy moving images of student protesters marching; a skinny hippie in an open vest and no shirt kissing a woman he is carrying in his arms at what appears to be the site of the Woodstock festival. It moves on to show images of the war in Vietnam as seen through the eyes of Mr. McCain: An airplane making a bombing run; a much younger Mr. McCain in his flight suit; a Vietnamese woman holding a rifle as she stands above the wreckage of an American fighter jet; Mr. McCain on a hospital cot during his captivity; Mr. McCain saluting upon his return to the United States. Progressing through Mr. McCain's life, the commercial goes on to show him shaking hands with Nancy Reagan before moving to more current images of Mr. McCain: shaking hands with a voter; standing in front of a desert mountain; speaking before an American flag; riding on his campaign bus; speaking at a podium. The spot ends with a split screen of Mr. McCain then and now, and then there is an on-screen autograph from the candidate.
ACCURACY Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, at whom this spot takes veiled swipes, was turning 6 years old during the ''summer of love,'' and cannot be counted as among those who protested or indulged while Mr. McCain suffered (unless playing with building blocks counts). Mr. McCain's military service and the torture he endured in Vietnam are well established. Mr. McCain did indeed buck his party's leadership in helping to draft new campaign finance regulations, though he and his supporters are now being accused of exploiting loopholes to compete with Mr. Obama, who has opted out of the campaign finance system. His moves against Congressional earmarks and wasteful government spending are well known. But Mr. McCain has more recently found new areas of agreement with President Bush and other party leaders, like pledging to make permanent the tax cuts he twice voted against and lifting a ban against offshore drilling that he once supported.
SCORECARD This commercial is better produced than Mr. McCain's previous general election commercials. It is direct in its effort to neutralize Mr. Obama's widely acknowledged speaking skills by portraying his soaring oratory as lacking real substance. It remains to be seen whether that argument will work. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York failed to stop Mr. Obama with a similar approach last spring. The advertisement's contrast between Mr. McCain's life in captivity and his peers' carefree lifestyle at home is powerful. But the point may be lost when applied to Mr. Obama, who was a little boy then, and whose stump speech now regularly includes a call for the country to move beyond the culture wars of the 1960s. JIM RUTENBERG
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The New York Times
July 9, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
Obama Says His Critics Haven't Been Listening
BYLINE: By MICHAEL POWELL; Michael Cooper contributed reporting from Washington.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 19
LENGTH: 727 words
DATELINE: POWDER SPRINGS, Ga.
Senator Barack Obama on Tuesday forcefully addressed concerns that he had moved too quickly to the political center, acknowledging complaints from ''my friends on the left'' about his statements on Iraq, his approaches to evangelicals and his remarks on other issues that have alarmed some of his supporters.
''Look, let me talk about the broader issue, this whole notion that I am shifting to the center,'' he told a crowd gathered at a town hall-style meeting in this Atlanta suburb. ''The people who say this apparently haven't been listening to me.''
''I am someone who is no doubt progressive,'' he said, adding that he believed in universal health care and that government had a strong role to play in overseeing financial institutions and cracking down on abuses in bankruptcies and the like.
Mr. Obama has faced a wave of complaints from his followers in recent weeks that he is tacking hard toward the political center and moving away from his liberal base now that he is in a general election campaign. His critics note that he recently applauded a Supreme Court decision overturning a District of Columbia ban on handguns, supported a proposed wiretap law that he once promised to oppose and, in response to another Supreme Court ruling, spoke in favor of the death penalty for child rapists.
He has also endorsed a role for religious organizations in delivering social services, which many critics, including some who support him, fear would blur the line between church and state.
So when a Republican here who said he planned to vote for the Illinois senator in the fall asked him about his views on Iraq, Mr. Obama took the opportunity to expound more broadly on his political philosophy.
''I believe in a whole lot of things that make me progressive and put me squarely in the Democratic camp,'' he said. But, he noted, he does not believe that the active hand of government is a replacement, say, for parental responsibility in education.
''I believe in personal responsibility; I also believe in faith,'' he said. ''That's not something new; I've been talking about that for years. So the notion that this is me trying to look'' -- he waved his hands around his head -- ''centrist is not true.''
Regarding his position on Iraq, he said, ''Don't be confused: I will bring the Iraq war to a close when I am president of the United States of America.''
His remarks came as his campaign and that of his opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona, each released new television commercials on Tuesday.
The McCain advertisement, called ''Summer of Love,'' contrasts the free-wheeling counterculture of the 1960s with Mr. McCain's experiences fighting and being taken prisoner in Vietnam. The advertisement takes some jabs at the themes of the Obama campaign by subtly equating them with the hopes of the counterculture movement.
''John McCain doesn't always tell us what we 'hope' to hear,'' an announcer says. ''Beautiful words cannot make our lives better. But a man who has always put his country and her people before self, before politics, can. Don't 'hope' for a better life. Vote for one.''
The Obama advertisement, his first negative one of the general campaign, calls Mr. McCain ''part of the problem'' of high gasoline prices. It likens the energy policies of Mr. McCain to those of President Bush, noting that both support easing restrictions on offshore oil drilling and linking the two to support for tax breaks for oil companies.
The two candidates not only battled on the airwaves, but also vied for the support of Hispanic voters with appearances Tuesday before the League of United Latin American Citizens, where Mr. McCain pledged to pass the kind of immigration legislation that angered many Republican voters last year, after first securing the nation's borders.
But Mr. McCain may face a tough time courting these voters. Since the immigration debate stirred up the country, Republicans have been losing the support of Hispanics, polls have shown. A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll showed Mr. McCain losing the Hispanic vote to Mr. Obama by a two-to-one ratio.
In his address to Hispanic leaders, Mr. Obama said Republicans had let them down. ''For eight long years, we've had a president who made all kinds of promises to Latinos on the campaign trail, but failed to live up to them in the White House.''
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Senator John McCain with representatives of the League of United Latin American Citizens at a Washington hotel. Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama each addressed the group on Tuesday. (PHOTOGRAPH BY CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES)
At a town-hall-style meeting in Powder Spring, Ga., on Tuesday, Senator Barack Obama said that while he was progressive on many issues, he believed in personal responsibility and faith. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JAE C. HONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The New York Times
July 9, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
An Emphasis on Energy
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE AD CAMPAIGN; Pg. 19
LENGTH: 460 words
Senator Barack Obama started running this advertisement on Tuesday in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states where a unit of the Republican Party is sponsoring commercials attacking him.
PRODUCER Obama media team.
THE SCRIPT An announcer says: ''On gas prices, John McCain's part of the problem. McCain and Bush support a drilling plan that won't produce a drop of oil for seven years. McCain will give more tax breaks to big oil. He's voted with Bush 95 percent of the time. Barack Obama will make energy independence an urgent priority. Raise mileage standards, fast track technology for alternative fuels. A $1,000 tax cut to help families as we break the grip of foreign oil. A real plan and new energy.'' Then Mr. Obama says, ''I'm Barack Obama, and I approve this message.''
ON THE SCREEN The spot opens with a shot of a gas station sign with prices of more than $4 per gallon. It then shows Mr. McCain's face and the words ''John McCain: 26 Years in Washington.'' The spot moves on to an image of Mr. Bush hugging Mr. McCain at a 2004 event with a message reading, ''McCain and Bush Drilling Plan: No New Oil for Seven Years.'' Another message reads, ''Give Tax Breaks to Big Oil.''
ACCURACY Mr. McCain has called for various steps to reduce fuel prices, including a suspension of the tax on gasoline, which Mr. Obama has called a gimmick. Mr. McCain has conceded that offshore drilling would not significantly affect gasoline prices for years but said it would have an immediate, beneficial ''psychological impact.'' Mr. Obama ridiculed that statement, but it is not clear that he has a plan to reduce prices sooner. He has proposed a middle-class tax cut to help relieve the pinch of gasoline prices.
A broad corporate tax reduction Mr. McCain has proposed would cover oil companies, but was not created solely to benefit them. (Mr. Obama supports a tax on oil companies for ''windfall profits.'') Mr. McCain has opposed some incentives promoting the development of energy alternatives. But last month he called for an end to a tariff on sugar-based ethanol from Brazil and proposed a $300 million award for developing a far superior car battery.
SCORECARD This is the first general election spot by Mr. Obama directly attacking Mr. McCain. It does an effective job of tying him to Mr. Bush, whose approval ratings remain at basement levels. But Mr. Obama is running on a promise to focus on solutions, not the usual political bickering, so such advertisements can carry a risk of undercutting one of his main themes. Mr. Obama's aides emphasize that this spot is in response to the confrontational advertisement from a division of the Republican National Committee, but typical viewers will not necessarily know that.
JIM RUTENBERG
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The New York Times
July 9, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
McCain Health Plan and That High-Risk Pool
BYLINE: By KEVIN SACK
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1766 words
DATELINE: PIKESVILLE, Md.
If Senator John McCain's radical plan for remaking American health care is to work, he will have to find a way to cover people like Chaim Benamor, 52, a self-employed renovator in this Baltimore suburb. Mr. Benamor never found it necessary to buy insurance before having a mild heart attack last year and now, 13 years shy of Medicare, has little hope of doing so.
The heart attack left Mr. Benamor with a $17,000 hospital bill, $400 in monthly prescription costs and a desperate need for insurance. After being rejected by a number of commercial carriers, he turned to the Maryland Health Insurance Plan, one of 35 state programs for high-risk applicants whom no private company is willing to insure.
He decided that the annual premium -- $4,572 for a plan with heavy deductibles -- was more than he could handle on an income of about $35,000. Yet his earnings were too high for him to qualify for state subsidies.
''I'd like to get it, but what do you pay first?'' Mr. Benamor asked at his dining room table. ''Do you pay the mortgage? Do you pay your child support? Do you pay your car insurance? Do you pay for your medicine?''
In late April, Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, announced that if elected president he would seek to insure people like Mr. Benamor by vastly expanding federal support for state high-risk pools like Maryland's, or by creating a structure modeled after them. But as Mr. Benamor's case demonstrates, even well-regarded pools have served more as a stopgap than a solution.
Though high-risk pools have existed for three decades, they cover only 207,000 people in a country with 47 million uninsured, according to the National Association of State Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans. Premiums typically are high, as much as twice the standard rate in some states, but are still not nearly enough to pay claims. That has left states to cover about 40 percent of the cost, usually through assessments on insurance premiums that are often passed on to consumers.
Health economists say it could take untold billions to transform the patchwork of programs into a viable federal safety net. The McCain campaign has made only a rough calculation of how many billions would be needed and has not identified a source for the fi-nancing beyond savings from existing programs. Finding the money will only get more difficult now that Mr. McCain has pledged to balance the federal budget by 2013, which already requires a significant reduction in the growth of spending.
Mr. McCain's proposal stands in sharp relief to that of his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, who wants to require insurers to accept all applicants, regardless of their health. That is now the law in five states, including New York and New Jersey.
For those who can afford the premiums, or who qualify for subsidies in the 13 states that provide them, the high-risk programs can be a godsend.
Richard and Susan Logan, both of whom have battled cancer this decade, said they were grateful to have coverage for themselves and their daughter through the Maryland plan, even though it will cost $22,232 this year. They had been rejected by 25 commercial insurers, said Mrs. Logan, 57, a part-time billing clerk for a physician.
The Logans, who live in Gambrills, near Annapolis, estimate that without the high-risk pool, they would pay $40,000 a year for medication alone.
''The plan's worth its weight in gold for that,'' said Mr. Logan, 62, an aviation accident investigator. ''Otherwise, we'd be paying for the medications out of our retirement.''
A fifth of the 14,000 participants in the Maryland plan receive subsidies that drop their premiums below the market rates charged to healthy people, said Richard A. Popper, the plan's director. But many in the middle find the policies both unaffordable and intolerably restrictive, and Mr. Popper estimates that two-thirds of those eligible have not enrolled.
Almost all of the state pools impose waiting periods of up to a year before covering the health conditions that initially made it impossible to obtain insurance. In some states, fiscal pressures have forced heavy restrictions in coverage and enrollment. Florida, which has 3.8 million uninsured people, closed its pool to new applicants in 1991, and the membership has dwindled to 313.
An informal survey by the American Cancer Society recently found that only 2 percent of nearly 2,700 callers to its insurance hot line enrolled in high-risk pools within two months of being referred to them. ''In most cases, we know they probably didn't apply because they discovered high premiums or pre-existing condition clauses and just didn't bother,'' said Stephen Finan, associate director of policy for the group's Cancer Action Network.
There is no census of the medically uninsurable. But in 2006, insurers turned down 11 percent of all individual applicants for medical reasons, including 22 percent of those 50 or older, according to America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group.
Finding a way to cover the sickest of the uninsured is critically important because 15 percent of the population is responsible for three-fourths of health care spending. Many wind up in emergency rooms, which cannot legally reject them, leaving hospitals with more than $30 billion in unpaid bills each year.
Mr. McCain's proposal, which he calls the Guaranteed Access Plan, would be part of a market-based restructuring that is in many ways more fundamental than the universal coverage proposed by Mr. Obama.
With the goal of making the insurance marketplace more equitable and competitive, Mr. McCain would end the longstanding exclusion from income taxes of health benefits paid by employers. The 17 million nonelderly people covered by directly purchased insurance do not enjoy that advantage.
Mr. McCain would replace the exclusion with refundable health care tax credits of $2,500 per person and $5,000 per family in the hope of driving consumers into the individual insurance market. To help push down premiums, he would allow the purchase of policies across state lines.
Currently, those who buy insurance individually often face higher costs because their risks are not spread across broad groups of workers. Though insurers cannot discriminate against participants in group plans, they evaluate consumers seeking individual coverage case by case to determine if they are worth the risk of coverage, and at what price. Insurers contend that if they had to charge the same rates to all comers, many would wait until they were sick to buy policies.
The McCain campaign recognizes that in an invigorated individual market, even larger numbers of chronically ill people would go without the protection afforded by group coverage. High-risk pools would theoretically serve to fill the gaps.
Critics argue that, to date, insurers have benefited from the state pools as much as the uninsured. As long as premiums remain above market rates, the pools insulate commercial insurers from the greatest risks while giving customers little incentive to abandon their private policies.
''They are run in ways that protect the profitability of commercial insurers,'' said Karen Pollitz, a professor at Georgetown University who has studied high-risk pools and who has served on the board of the Maryland plan. ''They leave the illusion that there's a safety net without there really being much of one.''
Mr. Obama's plan differs from Mr. McCain's in several ways. In addition to requiring insurers to accept all applicants, he would require that parents obtain insurance for their children. To make premiums affordable, he would create a Medicare-like government plan that would beopen to all and pump up to $65 billion a year into subsidies. The money would come from repealing President Bush's income tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 a year.
When Mr. McCain unveiled his high-risk pool proposal, his chief domestic policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office, estimated the federal cost at $7 billion to $10 billion. Mr. Holtz-Eakin said five million to seven million uninsured people would be singled out for coverage.
But in a recent interview, Mr. Holtz-Eakin emphasized that the projections ''could change dramatically'' depending on how the program was structured.
Mr. Holtz-Eakin and other McCain health advisers, including Thomas P. Miller, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Stephen T. Parente, a health economist at the University of Minnesota, said premiums would probably be capped at twice the standard rates. They said subsidies might be available to those making up to four times the federal poverty level, or $41,600 for a single person.
Financial incentives would probably be provided to those who effectively manage their diseases. No decision has been made about waiting periods for pre-existing conditions, the advisers said.
Mr. McCain's proposal would represent a huge increase over the $50 million a year that Congress now appropriates in grants to the state pools, in a program that began in 2002. But several analysts questioned whether even $10 billion would be nearly enough, given that the states now spend about $2 billion to insure 207,000 people.
''I do not for a minute think it will cost 7 to 10 billion dollars a year,'' Ms. Pollitz said. ''It may cost 7 to 10 billion dollars a week.''
In an admonition for Mr. McCain, Maryland's five-year-old plan, like others before it, has quickly become a victim of its growth. As enrollment expanded by 30 percent in each of the last two years, actuaries forecast insolvency as soon as 2010 and compelled the plan's board to apply the brakes.
Over the last two years, it has raised premiums, deductibles and co-payments, increased out-of-pocket maximums, lowered the lifetime cap on payments and added a waiting period for pre-existing conditions, which rose to six months from two months on July 1. It also increased the amount applicants must pay to buy their way out of the waiting period.
At the same time, the plan is making more people eligible for subsidies. To keep it afloat, the state is raising the assessment on hospital bills that provides two-thirds of its financing.
''It's not easy when you see there is strong demand for something and you need to temper that demand,'' Mr. Popper, the plan's director, said. ''But you either find a way to slow enrollment through economic forces or you close the plan and no one gets in, which is a solution that no one wants.''
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: RICHARD LOGAN: Both he and his wife, Susan, have battled cancer this decade
CHAIM BENAMOR: The $4,572 premium for a high-risk policy was more than he could afford on an income of about $35,000
RICHARD A. POPPER: The Maryland plan's director estimates that two-thirds of those eligible have not enrolled.(PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATT ROTH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)(pg. A18)
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USA TODAY
July 9, 2008 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
McCain and Obama are boxed in by demagoguery on lobbying
BYLINE: Ross K. Baker
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 9A
LENGTH: 592 words
I have just returned from a five-month sabbatical in the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. For a time, I shared office space with Reid's health policy adviser where a knock on the door signaling a visit by a lobbyist was a daily occurrence.
These visitors did not fit the common stereotype of lobbyists. None of them wore expensive clothing or flashy jewelry. I never heard any of them issue threats or offer bribes.
Many of them represented what are known as "orphan diseases" -- ailments with fewer sufferers than those afflicted with AIDS or diabetes or cancer -- and what they wanted was for the federal government to conduct research on unusual conditions such as Fragile X syndrome or Tourette's syndrome.
And some of them even wanted earmarks -- the much-reviled appropriations that members of Congress direct to projects they deem worthy and that escape the usual vetting process. In either an Obama or a McCain administration, these "honest broker" lobbyists would be banned from office along with those whose activities more nearly resemble those of the corrupt Jack Abramoff.
Both candidates, in their indiscriminate effort to clothe themselves in rectitude, have boxed themselves in so thoroughly that they will have great difficulty finding experienced policy experts to staff their administrations. They have bought into Hollywood stereotypes of an activity that is not only a part of the First Amendment guaranteeing the right to "petition the government for a redress of grievances," but that is also actually essential to the functioning of the federal government.
It might come as a surprise to those who have never seen lobbyists in action, but most of what transpires in meetings between them and members of Congress and their staffs is nothing more sinister than the exchange of information. To be sure, there are pleas for amendments in bills and money for projects. But they are as likely to be for improvements in pediatric oncology in Nevada as they are for highway interchanges that benefit private developers in Florida.
We tend to define a profession by its most degraded practitioners. The word "politician" is more apt to conjure up images of Richard Nixon than of Abraham Lincoln. Likewise, the disgraced Abramoff who bribed government officials comes to represent all lobbyists.
A related intellectual lapse is the indiscriminate reaction to scandal known more colloquially as "throwing the baby out with the bath water." The foolish position that both candidates have staked out and from which they cannot easily retreat is that lobbyists who have been paid to lobby the federal government must be shunned based on nothing more than the perception that all in the profession are ethically tainted.
It is inevitable, in our commercial republic, that businesses will want concessions from the government or protection from its regulatory power. But it is no more likely that these dealings will be dishonest than it is that non-profit advocacy groups will abuse the power of their vast memberships to intimidate lawmakers.
By cutting themselves off from the talents of those who have honestly and responsibly plied a constitutionally protected activity, both major party candidates erect unnecessary obstacles to the orderly staffing of policy posts in their administrations. The business of governing is tough enough without excluding many of those who know most about how to do it.
Ross K. Baker is a political science professor at Rutgers University. He also is a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.
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The Washington Post
July 9, 2008 Wednesday
Suburban Edition
Candidates Refine Their Stances on a Changing Iraq
BYLINE: Anne E. Kornblut and Michael D. Shear; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 896 words
DATELINE: POWDER SPRINGS, Ga., July 8
-- Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday dismissed criticism that he is abandoning his principles to move toward the political center, saying he has been consistent in embracing moderate views on several issues, especially his belief that pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq must be done "carefully."
Obama addressed what he called "this whole notion that I am shifting to the center, or that I am flip-flopping," with a firm denial that he has tilted his emphasis away from swiftly bringing the war to an end. "Don't be confused: I am going to bring the Iraq war to a close when I am president of the United States of America," Obama said.
The remarks came as both candidates scrambled to clarify their visions for Iraq in the face of changing events on the ground. Sen. John McCain, who has repeatedly derided calls for a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, suddenly found himself confronted with the American-backed Iraqi leadership raising the prospect of exactly that.
For the first time, Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki said Monday in a statement that the two countries should consider deciding the future of U.S. troops with "a memorandum of understanding to put a timetable on their withdrawal."
On Tuesday, McCain's top foreign policy adviser declined to criticize Maliki, and his campaign sought to portray those comments as consistent with the Republican nominee's long-standing position. "Senator McCain has always said that conditions on the ground -- including the security threats posed by extremists and terrorists, and the ability of Iraqi forces to meet those threats -- would be key determinants in U.S. force levels," senior adviser Randy Scheunemann said.
McCain continued to express confidence that any withdrawal would come after victory in Iraq. Campaigning in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, he told reporters he is "confident" that Maliki's decision-making "will be directly related to the situation on the ground, just as they have always said. And since we are succeeding and then I am convinced, as I have said before, we can withdraw and withdraw with honor, not according to a set timetable."
Their party nominations in hand, Obama and McCain have calibrated their firm stands on Iraq to adapt to changing events on the ground, namely a post-"surge" reduction in violence, to target a more centrist audience. Obama plans to visit Baghdad in the weeks ahead, and will be eager to demonstrate a facility with the complexities there without succumbing to the "flip-flop" charge that dogged Democratic nominee Sen. John F. Kerry four years ago.
Maliki's comments suggest that there are trapdoors for McCain on Iraq as well. In speeches, town hall meetings, interviews and campaign commercials, he has said a timetable would provide terrorists the knowledge of how long they have to wait until U.S. troops are gone.
McCain has repeatedly said that setting a date for withdrawal would lead to "chaos, genocide and we will be back with greater sacrifice." And he accused both Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of endangering Americans by advocating a specific timetable for withdrawal.
"It would be an unconscionable act of betrayal, a stain on our character as a great nation, if we were to walk away from the Iraqi people and consign them to the horrendous violence, ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide that would follow a reckless, irresponsible and premature withdrawal," he said in a California speech.
Obama made his remarks in response to a question at a town hall meeting from a self-declared "reformed Republican" who sympathetically encouraged the senator to set the record straight on his Iraq position. Obama spent most of last week explaining his remark that he would "continue to refine" his Iraq proposals -- which was widely interpreted as a softening of his promise to end the war and as a general-election shift to the center.
Obama, egged on by a raucous audience, said on Tuesday that he has always held centrist views -- not only on Iraq but also on faith and what he called "personal responsibility."
"The people who say this apparently haven't been listening to me," he said. "And, I have to say, some of them are my friends on the left and some of the media. I am somebody who is no doubt progressive." He listed issues in which he views himself as progressive -- on providing universal health-care coverage, increased teacher pay -- then said that on other matters, he believes in thinking more creatively about nongovernmental solutions.
On Iraq, Obama declared unequivocally his commitment to withdrawal. And he said that he has always advocated caution.
"I have also consistently said, once we were in, we had to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in, because once you get in you've got to make sure our troops are safe," he said. "You've got to make sure the country doesn't collapse, so what I've called for is a phased withdrawal, a phased redeployment."
He continued: "Now, assuming that I take office in January, then that means that we would still have our troops there for about two more years from now. There's nothing rushed about that. . . . When I hear John McCain saying we can't surrender, we can't wave the white flag -- nobody's talking about surrender. We're talking about common sense."
Obama said: "I am going to bring this war to an end."
Shear reported from the McCain campaign in Washington and Pittsburgh.
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post; Barack Obama and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wave to the audience at a meeting of the League of United Latin American Citizens at a D.C. hotel.
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July 9, 2008 Wednesday
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Assailing With Energy
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Using the now-famous footage of Sen. John McCain hugging President Bush, Sen. Barack Obama launched new ads in four battleground states, arguing that the Arizona Republican represents more of the same on energy policy.
"On gas prices, John McCain is part of the problem," says the ad's narrator, adding that McCain voted with the current president 95 percent of the time -- echoing an attack used to great effect against Republican incumbents during the 2006 midterm elections.
Obama, according to the ad, will "make energy independence an urgent priority" with a "real plan" and "new energy."
The Obama ad is a response to a commercial begun this week by the Republican National Committee's independent expenditure arm that casts Obama as a rubber stamp for the Democratic party line on energy.
"He just says no to lower gas taxes. . . . No to nuclear. . . . No to more production," the narrator says before concluding: "No new solutions. Barack Obama: Just the party line."
Both ads are running in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
"Barack Obama today launched the first attack ad from either campaign in this election, which follows a string of calculating position changes proving that Barack Obama's commitment to a new type of politics is officially over," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said.
-- Chris Cillizza
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The Washington Post
July 9, 2008 Wednesday
Suburban Edition
Close Kerry-McCain Kinship Has Dissolved Since 2004
BYLINE: Chris Cillizza; washingtonpost.com staff writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 1138 words
Those who know them say they once shared a genuine affection for each other, born in large part from their shared experiences serving in the Vietnam War and their work together in the early 1990s on a Senate committee investigating the fate of prisoners of war and of those missing in action during the conflict.
"This was not a light, collegial Senate friendship," said a friend of Sen. John F. Kerry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Kerry and his relationship with Sen. John McCain. Kerry and McCain "went through the wringer together. . . . They talked openly about having healed the old wounds and the old divisions about Vietnam."
Four years ago, Kerry considered offering the Republican the opportunity to be his vice presidential running mate on the Democratic ticket. But since then, their relationship has gradually deteriorated, and on Sunday, it reached a new low. Appearing on a news show, the senator from Massachusetts lambasted the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for what he called a lack of judgment about the war in Iraq.
McCain "has proven that he has been wrong about every judgment he's made about the war," Kerry said, adding: "Wrong about the Iraqis paying for the reconstruction, wrong about whether or not the oil would pay for it, wrong about Sunni and Shia violence through the years, wrong about the willingness of the Iraqis to stand up for themselves."
Kerry insists that the senator from Arizona is "my friend and will always be my friend" but says that the person he considered for vice president in 2004 was a "very different John McCain." Kerry cites McCain's policy shifts on tax cuts, the treatment of detainees and the regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions, among others.
McCain, through his aides, let it be known that he has no interest in talking about his relationship with Kerry. But Mark Salter, McCain's longtime chief of staff, rejected the idea of any tension between the two men. "If Senator Kerry is saying there was some kind of falling-out," he said, "he's inventing an excuse to justify the difference in their behavior to each other."
At one time the relationship was unusual for two senators from opposing parties. When Kerry faced an extremely tough reelection race in 1996 against Republican Gov. William F. Weld, McCain opted not to campaign against his Democratic friend. Four years later, when McCain was running for president, Kerry returned the favor by organizing Senate combat veterans to defend McCain from criticism of his record.
In 2004, many Democratic insiders thought a Kerry-McCain ticket would be a slam-dunk winner. And yet even as Kerry, a decorated Navy combat veteran, and McCain, a former Navy pilot and prisoner of war, seemed on the verge of making that happen, a rupture occurred and set the stage for everything that followed. But exactly what happened remains a matter of debate.
From the Kerry perspective, McCain had expressed genuine interest in the vice presidential nomination and then pulled away without warning, and while doing so leaked the story to the media to "put McCain in the best possible light," a Kerry friend recounted.
From the McCain perspective, Kerry was overly optimistic about the possibility of McCain joining him on the Democratic ticket. "Kerry convinced himself that he could convince McCain to be on the ticket," said one GOP strategist familiar with the discussions. "When that didn't happen, he took it really personally."
Kerry insists that the miscommunication about his conversations with McCain was the fault of staff members and not the two senators.
"I thought it was unfortunate that some people in his staff saw fit to leak someone's point of view which did not accurately reflect our personal conversations," Kerry said. "We never got to a serious point. We moved on."
If the vice presidential offer/non-offer strained Kerry and McCain's relationship, the ad that the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ran during the 2004 campaign attacking Kerry's military record threatened to end it entirely.
McCain quickly spoke out against the ad, calling it "dishonest" and "dishonorable" and comparing it to the criticism of his military service during the 2000 presidential primaries. But he did not allow Kerry to use his image in rebuttal ads -- a decision that many Kerry supporters viewed as insufficient payback for Kerry's support of McCain in 2000.
"John McCain pretty thoroughly revealed his character when he refused to defend his Vietnam 'brother' from the slimy Swift boaters," said Jim Jordan, who managed Kerry's presidential bid for much of 2003. "McCain's second campaign for the Republican nomination and his support for more U.S. troops in Iraq added to the strain. As the senator from Arizona grew more and more strident about increasing troop levels and about the danger of setting timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, Kerry emerged as a leading voice in favor of beginning a drawdown.
In describing his differences with McCain over the handling of Iraq, Kerry repeatedly invokes Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and James Webb (D-Va.) -- two other senators who served in Vietnam and see the current conflict far more like Kerry does than McCain does. "They oppose him on the war and think he's dead wrong," Kerry said. "They oppose his judgment on the GI Bill."
Although Kerry insisted that he and McCain still share the "bond of service that never goes away," it is clear that he thinks McCain has made a colossal misjudgment about Iraq -- a decision that has distanced him from the other senators who have served in the military.
And Kerry's willingness to serve as the lead attack dog for Sen. Barack Obama, McCain's Democratic rival for the presidency, against McCain's policies on Iraq and national security is the clearest sign yet that the close kinship that once existed between the two men is gone.
Kerry described McCain as "unbelievably out of touch" and "confused" after the Republican said, "That's not too important," in response to a question about when U.S. troops might return from Iraq. In late June, when retired Army Col. George "Bud" Day, who was involved in the Swift boat group's effort, was part of a conference call defending McCain's military record, Kerry called on McCain to condemn the remarks and cut ties with Day.
Ed Reilly, a longtime Democratic pollster and Kerry adviser, insisted that the same traits that drew Kerry and McCain together -- shared service and commitment to country -- are what have driven a wedge between them.
"There will always be a bond there, because they're veterans and because they went through the POW investigation together, but the same intensity of their feelings as veterans which brought them together has pushed them apart on two big policy areas this election," Reilly said. "They took away very different lessons."
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Alex Wong -- "meet The Press" Via Reuters; During a taping of "Meet the Press" in September 2007, Sens. John F. Kerry, left, and John McCain, who both served in the Vietnam War, debated whether the United States should withdraw troops from Iraq.
IMAGE; Associated Press; In 1992, Kerry gave McCain a pilot's helmet that he received on a trip to Vietnam.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 9, 2008 Wednesday 1:00 PM EST
Real Life Politics
BYLINE: Ruth Marcus, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3905 words
HIGHLIGHT: Washington Post opinion columnist Ruth Marcus will be online Wednesday, July 9 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss her recent columns and the latest news.
Washington Post opinion columnist Ruth Marcus will be online Wednesday, July 9 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss her recent columns and the latest news.
Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.
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Ruth Marcus: Hi everyone. Let's get started...
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New York: Hi Ruth, I'm submitting this question early before I forget it. At this point, is Parhat still in detention because the U.S. can't find a country to take him, or because it still believes him to be an enemy combatant? Thanks for a column that probably could be written about hundreds of other detainees as well.
Ruth Marcus: Good question. He is still in detention because the U.S. can't find a country to take him, as I understand it. But the U.S. continues to claim that he is an enemy combatant as well, and actualy had him in solitary confinement for most of the last year and a half.
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Minnesota: Ms. Marcus, do you believe any of the detainees are where they belong?
Ruth Marcus: If the question is, do I believe any of the detainees should be detained? You bet. But I think that the existing mechanisms for determining whether they are enemy combatants are appallingly and unnecessarily unfair.
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Alexandria, Va.: The entire Parhat episode makes me wonder whether every single thing the administration has said and done has been based on nothing but lies. If he's no danger at all, why hasn't he simply been released to the U.S. (which, after all, is in complete control of his whereabouts and activities anyway right now)?
washingtonpost.com: Free This Detainee (Post, July 9)
Ruth Marcus: Imagine the reaction if a man the U.S. still argues is an enemy combatant, albeit a releasable one, is sent here. I'm not disagreeing with that outcome, just saying you'd hear a lot of yelling about it.
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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Ruth, what excellent questions you pose to Sen. McCain and the chief justice! As an American lawyer, I have been dismayed by the lack of justice afforded the detainees, and proud of those -- such as judge advocate general attorneys and others -- who have defended them. My clients include entities -- almost exclusively Islamic charities and their supporters -- that have been designated as supporters of terrorism or risk such designation.
Like the detainees, they are not automatically entitled to counsel (they need a special license from the Treasury Department), they cannot see the evidence against them (not even a summary), and they only can appeal the designation to the office that designated them in the first place. While they are not considered to be accused of committing a crime -- they are, after all, only terrorists -- anyone who provides material support to them risks felony prosecution. The material support laws are so broadly written as to cover buying someone lunch or writing a newspaper column critical of U.S. policy. I have been told by the Treasury Department that these designations are temporary -- that they will be lifted as soon as the "war on terror" is over.
On July 10, the federal district court in Oregon will hear oral arguments in a key case on this subject. I hope that the judge in that case takes heart from his colleagues on the D.C. Circuit Court. I am posting this in advance of your chat because I will be in transit when you are online. Again, thanks for your good work.
Ruth Marcus: Interesting post, not a subject I've delved into, but posting it here to share.
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Sherman, Texas: In your op-ed on "flip-flops" by the presidential candidates, how did you manage to ignore that McCain violated the law by taking a loan on the basis of the McCain-Feingold campaign financing plan, then not doing as he said he would in order to gain that loan?
washingtonpost.com: When a Flip Isn't a Flop (Post, July 2)
Ruth Marcus: Fair question. We have editorialized about Sen. McCain and the primary matching funds, and I'm glad that we now have a Federal Election Commission that has confirmed commissioners and can look at this issue. But whether or not you consider Sen. McCain's loan having been impermissably been based on the collateral of expected matching funds, I don't think that fits into the flip-flop category.
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Mundelein, Ill.: I had an opportunity to tune into Morning Joe on MSNBC this morning He and Pat Buchanan did about four hours of pretty one-sided attacks on Obama. They must have used the term flip-flopper more than a hundred times while saying he was doing the right thing by flip-flopping! It appears that you manistream media types have decided that Obama has inherited the flip-flopper tag. Given that McCain has at least as impressive a record -- if not more so -- of flip-flopping, how do you guys decide to tag one guy and not the other?
Ruth Marcus: What mainstream media types? I must have missed the meeting, because I made a different argument last week. Here's the link. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070102233.html
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Rochester, N.Y.: While I liked your recent column on Gitmo, I fear that this issue -- which goes to the heart of who we are as a society -- soon will be swept under the waves of endless stories about haircuts and arugula. As a journalist, do you find this fact depressing? Do you ever feel tempted to try to do something about it?
Ruth Marcus: I thought I was trying to do something about it by writing the column! Yes, I find the paucity of stories covering substantive policy issues depressing.
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Arlington, Va.: I realize you're on the editorial page now, so facts don't matter, but didn't you have some obligation to explain why the subject in today's piece -- or anyone else -- would go from China to Afghanistan for no reason? I mean, if he's not with Osama -- and you seem to presume he's not -- why was he there?
Ruth Marcus: Excuse me, but facts matter very much to me. He went to Afghanistan, as I understand it, to escape oppression in China and agitate/fight against the Chinese. China should definitely consider him an enemy combatant. But he did not have a beef with America, and, as I understand it, hoped that America would help the Uighurs.
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Re: Flip-Flops: You write "But whether or not you consider Sen. McCain's loan having been impermissably been based on the collateral of expected matching funds, I don't think that fits into the flip-flop category." So you're saying that breaking a law that McCain himself wrote is not "flip-flopping"?
Ruth Marcus: Sorry, Sen. McCain didn't write that law, but leaving that aside: I'm saying the issue of whether he was or was not permitted to withdraw from the matching funds system is different from the question of whether he flip-flopped.
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Evanston, Ill.: Hey Ruth, Is the media holding back its dirt on certain vice presidential hopefuls until they actually are selected?
Ruth Marcus: Darn, I missed that meeting, too! Seriously, in this environment,if one news organization had a great story about a serious vice presidential contender, what would be gained by holding it back?
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Chambersburg, Pa.: I've heard that I would have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than being directly harmed in a terrorist attack. If this is so, how can the president claim this is a war with imminent dangers. I have no doubt that terrorism is very serious, but equating it to world war is a huge exaggeration. Without war, how do we justify detainees? When did the U.S. declare war? Ceding power to fight terrorism is not the same thing as Congress actually declaring war, is it? Who are we at war with? It was al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, then supporters of "terrorism" (Saddam), and now just "terrorists."
Ruth Marcus: I'm going to come out on the other side, here. Whether or not you accept the war metaphor, there are obviously dangerous people with enormously hostile intentions toward the United States. Some of them are at Guantanamo. Some of them are at large. We need to work hard to find the ones at large and simultaneously to figure out a fair and constitutional way to hold them once we do.
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San Francisco: Senator McCain's latest national commercial cites his military service and experience as a POW as presidential qualifications. Is it okay to question that now?
Ruth Marcus: Okay to question it. Not very smart, though, in my view.
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Re: Campaign Financing: Leaving aside the question of legality, how is it not a flip-flop for McCain to opt out of public financing for the primary, given that he is probably the most visible proponent of public financing in the entire country? Forgive me for saying this, but I think you're just as easy on McCain as Chris Matthews and the rest.
Ruth Marcus: Well, let me quote myself, if you don't mind, in my own defense to the Ruth=Chris Matthews charge.
This is from last week's column. Of all the flip-flops of campaign 2008, McCain's reversal on taxes may be the most disturbing, because it represents a stark turnabout on a key issue. But the important aspect is not that McCain changed his position -- it's that his "no new taxes" incarnation is so recklessly wrong. Still, it's a lot simpler to yell "flip-flop" in a crowded blogosphere than to hunker down with a set of distribution tables.
In addition, here's a link to our editorial about Sen. McCain and the matching funds:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/09/AR2008030901440.html
The most relevant part:
Second, and more problematic, is the question of whether Mr. McCain used his eligibility for matching funds as collateral for a $4 million loan; if so, Mr. McCain would be deemed to have used the matching fund program to his financial advantage, even without having received any money, and so would be bound by the spending limits. Mr. McCain didn't directly pledge the expected matching funds as security, but he did promise that if his campaign went badly, he would stay in the race and seek matching funds in order to be able to repay the bank. The McCain campaign and the bank say that this does not rise to the level of using the FEC certification as collateral for the loan and that they were careful to avoid that trap. The DNC has filed a complaint with the FEC asserting that it does rise to such a level and that Mr. McCain is therefore stuck in the matching funds system. However the loan terms are understood, this is not Mr. McCain's proudest moment as a reformer: He derived some benefit from the matching funds system and then abandoned it when that was to his advantage.
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Fairfax County, Va.: I was charmed by the interview with the whole Obama family, although I was surprised to learn that "Access Hollywood" would be doling out even more of it in later evenings this week. Those are two good, nice girls, and of course that reflects well on their parents. To me, it complemented Mrs. Obama's appearance on "The View," which I also enjoyed. Now I read that Sen. Obama regrets the interview and won't have his kids doing more of them. Even though this one seemingly went so well, that seems like a smart decision too -- let the kids be kids. What are your thoughts on the whole thing?
Ruth Marcus: I watched the video, I thought it was completely charming, though the younger daughter didn't exactly seem thrilled to be there. But I thought Sen. Obama was right to say he regretted it. The media have been pretty good about respecting the privacy of presidential and would-be presidential children, especially when they are children. But when the president or candidate opens the door to exposing the children to the media, that greatly risks upsetting that restraint.
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Montgmery, Ala.: Historically, the taller of presidential candidates tends to win. What are other historical factors and their relative significance, such as economic conditions at election time, or the immediate length of in-office time of the party of the losing candidate?
Ruth Marcus: As a certifiably short person with no chance of being president, I'd focus more on economic conditions, first,
and the incumbent party, in that order.
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Bellingham, Wash.: On the subject of "flip-flopping": I've just finished an article about Rush Limbaugh in an um, rival Sunday newspaper's magazine, and thank God Obama "flip-flopped" on accepting public financing. The reporting I've seen on the subject often mentions that Obama was overreacting because Republican 527's were not organizing a coordinated attack on his campaign, but I've always thought the real threat was from the free attacks offered by Limbaugh et al on cable and AM radio. Obama will need all the help and money he can get to counter the three to six hours a day of free, high-wattage AM radio Republican attack ads that Limbaugh will be offering from now until November.
Ruth Marcus: Except that Sen. Obama probably knew about Rush Limbaugh when he originally said he'd try to take public financing.
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London: Do you know when (if it's definite) when Obama's going to be over here? I (an American) have an office full of giddy (non-American) colleagues who are desperately hoping to have the chance to hear him speak, but I can't find anything about dates or plans on his Web site. Thanks.
Ruth Marcus: They haven't said anything yet about the timing. Hold that giddiness!
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Houston: My question is regarding your May 28 column. Do you think the "dearth of credible female presidential candidates" can be erased because Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carli Fiorina and Secretary of State Condi Rice Rice are being discussed as vice presidents for McCain, along with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Sen. Hillary Clinton for Obama? Isn't the mere discussion of these credible women seen as growth, as so many people are agreeing that a woman as vice president would be exciting and electable?
Ruth Marcus: I could end up eating these words but I doubt that, in the end, a woman will be the vice presidential candidate on either ticket. I'd be delighted to be wrong, though.
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Princeton, N.J.: Do you and the editorial board now see what the war you consistently have viewed through rose colored glasses has led to? Do you see how your editorial today in favor of spying on American without any oversight as long as a target is not named, and which allows companies to obey an unlawful order unlawfully given without punishment, is part and parcel of the same paradigm that is responsible for Parhat? Do you see?
washingtonpost.com: FISA's Fetters (Post, July 9)
Ruth Marcus: Actually, I'll take on the FISA part of your question because I think the FISA editorial and my Parhat column are entirely consistent. They both emphasize the importance of having adequate court review. What is important to me about the FISA debate is making certain that there is not a repeat of the warrantless, extralegal wiretapping of the original Terrorist Surveillance Program. That is why I was glad to see a strong exclusivity provision stating that FISA was the sole authority--also stronger congressional and inspector general oversight.
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Arlington, Va.: Re: Your response to San Francisco, so what's not smart -- McCain for bringing up his POW history, or McCain opening the door so he can be questioned on how being a POW qualifies him to be president? By the way, I hate the ad. No one cares about the '60s any more. The only people that do care are the ones who didn't have any sex and were too poor (or too friendless) to buy any grass.
Ruth Marcus: Sorry, I meant that I do not think this is a particularly productive avenue of attack on Sen. McCain. See the Obama campaign's resopnse to Gen. Clark's remarks.
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New York: Ruth, this may be out of your bailiwick, but what might be the U.S. government's legal liability down the road for incarcerating innocent foreigners? Could our grandchildren someday be paying substantial damages to these people? I shudder to think of it...
Ruth Marcus: of all the bills our grandchildren should be worrying about having to pay, this is the least of them. I would highly doubt that there is any cause of action against the U.S. government that would succeed and would result in a damage award.
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Charlottesville, Va.: Hi, Ruth - thanks for chatting. You said "there are obviously dangerous people with enormously hostile intentions toward the United States." Yes, true, but hasn't that been true since the beginning of the 20th century (at least)? I think if anyone looks at a history book, we were scared of all kinds of anarchists, Marxists, etc., back then, some of whom actually threw a few bombs. Perhaps the bombs (and the buildings) are a bit bigger now, but does that really change the nature of the problem?
Ruth Marcus: Sept. 11 changed the nature of the problem, in my view. Or it changed the way we understand the nature of the problem, correctly so. When it comes to bombs, size matters. Al Qaeda scares me a lot more than a few scattered anarchists.
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New Orleans: Why will no country take Parhat? One would think a country wanting to thumb its nose at America would take him.
Ruth Marcus: There were a group of Uighurs released to Albania, and as I understand it there was a big uproar there. It wouldn't be nose-thumbing at America, it would be doing us a big favor,
actually.
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McCain's Jokes: Hello there. I know this is off topic, but John McCain's joke about killing Iranians with smokes is bugging me. First, I can't think of a time, (and I am a total nobody with no ambitions) that I have ever felt the need to joke about killing a whole category of people. But also, if "we" are killing them with cigs, what are we doing to our very own? Seems like a horrible horrible statement that I can't just sweep away with "oh it was a joke."
Ruth Marcus: I had missed this whole brouhaha until I got your question and another one on the chat today. So I just went and looked, and, sorry, I can't get too worked up over this. It just seems like more of what the earlier chatter commented on, focusing on haircuts and arugula rather than what's really important. And I take it as good news that McCain says cigarettes kill!
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Princeton, N.J.: Well, if you are favor of oversight, you haven't carefully read the bill. The attorney general is authorized to institute spying on a group or area without a warrant as long as an American is not named as a target. There is a good article on the bill in Congressional Quarterly.
Ruth Marcus: please read our editorial on the topic. It discusses the minimization, reverse targetting and other protections contained in the bill.
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Los Gatos, Calif.: Why aren't we seeing more coverage about the librarian who was cited for trespassing for carrying a "McCain = Bush" sign at a McCain rally? Were people with McCain buttons also cited?
Ruth Marcus: Sorry, I missed this one too. But I do think it's stupid for campaigns to do stuff like this, if the McCain campaign did. In my experience, Sen. McCain likes to call on people wearing t-shirts supporting other candidates--he likes to mix it up.
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New York: Just to respond to the comment from Arlington, Va. -- in the United States, we don't convict people of crimes because they can't come up with a good reason for something. They don't have to prove anything. The government needs to prove they're a criminal -- and if they don't meet that burden, the person goes free. This is a bedrock principle of American liberty. It's why we're a better and stronger country than others. I remain shocked that the administration has abandoned this principle, and alarmed that people (like the above commenter) don't think it's important. In my opinion, the fact that we do things the right way -- the fact that we're the good guys -- is the only thing that justifies going after terrorists.
Ruth Marcus: I would leave open the possibility of a category of people who would be held without being tried in ordinary criminal courts. There are people who the government may not be able to prove to be a criminal, but whom it might be extraordinarily foolish to set free. What we need is a discussion of how to handle these situations better than we have.
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Albany, N.Y.: Your colleagues in the media seemed much more disturbed by Bill Clinton's extramarital affair than by torture and Gitmo. Does that bother you?
Ruth Marcus: I think there has been quite a bit of focus on torture and Gitmo, includign by the Post editorial page.
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Braintree, Mass.: I just started watching the "John Adams" HBO series because I don't have cable (otherwise my cable package would come bundled with a divorce). Being reminded about how John Adams defended -- in open court -- and won acquittal of the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre made me both proud and very sad. Before we were a country or had a military or any international standing, our leaders stood for justice in the face of peril and oppression. Now, even though we stand unchallenged as the most powerful country in the world, our leaders hide behind secrecy and lies rather than trusting in the rule of law and justice.
Ruth Marcus: Haven't seen the series yet, but I do love that episode in Adams' life.
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Re: Gitmo: You write that "there are people who the government may not be able to prove to be a criminal, but whom it might be extraordinarily foolish to set free." By that reasoning, why shouldn't the government be able to lock up anyone whom it might be extraordinarily foolish to set free? Are you familiar with the basic concepts of our legal system?
Ruth Marcus: I want to respond civilly to this, but I would humbly suggest that if you read today's column you might get some sense that I am familiar with the basic concepts of our legal system. Of course the government should not be free to lock up anyone, especially American citizens, willy-nilly.
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Baltimore: Any idea why Sen. Webb took himself out of consideration as vice president? Had he been eliminated, but was given the opportunity to say he was not interested? Frankly, I had hoped Sen. Obama would pick him, because he appeals precisely to those elements less favorably disposed to vote for Obama.
Ruth Marcus: I thought that was awfully interesting. I read somewhere that he was asked for the various documents that the vetters want to see and took himself out at that stage, so that suggests pre-elimination. I think choosing Sen. Webb would have opened up a lot of discussion about his views on women, especially women in combat.
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Ruth Marcus: Thanks, everybody, for reading, and for the interesting and provocative questions. I look forward to being back in a few weeks.
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LOAD-DATE: July 10, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
July 9, 2008 Wednesday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Dan Balz, Washington Post Chief Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2229 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post chief political reporter Dan Balz was online Wednesday, July 9 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
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Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
____________________
Dan Balz: Good morning. I'm filling in for Anne Kornblut, who is away today. Thanks for joining in today. We'll go right to your questions.
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Washington: Dan, what is your take on the McCain "Love" Ad? As a Gen X-er in her mid-30s (who knows her history) I find it a bit one-sided. The '60s are over -- what do they have to do with this year's election, really? Sure, I was not alive at the time, but I know the '60s were more than just Vietnam and hippies! Your take? Is it out of touch, or a smart ad?
washingtonpost.com: The Trail: McCain Campaigns Against '60s in New Spot (washingtonpost.com, July 8)
Dan Balz: It is a theme that McCain used pretty successfully during the Republican primaries, when he used his opposition to federal funding for the Woodstock museum to remind people where he was at the time of the Woodstock rock concert. He didn't attend, he said, because "I was tied up." The ad is an effort to introduce or reintroduce McCain to people and to remind them of his lifetime of public service and to emphasize what his advisers believe is his strongest attribute, which is a combination of courage and character and a willingness to take on fights that he believes in, regardless of whether they offend those in his party or not. Because Obama is not really identified with the Sixties (in the way that, say, Hillary Clinton would have been if she were the Democratic nominee), there is no real direct comparison between McCain's link to that decade and Obama's.
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Columbia, Md.: Putting aside the question of who will be picked, do we have any real sense of how close the two campaigns are to the actual selection of a vice presidential candidate, and where they each are in the process?
Dan Balz: I think all we can reasonably say is that the process is moving forward as you would expect. The two campaigns appear to be moving from stage one, which is to cast a wide net, consult with a lot of people, do preliminary vetting on a bunch of people and allow a long list of names to be floated into the public domain, to stage two, which is to begin to narrow the list and to begin more serious vetting of those who may be serious candidates. This process is always opaque, though that does not stop everyone from speculating wildly about what's going on. When done properly, it is a closely held operation and that appears to be the case this time. My hunch is that neither candidate is that close to a decision at this point. Neither has to make a decision soon, so unless they've decided there is some strategic value in doing so now, I wouldn't expect to hear anything until August.
_______________________
Prescott, Ariz.: How do you think John McCain's assertion that Social Security is a "disgrace" will play out? If I remember correctly, George Bush's tour in support of Social Security privatization broke the dike on making it okay to despise the guy, and his approval rating has dropped ever since.
washingtonpost.com: McCain Campaign's Prepared Speech for Denver Town Hall Meeting with Question and Answer Session (AP, July 7)
Dan Balz: I would expect some clarification of that comment, although I was looking this morning for the full text of what Senator McCain said. I've seen mostly the shortened version and on that basis he'll likely want to revise and extend, as they say on Capitol Hill. I would suspect that the point he was trying to make in calling the system a disgrace is the fact that with fewer workers paying the cost of Social Security for more and more retirees, the system is out of balance. That's a fact, which is why the system needs reform.
Your question on privatization is another issue. President Bush tried and failed to make that case in 2005. It is one reason, but hardly the whole reason, that his approval ratings began to go downhill. Remember that Iraq and Katrina contributed even more to his decline. The president showed that a candidate can favor privatization and still win an election, but he failed to show that he could win the battle in Congress to enact his plan.
_______________________
Boston: Dan, with Jim Webb out of the running and Wes Clark effectively off the table, who do you think has made it to the vetting phase of the Obama veepstakes? It seems like Sam Nunn's stock has risen a bit lately. Is he really a serious contender?
Dan Balz: I remain dubious about Sam Nunn as a potential vice presidential pick, although I've been so wrong about these things over the years that I'm prepared to be wrong again. Senator Nunn is a distinguished elder statesman of the Democratic Party but when Senator Obama says the real choice in this election is not left or right but future and past, Senator Nunn clearly tips the scales on the side of past, not future. Also, Senator Nunn was a very fine senator but not someone who took to the rough-and-tumble of campaigns and elections, particularly at the presidential level.
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Oak Park, Mich.: As a veteran political reporter, can you think of the last time that a governor was elected vice president? I was wondering because of all the governors being mentioned as vice presidential candidates. I realize that it is rare for a senator to lead the ticket, but I wonder if the fact that governors are used to leading is a factor that these candidates should consider. (As you know, Nelson Rockefeller was not elected.)
washingtonpost.com: Spiro Agnew (Wikipedia)
Dan Balz: You're right on the relative paucity of governors as vice presidential candidates, but I think you put your finger on the reason. So often, governors have been the presidential nominees that the vice presidential running mates have been drawn from other ranks. Given the unusual situation of two senators at the top of the tickets, we might see a change this year in vice presidential choices. It certainly appears that both Senator Obama and Senator McCain are looking at governors or former governors, at least preliminarily.
_______________________
Philadelphia: Now that Veepstake chatter has died down a bit ... is it possible that the Democratic vice presidential nominee will be visually minimized more than any other in recent memory? I mean that in a very literal way. We're accustomed to seeing the campaigns "re-logo" to accommodate the vice president along with the presidential nominee, but I'm not sure that I see the "Obama" name yielding much ground to a Richardson, Nunn, Biden, Bayh, Hegel or whomever ... your speculative thoughts on the post-veep Obama brand?
Dan Balz: I think in the end the "brand" is almost entirely defined by the presidential nominee, not the ticket. In 1992, Bill Clinton's selection of Al Gore gave a generational brand to the Democratic ticket that was quite valuable, although in the end the election was much more about whether to deny George H.W. Bush another term, which the country was clearly ready to do. Vice presidential choices matter, but by the end of October, voters will focus mostly on the choice of Obama v McCain.
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Southwest Pennsylvania: It's still almost four months to the general election, and we're already being inundated in the Pittsburgh media market with commercials for both McCain and Obama. I'm sick of these ads already, but realize the campaigns haven't even really ginned up yet, and am so dreading the post-convention advertising. I'll be voting for my party's candidate in any event, but wonder if you think there's a real risk of a viewer backlash that could turn off less-dedicated voters? Is this just the result of too much campaign money being available, or a reallocation of resources, or going into debt to out-do the other candidate's ad buys? Make the madness stop!
Dan Balz: You're right about the amounts of money floating around. It makes it too easy for campaigns to spend freely on television ads and everything else. You have a long summer and fall ahead of you!
_______________________
Fairfax, Va.: Bush didn't exactly talk about privatization during the 2004 campaign. Also, does it make sense to try to tie Obama to the '60s when he was, you know, less than 10 years old?
Dan Balz: He certainly talked less about it than he claimed once he was reelected. But in 2000 he put it on the agenda in a way other candidates had not done and still won the election. And while he didn't talk about it as much as he talked about the war on terror in 2004, it was clearly part of his agenda.
_______________________
Chicago: Traditionally, presidential nominees have shifted to the center gradually. Do you think Obama may have moved too fast or too far? If so, what are the possible positives and negatives?
Dan Balz: It is common, as you suggest, for candidates to moderate their positions as they move from the primaries to the general election. Has Obama moved too fast or too far? Certainly for some on the left, his decision to vote for the FISA bill today is a move too far. On other issues, the shifts put him closer to majority opinion in the country. The test is how well he can explain his views, whether they seem consistent with a broader philosophy that he's articulated or whether it looks like pure pandering.
_______________________
San Francisco: Hi Dan, thanks for taking questions. So what are we to make of McCain's latest poor taste joke about Iran? While he clearly wasn't being serious, saying regarding cigarette exports to Iran that "maybe thats a way of killing them" is pretty shocking to me. It implies that he sees that country (and presumably others) as a monolithic, evil entity that we should be working to kill. That kind of simplistic worldview is extremely troubling to me.
Dan Balz: I think it was just a joke. It may have been inartful, which is why Cindy McCain reacted the way she did, but I'd be wary of reading too much into it.
_______________________
Memphis, Tenn.: Two questions: First can you explain why a lot of folks in the media claim Obama "flip-flopped" on Iraq when his stance is the same? Second, if the Iraqis stand by their position of a timetable for withdrawal, will John McCain and the Bush administration call them defeatists?
washingtonpost.com: Candidates Refine Their Stances on a Changing Iraq (Post, July 9)
Dan Balz: Senator Obama kicked up the controversy with his remarks last week about refining his position on Iraq after consulting with military commanders on the ground when he visits later this summer. He was concerned enough about the interpretations that he came back a second time to clarify. The broader issue is how he assesses the effects of the troop surge policy, which he opposed strongly when President Bush proposed it. Does he think it was successful militarily? Does he think it has made it easier for the United States to withdraw troops, or does he worry that the kind of timetable he has talked about might bring about a reversal of some of the security gains? If the surge was successful, what does he now think of his opposition? There are obviously lots of questions about how the past 16 months might affect his view of his 16-month timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces.
_______________________
Warrenton, Va.: Do you think Obama's decision to give his convention speech in a 70,000-plus-seat arena, as opposed to a 20,000-seat arena, may send the wrong message, or reinforce the stereotype that he's too big for his own britches?
Dan Balz: I had not thought of that interpretation of the decision to move the acceptance speech to a larger stadium. It seemed a way to bring in a larger audience and an audience of people who were not party insiders, so to speak.
_______________________
McCain's joke: I'm all for not raking someone over the coals for making a bad joke. It happens. But it seems to happen to McCain an awful lot. And he has joked about killing and bombing Iran more tha once. It just seems really inappropriate for a president to make jokes -- even good ones -- about such a highly sensitve and important foreign issue. Additionally, I can't help but note we have had nearly eight years of inartful speaking, and it certainly has had an effect on, at the very least, the respect people have for the man who holds that office. To me, it's a bigger deal than one bad joke.
Dan Balz: I'll leave this as the last word today. Posting without comment.
Thanks again to everyone. The hour went pretty quickly. Have a great week.
Dan Balz
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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USA TODAY
July 8, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
Texas oilman wants to supplant oil with wind;
T. Boone Pickens sees alternative energy as cure for oil addiction
BYLINE: Dan Reed
SECTION: MONEY; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 2406 words
SWEETWATER, Texas -- Get ready, America, T. Boone Pickens is coming to your living room.
The legendary Texas oilman, corporate raider, shareholder-rights crusader, philanthropist and deep-pocketed moneyman for conservative politicians and causes, wants to drive the USA's political and economic agenda.
"We're paying $700 billion a year for foreign oil. It's breaking us as a nation, and I want to elevate that question to the presidential debate, to make it the No.1 issue of the campaign this year," Pickens says.
Today, Pickens will take the wraps off what he's calling the Pickens Plan for cutting the USA's demand for foreign oil by more than a third in less than a decade. To promote it, he is bankrolling what his aides say will be the biggest public policy ad campaign ever. The website, www.pickensplan.com, goes live today.
Jay Rosser, Pickens' ever-present public relations man, promises that Pickens' face will be seen on Americans' televisions this fall almost as frequently as John McCain's and Barack Obama's.
"Neither presidential candidate is talking about solving the oil problem. So we're going to make 'em talk about it," Pickens says.
"Nixon said in 1970 that we were importing 20% of our oil and that by 1980 it would be 0%. That didn't happen," Pickens says. "It went to 42% in 1991 with the Gulf War. It's just under 70% now. Where do you think we're going to be in 10 years when our economy is busted and we're importing 80% of our oil?"
Finding solutions to other major issues, including health care, are important, he concedes. But "If you don't solve the energy problem, it's going to break us before we even get to solving health care and some of these other important issues." And it has to be done with the same sense of urgency that President Eisenhower had when he pushed the rapid development of the interstate highway system during the Cold War.
Of course, Pickens also has a particular solution in mind.
Wind. And natural gas.
Last week, Pickens loaded up his $60 million, top-of-the-line Gulfstream G550 corporate jet with reporters and a few associates from his Dallas-based BP Capital energy hedge fund and related companies and flew here to illustrate just how big -- and achievable -- his vision is.
There's not much to Sweetwater except for wild grasses, scraggy mesquite trees and rattlesnakes (Sweetwater hosts its famous Rattlesnake Roundup each spring). The gently rolling terrain and vegetation make it ideal for raising cattle, which is what its first settlers did in the 19th century, and what their descendants do today. A regional oil boom in the 1950s and 1960s poured money into the area's economy, as have two oil revivals since: one in the 1980s and one now.
But the exciting new industry in town is wind energy. You can drive for 150 miles along Interstate 20 and never be out of sight of a giant wind turbine, claims Sweetwater Mayor Greg Wortham, who does double duty as executive director of the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium.
Were it a country all by itself, Nolan County, Texas, would rank sixth on the list of wind-energy-producing nations, says Wortham. Year-round wind conditions, the terrain, low land prices and a small population make it an ideal location for wind farms. It already produces more wind-generated electricity in a year than all of California. And the business is growing so fast that he struggles to define it by numbers. By year's end, there'll be more than 1,500 turbines in Nolan County, representing a $5 billion investment. In the multicounty Rolling Plains region, there are already 2,000 operating turbines.
Add those operating further west, the Permian Basin region around Midland and Odessa, and the entire area has more than 3,000 turbines operating, producing about 6,000 megawatts of electricity -- about equal to the power produced by two to three nuclear power plants.
Growth potential
The growth potential is, well, electrifying.
New turbine towers are going up at a rate of three to four a day in the Sweetwater area, Wortham says. "It depends on the (Texas) Public Utility Commission, but the number could be 20,000 ultimately," Wortham says.
Pickens, who over the past two years has become the USA's biggest wind-power booster, is quick to note that "there could be lots of Sweetwaters out there," especially in the nation's midsection, where winds are ideal for power generation.
Indeed, though Sweetwater is a windy place, plenty of locations farther north in the Great Plains are even better suited to wind farming. One is about 250 miles north of Sweetwater, near Pampa, northeast of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle. That's where Pickens is building what would be the world's largest wind farm, four times larger than the current titleholder near here. So far, he has spent $2 billion on the project, including a record purchase of nearly 700 wind turbines this year from General Electric. He expects to spend up to $10 billion on the project and to begin generating electricity in 2011.
Though Pickens doesn't own a single wind turbine in the Sweetwater area, Wortham was eager to play host to the oil baron and the reporters traveling with him. Sweetwater, he says, is proof that wind power has much more potential than its many skeptics believe.
"People hear about the 8-foot-tall wind turbines at Logan airport in Boston or the five turbines at Atlantic City and think 'interesting,'" Wortham says. "But they don't see how we can get to the 300,000-megawatt-production level" established by the Bush administration as a national goal for 2030. "Once you come to Sweetwater, you see that it can be done, and be done pretty easily, not only here, but ... anywhere there are prime wind conditions. None of this existed seven years ago. Now, we produce enough electricity in this one county to power a large city, and we do it cheaply and cleanly."
Getting lots more electricity with wind is only half of the Pickens Plan. Increasing wind-power production by itself won't reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil because most of that oil is consumed as gasoline.
The key, Pickens says, is that wind energy can be used as a substitute for natural gas now burned to generate electricity. That, in turn, will make far more natural gas available for use as a transportation fuel. Pickens' plan is to produce enough wind power within 10 years to divert 20% of the natural gas now used to fuel power plants for use in cars and trucks. That's much more aggressive a growth plan for the development of wind energy than envisioned by the Depart of Energy, which doesn't expect the USA to be getting 20% of its total energy needs from wind until at least 2030.
Pickens foresees as many as a third of the vehicles running on natural gas within only a few years. Julius Pretterebner, director of the Global Oil Group at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, says getting 15% to 20% of the USA's cars to run on natural gas -- in some cases, in mixtures with other fuels in dual-fuel vehicles -- by 2020 would be an outstanding achievement, and doing that will require federal support to expand the necessary infrastructure.
Powering vehicles with compressed or liquefied natural gas, CNG or LNG, has been Pickens' pet project since the late 1980s.Yet the concept has been very slow to catch on.
Distribution is a major problem. CNG drivers can, like Pickens, install inexpensive equipment to fill up at their homes. But with fewer than 800 natural gas filling stations around the USA, drivers can't count on being able to fill up wherever they go. So, for the most part, CNG, or LNG, has remained limited to fleet operators, such as local bus companies or big-city police departments.
And that's where David Friedman, research director in the vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, says most natural-gas-powered vehicles will continue to be operated because of the distribution problem, the lack of vehicles made specifically to run on CNG, and the cost of converting conventional vehicles to run on CNG.
"I honestly think (natural gas') role will be in medium- to heavy-duty vehicles and fleets -- and as a stepping stone to hydrogen fuel-cell-powered vehicles in the future," Friedman says. Only one car, a version of the Honda Civic, is available from the factory ready for CNG fuel, he says, and only at a significant premium over the price of a conventionally fueled version.
If you build it ...
Pickens aims to shout down the skeptics by taking his case to the people via his TV ad campaign. If the nation is to break its addiction to foreign oil, a network of CNG stations could be built along interstates and in major cities for a relatively small investment, he says. Some gasoline retailers have told him they would add CNG pumps to their stations once they're certain there'll be enough vehicles capable of running on natural gas to justify costs.
Washington, Pickens adds, can encourage the move to natural-gas-powered vehicles by providing modest economic incentives for fuel retailers to invest in CNG pumps at their stations, for automakers to build CNG-powered cars and for individuals to convert their existing vehicles to CNG use. And it should continue to provide tax incentives for another 10 years to encourage wind energy's rapid development as part of an overall plan to wean the nation from foreign oil, he says.
"It certainly would be cheaper than what they're doing already for nuclear," Pickens adds. But he's also in favor of developing more nuclear energy, and every form of alternative energy to reduce oil imports. "Try everything. Do everything. Nuclear. Biomass. Coal. Solar. You name it. I support them all," he says. "But there's only one energy source that can dramatically reduce the amount of oil we have to import each year, and that's (natural) gas."
Pickens is an outspoken believer in the so-called peak oil theory that holds that maximum world production has peaked at about 85 million barrels a day -- vs. current demand of about 86 million barrels a day -- and will never rise much above that even with lots of new drilling and production.
"Even people who continue driving gasoline-powered cars and trucks will benefit," he says.
Critics could easily accuse Pickens of advocating a major new public policy initiative that will line his own pockets. He is, after all, a big player in both the wind power and natural gas businesses. Pickens says that while his hedge fund will earn money for its investors, earning more money personally is meaningless: "I'm 80 years old and have $4 billion. I don't need any more money."
He's more concerned that his efforts to make reducing foreign oil dependency the No. 1 issue on the national agenda will be dismissed by the public and, therefore, by Washington. So he says he's carefully steering his plan clear of partisan bickering.
He's already enlisted an unlikely supporter: the Sierra Club. "I will be in the front row of the chorus cheering" him on, says Carl Pope, its executive director, who flew with Pickens to Sweetwater.
Pope sees wind and solar energy as inexpensive sources of power that, along with other non-carbon forms, can be pooled to greatly reduce the need for oil- and coal-fired electric-generating plants.
"When it's cloudy in Dallas and the wind's not blowing in Sweetwater, but the sun's blazing in the (Western) deserts, solar energy can run all those air conditioners in Dallas. When it's windy in Sweetwater and cloudy in the desert, wind energy from Sweetwater can heat homes in Chicago.
"Mr. Pickens and I probably don't see eye-to-eye on some other matters," Pope concedes. "But he's right on this one."
Setting goals, clearing roadblocks
Washington's role, Pope said, should be in setting the goal and clearing roadblocks such as the patchwork of state, regional and federal regulations that block the creation of a true national grid that can shift electricity from anywhere in the country to anywhere that it's needed.
Getting support from groups and people not ordinarily aligned with his conservative political views is important to Pickens. A lifelong Republican, he'll vote for McCain. But he's not involved with McCain's campaign, largely to keep his plan from being dismissed as mere campaign rhetoric.
"This has to be a bipartisan effort," says the man who four years ago offered $1 million to anyone who could disprove the charges made against Democrat nomine Sen. John Kerry by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
"This is not about Republicans vs. Democrats," Pickens says. "This is about saving our country from the ruination of spending $700 billion a year on oil imports. Ninety days after the oil hits our shores, it's all burned up, and we've got nothing to show for it. But they (foreign oil producers) still have our money. It's killing our economy."
Top wind states
Annual wind-energy potential in billions of kilowatt hours:
North Dakota 1,210
Texas 1,190
Kansas 1,070
South Dakota 1,030
Montana 1,020
Nebraska 868
Wyoming 747
Oklahoma 725
Minnesota 657
Iowa 551
Colorado 481
New Mexico 435
Idaho 73
Michigan 65
New York 62
Illinois 61
California 59
Wisconsin 58
Maine 56
Missouri 52
Source: American Wind Energy Association
---
About T. Boone Pickens
Chairman: BP Capital Management, an energy and equities hedge fund.
Born: May 22, 1928, Holdenville, Okla.
Residence: Dallas.
Background: Moved to Amarillo, Texas, as a teenager. Graduated from Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) in 1951 with a degree in geology.
Career: Formed what became Mesa Petroleum with an initial investment of $2,500 in 1956 along with two partners. Built his reputation in the 1980s as a corporate raider and greenmailer. In 1986, founded the United Shareholders Association and crusaded for corporate governance reforms. Forced out of Mesa in 1996. Formed BP Energy Fund in 1997. It later became BP Capital Management. He ranks No. 117 on Forbes list of wealthiest Americans and No. 369 in the world, with a fortune that Forbes estimates at $3 billion (Pickens says he's worth $4 billion).
Philanthropy: Has given Oklahoma State University, his alma mater, about $400 million, including $265 million to the school's athletics department, the largest donation total by an individual to a college athletics department.
Personal: At 80, Pickens has no plans to retire. Married to his third wife, Madeleine. Five grown children. Enjoys Oklahoma State sports, quail hunting, spending time and hunting at a huge ranch on the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle.
LOAD-DATE: July 8, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, Color, Jessica Rinaldi for USA TODAY
PHOTO, B/W, Jessica Rinaldi for USA TODAY
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852 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The Washington Post
July 8, 2008 Tuesday
Suburban Edition
Risky Business
BYLINE: Dana Milbank
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A03
LENGTH: 955 words
The waiters were still clearing the breakfast dishes yesterday when John McCain's most prominent adviser raised the subject of erection enhancement.
Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief who is now the Republican National Committee's "Victory Chairman," was discussing consumer-driven health insurance at a breakfast with reporters when she proposed "a real, live example which I've been hearing a lot about from women: There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won't cover birth-control medication. Those women would like a choice." For effect, the woman frequently mentioned as a possible McCain running mate repeated: "Those women would like a choice."
Silence filled the meeting room at the St. Regis Hotel. "I don't know where I go after that," said the moderator, Dave Cook of the Christian Science Monitor.
Fiorina's brazen breakfast talk demonstrated why she'd be such a risky running mate for McCain -- and yet also, potentially, the most rewarding of his options. She's the most prominent and visible of the women believed to be under consideration for the vice presidency, and her attributes are many: a woman who could appeal to disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters; a corporate hotshot to balance the "economy-is-not-my-strong-suit" McCain; and an outsider untainted by President Bush, Washington and politics.
At the same time, she's unvetted and untested, as her breakfast conversation demonstrated anew (religious conservatives frown on Viagra-and-contraceptives talk) that she's new to the game. Her controversial tenure at HP, which fired her in 2005, could also be mined by foes. "Too risky," political handicapper Stu Rothenberg judged in Roll Call last week.
In the end, it could come down to whether McCain, now trailing Barack Obama by half a dozen points in the polls, decides he needs to roll the dice.
Fiorina, for her part, couldn't be any more plain about her vice presidential ambitions without taking out an ad. "I've been advocating on his behalf for about a year," she told the 30 reporters at the breakfast after USA Today's Susan Page asked the running-mate question. "I've spent the last three-plus years getting involved in a variety of issues in a variety of government departments, whether it's the Defense Department or the Central Intelligence Agency or the State Department. . . . There are things that government can borrow and learn from business."
Another reporter, who must have been in the men's room for the answer to Page's question, asked Fiorina if she would consider the vice presidency. "One of the great things about my life right now is I have lots of options and lots of opportunities," she said, "and I have learned that if you're open to options and opportunities, the future tends to take care of itself."
Barely an answer went by without a reference to her past in the executive suite. McCain's staff shake-up? "As someone who's managed a lot of people, one of the most important jobs you have is to put the right players on the field in the right positions," she said. Obama's superior fundraising? "I'm a business person. Trends matter to me, and the trendline for Barack Obama is down." McCain's plan to control big executive payouts? "I voluntarily gave up the contract that I was given when I arrived at Hewlett-Packard so my pay could be put to a shareholder vote."
These are delicate matters for Fiorina. When she was forced out at HP, it was because her acquisition of Compaq was going badly and the company's stock price had fallen. Fiorina still managed to leave with an eight-figure severance package. That, and the job cuts she ordered, wouldn't look good in a political ad. But now HP has passed Dell as the No. 1 laptop maker, and the Compaq merger has become a success. Fiorina has published her memoirs, appeared opposite both Bob Schieffer and George Stephanopoulos, and convinced the conservative magazine Human Events that having her as the vice presidential nominee could be "a significant step in the right direction."
Fiorina arrived early for her breakfast meeting with reporters, giving Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times the chance to get some laptop advice. Tall and fashionable in a jacket popping with green and yellow spheres, Fiorina wore a heavy Gothic cross on a long chain around her neck. Moderator Cook cited her various credentials: first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company, degrees from Stanford and MIT, and junior high in London at the "Channing School for Select Young Ladies."
The former chief executive seemed comfortable at the boardroom-type table, resting her cheek on her fist as she listened to questions and leaning forward, elbows on table, to answer. Like McCain, she broke from Republican orthodoxy, talking up the need to fight climate change and asserting that Bush was "wrong" about Iraq before McCain talked him into the surge. Best of all, Fiorina seemed always to have a bit of corporate jargon to fill any hole reporters found in McCain's candidacy. On his multiple staff restructurings: "Like a start-up company becoming a multimillion-dollar corporation, you have to add new skills and capabilities." On McCain's budget plan: "Business does that all the time."
The aspiring politician was easily tripped up while challenging Obama's tax plan and defending McCain's health-care policy. The questions about her political ambitions caused her to fiddle with her watchband and utter a forced chuckle. Then there was the Viagra moment.
But these were minor defects for this product of the "Channing School for Select Young Ladies." In her marketing campaign for a spot on McCain's ticket, Fiorina is meeting benchmarks, her processes are within tolerance, and her business plan remains on course.
LOAD-DATE: July 8, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Mary Altaffer -- Associated Press; Sen. John McCain, who did not attend the "Channing School for Select Young Ladies," and Carly Fiorina.
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July 8, 2008 Tuesday 1:00 PM EST
K Street
BYLINE: Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2122 words
HIGHLIGHT: K Street columnist Jeffrey Birnbaum was online to discuss lobbying and politics on Tuesday, July 8, at 1 p.m. ET.
K Street columnist Jeffrey Birnbaum was online to discuss lobbying and politics on Tuesday, July 8, at 1 p.m. ET.
Read today's column: Disclosure Form Makes It Hard for Lobbyists to Disclose
He can also answer questions about his story today: Push for New Accounting Standards Gains Speed
A transcript follows.
A list of Birnbaum's columns can be found here.
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Jeffrey Birnbaum: Hello everyone. Thanks for writing in today. My column is about the confusion a lot of lobbyists are feeling in filling out a new disclosure form. I've gotten some e-mails that indicate that a lot of people are not heartbroken about the development. What do you think? Last week's column also produced a lot of mail. It was about people who call citizens around the country to drum up letters to members of Congress--all done on behalf of paying lobbying groups. Is that a development you subscribe to? Let me know. Now, let's begin.
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Washington, D.C.: Please explain the stricter disclosure rules for foreign vs. domestic lobbyists.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Thanks for the question. You are referring to the item in my column that mentions a proposal by two senators that would require lobbyists for foreign-based companies to file as foreign agents rather than domestic lobbyists, as the law now permits. Only lobbyists who represent foreign countries have to register as foreign agents under the law. A foreign agent is, according to several lobbyists I spoke to last week, an even dirtier word than "lobbyist." It's the "Scalett F" as one lobbyist said. In addition, foreign agents have to say with whom they meet and what they talk about during those meetings--two things domestic lobbyists do not have to reveal. In other words, it's a lot harder to be a foreign agent and the name itself also gives lots of people heartburn. That's why folks like Todd Malan, who represents foreign companies with U.S. subsidiaries, is lobbying so hard to prevent the senators' proposal from becoming law.
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Washington, D.C.: So what is the answer: Do you have to disclose cab fare to a lunch that a congressman visits?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: This is one of the questions I posed in my column today, and one that ethics lawyers are trying to get an answer to. Late yesterday (too late to get an answer into the column) a spokeswoman for the Secretary of the Senate said that (if I heard her correctly) that cab fare to an event that a lawmaker shows up at does not need to be disclosed. As for air fare or some more elaborate effort to see what a lawmaker says or does, I don't know. It is one of those gray areas that will have to be worked out. One of the many.
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Washington, D.C.: I don't feel sorry at all for the lobbyists in your column today. Let them suffer, but let them also disclose. It's time they told us more.
washingtonpost.com: Disclosure Form Makes It Hard for Lobbyists to Disclose (K Street, July 8)
Jeffrey Birnbaum: That's not very charitable, but it is what I've been hearing from some folks this morning. I'm afraid that lobbyists are not given much slack. What do you think out there? Should lobbyists be given a hard time just because they are, well, lobbyists?
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Alexandria, Va.: I couldn't believe your column last week about the women who get other to write letters to Congress. For lobbyists! Is that legal? And don't senators know about that?
washingtonpost.com: The Cold Calls Behind Those Personal Letters to Congress (K Street, July 1)
Jeffrey Birnbaum: It is legal and I'm not so sure that lawmakers know that there are people out there who are paid by the hour to call folks and persuade them to write letters to their elected officials. It is a big and growing business, however, and DDC, the company I wrote about last week, is one of the larger players in that field. Interest groups pay large dollars to get those letters written and mailed. Most communications to Capitol Hill these days is by e-mail, and a lot of that is instigated by lobbying groups as well. Through Web sites and e-mail alerts and the like. That's a lot cheaper to do, hence the millions of e-mails sent in campaigns. It's a fascinating world that is hard to explain to non-Washingtonians. Maybe there's good reason for it to be so odd. Whatya' think?
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Detroit, Mich.: The housing bill was supposed to pass in the Congress a while ago. What happened there and might Fannie and Freddie get off the hook now that their stocks have tanked?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Well, the Senate is still working on the forclosure-rescue legislation. The bill also includes the establishment of a new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage lending giant chartered by Congress years ago. The bill is being held up by an effort by Sen. Ensign to attach an amendment that would extend expiring tax credits for wind and solar energy. Senat eleaders think the amendment, while popular otherwise, would sink the overall bill because the tax credit would not be paid for--something the House appears to be insisting upon, so far. In any case, you are correct, the housing bill was emergency, must pass legislation and has been that way for months. The Senate has been unable to pass all sorts of bills that fit into that category, My colleague Lori Montgomery and I wrote a story on our front page a week or so ago that said so. We'll see this week if the housing and Medicare bills begin finally to get through that chamber. As for Fannie and Freddie, I don't think their bad day yesterday in the stock market will alter the legislation much, if at all.
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Chicago, Ill.: Hey Jeff, I have no problem with lobbyist petitioning and giving power point presentations, but what financial restrictions should be placed on them?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Well, this is the most positive response, from a lobbyists' view, that I've seen so far today. I don't think any financial restrictions should be placed on lobbyists, nor can there be, constitutionally. What can and has been done is to require that lobbyists disclose more about what they do, who they meet with, what they advocate and what they give in the way of financial contributions. I would not be surprised if more disclosures were heaped on lobbyists in years to come, and that would not be a bad thing. Lobbyists rarely fight that sort of thing and technology is making rotine disclosures like that easier to do.
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giving lobbyists a hard time: They should be given a hard time, but not in the form of a ridiculous disclosure form. I've had to fill out financial disclosure forms for the government, and they're intractable. Poorly designed and ask for information in ways no one keeps it and not always relevant (like selling a stock at a loss means it doesn't need to be listed as a source of "income" but selling it at a gain does--how your gain/loss matters to a financial conflict is beyond me).
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Good point. Lobbyists are far from the only people who have to fill out paperwork for Uncle Sam who complain about the burden.
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Port Ewen, N.Y.: Is API considered a lobbyist group? They have been hitting the airwaves with many pro oil ads lately, but their information seems rather skewed. Thanks
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Yes, the American Petroleum Institute is a lobbying group and you are correct. It has been spending tens of millions of dollars on ads around the country to push its point of view. It is "skewed" in the sense that it uses facts to make points that are favorable to the oil and gas industry. It notes that a lot of people own oil company stocks in their pension plans. It notes that compared to other industries, and by some measures, its profits are not so high. Stuff like that. And my guess is that the oil companies, while disliked, are being disliked less because of all this effort. People are not just blaming Big Oil for the massive runup in energy prices. And that is exactly what the ad campaign was supposed to do.
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Fairfax, Va.: Do the lobbyists worry about Obama winning and doing anything to minimize their influence or do they see him as just another centrist Democrat who wont really rock their boat?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: I think lobbyists see Obama as a meal ticket. Whenever a new president comes to town that produces a lot more business for lobbyists. New initiatives create problems and opportunities that lobbyists exploit. They get rich no matter who comes in. Because Obama would produce the most change, or at least threaten to produce the most change, lobbyists would make out better with him in office than with McCain, I think. In fact, the harder Obama goes after "special interests," the more money lobbyists will make. Because they are the professionals who protect those special interests from attack. There's no one else to do so. In my business, that's what you call an irony.
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Fairfax, Va.: That guy who was stopped from taking his lobbying clients . . . from last week's column, I think. Has that case ended the notion that lobbying parent companies can prevent that common practice?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: You are referring to Harry Sporidis, who left the Washington Group with two lobbying clients and was sued by the firm's parent company. In the end, Sporidis and the parent, Omnicom Group, settled with undisclosed terms. But a statement by Sporidis said that his clients are still with him at Powell Goldstein, the law firm where he works. That has to be seen as good news for the common practice of lobbyists taking their "book of business" with them when they change employers--unless there is a contractual prohibition for doing so. Omnicom declined to comment, so I don't know what it thinks. But I do get the sense that Harry is happy--and so are a lot of his colleagues on K Street as a result.
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Washington, D.C.: When will the Senate, and the House, get around to actually legislating, or is that off until a new president shows up?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: There will be legislation passed. I feel confident. The housing and Medicare bills, the fix of the alternative minimum tax (so that middle income families don't get whacked with a tax increase, the extension of a slew of popular-though-soon-to-expire tax provisions, the passage of basic legislation needed to keep the government operating. But beyond those things, I don't see much happening. And yes, the reason is largely because a new president is coming, and neither party wants to give the other a vote that could be used in attack ads. It will be a long, hot, slow summer in all probability in Washington this year.
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Washington, D.C.: What might Obama do regarding regulating lobbyists if he should become President?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: I'm not sure he'd press for more regulation. He would mostly be careful about hiring them into his administration and would make it hard for his former appointees to lobby on the topics they oversaw when they leave.
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Wilmington, Del.: What's the rush to change rules at the SEC? I thought it usually took a long comment period.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: In a story I wrote in today's paper, the Securities and Exchange Commission is depicted as moving toward setting a rough timetable for a major accouting change that would allow U.S. public companies to use international accounting standards rather than those developed by the U.S. The story, truth be told, was largely first reported on Saturday in the New York Times, but I tried to make the points a little more precise and timely. Such as it is. In any case, critics of the change say that it would defang some of the investor protections enacted in the wake of the Enron scandal back in 2001. They also claim that the SEC is moving now to try to sneak in its point of view before the Bush administration leaves town at year end. I'm not sure about either of those, but it is fair to point out that the SEC is a five-person commission. It has to vote. Also, proposed rules changes go through a process that takes months. In addition, the timetable for change would probably cover years. If there's a big rush to do anything here, it's not actually happening at the SEC.Anyone disagree?
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Jeffrey Birnbaum: Thanks for writing in everyone. We covered a lot of ground today. I look forward to doing this again in a couple week. Cheers!
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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July 8, 2008 Tuesday 12:00 PM EST
Chatological Humor: Gene vs. Liz Over Sid vs. Nanette (UPDATED 7.9.08);
aka Tuesdays With Moron
BYLINE: Gene Weingarten, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 11010 words
HIGHLIGHT: Daily Updates: WED
Daily Updates: WED
Gene Weingarten's humor column, Below the Beltway, appears every Sunday in The Washington Post magazine. It is syndicated nationally by the Washington Post Writers Group.
At one time or another, Below the Beltway has managed to offend persons of both sexes as well as individuals belonging to every religious, ethnic, regional, political and socioeconomic group. If you know of a group we have missed, please write in and the situation will be promptly rectified. "Rectified" is a funny word.
On Tuesdays at noon, Weingarten is online to take your questions and abuse. He will chat about anything. Although this chat is updated regularly throughout the week, it is not and never will be a "blog," even though many persons keep making that mistake. One reason for the confusion is the Underpants Paradox: Blogs, like underpants, contain "threads," whereas this chat contains no "threads" but, like underpants, does sometimes get funky and inexcusable.
This Week's Polls: Two polls today. The first is for reasonable human beings:
Door 1: 34 and Younger | Door 2: 35 and Older
The second is for reasonable human beings as well as weenie whining babies who won't take a video poll because they might have to spend five minutes on it at home instead of their other important home activities, such as watching TV in their underwear.
Door 3: Reasonable People and Whiny Babies
Not chat day? Visit the Gene Pool.
Important, secret note to readers: The management of The Washington Post apparently does not know this chat exists, or it would have been shut down long ago. Please do not tell them. Thank you.
Weingarten is also the author of "The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death" and co-author of "I'm with Stupid," with feminist scholar Gina Barreca.
New to Chatological Humor? Read the FAQ.
P.S. If composing your questions in Microsoft Word please turn off the Smart Quotes functionality. I haven't the time to edit them out. -- Liz
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Gene Weingarten: Good afternoon.
Yesterday the doorbell rang. The man at the door said he was homeless, and had just done some yard work for my next-door neighbor. My next door neighbor wasn't home, the man said, but had asked him to knock on MY door and ask ME for $20, which my neighbor would repay the next day.
There was about a five second total silence, until I laughed.
"That was just the worst, man," I said.
He started to say something, but I held up a hand.
"No, I mean it. The worst. The worst attempt I have ever encountered."
So he just shambled away with a hint of a smile.
I love living in the city.
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You may have noted the passing of the great editor Clay Felker last week. (Clay Felker, New York's Editor of Cool, Post, July 2) Clay was the founding editor of New York magazine, and it just so happens I knew him, sort of. I hate to name drop, but I'd like to explain the magical way our two lives entwined. My first break in journalism came when, at 20, I got a cover story printed in Felker's magazine. But I never actually met Felker: I had only dealt with his managing editor.
Flash forward 30 years or so. I am doing a story on Garry Trudeau, the story is done, and it occurs to me that I would love to get Garry to sign one of my prized possessions: a first-edition copy of the very first Doonesbury collection. I've had it forever.
So I rummage for it and find it, and open it up, and see something I hadn't noticed before. On the inside cover it says "FELKER." This is when I remembered how I must have gotten this book. Some time around 1973, Felker had a party for some writers at New York, and I was invited. It was a very cool home; I never got to speak to the great Felker except for a handshake and a nod, but I did get to look through his books, and I did see he had extensive comic collections.
I must have wound up taking this home. It cannot have been deliberate thievery; I just didn't do that. But I have no better explanation than accident.
I told Garry about this when I sent him the book to sign; he signed it over to Clay. Now Clay is dead and I CAN'T give it back. Darn.
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As you may have seen in today's paper,The Washington Post has a new executive editor, Marcus Brauchli. Readers have raised two essential questions: 1) How is his name pronounced, and 2) Is he any good? I will answer this question now.
1. No one knows for sure how his name is pronounced. He himself has never uttered it in public, so there is no "official" version. Any pronunciation, ergo, is correct.
2. No one knows for sure how good he is, but I have a suspicion, which I will share, that he is one of those rare geniuses who flower once each Renaissance: A Da Vinci type, possibly a direct descendant of Jesus.
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The Clip of the Day, as promised, is this from Barats and Bereta.
But we also have an auxiliary short CLOD.
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Please take today's polls. Elaborate discussions will ensue throughtout the chat.
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The CPOW is Monday's Doonesbury. First Runner Up is Sunday's Doonesbury. Honorables: Sunday's Zits, Sunday's Fuzzy.
And lastly, HERE is Sunday's Opus. No, that's not the one you saw in The Post, which ran a sub. I believe the editors perceived a racial-ethnic insensitivity.
Bad decision. Nothing wrong with that comic. I really liked the real-world "available now" labeling.
Okay, let's go.
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American Cultur, AL: Perhaps the main, most enduring, purely American cultural highlight of the 70's was officially instituting the name "Super Bowl" for the NFL-AFL Championship Game beginning in January 1970. The Super Bowl has become a de facto national holiday and a world-wide phenomenon...and the name Super Bowl started in the 70's.
Gene Weingarten: Actually, a lot of people questioned my answer to question two. It is true, I was using hyperbole. I'm thinking there were three pretty darn major cultural births of the 70s: "Roots," "Saturday Night Live," and "Monty Python."
washingtopost.com: That '70s Column, (Post, July 6). Also, I was born in 1971.
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Fairfax, Va.: Gene, There was a posting in the GenePool about political rumors, and I quote: "Senator John McCain used to be an insurance salesman in Raleigh, N.C. He won the New York lottery in 1982 and lost the money in a land swindle. He was once charged with vehicular homicide but was acquitted because his mother said she drove the car. He once stated that the funniest thing he ever saw was Flipper spouting water on coach George Wilson. Posted by TheNathan"
That you responded to by saying "I wonder if anyone gets this. . ." or words to that effect. Gets what? I couldn't figure out the reference. Thanks
Gene Weingarten: This is a reference to the most famous correction in Miami Herald history. I have referred to it before, and will elaborate in the updates. It takes time.
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Grim Reaper: Gene, On the topic of death, I find myself in a dilemma when contemplating the topic. I am an atheist (not one of the Pew Poll "I believe in a higher power" atheists, but an atheist true to the definition). I want to be cremated, I never want to be kept alive via artificial means unless there is a very good chance that I could make a full recovery, and I don't care at all about having a funeral.
My rational side says that death is nothing to fear--yet, I actually have a lot of trouble coming to terms with the truth that I will eventually cease to exist. Aging also scares me. In case it adds anything, I am in my late twenties, married, no kids, both parents still alive, raised in a protestant church.
I would like to be more settled about mortality--as I don't want to spend time/energy worrying about the inevitable.
How would you suggest overcoming this problem?
Gene Weingarten: Do what I did. Get a fatal disease and recover from it. Everything changes. You don't worry as much because you feel you're living gift time, anyway. If THAT'S out of the question, remember what my father told me when I was about ten or so and asked what it was like to be dead. He said, "Well, what was it like for you in 1918?" Uh... "Well, that's what it's like to be dead." Not so scary, right?
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Knoxville, Tenn.: The reason I said that I'd care a great deal about recovering the bodies from the plane crash is that pretty much all of my loved ones (and myself, for that matter) plan to donate our bodies to the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee -- aka the Body Farm. It's one of the few places where you can donate your body in any condition (even post-plane crash), and it's something my family has grown fairly passionate about.
Gene Weingarten: So it would be worth financing a $20 million recovery operation in the open sea, which entails some risk to living beings diving on the wreck? I get your point -- it is not the common reason. I've never understood the common reason. Every time there is such a crash, there is a clamoring of distraught victim's families to excavate the mangle, crab-eaten bodies, damn the expense. I understand the bitterness and the desperation, but not the need for a feeling of "closure." I'd feel that terrible closure the second I knew for sure the plane was down and wife was on it.
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Yawning with Liz: After one minute of the Caesar/Fabray skit, I realized there were still over four minutes to go, and I got really tired. It's like one of those Saturday Night Live skits that takes a clever idea and stretches it out way too long. I'm a Gen-Xer like Liz, if that makes a difference, and I AM capable of watching something interesting for extended periods of time. This video just doesn't qualify.
Gene Weingarten: Please see next post.
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Midwest, US: I'm 31, female, and hot, and I thought the video was phenomenal. I've never seen anything like it, thought the length was fine, and that Sid and Nanette were both excellent. I don't know what Liz is talking about.
On another note, I'm going to see Joshua Bell in concert on Friday, and I shall try to refrain from throwing panties, virtual or otherwise, and from yelling Weingarten or Pulitzer at the end.
Gene Weingarten: Josh wouldn't mind thrown panties so long as you wait until he is between movements. Here's one interesting and telling result of the poll: You are all pretty wrong in your assessment of the performances. Both are good by I believe a panel of choreographers would vote unanimously that Sid is better. His face is more expressive. His body lanuage is more varied. Sid seldom repeats himself; Nanette does it a lot.
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Washington, D.C.: Hi Gene. Would you please predict, right now, who will win the 2008 presidential election, and how many electorial votes he will get?
Thank you.
Gene Weingarten: Yes. Obama will win, with more than 330 electoral votes.
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RL, NL: Gene, in your '70s Column, you say that the "romantic kiss on the tush" was mentioned in Footnote 220 of the Starr Report, whereas from what I remember at the time, it was Footnote 210, though the Library of Congress and the Washington Post both have it as Footnote 209. Since it was in print edition, can we expect an official correction, and if so, what would it say?
washingtonpost.com: That '70s Column, (Post Magazine, July 6)
Gene Weingarten: I think I was right. 220. That's what the Urban Dictionaries say. Can we have an official report here?
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Farragut North, Washington, D.C.: Gene: Sorry I won't be able to participate live during the chat, but I wanted to add this observation about the first poll.
I think it's less a matter of age than of ethnic background that determines whether the video is seen as brilliant or tedious. If one did not grow up with outsized relatives who talked with their hands and made grand gestures, then the entire skit seems overdone. If, on the other hand, like me (and, I'm guessing, you and many other Jews of our vintage), you grew up with these types of arguments at family gatherings--although in my case it was over Troksyites vs. Stalinists, not infidelity -- the argument set to music seems brilliant.
One way in which age factors in is the incredible shrinking of the national attention span. With everyone--regardless of age--used to 15 second commercials, cross-cutting, and rapid editing, the idea of an almost six minute take, without much camera change, seems unbearably slow, regardless of the brilliance of the acting.
Gene Weingarten: I think all of this is right. And I acknowledge that six minutes is long. But here is my view: They HAD NO CHOICE but to do the entire first movement of Beethoven's Fifth; otherwise it would have been not a "feat" but a "stunt." They proved it could be done magnificently, staying true to the music. I acknowlede some tedium. But I forgive it and accept it for the bigness of the thing. This, then, is the official Chatological Humor position.
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No more videos (except this one): I'm the one who complained Tuesday about video polls, but now I have to give you this.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you.
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Arlington, Va.: What is up with people? Looking at the early poll results (I had to do door three since I work for the guvment, no YouTube) it appears that some stone is more important than the ACTUAL COMMUNICATED WISHES of a loved one. I guess they must be the same people who want to ban flag burning because they love America and it's freedom of expression and right to criticize the government so much.
The well communicated wishes of a deceased loved one, done in a time of sanity not dementia, are sacrosanct. It is not YOUR money, it was his. How can you steal it from him because you don't want to do what he wanted with it?
Wow. All I can say is wow. Pee on my headstone anyday, but if I leave instructions on my funeral and I have the money left to carry them out, DO IT. It so happens I'll want cremation and no funeral (just have a damn party!) but that is not the point.
Gene Weingarten: The results of that last question were startling and I'd like to hear people explain their answers. I disagree with you -- I agree with the majority -- but I expected to be in a small minority. I'll share my view after some of you have weighed in. --- Actually, the hell with it. I'll go first. The entire second poll had a certain subtle quasi-spiritual theme: What is a dead body? Is it anything? What happens to you after you die? In my view, after you die, you do not exist. Your body means nothing. You will never know what happens after you die. Informed by this philosophy, I would not care about the peeing dog, of course, but I also would not care about recovering a loved one's body from a plane crash. But this extends to the matter of the funeral as well... I deliberately framed that last question so that Dad didn't put the funeral request in his will, which would have made it (probably) legally binding, or ask me directly, which would have required me to say yes, which would have added a strong degree of ethical truthtelling obligation. No, he left a note. A request. Do me a favor.... he said, and then died, and then his money is mine. It WAS his money, until he died, and now it's mine. Do I grant that favor? In most cases of a dying man's request, sure. In most cases I would feel obligated, but not if it is something of which I strongly disapprove. He wants the money to go to the National Man-Boy Love Association? Uh, no, Pop, not goin' there. Sorry. He wants the money to be flushed down the toilet in a funeral at the National Cathedral with The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Little Richard performing? Sorry, dad. Maybe under other circumstances, but not not when your granddaughter eeds college tuition that I don't have. If there's an afterlife, and you see her graduate, you'll forgive me. But of course, my answer really hangs on the fact that I don't think there's an afterlife. He died thinking maybe (remember this was a REQUEST) I'd do that ghastly ostentatious funeral. Fine. I didn't, he's dead, he'll never know, and I feel no guilt at all.
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Makeitre,AL: For however long you've been okay with peeing on gravestones, I've been okay with it, but taking the death poll this time really made me step back. Imagining the situation in real life, not in theory, changes my answers to something irrational. If I think about a dog peeing on my cremated remains, I'm okay. I'll probably die old and wrinkly like the rest of my family. But if I try to imagine the dog peeing on, say, my child's grave, it's no longer okay. Not for a long long time. It's like whatever your formula was for being able to tell 9/11 jokes. The worse the loss, the longer it takes before you are allowed to do anything funny.
Gene Weingarten: Sorry, but I see a dog peeing on a grave as just about the same insult as a cloud raining on a grave.
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Washington, D.C.: About the poll -- I loved the video and I'm 34, so just barely in the younger group. But I don't understand all the people who say it would be better if it were shorter.
How on earth would that work?
The first movement of the Fifth Symphony starts at the beginning and ends at the end... and so does the argument. How could you make it any shorter??
Gene Weingarten: Exactly. Shortening it would have killed it. The most self-evident answer there. People just didn't get this.
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Dads, Funeral: as of Monday afternoon, I am answering in the minority of have the big funeral as Dad wanted. my reasoning: it was his money, his wishes. yes, my family could have used the money - but if I'm waiting around for Dad to kick the bucket to get me out of financial trouble, this doesn't say much for me. presumably, Dad might have known about the situation and helped if he had wanted. It's one of those "time to put on the big girl pants" and deal with my own problems.
In real life, I'm doing better than my siblings, and have told my father to spend like a crazy man through his own estate (including giving it to said siblings and offspring if he wishes), and if the last check he writes bounces, I'll cover it. we are each reponsible for our own financial circumstances and I just dont want the fighting with my siblings.
Gene Weingarten: I agree, totally. My father did not die easily or quickly; I was his guardian during the last two years, and spent virtually all of a sizeable inheritance seeing he was as comfortable and as well cared for as possible, including round the clock private duty nurses. I had no second thoughts about this at all. Then again, I was not desperately wondering how I would pay for my children's education. The scenario in the poll was very different; the money was not to be used on the father, it was to be used on the father's dead body. And there was real need in the family.
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Baltimore, Md.: Gene: I second your father. I remember having my outlook on life and death changed a couple of years ago when I read (can't remember where) that people spend inordinate amounts of time worrying what will happen after they die, but spend no time worrying about where they were before they were born. Same state of non-existence, right?
Gene Weingarten: Exactly!
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Joe, Pa.: Gene, although in 95 percent of cases you are right, in the poll you are egregiously wrong. And the voters back it up, subconsciously. It's funny for a minute, at most. After that it's repetitive. Although Chatwoman doesn't understand how the human body painted up UNDER THE SKIN looks retarded (and extra sexy when you are old), on this she can claim victory.
washingtonpost.com: Gee, thanks -- I think.
Gene Weingarten: Wow! I was starting to write "Noted," but had my right hand out of position, and it came out "Bite." This is one of the most significant things that ever happened on this chat.
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Brauch, LI: In Howard Kurtz's story, in the ninth graf, the pronunciation is given as "BROW-klee."
Gene Weingarten: Howie got it wrong. There IS no official pronunciation.
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Rockville, Md.: Good advice:
"Get a fatal disease and recover from it. Everything changes. You don't worry as much because you feel you're living gift time, anyway."
Or spend a year in Vietnam with the infantry. I expect it is very much the same.
Gene Weingarten: I'll bet it is. Same feeling of living gift time, right?
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Whiny Baby, D.C.: I don't have any video blocked at work, and I still refuse to look at videos online. There are two good reasons. First, because it looks unprofessional at the office (while reading your chat looks like I'm working.)
Second, and more importantly, because video is ruining the Internet. There's something important about having to communicate ideas with words -- and all this trending towards video is reducing the amount of readable content out there. It pains me to see my favorite writers (Ana Marie Cox, Andrew Sullivan, YOU) turn to an intellectually inferior medium because everyone else is doing it these days. I can't even read some stories on my favorite news sites anymore because they exist only as video.
Please don't encourage this trend. Your chats are more stimulating than any video you could be posting.
Gene Weingarten: Thanks for posting, Gramps.
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Nanette: To know that Nanette was repeating herself one had to be able to stay awake for more than a minute. BTW, I'm 47.
It was ok, but only for a minute or so...
Gene Weingarten: I love this fight.
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Bethesda, Md.: additional poll question:
How familiar would you consider yourself to be with classical music?
I am just barely 35 but a classically trained musician and this bit is BRILLIANT. The are doing exactly what Beethoven wrote. It could not be shorter because then the music would not work. It has already been shortened as much as it can be!
I would then be interested in the matrix of how the like/dislikes line up with the understanding of classical music. But then I am also a total computer dorko, so go figure!
Gene Weingarten: See? I love it.
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No, No, Nanette: I'm surprised so many people taking the poll thought Nanette was better than Sid. At first I just thought that was a quirk of my younger generation, since we weren't that interested in the video anyway (personally, I thought there was some cool stuff there, but it wasn't so cool I wanted to watch it being drawn out so long).
But, at least in the early results, the older folks also thought Nanette was better. I don't get it.
My first impression was just that they were really balanced--her with her sharp, staccato movements, and him with his fluid, flexible ones, and there's an element of truth to that. But as I kept watching, it just seemed like he was much more natural at it. ...Wasn't he? Or am I wrong and the majority right?
Gene Weingarten: You are very right. I think Nanette is a little off, very slightly, on the timing. One reason may be that she was functionally deaf. She accomplished a lot in showbiz with a serious impairment. Trivia question: Who is her niece and how did she rise to fame? Here is the answer: Her niece was Shelley Fabares, who played the dippy daughter in the Donna Reed Show and recorded he dippy 1950s number one chart topper, "Johnny Angel." And by the way, was "Angel" Johnny's last name? Because if it was, this song is even dippier than it seems. And if it wasn't, this song is even dippier than it seems.
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She's Lost, IT: Tatwoman is nuts! The tattoos have affected her brain...she should no longer be called Chatwoman.
That routine is brilliant... almost in the same league as "How's on First." The timing and choreography in the routine is superb. If she can not appreciate it, she needs to go back to Comedy 101 and retake the class... or put her in the chatroom corner and have her wear a dunce cap!
washingtonpost.com: Listen, I don't want to court any more ill will here than I already have -- what with being Gene's coarse, uninformed celeb-loving sidekick -- but the preponderance of you out there in chat-land not only worship Gene but are here because you share his taste -- in humor and pop-culture in general. So, being so far up -- errr, I mean "close to" Gene and his sensibilities -- it may come as some surprise to learn that the man you worship is a nerd and a snob. A deadly combination. A double threat. I'm not sure what that makes you, but in my book it makes you the sort of people who get giddy watching six minutes of Sid Caesar over-emoting, or orgasm over a double-dactyl or spend hours of a chilly and wet May day swarming around Penn Quarter trying to figure out the hidden meaning behind a few big heads running around a park.
And I love Gene and every one of you. You know this and that is why I can respectfully disagree.
I love dark chocolate and Indian food and raw rock and roll. So sue me. While you were busy at drama club I was using a fake ID -- not to drink, but to sneak in to punk rock shows. And while you were busy at math club I was teaching myself to play the drums. So my taste is different -- not lesser, just not yours. Gene can't seem to stomach this. I hope the rest of you aren't as intolerant.
And I'd like to point out that I fall into the older category for the poll split. I am not an "under 34" immature sapling incapable of getting the genius of something made 50 years ago. It just so happens that this is a bit more my style. Or, if you're looking for something more directly comparable, I'm far more impressed by this level of choreography and timing.
That is all. Now, back off before I poke you in the eye with a drum stick.
Gene Weingarten: Uh. Er. Okay!
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Pikesville, Md.: The reason I voted for Nanette over Sid is simple: although his face and most of his choreography was great, there are several moments where he appears to simply be imitating a symphony conductor, rather than making anything like a believable argumentative gesture. Nanette may repeat herself, but there were few times she looked quite so artificial.
washingtonpost.com: Which is worse? Stepping in dog doo-doo or vomit?
Gene Weingarten: It is indeed rare in a chat when C'woman demonstrates more fervency and opinion than I do. I consider us bless'd.
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Doornai, IL: David Cross did a stand-up bit where he stated that he'd want his dead corpse given to a necrophilia group, and they could have their way with him.
Gene Weingarten: Actually, this whole second poll was provoked by a sarcastic poster who asked, given my opinions of death and dogs and graves, if I would care if a necrophiliac mortician did things to my daughter's body! I almost put that question in the poll, but thought the better of it. Answer: I would be less angry and horrified than 97 percent of you.
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byool, IN: "Well, what was it like for you in 1918?"
Just don't ask a 100-year-old Frenchman that.
Gene Weingarten: Ha.
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Purge,RY: Would you lie under oath to save your children from serving time (assuming it's a crime of the white-collar variety)?
Would you do it to save your best friend from serving time?
Would you do it for a teammate or a childhood sweetheart?
Would you do it for your child's significant other?
Would you NOT do it just so you could see an office nemesis or ex-sweetheart get the punishment they deserve?
And ASSUMING you COULD testify, would you lie to save your spouse from serving time for a capital crime?
Gene Weingarten: Too many variables here. I consider perjury a very serious crime. There are very few circumstances under which I can imagine doing it. There are not zero circumstances under which I can imagine doing it. But your questions are too broad to answer.
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video pole: I liked the video very much (though I admit I didn't watch it all the way through).
Here's my thinking about the concept: nowadays it is very popular for people to make amateur music videos by taking a popular song and setting bits of video clips to them. Some of them put a lot of work into finding clips that fit the music just right and are often brilliantly done.
If you compare those, the 1954 video probably is rather tedious. But this was way ahead of it's time. Plus, they were doing it live, which always adds a level of difficulty, because the timing really had to be perfect.
Gene Weingarten: Also, a good point.
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Waldorf, Md: Gene, a year or so ago, you did a whole poll about Billy Joel's song, The Piano Man...well, in your esteemed opinion, were the "real estate novelist who 'never had time for a wife' and Davey who was still in the Navy" gay? My husband instists they were not. I believe they were, but that was as close as Joel could imply back in the 70's. What do you think? We agrue about this every time we hear the song.
Gene Weingarten: They are definitely gay. Gays picked up on this immediately.
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Temporarily in VA: Who ARE these sick 108 (as of 6:19pm EDT) people who want an open casket? I simply don't understand the need to look at dead people. If it were me as the guest of honour, I wouldn't want relatives and friends looking at my corpse. Ugh. I suspect these are the same type of people who say "passed away" instead of "died" and build little memorials by the side of the road where there was a fatal car crash.
Gene Weingarten: I'd like to hear from some of the open casketers. I have never been to an open-casket funeral where I felt anything other than majorly creeped out. No dead body looks like the person when alive. I didn't make the choice with my mother; it was an open casket. The mortuary did as good a job as they could, but ... Actually, I don't want to continue. For my father's funeral, I was in charge and the casket was closed.
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Montypyth, ON: First aired on October 5, 1969.
Of course, that was in the United Kingdom, and maybe you think that doesn't count nearly as much as airing here in Amurrica.
Gene Weingarten: Yes. We began seeing here in 1971, I believe.
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Mens Wear Dept, Tysons Corner: Gene, differences in what people find interesting must be considered. Chatwoman finds the peccadillos of celebrities to be fascinating. You find mechanical timepieces fascinating. Each of you likely finds it difficult to comprehend, much less appreciate, the other's fascination. At least you are both animal lovers. Perhaps you two can come to a consensus on whether dogs or cats are better pets.
Yeah. Right.
For the record, I thought the video piece was brilliant.
Gene Weingarten: Remember, we fight each other for a living.
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Paging the Profess, OR: I realize that (this being Monday night) all the poll results are not in, but I am still astonished that at this point, people are picking "They are both equally good" or even that Nanette is the better of the two!
From where I'm sitting, she gets points off of both technicality (see the "oh yes"/"oh no" section where she is waaaay off of her cues) and artistry (she is generally acting well, but she's not really making it FUNNY).
To be fair, I don't know that I would have noticed her comedic deficiency... except that she is next to Sid who is blowing her out of the water, comedy-wise. His gestures are crisper and more strictly related to the music while at the same time being only exaggerated versions of the very very familiar. Her gestures are familiar, certainly (good acting), but lack that deep connection to the music that is after all the whole point of the skit. Just look at Sid when that big horn solo sounds (either time) and you'll know what I mean.
Seriously, folks, this is a no-brainer. Nanette's performance, like the premise as a whole, is interesting enough. But Sid made me LAUGH.
--32 and female
Gene Weingarten: You are so, so, on target.
Gene Weingarten: Actually, I was shocked that in this particular audience of highly opinionated people, such a huge percentage declared Sid and Nanette "equally" good. Nothing is "equally" good to something else. One thing is ALWAYS at least a teensy bit better.
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Fight! Fight!: I agree with the poster talking about family disagreements, big gestures, etc...that's exactly how my family fights. And I loved the clip.
Sure, I agree with Gene on many things, especially dogs and comics.
However, I'm with Liz on dark chocolate, most food choices and that Gene really just seems like my dad who is amusing and fun to talk to, but I don't really want running my life day-to-day.
Not that it matters, but I'm in the late twenties female crowd.
Gene Weingarten: I have been wavering for nearly a year on dark chocolate. I still despise it, personally, but am ready to conceded that it is possible to like dark chocolate and still have an educated palate.
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Dead as a Doorna,IL: Comparing what it was like before you were born with what it's like after you're dead is comparing apples and oranges. I worry about what will happen to my children and husband after I die. That obviously was not a concern before I was born!
Gene Weingarten: They will be fine. You've done very well by them.
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Downtown, DC: On Sid vs. Nanette: Nanette, by a mile. I don't think many voters of any age, background, or orientation enjoyed the thought of Sid Caesar naked.
Gene Weingarten: I see.
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Pickypic, KY: Gene, Yesterday Kids Post ran a story about the horrors of nosepicking. As an inveterate picker, I am sick and tired of the media distorting the facts about the time-honored tradition of digirhinolaving. Let's hope the the new editor, Mr. Brauchli, will keep the Post out of my nose which is already quite occupied thank you very much.
Gene Weingarten: I would like to remind everyone of the groundbreaking work this chat did on this very subject. Liz, can we link to the phenomenal results of the poll of April 22, 2008, which proved conclusively, and I believe for the first time, that we are a nation of clandestine but unrepentant nosepickers? I'm really surprised I have not been contacted by the MacArthur Grant people over this seminal work.
washingtonpost.com: April 22 poll: Women | Men
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Advice, Please: I bartend at a local bar/restaurant, and this weekend I won a regional "Fourth of July Cocktail Recipe" contest. Without boring you with the details, my concoction involved Grenadine, Curacao, lemon vodka, and a couple of very clever inventions to make fireworks appear.
The prize, along with some cash, is that I received offers from several better establishments to come work for them. Either of these better offers would allow me plenty of time to work on my music as well.
Here's the problem: despite inventing the "Miss Freedom" cocktail simply by looking around the bar and seeking inspiration from the bottles on the wall, I have (since winning) learned that the exact same ingredients were used to create a cocktail in 1962.
Should I return the prize and advise the judges that even though I worked without outside influence, my recipe isn't original? Or should I shamelessly capitalize on the prestige and financial benefit while keeping my mouth shut?
Gene Weingarten: Keep the prize. You did it FAR better than the original.
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Washington, D.C.: Gene, is it possible to take a basic clock mechanism and tweak it to run at half speed? I want to make a 24 hour clock. If it's possible, does it require a particularly high-quality clock, or would any old $8.99 thingie work? And could any horlogist do it? Would you do it? It's a neat application idea I have... you'd like it.
Gene Weingarten: If it is a mechanical clock, you would need to insert two extra gears, and it would take extraordinary clockmaking knowledge to know how to do that. It will cost you a lot. I have no knowledge of electrical clocks, though my guess is it would require the same two gears. Possibly, though, there is a way of cutting the electric input in half, which I think might do the trick. Electric clocks run on a motor whose speed is regulated by the constant feed of a certain strength current.
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Gene Gene Peeing Machi, NE: Can you at least appreciate that other people would be upset that a dog was peeing on their child's grave?
Gene Weingarten: Not reasonable people, no. Maybe, like ON THE DAY of the funeral.
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Tenleytown, D.C.: Sorry, but I don't think the funeral poll question hinges on belief in an afterlife. I think it hinges on one's sense of self-absorbtion and entitlement. For whatever reason, the big funeral was important to dad. Maybe he sacrificed other things he wanted in life to save that money for his big funeral. Maybe that was silly, but it was his life, his money and his dream.
So he didn't put it in his will. He told the person he loved and trusted the most in life -- his child. But the child betrays that trust because he thinks his values are better and that his needs are more important than his father's needs. Sorry, that's not based on a view of an afterlife. It's based on a selfish view that your values, wishes and needs are more important and better than the father.
Gene Weingarten: I understand this view, and, as I said, I am surprised a greater percentage of you didn't feel this way, too. This is very well put.
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Dating Conundrum: What's your view on dating more than one person at one time, provided that no bodily fluids are exchanged? Do you disclose the fact that the other is not the only one, or keep it to yourself until it's truly necessary - Say when you have The Talk? I find myself in this situation and I could see myself liking both guys but I feel slightly guilty dating both of them at the same time. Your take?
Gene Weingarten: I don't think you are really "dating" either unless you are exchanging fluids or doing other really intimate things. So you are fine. Your private life is yours, and no exclusivity is presumed.
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Drop It...really!: Gene Weingarten: Sorry, but I see a dog peeing on a grave as just about the same insult as a cloud raining on a grave.
We GET it! You don't believe in the afterlife. Death doesn't scare you. Who knows if you even weep or mourn. But can you just drop it and stop trying to convince those of us who do that we're wrong!
Gene Weingarten: People keep asking!
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Open Casket: I was raised Catholic and every funeral I've ever been to (and there have been a lot, again, raised Catholic) has had an open casket. It doesn't creep me out just because I'm used to it. I think it's a waste of time and energy, but it doesn't creep me out. I'm wondering why, if a dead body is a dead body, do you find it disturbing?
Gene Weingarten: Because I want to remember the person, not a bad wax dummy of the person, in a skin color the person never had, with the dentures not quite fitting right.
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They are definitely gay. Gays picked up on this immediately.: But gay people think everyone is gay! It's undestandable -- nearly all of my friends are straight, so I probably think there are fewer gay people than there really are. So it stands to reason that gay people (with a large portion of gay friends) will see the world as more gay than it is.
Gene Weingarten: I don't think this is true. But I think what gay people were picking up were lame lines they'd heard uttered: "Don't have time for a wife."
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Anonymous: Hi Gene. Today is my birthday. I'm sad. I am pretty sure none of my friends remember. Other than my parents, the only call I have gotten was from my ex-boyfriend. Needless to say, that did not help. Can you cheer me up?
Gene Weingarten: Liz and I are fighting over how I should answer this. She is saying I should cheer you up, but I keep coming back to the thought that every damn person has a birthday, so why are we so egomaniacally focused on people remembering ours? It's not like you did anything, sweetie. It's a birthday. But I'll let Liz call the shots here. You are a special person on your special day. Cheer up!
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I come to the chats for Chatwoman: And am totally giving her a slow-clap from the back of the gymnasium.
Gene Weingarten: Bite... er, noted.
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Washington, DC: Gene how do you pick the age points for your polls? I ask because I'll be 35 on Friday so for one last time I was able to answer the 34 and below category (not that I really care - I actually clicked on the 35+ category first anyway). But for this particular poll I though the age cut off should have been higher. If this was done in 1954 I would have been -19 when it came out - perhaps 45 would have been a better cutoff.
Gene Weingarten: We use 34 as the cutoff because in our experiece that bisects the audience perfectly.
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Kitakami, Japan: Can you explain this? I've always had borderline prosopagnosia, and thanks to you, I now have a name for it. It was probably in high school that I noticed I was different from most people, and that I was the only one who had to mentally catalog all my friends' outfits before going out so that I'd recognize them. In a context where I'm not expecting to see her, there's a fair chance I wouldn't recognize my wife (it's happened). With both the on-line tests you linked to, I scored in the borderline range.
Now, the twist: a little over a year ago, my wife and I moved to Japan. It turns out, I do not have this problem with Japanese faces. When I see someone (Japanese) I know on the street or in a store, I usually recognize them. In a complete turnaround from our US lives, I usually have to tell my wife who that was we were just talking to.
There are only a handful of westerners here, but I mostly can't tell them apart.
So I seem to have prosopagnosia for western faces, but not for Asians. Have you ever heard of such a thing? By the way, I'm not the least bit Asian myself.
Gene Weingarten: I haven't a clue, but it's very interesting.
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Open Casket : Gene,
I know you rejected Judaism a long time ago but wasn't your mother buried according to Jewish law? I'm Jewish and all the Jewish funerals are always closed casket. I was under the impression that "Jews don't do the open casket thing."
Gene Weingarten: Honestly, I don't know. There was a rabbi, but also an open casket. Come to think of it, same for my grandparents, so I suspect you are wrong.
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Defecati, ON: Enough with the pee, Gene. What about number 2 on your child's grave?
I think this whole debate comes down to who likes dogs and who prefers people. Sorry, Gene, I have less use for canines than you do for dark-chocolate samosas.
37, female, mom
Gene Weingarten: That number two is gone in about two weeks. Nicely biodegradable.
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Philadelphia, Pa.: "They did a great job on him. He looks so much better in the casket than he did alive."
Ahh, memories of family funerals and how the insults continue past the end.
Gene Weingarten: Right.
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Favorite Epitaph: I think this epitaph sums up your attitude, it's one of my favorites:
First I wasn't Then I was Now I ain't again!
Gene Weingarten: Oooh. I like that.
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You took the book home "by accident"???: That is the worst attempt I have ever encountered.
Gene Weingarten: Honestly, I have no memory of what happened, which means I didn't steal it. But facts is facts. I have Felker's book! And I definitely went to his house. I don't remember seeing it there, specifically. Obviously I did not tell this story as self-aggrandizement. Something bad happened!
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Nanette was funnier. . . : . . . because she looked more real. Sid pulled a couple of raise-one-arm-over-the-head-and-leave-it-suspended-for-a-beat moves that seemed staged to me. I've never seen anyone argue like that, so it rang false, which jarred me away from the suspension of disbelief -- instead of getting caught up in the music and emotion, I started thinking about the performance as performance ("he's gotta hit that beat").
And I'm 42 and thought it was just ok. I know classical music, but it didn't help -- I was mentally substituting the instruments for their voices, so I kept expecting him to be the deep notes and her to be the high ones. When he hopped in on the fast, high bits, it was jarring. I also think it would have been better shorter -- yes, I realize that practically, you couldn't do that, but it nevertheless felt like a one-note joke that played out waaaaay too long.
Gene Weingarten: You know what? There may be an interesting truth here: I recognize that gesture. I think it's Jewish. I think it's old country Jew. I've seen it. Whereas Nanette is a Christian.
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Pontius Plate, SC: Gene, Are you going to move to South Carolina so you can get these for your clunker?
Gene Weingarten: Wow. That's tasteless. I have a last supper clock in my home dungeon.office.
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Sid Caesar: Can you explain why he has not received a Kennedy Center Honor? I think I read this on a list in the Post a few years ago--famous folks who have not gotten one yet. I know you have to come to the ceremony, so maybe he's not well--but he should have gotten one years ago.
Gene Weingarten: Man, Sid has to be really old. He looked about 35 in that clip, and that was 1954
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Chat woman brings up a good point: And actually I just read a column about this today from a paper based on the left coast (ok, it was the San Franscisco Chronicle). Why are progressive liberals so quick to turn on things they don't like or understand? For a group that seems like they should be open minded to most everything, they can be close minded about several things.
Gene Weingarten: Uh, you don't think the closedmindedness cuts both ways?
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Peeing on graves: Gene, I'm finding myself unable to answer the first question of the second poll. For me, it would really depend on the breed of the dog.
If a nice large, friendly, intelligent Lab or Saint Bernard wanted to piss on Dad's grave, I wouldn't mind. I'd probably even laugh. But if a sniveling, good-for-nothing, peanut-brained Pomeranian or Maltese did it, I'd probably punt it, and its owner too.
Okay, I wouldn't punt a dog, but I'd be plenty PO'd.
I can't say with conviction that there is any logic to this; of course there isn't. It's just what it is, for me anyway.
Gene Weingarten: Intelligent Lab?
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They are definitely gay. Gays picked up on this immediately.: I'm tired of gays ruining all my favorite things, rewriting history with a gay bias.
I loved playing that song on the piano when I was growing up why does there have to be some secret gay message involved (only detectable to gays with a personal agenda)?
Has Billy Joel given us any reason to believe this interpretation is true?
Gene Weingarten: It's obviously true! Just from the lyrics.
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New York, N.Y.: I don't think my values, wishes and needs are more important than my father's. I think they're more important than my DEAD father's.
Gene Weingarten: Well, yep. That's MY view.
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Saving face: The western (I'm guessing white?) prosopagnosia sufferer who does not have recognition problems in Japan is fascinating. Westerners often have trouble differentiating Asians (insert stupid "they all look alike" comment here), I think because Westerners tend to use things like hair color and texture to recognize people. This guy must somehow be wired to use the same clues as Asians, maybe things like subtle face shape differences, etc. There must be a scientist out there who would want to figure this out.
Gene Weingarten: It IS fascinating.
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Speaking of Death . . . : I enjoyed your Clay Felker story but, if it is indeed true, I'm sure you know that you should not keep the first-edition Doonesbury collection but rather should return the collection (with the inscription to C. Felker) to Felker's heirs.
Gene Weingarten: I'm gonna check if it is indeed a first edition and has any value. It's not clear. I do think you are right. Especially, with the inscription to Clay.
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Felker's Bo,OK: Could you have bought it used, and this is all an incredible coincidence? Did you borrow it and never return it from someone who borrowed it from and never returned it to Felker? I have gained and lost many books on my shelf this way.
Gene Weingarten: I would say it's possible, and in fact, I would say that it was probable, and that the "Felker" was not even Clay, but ... I was at the man's house. And I remember he had comics books. You know? I am not giving myself the benefit of any doubt there. Also... I've had that book a long time.
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Sid: He's 85. Not that old. Or at least not as old as I thought. Wait. Did you just jinx him?
Gene Weingarten: No, I'd have to make a joke about his underpants to jinx him.
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Relax, Liz: What's got into you? Nobody's saying you're lesser than anybody here. So you like punk and can play the drums. Good for you! I hate punk and play the clarinet. Good for me! But ya know what? That's not who we are. Preferences and proclivities, that's all. Just be a decent human being and nobody'll give a rat's behind about the rest.
washingtonpost.com: Bite--- Noted.
Gene Weingarten: Heheheh.
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Washington, DC: As both a journalist and a humorist I'd like your opinion on the dust-up over the Fox and Friends show's "photoshopping" of two New York Times reporters.
Is this a case of a bad joke gone awry, or is it more sinister than that? Should Fox and Friends be held to the same journalistic standards as a network news show, or do they get a pass because they are infotainment?
Gene Weingarten: This was a complete outrage. I am surprised they didn't get even more publicly pilloried.
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Harrisburg, Pa.: Did anyone notice there was a point last week that I find interesting. If one looked at the list of the most popular discussions, this discussion was, of course, the most viewed discussion. Second was the female hot dog competitive eater. Yet, what I found fascinating was: her discussion was the second most viewed discussion before her discussion had even been held. Which shows was interests us: Gene Weingarten and female hot dog eaters.
Gene Weingarten: This makes perfect sense.
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Alex., VA: As a dog owner, I believe that my dog, your dog, and everyone's dog should be on a leash in public. It's a dog - it may be unpredictable. My dog would go tearing off after a squirrel a block away if I wasn't on the other end of the leash. I have a great dog and enjoy her company - wife and kids like her too - but outside of my enclosed back yard she's on a 6' leash.
Gene Weingarten: It's just not true of everyone's dog. Some dogs are trained so they don't have to be leashed. Alas, neither your dog nor mine is such a dog. But there are vast, fenced-in properties used to let dogs run, and one of them happens to be Congressional Cemetery. It's a wonderful place. Dogs need to run.
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Gene you Ignorant Sl, UT: The Godfather. London Calling. Watership Down. Blood on the Tracks. All in the Family. MASH. Redheaded Stranger. Layla. Sophie's Choice. What's Goin' On...
Gene Weingarten: Okay.
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New York, NY: I get the DEAD FATHER's wishes thing, but again, if it was a donation to a charity you hated, would you contest the will because he is dead and you feel you are living and it should be yours?
Gene Weingarten: Only if the charity were appalling and I could not stomach giving the money there. In that case, I'd probably give it to another charity. If he gave his money to charity in a will, he is specifically saying, I don't want you to have it.
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Recovery efforts: I used to feel the same way about recovering bodies after an airplane crash, but then I read stories of the families whose loved ones perished, and many experienced "magical thinking," that their loved one must have missed the plane, or somehow was rescued by a fisherman, etc. and they really could not believe that their loved one was dead until the body was recovered. Until that point, many always had that nagging irrational doubt in the back of their minds, and were not able to truly let reality sink in until the body was recovered.
Gene Weingarten: Okay. This I get. But it's magical thinking.
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New York, NY: From "My Apology" by Woody Allen, where he imagines himself as Socrates being sentenced to death:
Allen: Then let it be! Let them take my life. Let it be recorded that I died rather than abandon the principles of truth and free inquirty. Weep not, Agathon. Agathon: I'm not weeping. This is an alergy. Allen: For to the man of the mind, death is not an end but a beginning. Simmias: How so? Allen: Well, now give me a minute. Simmias: Take your time. Allen: It is true, Simmias, that man does not exist before he is born, is it not? Simmias: Very true. Allen: Nor does he exist after his death. Simmias: Yes, I agree. Allen: Hmmm. Simmias: So? Allen: Now, wait a minute, I'm a little confused. You know they only feed me lamb and it's never well-cooked.
Agathon: But it was you who proved that death doesn't exist. Allen: Hey, listen - I've proved a lot of things. That's how I pay my rent. Theories and little observations. A puckish remark now and then. Occasional maxims. It beats picking olves, but let's not get carried away. Agathon: But you have proved many times that the sould immortal. Allen: And it is! On paper. See, that's the thing about philosophy - it's not all that functional once you get out of class.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you.
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You go, Liz!: Gene (who has such bad taste that he doesn't eat dark chocolate) is constantly saying you're wrong and I'm sick of it, too. I am saving your rant on my hard drive.
washingtonpost.com: I'm ridiculously honored. Thank you.
Gene Weingarten: Awww.
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Salt Lake City, Utah: The peeing on the grave thing is the wrong question: why are we still using up huge tracts of land to inter people (creating headstones that can be peed on)? Someday the US will come to its senses and ban this wasteful way of memorializing the dead and sanction cremation as the only legal way to dispose of human remains. This has nothing to do with an afterlife, and everything to do with wasting perfectly good land. I tried not to waste resources while I was alive, why should I do so after I'm gone?
Gene Weingarten: I agree with this in principle, but man... old bonyards are beautiful, filled with stories. We'd be denying this beauty to future generations.
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Funerals & Dogs: People, the casket is stored in a sealed vault. Even if the thing wasn't under ground a team of huskies could unload on the grave and nothing would touch the remains of your loved one.
Gene Weingarten: This is not about logic, clearly.
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Great Googly Moogly!: I thought Monica Hesse's article on "the Google defense" in an obscenity case had one of the best final grafs I've seen in years. For the benefit of those who haven't read it: After noting earlier that there were more Google searches for "orgies" than "apple pies" in Pensacola, and she concluded the article with, "Using Google Trends to ascertain community standards? Well, that's just comparing apples and orgies."
That's brilliant, and to my mind's ear bears a touch of Weingarten-ness. Is Ms. Hesse one of your proteges at The Post? Or do you even know her?
washingtonpost.com: The Google Ogle Defense, (Post, July 3)
Gene Weingarten: I know her, but not a protege. And that was a great line.
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needed a laugh break until: Gene: I needed a laugh, just had a serious doctor patient talk about her impending death so I decide to cheer up by reading your chat which I usually only get to read while on vacation (don't ask about the laptop in Hawaii, hubby doesn't like it either) but i digress. just had the open or closed casket talk with my patient. then i get to your polls...not what i needed today. please insert nose-picking, look-up-the-skirt, or fart joke anytime.
Gene Weingarten: Your butt looks great in those jeans.
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That's Ni, CE: Two Southern ladies are riding horseback through the countryside. First lady says to second lady, "See this horse I'm riding? My husband bought it for me after the birth of our first child. Second lady says, "That's nice."
They ride on. First lady says, "See this huge diamond ring? My husband bought it for me after the birth of our second child." Second lady says, "That's nice."
First lady says, "See that little mansion we're riding by? My husband gave it to me after the birth of our third child." Second lady says, "That's so nice."
First lady says, "Why, darlin', you have a child, didn't your husband buy you anything?"
Second lady says, "Yes. My husband sent me to finishing school. I used to say, "F--- you," but now I say, "That's nice."
Gene Weingarten: That's nice.
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Arlington, Va.: I don't know if you'll be disappointed by this post, but here goes. Unlike you, I believe in an afterlife. I believe that we all have a soul, that we will all be resurrected someday, and will be judged for the life we lived on this earth. I also agree completely with you on the answers to the second poll questions. While I believe that we should show respect to the memories of those who have passed on, I really don't get the hangup that many people have about death. Our bodies are a vessel, enabling us to have experiences that we could not have otherwise, but no more than that. When we die, our spirits continue; what happens to our bodies or our gravesites after that point is immaterial (uh, no pun intended). The way some people want to treat dead bodies smacks of a kind of pagan fetishism, in some ways. So, atheism isn't a prereq for feeling the way you do.
Gene Weingarten: Thanks.
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Jewish law and open caskets: I looked it up. Open caskets are contrary to Jewish law. I have no idea what your family was doing.
Gene Weingarten: Not being very Jewish, I guess.
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Bite, ME: Earlier post: I'm tired of gays ruining all my favorite things, rewriting history with a gay bias.
Awwww. Poor babee. Um...correcting the whitewashing of a LOONG period of heterosexism is CORRECTING history, not "rewriting it with gay bias." This person sounds scared. Who the hell cares if your favorite song has a line with a gay subtext...unless you're now afraid that, because you loved the song, maybe - gasp! - you might be a little big gay yourself! (Horrors!) Dude (or dudette), if you're that insecure, you got bigger problems than whether the history book is accurate...
Gene Weingarten: Totally agreed.
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Times Magazine: I'd be very interested to see your thoughts about the Times Magazine piece this week (here) about suicide. Does the question about the ethics of suicide you have often raised enter into this discussion at all, or is it a completely separate one?
Gene Weingarten: This is written in a dauntingly professorial fashion, but it is interesting. It's making the argument that suicide is less of an inevitability among the suicidally-inclined than we think; that is is a more impulsive act than we think; that the availability of convenient means of suicide is a very important factor in causing suicides. And that a startling percentage of people who try and fail, do not try again. The act of trying and failing seems to change people into a completely different person for the better. There. Now you all don't have to read it. Believe me, I did you a favor.
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Thanks a bunch!: I just started working in a vet clinic as a receptionist/vet tech and now i am terrified of getting head-butted by a damn boxer!
Gene Weingarten: It took Molly a full two weeks to recover.
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Dis,CO: To help us understand you and the 1970s, I think we all need a picture. If you don't have one handy, perhaps one of your children is lurking and might upload it and Liz might post it. I'm guessing you looked like Cat Stevens with a silly grin and a very wide belt.
Gene Weingarten: I'll try for next week. There is a picture in my college yearbook of me as the heroin-shootin editor of the NYU daily newspaper, after a long night at the printers. I'm sure Dan can figure out how to upload it.
Gene Weingarten: And we're out of here. Thank you all, I'll be updating as usual.
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UDPATED 7.9.08
Gene Weingarten: Here is a weird and absolutely fabulous game. Once I figured out the rules, which are a little confusing and are best learned through brief trial and error, it took me 16 minutes to solve it. I think you all can do better.
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Gene Weingarten: For the final word on the intrinsic genius of the Sid-and-Nannette clip, I have heard from my friend Tom Scocca. Tom reports that his son, Mack Scocca-Ho, is riveted by it. Mack is one year old. Hasn't had the attention span beaten out of him yet. Tom adds, though, that Mack is also fascinated by a blank blue screen.
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Facial recognition: Oh dear friends, have you forgotten your favorite group of people who all look alike? We're still here among you! We are the reason that Hollywood only needs Denzel Washington and Halle Berry when scripts call for a black actor. (OK, obviously there are at least three men: Denzel, Will Smith, and the doofus in those Rush Hour type movies.) You don't have to go all the way to Asia to find people who all look alike! Have a StayCay right here at home, and try to differentiate us. Hint: I'm not the one who stands at your bus stop, nor the one who works in the Post Office.
Gene Weingarten: Oh! So you must be the one who delivers the mail!
I hear ya.
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Herald Correction: Don't forget to tell us about the famous Herald correction!
Gene Weingarten: Ah, yes.
I am quoting myself here, from a very old chat:
One morning in 1986, I was working at the city desk of the Miami Herald when I saw a sports editor walk in, open his newspaper, stare at it goggle-eyed, go completely pale, slam it shut, and look around furtively, as if for an escape route. What he had seen was a passage that he knew he was responsible for, resulting in the following feces-consuming correction, which I print here verbatim:
"Last Sunday, The Herald erroneously reported that original Dolphin Johnny Holmes had been an insurance salesman in Raleigh, N.C., that he had won the New York lottery in 1982 and lost the money in a land swindle, that he had been charged with vehicular homicide but acquitted because his mother said she drove the car, and that he stated that the funniest thing he ever saw was Flipper spouting water on [coach] George Wilson.
Each of these items was erroneous material published inadvertently. He was not an insurance salesman in Raleigh, did not win the lottery, neither he nor his mother wa charged or involved in any way with a vehicular homicide, and he made no comment about Flipper or George Wilson. The Herald regrets the errors.'
The explanation? For a ''whatever happened to'' 20-year-after story about the 1966 Dolphins, the editor had made up some fanciful dummy type, to estimate length and show reporters how to craft their little mini-bios. It somehow got in the paper. Oddly enough, Mr. Holmes was never heard from.
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It's OK because dad is dead: If I understood one of your comments correctly, you think it's ok to betray dad's funeral wishes because he's not your dad anymore, but is only your dead dad.
What if you were investigating a story and a source gave you information on the condition of anonymity -- Deep Throatish. But, asked you to never reveal his identity. Would you violate that trust after he died because he wasn't your source anymore, he was your dead source?
Gene Weingarten: Well... yes.
I'm sure there are exceptions, negotiated in advance, but most off-the-record agreements are understood to be in force through the life of the source. Woodward had always said he would not reveal the identity of Deep Throat until Deep Throat had died. This was obviated, obviously, when DT outed himself.
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Buffalo, N.Y.: Gene: I keep coming back to the thought that every damn person has a birthday, so why are we so egomaniacally focused on people remembering ours?
Hallelujah!!! Finally, someone in this world who feels as I do about birthdays. I am happy to acknowledge, even celebrate, the birthdays of those who want their birthday to be remembered. Regarding my own birthday, I feel that since I am here I obviously was born, but the date of that occurrence was a mere accident of the calendar. If I were forced to celebrate a day of my early life, I would rather celebrate the day I learned to walk or talk (if I only knew it).
Gene Weingarten: I think I would want to celebrate the day I realized that the toe I was munching was mine. The first awareness of self.
washingtonpost.com: I would want to celebrate the day I was "awakened" to true genius by Gene Weingarten. Yesterday.
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Submit all commentary to Next Week's Chat.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 8, 2008 Tuesday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Matthew Mosk, Washington Post Campaign Finance Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3855 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post campaign finance reporter Matthew Mosk was online Tuesday, July 8 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest news in politics.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Matthew Mosk: Good morning. It's an exciting day at The Washington Post. Right now, over my shoulder, the newsroom is being introduced to our soon-to-be new executive editor, Marcus Brauchli, 47, a former top editor at the Wall Street Journal. But you're here to talk politics, so I welcome your questions on the latest from the campaign trail.
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New Hampshire: Hi Matthew, and thanks for taking my question. I have seen rumors that John McCain may be considering Carly Fiorina as his running mate. I believe she was asked to resign as CEO of HP because of failures in her economic management of that company. How likely is it that he will choose her, and how will this help his campaign? (By the way, I wonder if you know if any action has occurred with regard to the FEC complaint filed against McCain, and if not, why not.) Thank you.
washingtonpost.com: Washington Sketch: Risky Business (Post, July 8)
Matthew Mosk: There has, indeed, been speculation about Carly Fiorina, as recently as this morning on the pages of The Washington Post. My colleague Dana Milbank wrote an interesting account of a discussion Fiorina held with reporters at the St. Regis Hotel, during which she was quite clear she hopes to be considered for vice president.
Here is Milbank's account:
"Fiorina, for her part, couldn't be any more plain about her vice presidential ambitions without taking out an ad. 'I've been advocating on his behalf for about a year,' she told the 30 reporters at the breakfast after USA Today's Susan Page asked the running-mate question. 'I've spent the last three-plus years getting involved in a variety of issues in a variety of government departments, whether it's the Defense Department or the Central Intelligence Agency or the State Department. . . . There are things that government can borrow and learn from business.'
"Another reporter, who must have been in the men's room for the answer to Page's question, asked Fiorina if she would consider the vice presidency. 'One of the great things about my life right now is I have lots of options and lots of opportunities,' she said, 'and I have learned that if you're open to options and opportunities, the future tends to take care of itself.'
"Barely an answer went by without a reference to her past in the executive suite. McCain's staff shake-up? 'As someone who's managed a lot of people, one of the most important jobs you have is to put the right players on the field in the right positions,' she said. Obama's superior fundraising? "I'm a business person. Trends matter to me, and the trend line for Barack Obama is down." McCain's plan to control big executive payouts? 'I voluntarily gave up the contract that I was given when I arrived at Hewlett-Packard so my pay could be put to a shareholder vote.'
"These are delicate matters for Fiorina. When she was forced out at HP, it was because her acquisition of Compaq was going badly and the company's stock price had fallen. Fiorina still managed to leave with an eight-figure severance package. That, and the job cuts she ordered, wouldn't look good in a political ad. But now HP has passed Dell as the No. 1 laptop maker, and the Compaq merger has become a success. Fiorina has published her memoirs, appeared opposite both Bob Schieffer and George Stephanopoulos, and convinced the conservative magazine Human Events that having her as the vice presidential nominee could be 'a significant step in the right direction.' "
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Beverly Hills, Calif.: Have the candidates assumed an Obama victory in California? Are either of them planning to spend any money here?
Matthew Mosk: Thanks for the question. Much of the answer depends on whether Sen. Obama finds himself with a large financial advantage, as many have predicted he will. If Obama has more money to spend, he can afford to spread that money into a range of traditionally red states -- smaller states such as Georgia or North Carolina -- where he could force Sen. McCain to defend himself. That probably would preclude Sen. McCain from making a significant investment in traditionally blue states -- such as New Jersey or, in this case, California. If the two are evenly matched financially, or if Sen. McCain has an edge, he may see fit to spend money in California. But that's not how folks are expecting things to play out right now.
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Arlington, Va.: Did Sen. Obama release a statement about Jesse Helms's passing?
washingtonpost.com: "A spokesman for Sen. Barack Obama said the candidate aspiring to be the country's first African-American president wouldn't have any comment." -- Wall Street Journal, July 4
Matthew Mosk: It appears from the account in The Wall Street Journal that Sen. Obama did not release a statement.
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Raleigh, N.C.: There are a variety of big players in the health care industry when it comes to financing campaigns -- general practitioners, specialists, trial lawyers, big insurance companies, small and medium insurance companies and Big Pharm, to name some of them. Which are aligning with McCain, which with Obama, and which are splitting their "vote"?
Matthew Mosk: Hi Raleigh. That's an interesting question. I just took a quick glance at the Center for Responsive Politics Web site, which provides an industry breakdown in contributions. It's a little tough to tell, though, because Sen. Obama has raised considerably more than Sen. McCain overall. One clear distinction would be money from the trial bar, which clearly is favoring Sen. Obama, as that money traditionally has leaned Democrat. Overall, Sen. Obama has raised $7.2 million in the category "health," while Sen. McCain has raised $3.3 million. I would recommend the site if you want to review it in more detail. It's at www.opensecrets.org.
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Washington: I find The Post's article today on Social Security baffling and inaccurate. Social Security is not fragile, especially when compared with some other programs -- and there is a fundamental difference between Obama and McCain that appears to go unnoticed, despite the enormous and fairly definitive debate about Social Security that we had a couple of years ago. Obama, like all Democrats, actually wants to preserve Social Security in essentially its present form; McCain, like most Republicans, actually wants to fundamentally alter Social Security, so that it does not provide a guaranteed income and is not redistributive -- he wants to privatize Social Security. That is a perfectly coherent position. Republicans know it is totally unpalatable to the vast majority of Americans, and lost out in the debate last time, and so they have to continue to try to conceal the nature of their plans.
This difference flows from a shared sense that Social Security is the backbone of the American welfare state. The Democrats back it as such, the Republicans wish to dismantle it as such. All of this became very clear, eventually, in the circa 2005 debate about Social Security. Why is The Post running a story that appears totally innocent of all that?
washingtonpost.com: Candidates Diverge on How to Save Social Security (Post, July 8)
Matthew Mosk: Rather than wade into this, I would encourage others to have a look at the story and provide their reactions.
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St. Paul, Minn.: Hi Matthew -- thanks for taking my question and for chatting today. Is it your sense that the brouhaha about Sen. Obama's decision to forgo public financing largely has dissipated, meaning that in the end it was a shrewd move on his part? Or does it still have the potential to come back and bite him?
Matthew Mosk: I think there are still moments where this issue could rear its head. Most notably, when the conventions conclude and Sen. McCain accepts his public funds for the campaign. I would expect he will use that moment to make note of Obama's decision to back away from his pledge.
Ultimately, though, there are many Democrats -- particularly on the Web -- who have argued that Sen. Obama made the right call because he will be able to capitalize on a potentially significant advantage in online fundraising.
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Richmond, Va.: How big an issue do you see the need for Obama to repair relations with the women who supported Clinton? How well do you think he's doing in this regard?
Matthew Mosk: Hi Richmond. Thanks for this question. Based on a recent report in The Wall Street Journal, I would say the concerns raised by women -- particularly donors -- have not subsided completely. Here's a bit from their interesting report on the topic:
"Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, faces dissent from dozens of top fund-raisers and other supporters of former rival Sen. Hillary Clinton, who are angry over how she was treated during their bruising primary battle and are hesitating to back Sen. Obama.
"Some leading Clinton supporters are starting new Web sites or political action committees aimed at prodding Sen. Obama on issues or pressuring him to give Sen. Clinton a big role in the general-election campaign. People familiar with the matter say the effort involves dozens of the roughly 300 Clinton 'Hillraisers,' individuals who raised at least $100,000 apiece for her campaign.
"The Clinton holdouts are typically most angry about what they say was the media's sexist treatment of Sen. Clinton during the campaign. And though few, if any, blame Sen. Obama directly, they fault the Illinois senator and other party leaders for what they say was failing to do enough to stop it.
"Susie Tompkins Buell, a Hillraiser from San Francisco, said, 'What really hurt women the most was to look back and see all this gender bias.' Ms. Buell said she hasn't decided whether to vote for Sen. Obama and plans to skip the August Democratic convention."
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Feeling your pain: So John McCain let slip his economic plan yesterday, and the big surprise is that oil companies and obscenely rich people are the winners. No, wait, that's not surprising, but it is the natural outcome of reductions in the corporate tax rate and extensions of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. The losers? Anyone who needs Social Security to survive, because their benefits will be cut and their program privatized. Did I miss anything? Oh, yeah. How about the way he's going to balance the budget: "Victory in Iraq." You guys gotta report this bilge without throwing up? How do you do it?
washingtonpost.com: McCain, Obama duel on economic fix-it plans (AP, July 8)
Matthew Mosk: Well ... this is certainly one point of view. An interesting take on the candidate's economic plans will be published shortly on The Trail, by my esteemed colleague Dan Balz. You will be able to find it here.
Here's a snippet:
"John McCain has been around Washington long enough to remember the days when Republicans constantly clashed among themselves over fiscal policy. Were they the party of Jack Kemp, of supply-side economics of big tax cuts, or the party of Bob Dole and the green eyeshade economics of deficit reduction?
"McCain today finds himself with a foot in both camps, though tentatively. He remains an unconvincing tax cutter but he is also an unpersuasive deficit hawk, at least on the basis of his latest economic plan. He is a pure reflection of the Republican Party he seeks to lead.
"That proposal, unveiled with great fanfare on Monday, moved him back in the direction of deficit reduction after a lurch toward tax cutting designed to make him more acceptable to the party's supply-side devotees."
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Fairfax, Va.: Alright, you're the Post's campaign finance guru. Can you explain why the Republican National Committee is outpacing the Democratic National Committee by leaps and bounds, especially when Obama, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee are doing much better than their GOP counterparts? Has Dean been successful at bringing in small-dollar donors, as he was with his campaign (at least for a little while) in 2004?
Matthew Mosk: Thanks for this question, from Fairfax. It's a good one, and has been puzzling party insiders for several months now. There are some theories. One is that the prolonged Democratic primary tamped down contributions to the party during the critical months of January to April. The thought here is, people who write big checks to the DNC want to get credit for them. Until there was a clear nominee to came in and take over the DNC, those contributions would not get noticed, so the big donors waited to get a nominee in place before giving.
Another theory holds that the fundraising was not the DNC's problem, it was spending. If you compare DNC fundraising totals for 2003 and 2007, they aren't that different. What's different is how much money the DNC spent during that period. Critics of Chairman Dean will argue that much of the money was wasted on a 50-state program that was investing in states such as Utah and Alaska, even though Democrats typically don't fare well there. Dean allies say the money was invested in infrastructure that will be critical during the presidential contest -- things like e-mail lists and marketing data that the DNC can use to help the party's candidate.
The real answer is anyone's guess.
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Bronx, N.Y.: When Obama's people removed the Muslim American women from the camera shot at one of his speeches, it was a two-day story in the mainstream media. Now, in a move all too-reminiscent of the Bush campaign in 2004, the McCain people ejected a 60-year-old librarian from a public appearance because she was holding a sign that said, somewhat benignly, "Bush-McCain." Somehow I doubt that equal attention will be paid by the media, although the significance of both stories is nearly identical. Don't you agree?
Matthew Mosk: Thanks for this question, Bronx. I was not familiar with this incident, but found a video tape of it at a Web site called Think Progress. Here's how the Web site describes it:
"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was in Denver today for a town hall meeting. The event, at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, was billed as "open to the public." Yet Carol Kreck, a 61-year-old librarian carrying a "McCain = Bush" sign, was taken away by police for trespassing."
I'm not sure what kind of bounce that episode would have in the mainstream media. We'll have to watch and see...
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Southwest Nebraska: What will Obama do with the $5-or-better donations that get you a meeting with him at Invesco Field? Ingenious, or a dumb move?
Matthew Mosk: I suspect the goal of the Obama campaign here is less about raising the $5 and more about getting more of those critical small donors into the fold. In addition to the money, Sen. Obama's campaign will ask for the e-mail addresses of the donors. This will enable the campaign to return to these supporters at critical moments and ask for more small contributions. As we saw in February, when Sen. Obama raised $55 million, that strategy has given the campaign a big financial boost at key points in the campaign.
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Anchorage, Alaska: Ted Stevens has Republican party challengers here for his seat (August), and Mark Begich is waiting in the general. Should Obama make a big play for Alaska? The state isn't all Republicans. The governorship switches hands from time to time. and a Republican congressional delegation that hasn't changed names since the '70s (well, Lisa took Daddy's job) couldn't get ANWR in any decade since! Should Obama tour the largest state in the union? What's your take? Thanks.
Matthew Mosk: Hi Anchorage. I don't know enough about the political landscape in Alaska to answer your question directly, but I can say that the Obama campaign is giving a fresh look to a number of states typically considered out-of-play for a Democrat. If the campaign maintains a large financial edge, Obama will have the luxury of sprinkling money into states like Alaska, which don't have expensive media markets, to see if the numbers start to move his way.
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Bow, N.H.: Does the Supreme Court's ruling on the millionaire's amendment mean that Clinton now has as long as she wants to recoup the debt her campaign owes her?
Matthew Mosk: Hello Bow -- great question. I've just called Paul S. Ryan, a lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center, who knows more than most about the McCain-Feingold law. He says that there is indeed a provision in McCain-Feingold that would force Sen. Clinton to repay her personal loan to her campaign in short order, or face losing the money. But did the Supreme Court ruling impact her need to do that?
"Definitely not," Ryan told me. "The millionaires amendment had nothing to do with the debt repayment provision. It was part of McCain-Feingold, but not that part."
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New York: Today comes the news that Obama leads McCain among people without pets. What, if anything, does this mean? Or is the only meaning that we should take from this factoid that we have reached the silliest of the silly season in this election?
Matthew Mosk: Rather than try to guess myself, I've asked our polling guru, Jon Cohen, for his take on whether the opinion of people with pets is telling.
He says, succinctly, "not meaningful."
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New York: I am a Democrat and a woman, and I for one did not see a lot of gender bias against Hillary during the campaign. In fact, I thought she was given enormous support by the press! So all those complaining woman should calm down and work for the Democratic party for a win!
Matthew Mosk: Here's another point of view on the question of whether women who backed Sen. Clinton should have trouble getting behind Sen. Obama. Worth noting also on this subject is the following news out of the Obama campaign this morning:
"The Obama campaign announced today that Dana Singiser will be joining the campaign to serve as a Senior Advisor to Senator Obama and will help direct efforts to win the woman's vote... Prior to joining the campaign, Singiser served as the Director of Women's Outreach for the Hillary Clinton 2008 campaign."
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Social Security: No 'Crisis': Nice bamboozlement on the Social Security front from The Post today. Buried in the story is this little gem of truth: "The Social Security Board of Trustees estimates that interest on the program's bond holdings will keep it from running a deficit until at least 2041." There are much bigger crises than Social Security right now, so how about focusing on where the real fiscal trouble is (instead of where the GOP is misdirecting it to be): health care and (especially) Medicare.
Matthew Mosk: Lots of thoughts on this morning's story by Perry Bacon on Social Security. I thought I'd share a couple of them now.
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Baltimore: Re privatizing Social Security: In yesterday's New York Times, Jean Edward Smith had a column in which she quoted a letter President Eisenhower wrote to his brother Edgar. In part it read: "Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security ... you would not hear from that party again. There is a tiny splinter group that believes you can. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." And I am old enough to remember criticism that Ike had trouble expressing himself clearly!
Matthew Mosk: Here's another one. Thanks, Baltimore.
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Chapel Hill, N.C.: I'm with the earlier post on today's Social Security article. The headline and treatment of the issue is misleading. Obama wants to keep Social Security the same except to change the funding through the payroll tax. McCain wants to completely revamp the system. Obama's is a fairly mild revision to the current system, while McCain's version was floated by Bush in 2005 and very quickly was beaten down by public opinion. It often seems that Perry Bacon is so busy trying to make everything equal among the candidates (if McCain is revamping the system then Obama must be doing it too) that readers lose the truth in the article.
Matthew Mosk: And another...
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Alexandria, Va.: I'm still confused about how much I can contribute when to a Presidential candidate. If I were to give $2,300 today to a candidate, does that count as "general election" money, or can I give another $2,300 after the convention?
Matthew Mosk: Thanks Alexandria, for a question I can answer with certainty. An individual can donate up to $2,300 to a candidate for use during the primary, and another $2,300 for use during the general election -- so at this moment, if you have not yet given any money to your favored candidate, you can write him a check for up to $4,600.
Here's the only really confusing part: Neither candidate is allowed to spend the second $2,300 until after he accepts his party's nomination -- and if the candidate decides to accept public financing for the general election (McCain has suggested he will; Obama has said he won't) he won't be able to accept your second $2,300 check.
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Laurel, Md.: Does anyone track and publish spending on presidential TV advertisements by metro area? It'd be interesting to see how much is being spent per viewer in a place like Huntington, W.Va. (the metro area of which includes parts of Kentucky and Ohio) as opposed to Salt Lake City or Syracuse, N.Y.
Matthew Mosk: Thanks Laurel. One fellow who tracks the spending is Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group. I just called him to inquire for you about the Huntington, W. Va., market, which you correctly note is mostly aimed at viewers in Ohio and Pennsylvania. He tells me John McCain in that market has spent about $110,000, while Barack Obama has spent $48,000 there during the last 30 days.
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Florida: Now that our governor is getting married (and very soon too), does that increase his chances of becoming the vice president under McCain?
Matthew Mosk: I saw this question and realized it's time for me to say farewell!
Thanks everyone for keeping it lively and interesting, as always. And keep checking The Trail for updates from the campaign as the day proceeds.
All the best.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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July 7, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
INSIDE THE TIMES: July 7, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 2330 words
INTERNATIONAL
IN THE FORMER GARDEN OF IRAQ,
A Fragile Peace Is Progress
Diyala Province, once the garden of Iraq, more recently has been known as one of the country's worst killing fields and the headquarters of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. A visit in late June showed that military operations over the past 12 months had curbed the worst of the province's violence, but that the situation there defines the word ''fragile.'' PAGE A5
URANIUM SHIPPED OUT OF IRAQ
American and Iraqi officials have completed nearly the last chapter in dismantling Saddam Hussein's nuclear program with the removal of hundreds of tons of natural uranium from the country's main nuclear site. It arrived in Canada last week, sold and shipped out because of fears that in Iraq's unstable environment, it could fall into the wrong hands. PAGE A6
BUSH DEFENDS ATTENDING OLYMPICS
President Bush, in Japan to talk to world leaders about climate change, soaring oil and gas prices and aid to Africa, first defended his decision to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing next month. Not going ''would be an affront to the Chinese people'' that might make it ''more difficult to be able to speak frankly with the Chinese leadership,'' he said. PAGE A10
CIVILIANS SAID KILLED IN U.S. STRIKE
Local officials in eastern Afghanistan said that an American airstrike killed at least 27 civilians in a wedding party, most of them women and children and including the bride. Officials of the American-led coalition disputed the report, saying that the strike killed militants. The attack was the second in the past three days in which many civilian deaths were reported, both disputed by the United States military. PAGE A6
CHINA SEEKING TO CLEAR AIR
As part of a broader effort to clear polluted skies before the Beijing Olympics in August, the nearby industrial port of Tianjin has ordered 40 factories to suspend some operations for two months. The overall plan is expected to result in temporary factory closings or slowdowns across a large swath of northern China during the Games. PAGE A10
A UNION MAY JUST BE SHOW
Perhaps the grandest idea of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France was the Union of the Mediterranean, an upgrading of a languishing effort of the European Union that was intended to help develop the Muslim nations on the Mediterranean's southern rim and support Israeli-Arab reconciliation. It will be inaugurated next week, but it has created resistance among vital allies, and the result may be more show than substance. PAGE A11
Turkish Generals Jailed A8
NATIONAL
ECONOMY SETS STRATEGIES
For Presidential Candidates
With bad economic news coming from every direction -- six consecutive months of job losses, rising rates of home foreclosures, gasoline prices seemingly headed toward $5 a gallon -- the campaigns of Senators Barack Obama and John McCain are retooling strategies and preparing for what aides said would be months of economic speeches and town-hall-style meetings on the economy. But both face political problems with the issue. PAGE A13
GROUP UNVEILS ANTI-OBAMA ADS
A newly formed Republican group broadcast its first commercial in four battleground states as part of a $3 million advertising campaign aimed at Senator Barack Obama. The advertisement highlights Senator John McCain's differences with his own party on energy policy, and refers to Mr. Obama's positions on energy as ''just the party line'' -- a reference to Mr. Obama's opposition to suspending gas taxes or drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.Mr. Obama and other Democrats contend that a McCain presidency would represent a third Bush term. PAGE A15
LOOKING BEYOND THE WHITE HOUSE
Democrats are dreaming big this summer, with Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee-apparent, vowing to run campaigns in all 50 states. And though some are improbable targets at the presidential level, like Alaska (Republican victory margin in 2004: 25 percentage points), Democratic candidates for the House and Senate stand to benefit from the Obama campaign's work in registering and turning out voters. The Caucus. PAGE A15
NEW YORK REPORT
CITY IS BEING ASKED
To Rethink Housing Fees
Every year, the city charges the New York City Housing Authority about $200 million, for everything from water to trash pickup to police services. The charges are a result of agreements the agency made with the city, some decades old. But with the housing authority struggling with a $170 million budget shortfall, the city is under pressure to rethink the fees. PAGE A16
ACCIDENT LOPS OFF CONCORDE NOSE
The supersonic passenger jet known as Alpha Delta made it through nearly 30 years of speeding back and forth over the Atlantic Ocean unscathed. But in less than two years of retirement in Brooklyn, it already has had its distinctive pointy nose knocked off, a victim of a run-in with a truck that was hauling equipment from a music and soccer festival. PAGE A19
BUSINESS
ENTERING THE MUSIC BUSINESS
To Help Sell Sneakers
Times may seem turbulent in the music business, with online file-sharing rampant, record stores closing and consumers buying singles instead of albums. Record labels are struggling to adjust to a harsh new digital reality. But other companies -- like Procter & Gamble, Red Bull and Nike -- are stepping outside of their core businesses to promote, finance and even distribute music themselves. PAGE C1
IGNORING A BEST SELLER
Vincent Bugliosi is accustomed to buzz about his books, having written three No. 1 best sellers. His latest is a best seller, too, but not with any help from the publicity circuit: For some reason, media outlets are not inviting him to talk about ''The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder,'' in which he lays a legal case for holding President Bush ''criminally responsible'' for the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq. PAGE C4
WHEN FOX NEWS IS NEWS
For a print journalist faced with writing about Fox News, David Carr says in The Media Equation, the prospect carries with it a certain risk. The approach may ward off some negative comments about Fox, but it cuts both ways, he adds, noting, for example, ''Fox News's amazing coup d'etat in the cable news war has very likely been undercovered because the organization is such a handful to deal with.'' PAGE C1
THE COMING TV TRANSITION
As of next February people who have analog TVs will no longer get any picture unless they have cable service or a digital converter box, a fact that consumer advocates say needs more public awareness. But some people who know about it still resist the change, for one reason or another, and Washington officials worry that millions of them will lose access to an important lifeline. PAGE C2
PUBLISH IN HASTE? UNPUBLISH
Internet technology not only allows anyone with the means to publish, it also allows that anyone to unpublish, which no doubt is a blessing for many an obscure blogger with sober second thoughts. But when one popular Web site recently unpublished all references to a blogger named Violet Blue, some of its readers treated the decision as a really big thing. PAGE C3
SNEAKY COMMERCIALS
Networks have agreed to use ratings for commercials, instead of programs, as the standard for sales to advertisers. So for the 2008-9 television season, they are looking at a variety of unconventional approaches to keep viewers from wandering off -- or fast-forwarding -- during breaks. Be advised: Descriptions of their efforts include phrases like ''creative insinuation'' and ''being intrusive without seeming intrusive.'' PAGE C6
SPORTS
LEAVE THE STICKY BUN,
Take the Granola
Nutritionists say that eating habits play a big part in how players fare on the green. So if you're trying to look like Woods or Nicklaus, skip that midround hot dog and beer. ''If you're having a social round of golf, maybe that's O.K., but if you want to play well, those are completely nonsensical choices,'' one nutritionist said. ''Throw the hot dog away and eat the bun; that has carbohydrates.'' Bill Pennington, On Par. PAGE D5
BIG-HEARTED ATHLETES
Resting inside the chests of the United States men's Olympic rowing team are enormous, elongated, torpedo-shaped hearts, twice the mass of a normal heart, that draw blood in like a suction pump and push it out like a piston. And as they trained harder, as the Beijing Olympics drew closer, they grew even larger. So is this a dangerous condition, or an advantageous adaptation for elite athletes? PAGE D1
NORWEGIAN EARNS TOUR WIN
In cycling-mad France, spectators hoping for a French victory on the second stage of the Tour de France had their hopes dashed when the Frenchmen who looked most likely to win for much of the day eventually fell to Thor Hushovd, a Norwegian. But it may have been a consolation prize of sorts, as Mr. Hushovd is the sprinter for a French team, Credit Agricole. PAGE D2
ALL-STAR ROSTERS ANNOUNCED
When the rosters for Major League Baseball's All-Star Game were announced, there were the usual familiar faces, some new ones, and a few surprises, like Jason Varitek, who has struggled mightily at the plate this season. Since the game will be held at Yankee Stadium, Varitek and the other seven members of the rival Boston Red Sox selected for the game will have to face the odd sensation of dressing in the enemy's locker room. PAGE D1
OBITUARIES
WILLIAM R. BENNETT JR., 78
A physicist and inventor, he helped develop a gas laser in the 1960s, in technology that later revolutionized surgery and made possible compact-disc players and grocery-store scanners. PAGE A15
NORMAN MARCUS, 75
As general counsel to the New York City Planning Commission for more than 20 years, he drafted much of the intricate legal language intended to preserve the historic character of many of the city's neighborhoods while still allowing new construction. PAGE A15
ARTS
BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, 377 FEET
In Circumference and 42 Feet Tall
When it opened in 1884, the Gettysburg Cyclorama, an enormous wraparound painting that depicts the Battle of Gettysburg, made veterans cry. Touted as a ''sublime spectacle,'' the painting traveled from city to city, and the enthralled lined up by the hundreds to feel enveloped by a historic moment. After a five-year, $15 million restoration, viewers will for the first time in more than a century see the work as its artist originally intended. PAGE E1
A HAPPY ENDING IN VERONA
In Prokofiev's 1936 account of the ballet ''Romeo and Juliet,'' now having its world premiere at Bard Summerscape after the score was found in Russian archives, both lovers are saved from death. They are also given a dance-dance-dance apotheosis, choreographed by Mark Morris. The result, Alastair Macaulay writes, is camp and artificial. PAGE E1
MOVIE MOGUL MAKES IT ON TV
''Fox Legacy,'' a show hosted by Tom Rothman, the co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, has developed a surprise cult following. Mr. Rothman receives fan mail, more episodes are on order, and Fox Movie Channel is campaigning for an Emmy nomination. All of which makes Mr. Rothman one of the rarest of Hollywood specimens: the executive who does not become a punch line in front of a camera. PAGE E1
OPERA AT THE ARMORY
The Park Avenue Armory is for the first time the site of a major operatic production. And not just any opera, but ''Die Soldaten,'' which is legendary for its challenges, among them the composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann's wish that it be staged on 12 separate acting areas. The armory staging makes possible the fluidity envisioned. Now, if only the acoustics were better. A review by Anthony Tommasini. PAGE E1
A BAFFLED BLUE BLOOD
The protagonist of Michael Dahlie's novel ''A Gentleman's Guide to Graceful Living'' burns down the beloved Catskill fly-fishing lodge founded in 1878 by his great-grandfather in the same way he destroys his marriage and his family's import-export business: haplessly. But instead of taking satirical potshots at the central character's cluelessness, Janet Maslin writes, Mr. Dahlie's debut novel takes a surprising tack: It deals affectionately with his frailties. PAGE E4 'HANCOCK' POWERS TO THE TOP
''Hancock,'' Sony Pictures Entertainment's action movie about a damaged superhero, scored $66 million in domestic ticket sales over the weekend, for a total of $107.3 million at the domestic box office since its opening. It was a triumph for Will Smith, the film's star. ''He's just the guy everybody loves,'' said the distribution president of Sony Pictures. PAGE E2
EDITORIAL
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
The alarming resurgence of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan makes it even more imperative for the United States to begin planning for a swift and orderly withdrawal from Iraq. PAGE A16
LOTS TO LOOK INTO
After an inexcusable standoff in Congress, the nation finally has a working Federal Election Commission. It has a lot to do. PAGE A16
REPUBLICAN DELAY ON AIDS
A tiny group of Republican senators continues to block a vote on an important bill to raise American spending on AIDS around the world. PAGE A16
OP-ED
WILLIAM KRISTOL
Wherever D.C.-area Republicans gather, you now hear the question: ''Where's Murphy?'' That's Mike Murphy, the G.O.P. strategist. He's a creative campaign tactician and an imaginative ad maker, but his great skill has always been an ability to find a clear theme for his candidates. PAGE A17
PAUL KRUGMAN
By huge margins, Americans think the economy is in lousy shape -- and they blame President Bush. This fact, more than anything else, makes it hard to see how the Democrats can lose this election. But is the public right to be so disgusted with Mr. Bush's economic leadership? Not exactly. PAGE A17
THE ROCKEFELLER CENTER
In an Op-Ed article, Richard Norton Smith explains why Nelson Rockefeller, the former vice president and New York governor, is the unlikely father of today's politics. PAGE A17
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So Where's Murphy?
BYLINE: By WILLIAM KRISTOL
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 17
LENGTH: 816 words
From the gun clubs of Northern Virginia to the sports bars of Capitol Hill -- wherever D.C.-area Republicans gather -- you hear the question:
''Where's Murphy?''
''Murphy'' is Mike Murphy, the 46-year-old G.O.P. strategist who masterminded John McCain's 2000 primary race against George Bush, helping McCain come close to pulling off an amazing upset. Murphy was then chief strategist for Mitt Romney's successful Massachusetts governor run in 2002.
Murphy remained close to both men, and as a result sat out the G.O.P. nominating contest this past year, not wishing to work against either of them. It was widely assumed, though, that if either McCain or Romney won the nomination, the winner would bring Murphy on board for the general election. So far it hasn't happened. I believe it soon will.
I hasten to disclose that Murphy is a friend. I should also disclose that when I called to say I had heard he might well be signing on with McCain, he went Sergeant Schultz on me, saying nothing.
But here's what I gather from acquaintances and sources in and around the McCain campaign.
McCain is frustrated. He thinks he can beat Obama (politicians are pretty confident in their own abilities). But he isn't convinced his campaign can beat Obama's campaign. He knows that his three-month general election head start was largely frittered away. He understands that his campaign has failed to develop an overarching message. Above all, McCain is painfully aware that he is being diminished by his own campaign.
This last point is galling. McCain has been a major figure in American public life for quite a while. And yet his campaign has made him seem somehow smaller. Obama is a first-term senator with no legislative achievements to speak of. His campaign has helped him seem bigger, more presidential.
Even Obama's adjustments for the general election -- his flip-flops -- have served in an odd way to enhance his stature. Some of them suggest, after all, that he is at least trying to think seriously about what he would do if he were actually president. So Obama has achieved the important feat, as the campaign has moved on, of seeming an increasingly plausible president. McCain seems a less plausible president today than he did when he clinched the nomination.
So McCain decided it was time for a campaign shake-up. Last week he moved lobbyist Rick Davis aside. He seemed to put Bush-Rove alum Steve Schmidt more or less in charge. But the full plan, as I understand it, was -- and is -- to have Schmidt, a good operative and tactician, take over day-to-day operations at headquarters, while bringing Murphy on both to travel with McCain and as chief strategist.
But McCain hesitated to carry out both steps of the plan at once, worried about an overload of turmoil. And Murphy's arrival would mean a fair amount of turmoil. The current McCain campaign is chock full of G.O.P. establishment types, many of whom aren't great fans of the irreverent Murphy. Murphy's also made no secret of his low opinion of the Bush-Rove political machine that has produced many of these operatives. And Murphy hasn't made his possible entry into the campaign smoother by telling a New York Times reporter the other day that ''the depressingly self-absorbed McCain campaign machine needs to get out of the way'' of its candidate.
Still, Jeb Bush -- whose winning Florida gubernatorial campaigns Murphy guided -- was with McCain in Mexico City last week. I'm told he argued that the time to bring on Murphy is now. McCain didn't disagree. And so I expect that in the next couple of weeks we'll learn that Murphy is coming on board as chief strategist, with Schmidt running operations at the headquarters. This would be a structure very much like the Obama campaign, led by the combination of strategist David Axelrod and campaign manager David Plouffe.
Why Murphy? As observers of the 2000 effort know, he has a deep rapport with McCain -- including an ability to tell him when he's made a mistake. He's a creative campaign tactician and an imaginative ad maker -- but his great skill has always been an ability to find a clear theme for his candidates, as he did for McCain in 2000, who ran then as a conservative reformer and champion of national greatness.
The McCain campaign this year desperately needs a message and a narrative that is both appropriate for the candidate and for the times. Thinking such a complex challenge through, and executing it, is Murphy's strength. And he's run victorious statewide campaigns in states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa -- where it's not enough simply to mobilize the Republican base.
With Murphy in charge, McCain will have the campaign team he wants. Then all they'll have to do is come from behind to win against a superior organization, more money, a gifted candidate and a Democratic-tilting electorate. Oh well: no challenge, no glory.
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July 7, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
New Group Linked to G.O.P. Unveils Ad Attacking Obama
BYLINE: By KATE PHILLIPS
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 13
LENGTH: 343 words
A newly formed Republican group broadcast its first commercial Sunday in four battleground states as part of a $3 million advertising campaign aimed at Senator Barack Obama.
The advertisement opens with images of gasoline prices flying upward at the pump as a narrator says, ''Record gas prices, a climate in crisis.'' It then highlights Senator John McCain's differences with his own party on energy policy.
The commercial closes by summing up Mr. Obama's positions on energy as ''just the party line,'' a reference to his opposition to suspending gas taxes or drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as he and other Democrats contend that a McCain presidency would represent a third Bush term.
In response to the advertisement, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, Hari Sevugan, said in a statement: ''What we need to solve our energy crisis is an honest debate about the choices before us, not more attack ads that mislead voters about the facts.
''There's a real choice in this election between John McCain's promise to continue the Bush approach of trying to drill our way out of our energy crisis -- which even he admits won't lower prices this summer -- or Barack Obama's plan to provide meaningful short-term relief for our families and to make a historic investment in alternative energy development.''
The new group, led by Brad Todd, a consultant who worked on the campaign of former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, began broadcasting the commercial Sunday in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with plans to put it up elsewhere.
The group is an independent expenditure arm of the Republican National Committee, which is flush with cash in comparison to its Democratic counterpart; under federal election restrictions, the new group is not allowed to coordinate with the McCain campaign.
Mr. Todd said last week that the move was in response to Mr. Obama's decision to forgo public financing for the general election.
The new advertisement coincides with Mr. McCain's ''Jobs First'' tour this week, which starts in Denver on Monday.
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July 7, 2008 Monday
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Republicans Look for Edge On Environmental Issues
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GOP ATTACK ADS
Republicans Look for Edge On Environmental Issues
The Republican National Committee began running ads over the weekend that question Sen. Barack Obama's commitment to energy reform, the first major ad buy by either party in the presidential race.
"Record gas prices, a climate in crisis," says the ad's narrator. "John McCain says solve it now." The spot then details McCain's "balanced" plan on energy and notes that the senator from Arizona is "pushing his own party to face climate change."
Obama, it accuses, says nothing but no when it comes to addressing the energy problems the country is facing. "He just says no to lower gas taxes . . . no to nuclear . . . no to more production," says the narrator before concluding: "No new solutions. Barack Obama: Just the party line."
The ads are running in four key battleground states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio. They were produced by a newly formed independent-expenditure arm of the RNC run by Brad Todd, a GOP media consultant.
The advertising effort is an attempt to exploit a rare -- and significant -- financial edge for Republicans. At the end of May, the RNC had $53.5 million in the bank while the Democratic National Committee had just $3.9 million.
With Obama opting out of public financing for the general election and his team taking over the DNC, that financial gap won't exist for long, so Republicans are exploiting it as quickly as they can.
The initial Obama response? A stunned skepticism. "What we need to solve our energy crisis is an honest debate about the choices before us, not more attack ads that mislead voters about the facts," said Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan.
-- Chris Cillizza
NO LONGER A FAN
Kerry Critical of McCain's Calls on the War in Iraq
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) might have flirted in 2004 with the idea of enlisting his Republican colleague John McCain as his running mate, but he sounded distinctly less enthusiastic about the senator yesterday on CBS's "Face the Nation."
Kerry, who is a strong supporter of Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said that McCain "has proven that he has been wrong about every judgment he's made about the war."
"Wrong about the Iraqis paying for the reconstruction, wrong about whether or not the oil would pay for it, wrong about Sunni and Shia violence through the years, wrong about the willingness of the Iraqis to stand up for themselves," Kerry added.
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said that Kerry was ignoring the facts on the ground in Iraq.
"The truth is Barack Obama buckled to liberal supporters and opposed the McCain-backed 'surge' strategy that's working today, and despite our troops' gains in Iraq, he still maintains his partisan commitment to begin immediate withdrawal of American forces if he's elected," Bounds wrote in an e-mail. "Only John Kerry would think that demonstrates good judgment."
-- Juliet Eilperin
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July 7, 2008 Monday 12:00 PM EST
Washington Post Magazine: Landscape, with Candidates;
The Picture of Democracy
BYLINE: Joel Achenbach, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3104 words
HIGHLIGHT: Shaking hands, flipping burgers, visiting doughnut shops: The life of a presidential candidate can seem a cross between the tedious and the comical. Inside the Magazine this week is a celebration of photographs that captures the primary campaigns in all their color and curiosity.
Shaking hands, flipping burgers, visiting doughnut shops: The life of a presidential candidate can seem a cross between the tedious and the comical. Inside the Magazine this week is a celebration of photographs that captures the primary campaigns in all their color and curiosity.
Washington Post staff writer Joel Achenbach was online Monday, July 7 at noon ET to discuss his cover story, "Landscape, with Candidates."
Achenblogger Achenbach is also a staff writer on the Post's national desk. He is the author of six books, including The Grand Idea: George Washington's Potomac and the Race to the West and It Looks Like a President, Only Smaller: Trailing Campaign 2000.
A transcript follows.
____________________
Joel Achenbach: Is this mike on.
_______________________
Joel Achenbach: Oh.
_______________________
Joel Achenbach: Hi everyone! Let's talk about the magazine story, which is really just a very long caption to some wonderful pics from the campaign trail. I mentioned the backstory of the piece on my blog:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/achenblog/
_______________________
Howard Dean: Dear Joel: Thanks to you and all your colleagues at The Washington Post for your free commercials on behalf of our Democratic candidate for president. Because your advertisements are presented as articles, it gives our cause all the more credibility. (And thanks for the nice little aside about how completely understandable it was that Hillary would make a silly mistake like saying she'd been subjected to sniper fire. Just because she's not our presumed presidential candidate, she may well end up being out VP choice, so your additional ode to her was welcomed.)
Love, Howard Dean
Joel Achenbach: Dear Howard:
You're so welcome! It's rare that we actually get a compliment for a political story, so I'm delighted that you're delighted! And notice how I am oblivious to your sarcasm! Just as you were to mine, apparently.
I guess you're not the same person who posted a comment online saying my piece was a piece of shameless McCain propaganda.
_______________________
Vienna, Va.: Hey Joel, approximately how much time did you spend with Obama and with Clinton on the campaign trails during the primaries? Did your perception of either or both candidates change significantly during the primary season?
Thanks,
VintageLady
Joel Achenbach: I was never on the bus or on the plane -- we have real reporters who do that. But I saw them speak many times starting in about January 2007, in DC, New Hampshire, Iowa, and such places, and in general I thought Hillary was underrated as a campaigner -- she had discipline, poise, was really good at working a room, knew everyone by name. She had a weakness for policy -- every punch line was a policy position. Obama struck me as needing the right audience (ideally a big one) to hit his stride. I saw him at a firefighter's gig, for example, in spring 2007 at which he was very flat and seemed to bomb. But that wasn't his crowd. Get him in front of a few thousand people and he really is a tremendous speaker. More on this question in a bit...
_______________________
Boise, Idaho: Do you have any vivid images in mind from the campaign that didn't become photographs, that you wish you could have had for this story?
Joel Achenbach: Chris Dodd working an Irish bar in New Hampshire, and then a veteran's club in Des Moines... That kind of very small-scale retail campaigning with very ordinary folks and almost no press at all, gotta be a bit humbling.
Our photo essay focused on the three major candidates as of late May/early June when we were putting it together but conceivably we could have expanded the scope, and I could imagine that when the books are published about the Great Campaign some of the also-rans will get more attention than we gave them.
_______________________
Herndon, Va.: Mr. A: This was a great article! (We expect the best from you, and we get it). Could you provide us with any anecdotes about the worst-informed voters you met while out on "the trail"? After the Post article about the town in Ohio with so many people misinformed about Obama, I worry that the electorate is becoming less-informed with every election.
washingtonpost.com: In Flag City USA, False Obama Rumors are Flying (Washington Post, June 30)
Joel Achenbach: That was a terrific piece by Eli Saslow. On the worst-informed voters, I'd say they included all of us in the press corps that predicted Obama would win New Hampshire by double-digits.
I think the electorate is probably no more or less informed today than it was in some mythical Golden Age. We do live, after all, in the Information Age. The problem is that so much of the information is either irrelevant, or simply wrong. At the very least it is twisted for maximum partisan advantage. So you get more data but less wisdom.
_______________________
High Country, Colorado: Joel,
I hope you will use this format for some of the DNC and RNC coverage. Pictures can speak a thousand words.
Joel Achenbach: I'd love to get back to Colorado (was just in Aspen as you know from voracious reading of my blog) but at the moment no one has invited me to the conventions. I am thinking of covering the Dem convention from my brother's place in Longmont, which would be advantageous because we can just have a non-stop barbecue and I wouldn't be obliged to attend any actual events, but could watch on TV.
_______________________
Curmudgeonville, Boodlevania: Hey, Joel. Turn down the squelch; there, that's better.
Between this campaign and your coverage (and book about) the 2000 campaign, you've put in a lot of shoe leather covering politics. Your magazine piece took some flack (unfairly) and a fair amount of other campaign coverage by various and sundry have dealt with "style" and "image" and that sort of thing, as opposed to what the complainers think would be "better": substance, "the issues," white papers and policies, etc.
Given all this, do you think it is necessarily a bad thing that we spend so much time and effort looking at how candidates eat their waffles, tell dirty jokes on the campaign plane (according to Stephen Hunter's essay with reference to McCain's alleged sense of humor on his campaign plane), Hillary's and/or Romney's hair, ad infinitum.
Do you think the role of personal "character" and of "values" (real or carefully orchestrated and choreographed)is really all that important, versus "competence" and general political skills?
Hang in there; keep up the good work.
washingtonpost.com: Leading Men by Stephen Hunter (Washington Post, July 6)
Joel Achenbach: Yeah, we're obsessed with style over substance -- not just the news media but probably as a society we've turned the president into the celebrity-in-chief -- and after all this coverage I'm not sure we yet know what Obama or McCain would actually be like as president -- what skills or traits would be most prominently brought to bear in the Oval Office -- who would be in the Cabinet -- what policies would be at the top of the president's agenda (as opposed to at the top of the candidate's list of talking points). But just for the record, the original idea for the mag piece was to run some photographs from the campaign so that people could see what it really looked like. I'm not opposed, intellectually, to the concept of a photograph. I know it probably freaked people out in, what, 1839 when these things first appeared. But I like photos. This campaign produced a ton of really interesting images. My job was to write a long caption for them. I got a nice email from a professional photographer -- that made my day and makes up for anyone who thinks our piece was too fluffy or stylish or whatever.
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Philadelphia, Pa.: It was nice seeing some of the backstage photographs. The public doesn't get to see too many photographs of candidates other than when they are before the public. How often are photographers allowed to be backstage and when they are, why don't they publish more of those photographs? Do newspapers primarily want photographs of candidates speaking? Wouldn't a variety of different kinds of photographs be more interesting?
Joel Achenbach: The control of The Image is a cornerstone of modern presidential campaigning. Photographers are usually pre-positioned on risers -- with, typically, Ordinary Citizens as a kind of human wallpaper behind the candidate -- but a good photog knows how to get behind, under, on top of the manufactured scene.
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Mars : Well, I think we can all agree that President Bush is still not getting the credit he deserves for this great economy.
Joel Achenbach: Martian punditry.
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No women named Jim or Bob around here: Excuse me, I'm from the Midwest, and would like you to know that we have a wider variety of names here in the dustbowl than you realize, and none of the women I know, here in southwestern Ohio, are named "Jim or Bob," let alone all of us. What an incredibly stupid "witticism."
Joel Achenbach: Good point, JimBob.
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North McLean, Va.: It could be argued that on a purely rational level the wonderful little moments captured here should have no bearing on how well an individual performs as President. Yet in some weird gestalt way they clearly do.
As someone who has covered several campaigns, do you believe that this is a good thing or a bad thing?
That is, do you wish voters paid more attention to position papers and the like, or is the more heuristic approach so cleverly documented in your article best?
Joel Achenbach: I will venture that the photos and my accompanying long-caption are not and could not conceivably be very helpful to anyone trying to make a decision on whom to vote for. [Is that grammatical?]
If this were Nov. 3, it might be kind of late in the game to publish something that was fundamentally about texture and not about substance. But it's still July and it actually seemed like a good July 4-weekend story -- note that great cover shot of the little girl playing in the confetti at a campaign rally -- and although we get awfully cynical (even in newsrooms!) about the democratic process, I do think that this year we saw candidates really working hard, all over the country, in rich cities and poor rural towns and everywhere in between, to get every last possible vote. And to me it was a good year for the USA in a small-d democratic sense.
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Yuma, Ariz.: Did you choose which photos would be in the article, or did Shroder choose them, or a committee, or what?
Joel Achenbach: Shroder, Sydney, Evan Kriss, J Porter...we sat around and looked through many dozens of photos...I think Evan did the first round of screening.
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Baltimore, Md.: Hi, Joel; Nice piece - I actually prefer photos (and not just because they don't hurt my brain like words do). It's fun trying to puzzle out meanings and information from photos, even knowing that you're probably very, very wrong... Anyway, I just wanted to mention that I enjoy your writing for the most part, and this was a fine example of a political thingy; fundamentally meaningless, but more or less equally offensive to everybody. I'd like to think Mark Twain would have approved of your attitude, if not your prose. Keep up the good work!
Joel Achenbach: Thanks! I know that when you say my work is "fundamentally meaningless" you mean it in the best possible sense of the phrase.
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Gaithersburg, Md: Mr. Achenbach, Do you feel there is less cooperation from people because you have a blog?
Joel Achenbach: Just less cooperation from my editors on the national desk, but otherwise it's all good.
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Columbia, Md.: Mr. Achenbach, thanks for taking my question. With the scorched earth primary fight to the last state, the Democratic party pretty much canvassed the whole map, with McCain sitting and waiting by the side awaiting for the Republican coronation. Do you think the mobilization of the new Democratic voters will change the dynamic of the politics (presidency and 13% approval rated Congress), even the entangled red state/blue state mentality?
Joel Achenbach: It had to have helped Democratic registration dramatically and my neighbor who is a bigshot Dem operative says that his party is obliterating the GOP in self-ID party affiliation and that, as a result, Obama's primary objective is simply to make sure he wins the Democratic vote. If he can get 90 percent of self-ID'd Democrats he probably can't lose.
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Woodbridge, Virginia: Good morning -- My question surrounds the photos of the candidate campaigns from the Post Magazine of July 6, 2008. Was it your intention to portray Senator Obama as a "man of the people" and Senator McCain as a sneaky and hard man? The "man of the people" pictures speak for themselves, the sneaky (peeking through the curtains) and the hard man (the bull/steer with the sharp horns) pictures were the ones in particular that had the strongest contrast. It makes one candidate seem so much more approachable than the other.
Joel Achenbach: That's an interesting comment. I think the story makes clear that Obama has a particular challenge in trying to pass himself off as 'a man of the people' ... for example, there's this passage:
Candidates go to Dunkin' Donuts. This has been a tradition among Democrats since 1992, when Bill Clinton visited, and ate his way through, every Dunkin' Donuts in New Hampshire. We see Obama looking like he's going to order at a Dunkin' Donuts and show the posse of camera people that he's a real Dunkin' Donuts-patronizing person and not some elitist Starbucks frappuccino sipper [Photo 9]. Because Obama has to appeal to blue-collar Democrats, he has to drink crappy coffee until November. The reason he's taking so long to order at this Dunkin' Donuts is that he's looking for the doughnut with the tofu filling.
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Mark Twain: Sorry, JoelAch, you are not in my league. Not remotely.
Joel Achenbach: This has, in fact, occurred to me.
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JustOutsideTheBeltway, Md.: How difficult was your internal struggle to avoid nepotistically shoehorning in one of the many fine examples of Achenbachian photography from the campaign trail?
Joel Achenbach: Yeah, what about my photos? Where's the love? I got some good shots, and so did my daughter Paris and her friend Amanda when I took them to New Hampshire.
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Washington, D.C.: You wrote: "The reason he's taking so long to order at this Dunkin' Donuts is that he's looking for the doughnut with the tofu filling."
Is there a reason that every Democrat is painted as an elitist whereas every Republican is salt of the earth? I guess it's only fair because it's not like Bush was ushered into Andover or Yale. And it's not like McCain ditched his first wife to marry an heiress.
It's cheap shots like these that have helped bring Republicans to power.
Joel Achenbach: Oh, lighten up. Obama is known to be a rather fastidious (healthy) eater and isn't the type to hang out at Dunkin Donuts.
I have a feeling that the Obama campaign will not be destroyed by a donut joke from Achenbach.
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Waldorf, Md.: Following up a bit on Philadelphia's good point about there not being enough campaign photographs, I think one major reason is that newspapers for a long period in the 20th century were NOT the primary vehicle for showing lots of photographs (they'd show a handful, at best); it was the big magazines like "Life" and "Look" that really did the photo spreads. I suppose TV came along and killed that end of the magazine business -- but it didn't do even a halfway decent job of "replacing" what "Life" used to cover routinely. Jeez, I miss the old "Life" magazine. (And Sat. Evening Post, for that matter.)
Joel Achenbach: Excellent point and I never thought of that. Wish I had made it in my piece.
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Wilbrod, Nome: Nice article. Aside from Howard Dean's endorsement of your article, how much time did you spend covering the Republicans?
Would you be interested in standing outside the Republican convention covering the protests I hear are projected to occur?
Minnesota is lovely this time of year, just bring the Off! and use it. I have a fair idea of what McCain would be like a president -- he'd bring in a lot of the old guys that have already been in the last 3 Republican administration... maybe 5, including Nixon and Ford. When I look at the resumes of the guys in this current administration I keep thinking, there are nearly 300 million Americans now, a good chunk of them Republicans. I CANNOT believe that they can't fill an administration made up entirely of younger, more talented people that don't have grey hair already.
Joel Achenbach: McCain will bring in Nixon and Ford? I guess to look younger by comparison!
Wilbrod, I spent roughly the same time with GOP and Democrats, I think. More with McCain than with the other Republicans (maybe because I knew way back in like 1997 that he'd win the nomination).
I'll remember to bring the Deep Woods Off to Minnesota even if I'm only to be in the city.
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Upper Marlboro, Md.: Okay, I'm an Obama supporter, but even I was struck by the pictures chosen to open the article, which stick in my mind. If the WaPo kisses Obama's behind any harder, will he have permanent lip marks? We've got the point folks, stand down!
Joel Achenbach: Hmmm...I didn't see the layout that way. I loved how it appeared that McCain was glaring at Obama. But I think you're projecting bias into that. McCain looked pretty steely to me, pretty tough -- I didn't think it was unflattering.
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Brag, Md.: I thought the Dunkin Donuts caption the best in the article and had a good laugh. It also reveals the mentality of the voters (shudder)
Joel Achenbach: Thanks!
I think we're going to wrap this up. Thanks very much for reading the piece and for joining us today in this chat.
You can always wander over to the Achenblog and post additional comments, arguments, obsequious praise, links to something you've written, whatever. Doors are open there pretty much around the clock but last call is usually at 1 a.m.
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Joel Achenbach: And fyi you can always contact me by the ancient technology known as email: achenbachj@washpost.com
Cheers, Joel
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
July 6, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Cashing In On Obama And McCain
BYLINE: By HANNAH FAIRFIELD AND GRIFF PALMER
SECTION: Section BU; Column 0; Money and Business/Financial Desk; METRICS; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 537 words
JOHN McCAIN and Barack Obama are not the only winners to emerge from the long presidential primary season.
The two presumptive nominees, along with the many candidates who bowed out along the way, spent more than $900 million through the end of May, about $470 million more than was spent on primaries in 2000, when both major parties last had competitive primary battles. Nearly half of the current spending has been paid to just a few dozen companies.
Before November, hundreds of additional millions will be paid to the lucky few businesses that have contracts with the winning candidates for campaign necessities like media consulting, airplane charters, direct mail and telemarketing. And as campaign schedules become more crowded, companies that coordinate rallies and events, and those that make signs and bumper stickers, will also rake in dollars.
Even companies that do not cater to the political arena can reap great rewards, according to spending records each candidate has filed with the Federal Election Commission. Bank of America and American Express together received about $7 million in credit card and banking fees from the Obama campaign alone. Verizon was paid more than $4 million by all the candidates combined to put phones into the hands of their employees.
To be sure, some of the companies that received the highest payments passed the money on to other vendors. The Obama campaign, for example, paid $85 million to GMMB, a media consulting firm. But $69 million of that was used to buy advertising time, which means that much of the money paid to GMMB ended up at local television and radio stations.
Some experts say they think that as campaign spending rises, the candidates benefit much less than the companies. ''The total amount of money doesn't matter, especially since you start to see diminishing returns,'' said Ray C. Fair, an economist at Yale who studies economic influences on presidential elections. ''What matters is the difference in spending between the two parties.''
With Mr. Obama opting out of public financing and expecting to raise upward of $300 million between now and November, it looks like he may be able to far outspend Mr. McCain, who has pledged to accept public financing and is limited to spending $85 million in the general election. Of course, the candidates are not alone in the political spendfest. The Republican and Democratic National Committees and groups that are created specifically to influence elections, like 527's, will spend tens of millions of dollars in the general election.
It's feast or famine. Businesses expand rapidly to meet the demands of a voracious campaign, then downsize just as fast when a campaign abruptly ends.
Tigereye Designs, of Greenville, Ohio, which provides the Obama campaign with most of its buttons, banners and yard signs, quintupled its staff since the campaign season began. It has made more than one million bumper stickers for Democratic candidates this year.
''It's like having a whale wash up on the beach,'' said Justin Hemminger, the political program director at Tigereye. ''You want to shovel food in the whale as fast as possible before the tide turns. We're all out there with shovels.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: July 6, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: CHART: More than $900 million has been spent by presidential candidates so far. (Source: Federal Election Commission) (pg.BU1)
WINNERS IN A LONG PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: MEIDA AND MARKETING
TRAVEL
DIRECT MAIL
TELEMARKETING
EVENTS AND MERCHANDISE
OTHER COMPANIES: (Source: Federal Election Commission) (pg.BU4)
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The New York Times
July 6, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Late-Period Limbaugh
BYLINE: By ZEV CHAFETS.
Zev Chafets is a frequent contributor to the magazine. His last cover story was about Mike Huckabee.
SECTION: Section MM; Column 0; Magazine Desk; Pg. 30
LENGTH: 7616 words
'The Rush Limbaugh Show' goes on the air every weekday at 12:06 P.M. Eastern Time.
At one time, Limbaugh did his program from a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper he dubbed, with tongue-in-cheek grandiosity, the Excellence in Broadcasting Building. These days, he mostly broadcasts out of a studio in Palm Beach, Fla., which he calls the Southern Command, and describes on the air as a ''heavily fortified bunker.''
In fact, Limbaugh's show emanates from a nondescript office building on a boulevard lined with tall palms. There isn't even a security guard in the lobby. The elevator opens directly onto a pristine anteroom furnished in corporate glass and leather. An American flag stands in the corner. Only a small, framed picture of Limbaugh, bearing the caption ''America's Anchorman,'' reveals that this is the headquarters of one of the country's most admired and reviled figures.
The anteroom was empty when I stepped off the elevator one afternoon in mid-February. Limbaugh receives very few visitors at work, and no journalists from the hated ''mainstream media.'' When I was buzzed into the control room, I was met by Bo Snerdly -- a very large man in a Huey Newton beret -- who glared at me. ''Are you the guy who's here to do the hit job on us?'' he demanded in a deep voice.
''Absolutely,'' I said.
Snerdly, whose real name is James Golden, held my eyes for a long moment before bursting into emphatic laughter.
''It's just that we aren't used to seeing reporters here,'' said a woman named Dawn. She is a stenographer whom Limbaugh hired in 2001, after he went deaf. These days he has a cochlear implant that enables him to hear callers, but Dawn sends him real-time transcripts of on-air conversations, just in case.
''The media doesn't know about this place,'' she said. ''They don't know where we are. During Rush's big drug story they staked out the whole town, even his house, but they never found us here.''
For the next hour I sat behind the glass panel of the control booth and watched Limbaugh at work in front of the ''golden E.I.B. microphone.'' Unlike Howard Stern or Don Imus, he has no sidekicks with him in the room. He does, however, keep up a running conversation with an unheard voice. I always assumed that this was just imaginary radio shtick. Now I saw that the voice was attached to a human interlocutor, Snerdly, who banters with and occasionally badgers Limbaugh via an internal talk-back circuit.
After the broadcast, Limbaugh waved me into the studio and offered me a seat directly across from him. The room's acoustics make it relatively easy for him to hear, but he also reads lips.
I had come to talk to Limbaugh about his role in Republican Party politics. During the primaries he assailed John McCain as a phony conservative and apostate Reaganite. Despite Limbaugh's best efforts, it now appeared that the Arizona senator would be the nominee. There was speculation that Limbaugh would not support him in November.
''I've never even met the man, never spoken to him,'' Limbaugh said. ''I'm sure there are things about him I'd like if we meet. This isn't personal.'' He then delivered a litany of the presumptive nominee's personal failings -- too old, too intense, too opportunistic, too liberal. But, he assured me, he would be with McCain in the fall. ''It's like the Super Bowl,'' he told me. ''If your team isn't in it, you root for the team you hate less. That's McCain.''
It already seemed, when I made my visit, that McCain's opponent might well be Senator Obama, and I was curious to know how Limbaugh planned to take on America's first African-American major-party nominee. ''I'll approach Obama with fearless honesty,'' said Limbaugh, who speaks of himself in heroic terms on air and off. ''He's a liberal. I oppose liberals. That's all that's involved here.''
I asked if he had any specific tactics in mind.
''I haven't yet figured that out exactly,'' he said. ''You know, I've had a problem with substance abuse. I don't deal with the future anymore. I take things one day at a time.''
In this case, it took two. I was back in New York, listening to the radio, when I heard Limbaugh say: ''Ladies and gentlemen, I had a conversation with a friend Wednesday afternoon after the program, and he said, 'Nobody's criticizing Obama. How are you going to do this? How are you going to handle criticizing the first black American to run for president?' I said: 'I'm going to do it the way I always do it. First, at the top of the list, I'm going to do it fearlessly. I'm not going to bow to political correctness. I'm going to do it with humor. I'm going to focus on the issues. I'm going to react to what he says. Simple. I'm going to do it just like it were any other case -- he's a man, right? He's a liberal. How do I criticize liberals? I criticize them.' But I have devised, ladies and gentlemen, an even more creative way of criticizing Obama. I have, just this morning, named a new position here on the staff that is the Official Obama Criticizer. The E.I.B. Network now has an Official Obama Criticizer. He is Bo Snerdly.''
Snerdly introduced himself as an ''African-American-in-good-standing-and-certified-black-enough-to-criticize-Obama guy,'' and declared that he was speaking, ''on behalf of our E.I.B. brothers and sisters in the hood.'' The bit was typical Limbaugh -- confrontational, deliberately insensitive and funny. It was also a declaration of independence. Whatever special courtesies John McCain might plan to extend to Barack Obama, Limbaugh is going to conduct his air war, as he always has, by his own rules of engagement.
ON AUG. 1, LIMBAUGH WILL CELEBRATE the 20th anniversary of his national radio program. At 57, he is an American icon, although his fans and critics don't agree on precisely what he is iconic for. I've heard him compared to Mark Twain and Jackie Gleason, the Founding Fathers and Father Coughlin. Serious people have called him a serial liar and a moral philosopher, a partisan hack and a public intellectual, nothing more than a radio windbag and nothing less than the heart of the Republican Party.
One thing is certain: Limbaugh has been a partisan force for two decades. In 1994, he was so influential in the Republican Congressional landslide that the grateful winners made him an honorary member of the G.O.P. freshman class. He moved not only voters, but the party itself. ''Rush talked about the 'Contract With America' before there was a 'Contract With America,' '' Karl Rove told me. ''He helped set the agenda.''
Limbaugh has been a factor in every national election of the past 20 years, but not since the mid-1990s has he been so prominent. Democrats have blamed him for everything from invading their primaries to starting scurrilous rumors about Michelle Obama. Limbaugh denies the latter accusation, but he happily embraces the former. His vehicle was so-called Operation Chaos, a radio campaign designed to encourage Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton and prolong internecine fighting among liberals.
Nobody quite knows how effective Operation Chaos was. Karl Rove said he thinks it helped tilt Texas for Clinton. She herself gave this some credence on the day after the vote by jauntily saying, ''Be careful what you wish for, Rush.'' Howard Dean implored primary voters in Indiana and North Carolina to ignore Limbaugh. The Obama supporter Arianna Huffington called Limbaugh and other conservative hosts ''toxic curiosities.'' After Clinton won in Indiana, where 10 percent of Democratic primary voters admitted to exit pollsters that they were really Republicans, Senator John Kerry accused Limbaugh of ''tampering with the primary'' and causing Obama's defeat.
Limbaugh was delighted. He deemed Operation Chaos to have ''exceeded all expectations'' (his customary self-evaluation) and explained once again that he wasn't supporting Clinton but merely trying to bloody Obama because John McCain was too chicken to do it and because he believed that Obama would then be easier to beat in November.
Probably both the Democrats and Limbaugh overstated his actual impact. But Operation Chaos was a triumph of interactive political performance art. Limbaugh appointed himself Supreme Commander, deputized his listeners and turned them into merry pranksters. ''Rush is a master at framing an issue and creating a community around it,'' says Susan Estrich, who ran Michael Dukakis's 1988 presidential campaign and has since become a talk-show host herself. Operation Chaos drew a crowd, which is what Limbaugh does for a living. It got people laughing at the Democrats, which is what he lives for. And, ever the devout capitalist, he turned an extra buck by peddling Operation Chaos gear. The stuff flew off the cybershelves of the E.I.B. store, the biggest seller since his Club Gitmo collection (''my mullah went to Club Gitmo and all I got was this lousy T-shirt'').
None of these high jinks would have mattered if Limbaugh were a regular radio personality. But he isn't. Michael Harrison, the editor and publisher of Talkers magazine, a trade publication, puts Limbaugh's weekly audience at 14 million. Limbaugh himself says it is closer to 20 million. Either way, nobody else is close. He has been the top-rated radio talk-show host in America since the magazine started the ranking 17 years ago.
Such massive and consistent popularity makes Limbaugh a singular political force. ''Rush has completely remade American politics by offering an alternative to the networks and CNN,'' Rove told me. ''For 20 years he has been the leader of his own parade.''
Harrison offered an even more grandiose view: ''He's a phenomenon like the Beatles. Before Rush Limbaugh there was nothing like talk radio. He's been to talk what Elvis was to rock 'n' roll. He saved the AM dial.''
''ANTICIPATING A QUESTION,'' Limbaugh said when we pulled into the garage of his secluded beachfront mansion in Palm Beach, ''why do I have so many cars?''
I hadn't actually been wondering that. Very rich people tend not to stint on transportation. For example, we drove to the house from the studio, Limbaugh at the wheel, in a black Maybach 57S, which runs around $450,000 fully loaded. He had half a dozen similar rides on his estate.
''I have these cars for two reasons,'' Limbaugh said. ''First, they are for the use of my guests. And two, I happen to love fine automobiles.''
He also loves space. There are five homes -- all of them his -- on the property. The big house is 24,000 square feet. Limbaugh lives there with a cat. He's been married three times but has no children.
Limbaugh informed me that I was the first journalist ever to enter his home. Mary Matalin, the Republican consultant, calls the place ''aspirational,'' which is one adjective that fits. The place, largely designed by Limbaugh himself, reflects the things and places he has seen and admired. The massive chandelier in the dining room, for example, is a replica of the one that hung in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel in New York. The gleaming cherry-wood floors are dotted with hand-woven oriental carpets. A life-size oil portrait of El Rushbo, as he often calls himself on the air, hangs on the wall of the main staircase.
Unlike many right-wing talk-show hosts, Limbaugh does not view France with hostility. On the contrary, he is a Francophile. His salon, he told me, is meant to suggest Versailles. His main guest suite, which I did not personally inspect, was designed as an exact replica of the presidential suite of the George V Hotel in Paris.
Limbaugh is especially proud of his two-story library, which is a scaled-down version of the library at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. Cherubs dance on the ceiling, leatherbound collections line the bookshelves and the wood-paneled walls were once ''an acre of mahogany.''
A fastidious man, Limbaugh has a keen eye for domestic detail. His staff lights fragrant candles throughout the house to greet his arrival from work each day. Limbaugh led me into his private humidor, selected two La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Chisel stogies for us to smoke and seated me at an onyx-and-marble table in the study. The room opens onto a patio, a putting green and a beach. On the table was a brochure for Limbaugh's newest airplane, a Gulfstream G550. It cost him, he told me, $54 million.
Limbaugh can afford to live the way he wants. When we met he was on the verge of signing a new eight-year contract with his syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks. He estimated that it would bring in about $38 million a year. To sweeten the deal, he said he was also getting a nine-figure signing bonus. (A representative from Premiere would not confirm the deal.) ''Do you know what bought me all this?'' he asked, waving his hand in the general direction of his prosperity. ''Not my political ideas. Conservatism didn't buy this house. First and foremost I'm a businessman. My first goal is to attract the largest possible audience so I can charge confiscatory ad rates. I happen to have great entertainment skills, but that enables me to sell airtime.''
The average AM radio station reserves 18 to 20 minutes each hour for advertising, devotes about 5 minutes an hour to news and spends the rest of the time on other content. Limbaugh is not only paid by the stations, but his program also owns five minutes of every hour of airtime, which it can then sell to advertisers.
Some simply run their usual ads. Others use Limbaugh as their pitchman, which costs them a premium and a long-term commitment. And lately he has created a new option. At a much higher rate he will weave a product into his monologue (To a caller who said he took two showers after voting for Clinton in Operation Chaos, Limbaugh responded: ''If you had followed my advice and gotten a Rinnai tankless water heater, you wouldn't have needed to take two showers. And I'll tell you why. . . .'')
Limbaugh is being uncharacteristically modest when he attributes his wealth to simple salesmanship. First, you have to draw -- and keep -- a crowd. ''Rush is just an amazing radio performer,'' says Ira Glass, a star of the younger generation of public-radio personalities. ''Years ago, I used to listen in the car on my way to reporting gigs, and I'd notice that I disagreed with everything he was saying, yet I not only wanted to keep listening, I actually liked him. That is some chops. You can count on two hands the number of public figures in America who can pull that trick off.''
Glass compares Limbaugh to another exceptional free-form radio monologist, Howard Stern. ''A lot of people dismiss them both as pandering and proselytizing and playing to the lowest common denominator, but I think that misses everything important about their shows,'' he says. ''They both think through their ideas in real time on the air, they both have a lot more warmth than they're generally given credit for, they both created an entire radio aesthetic.''
LIMBAUGH STARTED LOSING HIS HEARING seven years ago, at the age of 50. Increasingly powerful hearing aids helped for a while, but eventually they stopped working. For almost two months he did his show without being able to hear a thing. Regular listeners began noticing that something was wrong. ''When I found myself going deaf, I didn't panic,'' he told me. ''I was diagnosed with auto-immune disease.'' (Limbaugh says he doesn't know what kind of auto-immune disorder it was.) ''Once I knew the problem, I looked for a practical solution,'' he continued. ''Eventually I flew out to California and had a cochlear implant. Luckily, it worked.'' Doctors, he told me, attribute this positive outcome to the relatively advanced age when he lost his hearing and the short time he was deaf.
Limbaugh is known for his wicked impersonations of Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, John McCain and others.
''How can you imitate anyone if you can't hear yourself?'' I asked him.
He touched his throat. ''I know how the muscles are supposed to feel when I do the voices.''
Limbaugh's voice is his instrument, and he has been honing it since he began his radio career as a high-school disc jockey. He still loves music, although he hears it most clearly in his memory. ''The last song I actually remember was probably a Luther Vandross tune,'' he told me. ''But if I put on oldies I know how they are supposed to sound.''
He still uses a lot of rock 'n' roll in his broadcasts, introducing segments with Tina Turner's ''The Best'' or sampling an old Bo Diddley riff: ''Come on in closer baby, hear what else I got to say. You got your radio turned down too low. Turn it up!''
We were on the way to Trevini, one of Limbaugh's favorite Palm Beach restaurants. Once again, Limbaugh was at the wheel. His girlfriend, Kathryn Rogers, a West Palm Beach events planner, rode shotgun. They met at a golf tournament last summer and have been an item since.
The Maybach was quiet enough for easy conversation, but the restaurant was a different story. We sat at a prime corner table, but the place was packed, and the decibel level caused him to frequently cup his hand to his ear, and sometimes miss entire sentences.
Throughout dinner, people approached our table. Most were prosperous-looking Republican men of a certain age. ''God bless you,'' they told him, or, ''Keep up the fight.'' He smiled and thanked them in a good-natured way. One elderly gent in a blue blazer and gray slacks went into a long spiel about his good works on behalf of several conservative causes. Limbaugh nodded through the recitation, but when the man left he confided that he had not understood a word of it.
Meanwhile, waiters buzzed around our table. They seemed to anticipate Limbaugh's every wish, refreshing our drinks, serving unasked-for delicacies, periodically checking to make sure everything was exactly to Limbaugh's satisfaction.
Table talk focused on Limbaugh's house, or rather his concern over my reaction to it. That afternoon I wondered aloud what a single man with no kids could possibly want with a house that size. He frowned, obviously interpreting it as a hostile question, a Democrat question. Now he wanted to revisit the topic.
''When you saw my house today, you probably noticed that it isn't filled with pictures of me and famous people,'' he said. ''That's not me. I don't have a home that says, 'Look who I know!' ''
''No, you have a home that says, 'Look what I have.' ''
''Why would you say that?'' He sounded genuinely surprised, possibly even hurt.
''It might have something to do with that acre of mahogany you mentioned earlier.''
''My home is a place I feel comfortable in, a place for entertaining my friends and family,'' he said.
Later, his friend Roger Ailes, a frequent guest and the chairman of Fox News, put the Limbaugh lifestyle in perspective. ''He lives the way Jackie Gleason would have lived if Gleason had the money. Some people are irritated by it.''
Dinner was winding down, and I called for the check. It tickled Limbaugh to be taken out to eat on The New York Times. A few weeks later, he sent me a copy of an interview with Jeremy Sullivan, a waiter at the Kobe KobeClub in New York. Sullivan told a reporter that Limbaugh, a fellow Missourian, was the biggest tipper in town: ''He likes to throw down the most massive tips I've ever seen. The last few times his tips have been $5,000.'' When I read this, I felt a stab of guilt toward the hyperattentive staff at Trevini. If I had only known, I would have let Limbaugh leave the tip.
LIMBAUGH WAS A FAILURE almost as long as he has been a success. And although he is now an apostle of sunshine (''having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have,'' he crows on his show), he spent many years trying to convince his family -- and himself -- that he wasn't wasting his life.
People sometimes wonder if Rush is a real name. It is, times three. He was born Rush Limbaugh III in 1951, in the Mississippi River town of Cape Girardeau, Mo. Cape Girardeau was Eisenhower America, Middle Western but far enough South that Limbaugh's younger brother David still speaks with a discernible twang. ''Rush got the voice in the family,'' he told me, unnecessarily.
The Limbaughs were local gentry. Rush's grandfather, Rush Sr., was a venerated lawyer who practiced law past the age of 100. Uncle Steve Limbaugh is a federal judge, although he will soon step down as his son, Rush's cousin Steve, joins the federal bench. David Limbaugh, who still lives in Cape Girardeau, writes books and a syndicated political column, along with handling his brother's legal work.
Limbaugh's father, Rush Jr., was a lawyer, too, a prominent local Republican activist and the most influential figure in his sons' lives. He served as a pilot in World War II and became vehemently anti-Communist and very much committed to the ideas and ideals of small-town Protestant America. Limbaugh remembers his father playing host to Vice President Richard Nixon in Cape Girardeau in the 1956 election. To this day, Limbaugh calls his father ''the smartest man I've ever met.''
Certainly he was one of the most opinionated and autocratic. ''On Friday nights my friends would come over to the house just to listen to my dad rant about politics,'' Limbaugh recalls. ''He was doing the same thing as I do today, without the humor or the satire. He didn't approve of making fun of presidents. He didn't think that sort of thing was funny.''
Dick Adams, Rush's boyhood friend and high-school debate partner, told me: ''Mr. Limbaugh didn't suffer fools lightly, let's just put it like that. Many times I was over there when he called down Rush or David in harsh tones. There was usually a string of expletives attached.''
Father-son arguments weren't political. Rush seems to have swallowed his father's monologues whole. Like the great black singers of his generation, Limbaugh took the familiar pieties and ambient sounds of his time and place and used them to create a genre of entertainment, full of humor, passion and commercial possibility. There are many ways to look at Rush Limbaugh III: one is that he is the first white, Goldwater Republican soul shouter.
But first he had to get out of town.
''My father expected me to be a professional man,'' Limbaugh told me. ''The problem was, I hated school. I hated being told what to do. In the Boy Scouts I never got a single merit badge. In school my grades were terrible. I just didn't want to be there. I just wanted to be on the radio.''
Rush's father hoped the boy would grow out of this ambition. But to appease him, he lent 16-year-old Rush the money for a summer course in radio engineering in Dallas. Limbaugh returned with a broadcaster's license, which he parlayed into a job at the local radio station. Soon he had his own show. Being on the radio made him a local celebrity, and he never lost the taste for it.
Limbaugh was miserable when his father insisted he attend college. Under protest he enrolled at nearby Southeast Missouri State University, where he lasted a year. Somehow he even contrived to flunk speech.
''My mother used to drive me there and pick me up, just to make sure I'd go,'' he told me. ''But it didn't do any good. First chance I got, I was out of there.''
Limbaugh hit the road in a 1969 Pontiac LeMans. He spent the 1970s spinning records at radio stations around the country under the name Jeff Christie. From the start, he had a knack for making people laugh. In Pittsburgh he sometimes convinced callers he could see them via a special telephone. He did voices and parodies.
Limbaugh drifted from job to job. He was wounded by his father's disapproval, unable to make a real go of the radio business and unlucky in marriage. In the mid-'80s he took a job in the front office of the Kansas City Royals baseball team. He was making $12,000 a year, and he almost quit to take a more lucrative job as a potato-chip distributor. ''They were offering $35,000,'' he told me. ''That sounded like a lot of money.''
Instead, he decided to take a last gamble on his talent. He found a radio job in Sacramento where, for the first time, he started airing his conservative opinions and really developing his bombastic, politically incorrect, El Rushbo persona. The show was a hit.
''In those days the mainstream liberals had a media monopoly,'' he says. ''All three TV networks, CNN, Time and Newsweek, and the newspapers. AM radio was considered a dying venue. Nobody did political talk, let alone conservative political talk.''
Limbaugh said things that people had never heard on the radio. He mocked the women's movement (''feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women access to the mainstream of society''); scoffed at sex education (''condoms work only during the school year''); and took on conventional wisdom (''using federal dollars as a measure, our cities have not been neglected but poisoned with welfare-dependency funds''). It is hard to imagine, so many years later, how strange and rebellious, how simply wrong, such sentiments sounded.
In 1988, Limbaugh moved to New York and took his show national. He came to the city with the usual make-it-there, make-it-anywhere expectations. The show, carried locally on WABC-AM, was a national hit. But socially, he flopped.
''I assumed there was a fraternity of broadcasting guys in New York,'' he told me. ''I thought my success would launch me into a circle of accomplished people. Look, I admired these people. Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather -- people watched these guys. I thought they would welcome me as one of them. I was wrong.'' Eventually Limbaugh came to a rather obvious conclusion. ''I realized that my professional achievements were discounted because of my conservatism and my constant criticism of those who I thought would welcome me.''
Why on earth did he expect people he was mocking on the air to embrace him, I asked.
''Immaturity,'' he said. ''I was shocked by the visceral hatred. Nobody hated me growing up. Nobody hated me in Kansas City. Even in Sacramento, which is a liberal town, nobody hated me. That didn't happen until I got to Manhattan.''
Not everyone in the big city gave Limbaugh the cold shoulder. William F. Buckley Jr., the publisher of The National Review, saw the young broadcaster's star power and took Limbaugh into his orbit. Limbaugh was honored by the attention.
''I grew up on National Review and Mr. Buckley,'' Limbaugh told me. ''Aside from my father, he's the most influential man in my life.'' In Buckley's circle he was an incongruous figure -- provincial, self-educated and full of declasse rock-and-roll enthusiasm. But Buckley took Limbaugh seriously, cultivated him, promoted him and saw to it that he connected with the right people.
Buckley died a few days after my first visit to Limbaugh in Florida. Limbaugh mourned him on the air and off. But he also had a sense that, with Buckley's passing, he now became the movement's elder statesman. Jay Nordlinger, a senior editor at The National Review, watched Limbaugh's tutelage under Buckley, and he takes Limbaugh seriously as a polemicist and public intellectual. ''I hired a lot of people over the years, fancy kids from elite schools, and I always asked, 'How did you become a conservative?' Many of them said, 'Listening to Rush Limbaugh.' And often they'd add, 'Behind my parents' back.' ''
Limbaugh's audience is often underestimated by critics who don't listen to the show (only 3 percent of his audience identify themselves as ''liberal,'' according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People and the Press). Recently, Pew reported that, on a series of ''news knowledge questions,'' Limbaugh's ''Dittoheads'' -- the defiantly self-mocking term for his faithful, supposedly brainwashed, audience -- scored higher than NPR listeners. The study found that ''readers of newsmagazines, political magazines and business magazines, listeners of Rush Limbaugh and NPR and viewers of the Daily Show and C-SPAN are also much more likely than the average person to have a college degree.''
For his part, Limbaugh sees himself as a thinker as well as showman. ''I take the responsibility that comes with my show very seriously,'' he told me. ''I want to persuade people with ideas. I don't walk around thinking about my power. But in my heart and soul, I know I have become the intellectual engine of the conservative movement.''
In truth, Limbaugh is less a theoretician than a popularizer of what he regards as the correct conservative responses to contemporary issues. Most of his concerns are economic. ''I consider myself a defender of corporate America,'' he told me. Limbaugh is admired by the religious right, but he is far from pious on matters of adult behavior. He is also one of the few commentators -- left or right -- who never speaks cloyingly about America's obligation to its children and grandchildren.
Recently, I sent Limbaugh an e-mail message, his preferred means of long-distance communication, asking what his own presidential agenda would look like. His answer reflects his actual concerns. A Limbaugh administration would seek to:
1. Open the continental shelf to drilling. Ditto the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
2. Establish a 17 percent flat tax.
3. Privatize Social Security.
4. Give parents school vouchers to break the monopoly of public education.
5. Revoke Jimmy Carter's passport while he is out of the country.
6. Abandon all government policies based on the hoax of man-made global warming.
No. 5 was a joke. I think.
EVERY APRIL, LIMBAUGH HOSTS A WEEKEND at his Palm Beach estate for his closest friends. This year the guest list included Roger Ailes, Mary Matalin and Joel Surnow, a creator of the television series ''24'' and a leader of the small Hollywood conservative community. The event is social but hardly nonpolitical.
Anyone looking for an informal gathering of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy could do worse than this. Limbaugh is also close to Karl Rove, who dined with him a few weeks earlier in Florida; Justice Antonin Scalia (last year he attended a dinner at cousin Steve Limbaugh's Cape Girardeau home); and Justice Clarence Thomas (who officiated at Limbaugh's third wedding). He describes his fellow Floridian Matt Drudge as a buddy. George H. W. Bush invited Limbaugh to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom.
More recently, Dick Cheney toasted Limbaugh at a dinner party; a copy of the vice president's remarks hangs on Limbaugh's wall at home. But Limbaugh's real hero and constant role model is Ronald Reagan.
Limbaugh admires many aspects of Reaganism, but he is especially animated by his belief in American exceptionalism. ''Reagan rejected the notion among liberals and conservatives alike who, for different reasons, believed America was in a permanent state of decline,'' he wrote to me in an e-mail message. ''He had faith in the wisdom of the American people. . . . He knew America wasn't perfect, but he also knew it was the most perfect of nations. Reagan was an advocate of Americanism.'' In response to a separate question, he wrote: ''America is the solution to the world's problems. We are not the problem.''
Limbaugh said he believes that President George W. Bush is well meaning but far from the Reagan standard of excellence. ''I like President Bush,'' he wrote me, ''but he is not a conservative. He is conservative on some things, but he has not led a movement as Reagan did every day of his career. Bush's unpopularity is due primarily to his reluctance to publicly defend himself and his administration against attacks from the left. . . . The country has not tilted to the left in my view. What has been absent is elected conservative leadership from the White House down to the Congress.''
Needless to say, Limbaugh doesn't see John McCain as the answer to this problem, and it infuriates him when McCain claims to be a Reaganite. ''McCain and Reagan do not belong in the same sentence,'' he wrote.
Of course, his problems with McCain won't prevent Limbaugh from trying to defeat Obama or from trying to push McCain toward his views. Some think he is already succeeding in the latter mission. Mary Matalin, who has a great belief in Limbaugh's powers of persuasion with the public, said: ''Why do you think McCain changed on the immigration issue? Because of his advisers?''
Karl Rove says he thinks Limbaugh's greatest influence in this election cycle will be as a backbone-stiffening agent: ''He's a leader,'' Rove said. ''If Rush engages on an issue, it gives others courage to engage.''
It is a tough job this year, and Limbaugh said he knows it. Despite his insistence that Obama is just another liberal, attacking and ridiculing him will be delicate work. ''There is nothing worse than being branded a racist,'' he told me at the end of our last meeting in Florida. ''That's what Bill Clinton tried to do to me.''
At the first White House correspondents' dinner of the Clinton administration, the president cracked that Limbaugh had stood up for Attorney General Janet Reno, but he ''only did it because she was attacked by a black guy.'' (The ''black guy'' being Representative John Conyers.)
Limbaugh was in the audience, and he was livid. He demanded, and received, a White House apology. It was reminiscent of the time F.D.R. went after the legendary H. L. Mencken at a Gridiron Club dinner in 1934. Limbaugh took it as a warning. ''If they successfully tar you as a racist, you are David Duke,'' Limbaugh told me.
On May 16, Limbaugh delivered a monologue on what you can't say about Obama: ''With Obama we started out, we couldn't talk about his big ears 'cause that made him nervous. We've gone from that to this: Not only can we not mention his ears, we can't talk about his mother. We can't talk about his father. We can't talk about his grandmother unless he does, brings her up as a 'typical white person.' We can't talk about his wife, can't talk about his preacher, can't talk about his terrorist friends, can't talk about his voting record, can't talk about his religion. We can't talk about appeasement. We can't talk about color; we can't talk about lack of color. We can't talk about race. We can't talk about bombers and mobsters who are his friends. We can't talk about schooling. We can't talk about his name, 'Hussein.' We can't talk about his lack of experience. Can't talk about his income. Can't talk about his flag pin. This started out we can't call him a liberal. It started out we just couldn't talk about his ears. Now we can't say anything about him.''
So far Limbaugh's tactic has been to frame his attacks on Obama in the words of liberals themselves. Among the musical parodies, which he writes with the comedian Paul Shanklin, in his arsenal is ''Barack the Magic Negro,'' sung to the tune of ''Puff the Magic Dragon,'' by a dead-on Al Sharpton impersonator. The song was met by indignation when he first played it in March -- until Limbaugh revealed that the title and the idea of Obama as a redemptive black man a la Sidney Poitier -- came from an op-ed piece written by a black commentator, David Ehrenstein, in The Los Angeles Times.
Sharpton is too much a master of such signification to miss the art in Limbaugh's boomerang trick. ''I despise his ideology,'' Sharpton told me, ''but Rush is a lot smarter and craftier than Don Imus. Limbaugh puts things in a way that he can't be blamed for easy bigotry. Some of the songs he does about me just make me laugh. But he's the most dangerous guy we have to deal with on the right, including O'Reilly and Imus. They come at you with an ax. He uses a razor.''
THE ATMOSPHERE in the studio on the morning after our dinner at Trevini was relaxed, even festive. When I arrived around 11, Limbaugh was at his computer, wearing shorts and doing prep.
Augusto, his personal chef, was there, preparing lunch, signaling an occasion. Limbaugh skipped the meal, explaining that he doesn't eat close to show time for reasons of ''burp prevention.'' Snerdly, Dawn and the engineer joined me in the dining room, which looks as if it were decorated by Nancy Reagan's fussy aunt.
Limbaugh's program that day was, as usual, a virtuoso performance. He took a few calls, but mostly he delivered a series of monologues on political and cultural topics. Limbaugh works extemporaneously. He has no writers or script, just notes and a producer on the line from New York with occasional bits of information. That day, and every day, he produced 10,000 words of fluent, often clever political talk.
There was nothing he said that was startling -- he spent parts of the show mocking Obama's ''change'' mantra and excoriating those who believe in global warming and talking about foreign affairs. But if you think it is easy turning ancient Greenland, the influence of the teachers' unions or changes in E.U. foreign policy into polemical comedy that will hold an audience for three hours -- try it for 15 minutes at your next cocktail party.
Limbaugh entertains, but he also instructs. He provides his listeners with news and views they can use, and he teaches them how to employ it. ''Rush is an intellectual-force multiplier,'' Rove told me. ''His listeners are, themselves, communicators.''
After the show, Limbaugh and I sat in the studio for several hours talking. He was in an expansive mood, and he didn't duck when I asked him about the most infamous chapter of his career, his drug bust. In 2006, after years of addiction to painkillers, Limbaugh was charged in Florida with ''doctor shopping'' prescriptions. He pleaded not guilty and cut a deal; the charges would be dismissed after 18 months if he continued rehabilitation and treatment with a therapist.
Needless to say, the case became a national scandal. His enemies jeered that the white knight of American conservatism was a junkie. His fans feared the scandal might end his career. Some prayed for him. Limbaugh's lawyer, Roy Black, hired a Florida psychologist, Steve Strumwasser, to evaluate his client.
''I assessed Rush, and I saw he had a problem he couldn't control,'' Strumwasser told me in a phone interview authorized by Limbaugh. ''I knew his name and what he did for a living, but that's about it.''
Strumwasser recommended that Limbaugh check into the Meadows, in Wickenburg, Ariz., a rehab center that specializes in celebrities.
''They guarded his privacy, but other than that, he was treated like everybody else,'' said Strumwasser, who traveled with him to Arizona and checked him in. ''Rush did individual therapy, took part in group sessions and got along with everybody.''
According to Strumwasser, Limbaugh had previously tried twice to stop using drugs on his own and failed. ''It takes most people a lot of time to assume personal responsibility for an addiction,'' he said. ''Especially in a case like this, where there is a professional risk involved. But by the time I met him, Rush wasn't denying his problem at all. He went about getting better in a very passionate way.''
The passion was muted when Limbaugh returned to the air, after six weeks. He candidly but drily, discussed his addiction and legal status, told his listeners that he was not a victim and then went on with the broadcast.
In the studio the day we spoke, Limbaugh was more emotional. ''I thank God for my addiction,'' he told me. ''It made me understand my shortcomings.''
Being Limbaugh, he said he believes that most of these shortcomings stemmed from his inability to love himself sufficiently. ''I felt everyone who criticized me was right and I was wrong,'' he confided. But, he says, he left his insecurities behind in Arizona. ''It's not possible to offend me now,'' he said. ''I won't give people the power to do it anymore. My problem was born of immaturity and my childhood desire for acceptance. I learned in drug rehab that this was stunting and unrealistic. I was seeking acceptance from the wrong people.''
Limbaugh told me he is no longer concerned about the opinions of his colleagues and rivals, and he makes no effort to disguise his contempt for most of them. Michael Savage, ranked No. 3 among talk-radio hosts by Talkers magazine? ''He's not even in my rearview mirror.'' Garrison Keillor? ''I don't even know where to find NPR on the dial.''
At dinner the night before, Bill O'Reilly's name came up, and Limbaugh expressed his opinion of the Fox cable king. He hadn't been sure at the time that he wanted it on the record. But on second thought, ''somebody's got to say it,'' he told me. ''The man is Ted Baxter.''
Limbaugh does have his favorites. He admires Ann Coulter's ability to outrage liberals. He is a fan of the columnists Camille Paglia and Thomas Sowell, both of whom he considers honest thinkers. And he is especially impressed by the essays of Christopher Hitchens. ''He's misguided sometimes, but when you read him, you finish the whole article.''
Limbaugh has a deeply conflicted attitude toward Sean Hannity, his one-time stand in and now perpetual No. 2 on the Talkers list. He speaks of the younger man with the same condescending affection that Muhammad Ali once showed Jimmy Ellis, a former sparring partner turned challenger. But he wanted me to remember who is the Greatest. ''I have no competitors,'' he said. ''Hannity isn't even close to me.''
Hannity became a touchy issue in the late spring. For more than a year he was on what appeared to be a quixotic campaign to raise the issue of Obama's controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Then the story exploded. Not only that, Hannity also led the pack on Obama's connection to the former Weatherman leader William Ayers. Operation Chaos was still garnering attention and amusing listeners, but the election news was being made elsewhere.
From New York, I sent Limbaugh a teasing e-mail message: ''Hannity has been first and hardest on the Reverend Wright controversy and the Bill Ayers thing. Is it possible that he is running a separate Operation Chaos with superior intel?''
Limbaugh didn't dispute that Hannity was first on the Wright and Ayers controversies. But, he wrote: ''Things only take off when I mention them. That is the point.''
Two weeks later, The Daily Telegraph in London published a list of America's most-influential pundits. Limbaugh finished fourth, behind Hannity. Once again I wrote a message to Limbaugh: ''Are we looking at a changing of the guard on the right side of the dial?''
Limbaugh scoffed. ''Since when have I cared what the media says?'' he wrote. ''Media polls are not the measure. Ratings 'polls' and revenue are. And it still ain't close.''
I couldn't resist. ''I wasn't asking about the media,'' I wrote him. ''I was asking about Hannity. Hannity can fairly take credit (as he does now, every night) for being more influential than any other commentator in changing the course of this election. That strikes me as new. Or am I wrong?''
At which point Limbaugh, who patiently and graciously answered dozens of my questions, allowed me to invade his bunker and his castle, shared hours of his time, permitted me access to his closest family and most-intimate friends, even his therapist, had enough. ''Write what you want,'' he snapped across cyberspace.
AS A BOY, Rush Limbaugh always preferred the company of adults, and it seems to me he doesn't consider liberals to be real grown-ups. ''They are destructive of the institutions and traditions that make this country great,'' he says. ''I want to reduce them to a small group. I want no more than 10 to 15 of them in Congress.''
Limbaugh has no illusions that this will be the result of the 2008 election. ''Real conservatism wins every time it's tried,'' he told me. ''But the party has abandoned conservatives as a base. McCain doesn't want to criticize Democrats; he wants Democrats to vote for him.''
The oddity is that Limbaugh himself makes this strategy possible. Why, after all, should John McCain take the low road, antagonize independents and become embroiled in racial controversy when he can count on Limbaugh to become the G.O.P.'s most-effective unofficial Obama Criticizer?
If McCain wins, Limbaugh will spend the next four years tugging him to the right. If he loses, it will not be, in Limbaugh's estimation, Limbaugh's fault, and it won't be the end of his world either. A secret of Limbaugh's success is that his uncompromising, often harsh ideas are offset by a basically friendly temperament. He is less like his angry father than his mature role models, Buckley and Reagan, for whom sociability and fun were integral to their conservative world view.
And increasingly, he has other interests. He's been spending more time with his extended family in Cape Girardeau, where he's so popular that the municipality runs a Rush Limbaugh tour for visitors. He toys with the idea of buying an N.F.L. franchise. His friend Joel Surnow says that if there were a Rush Limbaugh movie, it would be something along the lines of ''Citizen Kane'' meets Howard Stern.
As for politics, Rush has already picked his candidate for the Conservative Restoration: Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, a 37-year-old prodigy whom Limbaugh considers to be a genuine movement conservative in the Ronald Reagan mold -- ''fresh, energetic and optimistic in his view of America.'' In the meantime, though, there's the Democratic convention in Denver to muck around in, and then the main event in November. Operation Chaos is over, but Rush will come up with something new to delight his fans and infuriate his foes. Presidents rise and presidents fall, but ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'' will go on, weekdays at 12:06, Eastern Time.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: July 6, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: 1. William F. Buckley became a career and social mentor after Limbaugh arrived in New York. 2. A cover story from Jan. 23, 1995. 3. Limbaugh in 1965 at age 14
1. ''Official Obama Criticizer'' badge. 2. Kathryn Rogers and Limbaugh in Miami Beach. 3. Limbaugh, left, his grandfather and father, about 1972. 4. Sean Hannity, a rival talk-show host. 5. Ronald Reagan remains at the core of Limbaugh's beliefs. 6. George H. W. Bush at the WABC studio in 1992
Limbaugh at his Palm Beach studio this year. ''In school my grades were terrible,'' he says. ''I just didn't want to be there. I just wanted to be on the radio.'' (PHOTOGRAPHS BY 1. ROGER RESSMEYER/CORBIS. 2. TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES. 3. FROM ''THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW.''
1. FROM ''THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW.'' 2. JOHN PARRA/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES. 3. FROM ''THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW.'' 4. JENNIFER GRAYLOCK/AP PHOTO 5. BETTMANN/CORBIS. 34 6. REUTERS/CORBIS
NIGEL PARRY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
863 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The New York Times
July 6, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
McCain Battles a Nemesis, the Teleprompter
BYLINE: By MARK LEIBOVICH
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1611 words
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS
Senator John McCain was performing relatively smoothly as he unveiled his energy plan.
He managed to limit the mechanical hand chops and weirdly timed smiles that can often punctuate his speeches. He delivered his lines with an ease that suggested a momentary peace with his longtime nemesis, the teleprompter. (He relied on a belt-and-suspenders approach, with text scrolling down screens to his left and right, and on a big TV set in front of him.)
But when Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, came to the intended sound bite of his speech -- the part about reducing America's dependence on foreign oil -- he hit a slick.
''I have set before the American people an energy plan, the Lex-eegton Project,'' Mr. McCain said, drawing a quick breath and correcting himself. ''The Lex-ing-ton Proj-ect,'' he said slowly. ''The Lexington Project,'' he repeated. ''Remember that name.''
In a town meeting in Cincinnati the next day, Mr. McCain would again slip up on the name of the Massachusetts town, where, he noted, ''Americans asserted their independence once before.'' He called it ''the Lexiggdon Project'' and twice tried to fix his error before flipping the name (''Project Lexington'') in subsequent references.
Mr. McCain's battle of Lexington is part of a struggle he is engaged in every day. A politician who has thrived in the give-and-take settings of campaign buses, late-night TV couches and town meetings, he now is trying to meet the more formal speaking demands of a general election campaign.
By his own admission, Mr. McCain is not a great orator. He is ill-suited to lecterns, which often dwarf his small stature, and he tends to sound as if he is reading his lines, not speaking them. His shortcomings have been accentuated in a two-man race, particularly because the other man -- Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee -- can often dazzle on stage.
Mr. McCain and his advisers know that Mr. Obama's ability to excite huge crowds will make for an inevitable podium mismatch for the older, softer-spoken Republican. ''We're going up against a guy who is off the charts,'' said Mark Salter, Mr. McCain's longtime Senate chief of staff and campaign adviser.
To better compete, Mr. McCain is undergoing a subtle but marked transition as a political performer, said aides and people who have watched him. As part of a staff shakeup that was announced Tuesday, he brought in a new adviser -- Greg Jenkins, a former White House official and Fox News producer -- who will oversee the producing and staging of Mr. McCain's events. Mr. Jenkins is considered an expert at political stagecraft, oversaw many of President Bush's appearances and served as executive director of the 2004 inaugural committee.
Mr. McCain is working closely with aides like Brett O'Donnell, a former debate consultant for Mr. Bush, to improve his speech and performance. He is working to limit his verbal tangents and nonverbal tics. He is speaking less out of the sides of his mouth, which can produce a wiseguy twang reminiscent of the Penguin from the Batman stories, and he is relying less on his favorite semantic crutch -- the phrase ''my friends'' -- which he used repeatedly in his campaign appearances. He also appears to be trying to exercise restraint, advisers and campaign observers say, when speaking off the cuff, wisecracking in town meetings and criticizing his opponent. In recent weeks, for example, Mr. McCain seems to have reined in the sarcasm he has directed at Mr. Obama. (In May, for example, he said of his opponent, ''With his very, very great lack of experience and knowledge of the issues, he's been very successful.'')
Alan Schroeder, a journalism professor at Northeastern University, said, ''There's a danger of sarcasm becoming nastiness, and McCain seems to be conscious of that line.''
Some McCain loyalists say he needs to be left alone and not burdened by his staff's calculations about how he should be acting or what he should saying.
''I think the depressingly self-absorbed McCain campaign machine needs to get out of the way,'' said Mike Murphy, a longtime friend and media adviser who has no role in the current operation but who still talks to Mr. McCain every few days. ''They need to just let McCain be McCain.''
The more careful McCain, said by some to be overly scripted, has received some withering critiques. ''His rhetorical style can best be described as 'tired mayonnaise,' '' the comedian Stephen Colbert declared on ''The Colbert Report'' before inviting viewers to enter the ''Make McCain Exciting Challenge.''
Peter Spaulding, the chairman of Mr. McCain's campaign in New Hampshire, said he recently saw a McCain speech on television that was ''just atrocious.''
Dan Schnur, Mr. McCain's communications chief during his 2000 presidential campaign, said, ''Besides his convention speech, the only time I would even put him behind a podium at all between now and the end of the campaign is when he's announcing a policy position.''
Mr. McCain's advisers, who bristle at the idea that they are trying to transform the candidate, say that his lack of smoothness merely reinforces his reputation for authenticity.
''Voters are looking for credibility and are wary of polish,'' said Mark McKinnon, a former consultant to Mr. McCain's campaign. ''At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter which candidate can more deftly read a teleprompter.''
Indeed, Mr. McCain and his advisers seem to be trying to present him as a kind of anti-Obama whose weaknesses as a political performer underscore his accessibility to regular voters.
''John doesn't ever want to be something that he is not,'' Mr. Salter said, including trying to pass himself off as a larger-than-life figure on stage. ''There's nothing in there about him that wants to be rarefied.''
Mr. McCain and his surrogates appear to be taking a page from the primary campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, which made a point of praising Mr. Obama's speaking skills both to erase any expectation that she could match them and to imply that Mr. Obama was more of a performer than a leader. Nicolle Wallace, Mr. McCain's new senior adviser, said the campaign would focus on having the candidate interact face to face with voters, ''not from a center stage in the middle of a stadium.''
In an interview on his campaign plane, Mr. McCain said ''my strongest environment is clearly the impromptu.'' He added, ''I don't mean that in a way that denigrates Senator's Obama's speechmaking skills.''
He shrugged when asked whether he is improving as a speaker. ''It's fine, it's fine,'' he said. ''It's coming along.''
''I will continue to make mistakes,'' he added.
He said he was trying to be ''extra vigilant'' about not giving unnecessary offense, knowing that the wisecracking humor that might charm cynical reporters might not do the same for earnest voters.
He sheepishly volunteered that he received complaints after a recent Newsweek profile of his wife, Cindy, said that he sometimes referred to her alma mater, the University of Southern California, as the University of Spoiled Children.
Mr. Salter bemoans the current environment, in which, he said, ''the press creates the expectation that you better not stumble on a word, or tell a joke that Mr. Rogers wouldn't tell, or you're going to be in trouble.''
There are any number of Web videos of Mr. McCain to prove the point. They include the moment he playfully called a young man a ''jerk'' at a town-hall-style meeting in New Hampshire last year after he asked Mr. McCain if his age made him a candidate for Alzheimer's disease in the White House (Mr. McCain typically uses jerk as a term of affection), or when he suggested to Jon Stewart on ''The Daily Show'' that he brought him a special gift from Iraq -- an improvised explosive device.
Small misstatements become instant YouTube fodder -- as when Mr. McCain vowed to ''veto every single beer'' that included lawmakers' pet spending projects (he meant ''bill'') or when he said the government should have been able to deliver ''bottled hot water'' to dehydrated babies in New Orleans. (It is fortunate for Mr. McCain that there was no YouTube in the 1980s when he jokingly referred to the retirement community Leisure World as ''Seizure World.'')
Mr. McCain speaks often about his love of the ''give and take,'' the ''more informal settings where I think I'm at my best.''
''It's not an ego thing,'' he said, ''just where I think I'm most effective.''
When asked if it would be possible to run ''the town meeting campaign'' that he credited with providing him a decisive victory in New Hampshire, where he held 102 such events, Mr. McCain said, ''Absolutely.''
The ease with which he presided over such a gathering in Cincinnati on June 26 was strikingly different from the difficulties he had with his speech in Las Vegas the day before. ''I believe that town-hall meetings are the essence of the process,'' Mr. McCain said to an audience at Xavier University, gripping his microphone with two hands. He talked about why it is important to engage with people across the political spectrum: ''conservatives and liberals and libertarians and vegetarians,'' he said.
A downside to such meetings is that they can become forums for people to ask about anything, including parochial concerns. One student, for example, asked Mr. McCain what he would do to ensure that commercial airlines continued to operate out of the Cincinnati airport.
Mr. McCain managed to steer his answer to energy, the theme of the week. ''This is the reason for Project Lexington,'' he responded.
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Senator John McCain, who has thrived in give-and-take settings, is trying to meet a demand for more formal speeches. (PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg.A1)
Senator John McCain is ill-suited to lecterns, which often dwarf his small stature. (PHOTOGRAPH BY MARY ALTAFFER/ASSOCIATED PRESS) (pg.A19)
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July 6, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Veterans Group for McCain
BYLINE: By MICHAEL LUO
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; ADVERTISING; Pg. 18
LENGTH: 246 words
An independent group that has been critical of Senator Barack Obama is preparing an initial $1.5 million television advertising campaign over the next two weeks in battleground states promoting what it deems the success of the troop buildup in Iraq.
The campaign by the Vets for Freedom, a nonprofit advocacy organization for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, appears to be the first major independent effort benefiting Senator John McCain.
The group's commercial does not explicitly mention Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain, according to Pete Hegseth, the organization's chairman. But the end of the advertisement does include a jab at Mr. Obama's message about change, with several veterans saying: ''We changed strategy in Iraq, and the surge worked. Now that's change you can believe in.''
But Mr. Hegseth insisted that his group was not trying to help anyone in particular: ''These are meant to drive a message, 'The surge has worked. We need to finish the job.' ''
In May, the group released two Web advertisements challenging Mr. Obama for not having visited Iraq in over two years. Mr. Obama is planning a visit to Iraq this summer.
The group found itself under scrutiny when it was disclosed that two senators who are surrogates for the McCain campaign, Joseph I. Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, were on the group's policy advisory board, an apparent contravention of a new conflict-of-interest policy by the McCain campaign. Both men resigned from the group. MICHAEL LUO
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The Washington Post
July 6, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
Capturing The Flag;
It's not only still there, it's everywhere. At the polls and by the pool, the Stars and Stripes sells.
BYLINE: Marc Leepson
SECTION: OUTLOOK; Pg. B01
LENGTH: 1712 words
The presidential candidate needed to prove beyond a doubt that he loved his country and could appeal to a wide range of skeptical voters. So he wrapped himself in red, white and blue.
No, not Sen. Barack Obama, who took to a flag-adorned stage to orate on patriotism last week. The candidate in question was William McKinley, whose campaign manager, Mark Hanna, draped the Civil War veteran in the Stars and Stripes during the presidential election of 1896. In McKinley's contest against Democrat William Jennings Bryan, the Republicans handed out hundreds of thousands of flags at rallies across the country. Hanna's "Patriotic Heroes Battalion," a group led by revered Civil War generals, toured the Midwest and West aboard a train bedecked with oceans of bunting. At countless stops, campaign workers unfurled the Stars and Stripes on two 30-foot, collapsible flagpoles that sat atop one of the train's flatcars. It was a veritable Patriotism Express. And it worked.
The American flag has been used by virtually every candidate in every presidential election since then. But the tactic was relatively novel in McKinley's day; before 1861, it was almost unheard of for individual Americans to fly the flag. Today, wherever we see a would-be officeholder, we also see a sea of flags, as well as audiences sporting T-shirts, baseball caps, earrings and halter tops in red, white and blue.
The flag is everywhere -- everywhere it was never really supposed to be. It's difficult to believe that our founding fathers envisioned the flag being reproduced on any commercial product, much less a beer cozy, a beach towel or a grill-ready apron. Even the lapel pin, a small piece of patriotic accessorizing that has been granted outsize importance in the current presidential campaign, can technically be interpreted as a violation of the United States Flag Code -- the oft-misquoted, mostly misunderstood and sometimes confusing series of detailed guidelines for the proper use of the American flag. (It frowns on any item of commercial merchandise upon which is "printed, painted, attached, or otherwise placed" a representation of the flag.)
But what exactly does this overabundance of flag-embossed merchandise mean -- for our campaigns and our culture? There is something off-kilter about revering the ideals that our flag embodies, attempting to ban its destruction, then using it as a political club or sitting down in a flag-patterned lawn chair, tucking into red-white-and-blue-frosted cupcakes and dabbing our mouths with a Stars and Stripes napkin. Does the flag embody American idealism, American cynicism or American comfort? Which values, precisely, have captured our flag?
The history of the cultural meaning of the American flag doesn't do much to answer this sticky question. The first flag-protection laws in the early 1890s tried to stem the burgeoning use of the flag's image in advertising and on countless commercial products. But those measures also served to outlaw what could only be described as well-meaning patriotic displays -- not a good thing. On the other hand, there's something disingenuous and patronizing about using displays of huge flags to lure in customers at car dealerships, and advertisers' propensity for creating flag-bedecked newspaper ads every Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Veterans Day -- not to mention their ubiquity as campaign-stop backdrops.
The Flag Code was supposed to prevent this patriotism-drenched hucksterism. It was drawn up at the first National Flag Conference in Washington in 1923, a meeting convened by the American Legion to take the dozens of different flag codes used by the military services, veterans' groups, patriotic societies and others and come up with one national code.
It has been part of the U.S. Code, the official document that contains the codified general and permanent laws of the United States, since 1942. But the Flag Code is not enforced, and it's not enforceable. It's simply a set of guidelines that carries no penalties for noncompliance; it doesn't even have enforcement provisions. Think of it as a sort of federally mandated Miss Manners manifesto. It tells U.S. civilians (the military branches have their own flag codes) what to do -- and not to do -- with our national emblem. You won't get arrested if you run afoul of it, and it's difficult to believe that the code was written to discourage patriotic Americans from displaying representations of the flag on their clothing. This inherent dichotomy in the Flag Code is, at the very least, confusing. At worst, it sends the wrong message to those who proudly wear flag apparel.
If you think what we do with the flag these days is bad, you should have been around in the 1800s. With no laws governing the use of the flag's image or any accepted rules of flag etiquette -- and with a boost from advances in color printing and mass production -- late-19th-century marketers and advertisers routinely printed flag images on their products and advertisements. And they had no qualms whatsoever about stamping their messages directly on the banner itself. Politicians also took liberties with the flag, beginning in the mid-1840s, including plastering candidates' names and messages across the stripes and among the stars.
The rampant use of the star-spangled banner for commercial purposes didn't sit well with veterans, patriotic organizations and some members of Congress. The first attempt to deal with the misuse of the flag's image in commercial products came in the late 1880s with what was known as the flag-protection movement. It was led by the Grand Army of the Republic (the powerful Union Civil War veterans' organization), the fledgling Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution and a newly formed nonprofit lobbying group, the American Flag Association.
Beginning in the mid-1890s, these groups launched a nationwide campaign to lobby state and federal governments for flag-protection laws. The first such legislation was aimed solely at reining in the commercial use of the flag's image, and by 1932, flag-protection laws were on the books in all 48 states. Beyond commercial use, politics began to creep in to how the United States regulated the flag. During the domestically repressive World War I years, many states added new flag-desecration language and increased the penalties in their flag-protection laws. Much later, during a different time of war, Congress got around to passing the first federal flag-protection act in 1968. It came in reaction to acts of flag burning and other types of flag desecration by anti-Vietnam War protesters.
But in 1989, the Supreme Court declared that law, and all the state flag-protection laws, unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. That led to the movement to get around the high court by adopting a constitutional amendment to protect the flag. Legislation has come to the floors of the House and Senate regularly since 1990 but has failed to get the required two-thirds majority for the first step of adopting what would be the 28th Amendment.
But the Flag Code remains. And so does the ubiquitous use of the banner's image on a multitude of commercial products, including lapel pins. The controversy during the Democratic primary contest over Obama's only occasional use of the pin -- which many politicians have routinely worn since 9/11 -- is an instructive example of the role of flag-waving patriotism in politics today, as well as the peculiarity of the Flag Code.
Obama was grilled about his failure to regularly sport a flag pin by Charles Gibson of ABC News during an April debate. Advisers to Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain agreed that it could become "a major vulnerability if you're the candidate in November," Gibson said. "How do you convince Democrats that this would not be a vulnerability?"
Obama came back with a spirited defense of his love of country and his patriotism. He called the lapel-pin question a distraction from the serious issues facing the country. But although the focus on that particular piece of the senator's attire ebbed as he wrapped up the Democratic nomination, rumors questioning the first African American presidential nominee's patriotism have continued to dog his campaign.
The lapel-pin flap is little more than a political ploy. Does anyone seriously believe that a popular U.S. Senator from the Midwest does not love his country because he doesn't (or didn't) wear a flag pin every time he puts on a suit? But since this non-issue involves the American flag, it receives loads of media attention and resonates with those who want to believe the worst about Obama. Accusations about his lapel-pin usage and his patriotism were big factors behind the wide-ranging and historically grounded speech Obama made last week in Independence, Mo.
Left mostly unremarked, though, is the fact that the senator's lapel now regularly features a flag pin.
Should it? Title IV, Chapter 1, Section 8 of the code states: "The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery." But it then goes on to add: "The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart." So the code is against the use of the flag on commercial products but also tells us where to wear our flag lapel pins -- which, last time I checked, are commercial products.
No wonder we're all confused. Those contradictory words come from a document written in 1923 by a group of people who loved this country and thought that prohibiting the commercial use of the flag's image would help protect the banner itself. But things are murkier today. The Flag Code is on the books but often ignored. Political discourse on what it means to love one's country takes place on stages nearly blindingly laden with large flags. The debate about patriotism isn't about the flag -- except that it is.
As for the U.S. Flag Code, it's time for Congress to amend it. Let the code bless flag lapel pins and every other flag-bedecked item that allows Americans to express their patriotism -- even if the items are made in China. But that's another story.
marcleepson@aol.com
Marc Leepson is the author of " Flag: An American Biography."
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IMAGE; By Emmanual Dunand -- Getty Images; Standards bearer: Sen. Barack Obama, on a Stars and Stripes-filled stage, at an April event in Philadelphia.
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July 6, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
Veterans Hit the Battlegrounds
BYLINE: Shailagh Murray & Michael D. Shear
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 884 words
Sen. John McCain is getting battleground-state help this week from Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who will appear in a television commercial aimed at convincing the public that the United States is winning the Iraq war and should stay to finish the job.
Produced by Vets for Freedom, an organization of veterans of the two wars, the ad will run in Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and on cable nationwide. The group, with about 20,000 members, will spend $1.5 million on what it says is the first of many spots during the next month.
"As an organization, we have four months here," said the group's chairman, Pete Hegseth, an Iraq veteran. "A window of opportunity of heightened awareness. We think it's crucial that the success our troops have made on the battlefield is relayed to the American public."
The ad features eight veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and the mother of a soldier in Iraq. "We changed strategy in Iraq," one of the soldiers says in the ad. "And the surge worked. Now that's change we can believe in. We need to finish the job. . . . No matter who is president."
Hegseth says his group is not operating on behalf of McCain and notes that federal law prohibits the organization from coordinating the ad with his campaign. The states were chosen, he said, not because they are crucial swing states for McCain, but rather because the heightened interest in those states will give it a larger audience.
"We're going to tap into that heightened awareness," he said, noting that his organization has supported several Democratic candidates in the past year or so. "It's not an attack on anybody. We're not taking on any presidential candidates."
But he conceded that the message in the ad is almost identical to McCain's on the stump: The troop buildup worked; let's continue the war until we win. He said McCain has been the "strongest advocate" for the veterans of the two wars.
"We would hope that success in Iraq could benefit everybody," he said.
MELDING POT
The Clinton and Obama worlds continue to collide.
Patti Solis Doyle, fired as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign manager, started her job last week as chief of staff to Obama's yet-to-be-named vice presidential pick. And Neera Tanden, Clinton's policy czar, is joining the Obama campaign as the head of domestic policy.
Now the presumptive nominee hopes to snag John Podesta, Bill Clinton's former White House chief of staff and founding head of the Center for American Progress. According to several Obama sources, the campaign wants Podesta to run the transition operation if Obama wins in November.
Podesta kept a low profile during the primary season, although he was a staunch Clinton supporter. He is one of the most seasoned Democratic operatives in Washington, a quintessential insider with a rare grasp of both politics and policy. Before his White House years, when he weathered the impeachment scandal and many other crises, Podesta served as a staff counsel in the Senate, and one of his bosses was then-Sen. Tom Daschle, now a key member of Obama's inner circle.
His brother Tony Podesta is one of those high-powered Washington lobbyists that Obama likes to criticize.
Other former Clinton advisers making the shift: former White House economic adviser Gene Sperling; trade specialist and former European Union ambassador Stuart Eizenstat; and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright.
TURNING BLUE
Hunting for evidence that a Democratic wave may be building in congressional races? Look no further than the latest edition of the Cook Political Report, the nonpartisan newsletter that tracks House and Senate contests.
In its issue released last week, CPR shifted its competitiveness ratings for 28 House races -- and 27 of them shifted in favor of Democrats.
Twenty-one of those contests were moved from "Solid Republican" to "Likely Republican," meaning that more and more seemingly "safe" GOP seats aren't quite safe anymore under the current political circumstances.
"While it's not likely that a majority of the races moved from 'Solid' to 'Likely' Republican will become competitive by November, the poor national climate for the GOP and the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's] unprecedented financial edge makes even very difficult districts for Democrats worth keeping tabs on," the report counsels.
Many of the contests shifting in favor of Democrats are in states that will be competitive in the presidential race, as well. The revised ratings include four races in Florida, four in Pennsylvania, two in Virginia and one apiece in Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada and Ohio. (Pennsylvania had the only race that shifted away from Democrats: the reelection bid of Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D) in the 11th District).
Even before these latest ratings shifts, the Cook Report was predicting a Democratic gain of "10 to 20 seats." With more districts now coming into play, Republicans may count themselves lucky if that prediction proves to be accurate.
TWO DAYS: Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama address the League of United Latin American Citizens in Washington. The Hispanic vote is widely seen by both candidates as a critical part of their winning coalition in the fall.
SIX DAYS: The National Council of La Raza annual convention is held in San Diego. Importance factor? See above.
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; An ad by a group called Vets for Freedom, whose members served in Iraq and Afghanistan, may help Sen. John McCain in states that look to be hotly contested.
IMAGE; Vets For Freedom
IMAGE; Sen. Barack Obama would love to bring in John Podesta.
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The New York Times
July 4, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
Footnotes
BYLINE: Compiled by PATRICIA COHEN
SECTION: Section E; Column 0; Movies, Performing Arts/Weekend Desk; ARTS, BRIEFLY; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 192 words
Noah Haidle,Liz Flahive and the Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaireare the first playwrights to receive three-year grants from the Bank of America to write plays for the Manhattan Theater Club. ...The newest members of the Musicians Hall of Fame will include Booker T. and the MGs, the Memphis Horns and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, the musician and producer Al Kooper, the producer Billy Sherrill and Buddy Holly's band, the Crickets. ... This summer there will be two Spiegeltents at the South Street Seaport. One will hold ''Desir,'' a theatrical circus premiere, while the other will feature the return of ''Absinthe,'' a cabaret show that appeared in 2006. The shows runs from Aug. 6 to Nov. 2. ... Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam is going on a solo tour, beginning Aug. 1, that includes Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee, Montreal, Newark, New York, Toronto and Washington. Liam Finn is the opening act. ... ''Political Idol,'' a spoof of the upcoming presidential election, returns to the Triad Theater for a four-week run on July 23. In this updated version, Barack Obama and John McCain hold auditions to select vice presidential running mates.
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July 4, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
INSIDE THE TIMES: July 4, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 2325 words
INTERNATIONAL
JAPAN HOPES TO TAKE LEAD
In Conservation Efforts
After the energy crises of the 1970s, Japan forced itself to conserve with government-mandated energy-efficiency targets and steep taxes on petroleum. Now, with oil prices hitting dizzying levels and the world struggling to deal with global warming, it is hoping to use its conservation record to take a rare leadership role on a pressing international issue. PAGE A6
STUDY FINDS SLOWER ICE MOVEMENT
A Dutch study using 17 years of satellite measurements suggests that the movement of Greenland's ice sheet toward the ocean, a process that raises sea levels, is not as rapid as has been feared. The acceleration appears to be a transient summer phenomenon, the researchers report, with the overall yearly movement actually dropping slightly in some places. PAGE A8
9 ARRESTED IN TERRORISM RAID
The Indonesian police arrested nine terrorism suspects after a raid on Wednesday in the Sumatran port city of Palembang by an elite Indonesian counterterrorism team that officials said turned up more than a dozen homemade bombs and a cache of ammunition. A police spokesman refused to give further details, but Indonesian media quoted an antiterrorism official as saying that the men were planning an attack on Westerners in Jakarta. PAGE A6
CHINA AGREES TO MORE TIBET TALKS
China agreed to hold another round of discussions with envoys of the Dalai Lama before the end of the year ''if the Dalai Lama made positive moves,'' but officials declined to say if the two sides had made any progress. The outcome of this week's talks has taken on international significance in the aftermath of the riots in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and parts of western China in March. PAGE A11
U.S. EMBASSY TO OPEN
Former President George Bush is expected to open the new United States Embassy in Berlin on Friday, the most American of holidays (though perhaps not in Germany). The ceremony will mark the end of nearly four years of construction and more than a decade of contention, including but not limited to architectural criticism. PAGE A8
U.S. URGES SANCTIONS ON ZIMBABWE
Seeking to force President Robert Mugabe into negotiations with the opposition, the United States formally proposed United Nations Security Council sanctions on Zimbabwe. A vote is expected as early as next week, and although passage is not assured, the United States has apparently mustered enough support to garner the nine of fifteen votes needed to approve the resolution. PAGE A9
Beijing to Taipei, by Air A8
national
TARGET: BARACK OBAMA
Strategy: What Day Is It?
Despite a three-month head start, Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has struggled to solidify lines of attack against Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, for the general election. Republican operatives and some of his own advisers acknowledge that Mr. McCain has run into problems that bedeviled Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's primary campaign against Mr. Obama. PAGE A14
MCCAIN'S TRIP ACROSS THE BORDER
Senator John McCain used a visit to Mexico to appeal to residents of both sides of the border: Mexicans and, more urgently, their voting relatives and other Latinos in the United States. ''We must secure our borders and then we will address the issue of comprehensive immigration reform,'' Mr. McCain said at a news conference. His campaign feels the trip could resonate among voters back home by promoting his support of free trade, while highlighting his immigration views. PAGE A14
NEW ARRESTS AFTER RAID IN PLANT
Two supervisors at a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa where hundreds of illegal immigrants were rounded up in May were arrested on criminal immigration charges. Also, an arrest warrant was issued to a third man described by workers as the plant manager. Unions and immigrant advocacy groups had criticized immigration officials for focusing arrests on workers while taking no action against top managers. PAGE A12
SNEAKING PEEKS AT PASSPORT FILES
A report by the inspector general of the State Department, released in part, found that employees might have improperly peeked into the passport files of wealthy people and celebrities far more often than previously believed. The inquiry was started after an internal audit earlier this year showing that the files of three senators who were presidential candidates -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama -- had been viewed by employees for no authorized purpose. PAGE A14
RULING AGAINST FLORIDA GOVERNOR
The Florida Supreme Court ruled that Gov. Charlie Crist, above, overstepped his authority when he negotiated a deal last year that let the Seminole Tribe of Florida install slot machines and offer table games like blackjack and baccarat at its Florida casinos. Despite the ruling, a spokesman for the Seminole Tribe said there were no immediate plans to stop the games while legal options were explored. PAGE A13
NEW YORK REPORT
AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS
Is Missing Some Americas
Lampposts up and down the Avenue of the Americas were once festooned with round signs showing the national seals of all the nations in the Western Hemisphere. But almost all are gone now, taken down in the early 1990s when many of the lampposts along the avenue were replaced, and the few that remain are faded and streaked with rust stains. PAGE C9
FASHION NIGHT FOR 'UNTOUCHABLES'
In India they are known as Dalits, or ''untouchables,'' women with such a low social standing that they are below the lowest rung of the officially banned but still-present caste system. They cleaned septic systems for a living. But on Wednesday evening, 17 were models in a fashion show at the United Nations, with 20 or so others in the audience. PAGE C9
Human Statues of Liberty C8
A Debate Over Patriotism C8
SPORTS
BEFORE RED SOX-YANKEES,
Honoring a Wounded Warrior
Tony Odierno, above, an intern in the stadium operations department for the Yankees, will throw out the first pitch against the Red Sox on Friday, the Fourth of July. He plans to climb the mound, stare at the thousands of fans in the stands and then toss the ball with his right arm -- his only arm. He lost the other one when a rocket-propelled grenade smashed through his Humvee in Iraq almost four years ago. PAGE C11
JAGR ERA ENDS FOR RANGERS
The Jaromir Jagr era ended for the Rangers when the team decided not to wait any longer for a decision from Jagr, their mercurial captain, and signed Vancouver forward Markus Naslund to a two-year, $8 million contract. The Rangers also signed Buffalo defenseman Dmitri Kalinin to a one-year deal, completing a major makeover of the team. Rangers General Manager Glen Sather said Jagr never responded to the team's inquiries about what it would take to keep him in New York. PAGE C13
AN ANNOUNCER RETRACTS
Joe Buck, Fox's No. 1 baseball and N.F.L. announcer, was in damage control mode after an interview on Wednesday in which he said that he ''barely'' watched sports when he was not working and that he preferred ''The Bachelorette'' on ABC. It was all a joke, he said. PAGE C12
BUSINESS
EUROPE RAISES BENCHMARK RATE
In Effort to Curb Inflation
The European Central Bank raised its benchmark interest rate a quarter of a percentage point to 4.25 percent, making good on a promise last month that it would act to curb soaring food and fuel prices. The decision widens the gulf in monetary policy between Europe and the United States, where the Federal Reserve, with interest rates half those in Europe, has so far not raised them. PAGE C1
BAD LOCATION, BAD LOCATION, ETC.
Starbucks has long been famous in the world of commercial real estate for its expertise at selecting prime locations. But it announced this week that it would close 600 ''underperforming stores'' and scale back plans to open new outlets, and some brokers say one reason is that the company was so determined to meet its growth promises that it relaxed its standards for selecting new locations. PAGE C1
NO REASON. JUST A SALE.
Retailers -- with the notable exception of those selling gasoline -- are offering some steep discounts these days. They may not acknowledge that the gloomy economy has inspired their efforts, but people who study such things say the stores have an incentive to pretend nothing is amiss, even as they post eye-popping sale signs to try to move merchandise. PAGE C1
RUSSIA PRESSURES U.S. BANK
In Moscow, the Russian government sought to make Bank of New York Mellon liable under United States racketeering laws for $22.5 billion in damages arising from a money laundering scandal that helped undermine the Russian economy in the late 1990s. The suit is part of a long effort to enforce civil liabilities against the bank.
PAGE C3
PENN GAMING TERMINATES SALE
Penn National Gaming said that it had terminated its $6.1 billion sale to two private equity firms. Instead of the $67 a share in cash the deal was to have included, Penn National will receive $1.475 billion, including both a $225 million breakup fee and a $1.25 billion equity investment by the two firms. PAGE C3
TAKING IT TO THE STREETS
Joshua Persky, an out-of-work investment banker, decided to get a little creative in his job search, standing on Park Avenue, handing out resumes and wearing a sandwich board saying, ''Experienced M.I.T. Grad for Hire'' and including contact information. So far it has gotten him media buzz, offers of help, a couple of leads and a few crank calls. But no job. PAGE C4
Inexperience and Bubbles C1
Fund Manager Sent to Prison C4
OBITUARIES
LARRY HARMON, 83
He was not the original Bozo the Clown, but he bought the rights to the character and turned him into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century. PAGE A17
Weekend
DESPAIR, WAR AND DEBAUCHERY,
Live and On Stage
An opera of complexities both emotional and technical, ''Die Soldaten,'' at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan, is a story of post-world-war despair and a young woman whose first steps of descent happen at the hands of soldiers. It is an epic debut for the Armory as a performance space, with a moving stage and rows of chairs for the audience, and a work that was ''billed as unplayable all these years'' by the conductor, Daniel J. Wakin writes. PAGE E1
THE SKILLS OF REALITY TELEVISION
The latest bunch to be thrown to the lions in the coliseum of reality television are the contestants of ''I Love Money.'' Bringing on veterans of shows like ''Flavor of Love'' and ''I Love New York,'' VH1 is offering a prize of $250,000. But with so many practiced reality ''stars,'' where will the reality come in? Somewhere between stuffing pesos into your bikini top and doing naked cartwheels, Mike Hale writes. PAGE E16
TANGLED UP IN BLUE ... SUIT, THAT IS
Standing along the Texas highway in a puffy blue suit, Salman chips out a $6-an-hour living in the self-titled movie as Kabluey, a featureless blob whose purpose is to help a failing corporation sell office space. The hapless Salman does so to help his sister-in-law and her two nearly intractable children, while her husband fights with the National Guard in Iraq. But for Salman, an odd catharsis is found. Movie review, Stephen Holden. Page E1
THE PUBLIC AS CURATOR
Anybody can be relied upon to be an expert in one area: personal likes and dislikes. This is the central theme behind ''Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition,'' now showing at the Brooklyn Museum. Some 389 images dealing with the changing face of Brooklyn's people were judged by placing the images online and allowing anyone to vote on them, ranking them from most effective to least. The resulting favorites were chosen for the show, Ken Johnson writes. PAGE E29
ESCAPES
A DIVE BACK IN TIME
Off the North Carolina Coast
What with tricky currents, rocky shoals, German U-boats or, as legend has it, pirates, the North Carolina coast has earned the nickname Graveyard of the Atlantic. But what's bad for ships and sailors is good for divers, at least in this case, where the water is clear, warmed by the Gulf Stream and populated by tropical marine life against the operatic backdrop of the mammoth, ghostly shipwrecks. PAGE F8
A SOUTHERN RENAISSANCE
Take your pick: the enduring presence of William Faulkner; Ole Miss and its various offerings; charming houses on magnolia-lined streets; a Courthouse Square with shopping and good restaurants; the general appeal of small-town Southern life. Whatever the combination of reasons, Oxford, Miss., is now a magnet for more than just fans who want a place to stay on game weekends. PAGE F3
Editorial
NEW AND NOT IMPROVED
We are not shocked when a candidate moves to the center for the general election. But recent shifts by Barack Obama are striking because he was the candidate who proposed to change the face of politics, the man of passionate convictions who did not play old political games. PAGE A18
FREEING INGRID BETANCOURT
The operation by undercover Colombian commandos to rescue hostages of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia offer further heartening evidence that the guerrilla group is in disarray. PAGE A18
BRING THE SUNSCREEN
Consumers are confused about which sunscreens work. But you should keep wearing sunscreen. Lots of it. And big hats. Oh, and have a happy summer. PAGE A18
op-ed
PAUL KRUGMAN
Wesley Clark didn't impugn John McCain's military service. This latest fake scandal fit the usual pattern, as an awkwardly phrased remark, lifted out of context and willfully misinterpreted, exploded across the airwaves. PAGE A19
LOOKING FOR LIBERTY
America's symbol of liberty, the Declaration of Independence, has had a complicated 232 years. In an Op-Ed article, author Ted Widmer examines the document's history and tracks the provenance of the 25 copies known to exist. PAGE A19
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The New York Times
July 4, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
Target: Barack Obama. Strategy: What Day Is It?
BYLINE: By PATRICK HEALY
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 1164 words
Despite a three-month head start, Senator John McCain has struggled to solidify lines of attack against Senator Barack Obama for the general election, Republican operatives say and some of his own advisers acknowledge, running into problems that bedeviled Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's primary campaign against Mr. Obama.
The McCain camp faces the challenge of negatively defining an opponent who has a relatively short tenure in office and a thin record to dissect, unlike longer-serving senators like Mrs. Clinton or John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. McCain advisers also say they are wary of unleashing allies to attack Mr. Obama, given how some conservatives have overstepped and been criticized for racially tinged remarks.
Mr. McCain shook up the management of his campaign on Wednesday, in part because of concern within his organization and among Republicans generally about his difficulty in putting Mr. Obama on the defensive.
Like those unleashed by Mrs. Clinton's team in the winter and spring, the McCain camp's attacks on Mr. Obama have had a lurching quality for weeks now, several Republicans said in interviews. Some days Mr. McCain or his allies have gone after Mr. Obama's relative youth and inexperience, other days they have criticized his shifting positions (on public campaign financing) or policy stands (on guns and gasoline prices) or even his and his wife's patriotism.
On Thursday McCain aides and the Republican National Committee pounced on a comment by Mr. Obama that he would be willing to ''refine'' his long-held plan to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq within his first 16 months in office. An exasperated-looking Mr. Obama held a second news conference Thursday to say that he was committed to the 16-month goal but that he would also follow advice regarding withdrawal from American commanders in Iraq.
''We think there is a developing pattern with Senator Obama where he is willing to reverse core positions, like on Iraq, and which show he is not a change agent but just a typical politician,'' said Brian Rogers, a spokesman for Mr. McCain. ''We've got a long time to go to make our case.''
Yet Mr. Obama, one month after securing the Democratic nomination, and his advisers have proved defter and more fleet-footed at counterpunching than Mr. Kerry or Vice President Al Gore in 2000, Republicans said. They noted that Mr. Obama was not cowed into apologizing for recent remarks by Gen. Wesley K. Clark that appeared dismissive of Mr. McCain's war service. Mr. Obama has maintained steady leads over Mr. McCain in most national polls.
Several Republicans said in interviews that momentum and the terms of the political debate favored Mr. Obama right now -- and, worse, that the McCain camp's attacks had been scattershot and inconsistent despite his advantage of wrapping up the Republican nomination in March.
''A lot of us on the right are waiting for the quarterback to call the play, and we will take our lead from John McCain when he selects his approach against Obama,'' said Nelson Warfield, a Republican consultant not affiliated with the McCain campaign.
McCain advisers say they have plenty of time -- four months -- to derail the Obama candidacy, yet acknowledged that running against a ''movement candidate'' -- in the words of one McCain aide -- had been challenging even for deft politicians like the Clintons.
These advisers said that they had been studying Mrs. Clinton's approach and her failings, and that they were confident that general election voters would be more concerned with matters like experience than the Democratic primary electorate, which embraced Mr. Obama's early opposition to the war in Iraq and his message of change. McCain aides said they would be increasingly zeroing in on the experience question and making rhetoric vs. reality attacks on his record and speeches -- though they admitted that this, too, had proved insufficient for Mrs. Clinton.
Mr. McCain has also sought to make an issue out of Mr. Obama's refusal to meet him for weekly debates around the country -- a bone that Mrs. Clinton picked with Mr. Obama before the Wisconsin primary in February, including in television advertisements she blanketed the state with. Mr. Obama won Wisconsin by 17 percentage points.
While the shake-up of Mr. McCain's campaign strategy team on Wednesday was heartening to several Republicans, they also noted that President Bush's re-election campaign had already settled on an effective argument against Mr. Kerry by late spring of 2004 -- branding him daily as a flip-flopper and inauthentic. That months have passed without the McCain campaign similarly defining Mr. Obama somehow has frustrated Republicans more than, say, Mr. Obama's strong fund-raising or Democratic Party unity.
Russ Schriefer, a Republican consultant who worked on the McCain media strategy until last summer, said the Bush campaign had set a standard for success by driving a consistent message that defined the issues in the 2004 debate on its terms.
''There are a number of issues that you can poll straight up to drive a wedge between McCain and Obama -- tax questions, foreign policy, national security, homeland security questions -- and I think a lot of these issues can separate these two candidates in Senator McCain's favor,'' said Mr. Schriefer, a Bush campaign veteran.
McCain aides said Mr. Obama's comments about Iraq on Thursday provided perhaps their best opening yet to diminish his image. It came after weeks when they said they were struggling to portray Mr. Obama as a stereotypically two-faced politician who was willing to recalibrate his positions on Second Amendment rights (after a Supreme Court decision last month) and on public campaign financing (after he said he would pay for his fall campaign with private donations).
At the same time, they said they were trying to be careful about overreaching, noting that Mr. McCain has pledged to run a ''respectful'' campaign. They said Mr. McCain felt forced to distance himself from conservatives who sought to damage his opponent by using Mr. Obama's full name, Barack Hussein Obama, or by running a commercial that played up his ties to his former pastor, who has been criticized as making racially inflammatory remarks.
Yet Obama aides and Democratic consultants said that, in reviewing the daily barrage of Republican attacks against Mr. Obama over the last month, they found no clear strategy akin to portraying Mr. Kerry as inconsistent or Mr. Gore as inauthentic and elitist.
''The Bush people were devastating against John Kerry because their line of attack was so focused and consistent,'' said Dan Gerstein, a Democratic consultant not affiliated with the Obama campaign. ''The key will be how Obama defines himself, responds to the questions voters have about his readiness and his character, and shows he deserves their trust, much more than any attacks McCain or his surrogates on the right make.''
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The Washington Post
July 4, 2008 Friday
Suburban Edition
U.S. Workforce Shrinks For 6th Straight Month;
Worries About the Economy Deepen
BYLINE: Michael A. Fletcher; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: FINANCIAL; Pg. D01
LENGTH: 1035 words
Employers cut 62,000 jobs in June, marking the sixth consecutive month that the nation has shed jobs, according to a government report released yesterday, deepening concern that the struggling U.S. economy could turn worse before it gets better.
The collapse in the real estate and mortgage industries, coupled with the specter of inflation fueled by the rising price of oil and other commodities, has crimped employers and left top policymakers and private analysts convinced that the economy is in for a prolonged period of sluggishness.
"We're not in a traditional recession dynamic where jobs get cut aggressively," said Bruce Kasman, chief economist for J.P. Morgan Chase. Still, he said, "things may be starting to get worse, not better."
Of immediate concern to many economists is how the nation will emerge from the economic slowdown even as it faces inflationary pressures brought on by record-high oil and commodity prices. The price of a barrel of oil pushed near $146 before falling back yesterday, and it has increased about 50 percent since the start of the year.
Wrapping up a European tour, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said high oil prices "are a strong headwind, and at this level, they have got a high risk that they are going to prolong the slowdown."
"I don't believe this situation avails itself of quick fixes," Paulson said from London in comments reported by the Associated Press. He noted that, with the global appetite for oil steadily rising and production and refining capacity increasing less quickly, "there are questions in the short term about the ability to meet the demand."
The Department of Labor reported that the economy has lost about 438,000 jobs since the beginning of the year -- a figure that includes revisions for April and May to reflect an additional 52,000 jobs lost in those months. The unemployment rate, which is affected by the number of people seeking work and other factors, was at 5.5 percent, unchanged from a month earlier.
The job losses were led by cuts in construction, financial services and manufacturing. Temporary and other employment agencies also experienced steep job cuts, which some economists saw as further evidence that the bleak employment picture will not improve anytime soon. There were also some cuts in retailing, which combined with the other reductions overwhelmed modest employment increases in leisure and hospitality, health care, mining, and government.
In a separate report, the Labor Department said the number of people applying for unemployment insurance jumped by 16,000, to 404,000, the highest level since late March.
There were 8.5 million unemployed people as of June, up from 7 million a year earlier.
"The economy has entered a slow-motion recession," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "It is not seeing the dramatic plunges in jobs that characterized prior recessions, but the collapse of the housing bubble is slowly sinking more and more sectors of the economy."
The report said that average hourly wages crept up 0.3 percent from a month earlier, to $18.01, but that tiny bounty has been more than offset by higher food and energy prices. The report also said that 5.4 million Americans -- about 3 percent of the labor force -- were working part time either because their hours had been cut or because they could not find full-time employment, a figure unchanged from May but up 1.1 million from a year earlier.
The jobs news, while sobering, was in line with the expectations of many economists, and the stock market closed yesterday with mixed results. The Dow Jones industrial average -- which was up 0.65 percent yesterday, at 11,288.54 -- is down about 20 percent from its October record, the threshold decline for a bear market.
In a sign that concern about inflation is beginning to take precedence over the tepid economy, the European Central Bank yesterday raised its key lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 4.25 percent. At its most recent meeting, the Federal Reserve halted its series of interest rate cuts, leaving rates stable with a statement that cited the "upside risks of inflation."
In Washington, the two presidential candidates traded comments on the jobs data. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said: "Our economy has now shed 438,000 jobs over the past six months, while workers' wages fail to keep pace with the skyrocketing cost of gas, groceries and health care. The American people are paying the price for the failed economic policies of the past eight years, and we can't afford four more years of more of the same."
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that the numbers reflect the economic struggles faced by everyday Americans. "To get our economy back on track, we must enact a jobs-first economic plan that supports job creation, provide immediate tax relief for families, enact a plan to help those facing foreclosure, lower health care costs, invest in innovation, move toward strategic energy independence and open more foreign markets to our goods," he said.
The White House released a statement saying that even if employment is declining, the economy has managed to continue expanding -- albeit at an anemic rate. Gross domestic product grew by a 1 percent annual rate during the first three months of this year, and the White House predicted that growth could be stronger in the second quarter.
"We are no doubt in a period of slow growth. It is growth nonetheless, but it's very slow and it's had an impact on employment," said White House Press Secretary Dana Perino.
Congressional Democrats said the jobs reports illustrates the need for more aggressive action by the federal government to prod economic growth by completing work on a pending legislation to bring relief for many homeowners facing foreclosure and by having a second federal tax rebate, to complement the $168 billion plan launched in May.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, asked: "When will the administration realize the economic pain many Americans are suffering, and when will they understand that focused government activities like a housing relief bill and a second stimulus package could help alleviate that pain?"
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IMAGE; By Ric Francis -- Associated Press; Job seekers gather in Los Angeles last month for a career fair. The Department of Labor said the economy has lost about 438,000 jobs since the beginning of the year.
IMAGE; By Dominic Lipinski -- Reuters; "I don't believe this situation avails itself of quick fixes," Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said, pointing to the impact of high fuel costs.
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The Washington Post
July 3, 2008 Thursday
Regional Edition
The Trail
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A05
LENGTH: 511 words
WEIGHING IN ON CALIFORNIA PROPOSAL
Obama Opposes Gay Marriage Ban
Barack Obama does not support a proposed California constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the state, he announced in a letter sent to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club of San Francisco this week. "I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states," the Democratic presidential candidate wrote.
Conservatives are pushing the amendment in light of the California Supreme Court decision overturning the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Republican candidate John McCain backs the proposed amendment.
Obama aides emphasized that he has opposed similar state bans in the past. They said Obama does not support gay marriage but believes that federal and state constitutional amendments banning it can also threaten rights that couples have under civil unions and domestic partnerships, which Obama does back.
Obama quietly made his stance known in the letter to the Toklas club, a California gay rights group. His position comes as a shift for Democrats, as 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry backed amendments to ban gay marriage in some of the states in which he campaigned.
-- Perry Bacon Jr.
MICHELLE OBAMA IS BETTER-KNOWN
Cindy McCain Still a Mystery to Many
Public opinion polls about potential first ladies often produce one of two results: overwhelmingly positive ratings or big numbers in the "no opinion" column. New CNN-Opinion Research Corp. and Associated Press-Yahoo polls -- as well as last month's Washington Post-ABC News survey -- show a mix of both outcomes.
In the latest Post-ABC News poll, nearly eight in 10 adults had already formed an opinion about Michelle Obama. Positive views of her (48 percent favorable) outweighed negative ones (29 percent). A CNN poll out yesterday found a similar split, with 51 percent holding favorable views and 28 percent unfavorable ones.
But fewer in the Post-ABC News and CNN polls had formed an opinion on Cindy McCain (about four of 10 in each poll), and in both, more held favorable views (39 percent in both polls) than unfavorable ones (about a quarter). The AP-Yahoo poll, conducted online, found an even larger disparity in awareness of the two potential first ladies, with more than half not yet having formed an opinion of Cindy McCain, while just about a third were undecided on Michelle Obama.
The results for McCain are more consistent with historical views of a non-incumbent potential first lady than are Obama's. Teresa Heinz Kerry in 2004, Laura Bush in 2000, Elizabeth Dole in 1996 and Hillary Clinton in 1992 all fit a pattern similar to what is seen for McCain today. Michelle Obama's results, somewhat surprisingly, look a bit more like those of an incumbent first lady, perhaps because of her visibility during the extended Democratic nomination fight. Obama's ratings are close to those of Tipper Gore in 2000 or Laura Bush in 2004, though with greater unfavorable ratings.
-- Jennifer Agiesta
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The New York Times
July 2, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
INSIDE THE TIMES: July 2, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 2304 words
INTERNATIONAL
U.S. AGREES TO LIFT IMMUNITY
For Contractors in Iraq
In a briefing, Iraq's foreign minister said that the United States had agreed to lift immunity for foreign security contractors operating in Iraq. The foreign minister said that the agreement eliminated what had been a sticking point in negotiations on a security accord between Iraq and the United States. PAGE A11
UNITY URGED IN ZIMBABWE
The African Union urged the creation of a government of national unity in Zimbabwe to heal the nation's deep political wounds after President Robert Mugabe's triumph in a one-candidate runoff election widely condemned as a sham. The resolution represented another departure from the continent's resistance to treating Mr. Mugabe as anything less than a hero of the struggle for liberation. PAGE A11
WORLD BANK LEADER CALLS FOR AID
Warning in a letter that rising food and oil prices pose a crisis for the world's poor, Robert B. Zoellick, president of the World Bank, called on President Bush and other leaders who are assembling in Japan for an economic summit meeting to make new aid commitments to avert starvation and instability in dozens of countries. PAGE A10
NEW WOES IN UNION TREATY
Poland cast fresh doubt on the future of the Lisbon Treaty to build a more united Europe, drawing a sharp response from France, which assumed the six-month leadership of the European Union with dwindling hopes of delivering substance. President Lech Kaczynski of Poland was asked if he would sign the treaty, which Irish voters rejected. He replied that the effort was ''now pointless.'' PAGE A10
DISCORD OVER TAXES IN ARGENTINA
In Argentina, a political crisis erupted after the government raised export taxes for farmers, and it now threatens the government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the country's Peronist president. The revolt of dozens of politicians shows how deeply the president's decision has divided even the Peronists, leaving them torn between their party loyalties and their furious constituents. PAGE A6
CHINA BLOCKING DISSIDENT ACTIVITY
Two United States representatives who were in Beijing to lobby for the release of more than 700 political prisoners had hoped to have dinner with a group of Chinese human rights lawyers. But security agents had a different idea: they detained some of the lawyers and warned the others to stay away, which is the latest example of how Chinese security agents are increasing pressure on dissidents in advance of the Beijing Olympics in August. PAGE A8
Quake Bares Military's Flaws A8
Talks Over Tibet Resume A8
NATIONAL
SEEKING REVIEW OF TESTIMONY
In Firefighters' Deaths
John F. Wood, a federal prosecutor in Missouri, asked the Justice Department to review claims that several witnesses lied in the case surrounding a 1988 explosion in Kansas City that killed six firefighters. The announcement followed an article on Sunday in The Kansas City Star that raised questions about an investigator's tactics and whether the five people who were convicted of the crime were in fact guilty. PAGE A13
A MIXED BLESSING IN MONTANA
The snow left over from record snowfalls in Montana has delayed the opening of a road that connects the two sides of Glacier National Park. It's a blow to the town of St. Mary's, Mont., which depends on income from tourists who drive the scenic road, but good news for other parts of the Northern Rockies, which have suffered through high temperatures and a withering drought. PAGE A16
SETTLEMENTS IN SEXUAL ABUSE CASES
The Archdiocese of Denver said it would pay $5.5 million to settle more than a dozen lawsuits over sexual abuse by priests. The settlements bring to 42 the number of abuse claims the archdiocese has settled since 2005 against two priests, the Rev. Harold Robert White and the Rev. Leonard Abercrombie. A third priest, the Rev. Lawrence St. Peter, was accused in a 43rd case that was also settled. But two more abuse lawsuits against the archdiocese have yet to be resolved. PAGE A16
EVERGLADES PLAN COULD HAVE FLAWS
Florida's plan to buy nearly 300 square miles of land for Everglades restoration moved forward after water managers who would oversee the property endorsed its $1.75 billion offer. But skeptics say the state has bet a huge sum on oft-fertilized farmland that could take at least a decade and billions of dollars to rehabilitate. PAGE A12
SCRUTINY FOR JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
A federal watchdog agency is looking into hiring practices at the Justice Department, and the department is facing a lawsuit from a former law clerk who said he was rejected for a job because of his politics. The developments were prompted by a report from the department's inspector general, which found that department officials used ''political or ideological'' factors in picking lawyers for nonpartisan positions. PAGE A13
WEIGHING THREAT AT PLANTS
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission heard arguments from a California group that said the commission's staff had overlooked a category of potentially serious attacks by terrorists on nuclear plants. The commission, determined to dispose of the issue promptly, heard the arguments directly instead of delegating them as it normally would. PAGE A16
BUSINESS
DEMAND FOR OIL WILL CLIMB,
Along With Prices, Report Says
A report by the International Energy Agency says global demand for oil is likely to keep growing -- so drivers won't get much relief at the gas pump. And though the agency said that oil consumption would dip in the United States and other developed countries over the next few years, that decline would be offset by an increase of consumption in developing countries. PAGE C4
SHAKE-UPS AT MOODY'S
Moody's Corporation announced that it was replacing Noel Kirnon, an executive in charge of its structured finance business at a subsidiary, and that some employees violated its code of conduct in rating complex European securities. The company said it would discipline and possibly fire the employees involved. Moody's continues to face intense scrutiny for its role in the credit crisis. PAGE C1
JUDGE RULES AGAINST WAL-MART
A state judge in Minnesota ruled that Wal-Mart Stores violated state laws on wage matters more than two million times. Wal-Mart could face more than $2 billion in fines, and the judge has threatened to impose a $1,000 penalty for each violation. A spokesman for the retail giant said it was considering an appeal. PAGE C4
METRO
CITY IS EMPLOYING CONTRACTOR
With Mob Ties, Affidavit Says
An affidavit filed in federal court in Brooklyn suggests that officials with the Schiavone Construction Company, a contracting giant working on some of the largest public works projects in New York City, were involved with organized crime. Among the schemes alleged was a plan to evade a requirement that the company hire businesses owned by women on a big city project by using a front to funnel money to a mob-connected trucking executive. PAGE B1
ONE HOSTESS'S NIGHTMARE
Martha Nyakim Gatkuoth was a hostess at Tavern on the Green and the lead complainant in a federal discrimination lawsuit that the restaurant recently settled for $2.2 million. She says the restaurant had once seemed a dream come true, but became a place of daily dread where sexual and racial harassment was rife. PAGE B1
TRANSIT HUB DESIGN TRIMMED BACK
As envisioned by the architect Santiago Calatrava, the enormous wings forming the roof of the main hall at the World Trade Center transportation hub were to swing open to the sky. But with budgets and timetables well beyond earlier estimates, the roof ''will no longer open and close,'' said the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. PAGE B1
ARTS
A PLANE CRASH THAT LED
To a Shift in Government Powers
When an American bomber plane on a secret mission fell from the sky, nine men died, and three of their widows sued the government for negligence. The book ''Claim of Privilege,'' by Barry Siegel, focuses on that case, which gave birth to the state secrets privilege, which allows the government to shut down litigation simply by invoking national security. And, Adam Liptak writes, the book ''conclusively demonstrates that the state secrets privilege was built on a lie.'' PAGE E9
A BIG-BUDGET MOVIE FORGES ON
An actors' strike won't prompt a cease-fire in the War of the Machines. ''Terminator Salvation,'' the latest installment in the film franchise, is one of the high-profile projects pushing ahead amid talk of a shutdown by studios reluctant to schedule production beyond the expiration of a contract with the Screen Actors Guild. Those films have moved forward largely because the film industry's needs have overwhelmed any conviction that actors would walk out. PAGE E1
AT THE PRADO, A SURPLUS OF GOYA
O.K., so the Prado announced that ''Colossus,'' the famous and much-reproduced Goya painting of a giant terrifying a landscape, was not, in fact, a Goya. Fortunately, writes Michael Kimmelman, the museum's ''Goya in Times of War'' exhibit clears up what the real thing looks like. ''It's much too big an exhibition, like so many shows,'' he writes. ''But then, an excess of Goya is not exactly an unbearable prospect.'' PAGE E1
Bacon Portrait Fetches $27 Million E3
A New Look at 'The Last Supper' E5
OBITUARIES
IRINA BARONOVA, 89
She was one of the ''baby ballerinas'' -- three celebrated prodigies discovered by George Balanchine in the 1930s. The Russian-born ballet star toured around the world until she chose to retire at 27 in 1946 -- after having already been a professional dancer for 15 years. PAGE B7
RUTH CARDOSO, 77
She was among Brazil's leading intellectuals and feminists -- she wrote and taught extensively on subjects that included the lives of slum dwellers, social movements, urban violence, immigration and political mobilization -- before rather reluctantly becoming the country's first lady. ''A first lady is a human being, not a Barbie doll,'' she said after leaving the presidential palace in 2003. PAGE B7
DINING
DO THE FLAMES TASTE SWEET?
Sure as the Blue Mountains They Do
It starts with a word in Quecha, moves to a sweet flavor then finishes up with a burn across the tongue and a fire in the belly. Jerk's roots as a Taino Indian cooking tradition, and modified by escapees from the slave trade adding seasoning of their own, lives on. Allspice taken from the entire tree, from its bark to its berries, is a defining element in jerk. When you can see that cloud of smoke from the (maybe) illegal grills all the way out on the street you know you're in the right spot. Page F1
A VINTNER'S BLASPHEMY IT IS NOT
Previously a move so gauche as to bring to mind being burned at the stake somewhere in New England, a chilled red wine may offer momentary relief from summer's blaze. When a white wine, a cold beer or even a moisture-beaded glass of lemonade just won't suffice, reach for that ice bucket. Where room temperature is relative, make a careful selection of vintage and enjoy. Page F1
ZEROING IN ON NEW YORK'S PIZZA
A quest to make the perfect pizza in an electric oven was completed at the business end of a pair of garden shears. Electric ovens don't get nearly as hot as your average pizza oven. Jeff Varasano tried running the oven on the cleaning cycle, which maxes out the heat. All he had to do was disable the safety mechanisms that keep the door closed during the cycle -- and hope the house didn't burn down. Page F3
A Crisp, Made Truly Crisp F3
SPORTS
A MAN'S INVENTION HELPS A RUNNER
And Stirs Controversy
Van Phillips is an amputee, and the inventor of the Cheetah foot, which has garnered worldwide attention and controversy as the prosthetic design used by the sprinter Oscar Pistorius in his effort to compete against able-bodied athletes in the Summer Olympics. Track and field's governing body said the prosthetic gave Pistorius an unfair advantage before another body overturned that decision. ''Maybe there is not an answer,'' Phillips said. PAGE D3
THE BALL THAT LOVED DRAMA
Marc Ecko, the fashion designer who bid $752,467 for Barry Bonds's record-setting 756th home run ball, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum are at odds over the terms of Ecko's offer to donate the ball. The museum says Ecko's ''donation'' was really a loan. Ecko's spokesman said that it was a misunderstanding, and that the ball's donation was not temporary. So now the controversial little ball is being driven to Cooperstown in the hope that a deal can be worked out. PAGE D4
EDITORIAL
NOT WINNING THE WAR ON DRUGS
According to the White House, this country is scoring big wins in the war on drugs. This enthusiasm rests on a very selective reading of the data. Another look suggests that despite the billions of dollars spent, the United States has hardly made a dent. PAGE A18
A CLEAR-EYED LOOK AT GROUND ZERO
From the first emotional days after Sept. 11, 2001, Americans knew that rebuilding at the World Trade Center site would be difficult. But the renewal at ground zero will cost much more and take much longer than even the pessimists imagined. PAGE A18
OP-ED
MAUREEN DOWD
No more fist bumps: Obama and McCain are headed back to the past. PAGE A19
SHOOT TO STUN
The Supreme Court recently decided that the Constitution protects an individual's right to keep a gun at home. But given the growing availability of Tasers and other such weapons, state laws may increasingly restrict people's use of firearms for self-defense. An Op-Ed article by Paul H. Robinson. PAGE A19
DOES ZIMBABWE NEED A PRESIDENT?
The most effective way to remove Robert Mugabe from power may be for Zimbabwe's new Parliament to eliminate his job, writes Mark Y. Rosenberg in an Op-Ed essay. PAGE A19
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: July 2, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Summary
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
873 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The New York Times
July 2, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
The Wrong Stuff
BYLINE: By MAUREEN DOWD.
Thomas L. Friedman is off today.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 19
LENGTH: 785 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
On the way back from Unity, N.H., Friday evening, Barack Obama's plane got diverted by bad weather. Instead of landing at Reagan airport, it landed farther out at Dulles.
Before he got into his S.U.V., Senator Obama walked hesitantly toward the press, who were standing nearby.
He looks wary at such spontaneous sessions. He's still getting used to being covered protectively like a president, with journalists filing probing pool reports about how he ''reportedly showered and changed'' after his morning workout in Chicago.
He gives the impression of someone who would like to kid around with reporters for a minute, but knows he's going to be peppered with on-the-record minutiae designed to feed the insatiable maw of blogs and Internet news.
''So, what's going on, guys?'' he asked on the tarmac at dusk. ''What's going on on Friday night? You'll be back in time to have some fun.''
And what about you? a reporter asked the candidate. ''I can't have fun anymore,'' Obama said, in a comment meant to be wry but sounding wistful. ''It's not allowed.''
The guy is not, as Dan Quayle once put it, a happy camper.
He's an American who has climbed to the most rarefied stratosphere of American life, only to find that he has to make a major speech arguing that he loves his country. (A new CNN poll shows that a quarter of registered voters say Obama lacks patriotism.)
He's a man happily married to a strong professional woman who has to defend his wife, as he says, for being ''feisty.''
He must simultaneously defend himself for being too exotic and, because of recent moves, too conventional. (So conventional that he even refused to do a fist bump with a boy at a tutoring session for kids in Zanesville, Ohio.)
In the warped imagination of some on the left and right, this is a race between two Manchurian candidates, the Vietnam Manchurian candidate and the Muslim Manchurian candidate.
(The Manchurian vibe thrummed today with the scoop by Scott Shane of The Times that military trainers in Gitmo had practiced techniques used by the Chinese Communists during the Korean War to wrest confessions, many false, from American prisoners.)
This presidential race should be about how to fix the scary cascading crises in the country and the world. But as Obama offers himself as an avatar of modernity, the horizon fills with Swift boats against the current, and he is, Gatsby-like, ''borne back ceaselessly into the past.''
The 46-year-old is supposed to be the tonic for the culture wars of the 60s. In his patriotism speech, he said that ''the anger and turmoil'' of that generation had ''never entirely drained away,'' leaving our politics ''trapped in these old, threadbare arguments.''
But it's Obama who seems trapped, sucked back into yesteryear.
Wes Clark joined the growing ranks of troublesome Obama associates when he meowed that just ''riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down'' is not a qualification to be president. He made McCain sound like a drone aircraft.
This is not even about Obama. It's the old business of grunts resenting flyboys. Bob Dole made a crack long ago about patrician Poppy Bush flying over the infantry. And Clark, as Fred Kaplan writes in Slate, ''was an Army infantry commander during the Vietnam War while McCain was a Navy aviator.''
The McCain team ratcheted up the fight, trotting out an army of defenders on a conference call.
One was Col. Bud Day, McCain's fellow P.O.W. who appeared in a Swift boat ad sliming John Kerry in 2004. ''The Swift Boat, quote, 'attacks' were simply revelation of the truth,'' he said.
Another renowned Marine grunt in Vietnam, Democratic Senator Jim Webb, chimed in on MSNBC, advising flyboy McCain to ''calm down'' on his promotion of his military service, saying we need to ''get the politics out of the military.''
Naturally, the words ''calm down'' caused the McCain camp to rev up.
When McCain zoomed in the New Hampshire polls in 2000, W.'s supporters insinuated that McCain's years in Vietcong dungeons, including two suicide attempts, left him with snakes in his head.
Now McCain is trying to magnify the words of Obama surrogates on Vietnam to tarnish his self-styled postpartisan rival as partisan. On the way to Colombia, he talked about Clark and said it was time for Obama to ''cut him loose.''
Yet McCain himself has joked: ''It doesn't take a lot of talent to get shot down. I was able to intercept a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane.''
Maybe instead of refighting the Vietnam War while we're still fighting the Iraq war, the candidates can figure out how to feed the world, find enough fuel for everyone and oh, yeah, catch that bin Laden fiend who's running around free.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: July 2, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Op-Ed
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
874 of 972 DOCUMENTS
Washingtonpost.com
July 2, 2008 Wednesday 12:00 PM EST
The Reliable Source
BYLINE: Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts, Washington Post Staff Writers, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 5682 words
HIGHLIGHT: Reliable Source columnists Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts were online Wednesday, July 2 to discuss your favorite gossip, what you think about their recent columns or who you want to see them writing about in future ones.
Reliable Source columnists Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts were online Wednesday, July 2 to discuss your favorite gossip, what you think about their recent columns or who you want to see them writing about in future ones.
A transcript follows.
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Amy Argetsinger: Good morning everyone! This week in Reliable Sourceland... The Fentys expecting another baby, this time a girl. A decorated Marine vet explains why most Iraq movies suck. No one seemed to get very excited about David Beckham this time around. Chris Cooley tries to take the trash out. We tried to unmask "The Collector." Yet another "Predator" actor announced he's running for office. Jack Kent Cooke's daughter ran into some trouble with the law. And all the rich people went to Aspen. What's on your mind? Tell us!
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Baltimore: Hi ladies, just wondering what 50s-style movie was filming yesterday afternoon in Mt. Vernon square in B'more. It was around 6 p.m. and there were lots of old cars and people dressed up in fun mid-20th century costume. Any ideas?
Amy Argetsinger: That would be Renee Zellweger's "My One and Only," also starring Chris Noth, Kevin Bacon, Steven Weber (the blond brother from "Wings"), and Nick Stahl, who is one of those hot young actors I get confused with the other hot young actors. Did you see anyone?
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MOP, Los Angeles, Calif.,: Amy, are you a Jeff girl or a Jay girl?
Amy Argetsinger: I have no idea what this means. Fill me in?
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Cracker Barrel: Re the endorsement from Miley Cyrus, do you have Cracker Barrel restaurants in Washington? If so, can you recall any celebrity sightings in such a venue (which makes Applebee's look chic)?
Amy Argetsinger: True story: Roxanne, being a suave urbanite, didn't know that there was such a restaurant as Cracker Barrel. I looked, and we have about a dozen Cracker Barrel restaurants within a two hour drive of here, most of them in places like Fredericksburg and Frederick. I can't recall any celebrity sightings at any of them.... What about R. Kelly at the Columbia Cheesecake Factory? Close enough?
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Amy Argetsinger: Oh. I just got the "Jeff or Jay?" question. Duh. It's been more than a decade since we Americans were forced to pick one side of Uncle Tupelo or the other, and while some friends of mine went with Jay Farrar and Son Volt, I went happily with Jeff Tweedy and Wilco, and I have never looked back, even though this has irrevocably harmed some of those friendships.
Too arcane for the rest of you? You sure are quiet today.
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Designing Women: Are the days over when the First Lady is dressed by designers? (Was Michelle Obama's dress on The View really from Black and White as someone told me?) Does Barack Obama wear bespoke suits?
Roxanne Roberts: Yes and no. The $148 dress was by Donna Ricco, a mid-price label found at Macy's, etc. I think the point of the dress was to show Michelle's softer, girly side because she comes across so strong and favors simple, geometric lines and colors. Anyway, the dress was a big hit, but if she's first lady I don't think she'll be shopping much----I'd expect her to wear American designers, but higher end. Don't know about the senator's suits---since he's running right now, I don't think he's likely to be ordering expensive, custom-made suits.
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R. Kelly in Columbia: Let's hope he wasn't seated near any kids' birthday parties
Amy Argetsinger: This was back in January. He was dining with three women. It was one of the most random and unbelievable sightings since LL Cool J showed up at Chadwick's in Georgetown.
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Baltimore movie: Thanks for the info! Sadly, no, I didn't see anyone. Maybe that's because my bus was whizzing down the street... Are they still filming today?
Amy Argetsinger: Good question -- haven't been following this one closely (since it's in Baltimore), but they've been around a full month now. Can't be there much longer, I assume. That's a pretty long stay for an out-of-town movie shoot.
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The Pope's Shoes: We had a lot of fun when the Pope came to visit talking about kitty plates and his red Prada loafers. I saw an article this week where it said that they are not Prada -- that this would be in opposition to his simple lifestyle as Pope (or something like that). What do you think? Where did the whole Prada thing come from, anyway?
washingtonpost.com: Papal Shoes ( Wikipedia)
Roxanne Roberts: The red loafers were actually made by the pope's personal shoemaker, a senior Vatican official to the Wall Street Journal. But they look similiar to a Prada shoe, which is where the speculation began. The Pope has become a bit of a fashion plate, reviving centuries-old traditions with hats, capes and the like---including red shoes. He also wears designer sunglasses, so I don't think the "simple lifestyle" applies dirctly to his accessories.
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Washington, D.C.: This has nothing to do with gossip, but Shannon Doherty is going to be on the new 90210. She just keeps popping up, doesn't she?
Amy Argetsinger: Well, she's in talks to be on the new "90210," so we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed. You know who else was going to be on the new "90210"? One of my best friends. It was a small role, but her character had a couple lines and a name -- but they just cut it. I betcha it was so they could cast Shannen Doherty in that role instead.
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Jeff or Jay: Amy, that was a rather detailed explanation, but I still don't get it. Am I hopeless?
Amy Argetsinger: No. This was so arcane that even I didn't get it at first. Just some music-geek talk.
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Washington DC: I fell in love with Chris Cornell this weekend. He is soooo yummy in that Verizon commerical. Mmmmmm.
Amy Argetsinger: Haven't seen it. Is it online?
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Shaw, D.C.: Forget Beckham, who's the most eligible bachelor on D.C. United? I had the great luck to watch the Eurocup Finals at RFK after Sunday's 4-1 win over the L.A. Galaxy. Some D..C United players were there and they were so sweet to the young fans asking for autographs.
Amy Argetsinger: A lot of ladies like Bobby Boswell, who is certainly one of the most visible D.C. United players on the scene.
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Packing heat: Now that the Supreme Court has repealed the gun ban in the District, are there any celebrities/politicos who should give us cause to worry about their possession of firearms?
Amy Argetsinger: Ha! Now that is a good question, and thank you for asking it. I'm sure there are all kinds of VIPs we should be worried about -- Roberta McCain, maybe? Though she strikes me as a lady who would actually know how to shoot well. Any other suggestions?
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I miss Hillary: Oops, I accidentally submitted without typing last time. Anyway, I miss the tidbits about Hillary in the column. Can we talk about who's dressing her and also about the speech she and Obama gave in Unity, N.H. -- did her suit match his tie on purpose?
Roxanne Roberts: Hey, I noticed that too----although I'm guessing HE wore (or changed) his toe to match her pantsuit. (Maybe an aide carries around a bunch of ties to fit each campaign stop.) Anyway, she's worn that all-blue look before, but I don't know who's dressing her. And cruel truth: It's unlikely to become a topic of great interest unless Obama taps her to be veep, which is not happening according to insider buzz.
Anything else you want to know?
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Arlington, Va./re: "Too quiet": It is very eerie in the region today. Very, very little traffic this morning, very little e-mail messages, no one telephoning.......did something happen?
Roxanne Roberts: The July 4th weekend starts earlier and earlier every year. Everyone with any clout is already outta here.....which tells you where we stand on the totem pole.
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What is the grossest: Celebrity habit you have ever seen? No washing after using the turlet? Eating at the Olive Garden? Picking a cookie up off of the red carpet and eating it?
In the interest of self disclosure, I used to drink coffee in the bathroom...until I dropped my cup in the turlet.
Amy Argetsinger: Another good question. Roxanne notes that most celebrities reserve their gross habits for the eyes of their aides/personal assistants; they keep them under cover around reporters. I would say, though, that the bad habit that is reported to us the most (though sadly the hardest to confirm) is the not-washing-hands after "the turlet," as the kids are calling it these days.
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Brooklyn, N.Y.: Had a New York moment last week when I was walking down Christopher Street in the Village with a friend heading to dinner. On just one block we walked past Joan Rivers, and then David Schwimmer. They weren't there together or at the same place.
She looked ghastly -- even worse than on TV. He exactly the same as he did 10 years ago on Friends. At least he's got that going for him.
Amy Argetsinger: So Schwimmer's resisted the siren call of plastic surgery, anyway.
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Collector update?: So my artist friend who shows locally and has also been at Artomatic for several years is still convinced the collector is the same artist whose work was stolen. You seem to think not, but why?
Amy Argetsinger: Well, it couldn't be Tim working alone, because Tim was with me when we met The Collector on the Mall, and he definitely wasn't the guy who waved to me from the Metro station. Still.... I don't know what to think anymore. I tell you, The Collector has utterly messed with my head.
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Insider buzz: Who are the insiders buzzing about for veep? And what are they wearing?
Amy Argetsinger: The insiders? Or the veep candidates?
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Papal Shoes: So he wears bespoke shoes? How is that part of a simple lifestyle?
Roxanne Roberts: He's the Pope! Monks do simple----popes do 2,000 years of tradition, which often includes standing on their not-so-young feet for hours. I think he deserves comfortable shoes. Actually, everyone I know who's every had a custom shirt, suit, or shoe made says it spoils you for anything else because it's PERFECT on Day One and wildly comfortable.
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Baltimore, Md.: I thought Anne Hathaway was a bright, smart talent likely to be the next Julia Roberts. Then, I read David Segal's article and read about her ex-boyfriend, the playboy jailbird. That can't be good for her career.
washingtonpost.com: From Posh to Pokey: The Downward Spiral Of Raffaello Follieri ( Post, July 2)
Amy Argetsinger: It's a great story; please do read. You know, I sort of thought the same thing -- and then I thought, well, what exactly was the evidence that made me think that Anne Hathaway was smarter than your average starlet? It's weird how certain celebrities project that quality. Or maybe we just project it onto them. I do feel bad for her, though.
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Brangelina twins: Which glossy do you think will have the first pictures? Where do you think they'll donate the proceeds? Why am I so obsessed with these babies?
Roxanne Roberts: People, I expect, since they nabbed the first pictures of Shiloh and the money will undoubtedly go to a global feel-good cause.
And why ARE you so obsessed with these babies? I'm finding myself underwhelmed this time around, even with twins.
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Clifton, Va.: So Tom went on his honeymoon and you ladies knew nothing about it. The shame!
Amy Argetsinger: We're talking Sietsema, right? He seems to be the only first-name-only superstar "Tom" for you people. Anyway, he tells us he was in Beijing and Las Vegas, but not on a honeymoon.
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Obama's Veep: Roxanne, according to insider buzz, who is he picking? Let's announce it during this chat!
Roxanne Roberts: Great idea! According to insider buzz----he's not picking Hillary! There are a bunch of older, foreign-experience guys mentioned, but no frontrunner. But I can tell you Caroline Kennedy has been spotted drinking a lot of coffee, if that gives you any clue.
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Woodbridge, Va.: So, Britney's now house-hunting for something more private and peaceful? Who does she think she's fooling? She's like Mary with the little lamb -- wherever she goes, the media are sure to follow!
Amy Argetsinger: According to court documents reported on by AP.... Brit wants a house with a larger yard that's closer to parks for the sake of her kids. Also: a "less trafficked" locale than her place in Beverly Hills, which she's putting on the market.
I don't know. I think to a certain extent some celebrities invite a certain amount of paparazzi attention, and have some power to avoid it.
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NYC: I'm pretty sure that, by law, Cracker Barrels aren't allowed to exist above the Mason Dixon Line. I believe it's part of the Stuckey's Compromise drawn up during Reconstruction.
Roxanne Roberts: Which one gets to serve iced tea in Mason jars?
And honestly, I thought Miley was talking about the cheese, not the restaurant.
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Washington, D.C.: Why, oh why, did YouTube take the King/Bash video down?! Please tell me you know how to see it still.
Amy Argetsinger: Apparently some bloggers got to it weeks ago, and still have it (link to follow)... Dana looks absolutely gorgeous. Looks like a very nice event.
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Washington, D.C.: Okay, so I'm sad to admit I actually know this, but Bobby Boswell no longer plays for D.C. United. I'm afraid you'll have to come up with a different answer.
Amy Argetsinger: Huh. So that's why we haven't seen him around lately. Clearly, you were asking the wrong person. Someone else tell us.
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Tonydan, Za: Danza was in total shambles for last year's July 4 concert. His hair, his costume changes, his poorly written and timed jokes. Me thinks he had a Brit Brit headset microphone.
Who will host this year?
Will it be just as cheezy?
Amy Argetsinger: Why are we talking about Tony Danza AGAIN this week?!?
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washingtonpost.com: John King and Dana Bash -- Married ( All Things CNN)
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Quiet today: There's so much to discuss: Madonna and ARod's rumored affair (the new explanation is that he has gotten interested in Kabbalah -- how weird is that? -- and their friendship has nothing to do with his taste for hard-bodied blonds); Brangelina going into the hospital; and Cracker Bbarrel v. Applebees (what happened to Shoney's? Or Denny's?) -- you guys should interview Tom Sietsema on the subject. What have I forgotten?
Amy Argetsinger: But Madonna and Guy Ritchie had dinner together last night in Manhattan. Holding hands! Everything's fine here folks, nothing to see -- move along! (link to follow)
Tom picks Applebee's.
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Falls Church Va.: Amy, chats work again from my office. Hooray!
(I still have nothing of value to add...just letting you know.)
Amy Argetsinger: Thanks for being here for us.
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Brangelina twins: Those early pictures of Shiloh were breathtaking and this time it's potentially twice as much adorableness
Roxanne Roberts: A test: If you ran pictures of Shiloh next to pictures of Suri, without captions, could you tell who was who? What if you threw in three other cute babies? There's a lot of cuteness out there. Frankly, I'd rather look at pictures of kittens than babies.
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washingtonpost.com: Madonna & Guy Enjoy Dinner - Together! -- in N.Y.C. ( People)
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Chris Cornell Commerical: Found it!
Chris Cornell Commercial ( YouTube)
Amy Argetsinger: okay, thanks. That's a long commercial.
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Britney: If she (or her father, rather) is smart, she'll buy in a gated community where you can't get past the main gate unless you live there. Then she can be outside and take walks in her neighborhood and stuff with the kids without being hassled. But I'm sure she'll end up somewhere else where the neighbors will end up hating her thanks to all the commotion.
I agree that she probably brought a lot of this attention on herself, but I can't help but feel bad for her that her life has become such a spectacle.
Amy Argetsinger: Yes.
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In Re Miley C. and CB.: I believe that Cracker Barrel is a brand of cheese, so at 9 p.m. she's just heading down to the 'fridge.
Amy Argetsinger: Sure, could be.
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Pope shoes:"The red loafers were actually made by the pope's personal shoemaker"
Okay, designer shoes are too rich for the pope's "simple" lifestyle, but he has his own shoemaker?!
Roxanne Roberts: Folks, you gotta give up the "simple" thing. He's the POPE. He gets good shoes, okay? And clothes. And food. And even cats, which are against the rules of the Vatican. Compared to historical popes, this guy has a modest lifestyle.
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Hollywood, Fla.: So what is with Madonna and the ball players ?
Roxanne Roberts: She likes to score? Bring on the puns, people!
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Fairfax, Va.: I was disturbed reading your column yesterday -- you have seen the movie Top Gun, right? You should be aware that Tom Cruise sang "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" at some nighclub, not the same dive bar where Goose played "Great Balls of Fire." Sad that it burned down. How could you guys have messed that up?
washingtonpost.com: Get This! ( Reliable Source, July 1)
Amy Argetsinger: I'm still researching this very complicated issue, but I believe the confusion stems from the fact that the dive bar was where Kelly McGillis played "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" on the jukebox. If a correction is warranted, I'm hoping it runs the same day as the correction of the music review that called Lil Wayne's new album "The Carter III" instead of "Tha Carter III."
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Interviewing Tom: That's a great idea!! I would LOVE to read an interview with Tom, maybe learn where he shops, what he does when he's not working, etc., etc.
Amy Argetsinger: You people are obsessed. Why Tom? What is it about him? Why do you think he's so wonderful?
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Danza : So now he's just Danza?
Amy Argetsinger: Another one-name celebrity.
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Washington, D.C.: I noticed that Lyle Lovett is in town tonight for his show at Wolf Trap. Any idea where he stays? Though concerned that if I were to meet him, he is not as cute in person as he seems.
Roxanne Roberts: I can save you the trouble---he looks exactly the same in person (except, of course, shorter than you expect): Skinny suit, wild hair, polite but slightly bemused.
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Arlington, Va.: Re: Becks...
I attended the game this weekend, as well as the game where he played here last season. I'll just say that, even if you aren't a soccer fan, it's worth staying through the game to see him shed his shirt at the end.....(losing my train of thought here for a second.....)....
Amy Argetsinger: Thanks for sharing.
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The turlet: That's what Archie Bunker called it. Nothing new here.
Amy Argetsinger: Apparently, it's back.
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Anonymous: I think they are calling it 4th of July WEEK now... so what are your plans when this chat is over ?
Roxanne Roberts: I want to grab lunch and linger over an outdoor picnic. Instead, we'll be cranking out tomorrow's column---and working on Friday's, too.
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Washington: So we have Ventura, Arnold, and that third guy from Predator running for office -- how soon until Carl Weathers announces he is running for something? I don't care what district -- I will quit my job to go work for him.
Amy Argetsinger: Frankly, I would have thought he'd be the one with the most political promise. Guess he's having too much fun counting his Apollo Creed money.
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Silver Spring, Md.: You think anyone would notice if I snuck out of work to see the 4:30 showing of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance at the AFI this afternoon? It's summertime - not like anything is going on around here.
Amy Argetsinger: I did this recently, and no one noticed at all. You going to stick around for the 7 p.m. showing of "Vertigo"? I'd suggest taking a break for dinner and coming back for "The Manchurian Candidate," one of the finest movies ever made. There's nothing better to do on a beautiful summer night than spend five hours in a frigid theater.
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RE: he is not as cute in person as he seems.: Lyle is just as cute in person. If that's what you consider cute. He's also charming, and I believe, taken.
Amy Argetsinger: I met him at the Kennedy Center Honors. He is peculiarly attractive and has wonderful manners. He also has a smokin' hot girlfriend.
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Top Gun: No one played "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" on the juke box! They sang it - A Cappella!!!
Amy Argetsinger: That was in the early scene -- but at the end, didn't they play it again on the jukebox? Or is my source misinformed?
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New York: Can someone please do something about Madonna's affected British accent? She is such an idiot. I used to live in London and you don't pick up an accent if you're over 5 years old. And if you do, everyone there will think you are utter cheese.
Roxanne Roberts:"Utter cheese"....is that a restaurant chain, too. I'm trying to keep this all straight.
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Re: interviewing Tom: It's the mystery. We don't know anything about him, but we love his restaurant reviews. He publishes so much each week that is fairly subjective, yet we really have no idea who he is
Amy Argetsinger: Note to self: Try to cultivate some mystery.
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Cracker Barrels in the North: We have a Cracker Barrel in Rhode Island, which is about as Yankee as you can get. No word on whether or not Tony Danza has ever been spotted there.
Amy Argetsinger: Please do let us know if that happens.
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Room 404: Do you feel any anxiety being up against the cat chat this week ? -- although you two can get a little catty yourselves at times.
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, lord, is there a chat about cats going on right now? Rox is probably two-timing you all by sending questions there as we speak.
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Silver Spring, Md.: I feel so bad for Anne Hathaway! I don't know how smart she is or how much of a good person or anything, but I can't help imagining how 'awful' she must feel right now. And so pretty!
Roxanne Roberts: Very pretty, yes....but maybe not so sharp? I figure she would have noticed something was amiss after four years of dating the guy. Like, maybe he WASN'T the CFO of the Vatican?
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D.C. United players: Yes, as another poster pointed out, Bobby Boswell was traded to Houston in the off-season. Although none seem to share Boswell's gift for self-promotion, the current crop of United's eligible young bachelors would include Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Zach Wells, Dom Mediate, Rod Dyachenko, and I'm sure there are others but I'm a straight guy and I've said too much already.
Check out the D.C. United Web site; the players do a lot of community outreach and are generally very accessible and friendly (unlike some other sports...)
washingtonpost.com: D.C. United
Amy Argetsinger: You have been very helpful. Thanks.
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Gun-Toting Celebs to Worry About.. : Doesn't Ted Nugent show up periodically to lobby for NRA stuff on the Hill? I could see him toting his rifle and wearing his fatigues, shooting at pigeons on the Mall.
Amy Argetsinger: Good point.
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New York: What is our impression of Lance Armstrong these days? Reading that he was having dinner with Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn and just kept thinking that Goldie should get her daughter away from that guy.
Amy Argetsinger: Lance Armstrong -- he sure does date a lot of blonde women. Just my impression.
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Washington, D.C.: If it makes you feel any better, my office was the only one open the day after Thanksgiving and the week of Christmas. To make matters worse, the Fed-Ex/UPS people would say, "Do you know you are the ONLY office open on campus today?!"
Roxanne Roberts: Did you get any work done, or spend all the time watching You Tube?
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Silver Spring, Md.: Well, we could talk about the Brangelina babies. I gather they haven't popped out yet, but they're bound to be fascinating when they do. I've decided I really kind of like Angelina Jolie -- okay, there's a lot not to like (weird gun obsession, weird weirdness) but I think all the hate makes me want to defend her. And, I mean, she seems to be raising nice children and living a decent life. And her boyfriend's hot.
Amy Argetsinger: You've pretty much boiled down the entire Jolie phenomenon right there -- thanks.
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I think the restaurant is called "Udder Cheese": Sorry, you asked for the puns...
Roxanne Roberts: Yeah, but you're milking it....
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London, U.K.: Re Ms. Rivers -- she was just on this past week's Graham Norton show on BBC America, along with Ali-SEE-a Silverstone. Ms. Rivers face was frozen in place, but she was still a stitch. If you're not already DVRing this show, you really should (now that you have cable!).
Amy Argetsinger: I've heard good things about that show.
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Betting on a collie: Do you have the inside scoop on what breed of dog the Obamas will be getting their kids as promised ?
Roxanne Roberts: You're a mind reader! We're wondering the same thing, and will share as soon as we find out. Why betting on a collie?
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Virginia: I think everyone's wrong about the Cracker Barrel. I think it IS the restaurant, not the cheese. It's like Starbucks in the South. They are everywhere. It's more common to mention a restaurant chain in the context she was giving, than to mention a brand of cheese.
Roxanne Roberts: Yeah, but I grew up in the Midwest, and obviously know nothing. We had Big Boy. Anyone remember those?
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Fleeting Fame, Minn.: What do you think of the trend towards "celebrity" everything? We have celebrity chefs, designers and politicos. Does this make life harder or easier for celebrity watchers ?
Amy Argetsinger: I think it's a terrible trend. The result is too many people occupying too many layers of micro-fame, and very few famous people who are famous to everyone. Makes our job harder, certainly -- you may be endlessly fascinated in one celebrity, yet another reader has never heard of this person.
_______________________
Madonna: I would never date A-Rod. I'm still getting over Warren Beatty, Jose Canseco, Sean Penn, and Vanilla Ice.
Roxanne Roberts: Vanilla Ice? Ewwwwww.....
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Washington, D.C.: Yes, they sang "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" in the beginning (gack) and then near the end, Kelli McGillis played it on the jukebox. Am I the only one here who's seen that movie 100 times? Really?
Amy Argetsinger: You might be.
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Apollo Creed Money: Actually, Carl Weathers wouldn't let his image appear in Rocky VI (Balboa) in 2006 because Stallone wouldn't give him a part (since Apollo is dead) or pay him enough money.
So maybe he doesn't have much to count.
Amy Argetsinger: Well, let's try to draft him for the VP slot, then. For either candidate, I don't care.
_______________________
Trump Towers: Is it OK for me to drink during this chat ? I'm having a great time but having trouble following a lot of the chain of thought here.
Amy Argetsinger: Hey, everyone else is.
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Mason Dixon Line, Md.: Dude... does NYC realize that the Mason Dixon Line is north of Maryland and D.C.? Not that I'm advocating the expansion of Cracker Barrels, just wanted to make sure the group had the appropriate geography lesson for the day.
Amy Argetsinger: Thank you.
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Not So Dirty Job: When will you interview Mike Rowe? If you are afraid, I am happy to sub for you...Rowr Rowr!
Amy Argetsinger: Case in point (RE: explosion of micro-celebrity) -- who id Mike Rowe? I don't know who that is!
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Re. Cracker Barrels : Mason Dixon line? I don't think so!
They're ALL over Pa. and New England, a few in upstate N.Y., too. Not on Long Island yet.
Roxanne Roberts: So there.
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Interview Chico:: Hope you're not offended that I'm jumping between chats, but now I'm dying to know if Chico Harlan, the new Nats reporter is hot. Have you done a Most Beautiful WAPO people list (which you'd surely both be on)?
Amy Argetsinger: With a byline as awesome as "Chico Harlan," does he even need to be hot? We've never done that kind of list -- we leave that up to the folks at FishbowlDC, who every August compile a "hottest media types" roster. Much fun.
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Top Gun: I've seen it way too much too. It was on again the other night...but I was too busy watching White Men Can't Jump for the one-billionth time.
Roxanne Roberts: And I don't think I've ever seen it. Is that weird?
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Kelly didn't play it....: On the jukebox...I think she walked into the place and then sat down and right after she sat down the song came on and she looked up thinking that tom would walk in....and then I think he did.
Amy Argetsinger: You see? I'm going to have to Netflix this before I write the correction.
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They played it again at the end....: I think it was after he left and she was sitting alone in the same place with a look of longing on her face and then that song comes on the jukebox and he appears...
Amy Argetsinger: How many times have YOU seen "Top Gun"?
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Cracker Barrell Celebs: I once saw Jimmy Dean (50's singer & sausage king) at a Cracker Barrel outside of Richmond, Va. He and his wife apparently took an elderly neighbor there on a regular basis.
Roxanne Roberts: Awwww. Now that's just sweet.
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Top Gun: Wasn't he sitting at the bar or something and she came in behind him and played it?
Amy Argetsinger: Who knows?
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Boston, Mass.: Might I suggest a Tom Cruise film fest weekend at the Argetsinger house? Just to get those Top Gun memories sorted out?
Amy Argetsinger: Okay, but we only have time for "Cocktail" OR "Magnolia" -- not both.
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Come on, Amy....: Mike Rowe? Star of "Dirty Jobs" on Discovery and host of "Deadliest Catch," also the voice on those Ford commercials. Really hot, and a trained opera singer!
Amy Argetsinger: I learn so much from you people.
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Anne Hathaway: I'm sure she enjoyed his money and how much Florielli spent on her.
Amy Argetsinger: They did have fun for a while.
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Obama dog: I think the qualities they look for in a dog should mimic those he is seeking in a VP - the pup should be older, personable, with good hair, and on a short leash. In other words, they are getting a lab.
Amy Argetsinger: Very good, thanks.
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Cracker Barrel: But they haven't crossed the Donna Dixon line.
Roxanne Roberts: But Dan Aykroyd has.
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"We had Big Boy..": So did we, in Kentucky. Tipping over the Big Boy statue in front of the restaurant was a rite of passage when you hit the high school years. Good times...
Amy Argetsinger: That's a quaintly wholesome way to grow up.
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Crystal City: You know, I think that at age 2-something Suri Cruise is way cuter than Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. And yes, I could tell them apart.
Roxanne Roberts: You're good.
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Top Gun - are you people kidding me?: After the big, crazy mission where Maverick is the hero, he gets to be an instructor at Top Gun. He's sitting at the bar at the end with his Top Gun hat on the bar. Someone comes in and you see a woman's hand drop a coin into the jukebox and the song starts. He gets up and goes into the room with the juke and looks around because he knows it's her, but the room is empty. He's sad. Then she appears behind him and says she heard the best of the best were going to be there, etc, etc.
Did you people have a pulse in the 80s? Sheesh.
Amy Argetsinger: Truly, this is like "Rashomon" now -- everyone saw something different in those final moments of "Top Gun."
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Raljon, Md.: Glad to see those crazy Kent Cookes in the news again. Any idea -- is Coco still alive? She was always my favorite Kent Cooke.
Amy Argetsinger: Coco, the Cooke cocker spaniel, you mean? Well, I'm seeing photos of Jack and Coco back in 1989 so... I'm guessing probably not.
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New York, N.Y.: My guess on the veep is that it will be a caretaker veep. Someone milquetoast enough not to rock the boat, and someone with no presidential ambition of their own so that Hillary can run for pres in eight years (a concession for not choosing her).
Watch me be right.
Amy Argetsinger: Okay...
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You guys rock: I love your chat. Makes Wednesdays so much less heinous
Roxanne Roberts: Back at ya.
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Roxanne Roberts: Don't know about you, but I've got my weekend all planned out: Fireworks, BBQ and "Top Gun." Have a blast, but don't forget to send tips to reliablesource@washpost.com Stay safe, everyone.
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Rashomon comment: Good pull!
Amy Argetsinger: Thanks.
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Springfield, Ill.: If you're a music geek, Amy, you're one after my heart. You made the right call re Jeff vs. Jay. And, at the risk of upping the arcane quotient, when Nels Cline joined Wilco, it settled the debate for the ages.
Crank up "Heavy Metal Drummer" and dance like no one's watching!
Amy Argetsinger: Everyone else is gone now, right? So it's okay if us music geeks just hang out here for a while and talk over everyone else's head?
Thanks for joining us today. Bye!
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
July 1, 2008 Tuesday
Late Edition - Final
Obama's Money Class
BYLINE: By DAVID BROOKS
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 21
LENGTH: 811 words
Barack Obama sells the Democratic Party short. He talks about his fund-raising success as if his donors were part of a spontaneous movement of small-money enthusiasts who cohered around himself. In fact, Democrats have spent years building their donor network. Obama's fund-raising base is bigger than John Kerry's, Howard Dean's and Al Gore's, but it's not different.
As in other recent campaigns, lawyers account for the biggest chunk of Democratic donations. They have donated about $18 million to Obama, compared with about $5 million to John McCain, according to data released on June 2 and available at OpenSecrets.org.
People who work at securities and investment companies have given Obama about $8 million, compared with $4.5 for McCain. People who work in communications and electronics have given Obama about $10 million, compared with $2 million for McCain. Professors and other people who work in education have given Obama roughly $7 million, compared with $700,000 for McCain.
Real estate professionals have given Obama $5 million, compared with $4 million for McCain. Medical professionals have given Obama $7 million, compared with $3 million for McCain. Commercial bankers have given Obama $1.6 million, compared with $1.2 million for McCain. Hedge fund and private equity managers have given Obama about $1.6 million, compared with $850,000 for McCain.
When you break it out by individual companies, you find that employees of Goldman Sachs gave more to Obama than workers of any other employer. The Goldman Sachs geniuses are followed by employees of the University of California, UBS, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, National Amusements, Lehman Brothers, Harvard and Google. At many of these workplaces, Obama has a three- or four-to-one fund-raising advantage over McCain.
When he is swept up in rhetorical fervor, Obama occasionally says that his campaign is 90 percent funded by small donors. He has indeed had great success with small donors, but only about 45 percent of his money comes from donations of $200 or less.
The real core of his financial support is something else, the rising class of information age analysts. Once, the wealthy were solidly Republican. But the information age rewards education with money. There are many smart high achievers who grew up in liberal suburbs around San Francisco, L.A. and New York, went to left-leaning universities like Harvard and Berkeley and took their values with them when they became investment bankers, doctors and litigators.
Political analysts now notice a gap between professionals and managers. Professionals, like lawyers and media types, tend to vote and give Democratic. Corporate managers tend to vote and give Republican. The former get their values from competitive universities and the media world; the latter get theirs from churches, management seminars and the country club.
The trends are pretty clear: rising economic sectors tend to favor Democrats while declining economic sectors are more likely to favor Republicans. The Democratic Party (not just Obama) has huge fund-raising advantages among people who work in electronics, communications, law and the catchall category of finance, insurance and real estate. Republicans have the advantage in agribusiness, oil and gas and transportation. Which set of sectors do you think are going to grow most quickly in this century's service economy?
Amazingly, Democrats have cultivated this donor base while trending populist on trade by forsaking much of the Clinton Third Way approach and by vowing to raise taxes on capital gains and the wealthy. If Obama's tax plans go through, those affluent donors could wind up giving over 50 percent of their income to the federal government.
They've managed to clear these policy hurdles partly by looking out for tort lawyers and other special groups. But mostly they have taken advantage of the rivalry between the two American elites.
Over the past several years, the highly educated coastal rich have been engaged in a little culture war with the inland corporate rich. This is a war over values, leadership styles and social networks.
Socially liberal knowledge workers naturally want to see people like themselves at the head of society, not people who used to run Halliburton and who are supported by a vast army of evangelicals.
If the Democrats are elected, this highly educated class will have much more say over policy than during the campaign. Undecided voters sway campaigns, but in government, elites generally run things. Once the Republicans are vanquished, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for that capital gains tax hike or serious measures to expand unionization.
Over the past few years, people from Goldman Sachs have assumed control over large parts of the federal government. Over the next few they might just take over the whole darn thing.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: July 1, 2008
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The Washington Post
July 1, 2008 Tuesday
Regional Edition
Who's Behind High Prices
BYLINE: Robert J. Samuelson
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A11
LENGTH: 844 words
Tired of high gasoline prices and rising food costs? Well, here's a solution. Let's shoot the speculators. A chorus of politicians, including John McCain and Barack Obama, blames these financial slimeballs for piling into commodities markets and pushing prices to artificial and unconscionable levels. Gosh, if only it were that simple. Speculator-bashing is another exercise in scapegoating and grandstanding. Leading politicians either don't understand what's happening or don't want to acknowledge their own complicity.
Granted, raw materials prices have exploded across the board. From 2002 to 2007, oil rose 177 percent, corn 70 percent, copper 360 percent and aluminum 95 percent. But that's just the point. Did "speculators" really cause all those increases? If so, why did some prices go up more than others? And what about steel? It rose 117 percent -- and has increased further in 2008 -- even though it isn't traded on commodities futures markets.
A better explanation is basic supply and demand. Despite the U.S. slowdown, the world economy has boomed. Since 2002, annual growth has averaged 4.6 percent, the highest sustained rate since the 1960s, says economist Michael Mussa of the Peterson Institute. By their nature, raw materials (food, energy, minerals) sustain the broader economy. They're not just frills. When unexpectedly high demand strains existing production, prices rise sharply as buyers scramble for scarce supplies. That's what happened.
"No one foresaw that China would grow at a 10 percent annual rate for over a decade. Commodity producers just didn't invest enough," says analyst Joel Crane of Deutsche Bank. In industry after industry, global buying has bumped up against production limits. In 1999, surplus world oil capacity totaled 5 million barrels a day (mbd) on global consumption of 76 mbd, reckons the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Now, the surplus is about 2 million barrels per day -- and much of that is high-sulfur oil not prized by refiners -- on consumption of 86 mbd.
Or take nonferrous metals, such as copper and aluminum. "You had a long period of underinvestment in these industries," says economist John Mothersole of Global Insight. For some metals, the collapse of the Soviet Union threw added production -- previously destined for tanks, planes and ships -- onto world markets. Prices plunged as surpluses grew. But Mothersole says "the accelerating growth in India and China eliminated the overhang." China now accounts for up to 80 percent of the world's annual increased use of some metals.
Commodity price increases vary because markets vary. Rice isn't zinc. No surprise. But "speculators" played little role in these price run-ups. Who are these offensive souls? Well, they often don't fit the stereotype of sleazy high rollers: Many manage pension funds or university and foundation endowments.
Their trading might drive up prices if they were investing in stocks or real estate. But commodity investing is different. Investors generally don't buy the physical goods, whether oil or corn. Instead, they trade "futures contracts," which are bets on what prices will be in, say, six months. For every trader betting on higher prices, another is betting on lower prices. These trades are matched. In the stock market, all investors (buyers and sellers) can profit in a rising market, and all can lose in a falling market. In futures markets, one trader's gain is another's loss.
Futures contracts enable commercial consumers and producers of commodities to hedge. Airlines can lock in fuel prices by buying oil futures; farmers can lock in selling prices for their grain by selling grain futures. The markets work because numerous financial players -- "speculators" in it for the money -- can take the other side of hedgers' trades. But the frantic trading doesn't directly affect the physical supplies of raw materials. In theory, high futures prices might reduce physical supplies by inspiring hoarding. But that's not happening now. Inventories are modest. World wheat stocks, compared with consumption, are near historic lows.
Recently, the giant mining company Rio Tinto disclosed an average 85 percent price increase in iron ore for its Chinese customers. That affirmed that physical supply and demand -- not financial shenanigans -- is setting prices: Iron ore isn't traded on futures markets. The crucial question is whether these price increases will continue or ease as demand abates and investments in new capacity expand supply. Prices for some commodities (lead, nickel) have receded. Could oil be next?
Politicians promise to tighten regulation of futures markets, but futures markets aren't the main problem. Scarcities are. Government subsidies for corn-based ethanol have increased food prices by diverting more grain into biofuels. A third of this year's U.S. corn crop could go to ethanol. Restrictions on oil drilling in the United States have limited global production and put upward pressure on prices. If politicians wish to point fingers of blame, they should start with themselves.
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Washingtonpost.com
July 1, 2008 Tuesday 12:00 PM EST
Chatological Humor: Knock Knock: Coincidence Who? (Updated 7.2.08);
aka Tuesdays With Moron
BYLINE: Gene Weingarten, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 8632 words
HIGHLIGHT: Daily Updates: WED
Daily Updates: WED
Gene Weingarten's humor column, Below the Beltway, appears every Sunday in The Washington Post magazine. It is syndicated nationally by the Washington Post Writers Group.
At one time or another, Below the Beltway has managed to offend persons of both sexes as well as individuals belonging to every religious, ethnic, regional, political and socioeconomic group. If you know of a group we have missed, please write in and the situation will be promptly rectified. "Rectified" is a funny word.
On Tuesdays at noon, Gene is online to take your questions and abuse. He will chat about anything. Although this chat is updated regularly throughout the week, it is not and never will be a "blog," even though many persons keep making that mistake. One reason for the confusion is the Underpants Paradox: Blogs, like underpants, contain "threads," whereas this chat contains no "threads" but, like underpants, does sometimes get funky and inexcusable.
This Week's Poll: MEN | WOMEN
Not chat day? Visit the Gene Pool.
Important, secret note to readers: The management of The Washington Post apparently does not know this chat exists, or it would have been shut down long ago. Please do not tell them. Thank you.
Weingarten is also the author of "The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death" and co-author of "I'm with Stupid," with feminist scholar Gina Barreca.
New to Chatological Humor? Read the FAQ.
P.S. If composing your questions in Microsoft Word please turn off the Smart Quotes functionality or use WordPad. I haven't the time to edit them out. -- Liz
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Gene Weingarten: Good afternoon.
I've been writing for a living for 37 years and I've never encountered anything that more startled and delighted me than the events described in Sunday's column. Your solicitous comments were appreciated, but, no, I am not at all upset; if you can't laugh at yourself when you get that kind of seismic spanking, you shouldn't be writing humor. That guy Ecclesiastes was pretty smart: "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."
The hardest part about writing the column was in figuring out what to leave out. The more I researched, the more interesting things became. Milton Fairman, the author of the Chicago Evening Post article, went on to become a founding father and a revered figure in the new industry of public relations, the very industry I so often pillory with abandon.
The man who took the photograph of the disguised fiddler was Jun Fujita, a swaggering, dapper, highly respected Japanese-American photographer of the time.
Fujita became famous for taking, among other things, the first photograph of the St. Valentine's Day Masscre. Even more startling was this remarkable photograph Fujita took of a fireman carrying a drowned child from the scene of a ferry disaster in a Chicago harbor.
The real author of the stunt was the Evening Post's city editor, Michael W. Straus, who left the newspaper industry shortly afterward to join the Roosevelt Administration as a high-level aid in the Department of the Interior. Under Truman, he was put in charge of building dams, a job he prosecuted with enormous fervor, forever changing the waterways of the Midwest. He remains a hugely controversial figure among proponents of energy production and of environmental conservation. When Michael W. Straus set out to do something, he did it.
Jacques Gordon is long dead, but I did reach his son, Nicholas Gordon, who runs the organization his father started in 1930: Music Mountain, in Falls Village, Conn. Music Mountain is the oldest continuing summer chamber music festival in the country. Nicholas remembers his father laughing about the stunt around the dinner table with his good friend Fritz Kreisler, the famous violinist. Neither man was particularly surprised at how it turned out:
"They thought what it demonstrated is that people only see what they expect to see. And if you stand outside orchestra hall, dressed like a bum, playing a priceless instrument, and playing it the exact same way you would play it inside on the stage, people will expect to see a blind bum scratching at a violin, not an artist. And I guess that's still true, isn't it?"
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Today's mind-blowing optical illusion was sent by several chatters. Ignore the instructions, which are a little confusing. Do as I say: Put your cursor outside the picture. Put your hand on your mouse. Stare for a good 30 seconds at the dot near the center of the picture. Then, while still staring at the dot, move your mouse over the picture. So long as you keep staring at the dot, you will be seeing a photo in full, vibrant color. But if you flick your eyes away even for a millisecond, the whole thing goes to black and white.
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This, from Greg Watson, really needs no explanation.
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And here is the clip of the day. It's a short one!
--------- Please take today's poll (MEN | WOMEN). We are seeing an interesting and predictable split between men and women on the first clip. On the second, no. And this surprises me.
The CPOW, for being really exquisitely bad, is Saturday's Frank and Earnest. First Runner Up, today's Cul de Sac. Honorables: Today's Pearls, Sunday's Candorville, Sunday's Lio.
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Arlington, Va.: As a fellow Obama supporter, I wanted to get your opinion on the story in The Post yesterday by Eli Saslow about the undecided voter in Ohio who couldn't decide what to believe about Barack. I consider myself to be a pretty open-minded person, but I cannot for the life of me see where these people are coming from. Reading this, and stories like it, frustrates me to no end, it really gnaws at my core. And it scares me, because I think the people in this story are closer to the common American voter than I am. And if McCain ends up winning because people can't think for themselves and discern truth from obvious rumor, then I really fear for my country. How do you even respond to people like this? And as for the reporters, do they have a moral imperative to correct the lies that they hear when they are reporting this stuff?
washingtonpost.com: In Flag City USA, False Obama Rumors Are Flying, (Post, June 30)
Gene Weingarten: I addressed this in yesterday's Gene Pool. Liz, can you link? I asked for MORE rumors, not less, on the theory that if the campaigns start drowning in rumors, no one will know what to believe and they might actually have to start listening to the candidates. There were many funny responses. One of my favorites is that "Barack Obama lived with a white woman for 18 years." (True, his mom.) Another is that he has fathered two black babies.
washingtonpost.com: The Gene Pool: Start Your False Rumor Here!
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The Plains, Va.: I am a teacher, working this summer at a girl's soccer camp. During a break on Sunday I read your latest article to the girls I supervise. I asked my 16 13-year-olds if, based on your article, you should keep your Pulitzer, return it, or if it just didn't matter. Fourteen voted you should return it, two voted that it didn't matter. The girls felt that an ethical person would return the award once the truth that this had already been done came to your attention. They felt that the glory of having won the award would be smaller than the glory of returning it based on your personal ethics. They also thought you should have done more research prior to your action, to see if this had already been done. One said, "We were taught in fourth grade not to rely on the internet alone for our research." I promised the girls I would email their thoughts to you, and let them know if you cared to respond.
Gene Weingarten: I am glad you asked, ladies. I love answering ethical questions from kids because it gives me the opportunity to explain the complex conundrums that often confront adults in real-life situations involving integrity, character, honor, and sound moral thinking. The answer is that I am keeping the Pulitzer because I need it to validate my importance; studies have shown that Pulitzer prizewinners have more prestige, earn more money, have more sex and get longer obituaries than people who haven't won it. I'd be an idiot to give up this puppy just for "ethical" reasons. Kidding, kidding. But, no, kids, I'm not returning the award. It never even occurred to me. Your question is fair, so let me explain my reasoning: Beyond the rather startling superficial similarities between my story and the 1930 story by the Chicago Evening Post, the two endeavors were very, very different. From the start, my story was designed as a complex sociological study; it was planned months in advance and it took two months to write after the event had occurred. I had planted reporters secretly at the scene to follow passersby and get their names and numbers, so I could phone them afterwards and talk to them about what they had missed, and why. To understand the meaning of what had happened, I consulted philosophers, mathematicians, art experts, and read obscure works, including the musings of a an obscure 19th-century one-legged Welsh hobo poet. The story included valuable insights from Joshua Bell himself about the nature of performance and acceptance. This was a story designed, from the start, to be big and meaningful, and to deliver some important insights into our priorities as a people. The 1930 story never had such grand ambitions. It was a funny stunt, hatched in a day, performed in a day, and written for the next day's paper. It was written nicely, but never dug much deeper than "holy cow, look what happened." That story interviewed almost no one. Any philosophical truths it reached had to be intuited by the readers ... the story noted, for example, that ladies seemed more intent on shopping than listening to music, but didn't go much further than that. And finally, the writer concedes that the experiment was deeply flawed because much of the music went unheard -- swallowed by the winds of downtown Chicago. It is true that "orgininality" is a component of the Pulitzer, but I feel my approach to this story -- if not the bare fact of the stunt -- WAS original. The other principal component of the Feature writing Pulitzer is "quality of writing," and I'm proud of how this story was written. As far as having done the research to see if this had ever been done: There was simply nothing out there that was searchable. You cannot find references to this on the Web, unless you first know to look for "Jacques Gordon," and that delivers one mystifying reference. It is telling to me that even after my story came out, and even after it won the Pulitzer, no one ever contacted me to say they remembered something similar. I think the reson is the year it happened: 1930. Anyone who might have remembered that would likely be in his dotage today. But most important, the story never claimed this was the first time anything like this had been done. I just didn't know, so I made no such claim, explicit or implicit. So, no, kids. Thanks for asking, and no offense taken, but this Pulitzer isn't going anywhere. Though I admit there is a certain intriguing merit in your contention that returning it would be a more bodacious and grand and glorious gesture -- possibly the tipping point in my career -- than keeping it.
Gene Weingarten: So, basically, as you can see, I am acting AGAINST my best interests in keeping it. I am just such a selfless person.
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Atlanta, Ga.: Gene,
I'm getting ready for bed, and once again my boyfriend starts to stare. And once again, he starts to make... comments. I glare at him and say, "You know? I'm just putting on my pajamas."
He gets this look on his face of utter wonder. He says, "No... you're stripping!"
Gene Weingarten: Are you trying to pretend, HERE, to US, in THIS forum, that this bothers you?
_______________________
Vienna, Va.: Gene, I trust your opinions on names so please help me with this. I changed my name when I got married and soon found myself regretting it. So I've been thinking about changing it back but I have since had a son and named him my married last name. Now I don't want to be the oddball in the family with a different last name so I'm considering hyphenating. It seems that may be the best of both worlds. What are your and the chatters' opinions on hyphenated last names? Also, what are your kids' last names and if they are Weingartens why do you get all the glory?
Gene Weingarten: The Rib's last name is better than Weingarten; just as ethnic, but shorter and leaner and spunkier, like she is. If we were having children now, we might well give them both her name, or split the names between them. At the time, it was the early 80s and this never occurred to us. I think hyphenated names are often clumsy. I don't think we would have gone there. There are lots of way to go about this, some good, some not so good, some very interesting. Some create a brand-new name. My colleague Hanna Rosin is married to David Plotz, the editor of Slate. Their kids are Rosinplotz. Finally, regarding your being the "oddball" in the family: The Rib is the oddball in this family, I guess, having retained her name. As I am answering this question, I am also IMing with Molly, so I put it to her. I asked if it had caused a terrible confusion in her life. Here is her answer: yes. i have often wondered why you continue to let this total stranger live in our house. i have always just assumed you let some homeless lady in off the streets out of kindness, and then never had the guts to ask her to leave.
Gene Weingarten: Oooh, Dan just weighed in, too. His IM: Yes, I have been confused about this since birth. I was confused about her even before I understood that these weird finger grabby things belonged to me and were attached to my torso.
_______________________
Arlington, Va.: WOW. Today's optical illusion is amazing! Mind-blowing is a good description. So, how does it work?
Gene Weingarten: It's about the persistence of negative color imaging. On the retina. Same reason why if you look at a light and close your eyes, you see a different color on the inside of your eyelid. I'm not sure why it disappears so quickly. I think the brain feels it is looking at something differen.
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Gilda is rolling over in her grave.: Not only because you left her off your Mount Rushmore of comedians, but also because - at least according to the survey results today - all the whispers about women having no sense of humor are actually based in reality. What is wrong with my gender, Gene? Is it chronic? Curable? Or are we doomed to be the butt of jokes for the rest of time regarding our inability to quit taking things so damned seriously? (If not till the end of time, then at least until the new particle accelerator in France creates a black hole that swallows the planet. Which, speaking of appropriately ironic ways to go ...)
Gene Weingarten: Liz, can you link to my appropriate column? Search for Tamara, Manteuffel Barreca and me.
washingtonpost.com: The Male of the Specious, (Post Magazine, Dec. 31, 2006)
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Alexandria, Va.: Gene (and Liz) -
Has anyone noticed that the Wawa Hoagiefest ad banner that sometimes runs above the chat features a fellow that looks A LOT like Gene might have in the 60s/70s (only no needles)? Is that a coincidence?
washingtonpost.com: Hoagiefest. V. "Sgt. Pepper."
Gene Weingarten: That is me. But I never had a soul patch.
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Rockville, Maryland: By the by - if you ever find someone hanging, CUT THEM DOWN, right away. It takes a while and people have been saved.
Gene Weingarten: Noted.
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Washington, D.C.: Was Nicholas Gordon aware of your article, or did you have to spend a lot of time explaining who the heck you are and why you were calling?
Gene Weingarten: Someone had sent it to him when it came out, and he loved when he heard it won the Pulitzer. So, he knew my name immediately.
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Old Saybrook, Calif.: Not everyone ignores poorly dressed person. My mother saw a homeless person at the yacht club mumbling incoherently. He looked ill and she asked if she could call a doctor for him. The man kept talking but she couldn't understand a word he said. He asked if she could get him something to eat. He just staggered away, and she feared he was hurt or suffering from some medical condition. Later she saw the homeless man get onto the largest yacht there and said away with it. She ran to warn that a homeless man had just stolen a yacht. She was informed "no, that yacht is his. He's Keith Richards."
Gene Weingarten: I don't believe this.
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Washington, D.C.: Hey remember that time we decided to kiss anywhere except the mouth?
Gene Weingarten: I know! That was great, Hillary.
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Generation Gap: What does a key have to do with roller skates?
Gene Weingarten: Sigh. A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, roller skates were cheap metal frames with wheels that you attached to the bottom of your shoes. To make them fit, you had a key that worked like a winch, tightening the skates to fit. This is what the skates looked like. And this is the key. They look JUST like genitals, right?
washingtonpost.com: I'd just like to point out that even I had a pair of these torture devices. That was before I got my disco-skates.
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Washington, D.C.: I have to confess, I think I voted favorably for the second video because the boys in it are so cute. I'm 29. They look to be about 20. I know this kind of makes me a dirty old lady, but they are really really good looking boys, the type that I would've made bad decisions with when I was in college. now I'm too old to make bad decisions with them, but, I'm just saying, it may have swayed my vote.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you for sharing. I think what you MEANT to say is that you were attracted to them because they are talented comics.
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washingtonpost.com: Before I forget -- a request: A fix has been made to the discussion software that should have effectively solved all of the refresh problems we've been having over the past weeks. Let me know if you're still having any trouble or if you're particularly pleased that we're back in business. -- Liz
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Arlington, Va.: You are a liberal, and you are old enough to remember the '70s.
For those of us who are not both of these things, would you care to share your opinion about whether Susan Atkins should be released from prison because she has terminal cancer?
Gene Weingarten: Yes, she should be.
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Hook, ED: Gene, a question entirely unrelated to the theme of the day. When you refer to "the hook" of a song, to what is it that the term refers? No one in my office can agree on exactly what it is.
Gene Weingarten: It's usually the refrain, but to me it means the little swatch of lyrics or melody, or lyrics AND melody that stick with you and define the song.
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Mike Barnicle: That name mean anything to you?
You had plausible deniability even through both Jacques Gordon and Joshua Bell having the same song selections.
But when I read Bell played the same Strad Gordon used I assume Bell would have (or should have) studied his predecessor and found him to be involved in the same stunt you proposed.
And I really liked your Bell article and thought it was Pulitzer worthy.
Gene Weingarten: I hear ya, but that little stunt is just not part of the official Jacques Gordon canon. He did a lot of great things; this was seen as a silly little thang. I can tell you that Josh definitely didn't know about it.
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Santa Rosa, Calif.: Hey, I'm coming to Washington, D.C. the last week of September. If I agree to go out with you, will you buy the beer?
Stephan
Gene Weingarten: Yes, but my deal with cartoonists is that you have to draw your characters on cocktail napkins and give them to me so that after I kill you I can sell them on ebay.
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Poll: I didn't think either one was funny. I didn't have a problem with the first one because it joked about suicide, I just thought it was stupid, in fact I thought they were both stupid.
Gene Weingarten: You have a deficient sense of humor.
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Malden, Mass.: Okay, I just have to say this. Even though I've flung my e-panties at you many times and will undoubtedly continue to do so, you still need a good smack now and then. The picture of the runner with the poop problem...that's not funny, it's just mean. If it was OJ Simpson or some other dirtbag, I wouldn't feel this way I'm sure, but he's not. You wouldn't find it funny if it happened to Molly or Dan. Call me overly sensitive, but that picture really bummed me out, that it's going to still circulate and embarrass this poor guy. That's all. Got it off my chest. Carry on... Also, (totally unrelated) my son who's 23, made a comment I found particularly astute. I asked him which actress he found really hot; he loves Salma Hayek. I asked what about Angelina? An emphatic NO. SHE LOOKS LIKE A SPIDER. And you know, she really kind of does.
Gene Weingarten: She does. I agree with you about the runner. I ran it because of a momentary "holy s---" reaction in my brain, when a poster friend of mine actually took the time and initiative to prove George Carlin's sacrosanct declaration wrong: that you never see anyone running as fast as he can while s-----g. It occurred to me, quickly, philosophically, that this was the perfect moment of absurdity, the ultimate proof of the web's ability to find ANYTHING instantly so long as you have a person motivated to search. And the motivation in this case was hilarious. I posted it thinking only of the humor value. Didn't really even notice the ick factor or the privacy component. Wrong call.
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Situational Aptonym: During the Spain-Russia soccer game last week, one of the Russian players committed a hard foul and was given a yellow card.
His name: Yuri Zherkov.
Gene Weingarten: Hhahahahahahaha.
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Arlington, Va.: The poll results are suggesting that more women than men think "completely uncalled for" is funny. I don't believe it. I think some women are saying it's funny to validate their claim that the first video isn't funny. Whereas many guys don't find it as funny immediately after seeing something much more intense.
Gene Weingarten: THIS IS EXACTLY MY THEORY. Women and men are behaving exactly as I expected for question one, which is an interesting test of the boundaries of edginess in humor. I, like most men, really liked that first clip. Didn't skeeve me, because I am all about the exploration of that fine line between fear and humor. I think this clip is exploring that rather brilliantly, but I can also understand how someone might reasonably conclude it just went too far. This is not a test of your sense of humor so much as it is a test of the boundaries of your sense of humor, a different thing altogether. But the girls are totally surprising me in the second question, which is REALLY guy jerko humor, additionally involving the wanton infliction of physical pain. I like your theory that women didn't want to say TWO things were not funny, and would like to hear from some women about this. I know our view here is patronizing. Is it right? Meanwhile, I initially thought the end ruined clip one, but later decided I couldn't think of a better way to end it; the clip is a pretty sophisticated, almost existenial discussion of that nexis between pain and fear and humor; as such, that end makes sense: Where's the joke if you actually DO kill yourself? I love this, basically. Accolades deserved.
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Portland OR: The Chicago violinist collected $5.61 in 1930 dollars. Quite a haul, I'd say, considering it was Depression era and outdoors to boot. How much did Bell rake in?
Gene Weingarten: Well, it's interesting. The Chicago paper played the five bucks as chump change, mentioning that Jacques Gordon made as much as $1,000 per concert. But you're right, it wasn't bad money. Officially, cost of living today is 15 times higher than it was in 1930, according to our research, so Gordon made about $80 in today's money. Bell got $32.17, I believe.
Gene Weingarten: Oh, wait. The next post answers this far more effectively.
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Bibliotek, VA: Sunday night, as I sat listening to Joshua Bell's performance recorded on the Post webpage from your article from last year, I decided to figure what the value of the money that violin virtuoso Jacques Gordon made in 1930 would represent in 2007 dollars. I wanted to know who made more money! (I can't have been the only one, can I?) Bell collected $32.17 and Gordon earned $5.61. Here is what I found out using a website created by Lawrence H. Officer, Professor of Economics at University of Illinois at Chicago and Samuel H. Williamson, Professor of Economics, Emeritus, from Miami University. (http://www.measuringworth.com)
$5.61 from 1930 is worth:
$69.65 using the Consumer Price Index
$58.20 using the GDP deflator
$154.67 using the value of consumer bundle -
$216.33 using the unskilled wage -
$347.42 using the nominal GDP per capita
$851.42 using the relative share of GDP
I found some other webpages and the average, using the CPI, between the 3 was $68.88. So that answers the question. Gordon made more money, and he did it during the depression! By the way, reversing the comparison, if Bell had made $5.61 last year, that would have been $0.48 in 1930. forty-eights cents. sheesh.
Gene Weingarten: So now you know.
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Gene Weingarten: Sorry, for the delay, Chatwoman and I have been arguing about something.
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More on Carl, IN: Gene,
George Carlin's death, and the analysis of his treatise on the seven words you can't say on TV, got me to thinking about what else absurd is censored.
After much thought, I've settled on the middle finger.
Do we not know what a middle finger looks like? Is it obscured by the other fingers?
Do seedy bookstores stock magazines depicting middle fingers in various stages of dress?
Does the sight of a middle finger cause women to blush, shriek in horror or divert their eyes? If so, how do nail salons stay in business?
What would George Carlin say about the blurring of middle fingers?
Gene Weingarten: The middle finger made its debut in the late 1970s with this photograph. Papers ran it because it was profferred by the vice president of the United States. You probably haven't seen another example of The Finger unless you lived in South Florida in the late 1980s. Miami had just gotten its basketball franchise -- The Heat -- and the following year it was announced that Orlando was going to get one, too (the Magic.) At Tropic, Tom the Butcher and I decided it would be a swell idea to start a rivalry between the two cities by sending Dave Barry up to Orlando, to do a cover story on our new NBA sister city. The story was going to be masquerading as a friendly little wet-kiss of a story, but in fact would be devastatingly cruel. When it came time to come up with a cover idea, we all sat around, and eventually someone suggested this: An elegant looking cover with really fancy wedding-invitation type fonts that would say, "Mr. David Barry of Miami, Fla., cordially welcomes the city of Orlando into the fraternity of NBA teams." And Dave would be on the cover, dressed in a Miami Heat Uniform, and he would be spinning a basketball on one finger. Yes, THAT finger. We all thought this was hilarious, but impossible. All except me. I stood up and announced that I would stride right in to the office of Janet Chusmir, the exectuvie editor of The Miami Herald, and persuade her to let us do it. There was much hooting and derision, but I did go, and I did succeed. Janet liked and trusted me, and I framed the decision in complex philosophical terms,references the structure of humor, and whatnot. We went with that cover. Not long afterwards, I left The Herald for The Post, and in my exit interview with Janet she told me that in her long and storied career in journalism, that was the only decision she really regretted. Several months later, Janet . . . died. The Finger is a very, very dangerous part of speech.
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Sidney, Montana: How does one rise to prominence in a field that is rapidly downsizing and losing its "relevance"?
Gene Weingarten: You figure out something that directly translates into more money for the company.
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Obama rumors, etc.: Gene --
According to That Other Big Eastern City Paper, in order to defuse one of the scurrilous talking points against Obama, his supporters are publicly adopting his middle name in order to make it seem unremarkable. This has led to such unlikely monikers as
Emily Hussein Nordling, Jaime Hussein Alvarez, and Sarah Beth Hussein Frumkin.
A. Do you think this will have any effect beyond the humorous?
B. What real person's name would be substantially better or funnier with the middle name Hussein?
-- not David Hussein Broder
Gene Weingarten: Shimon Hussein Peres.
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Cute boys: Yes, they are very cute. Even cuter in the one they do about a Mother's Day picture.
Gene Weingarten: That will be the clod next week. It's great.
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Manson mercy: Why should the Manson family woman be released? She should be cared for with compassion, but why do you think she should be released?
Having been the recipient of great forgiveness before,I believe in mercy, but I also believe that you shouldn't kill people for fun. And, if you do, you have to pay for it.
So why should she get out?
Gene Weingarten: Because she was a pathetic tool. Because she has served her entire adult life in jail. Because we are all humans here.
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Re: Your upcoming date with Pastis : So Gene, how often do you get asked out in this chat?
Gene Weingarten: Seldom. I sometimes get asked out AFTER the chat.
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Prickly City: Gene: Has it seemed to you that the comic "Prickly City" has been moving slightly away from its conservative roots recently? It's actually run a few strips making fun of John McCain (last Thursday, for example), and today's strip is a veiled swipe at Fox News.
At the same time, it hasn't gotten any funnier.
Gene Weingarten: Yes. The cartoonist is definitely losing faith in the jerks.
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Male of the Specious: That link to Gene's old article presumably on male/female went to a NYT article celebrating rich people for making their fancy apartment wackier.
washingtonpost.com: Oopsy. Shoulda gone here.
Gene Weingarten: Hahahahaha.
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McLean: PLEASE don't discount the inverse Sarah Silverman effect with completely uncalled for. I'm a 34-year-old woman who, like the previous commenter, got drawn into the second video because of the yum factor of the guys in it.
It's not so much that I found it objectively funny. But, watching it, I found the slapper's eye contact very appealing? charming? Something. At the end, I thought, well, all told if I'd been in there in person, I'd have laughed. (No doubt in a cynical attempt to flirt with the boys). So, I figured I found it funny. I get it. I'm a pervy sellout.
Gene Weingarten: The Sarah Silverman effect is powerful. Also the Tina Fey effect.
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Poll: I'm a woman who voted not funny on the first, funny on the second. It had nothing to do with guilt over voting not funny twice. It's simple: for the duration of the first one, I just sat there and watched. Don't think I even cracked a smile (though I thought the guy on the couch was a good actor, and did have some funny facial expressions). After the punchline of the second joke, I laughed out loud. And then again a moment later when I thought of it again. It's funny!
Then again, one of my favorite jokes has always been Interrupting Starfish.
Gene Weingarten: I don't know starfish. Tell it. You didn't think Joke Hitler was funny?
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Susan Atkins - please explain: I'm as liberal as they come, but I don't feel she should be shown any mercy. Would you please explain why you think she should? I think this might be the first time I disagree with you! Oh wait, I love Indian food and you think it tastes like corpses.
Gene Weingarten: I question whether her "intent" was real. She was a drugged up, screwed up disciple of a madman.
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Optical Illusion Fraud: This is not an illusion - just a mouseover. The picture
changes color regardless of the mouse position and
regardless of my staring at the dot. FWIW, I have a mac.
Gene Weingarten: WHAT? That's just not true! Is it?
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So, dish: What was the argument about? Whether Liz Hussein Kelly is a funny name?
Gene Weingarten: It was about how Liz made a mistake but mulishly refused to admit it.
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Susan Atkins : So, you're an unrepentant convicted domestic terrorist who has terminal cancer. Wouldn't you rather go out in a literal blaze of glory? The risk of injury to more innocent citizens is why she's gonna die behind bars.
Gene Weingarten: I don't believe she is unrepentant. I may be confusing her with Leslie Van Houten, but I think she is just a misterable person who can't believe what she did.
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Interrupting Starfish: You can't tell it. You show it. It goes,
-Knock knock.
-Who's there?
-Interrupting starfish.
-Interrupting-
-joke teller covers the other person's face with her hand]
Gene Weingarten: Oh.
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Oba, MA: I heard an unsubstantiated rumor that Barack Obama killed Davey Moore.
Gene Weingarten: Oooh. Why? What the reason for?
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Cary, N.C.: Hey Gene. As an Indian-American, I have been subjected to some very funny stereotyping by some white folks. I still laugh about the Jehovah witness lady and her daughter who thought I was a "primitive" tribe and tried to explain things to me. What is the funniest racial stereotyping you've heard/observed?
Gene Weingarten: My mother once had someone ask her, seriously, if she'd had her horns removed. This was around 1939.
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Silver Spring, MD: This is a more typical skate key, the shaft part was to adjust the front toe clips (which your skate example doesn't have).
Yours just looks like a wrench. Which it is, since it's only designed to adjust the length.
Gene Weingarten: Correct.
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Barry's take on Orlando, Fla.: I was a copy editor for the Orlando Sentinel in '89 and edited (mostly just laughed at, really) Barry's take on Orlando that we ran on our front page. It was part of the Heat-Magic rivalry. My head for his story: "A foul shot from Miami."
And he nailed Orlando, too. Biggest redneck cow town east of the Mississippi. (At the time.)
Gene Weingarten: Nice hed! I love it when people remember that story. Wasn't the cover GREAT?
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From Style Section: » Slatkin Gets His Rich Desert
¿ A Final 'Fanfare' For the NSO's Leonard Slatkin
Shouldn't this be dessert? Or am I missing some wry commentary? Is Wapo suffering with less folks working on the paper?
Gene Weingarten: Several posters sent this "error" in. Not an error. A "desert" is something you deserve. Like just deserts. It's clearly a play on dessert and desert, but it's used correctly.
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Facial Recognition: You've written about your facial recognition problems before. If it were in a completely unexpected context, would you have problems recognizing The Rib?
Gene Weingarten: No. I'm not that dysfunctional. But it does remind me of something bad that almost happened a few years ago. I was on a very crowded subway car with Rib, and we got separated. When the crowd thinned a little, I worked my way back to her. She was facing the other way. I leaned in to kiss her on the neck. I was maybe an inch away from her skin when I stopped. Not Rib. Same height, same build, same hair, wearing very similar clothing. Had I done it, after the quite justified slap and scream, I would have had to drag Rib over as proof. Rib probably would have denied she knew me, just for the yucks.
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Arlington, Va.: There are lots of way to go about this, some good, some not so good, some very interesting. Some create a brand-new name. My colleague Hanna Rosin is married to David Plotz, the editor of Slate. Their kids are Rosinplotz.
That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Just name your kids what you want to name them and stop looking to Gene for a thumbs up that what you are doing is okay.
Gene Weingarten: Please. My judgment is impeccable. Everyone knows it.
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Arlington, Va.: How come there are only false Obama rumors? Where are all the false McCain rumors? Let me please start some:
John McCain was born to a Panama and a Panapa. He attended the Naval Academy where he planned future wars with Charlie Wilson. McCain served honorably in the Navy and is the last surviving veteran of the Spanish American War. After the war, John McCain went into politics serving as the Territory Governor for the State of Arizona and Northern Mexico and later, after Arizona was granted statehood, as a member of the Mexican Senate. As Senator, McCain is most remembered for the McCain Feingold Law that allowed only the sale of fine Mexican gold to foreigners. McCain was known as a political maverick who would speak out against the Administration before giving in to what they wanted from him.
McCain, with his brothers Michael, Tito, Jermaine, and Jackie, formed the Keating Five. The Keating Five were arrested for disrupting the 1968 Democratic National Convention for singing such protest songs as "Give War a Chance for 100 Years" and "Power to the Enron People". They were acquitted when the Judge realized they were Caucasian. McCain went on to write the best selling book "Faith of My Fathers", which proved embarrassing as his mother had wanted her bigamy kept quiet. In November of this year, McCain will be defeated by President by Barack Obama because Chuck Hegel has already programmed the voting machines to tabulated Obama the winner.
Gene Weingarten: There are many McCain rumors in yesterday's Gene Pool. One was that he is really 183. I started one that he once called Cindy, in a fit of anger, a "brazen shameless trollop." And that his aides were so horrified because it sounded so out of it and corn poney, that they changed it to the c-word.
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Molly: Your daughter is attractive, sarcastic, and the offspring of a Pulitzer Prize winner. Can I ask your permission to court her?
Gene Weingarten: Anyone can ASK.
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Washington, DC: Were you at Politics and Prose for the Edgar Sawtelle reading last Thursday night? If so, then let me say that lavender is not your color.
Gene Weingarten: No.
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Runner: I disagree with everyone. As a runner, I can say that crapping yourself mid-stride is a badge of honor, especially if you go on to win (e.g. Uta Pippig). I can tell you from experience, that he knew it was coming for a while, and made the decision to keep running come what may rather than stop and find a toilet. That's hard core. And he know's it's hard core.
Gene Weingarten: I will never understand runners.
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Metro: You're a big fan of D.C. It sounds like you're used to taking the Metro. I just moved here, and I like the place, too. And I'm very glad for the Metro, as I don't have a car.
However, as someone who knows everything, maybe you can tell me why the Metro seats are designed the way they are. Can't you fit in more people comfortably, both standing and sitting, when you just have a long bench running along each wall? With the two-by-two rows of seats, people who snag a seat by the window before it gets crowded are then effectively trapped. Whose bright idea was this? Is there supposed to be any advantage to it?
Gene Weingarten: There is an advantage. I grew up in NY, which has both kinds of cars. The cars with long rows of seats are famous for their flexibility to accommodate very large crowds (there is way more standing room, and less sitting room, and the sitting room is somewhat flexible. If the car is jammed people qill squeeze into the seats, maybe 40 to a car side as opposed to 36. I think the feeling in setting up Washington's Metro was that we'd seldom get that crowed. They went for the comfort of more seating and less standing room. I think, by and large, they were right. I share your feeling of trappage. That is why I try alwys to sit on the seats that face in toward the center of the car.
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Washington, D.C.: Have you heard who's sponsoring the new "Marriage Protection" amendment? No, you can't make this stuff up.
Gene Weingarten: Wow.
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Washington, D.C.: Gene:
If they find an article from the 40s about a children's magician with a gambling problem who witnessed a murder as a child, you're going to have some splainin to do. Just sayin' . . .
Gene Weingarten: I know!
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All of Us: Would you PLEASE stop putting videos in the polls? You know we all have youtube blocked at work!
Gene Weingarten: Listen, I always have the polls ready by midday Monday. Can't you take it at home that night? I LIKE videos in the polls.
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Funny Stereotypes: I once had someone say to me, completely seriously, "But you CAN'T be from Texas, you don't have big hair!"
No, she was not blond. I responded that I used to, but it kept getting caught in the ceiling fan, I'm still not sure if she knew I was joking.
Gene Weingarten: Haha.
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Perplexed:: Liz, it's a funny thing, but I was searching for the link to Gene's 24-hour stint on meta news coverage, and didn't find it in the archives. Am I doing something wrong -- can you hook me up? I want to send it to a friend who badly needs to get hooked on Gene.
washingtonpost.com: Cruel and Usual Punishment, (Post Magazine, March 23)
Gene Weingarten: Okay.
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Atkins:: Wasn't she the one referred to as "Sadie" in the book, "Helter Skelter?" If so, her behavior was referred to as "animalistic."
Do any of the Manson women still have any family on the outside? They've all been in prison for 40 years now.
Gene Weingarten: A few people are telling me Atkins has remained unrepentant. If this is true, then my position changes. I know Van Houton has become a reasonable person, haunted by her crime.
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OC: Were you aware of this when you wrote your copy editor column?
Gene Weingarten: No. But I had heard of Mindworks before. I actually contacted them and asked them to write a humor column for me; they declined, saying it was a more specialized job than they were equipped to handle. Drat. 'Cause that would have made an excellent column.
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Bristow, Va.: In the earlier post about the soccer girls' views about your article and Pulitzer, it was apparent that the girls missed the part about the researcher serendipitously finding the story on a microfiche of a 78-year old newspaper. I doubt they picked up on that (or even know what a microfiche is). It's kind of hard to explain to kids that not EVERYTHING can be found on the Web.
Gene Weingarten: I think their reaction was adorable. Kids tend to see things in absolutes.
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Rabbi Mike: I was most pleased to see you quoting scripture today. Maybe there is hope for you after all.
Gene Weingarten: There is much wisdom in scripture. I do not deny that. Except for the God parts.
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Chinese Laundrom, AT: Funniest racial stereotyping.
When I (Chinese American) was going to school at Hopkins in Baltimore in the 1980's, one day while doing my clothes at the laundromat in Charles Village, I was asked if my parents owned the laundromat.
Gene Weingarten: Hahahaha. Actually, this reminds me of another racial stereotype that I heard uttered as if true, in the mid sixties. I think I can't say it. Hang on, gonna ask Chatwoman.
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Washington, DC 20005: Gene,
Your judgment is impeccable? Then kindly explain this, the first question and answer, from the chat's FAQ:
Q. Who is Gene Weingarten and why should we give a crap about anything he has to say?
A. Gene is the syndicated humor columnist for The Washington Post. At times he can be erudite and perceptive, but in general has the sensibilities of a nine-year-old boy who has just learned, to his delight and complete distraction, that women wear underpants. There is no reason you should give a crap about anything he has to say.
Gene Weingarten: False modesty.
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Avant Gar, DE: It didn't occur to you in the early 80's to give your kids your wife's last name? My son carries my last name and my daughter carries my wife's last name. They are 25 and 22 years old, respectively. You do the math.
Gene Weingarten: It just didn't. It embarrasses me a little.
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Gene Weingarten: Okay, I got a big NO from Chatwoman regarding the Asian stereotype. So, no. I trust Liz.
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Video Polls: "Gene Weingarten: Listen, I always have the polls ready by midday Monday. Can't you take it at home that night?"
Yes, I can. But, weren't you the one who intimated that all of the people who answer the polls as soon as you post them were weird, and a little lame? I'm pretty sure there was some chatting about that upon your return from the hiatus.
And this chat is a work distraction, not something I want to do my homework for the night before.
Gene Weingarten: Well, okay, but sorry. The videos will continue. I don't think it's too much to ask.
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Vienna, Va.: I think the answer to the Atkins question is to ask the relatives of those she killed. Theirs are the only opinions that matter.
Gene Weingarten: I disagree. I think that criminal justice must be administered without emotion. I think you can listen to them, but must make an independent judgment.
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Among the worse jokes ever....: Rodney Dangerfield and a member of FLDS walk into a bar. Dangerfield says "take my wife, please." The FLDS member says "no thanks, I'm driving."
Gene Weingarten: Why was Dangerfield stealing Henny Youngman's joke?
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Outraged: Unlike people such as Ebeneezer Kelly I actually subscribe to The Post daily. Imagine how I felt when I saw the photo on the cover of last Sunday's magazine. Look closely on what's printed on Russell Means' jacket. Is this what happens when you cut back on editors? I mean, what about the children? Nice watch though!
washingtonpost.com: HAHAHAHA! Good thing my mom, a 35+ year subscriber -- gives me her mag. -- Ebenezer.
Gene Weingarten: Can we link to this picture?
_______________________
Anonymous: It's been a while, do you think this country is ready for a president with a five-syllable name?
Gene Weingarten: We've never had one, have we? Oh, you mean both names together?
_______________________
WTF?: What in the world are you talking about with that optical illusion? If you put the mouse in the image, the thing is sharply black and white, if you don't, its washed out pale colors. Is there something wrong with my computer? How is that cool? I don't get it (and I usually get all the illusions you post)
Gene Weingarten: It is not black and white if you have stared at the dot for a long time before putting the mouse on it.
_______________________
For no reason in particular...: Can we link to a picture of Liz's cat ?
washingtonpost.com: Sure!
Gene Weingarten: Yay!
_______________________
Does your watch: have the day and/or date, or do you consider this outre, oh horological wizard?
Gene Weingarten: I will accept day and date.
_______________________
washingtonpost.com: The pic is here, but not big enough to see what makes it so interesting.
washingtonpost.com: The pic is here, but not big enough to see what makes it so interesting.
Gene Weingarten: Ah. Okay, sadly, we will end on this. Go get your mags. I will be updating. Thanks for a great chat.
_______________________
UPDATED 7.2.08
Gene Weingarten: A couple of Chicago-area readers contacted me to question how the 1930 streetcorner violin concert could have been outside a subway stop when the city's subway system was not inaugurated until six or seven years later. It was indeed a conundrum, since the newspaper story clearly said that the reporter had hidden behind a subway stairwell. I believe the problem is solved: In 1930, in Chicago, the "subway" referred to a series of tunnels dug beneath large avenues, for pedestrian traffic to cross.
_______________________
Gene Weingarten: From Dave Barry, please note the name of the farmer.
And a nice little byline aptonym here, discovered by Mark Eckenwiler.
And this from Edison Hammond. You have to read to the last line.
_______________________
Rollerblader: I'm old enough to remember hearing Melanie's "Brand New Key" on the radio. I always understood generally what it was about, but I never got the imagery. I understood the "key", but a pair of "roller skates"? I knew enough reproductive biology to know that women only have ONE of those. (And, contrary to what my mother told me when I was 12, I didn't believe that it had teeth.) So what do the "roller skates" represent? Those feminine attributes that often get "embiggened" with implants?
Gene Weingarten: The roller skates were her ovaries.
_______________________
Hitler? Who said anything about Hitler?: I thought he said "Joke killer." "Joke Hitler" is a little funny, because of the juxtaposition, but it doesn't match the situation. "Joke Hitler" isn't simply someone who doesn't find this joke to be funny. "Joke Hitler" would have to be someone who creates a totalitarian state, operating under allegedly iron-clad rules about jokes and humor, but the rules are subject to interpretation by the whims only of that person, and who uses propaganda and fear to control his followers.
(No, I don't have anyone in mind. Why?)
Gene Weingarten: No soup for you.
_______________________
kids, internet: Eh, those girls seemed to be saying you should have searched harder and that a search on the Internet was not sufficient. I liked that--they have been taught to look harder. Reminded me of an inverse problem--my boss (a lawyer) once brought up wikipedia in a meeting as a support for something he was saying. We had to break it to him, gently, how things get on wikipedia. He was SHOCKED. Good times for the kids in teh office.
Gene Weingarten: Right. Except for two things:
1. This event was unfindable, absolutely dead to history. There was simply no way to have found it; I worked on this story with both Josh Bell and Tim Page, both classical music experts and historians.
2. I didn't CARE if it had ever been done before, so a weeks long effort would have been pointless. The story made no claim that it had never been done.
_______________________
Wordsmith: Birthday Greetings from Joe Cocker.
Gene Weingarten: Indeed. Several people sent this recently.
_______________________
Next Week's Chat.
_______________________
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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June 30, 2008 Monday
Suburban Edition
Hearts, Not Minds;
Polls Tell Them What Voters Think, But Moderators Say the Focus Group Reveals How Emotion Trumps Analysis
BYLINE: Robert G. Kaiser; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C01
LENGTH: 2063 words
What if the 2008 presidential election were decided by voters acting not on their political judgments or analyses of the candidates, but on their emotions? In the view of some experts, this is a trick question -- of course the election will be decided emotionally. Elections always are.
"Campaigns are about emotions and values more than about information," says John Russonello, a partner in a research and communications firm who loves to discover the feelings and visceral reactions that can move voters.
Russonello does this with focus groups, now a ubiquitous tool in American politics and business. First used in the middle of the 20th century, the focus group -- typically a gathering of up to a dozen people chosen for particular demographic and political characteristics -- has become big business. In national and statewide political campaigns, they are as common as bumper stickers but a lot less visible. Usually focus groups are staged for small audiences -- representatives of the people paying for them. Tonight the public has an unusual opportunity to watch an entire two-hour focus group session on C-SPAN at 8 p.m. More about that in a moment.
Polls, the lifeblood of American politics, can also tell us what people think -- which candidate they favor, how much they approve of a president, whether they believe the war in Iraq was worth fighting. But polls are science, exploiting the mathematical laws of random samples to explain what "everyone" thinks by asking the right 1,200 or so Americans the same questions. Focus groups, by contrast, are art. Their success depends on the skills of the person leading the discussion. A talented focus-grouper tries to expose the emotional juice that can both explain and alter poll results.
A famous example of such alteration occurred in 1984. Peter Hart, a prominent Democratic pollster and focus group leader for three decades, was working for former vice president Walter F. Mondale, running that year for the Democratic presidential nomination against Sen. Gary Hart.
Hart thumped Mondale in the New Hampshire primary, producing "a tsunami that swept over the Mondale campaign," Peter Hart remembers. "Gary Hart appeared on the cover of all three newsweeklies. Everything was Hart." He was sent to Georgia, site of the next, suddenly crucial, primary to test a commercial attacking Hart before a focus group.
"I tested this negative ad and everybody in the focus group booed. I spent the whole session hearing how Hart was new and young and marvelous and Mondale was everything else. About 80 minutes into the session I realized I had nothing" to help Mondale.
"So I turned to them and said, 'Let me give you a situation. Imagine the country is in a terrible recession, unemployment is rising, it's very bad. Who do you want as president?' All 12 people wanted Hart. 'He's young, vibrant, he'll get the country moving again.' Mondale? 'Old, stale, tired, part of the old way of doing things . . .' Then I said, 'Imagine the country in an international crisis -- not a nuclear war but a serious crisis, when the red phone is being used. Who would you want as president? Twelve hands went up for Mondale. 'He's tested, he's stable, he's mature, he's seasoned, well versed, et cetera.' And Hart? 'Rash, new, untested . . .' "
Hart reported these reactions to the Mondale campaign, which quickly produced a new television commercial featuring a red telephone with a flashing orange light. A narrator intoned:
"The most awesome, powerful responsibility in the world lies in the hand that picks up this phone. The idea of an unsure, unsteady, untested hand is something to really think about. This is the issue of our times. On March 20, vote as if the future of the world is at stake. Mondale. This president will know what he's doing. And that's the difference between Gary Hart and Walter Mondale."
Mondale won in Georgia, and kept this ad on the air in all the states that later held primaries. "The Hart people never had an answer to it," Peter Hart recalls.
(Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, that 1984 Mondale commercial can be seen by going to www.youtube.com and searching for "Mondale Video 10.") at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fu-2Ew1ijg
The Georgia focus group was an example of this art form at its most useful. Its fruits are not always so easy to pluck, and it is easy to misinterpret a group's comments, or be baffled by them. A bad leader can ruin a focus group. So can one or more ornery participants who try to dominate the proceedings. Often it is difficult to understand what is really important in a focus group discussion, and what is just noise.
This year, Peter Hart is using focus groups to try to understand the presidential campaign as it unfolds. He has conducted five already and plans five more, all for the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center. The latest was held Tuesday night in York, Pa., and it will be broadcast at 8 tonight on C-SPAN.
There was no red-telephone moment on Tuesday night, but there was plenty of emotion. Hart conducted the focus group at a market research firm, in a room surrounded by see-through mirrors. Several reporters watched through the glass.
The 12 participants (who were paid $100 each for their time) comprised six Democrats, two independents who leaned Democratic, two Republicans and two pure independents. None of the 12 supported Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain in the Pennsylvania primary on April 22; seven voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton. One of Hart's principal interests was to learn how those Clinton supporters felt about Obama.
But before he could get to that question he tapped into strong feelings about the state of the country and the Bush administration. No one in the group had anything good to say about the state of the nation. Only three had anything kind to say about President Bush.
Several participants made clear their own difficult circumstances. Michelle Bell, 38, an employee of Verizon and single mother of two, complained that she got no help from anyone. "Even though I do work full time, trying to take care of the house, pay the mortgage, I have no money. I live paycheck to paycheck. But I still can't get reduced lunch for my kids at school. I think it's a bit ridiculous when there's people out there that don't work, and they're getting welfare and food stamps, and what am I getting? Nothing." A Democrat, she voted for Bush in 2004 and was leaning toward Obama.
Hart was impressed by the comments of two other women who voted for Bush in 2004 but seemed open to voting for Obama in November, a 32-year-old Republican homemaker and churchgoer named Jannell Mader, and Sheryl Randoll, an independent, 51-year-old pharmaceutical saleswoman with a history of voting for Republicans.
"I have two sons in college and one who's a senior in high school," said Randoll. "I can plod along and make it on my own, but I really don't see it for them. I mean, if college is costing $50,000 a year and all of the things that go along with that, I don't see them being even as successful as I was, and I'm not even as successful as my father was. . . . I'm a single mom taking care of three kids. . . . I'm thinking we do need change. I'm not certain that either one of the candidates is going to bring the changes that we need, but we certainly need change to make it better for them."
"I am registered as a Republican and considered myself as a Republican up until this president," said Mader, who announced at one point that she admired Mike Huckabee. "Now I'm like, I don't know what I am. . . . I think that for most of my life my decisions have been made based on morals and family values and that whole belief system that I've had instilled in me since birth. And now all of a sudden our country is like turned upside down with all these economic issues that I haven't encountered in my lifetime and it's really making me second-guess, you know, voting for those ideals instead of voting for other issues that need to be dealt with."
"If I were John McCain," Hart said on the morning after the focus group, "I'd be exceptionally nervous" after hearing these women's comments. "Those two people are terrible news for McCain.
"He's already looking at a deficit of 10 or 12 points in party ID," Hart said, referring to the gap between voters who identify themselves as Democrats or leaning toward Democrats and Republicans in this year's opinion polls. If McCain doesn't have traditional Republican voters like Mader and Randoll "locked up in early June -- that is exceptionally important."
Hart saw another reason for McCain to be anxious -- five of the seven Democrats who voted for Clinton in the primary were already comfortable with Obama as their candidate. Hart had deliberately excluded people who had voted for Obama to make it easier for the Clinton supporters to speak their minds. In states like Pennsylvania, McCain must attract many non-Republican votes to win, and his campaign has already targeted Democrats who supported Clinton.
But if Hart is right that these signs were discouraging for McCain, the York focus group also showed how fluid the presidential race remains, and "just how far from the finish line we are," in Hart's words. The discussion, which lasted nearly 140 minutes, demonstrated again and again how little the paricipants felt they knew about Obama or McCain. "I don't know enough" was the substance of many answers to Hart's queries.
In an effort to plumb their emotional reactions to both men, Hart fired a series of off-the-wall questions at the group: Imagine you are lost in a forest. Would you want Obama or McCain to help get you out? What kind of neighbor would McCain or Obama be? With which man would you choose to share an hour-long commute to work? Whom would you select to carry the American flag for the U.S. athletes marching in the opening ceremony of the Olympics?
Obama had fewer supporters than McCain on all of these questions, though only four of 12 said they leaned toward voting for McCain. This, said Hart, was evidence of the work Obama has to do to reassure voters that it would be safe and ultimately rewarding to vote for him. McCain is the relatively well-known quantity in the race, Obama still the newcomer. But Hart also noted how hard it was for members of the group to identify ways that McCain could win their votes in November.
Only one member of the group had an outspoken answer to that question. Charles Fasano, a 56-year-old undertaker, identified himself as "a Democrat . . . thinking more about McCain, just because I don't trust Osama -- I mean Obama. It's only one letter difference. His middle name's Hussein. He comes from a Muslim family. It's not right, I can't see it. I just fear for America if he comes in." Later in the discussion Fasano predicted race riots in America if Obama is elected. These were classic examples of sentiments that no poll would ever uncover, but came bubbling up freely in this focus group.
No one agreed with Fasano, nor did anyone point out that Obama barely knew his Muslim father or that side of his family. But several said they feared for Obama's safety. "The real world doesn't do well with change," said Terry Mathison, 49, an independent who voted Republican in 2004. "I think somebody would be out for him. I would fear for his life."
Thanks to new technology, says Vincent Breglio, a longtime Republican pollster and focus group leader, the future of this art form is bright. Breglio said he demonstrated this late last year in Iowa, in a new kind of computer-assisted and oversize focus group that he used on behalf of Mitt Romney.
Breglio assembled 25 people and put them all in front of laptop computers connected in a network. Instead of oral questions like Peter Hart's, he sent members of the group questions as e-mail, and the participants typed out their answers.
"The data was just much richer," Breglio said. "The meeker, less assertive people can participate without being identified. . . . We could ask fairly sensitive questions, like religious affiliations and beliefs and how they will influence votes, things that are very important but often difficult to tease out." And everyone in the group could answer every question, which isn't possible in the traditional focus group. The result, Breglio said, was the most productive, in-depth interviews he'd ever seen a focus group produce.
LOAD-DATE: June 30, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Sean Simmers For The Washington Post; Tony Calderone of Thomasville, Pa., and Charles Fasano of York, Pa., at a focus group in York designed to plumb the psyches of voters who aren't backing either front-runner.
IMAGE; Veteran focus group leader Peter Hart at Tuesday's emotional two-hour meeting in York, which will air tonight at 8 on C-SPAN.
IMAGE; By Sean Simmers For The Washington Post; Peter Hart, back to camera, with the 12 participants of the York, Pa., focus group: six Democrats, two independents who leaned Democratic, two Republicans and two pure independents.
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The Washington Post
June 30, 2008 Monday
Regional Edition
Nixonian Fallacy;
Oil Futures and the Folly of Price Controls
BYLINE: Sebastian Mallaby
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A11
LENGTH: 870 words
A few years back, when "subprime" generally referred to beef, economists used to congratulate themselves on their progress since the 1970s. Central banks had learned to tame inflation. Politicians had learned to appreciate the folly of price controls. Thanks to the economics profession, policymakers had grown wiser.
Well, inflation has returned. And politicians are out to control prices again, this time in futures markets.
You see this most clearly with oil prices. Barack Obama worries that "unregulated energy speculators may be distorting the market." John McCain complains that "while a few reckless speculators are counting their paper profits, most Americans are coming up on the short end." On Thursday a measure demanding a clampdown on oil trading passed the House 402 to 19.
So it's time for a quick refresher: Richard Nixon's early-1970s price controls were a disaster. Administering the controls on energy alone took an estimated 5 million man-hours per year and punished motorists with gas lines. Repeating this experiment by clamping down on oil trading is like burning your hand on a gas stove and then sitting on a barbecue.
Would-be Nixons argue that hedge funds and their ilk are piling into oil futures, driving prices above "reasonable" levels. They note that in 2000, speculators owned just over a third of the "paper oil" traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange but now own more than two-thirds. This buying pressure on paper oil is said to be pushing physical oil up. Stop the speculation, they say, and prices would revert to normal.
The most basic problem with this claim is that a speculator can buy paper oil only if someone else sells to him. For every trader who bets on a price rise, there must be another who bets the opposite. So an increase in the number of speculative players does not show whether prices will move up or down. Think of a youth soccer team: If it adds two extra players it doesn't become more likely to win, because its opponents will add two players as well.
What matters is who those players are: Will they aggressively push the ball up the field, or will they retreat? Sometimes the bulls are more eager than the bears, and prices spiral upward. But this is not some autonomous force that comes out of nowhere. If the bulls have the upper hand, it's generally because supply and demand favor higher prices. The fundamentals of physical oil drive the psychology around paper oil more than vice versa.
Why do I think that? Financial behavior often influences the real economy. In the recent mortgage bubble, for example, financiers made mortgages available to people who had been ineligible: They changed the fundamentals of demand for housing. But oil speculation is not like that. Investors who buy paper oil do not alter the demand for physical oil. Every paper claim they buy is a paper claim they will later sell, because they have no intention of converting their paper into real oil stocks. Oil is too expensive and cumbersome to store. A speculator is not going to show up in Cushing, Okla., when his futures contract matures and drive away with a tanker truck full of oil.
The uncertain connection between speculation and price trends is clear in recent history. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission reports how much paper oil is bought and sold by commercial users -- oil companies, refiners -- and how much is bought and sold by speculators. During the first seven months of 2007, speculators as a group tripled the amount of paper oil they owned, buying it from commercial players. But since last August, speculators as a group have not added to their positions -- yet this was when oil prices went skyward.
It would be too much to claim that futures prices don't influence players in the physical market. But to the limited extent that speculators' influence is real, this is probably a good thing. If speculators see that oil suppliers are headed for trouble and that oil demand is trending up, they express their expectation of a higher price via the futures market. This can deliver a valuable message: Governments and consumers had better adjust before shortages get even nastier.
Just as in Nixon's day, government's response to runaway prices would have unintended consequences. The most popular proposals would limit how many contracts a speculator can buy or sell on a futures exchange, and prevent trading with mostly borrowed money. But the more you restrict trading on U.S. exchanges, the more you drive trading into the shadowy world of the unregulated swaps market or onto offshore rivals. In the 1980s, Japan tried to prevent futures traders in Osaka from speculating on the Nikkei stock index. Nikkei futures trading thrived -- in Singapore.
Most fundamentally, Nixon's heirs forget that the "speculators" they attack are often trying to reduce risk, not embrace it. Pension funds have piled into oil because they are trying to protect themselves from inflation. Small investors who load up on retail oil funds are mostly doing the same. I know my family will consume several thousand dollars' worth of oil this year, so I logged on to Fidelity's Web site and locked in my price. Does Congress think I'm irresponsible?
smallaby@cfr.org
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The Washington Post
June 30, 2008 Monday
Met 2 Edition
In Flag City USA, False Obama Rumors Are Flying
BYLINE: Eli Saslow; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1589 words
DATELINE: FINDLAY, Ohio
On his corner of College Street, Jim Peterman stares at the four American flags planted in his front lawn and rubs his forehead. Peterman, 74, is a retired worker at Cooper Tire, a father of two, an Air Force veteran and a self-described patriot. He took one trip to Washington in 1989 -- best vacation of his life -- and bought a statue of the Washington Monument that he still displays in a glass case in his living room.
He believes a smart vote is an American's greatest responsibility. Which is why his confusion about Barack Obama continues to eat at him.
On the television in his living room, Peterman has watched enough news and campaign advertisements to hear the truth: Sen. Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, is a Christian family man with a track record of public service. But on the Internet, in his grocery store, at his neighbor's house, at his son's auto shop, Peterman has also absorbed another version of the Democratic candidate's background, one that is entirely false: Barack Obama, born in Africa, is a possibly gay Muslim racist who refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
"It's like you're hearing about two different men with nothing in common," Peterman said. "It makes it impossible to figure out what's true, or what you can believe."
Here in Findlay, a Rust Belt town of 40,000, false rumors about Obama have built enough word-of-mouth credibility to harden into an alternative biography. Born on the Internet, the rumors now meander freely across the flatlands of northwest Ohio -- through bars and baseball fields, retirement homes and restaurants.
Faced with polling that shows about one in 10 Americans thinks Obama is Muslim, the candidate's campaign has launched an aggressive effort to discredit rumors and clarify Obama's past. It created a "Fight the Smears" Web site and a new television ad that reiterates Obama's Christian faith, patriotism and family background. Dozens of volunteers have been sent to Ohio five months in advance of the election so they can spend extra time educating voters.
But on Peterman's block in Findlay, the campaign's efforts may already be too late. A swing voter who entered this election leaning Democratic, Peterson faces a decision that is no longer so simple as a choice between Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain, he said. First, he must pick the version of Obama on which he will stake his vote.
Does he choose to trust a TV commercial in which Obama talks about his "love of country"? Or his neighbor of 40 years, Don LeMaster, a Navy veteran who heard from a friend in Toledo that Obama refuses to wear an American-flag pin?
Does he trust a local newspaper article that details Obama's Christian faith? Or his friend Leroy Pollard, a devoted family man so convinced Obama is a radical Muslim that he threatened to stop talking to his daughter when he heard she might vote for him?
"I'll admit that I probably don't follow all of the election news like maybe I should," Peterman said. "I haven't read his books or studied up more than a little bit. But it's hard to ignore what you hear when everybody you know is saying it. These are good people, smart people, so can they really all be wrong?"
'Funny About Change'
Peterman bought his single-story house here in 1959, a few months after he left the Air Force and married. His wife, Mildred, had grown up in Findlay, and they never considered moving anywhere else. On College Street, the couple found all the hallmarks of America's heartland: a house for $9,000; a neighborhood where their two boys, one handicapped, could play outside after dark; a steady "pencil-pushing" job up the road for Jim at Cooper Tire headquarters.
The neighborhood built up around them. Leroy and Wanda Pollard came in 1962, drawn from southern Ohio by a booming auto industry that offered Leroy plenty of work as a mechanic. Mary Dunson bought the place next door in 1963. Don LeMaster, a police officer, moved in up the street with his wife, Margaret, in 1970.
Every newcomer to the block was white, working-class and Midwestern, and the neighborhood jelled easily. They babysat for one another. They complained to one another about their teenagers. They helped raise one another's grandkids. In all, seven different families have lived on the same block of College Street for at least 35 years.
"We all just found a great place at a great time," Leroy Pollard said.
Peterman hung the American flag on his porch first, in 1960, and the rest of College Street followed his example. By 1980, patriotic displays had grown into an unspoken contest of one-upmanship. Sixty flags planted in one yard on Memorial Day; a living-room window painted red, white and blue; a Buckeye tree decorated with Christmas ornaments celebrating Americana; a gigantic plastic unicorn perched on a front porch and draped in an American flag.
The entire block -- and, soon, the entire town -- shared in unabashed pride and gratefulness for the country that had given them this place. In 1968, a local congressman persuaded the House of Representatives to officially declare Findlay as Flag City, USA.
But with their pride came a nasty undercurrent, one that Obama's candidacy has exacerbated: On College Street, nobody wanted anything to change. As the years passed, Peterman and his neighbors approached one another to share in their skepticism about the unknown. What was the story behind the handful of African Americans who had moved into a town that is 93 percent white? Why were Japanese businessmen coming in to run the local manufacturing plants? Who in the world was this Obama character, running for president with that funny-sounding last name?
"People in Findlay are kind of funny about change," said Republican Mayor Pete Sehnert, a retired police officer who ran for the office on a whim last year. "They always want things the way they were, and any kind of development is always viewed as making things worse, a bad thing."
When people on College Street started hearing rumors about Obama -- who looked different from other politicians and often talked about change -- they easily believed the nasty stories about an outsider.
"I think Obama would be a disaster, and there's a lot of reasons," said Pollard, explaining the rumors he had heard about the candidate from friends he goes camping with. "I understand he's from Africa, and that the first thing he's going to do if he gets into office is bring his family over here, illegally. He's got that racist [pastor] who practically raised him, and then there's the Muslim thing. He's just not presidential material, if you ask me."
Said Don LeMaster: "He's a good speaker, but you've got to dig deeper than that for the truth. Politicians tell you anything. You have look beyond the surface, and then there are some real lies."
Said Jeanette Collins, a 77-year-old who lives across the street: "All I know for sure about Obama is that we're not ready for him."
Only one man on College Street remains open-minded, and recently even Peterman has started to sway. Like most of his neighbors, he dislikes McCain for his stance on the Iraq war and would like to cast his vote for a president who will bring the troops home. But on a recent visit to his son's auto shop, Peterman overheard misinformed customers talking again about a Muslim in the White House.
"I don't know. The whole thing just scares me," Peterman said. "I'm almost starting to feel like the best choice is not voting at all."
The Truth Squad
So far, those who have pushed the truth in Findlay have been rewarded with little that resembles progress. Gerri Kish, a 66-year-old born in Hawaii, read both of Obama's autobiographies. She has close friends, she said, who still refuse to believe her when she swears Obama is Christian. Then she hands them the books, and they refuse to read them. "They just want to believe what they believe," she said. "Nothing gets through to them."
The new advertisement running in Findlay, in which Obama is pictured with his white mother and white grandparents as he talks about developing a "deep and abiding faith in the country I love" while growing up in the Kansas heartland, is dismissed by residents of College Street as the desperate lies of another dishonest Washington politician. And they say that Obama's moves to put distance between himself and the Muslim community, with his campaign declining invitations to visit mosques and Obama volunteers removing two women in head scarves from the camera range at a rally in Detroit earlier this month are just a too-late effort to disguise his true beliefs.
For the past month, two students from the University of Findlay have spent their Tuesday nights walking from door to door in the city to tell voters about Obama. Erik Cramer and Sarah Everly target Democrats and swing voters exclusively, but they've still experienced mixed results. Sometimes, at a front door, they mention their purpose only to have a dozen rumors thrown back at them and the door slammed. "People tell us that we're in the wrong town," Everly said.
Soon, on a Tuesday night, they'll walk down College Street -- past the American flags, past the LeMasters, past the Pollards -- and knock on Jim Peterman's front door. They will ask for two minutes of his time, and Peterman will give it to them. He will listen to their story, weighing facts against fiction. For a few minutes, he might even believe them.
Then he'll close his door and go inside, back to his life. Back to his grocery store, back to his son's auto shop, back to the gossip on College Street. Back to the rumors again.
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By J.d. Pooley For The Washington Post; In Findlay, Ohio, Jim Peterman, 74, keeps hearing that Barack Obama is Muslim, or was born in Africa, or is hostile to the flag, and he's no longer sure what to believe. "It's hard to ignore what you hear when everybody you know is saying it," he says.
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The New York Times
June 29, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Inside the times: June 29, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 1860 words
INTERNATIONAL
YOUNG BRIDES OF YEMEN
Defy the Fate of Girls
Nujood Ali, 10, above, and Arwa Abdu Muhammad Ali, 9, have spurred a movement to defy child marriage in Yemen. ''This is the first shout,'' said a human rights lawyer. But despite a rising tide of outrage, the fight against the practice is not an easy one. Hard-line Islamic conservatives defend it, pointing to the Prophet Muhammad's marriage to a 9-year-old. PAGE 8
Iraq's Robust Team
After five years of war, Iraq's chances of fielding a competitive Olympic team are vanishingly small. Only one athlete, a weight lifter, qualified for the Beijing Olympics. But the country, which has been in three wars in two decades, has a robust team for the Paralympics, in which disabled athletes compete. PAGE 12
INDIA'S MONTH OF UNREST
Indian citizens have long embraced their constitutional right to assemble peaceably, and they have done so with gusto this month in myriad large protests over a wide range of issues in many parts of the country. Some speculate that India's weak central government could be contributing to the widespread unrest. Others attribute the upheaval to rapid changes in Indian society. PAGE 11
NATIONAL
A NEW MIDDLE NAME
Makes a Statement
They are Jewish and Catholic, Hispanic and Asian, an Alvarez here, a Crowley there, with a Frumkin, a Strabone, an O'Maley and who knows what else, all with at least one thing in common: They have semiofficially adopted the middle name Hussein in support of their preferred presidential candidate. PAGE 14
BOGUS UNIVERSITIES
In all, they awarded more than 10,000 diplomas for customers in 131 countries, in the process operating more than 120 ''universities.'' But the authorities say money, not higher education, was the goal of Dixie and Steven K. Randock Sr. of Colbert, Wash. The charges the couple and six former employees pleaded guilty to included mail and wire fraud. PAGE 14
AIR STRAIGHT TALK
As the presidential campaign moves from primary to national mode, Senator John McCain hopes to restore a bit of the old campaign style by recreating his signature Straight Talk Express (a term some Democrats find Orwellian) back-of-the-bus forums on his new campaign airplane, a Boeing 737-400. PAGE 20
THE PRICE OF PROTEST
Vermont Law School is closely watching a renewed fight over the military's ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy. It is one of two law schools in the nation that bar military recruiters in protest of the policy, a stand that costs it up to an estimated $500,000 in federal research money. PAGE 15
METRO
FOR ALBANY, 12 MONTHS
Of Can-You-Believe-It?
A governor had a spectacular fall. Back-to-back suicides stained the state's top law enforcement agency, coupled with reports of a rogue unit of state troopers. The top Republican resigned. Investigations abounded. Yes, you might say Albany had a rocky year. PAGE 23
LAND OF FALLING WATERS
Let it not be thought that the four man-made torrents of water currently adorning New York harbor, created by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, are the city's only waterfalls. A tour of the city provides various examples of others -- provided that the definition of ''waterfall'' is expanded a bit. PAGE 23
THE COST OF ROYALTIES
Soaring prices for energy, rising demand and advances in drilling techniques are turning the dreamy, green landscape at the outer edges of the Catskills into a potential windfall for landowners. But they are also hearing cautionary tales from Wyoming and Colorado. Our Towns, Peter Applebome. PAGE 23
SPORTS
THINKING ABOUT PITCHING,
And Remembering 1968
Nobody is suggesting that they lower the mound even more. But the craft of pitching does seem to be undergoing a revival of late. It isn't even midseason, and seven starters had at least 10 victories before Saturday's games. PAGE 2
VAULTING TO THE TOP
It's been only four years since Jenn Stuczynski's coach watched her in a basketball game and persuaded her to pick up a pole for the first time. Now, at 26, Stuczynski holds the American record, clearing 16 feet 3/4 inches at the Adidas Track Classic in May. Only one woman in the world has vaulted higher. PAGE 6
SUNDAY BUSINESS
STARTING A COMPANY,
And Hiring Hubby
Some female entrepreneurs have proved comfortable not only with running their own companies, but also with having their husbands work for them. They find ways to work together at home and create a separate balance of power in their business relationship. How? By carefully delineating their roles and playing to each other's strengths. PAGE 1
A TUSSLE IN THE SKIES
Commercial airlines say business aircraft contribute significantly to congestion in the skies and don't pay their share of the costs of running the air traffic control system. The business aviation industry, which is booming as airlines struggle, says it is being unfairly viewed as competitors. PAGE 2
Arts & Leisure
FEAR, LOATHING AND GLORY,
A Gonzo Documentary
You'd need two area codes, or maybe even two states, to hold the many sides of Hunter S. Thompson. ''Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson,'' a new documentary from Alex Gibney, borrows from two films made about Thompson and video of luminaries who have lined up to pay respect to a man whose brand of journalism, not to mention life, was not for the faint of heart. PAGE 7
NEW SONG AND DANCE
When the popular game ''Guitar Hero'' featured the Aerosmith song ''Same Old Song and Dance'' in its third installment, sales for the song more than doubled. That sparked an idea. Soon, Aerosmith was in a motion capture studio for Neversoft, the games designer, creating what is to be half game, half biographical box set: ''Guitar Hero Aerosmith.'' Page 16
OBITUARIES
DAVID CAMINER, 92
As an employee of the legendary chain of British tea shops J. Lyons & Company, he found the earliest ways to use a computer for business purposes, including standardizing flavorful, cost-effective cups of tea. LEO, which he helped develop for the company, was the world's first business computer. PAGE 25
MAGAZINE
TRYING TO DECIPHER
Europe's Baby Shortage
Birth rates across the Continent are falling at drastic and, to many, alarming rates. Why are Europeans so hesitant to have children, and what does it mean for their future and ours? PAGE 34
SWIMMING INTO THE SUNSET
Dara Torres won the first of her nine Olympic swimming medals in 1984. At the trials this week, she is expected to make her fifth Olympic team. If so, she will become the oldest female swimmer in the history of the Games. And it will not have come easily. PAGE 28
Travel
LATIN HEART OF CHICAGO
Beats to Rhythm of Life
Pilsen, Chicago's core Latin neighborhood, thrums with life. Take the art walk, starting on South Halsted Street. Or visit the National Museum of Mexican Art, the city's leading Latino cultural organization. But rest assured, if you can't make time, with a surging population and influence the Latino population will sway its way to you. Just wait a while. PAGE 5
SUNDAY STYLES
WITH THE MOMS AWAY,
The Dads Do Play
Stay-at-home fathers are depicted as a lonely lot, spurned by cliquish moms and nannies on the playground, financially emasculated by their breadwinner wives, generally cut off from the forces that sustain a man. Not so for the seven or eight fathers of the nameless P.S. 234 breakfast club, whiling away their mornings with hash browns and banter. PAGE 1
A LONG LOOK AT SMELL
High-fashion magazines typically dedicate a page or two -- if that -- of editorial space to a new perfume. The July Harper's Bazaar devotes 40 of its editorial pages to four celebrities and models who also star in the advertising campaign for Sensuous, a new fragrance from Estee Lauder. As Jubal Early of TV's ''Firefly'' might have asked: ''Does that seem right to you?'' PAGE 1
BOOK REVIEW
YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
(Unless You're 007)
One mark of a truly successful fictional character is that he not only survives his creator, but also continues in new adventures. Take Sherlock Holmes (whom not even his creator could kill). More recently, take Bond, James Bond, now back in ''Devil May Care,'' which ''is not without its pleasures,'' Alex Berenson writes in a review not overly long on praise. PAGE 8
ASSESSING BLAME
Over her adult lifetime Arianna Huffington's political positions have been fluid, a fact that could in theory give her new book, ''Right Is Wrong,'' the perspective of a former insider. But, Jack Shafer writes in his review that ''Huffington appears to be stuck in 2004,'' and that ''her new book seems oblivious of the right's decline.'' PAGE 18
AUTOMOBILES
THE URBANE MAKEOVER
Of a City Slicker
With gasoline prices soaring, crossovers -- car-based utility vehicles that usually burn less fuel than their truck-based counterparts -- are nudging out sport utility vehicles in showrooms. And in the crossover class, Nissan's redesigned Murano has much to offer buyers. But will negative reaction to S.U.V.'s hit the crossover market? PAGE 1
WEEK IN REVIEW
GAUGING THE EFFECTIVENESS
Of Gun Control Laws
Among the questions in the background of the Supreme Court's ruling last week on gun control laws was whether those laws work, or whether they may even be counterproductive. An analysis of research into the subject, as conducted by Justice Stephen G. Breyer, led him to conclude, in effect: Who knows? PAGE 1
IRAQ'S OIL MOTIVES
A report that the Iraqi oil ministry was close to awarding contracts to service its oil fields to some of the largest Western oil companies did nothing to assuage fears that the war in Iraq was a naked grab for oil that would open the country to multinational energy giants. PAGE 1
Editorial
AIR FORCE'S TANKER MESS
The Air Force needs the new refueling planes, but its repeated bungling of the procurement process shows that it is incapable of doing the task on its own. Defense Secretary Robert Gates must take over. WEEK IN REVIEW, PAGE 9
WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE
How did a company run by a 21-year-old president and a 25-year-old former masseur get a sensitive $300 million contract to supply ammunition to Afghan forces? Good question. WEEK IN REVIEW, PAGE 9
OIL AND INFLATION
The country first saw how high oil prices can wreak economic havoc with the 1970s oil shocks. Now, the next president and Congress will have to tackle the oil problem once and for all. WEEK IN REVIEW, PAGE 9
Op-Ed
FRANK RICH
As fear of terrorism and fear of gays become less effective tools in 2008, Karl Rove is busy ginning up a new fear card: fear of the Obamas. WEEK IN REVIEW, PAGE 12
MAUREEN DOWD
Far from calamity, and just short of reality, Barack and Hillary meet in Unity. WEEK IN REVIEW, PAGE 11
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
It is the state of America now that is the most gripping source of anxiety for Americans, not Al Qaeda or Iraq. We need nation-building at home. Vote for the candidate who will do that best. WEEK IN REVIEW, PAGE 10
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
We should be just as resolute in standing up to African tyrants who are black as to those who are white. WEEK IN REVIEW, PAGE 12
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The Oracle Collective
BYLINE: By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN
SECTION: Section MM; Column 0; Magazine Desk; THE MEDIUM; Pg. 20
LENGTH: 1254 words
You're not supposed to use the Internet like a Magic 8 Ball. Google can't tell you whether you'll pass the bar exam or find happiness in Spokane. But almost from the start, the Web has been barraged with personal questions -- often highly subjective ones. Internet users want to do more than ''conduct searches'' as if they were military police. They want to canvass opinions, plead for sympathy, share an experience or otherwise be humored.
Fortunately, a deluxe humoring service has arrived, in the form of Yahoo Answers. In the two years since it was introduced, Yahoo Answers has become second in popularity only to Wikipedia as a reference site. Unlike search engines, it doesn't direct seekers to lists of citations, databases, entries and advertisers. Instead, the service delivers questioners to other people who simply like questions, matching inquiring minds with know-it-alls.
You can read questions and answers without joining, but if you join, you can also ask questions (which costs you points, in the ingenious economy of the service) or answer them (which earns points). Named experts don't weigh in; no one is paid; answers are composed, ad hoc, by the people and for the people. Members ascend various levels for asking and answering, and with each level comes privileges: you win credibility and a better seat at the seminar.
Take some recent questions plaguing the people of the world.
''Will Clinton supporters vote for McCain?'' Joy asks. Schona replies, ''I think some will not bother to vote, but most will come around to support Obama in the end.''
''Who will Barack Obama choose as his vice president?'' asks starfishblues.
Twenty-seven answers follow, filled with knowing references to ''swing states,'' ''the Hispanic vote'' and the unlikelihood of Joe Biden agreeing to leave his post as chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Admittedly, a couple of replies are obnoxious, and several are simply partisan. But starfishblues has deemed her question ''resolved,'' in Yahoo Answers parlance, because she hit the motherlode with an answer from Donnie Brasco.
''Richardson is a good option,'' Donnie Brasco begins. ''I think Obama will really be tough to beat in Nov. if he picks either Gen. Clark, Gov. Sebelius, Gov. Napolitano, Gov. Kaine or Sen. Hagel. Gen. Clark has the military background to counter Sen. McCain's views of Iraq. . . . Gov. Kaine can possibly deliver VA to Sen. Obama and make him competitive in NC. Govs. Sebelius and Napolitano can attract female support. . . . Sebelius can make him competitive in the Midwest and Napolitano can make him competitive in the Southwest just like Gov. Richardson. Hagel would be the perfect bipartisan ticket if McCain picks Lieberman.''
Whew. And that's just an excerpt. This kind of exhaustive pro bono punditry -- with all the flourishes of professional talking heads -- is part of what makes Yahoo's service so surprising.
A decent colloquial question-answer service on the Internet has been a long time coming. In the mid-1990s, technocritics worried that using the Internet would be like ''drinking from a firehose,'' as Cliff Stoll put it. In 1996, AskJeeves.com appeared, an obliging valet who would fetch drinks of water and spare newbies from the blast. Jeeves purported to tackle questions with infinite patience -- from ''how do I make moonshine?'' to ''why am I so tired?'' -- and return silver-plattered answers from reliable sources on the Web.
What AskJeeves retrieved, however, was hard to make heads or tails of. If you asked ''what is this rash?'' you were left with something like what still shows up on the revamped version of the site, now called Ask.com: two links to encyclopedia entries, including ''rash'' (''a change in the skin'') and ''Red & Anarchist Skinheads,'' a k a RASH.
Years ago I despaired at AskJeeves, and these days I never look at Ask. Before Yahoo Answers, I'd just use Google for my questions, and I was forever being detained with impenetrable papers from Medline or iVillage bulletins that were really ads.
Today I go straight to Yahoo. When I expand the same question I put to Ask -- ''What is this dry, rashy patch on my neck?'' -- the question is registered, and then I am introduced to kindred spirits. Off the bat I'm drawn to outlaw--immortalz, who phrases our problem this way: ''Can you tell me what type of rash or skin disease i may have?'' He elaborates: ''Im a black male and i have like these dark patches around my neck, they dont itch or anything they just become really dry if i dont moisturize it. . . . Can anyone help me?''
A reply that serves him and me both comes up: ''Eczema or psoriasis. I recommend seeing a dermatologist who can give you topical lotions to subdue the problem.'' Instant relief. The problem already feels subdued. Not only does some anonymous smarty recognize a rash right away, and project absolute confidence about its being subduable, but outlaw--immortalz has bucked me up with his belief in the power of the people and emotional openness. I feel less shame. I feel less itchy. I'm not kidding.
In discussions of Google, hypothetical queries always have the sheen of scholarliness. We imagine Web users asking about the history of Montana or Bjork's second album -- the same kind of questions that callers used to ask the information and research desks of the New York Public Library.
In fact, people ask the Web all kinds of crazy things, including ''Does he love me?'' (Mamay: ''He's 13, he doesn't know what love is.'') Look over your own Google search history, if you can bear it. Embarrassment does not inhibit us, as it must have inhibited callers to the public library. People ask about shoe fetishes. They ask about suing their parents for malpractice. They ask about what's cool to wear in Dallas.
And they ask from the heart. So far, the Yahoo Answers points system rights the giving-and-getting balance, while kindly presupposing that every member has something to say -- a valuable answer for someone, somewhere. And we do. If nothing else, we can mirror a questioner's confusion and make him feel less alone. What I'm saying is: Maybe when we turn to the Internet with questions, we're not looking for information. We're looking for -- yeah, I'll say it -- love.
POINTS OF ENTRY
This Week's Recommendations
ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE: Interrogate the Internet at Yahoo Answers -- answers.yahoo.com -- where odd questions and odd answers are welcome. Also, don't miss this hilarious cartoon sendup of the less literate side of Yahoo Answers: somethingawful.com/flash/shmorky/babby.swf.
CONCENTRATE AND ASK AGAIN: The Magic 8 Ball, a 1946 invention by Al Carter and Abe Bookman of the Alabe Crafts company, expressed postwar optimism about -- oh, who knows? It was a weird plastic ball filled with gooey fluid that had a triangle thingy floating in it. Mattel has produced it since 1997. Something in the phrasing of the 8 Ball's answers -- ''My sources say no,'' ''Reply hazy, try again'' -- was poetic. Fans solemnly dissect one at 8ball.ofb.net. And while many have tried digital versions, Mattel's own is best: mattelgamefinder.com/demos.asp?demo=mb.
MEN ASKING DIRECTIONS: Though it seemed at first like another ill-conceived effort to get guys to buy cars and razors, AskMen.com has emerged (over eight years) as a daily magazine in the GQ mode. Pressing questions like ''Do real men like Coldplay?'' propel the blogs, and poker, gadgets and Scarlett Johansson are all comprehensively covered.
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Correction Appended
Late Edition - Final
Political Freelancers Use Web to Join the Attack
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1638 words
DATELINE: CULVER CITY, Calif.
The video blasted across the Internet, drawing political blood from Senator John McCain within a matter of days.
Produced here in a cluttered former motel behind the Sony Pictures lot, it juxtaposed harsh statements about Islam made by the Rev. Rod Parsley with statements from Mr. McCain praising Mr. Parsley, a conservative evangelical leader. The montage won notice on network newscasts this spring and ultimately helped lead Mr. McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, to reject Mr. Parsley's earlier endorsement.
In previous elections, an attack like that would have come from party operatives, campaign researchers or the professional political hit men who orbit around them.
But in the 2008 race, the first in which campaigns are feeling the full force of the changes wrought by the Web, the most attention-grabbing attacks are increasingly coming from people outside the political world. In some cases they are amateurs operating with nothing but passion, a computer and a YouTube account, in other cases sophisticated media types with more elaborate resources but no campaign experience.
So it was with the Parsley video, which was the work of a 64-year-old film director, Robert Greenwald, and his small band of 20-something assistants. Once best known for films like ''Xanadu'' (with Olivia Newton-John) and the television movie ''The Burning Bed'' (with Farrah Fawcett), Mr. Greenwald shows how technology has dispersed the power to shape campaign narratives, potentially upending the way American presidential campaigns are fought.
Mr. Greenwald's McCain videos, most of which portray the senator as contradicting himself in different settings, have been viewed more than five million times -- more than Mr. McCain's own campaign videos have been downloaded on YouTube.
''If you had told me we would have hit one million, I would have told you you were crazy,'' said Mr. Greenwald, who said he had no ties to the Democratic Party or Senator Barack Obama's campaign.
Four years ago, the Internet was a Wild West that caused the occasional headache for the campaigns but for the most part remained segregated from them. This year, the development of cheap new editing programs and fast video distribution through sites like YouTube has broken down the barriers, empowering a new generation of largely unregulated political warriors who can affect the campaign dialogue faster and with more impact than the traditional opposition research shops.
Already there are signs that these less formal and more individual efforts are filling a vacuum created by a decline in activity among the independent advocacy groups -- so-called 527s and similar operations -- that have played a large role in negative politics in the last several election cycles. Especially on the conservative side, independent groups have reported trouble raising money, and some of the biggest players from 2004 have signaled that they will sit it out this time around.
The shift has by no means gone unnoticed by the campaigns. And while strategists in both parties suspect that traditional political operatives affiliated with the campaigns or parties frequently pose as independent grassroots participants by hiding behind anonymous Web identities, few have been caught this year.
The change has added to the frenetic pace of the campaign this year. ''It's politics at the speed of Internet,'' said Dan Carol, a strategist for Mr. Obama who was one of the young bulls on Bill Clinton's vaunted rapid response team in 1992. ''There's just a lot of people who at a very low cost can do this stuff and don't need a memo from HQ.''
That would seem to apply to people like Robert Anderson, a professor at Elon University in North Carolina whose modest YouTube site features videos flattering to Mr. Obama and unflattering to Mr. McCain, or Paul Villarreal, who from his apartment in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., has produced a harsh series of spots that attack Mr. Obama and make some claims that have been widely debunked.
Counting the audience for such videos can be tricky, as sites like YouTube list only the number of times they have been viewed, not the number of people who view them. That said, according to YouTube, Mr. Villarreal's video was viewed about 50,000 times. And it cost him just $100 to produce, for software, he said. He said he had no connection to the Republican Party or the McCain campaign, though he said he had reached out to them and not heard back.
The better-circulated political videos have generally come from people with some production experience. One of the most widely seen anti-Obama videos was created by Jason Mitchell, who produces evangelical Christian programming in Durham, N.C.
A conservative-leaning version of YouTube called Eyeblast.tv has recorded millions of hits on the video. But as is often the case with such videos, how many of the viewers come to sneer rather than applaud is hard to tell.
''Four years ago I would just be a 'political activist,' '' Mr. Mitchell said. ''Now, they call me a 'communications political strategist,' and that's only because of the Internet.''
Mr. Mitchell, 29, said his cash expenses to make and distribute the segment were about $50, a fraction of the roughly $100,000 that it would cost to broadcast a 30-second spot on a television news program with an audience of a few million, like ''Meet the Press.'' ''That's dirt cheap for an ad,'' Mr. Mitchell said.
Mr. Mitchell said he was motivated by what he said were deep-rooted misgivings about Mr. Obama on social issues, his level of experience and background. But it is unlikely any television station would have accepted the video if he had tried to run it.
The segment's announcer notes that Mr. Obama's father was Muslim, asserts that the candidate attended a Muslim grammar school in Indonesia for two years, and asks, ''When we are at war with Islamic terrorism, can Americans elect a man with not one, not two, but three Islamic names?'' One onscreen image shows Mr. Obama's face morphed with that of Osama bin Laden.
Mr. Mitchell says he sticks close to the factual record, but the video has been widely criticized as over the line. Mr. Obama is a Christian. The school he attended in Indonesia was secular.
Three weeks ago, the Obama campaign started a Web site called ''Fight the Smears'' to, among other things, debunk portrayals of Mr. Obama as Muslim. It allows its users to e-mail the information easily to friends.
''What we're really trying to do is knock down important things that are wrong, which also diminishes the power of the next set of rumors,'' said Mr. Carol, the Obama aide.
With Web-based attacks proliferating, campaigns are leaving behind the assumption that to respond to highly negative or false accusations is to needlessly publicize them. ''It poses a more complicated version of the age-old dilemma that campaigns always find themselves in,'' said Phil Singer, who was the press secretary for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign. ''Do you address something head on and risk making it a mainstream phenomenon? Or ignore it and risk allowing it to take on a life of its own?''
The presidential campaign of former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts developed an effective if labor intensive technique. It flooded YouTube with positive videos of Mr. Romney. ''The new model of response is to dominate the market share of information about your candidate,'' said Kevin Madden, Mr. Romney's former press secretary.
Several Republican communications strategists, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that was precisely whatMr. McCain might have to do. He is coming under harsh attack on YouTube in videos that, some Republicans say, take his words out of context. A simple search of his name automatically produces several negative videos. Mr. Greenwald, whose shop is responsible for many of them, said he was determined to keep it that way.
With a budget of $900,000 from donations, Mr. Greenwald has built a mini-factory of anti-McCain propaganda at his firm, Brave New Films. He takes no payment for his efforts, which are regulated by laws governing nonprofit groups and include other subjects, like critiques of Fox News.
In a darkened room here, three young assistants edit digital images on equipment that barely takes up a full desk, trolling the Web for political news and culling through Mr. McCain's past and present statements. A system of hard drives catalogs cable news.
Mr. Greenwald was not always so politically active. He gave money to politicians or groups sporadically, but was not among Hollywood's elite donor class.
Mr. Greenwald said he had a political awakening after Sept. 11 and dedicated himself to making liberal films, an endeavor he said he could afford having been ''lucky enough to have been majorly overpaid in commercial film and television relative to any rational measure.''
His highest impact has been with his video about Mr. Parsley. The montage was created with help from David Corn, Washington Bureau chief for Mother Jones, who unearthed video of Mr. Parsley inveighing against Islam and saying, ''America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed.''
Mr. Greenwald's team combined it with video of Mr. McCain calling Mr. Parsley, ''one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide.'' The montage spread quickly across liberal Web sites, and made its way onto ABC News. Mr. McCain released a statement rejecting Mr. Parsley's endorsement shortly thereafter.
''For years I sat in conversations with people who said the only way we can be effective is we have to raise $1 billion and buy CBS,'' Mr. Greenwald said. ''Well, Google raised a couple of billion and bought YouTube, and it's here for us, and it's a huge, huge difference.''
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LOAD-DATE: June 29, 2008
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CORRECTION-DATE: July 6, 2008
CORRECTION: An article last Sunday about people outside the traditional political world who use the Web to attack candidates and their campaigns misspelled the surname of a strategist for Senator Barack Obama in some editions. He is Dan Carol, not Carrol. The error also appeared in the Quotation of the Day.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: The Rev. Rod Parsley, top, was the subject of an anti-John McCain video. Another independent vid- eo attacks Barack Obama's patriotism.(PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAVE NEW FILMS, TOP
ILLUMINATI PICTURES, BOTTOM)
Robert Greenwald makes videos critical of John McCain at his Culver City, Calif., office.(PHOTOGRAPH BY ANN JOHANSSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)(pg. 21)
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Late Edition - Final
Eureka! Where Do I Cash the Check?
BYLINE: By GEORGE JOHNSON
SECTION: Section WK; Column 0; Week in Review Desk; IDEAS & TRENDS; Pg. 5
LENGTH: 1051 words
When a documentary called ''Who Killed the Electric Car?'' came out in 2006, laying blame on the usual suspects -- oil companies, automakers and the Bush administration -- it was hailed by some viewers as a brave expose and dismissed by others as a conspiracy theory. But the film's broader thesis was hard to dispute. You don't have to be paranoid to believe that the inertia of the status quo acts as a drag on innovation.
Declaring last week that he wanted to break the country's oil jam by encouraging ''heroic efforts in engineering,'' John McCain called for the government to offer a prize -- $300 million (a dollar an American) to the inventor of a battery so compact, powerful and inexpensive that it would supplement or even supplant the need for fossil fuels.
Barack Obama quickly derided the proposal -- involving a sum equivalent to nearly 200 Nobel Prizes -- as a gimmick and a distraction. But prizes are hard to resist. Mr. Obama's own energy plan, posted on his Web site, suggests awarding them (in addition to tax incentives and government contracts) for ethanol research. But ultimately, he insisted, achieving energy independence will require a Kennedyesque effort like the one that put a man on the moon.
On one level the rhetoric was a replay of the old standoff between Big Government and the virtues of entrepreneurship. But it also raised deeper questions, like how best can the government finance and direct basic research without stifling something as mercurial as the spirit of invention.
Considering the bureaucratic bog the space program has waded into -- the exhilaration of Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind giving way to plumbing problems on the International Space Station -- Mr. Obama might not have picked the best example. The latest pictures from Mars are stunning, but the most exciting thing to happen recently in manned space flight came in 2004 when Burt Rutan won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for the first privately backed suborbital excursion.
Winning the contest, which was named for its benefactors, the Ansari family, and administered by the nonprofit X Prize Foundation, cost more than the award was worth. (Mr. Rutan was backed by a Microsoft billionaire, Paul Allen.) But greater spoils may await, with Virgin Galactic licensing the technology for a space tourism industry.
This kind of leveraging is one of the selling points of sweepstakes science. The X Prize Foundation took as its model the 1919 Orteig Prize -- $25,000 for the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris offered by a hotelier who figured it would be good for business. The purse was claimed eight years later by Charles Lindbergh, and the publicity jump-started American aviation.
Lindbergh's grandson is a member of the foundation's board, which is offering other prizes including the Google Lunar X Prize for the winner of an unmanned race to the moon; the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize, endowed by the family of the science fiction writer, ''for practical accomplishments in the field of commercial space activities''; and the Archon X Prize for Genomics for the developer of a faster, cheaper way to sequence DNA.
None of these goals is beyond the reach of the government research establishment -- which includes, along with NASA, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. But with formal proposals, peer review and Congressional oversight, it's hard for administrators to jump quickly on a new idea -- and there is always the danger of getting stuck in a rut. The system was designed to pick out the best people with the best ideas and to avoid political meddling. But you can never know until the end whether you have been backing the wrong team.
Hence the allure of prizes. They come unburdened by preconceptions and require little overhead, and development costs are often picked up by people like Mr. Allen. Best of all, the prize has to be paid only if there is a winner.
That in itself can raise questions about the seriousness of the commitment. Basic research consists of the gradual, meandering, sometimes tedious accretion of small details. That requires money up front. Practical applications, if there are any, may only be clear in retrospect.
Still, where there is a well-defined goal, prizes might lure talented mavericks who would otherwise get caught in the filters. An oft-cited case is the cash prize offered by Britain in 1714 for determining a ship's longitude at sea. Had there been an 18th-century version of the National Science Foundation, grants would probably have gone to astronomers looking to the sky for a solution. (Latitude was measured that way, so why not longitude?) The winner, after half a century, was a clockmaker, John Harrison, who took an entirely different approach: devising an extremely accurate chronometer.
Determined to recapture its adventurous image, NASA has created its own prizes -- through its Centennial Challenges program (established in 2003 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk). And the defense research agency's Grand Challenge has pitted robotic cars against each other in a race to develop a vehicle that can navigate without a human driver or remote control.
There may be more to come. A recent report by the National Academy of Sciences suggested that the N.S.F. dip into the waters by experimenting with small prizes. But a discussion paper published in 2006 by the Brookings Institution called for a much bigger commitment, with government prizes ranging from $15 million for an Earth-Moon solar sailcraft race to as much as $100 million a year for improvements in African agriculture. Mr. McCain's own proposal for spurring development of alternative energy sources was foreshadowed by a bill introduced last year in Congress that would establish a prize for breakthroughs in the development of hydrogen power.
If the trend takes off there may be so many contests that they lose their appeal. But science will be in no danger. No prize will ever match the thrill of discovery -- Marie Curie isolating a shimmering gram of radium from tons of uranium ore. And for the less inspired, there will always be the rewards of the marketplace.
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CORRECTION-DATE: July 6, 2008
CORRECTION: An article last Sunday about the use of financial rewards to encourage innovation misidentified the sponsor of the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize ''for practical accomplishments in the field of commercial space activities.'' The prize is awarded by the Heinlein Prize Trust, not the X Prize Foundation.
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: PIONEERS: Charles Lindbergh, with his ''Spirit of St. Louis,'' and the developers of SpaceShipOne, top, earned prize money for their aeronautical feats. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY JIM CAMPBELL/AERO-NEWS NETWORK (TOP)
MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY PHOTOGRAPHS AND PRINTS COLLECTION (ABOVE))
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June 29, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
''It's Over, Lady!''
BYLINE: By MAUREEN DOWD
SECTION: Section WK; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 11
LENGTH: 790 words
DATELINE: UNITY, N.H.
Unity was spared the banality of unanimity.
Carmella Lewis, with her Hillary T-shirt and Hillary placard, came all the way from Denver to make sure there would be plenty of ambiguity, duality and ferocity in Unity.
Just as Hillary was testing out the unfamiliar familiarity ''Barack and me'' Friday and talking about ''his grace and his grit,'' Carmella began loudly booing and waving her sign.
''We want Hillary!'' screamed the 57-year-old retired ad saleswoman and Clinton delegate.
''It's over, lady!'' yelled some Obama supporters a few yards away.
Standing between the Sharks and the Jets, David Axelrod took pity on an older friend of Carmella's who was suffering from aridity in the Unity humidity. The chief Obama strategist fetched a glass of water and brought it to the woman, who was wearing five Hillary buttons.
This amenity did not stop the disunity. Carmella and her friends continued to cry, ''Nobama!'' ''We love you, Hillary!'' and ''We need Hillary!'' as Barack Obama sat onstage on a stool behind his former rival, his finger studiously at his lips.
Carmella was not impressed with all the kissing, laughing and whispering that Hill and Bam were diligently doing for the cameras, so that the moment could produce, as Obama press aide Robert Gibbs put it on ''Larry King Live,'' ''a great picture.''
When it was Obama's turn to speak, Carmella announced loudly, ''I wish I had ear plugs.'' Then, as Obama tried to ingratiate himself with the Hillary partisans in the crowd by saying that because of the New York senator, his daughters ''can take for granted that women can do anything that the boys can do and do it better and do it in heels,'' Carmella put her fingers in her ears.
As Obama tried to curry favor with Hillary, looking over at her sensible, sturdy shoes and marveling, ''I still don't know how she does it in heels,'' Carmella tore up a tissue and stuffed it in her ears.
When Obama pandered with a line about how he wouldn't ''perpetuate a system in which women are paid less for the same work as men,'' she put her hands over her tissue-stuffed ears.
''Maybe she'd like what she heard if she listened,'' sighed Axelrod.
When Obama talked about moving beyond ''all the petty bickering,'' as Hillary robo-nodded at his side and CNN's Candy Crowley applied pre-broadcast lipstick above her, Carmella glared at people applauding.
Afterward, Carmella got her idol to autograph her sign, telling the smiling Hillary, ''You're going to be the next president.''
She told The Times that she and her friends were all voting for John McCain and that Hillary was just doing what she had to do.
''But I have a gut feeling,'' she said with macabre faith, ''that something's going to happen so that she becomes the nominee.''
Some people were mingling well on unity day.
Hillary's chic body woman Huma Abedin got along great with Obama's charming body man Reggie Love; the two, with their dates, shared a dinner the night before at a Georgetown hot spot.
The Bamary press corps meshed effortlessly. The Hillary Fox producer nodded to the good old days by passing around a video mashup of the former foes' greatest hits: Hillary mocking Obama, saying, ''Enough with the speeches and the big rallies!'' and Obama saying, ''Shame on her!'' after Hillary said, ''Shame on you, Barack Obama!''
Reporters and photographers crept toward the front of the plane where the victor and the vanquished sat side by side, trying to analyze every smidgen of body language for amity and jollity.
Endless hours were spent analyzing the shade of her pantsuit and his matching tie. Was it powder blue? Cornflower blue? Peacock blue? Cerulean?
The new political allies engaged in what one Obama aide sanguinely described as ''comfortable, jovial small talk.'' Obama told Hillary about using his Mac to keep in touch with his daughters, and she regaled him with tales of completely unidentifiable dishes you get served on overseas trips. They commiserated about the loss of privacy.
They did not, however, commiserate about Bill Clinton, who is in a self-pitying meltdown about not being Elvis anymore, trying to shake down Obama for more -- more apologies for perceived snubs and more help paying off the $22 million Clinton debt.
It's hard to fathom why Obama should be mau-maued into paying off the debt that Hillary and Bill accrued attacking and undermining him, while mismanaging the campaign and their nearly quarter-billion-dollar war chest so horribly that one Hillaryland insider told The New Republic that it bordered on fraud.
But the former president can't stand being a loser, so he's taking it out on the winner. When it comes to Bill, there's a lot of vanity but very little humility in Unity.
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The Washington Post
June 29, 2008 Sunday
Suburban Edition
Poised for a Flip
BYLINE: Chris Cillizza; PLAYERS and PLAYERS
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A07
LENGTH: 1214 words
Fewer than five months remain before the November election, and, slowly but surely, the outlines of the national playing field are coming into focus.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) appears committed to expanding the traditional group of battleground states -- launching his first ad of the general election in 18 states, including 14 that President Bush carried in 2004. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) seems to envision a more traditional playing field, concentrating his advertising on 10 (or so) states including quadrennial battlegrounds such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
It remains to be seen which approach will prevail. But here's a snapshot of the five states most likely to switch from the Democratic column in 2004 to the Republican one in 2008 (or vice versa). No. 1 is the most likely to flip this fall.
5. Michigan (Sen. John Kerry won with 51 percent in 2004): There's a reason that the endorsements of Obama by former senator John Edwards (N.C.) and former vice president Al Gore both happened in Michigan. Obama's campaign knows that its candidate's decision to skip the state's primary (and all of the agitation that ensued from that choice), coupled with the fact that McCain has shown strength in Michigan (witness his 2000 primary victory there), make the Wolverine State a major challenge. For Obama to win, he must run extremely well in Detroit and Ann Arbor and avoid being swamped in the more Republican-friendly territory covered by the 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts.
4. Ohio (Bush won with 51 percent in 2004): Obama's chance to lock down Ohio went by the boards when Gov. Ted Strickland removed himself from the veepstakes. With Strickland out of the running, it's clear that Obama will have to put in the time to persuade Ohio voters -- particularly the working-class whites who supported Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) in the state's primary -- that he shares their values and concerns. Still, Republicans hit something close to rock bottom in 2006, and it's not clear whether the party can recover before November. National Republican strategists are not optimistic.
3. Nevada (Bush, 51 percent, 2004): The growth in Nevada is largely in and around Las Vegas (Clark County) and tends to favor Democrats, but there remains a substantial conservative vote in the rural reaches. McCain and Obama have made appearances in the state in the past week -- a sign that both believe it is up for grabs. Watch the manner in which Obama and McCain address the issue of Yucca Mountain, the proposed permanent dump site for the nation's nuclear waste, a plan that is strongly opposed by Nevadans. During a stop in the state last week, Obama blasted McCain for his proposal to build a string of nuclear plants, a not-so-subtle attempt to remind voters that he opposes Yucca while McCain supports it.
2. New Mexico (Bush, 50 percent, 2004): Bush's victory in the Land of Enchantment was the first by a Republican presidential candidate since 1988. It looks likely that New Mexico will return to its Democratic roots in 2008. Popular Gov. Bill Richardson is interested in a spot either on the ticket or in an Obama Cabinet and will work hard to make sure the senator from Illinois runs well in his home state. The swing voters in the state are Hispanics; they make up 42 percent of the population and will be heavily sought after by both Obama and McCain.
1. Iowa (Bush, 50 percent, 2004): At the start of the 2008 election, Iowa was widely seen as the truest of tossups: Bush won the state by 10,000 votes of out more than 1.5 million cast in the last presidential election. The emergence of Obama, however, and the centrality of the Hawkeye State in launching his candidacy, has turned the state into the best pickup opportunity in the country for Democrats. The massive amount of money Obama spent to identify, organize and turn out voters in advance of the Jan. 3 caucuses looks to be a good long-term investment heading into the general election. In neither of McCain's presidential primary bids did he run an active campaign in Iowa -- a major disadvantage in the fall.
PLAYERS
Americans United for Change, an issues-oriented liberal organization, is undergoing a bit of a facelift in advance of the November election. Current Executive Director Brad Woodhouse is taking a leave of absence to help run the day-to-day communications at the Democratic National Committee. While Woodhouse's madcap style -- and e-mail precocity -- are irreplaceable, Americans United will use a double-barreled approach in his absence: Caren Benjamin, a former aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), will be assisted in the day-to-day duties by Progressive Strategies, a Democratic consulting firm run by former Clinton aide Mike Lux. Susan McCue, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), will serve as a general consultant to the group.
One day: Big brains at the nexus of public policy and politics gather in Colorado for the Aspen Institute's 2008 Ideas Festival. Among the expected attendees are former president Bill Clinton and former Georgia senator Sam Nunn, one of the most-mentioned candidates for the Democratic vice presidential nomination.
16 days: July 15 is the final day for candidates to file for the Senate race in Minnesota. All eyes are on "The Body," a.k.a. Jesse Ventura, a.k.a. the state's former governor. Ventura has played coy about his interest in joining an already high-profile field that includes Sen. Norm Coleman (R) and entertainer Al Franken (D). If Ventura runs, he would almost assuredly affect the final outcome.
EVERYONE'S FAVORITE
Ever wonder what it would be like if the vice presidential sweepstakes was conducted like "Survivor"?
Now we know -- thanks to the Massachusetts-based company Affinnova, which used "evolutionary optimization" to trim down a list of 100 potential veeps to the single strongest candidate for each party.
The winners?
There's just one: retired Gen. Colin Powell.
Powell, who has said countless times that he has no interest in running for office, wound up atop both the Democratic and Republican lists. "Likely voters for both parties in the study indicate Powell's strong leadership and dependability as factors for choosing him first," said a release on the findings.
Rounding out the top five picks for Democrats, in order, were former vice president Al Gore, former representative Dick Gephardt (Mo.), Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and former senator John Edwards (N.C.). On the GOP side, the results for second through fourth place were Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in a virtual dead heat. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani took fifth.
The findings are the result of a Web-based sample of 2,000 likely voters from June 12 to 17. Participants were presented with three different president-vice president combinations and asked to pick the ticket that most appealed to them. Over time, those tickets not picked dropped off, and the more commonly selected moved up the list. It's Darwinism applied to politics.
Will Obama and McCain heed the evolutionary optimization? Probably not. But maybe they should, as Affinnova has done work for the likes of Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble and Microsoft.
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June 28, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
Fox News Finds Its Rivals Closing In
BYLINE: By JACQUES STEINBERG
SECTION: Section B; Column 0; The Arts/Cultural Desk; Pg. 7
LENGTH: 1295 words
When prime-time cable news ratings for the second quarter of 2008 are officially released next week, they will show that Fox News reclaimed the top spot among viewers in their mid-20s through mid-50s, those of greatest interest to news advertisers, according to estimates from Nielsen Media Research.
During the first three months of the year, by contrast, CNN drew so many viewers on big Democratic primary nights and for several presidential debates that it vaulted over Fox News for the first time in six years.
But the back-and-forth these last few months masks a more ominous trend for Fox News, particularly as its gears up to cover the general election campaign. The most dominant cable news channel for nearly a decade and a political force in its own right, Fox has seen its once formidable advantage over CNN erode in this presidential election year, as both CNN and MSNBC have added viewers at far more dramatic rates.
In the first five-and-a-half months of 2004, the last presidential election year, Fox's prime-time audience among viewers aged 25 to 54 was more than double that of CNN's -- 530,000 to 248,000, according to estimates from Nielsen Media Research. This year, through mid-June, CNN erased the gap and drew nearly as many viewers in that demographic category as Fox -- about 420,000 for CNN to 440,000 for Fox.
Meanwhile, CNN has added 170,000 viewers a night, on average, when compared with the last presidential year, while Fox has shed about 90,000, according to Nielsen. (MSNBC, which added 181,000 viewers in that audience, much of it courtesy of gains by ''Countdown With Keith Olbermann,'' still lagged in third place, with 303,000.)
''I don't think it's that Fox has slipped,'' said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist who managed Bob Dole's presidential campaign in 1996. ''I just think MSNBC and CNN have risen to the occasion in a far more creative way, with better guests, cooler maps and more interactive shows.''
''I like Olbermann,'' added Mr. Reed, who is both a friend of Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, and a donor to his campaign. ''He may be a bleeding liberal, and I don't agree with his harshness toward Republicans, but I find his show entertaining and informative.''
While Fox News remains the most-watched cable news channel over all -- it has been attracting an average of nearly 2 million viewers each weeknight this year, compared to 1.3 million for CNN and 805,000 for MSNBC -- its momentum has effectively stalled, at least when measured over years past. The overall prime-time audiences watching CNN and MSNBC, by contrast, have each grown by more than 50 percent this year, when measured against the same period last year, while Fox's has increased by 10 percent, according to Nielsen. (The New York Times and NBC News, the parent of MSNBC, share some resources in covering political news.)
A Fox News spokeswoman, Dana Klinghoffer, refused several requests this week for comment about the channel's ratings and strategy. To be sure, the protracted nature of the race for the Democratic nomination, which extended months past that of the Republican race, tended to work to the disadvantage of Fox, which tilts overtly to the right on prime-time programs like ''The O'Reilly Factor'' and ''Hannity & Colmes.'' While Fox had no Democratic debates, CNN drew 8.3 million viewers for its Democratic candidates' debate on Jan. 31, more than six times its usual prime-time audience.
Similarly, on big Democratic primary nights -- which tended to be clustered in the first three months of the year -- CNN routinely outdrew Fox News, with MSNBC sometimes coming in second. Over the last three months, as Senator Barack Obama secured his hold on the Democratic nomination, viewership on all three cable news channels fell, with CNN losing the most viewers (about 35 percent) when compared with the first three months of this year, according to Nielsen estimates.
''I would think Democratic viewers would be more inclined to go to CNN,'' said Carl Forti, executive vice president for issue advocacy for Freedom's Watch, a conservative organization. ''At the same time, there's been no Republican primary since Feb. 5, and there hasn't been a lot going on on the Republican side to drive Republicans to political coverage.''
But disproportionate interest in the Democratic campaign alone cannot explain the struggles of Fox relative to years past, and the gains of its competitors. CNN and MSNBC have somehow managed to photocopy several pages from the playbook of Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News and its chairman, whose emphasis on sharp opinions, glitzy graphics and big personalities has been taken to heart by competitors like CNN's Anderson Cooper, Mr. Olbermann and his running mate on MSNBC, Chris Matthews.
''What Ailes would say is, they're following our lead,'' said Bob Kerrey, the president of the New School in Manhattan and a former Democratic senator from Nebraska. ''There is a certain element of truth to that.''
But, Mr. Kerrey argued, by making themselves more compelling and entertaining to watch, CNN and MSNBC put themselves in a far better position than Fox News to capture those young voters who were paying attention to a presidential campaign, particularly the race for the Democratic nomination, for the first time.
Meanwhile, Fox's hosts have seemed to struggle on camera to find a new voice. Three times in less than three weeks in late spring, Fox acknowledged making inappropriate references to Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee. It said on June 12 that it should not have referred in an on-screen headline to Mr. Obama's wife, Michelle, as his ''baby mama.'' Previously, a Fox anchor, E. D. Hill, apologized for likening a seemingly affectionate fist bump by the Obamas at a rally to ''a terrorist fist jab,'' and a Fox analyst, Liz Trotta, expressed contrition for making a joke about a possible assassination of Mr. Obama.
Those comments notwithstanding, a pillar of Fox's strategy, at least in the weeks since Mr. Obama vanquished Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, has been to bash him relentlessly.
On Monday night, for example, the viewer did not even have to listen to an interview that Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes conducted on their prime-time program with Dick Morris, a Fox contributor who has written a new book, ''Fleeced,'' at least partly about the Obama campaign. During the interview the screen flashed continuously with dire warnings set off in quotation marks -- ''Obama would take this country to the far left''; ''Obama would open the door to illegal immigrants''; ''Obama would lower penalties for dangerous drug criminals''; ''Obama's tax plan 'might trigger a stock market crash' '' -- apparently distilled from Mr. Morris's book.
Mr. McCain, a Republican whose candidacy has not sat well with some conservatives, has not so much gotten a boost from Fox's prime-time programs as an occasional pass.
More than bragging rights among the cable-news channels are at stake. Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media, an ad buyer, said he recently crunched the prime-time Nielsen data for the first half of the year on his own and came away with reservations about Fox's performance.
''I think that there is some concern there,'' Mr. Adgate said. ''While they're still the top-rated network, the gap has closed.''
He added, ''What strategy are they going to embark on to rebuild the momentum they had in 2004?''
Still, no one is ready to count out Mr. Ailes, or Fox News.
''The proof is going to be once the political season is over,'' Mr. Adgate said. ''Can CNN sustain the momentum they have?''
Or, to put it in political terms, he added, ''Is this going to have coattails?''
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GRAPHIC: CHART: AN OLDER AUDIENCE: Fox News continues to be the most watched of the top three cable news networks, but its growth is among older viewers and its once dominant position among viewers 25 to 54, the demographic group most sought after by advertisers, has eroded. (Source: Nielsen Media Research) (pg.B14)
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June 28, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
Invoking The Children
BYLINE: By MICHAEL FALCONE
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; COMMERCIALS; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 219 words
Parents and their babies seem to be emerging as a theme of political advertising this year. First was the MoveOn-Afscme advertisement, in which a young mother admonishes Senator John McCain that she is not about to give up her son to serve in Iraq.
On Friday, the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council, the conservative Christian organization, released an advertisement featuring the group's president, Tony Perkins, and his infant son, Samuel, with a personal note to Senator Barack Obama about abortion.
The 30-second commercial begins with a clip of the speech Mr. Obama gave on Father's Day in a Chicago church in which he said, ''We need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn't just end at conception.''
Mr. Perkins, who is holding his son, then turns Mr. Obama's words back on him, asking, ''If, as you say, fatherhood begins at conception, when does life begin?'' More personally, he continues, ''if I became a father at conception, when did Samuel here become my son?''
The television spot, which began running in Cincinnati, and will be on the air in Dallas and Atlanta early next month, is meant to tweak Mr. Obama for supporting abortion rights. Mr. Obama has also said he is for reducing the number of unintended pregnancies through contraception and other means.
MICHAEL FALCONE
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June 28, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
McCain Pitches a 'Bipartisan' Plan for Achieving Energy Security
BYLINE: By LARRY ROHTER
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE AD CAMPAIGN; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 487 words
This advertisement for Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, will be going on the air in key closely contested states and on national cable television. Titled ''Purpose,'' it runs for 30 seconds.
PRODUCER Foxhole Productions
THE SCRIPT ''American technology protected the world. We went to the moon, not because it was easy, but because it was hard. John McCain will call America to our next national purpose: energy security. A comprehensive bipartisan plan to lower prices at the pump. Reduce dependence on foreign oil through domestic drilling. And champion energy alternative for better choices and lower costs. Putting country first. McCain.''
ON THE SCREEN The opening seconds mix images of military might (warships and fighter planes) with space exploration (a rocket about to blast off from Cape Canaveral, astronauts walking on the moon). Mr. McCain then appears at a lectern, with three American flags behind him. That gives way to shots of a gas pump (from back in those wonderful days when gasoline was still $2.55 a gallon) and a man filling the tank of his car. As an announcer mentions energy alternatives, images associated with options that Mr. McCain favors appear on the screen, including solar panels and wind turbines. The commercial ends with an image of Mr. McCain, a serious and determined expression on his face, accompanied by the words ''Country First'' and his name.
ACCURACY This advertisement is meant to draw attention to Mr. McCain's ''Lexington Project,'' a plan he announced this month to give the United States energy independence by 2025. The script encapsulates many elements of that proposal, but also describes it as ''bipartisan,'' which would seem to imply that Democrats do or would support it, or were consulted in its elaboration. But Democrats, following the lead of their presumed nominee, Senator Barack Obama, have already condemned Mr. McCain's call for a summer gas tax holiday, the first step in his effort to lower prices at the pump; in addition, they say that he has in the past opposed incentives intended to encourage development of solar and wind energy. Mr. McCain also avoids using the word ''offshore'' in reference to drilling for oil and gas to increase domestic supplies, an essential element of his plan that has drawn criticism not only from Democrats but also from some Republicans, like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.
SCORECARD Energy costs are very much on the minds of Americans this summer, so the advertisement is certainly timely. It also sounds themes that are constants in Mr. McCain's campaign: resolution and determination, with a hint of sacrifice for the common good. But voters under 50 may not recall John F. Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon in less than a decade, and the musical accompaniment, a mix of electronica, percussion and swelling strings, seems more somber than uplifting. LARRY ROHTER
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June 27, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
JUSTICES, RULING 5-4, ENDORSE PERSONAL RIGHT TO OWN GUN
BYLINE: By LINDA GREENHOUSE
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1859 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
The Supreme Court on Thursday embraced the long-disputed view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a gun for personal use, ruling 5 to 4 that there is a constitutional right to keep a loaded handgun at home for self-defense.
The landmark ruling overturned the District of Columbia ban on handguns, the strictest gun-control law in the country, and appeared certain to usher in a new round of litigation over gun rights throughout the country.
The court rejected the view that the Second Amendment's ''right of the people to keep and bear arms'' applied to gun ownership only in connection with service in the ''well regulated militia'' to which the amendment refers.
Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion, his most important in his 22 years on the court, said that the justices were ''aware of the problem of handgun violence in this country'' and ''take seriously'' the arguments in favor of prohibiting handgun ownership.
''But the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table,'' he said, adding, ''It is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.''
Justice Scalia's opinion was signed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens took vigorous issue with Justice Scalia's assertion that it was the Second Amendment that had enshrined the individual right to own a gun. Rather, it was ''today's law-changing decision'' that bestowed the right and created ''a dramatic upheaval in the law,'' Justice Stevens said in a dissent joined by Justices David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. Justice Breyer, also speaking for the others, filed a separate dissent.
Justice Scalia and Justice Stevens went head to head in debating how the 27 words in the Second Amendment should be interpreted. The majority opinion and two dissents ran 154 pages.
Justice Stevens said the majority opinion was based on ''a strained and unpersuasive reading'' of the text and history of the Second Amendment, which provides: ''A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.''
According to Justice Scalia, the ''militia'' reference in the first part of the amendment simply ''announces the purpose for which the right was codified: to prevent elimination of the militia.'' The Constitution's framers were afraid that the new federal government would disarm the populace, as the British had tried to do, Justice Scalia said.
But he added that this ''prefatory statement of purpose'' should not be interpreted to limit the meaning of what is called the operative clause -- ''the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.'' Instead, Justice Scalia said, the operative clause ''codified a pre-existing right'' of individual gun ownership for private use.
Contesting that analysis, Justice Stevens said the Second Amendment's structure was notable for its ''omission of any statement of purpose related to the right to use firearms for hunting or personal self-defense,'' in contrast to the contemporaneous ''Declarations of Rights'' in Pennsylvania and Vermont that did explicitly protect those uses.
It has been nearly 70 years since the court last examined the meaning of the Second Amendment. In addition to their linguistic debate, Justices Scalia and Stevens also sparred over what the court intended in that decision, United States v. Miller.
In the opaque, unanimous five-page opinion in 1939, the court upheld a federal prosecution for transporting a sawed-off shotgun. A Federal District Court had ruled that the provision of the National Firearms Act the defendants were accused of violating was barred by the Second Amendment, but the Supreme Court disagreed and reinstated the indictment.
For decades, an overwhelming majority of courts and commentators regarded the Miller decision as having rejected the individual-right interpretation of the Second Amendment. That understanding of the ''virtually unreasoned case'' was mistaken, Justice Scalia said Thursday.
He said the Miller decision meant ''only that the Second Amendment does not protect those weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, such as short-barreled shotguns.''
Justice Stevens said the majority's understanding of the Miller decision was not only ''simply wrong,'' but also reflected a lack of ''respect for the well-settled views of all of our predecessors on the court, and for the rule of law itself.''
Despite the decision's enormous symbolic significance, it was far from clear that it actually posed much of a threat to the most common gun regulations. Justice Scalia's opinion applied explicitly just to ''the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home,'' and it had a number of significant qualifications.
''Nothing in our opinion,'' he said, ''should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.''
The opinion also said prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons would be upheld and suggested somewhat less explicitly that the right to personal possession did not apply to ''dangerous and unusual weapons'' that are not typically used for self-defense or recreation.
The Bush administration had been concerned about the implications of the case for the federal ban on possessing machine guns.
President Bush welcomed the decision. ''As a longstanding advocate of the rights of gun owners in America,'' he said in a statement, ''I applaud the Supreme Court's historic decision today confirming what has always been clear in the Constitution: the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear firearms.''
The opinion did not specify the standard by which the court would evaluate gun restrictions in future cases, a question that was the subject of much debate when the case was argued in March.
Among existing gun-control laws, just Chicago comes close to the complete handgun prohibition in the District of Columbia's 32-year-old law. The district's appeal to the Supreme Court, filed last year after the federal appeals court here struck down the law, argued that the handgun ban was an important public safety measure in a congested, crime-ridden urban area.
On the campaign trail on Thursday, both major-party presidential candidates expressed support for the decision -- more full-throated support from Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, and a more guarded statement of support from Senator Barack Obama, his presumptive Democratic opponent.
Mr. McCain called the decision ''a landmark victory for Second Amendment freedom in the United States'' that ''ended forever the specious argument that the Second Amendment did not confer an individual right to keep and bear arms.''
Mr. Obama, who like Mr. McCain has been on record as supporting the individual-rights view, said the ruling would ''provide much-needed guidance to local jurisdictions across the country.''
He praised the decision for endorsingthe individual-rights view and for describing the right as ''not absolute and subject to reasonable regulations enacted by local communities to keep their streets safe.''
Unlike the court's ruling this month on the rights of the Guantanamo detainees, this decision, District of Columbia v. Heller, No. 07-290, appeared likely to defuse, rather than inflame, the political debate. The Democratic Party platform in 2004 included a plank endorsing the individual-rights view of the Second Amendment.
The case reached the court as a result of an assumption by the Cato Institute, a libertarian organization here, that the time was right to test the prevailing interpretation of the Second Amendment. Robert A. Levy, a lawyer and senior fellow of the institute, looked for law-abiding district residents rather than criminal defendants appealing convictions, to challenge the law.
Mr. Levy, who financed the case, recruited six plaintiffs. Five were dismissed for lack of standing. But the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of one, Dick Anthony Heller. He is a security guard who carries a gun while on duty at a federal judicial building here and was denied a license to keep his gun at home. The court said Thursday that assuming Mr. Heller was not ''disqualified from the exercise of Second Amendment rights,'' the district government must issue him a license.
INTERPRETING THE SECOND AMENDMENT
OPERATIVE CLAUSE
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. THE SECOND AMENDMENT Justice Antonin Scalia, in writing for the majority concludes that the preface does not limit or expand the scope of the operative clause. Says each individual has the right to bear arms, and that the right is not a collective one. He notes that the First, Fourth and Ninth Amendments to the Constitution all refer to individual rights and not to collective rights ''exercised only through participation in some corporate body.'' Says ''the most natural reading of 'keep arms' in the Second Amendment is to 'have weapons.''' '''Keep arms' was simply a common way of referring to possessing arms, for militiamen and everyone else.'' Cites Timothy Cunningham's ''important 1771 legal dictionary'' for its definition of arms as ''any thing that a man wears for his defence, or takes into his hands, or useth in wrath to cast at or strike another.'' Adds that, just as the First Amendment protects modern forms of communications and the Fourth Amendment applies to modern forms of search, the Second Amendment extends ''to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding.''
Says the court itself restricts the meaning of the Second Amendment by limiting the protected class to ''law-abiding, responsible citizens,'' thus excluding felons and ''presumably irresponsible citizens as well.'' ''A number of state militia laws in effect at the time of the amendment's drafting used the term 'keep' to describe the
requirement that militia members store their arms at their homes, ready to be used for service when necessary.'' Says the term ''is a familiar idiom; when used unadorned by any additional words, its meaning is 'to serve as a soldier, do military service, fight''' as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary. The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 5 to 4 that the District of Columbia's ban on handguns is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. A dissent by Justice John Paul Stevens
concludes that the preface's mention of a well-regulated militia means that the right to bear arms is tied to service in a militia.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Demonstrators outside the Supreme Court on Thursday after the justices' decision on the District of Columbia handgun ban.(PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSE LUIS MAGANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Brent Willard helping a shopper on Thursday at the handgun counter of the Bulls Eye pistol range in Wichita, Kan.(PHOTOGRAPH BY LARRY W. SMITH/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY)
Dick Heller, plaintiff in the Second Amendment suit. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSE LUIS MAGANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS)(pg. A12) CHART: INTERPRETING THE SECOND AMMENDMENT: The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 5 to 4 that the District of Columbia's ban on handguns is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. A basic breakdown of the majority and dissenting opinions.
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The Ever-Malleable Mr. Obama
BYLINE: Charles Krauthammer
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"To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies."
-- Obama spokesman Bill Burton, Oct. 24, 2007
That was then: Democratic primaries to be won, netroot lefties to be seduced. With all that (and Hillary Clinton) out of the way, Obama now says he'll vote in favor of the new FISA bill that gives the telecom companies blanket immunity for post-Sept. 11 eavesdropping.
Back then, in the yesteryear of primary season, he thoroughly trashed the North American Free Trade Agreement, pledging to force a renegotiation, take "the hammer" to Canada and Mexico and threaten unilateral abrogation.
Today the hammer is holstered. Obama calls his previous NAFTA rhetoric "overheated" and essentially endorses what one of his senior economic advisers privately told the Canadians: The anti-trade stuff was nothing more than populist posturing.
Nor is there much left of his primary season pledge to meet "without preconditions" with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There will be "preparations," you see, which are being spun by his aides into the functional equivalent of preconditions.
Obama's long march to the center has begun.
And why not? What's the downside? He won't lose the left, or even mainstream Democrats. They won't stay home on Nov. 4. The anti-Bush, anti-Republican sentiment is simply too strong. Election Day is their day of revenge -- for the Florida recount, for Swift-boating, for all the injuries, real and imagined, dealt out by Republicans over the past eight years.
Normally, flip-flopping presidential candidates have to worry about the press. Not Obama. After all, this is a press corps that heard his grandiloquent Philadelphia speech -- designed to rationalize why "I can no more disown [Jeremiah Wright] than I can disown my white grandmother" -- then wiped away a tear and hailed him as the second coming of Abraham Lincoln. Three months later, with Wright disowned, grandma embraced and the great "race speech" now inoperative, not a word of reconsideration is heard from his media acolytes.
Worry about the press? His FISA flip-flop elicited a few grumbles from lefty bloggers, but hardly a murmur from the mainstream press. Remember his pledge to stick to public financing? Now flush with cash, he is the first general-election candidate since Watergate to opt out. Some goo-goo clean-government types chided him, but the mainstream editorialists who for years had been railing against private financing as hopelessly corrupt and corrupting evinced only the mildest of disappointment.
Indeed, the New York Times expressed a sympathetic understanding of Obama's about-face by buying his preposterous claim that it was a preemptive attack on McCain's 527 independent expenditure groups -- notwithstanding the fact that (a) as Politico's Jonathan Martin notes, "there are no serious anti-Obama 527s in existence nor are there any immediate plans to create such a group" and (b) the only independent ad of any consequence now running in the entire country is an AFSCME-MoveOn.org co-production savaging McCain.
True, Obama's U-turn on public financing was not done for ideological reasons, it was done for Willie Sutton reasons: That's where the money is. It nonetheless betrayed a principle that so many in the press claimed to hold dear.
As public financing is not a principle dear to me, I am hardly dismayed by Obama's abandonment of it. Nor am I disappointed in the least by his other calculated and cynical repositionings. I have never had any illusions about Obama. I merely note with amazement that his media swooners seem to accept his every policy reversal with an equanimity unseen since the Daily Worker would change the party line overnight -- switching sides in World War II, for example -- whenever the wind from Moscow changed direction.
The truth about Obama is uncomplicated. He is just a politician (though of unusual skill and ambition). The man who dared say it plainly is the man who knows Obama all too well. "He does what politicians do," explained Jeremiah Wright.
When it's time to throw campaign finance reform, telecom accountability, NAFTA renegotiation or Jeremiah Wright overboard, Obama is not sentimental. He does not hesitate. He tosses lustily.
Why, the man even tossed his own grandmother overboard back in Philadelphia -- only to haul her back on deck now that her services are needed. Yesterday, granny was the moral equivalent of the raving Reverend Wright. Today, she is a featured prop in Obama's fuzzy-wuzzy get-to-know-me national TV ad.
Not a flinch. Not a flicker. Not a hint of shame. By the time he's finished, Obama will have made the Clintons look scrupulous.
letters@charleskrauthammer.com
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U.S. to Delist North Korea As Sponsor Of Terrorism
BYLINE: Blaine Harden and Robin Wright; Washington Post Foreign Service
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1455 words
DATELINE: KYOTO, Japan, June 26
President Bush moved Thursday to drop North Korea from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism and to lift some trading sanctions, after the isolated totalitarian state turned over a long-delayed report that includes details of plutonium production in its nuclear program.
Nearly two years after North Korea stunned the world by detonating a small nuclear device, Bush said the declaration marked the start of an "action for action" process meant to end with full dismantling of the highly militarized country's nuclear facilities and nuclear weapons.
Bush took office with an uncompromising approach to North Korea, designating it as part of an "axis of evil." Later the administration moved toward engagement, sometimes looking the other way when the North faltered on its pledges.
The communist state was six months late filing the report and omitted much of the information originally demanded, but U.S. officials greeted it Thursday as a significant step forward, while stressing that the job is just beginning.
"The United States has no illusions about the regime in Pyongyang," the North's capital, Bush said in a Rose Garden statement. The United States will continue to demand full verification that the nuclear program has been completely shut down. "We remain deeply concerned about North Korea's human rights abuses . . . nuclear testing and proliferation, ballistic missile programs and the threat it continues to pose," he said.
The disarmament process has been tediously negotiated in six-country talks, with the North promising to give up its nuclear program in steps in return for aid and the end of sanctions. A highly photogenic next step is expected Friday afternoon, when the North's government has said it will blow up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear plant.
Over the past nine months, technicians -- often working under the eye of U.S. experts -- have substantially disabled that facility, North Korea's major reactor. International television networks have been invited to document a demolition that U.S. officials say will both symbolize abandoned nuclear aspirations and make any future restarting of the plant more difficult.
'A Lot Missing'
The 60-page declaration, handed over to Chinese officials in Beijing, reports on three separate "campaigns" of plutonium production from the early 1990s to 2005, according to a senior State Department official familiar with some of its contents. Plutonium, extremely radioactive, can be the main explosive material in nuclear bombs.
Of key interest will be how much plutonium the North Koreans say they made and whether they are perceived as declaring all of it. Estimates range from 30 to 50 kilograms.
The document was not released to the public, but officials said it did not address three key international concerns: a list of North Korea's nuclear weapons; a possible program to enrich uranium; and suspected sale of nuclear technology to other countries, including Syria.
Nuclear weapons experts had mixed reactions. "There is some important progress represented by the agreement, but it's a worrisome omission with regard to Syria and highly enriched uranium. So there's a lot missing in this deal, and a lot wrong with this deal," said Michael J. Green, who was a Korea specialist on the National Security Council until 2005 and is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The North Koreans "may conclude there is no serious consequence for testing weapons or transferring technology."
David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and now president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said the United States had made relatively small concessions to win significant steps from the North Koreans. "They're pretty cheap to buy off -- sanctions and the terrorism list is not a huge thing to give up," he said.
'Brazenly' Helping Syria
North Korea will be a major foreign policy challenge for the next U.S. president.
Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the Republican presidential candidate, cautioned Thursday that destruction of Yongbyon's cooling tower is still only a "modest step" and added: "It is important to remember our goal has been the full, permanent and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." Washington must maintain diplomatic and economic pressure on the North until it fulfills all its obligations under six-nation talks, he said.
McCain's Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), said that outstanding questions about the nuclear program must be answered and that he supported "direct and aggressive diplomacy" with the North.
Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed the hope the North Koreans would "seize" the current opportunity to "improve relations with the United States -- as well as their neighbors -- by faithfully fulfilling their obligations." He added: "If they do their part, I am confident that we will do ours."
Some of the toughest criticism came from Republicans. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said in a statement that "even while negotiating the agreement announced today, Pyongyang continued to brazenly assist another state sponsor of terrorism, Syria, in the development of an illicit nuclear program until an Israeli airstrike destroyed the facility in the Syrian desert last September."
North Korea has agreed to verification principles that will allow outside experts to confirm the accuracy and completeness of information contained in the declaration, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters Thursday in Kyoto, where she had come for a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of Eight industrialized countries.
Early next week, diplomats from the six countries that are party to the nuclear talks -- North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States -- are to meet in Beijing. They will begin working out details for verifying the declaration's information and removing the North's plutonium from the country, U.S. officials said.
Bush said Thursday that the disclosure was enough to warrant a relaxation of some of the steps that isolate the government of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.
Provisions of the Trading With the Enemy Act will be lifted by proclamation, he said. In addition, North Korea's name will be removed from the list of state terrorism sponsors in 45 days, after congressional notification.
Worries in Japan
While North Korea will no longer be officially considered an enemy, Bush and other officials in his administration emphasized Thursday that a complex web of other U.S. laws and sanctions remains in place, blocking a broad range of aid, trade and commercial activity.
By handing over the disclosure document Thursday, North Korea clears the way for substantial shipments of food, fuel and other aid. Severe food shortages have been predicted in North Korea for this summer; U.S. officials have pledged half a million tons of food.
The decision to remove North Korea from the terrorism list deeply worries Japan, the closest U.S. ally in Asia. It has argued that North Korea must first come clean with full details of its abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and '80s. The fate of eight Japanese whom North Korea has acknowledged kidnapping but who the North says died years ago has become an obsession in Japan.
Officials said that Bush telephoned Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Wednesday to tell him that the United States remains concerned about the abduction issue. "The United States will never forget the abduction of Japanese citizens," he said in his Rose Garden statement.
"No one in Japan is satisfied, but the Bush administration can say we have pressured North Korea to reopen negotiations with Japan about the abductees," said Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Honolulu.
Cossa said that if North Korea is removed from the terrorism list, the principal regional losers will be "Japan and the image of the United States in Japan."
"The U.S. is now seen as less reliable than it has been for years," he said.
Minoru Morita, a political analyst in Tokyo, predicted that the U.S. move "will probably light a small fire to Japanese nationalism and anti-Americanism."
If there is a clear winner from Thursday's diplomatic maneuvering, it is North Korea, Cossa said. He noted that North Korea delivered its declaration six months late and reported nothing on Syria or uranium. "Even though the North Koreans don't keep their promises very well, they demand that everybody else keep theirs," Cossa added.
Wright reported from Washington. Correspondent Jill Drew in Beijing and special correspondents Akiko Yamamoto in Tokyo and Stella Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.
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Justices Reject D.C. Ban On Handgun Ownership;
5-4 Ruling Finds 1976 Law Incompatible With Second Amendment
BYLINE: Robert Barnes; Washington Post Staff Writer
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The Supreme Court struck down the District of Columbia's ban on handgun possession yesterday and decided for the first time in the nation's history that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual's right to own a gun for self-defense.
The court's landmark 5 to 4 decision split along ideological grounds and wiped away years of lower court decisions that had held that the intent of the amendment, ratified more than 200 years ago, was to tie the right of gun possession to militia service.
While the decision left for another time how the standards by which gun-control laws nationwide will be evaluated, it was decisive about the District's law, the strictest in the country. In addition to prohibiting ownership of handguns, the city also requires that shotguns and rifles be kept unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock.
"We hold that the District's ban on handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment, as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote. He was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
The Second Amendment, Scalia said, "surely elevates above all other interests the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home."
The opinion, the last and perhaps most anticipated ruling of the court's current term, delivered a bold and unmistakable endorsement of the individual right to own guns. At the same time, it raised as many questions as it answered about the ability of government to restrict gun ownership to promote public safety, a point made in detailed rebuttals from the liberals on the court, both from the bench and in two lengthy dissents.
Justice Stephen G. Breyer said the decision "threatens to throw into doubt the constitutionality of gun laws throughout the United States," and he called that a "formidable and potentially dangerous" mission for the courts to undertake. He was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
As if to underscore the point, D.C. officials, who expressed disappointment with the ruling, vowed to replace the now-voided gun ban with strict handgun regulations, raising the possibility of further litigation.
Robert Levy, a libertarian lawyer who had developed the strategy for challenging the D.C. law and recruited security guard Dick Heller and others as plaintiffs, said the court's ruling should be clear: "The District may not attempt to solve its crime problems by violating the rights of law-abiding citizens."
The Bush administration had asked the court to recognize the individual right, and Scalia's broad, history-filled opinion went further. But the administration wanted the case sent back to a lower court for a fuller hearing on whether the D.C. law violated such a right.
Still, President Bush seemed pleased with the result. "As a longstanding advocate of the rights of gun owners in America, I applaud the Supreme Court's historic decision today confirming what has always been clear in the Constitution: The Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear firearms," he said in a statement.
The reaction from the presidential campaign trail was supportive, if a bit more so on one side than the other.
Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee, called it a "landmark victory" for Second Amendment rights and criticized his rival's home town. "Today's ruling . . . makes clear that other municipalities like Chicago that have banned handguns have infringed on the constitutional rights of Americans," he said.
Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), the Democrats' all-but-certain nominee, issued a statement saying that "I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms, but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures."
It may not be surprising that both men would find something to like in the ruling, because Scalia concentrated on building a historical case for finding an individual right in the amendment's ambiguous 27 words. Setting standards for how courts and legislatures should decide the constitutional restrictions on gun control will evolve, he said.
"Since this case represents this court's first in-depth examination of the Second Amendment, one should not expect it to clarify the entire field," Scalia wrote.
One practical outcome of that strategy is that it probably kept Kennedy, who seemed at oral argument to be supportive of the individual right but worried about standards, with the majority.
In 56 pages of the 64-page opinion, Scalia analyzed the historical and grammatical underpinnings of the amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Scalia drew on years of scholarly research to conclude that the amendment's opening clause about the need for a ready militia was only one of the reasons that the Framers recognized what he argued was a preexisting right to arms.
"Does the preface fit with an operative clause that creates an individual right to keep and bear arms?" Scalia wrote. "It fits perfectly."
Stevens rebutted Scalia in 46 pages of his own, and the two engaged in a line-by-line battle over the meaning of the amendment. "When each word in the text is given full effect, the Amendment is most naturally read to secure to the people a right to use and possess arms in conjunction with service in a well-regulated militia," Stevens wrote, adding that it meant "no more than that."
Mark Tushnet, a Harvard law professor who recently wrote a book about the Second Amendment, said the debate "showed why lawyers shouldn't be historians," noting that Scalia and Stevens each wrote as though "there's only one way to view what happened in 1791."
Stevens and especially Scalia often made their points in caustic and dismissive language. Throughout his opinion, Scalia used terms such as "frivolous" and "absurdity" to describe his opponents' legal reasoning.
Stevens made his unhappiness known by reading parts of his dissent from the bench, and he pointedly recalled for his conservative colleagues Justice Felix Frankfurter, whom he called a "true judicial conservative."
The two also sparred over the court's last look at the Second Amendment, in the 1939 case United States v. Miller. Scalia dismissed it as a halfhearted examination that did not consider the amendment's historical origins, while Stevens said that "hundreds of judges have relied on" it to view the amendment's guarantee as related to militia service.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, whose decision the justices upheld yesterday in District of Columbia v. Heller, was the first to use the individual-right theory to strike a local gun-control law.
How other restrictions will fare under the court's new directives is unclear.
Scalia said the opinion should not be read to cast doubt on "longstanding prohibitions" on gun possession by "felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms." He added that the list was not meant to be exhaustive.
He also said the court recognized limitations on the right to keep and carry arms, and he indicated that federal bans on weapons such as machine guns may not be threatened.
But the majority declined to set a level of scrutiny by which judges should evaluate the constitutionality of gun restrictions that governments may set. It rejected Breyer's proposal to ask whether the statute burdens the right out of proportion to the "salutary effects" upon government interests.
Breyer said the District's law would have met that burden.
But Scalia said one clear lesson from the decision is that the law went too far.
"The enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table," he wrote. "These include the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home."
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Washingtonpost.com
June 27, 2008 Friday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Paul Kane, Washington Post Congressional Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
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HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post congressional reporter Paul Kane was online Friday, June 27 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest news in politics.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Paul Kane: Good morning folks. Sorry I wasn't around yesterday, but I was under the weather and had a doctor's appointment. As is, today gives me the chance to provide a full download on the last few weeks of congressional action -- and unlike most times, there was actual action, real bills getting passed, etc, first and foremost the last war funding bill for President Bush ever. The Democrats went 0-for-the 110th Congress in their effort to force any changes in his war strategy.
Meanwhile, the Senate is now on the verge of passing a new FISA law and housing legislation. And here's to Jim Webb, just 18 months into office and he's passed a piece of major legislation, the hallmark sort of stuff that usually takes decades for most lawmakers. Now, on to your questions. --pk
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Raleigh, N.C.: Good morning. John Ensign is stopping a bill single-handedly; why can't Russ Feingold stop the FISA bill single-handedly?
Paul Kane: Ah, this is a great question with a complicated answer. Ensign is holding up the housing bill as he demands a vote on an extension of tax cuts for companies in renewable energy industry, and Feingold is holding up the rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 over the immunity provisions for telecommunications companies.
The truth is, both men have been equally successful so far at delaying passage of these respective bills. This is life in the Senate, where things take unanimous consent; and if you don't have what we call "UC", then you have to go through a painstaking series of parliamentary hoops to pass something.
In these particular cases Ensign does have some extra support behind him in the likes of Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint, fellow conservatives, so combined they can use more parliamentary maneuvers than Feingold can -- because he doesn't have much support behind his efforts on FISA. Chris Dodd kinda backs him, but most Democrats now appear to recognize that they're going to lose on this issue, and especially now that Obama supports the FISA re-write, they want to put a bad issue behind them.
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Cleveland: So do you think gun control is going to be the big wedge issue this election year? The GOP under Rove always was effective at exploiting wedge issues and painting Democrats as flip-flopping elites. I see that particular meme already is starting to take hold in the media with Obama.
Paul Kane: Yesterday's ruling was an incredibly important one here in Washington; rarely does the Supreme Court issue such an important ruling that actually impacts the day-to-day lives of everday citizens of the District. Our front page today had 5 bylines on that incredibly important story: Robert Barnes, our esteemed Supreme Court reporter; Dan Balz, our senior national political correspondent; Keith Richburg, our senior reporter based in New York; and Robert Pierre and Michael Birnbaum, a pair of Metro desk aces.
So, considering how important the ruling was/is in every sector of life here at the Post, you assume this is going to be a big issue in the campaigns, right?
Don't bet on it.
The Pelosi and Reid Democrats have largely given up on gun control as any form of legislative issue for the left. Not only have they given up on promoting gun control, they now openly court candidates who LOVE guns to campaign in conservative districts. While I was in Baton Rouge covering the special election for the 6th district there in early May, Don Cazayoux, the Democrat, had commercials with him walking in a field toting a shotgun. I'm not making this up.
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Washington: Paul, what's your forecast on what bills will make it through Congress in the remaining weeks in July and when they return in September? Is there a strong desire to leave Washington and get on the campaign trail among members, or are the Democrats determined to pass a bill or two to spotlight differences with the president? Thanks
Paul Kane: Once the House and Senate come back from their weeklong July 4th break, the onus will be on the Senate to pass FISA and housing legislation. In addition, there's a big fight brewing over this Medicare price reduction that is going to hit doctors on Tuesday. The Democratic "fix" to that problem failed by 1 vote last night, they even brought Clinton and Obama in but still fell 1 vote shy.
Honestly, if all that gets passed, don't hold your breath for anything else. Democrats will try to pass again SCHIP, the children's insurance program, but otherwise they're just gonna punt on everything else until the next president settles in and they, presumably, have larger majority margins in each chamber.
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Reading, Pa.: Paul, if you get the chance, can you ask Jim Gerlach where we stand on the Schuylkill Valley rail line? Seems to me the federal government should push mass transit proposals more aggressively at this time. Thanks!
Paul Kane: Hmmmm, the Schuylkill Valley line? Not sure where that ranks in terms of highway and rail projects, I'm a suburban Philly brat, myself, so I grew up taking the R5 line into town. The next round of highway/public transit legislation starts in 2010, fyi, so that's your target date for getting real federal funding for the project.
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Edgartown, Mass.: Hi -- just saw your colleague's story about Sen. Clinton returning to work. Do senators get paid when they are campaigning for another office? Presumably they are not "working" at the job the voters elected them to. Thanks.
washingtonpost.com: To the Loser Go the Spoils (Post, June 25)
Paul Kane: Sorry, Edgartown. Lawmakers get their salaray -- almost $170,000 -- whether or not they show up to vote.
John McCain, for example, has not shown up to vote in the Senate since April 8. No lie. I think he's been in the Senate chamber just 3 days this year. Clinton and Obama have been marginally better.
Coincidentally, Clinton's big "return" to the Senate began Tuesday morning with ... her missing a vote! She actually misesd 3 of the first 4 votes this week. Some return to her day job.
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Webb: Is he more valuable to the Democrats in the Senate, or as No. 2 on the presidential ticket?
Paul Kane: I'm not yet a believer in the Webb balloon for Veep. I understand that he fits the bill for a lot of reasons -- great military background, from a key swing state, he's still new to the Senate and he's a fresh face -- I also think that he's still sooooo green as a politician that it's hard to justify putting him on the ballot. The 1st rule of a Veep pick: Do no harm.
I'm not sure Webb can meet that 1st rule, even though he more than qualifies on some of the other rules.
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St. Paul, Minn.: As I look at the swing states in this election, I see four of the "swingiest" with Democratic Senate candidates handily beating the Republican. Do you think there could be "upward coattails" to Obama from Warner in Virginia, Udall in New Mexico, Shaheen in New Hampshire or Udall in Coloroado?
Paul Kane: The upward coattails thing is something that's bubbling up now in conversation, particularly with Warner, an insanely popular former governor, in Virginia. While I think that could be the case a little bit in the Old Dominion, I've yet to see anyone make a sound case for how that will play out in other states.
I mean, this presidential campaign is going to be 24-7 saturation bombing covered by all news outlets. I think people are going to the polls in November, first and foremost, to vote for Obama or McCain. Period.
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Orlando, Fla.: Do you know if candidates have to submit proof of citizenship for running for office? If so, have you verified Obama's?
Paul Kane: Come on. Seriously? Folks, this is a real question from a real reader of washingtonpost.com.
I chose to answer it just so others can see what goes through some people's minds.
Of course, the left is just as guilty. There are some who've tried to say that since McCain was born in the Panam Canal he can't be president.
Get over it, folks.
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Falls Church, Va.: There has been internet chatter about Hillary Clinton running for Senate Majority leader next term. Is there any foundation to this? Would she get more than one vote? And would Schumer's head come off? Reid seems to have the caucus in order ... why would they want the glare that Clinton brings?
Paul Kane: No one inside the Senate actually talks about this. This is one of those things that has been floated by Clinton supporters who have no understanding of the inner workings of the Senate. People have to spend years and years and years of doing the dirty little things of the Capitol to get to these leadership posistions. Harry Reid was the ethics committee chairman -- most thankless job in the Senate -- and he was on the Appropriations committee, doling out funds to colleagues whose support he would later need. He served as whip, spending about 8-10 hours a day on the Senate floor jamming up the parliamentary works when Republicans were in charge. Mitch McConnell served two terms as Senate GOP campaign chairman. He was chairman of the Rules and Administration Committee, doling out office and parking space and other goodies. He also chaired ethics and was an appropriator.
Hillary Clinton has not a single -- NOT ONE -- of the tasks I've listed above for Reid and McConnell. No one in the Senate believes she is ready for the job of majority leader, least of all Clinton herself.
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The First Rule of a Veep Pick: Do no harm: Let's call in the Cheney Rule and then classify it.
Paul Kane: Well, to be fair, Cheney met the "PK's First Rule of Veep Pick" as a candidate for Veep. In '00, and again in '04, he acquitted himself fine as a candidate.
Just all that other stuff that didn't go so well.
PS -- If you haven't read it yet, please read Dana Milbank's "Sketch" of Cheney's chief of staff appearing on Capitol Hill yesterday. I'm told by reporters that were there that this is spot on in terms of how much indignity Addington thrust toward the lawmakers.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/roughsketch/
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Monmouth, Ore.: Good morning. On a scale, which is the more important news from yesterday: the Supreme Court ruling on guns or the stock market's plunge? It seems that Republican arguments that the ruling affirms their views will be offset by Democratic arguments that the stock market also affirms the eight years of GOP economic stewardship. Personally, I care much more about my retirement, college and other savings funds than I do about my rights to go bag a deer 24/7 ... but I guess if the Republicans stay on, I might have to take up hunting to afford meat. Thanks.
Paul Kane: Ultimately, the state of the economy is going to be far more determinative to how the key independents in this race vote than gun rights. Democrats just have no plans, none, to push gun control legislation, so it's not really going to be an issue, in the presidential or congressional elections. It was a huge, huge ruling by the Court, one that will live with us as a society for a long time. Just not in this campaign season.
At a press conference yesterday, House GOP Whip Roy Blunt was asked about the gun ruling and potential congressional action and its impact on the races. So confident he is that the public is on his side, the gun owners side, Blunt said flatly: "I welcome that debate."
he then said he didn't expect there to be such a debate.
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University Park, Md.: What are your opinions on the pros and cons for Chet Edwards as a vice president for Obama?
washingtonpost.com: The Sleuth: Pelosi Touts Texas Rep. Chet Edwards For Veep (washingtonpost.com, June 25)
Paul Kane: Pelosi has been pushing this all week. It started Monday night, then again Tuesday morning. Tuesday, it was at a breakfast event with a couple dozen reporters, and afterward, as she was leaving, a reporter for McClatchy tried to press her on Clinton for Veep -- and outta nowhere she started talking about Chet Edwards. Finally, after Pelosi left, I went back to the other reporters just to clarify that she was advocating Edwards for Veep. Very weird.
It's not going to happen, period. I think Pelosi just wants to put House members in the mix, to give her caucus some bona fides. And I'm told she just genuinely thinks he's a great member, serving in what is believed to be the most Republican district in the nation represented by a Democrat. He also served on the Appropriations committee for years with Pelosi and John Murtha, a close Pelosi confidant, so my guess is that's where they bonded.
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Raleigh, N.C.: Thanks for answering my "hold" question. This is a comment, not a question. As the Web site has virtually unlimited space, and the paper does not, has washingtonpost.com considered creating a sort of FAQ about the workings of Congress and the bureaucracy? If well done, it would be the "go-to" place for that kind of information, invaluable to engaged citizens and bloggers everywhere.
Paul Kane: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/house/
I'm not sure how many readers are aware of this site above, which is just great, frankly. Its corresponding site for Senate info is just dropping Senate in for House. Also, the 110 in that address above is a reference to the 110th Congress. Information on previous Congresses can be reached by just substituting in 109 (for 2005-2006) 108 (2003-2004) and so on.
There's a gold mine of information there, folks. Go all crazy citizen journalist if you want. You live in Minnesota and want to know how often Norm Coleman voted with GOP leadership when he first arrived in 2003-2004, compared to his newfound independence these days? It's all there.
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Washington: With Sens. McCain and Obama running for president and many members of Congress facing tight races for re-election, when do you see leaders in the House and Senate decide to wrap things up this fall? As early as September, or later than that? Thanks.
Paul Kane: Nancy Pelosi told us reporters at this breakfast Tuesday that there are just 6 weeks of the legislative season left -- 3 in July, when they return from the Fourth of July recess; 3 in September, after they return from the recess for August and the national party conventions.
That means Sept. 26 is the target adjournment date.
I bet that probably slips by a week or so as the congressional leaders sit around in the Capitol trying to hammer out the final details of a so-called "continuing resolution" that will fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year, rather than trying pass all of the annual appropriations bills.
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Concord, N.H.: Shaheen's bid to unseat Sununu isn't going to be easy. The entire state legislature flipped wildly blue in the last election cycle. Since then, taxes have gone up along with food, gas, etc. It's not necessarily the Democrats' fault, but there will be backlash against the Democrats trying to get elected or re-elected, including senatorial races.
Paul Kane: I keep waiting for the movement in this race, to see John Sununu get closer to Shaheen. I assume it will happen, but also, there are times when it just never happens.
In 2006, people kept saying Rick Santorum would get close to Bob Casey, and same with Mike DeWine and Sherrod Brown. In fact, the voters in Pennsylvania and Ohio soundly tossed Santorum and DeWine from office.
Yes, I expect Sununu to close that gap. But, time's starting to get late.
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Albany, N.Y.: It doesn't seem like the House Judiciary Committee got Addington and Yoo to say anything at all that they didn't want to say. Is there any other format available to the committee -- fewer people, or the more effective questioners given more time to build a documentary record that would be harder to dodge? Or is every member likely to insist on their five minutes of fame?
Paul Kane: My great friend and colleague John Bresnahan of Politico, who was on hand for yesterday's testimony and sat next to me during countless hours of the US attorney hearings last year, has a "unique" idea: Return to the days when committee counsel asked most of the questions.
We're doubtful the members would ever go for it, because they'd be seeding the spotlight to a staffer. But, having 1 person for each side ask most of the questions, focused and intense, well prepared, might be the best way to elicit information. Think of it like Russert and "Meet the Press". If Russert had to share those one-on-ones with 5 different reporters angling to get their time on camera, they wouldn't have been half as illuminating.
Also, looking back on last year's US attorney hearings, the two best moments in all of them were when Democrats willingly gave up their time and allowed one very smart colleague to ask all the questions: Artur Davis (D-Ala.), on the House Judiciary Committee, getting former DOJ counsel Monica Goodling to admit Alberto Gonzales may have tampered with her testimony; and Chuck Schumer's 20-minute questioning of former deputy AG James Comey, when Comey told that amazing story of rushing to John Ashcroft's hospital bedside to confront Gonzales and WH chief of staff Andy Card.
Something both parties should do more of, long form questioning by the smartest member of their committee.
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Fairfax, Va.: Paul, as our resident expert on all things Springsteen and politics, can you explain to me why each of the big three Democratic candidates chose to use the Boss's "The Rising" at their campaign rallies? Obviously Springsteen has a huge following on the left, but the same song too?
Paul Kane: Hah! FYI: I just bought floor seats for the Springsteen show in Richmond in August. Won't be nearly as incredible as the Sunday night show in Dublin over Memorial Day weekend. That was something to behold.
Why Bruce? Why 'The Rising'?
for Obama, no one may connect better with the white working class folks he's had troubled connecting with than springsteen, who's spent decades spinning musical tales about their lives. And "The Rising", I guess, is the most recent popular song that both longtime Bruce fans and newcomers recognize. That's my guess.
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Paul Kane: Alright gang, thanks for the questions. Great session. I'll be back in two weeks, back in my regular Thursday slot, and it'll be just a few days before my birthday, so I should be in a good mood. Have a great Fourth of July. See you soon. --pk
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The Washington Post
June 26, 2008 Thursday
Regional Edition
Building a Wall Against Talent
BYLINE: George F. Will
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A19
LENGTH: 802 words
DATELINE: PALO ALTO, Calif.
Fifty years ago, Jack Kilby, who grew up in Great Bend, Kan., took the electrical engineering knowledge he acquired as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois and as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin to Dallas, to Texas Instruments, where he helped invent the modern world as we routinely experience and manipulate it. Working with improvised equipment, he created the first electronic circuit in which all the components fit on a single piece of semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip.
On Sept. 12, 1958, he demonstrated this microchip, which was enormous, not micro, by today's standards. Whereas one transistor was put in a silicon chip 50 years ago, today a billion transistors can occupy the same "silicon real estate." In 1982 Kilby was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, where he is properly honored with the likes of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.
If you seek his monument, come to Silicon Valley, an incubator of the semiconductor industry. If you seek (redundant) evidence of the federal government's refusal to do the creative minimum -- to get out of the way of wealth creation -- come here and hear the talk about the perverse national policy of expelling talented people.
Modernity means the multiplication of dependencies on things utterly mysterious to those who are dependent -- things such as semiconductors, which control the functioning of almost everything from cellphones to computers to cars. "The semiconductor," says a wit who manufactures them, "is the OPEC of functionality, except it has no cartel power." Semiconductors are, like oil, indispensable to the functioning of many things that are indispensable. Regarding oil imports, Americans agonize about a dependence they cannot immediately reduce. Yet their nation's policy is the compulsory expulsion or exclusion of talents crucial to the creativity of the semiconductor industry that powers the thriving portion of our bifurcated economy. While much of the economy sputters, exports are surging, and the semiconductor industry is America's second-largest exporter, close behind the auto industry in total exports and the civilian aircraft industry in net exports.
The semiconductor industry's problem is entangled with a subject about which the loquacious presidential candidates are reluctant to talk -- immigration, specifically that of highly educated people. Concerning whom, U.S. policy should be: A nation cannot have too many such people, so send us your PhDs yearning to be free.
Instead, U.S. policy is: As soon as U.S. institutions of higher education have awarded you a PhD, equipping you to add vast value to the economy, get out. Go home. Or to Europe, which is responding to America's folly with "blue cards" to expedite acceptance of the immigrants America is spurning.
Two-thirds of doctoral candidates in science and engineering in U.S. universities are foreign-born. But only 140,000 employment-based green cards are available annually, and 1 million educated professionals are waiting -- often five or more years -- for cards. Congress could quickly add a zero to the number available, thereby boosting the U.S. economy and complicating matters for America's competitors.
Suppose a foreign government had a policy of sending workers to America to be trained in a sophisticated and highly remunerative skill at American taxpayers' expense, and then forced these workers to go home and compete against American companies. That is what we are doing because we are too generic in defining the immigrant pool.
Barack Obama and other Democrats are theatrically indignant about U.S. companies that locate operations outside the country. But one reason Microsoft opened a software development center in Vancouver is that Canadian immigration laws allow Microsoft to recruit skilled people it could not retain under U.S. immigration restrictions. Mr. Change We Can Believe In is not advocating the simple change -- that added zero -- and neither is Mr. Straight Talk.
John McCain's campaign Web site has a spare statement on "immigration reform" that says nothing about increasing America's intake of highly educated immigrants. Obama's site says only: "Where we can bring in more foreign-born workers with the skills our economy needs, we should." "Where we can"? We can now.
Solutions to some problems are complex; removing barriers to educated immigrants is not. It is, however, politically difficult, partly because this reform is being held hostage by factions -- principally the Congressional Hispanic Caucus -- insisting on "comprehensive" immigration reform that satisfies their demands. Unfortunately, on this issue no one is advocating change we can believe in, so America continues to risk losing the value added by foreign-born Jack Kilbys.
georgewill@washpost.com
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June 26, 2008 Thursday
Met 2 Edition
On Obama's Coattails, an Uninvited Rider
BYLINE: Jonathan Weisman; Washington Post Staff Writer
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Just a month ago, Republican strategists were trying to closely link Democratic House candidates to Sen. Barack Obama, convinced that in certain parts of the country Obama would drag candidates from his own party down to defeat.
This week, a Republican senator, Gordon Smith of Oregon, offered a much different assessment of Obama's coattail effect: He included words of praise from Obama as part of an ad promoting his own reelection.
"We just saw it as an excellent way to highlight Senator Smith's ability to work across the aisle, even with the Democratic nominee for the White House," said Smith campaign spokeswoman Lindsay Gilbride.
The outbreak of enthusiasm is a striking shift from the spring, when Republican advertisements from North Carolina to Mississippi to Illinois ominously painted Obama as an out-of-touch liberal bringing his brand of politics to regions of the country that should shun it.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ken Spain said the GOP will stick to that script this fall "on a district-by-district basis." But a senior Republican strategist involved in House races said that strategy is now largely dead, "except in rare instances, and I'm not sure it was a good idea in the first place."
The tactic initially caused some Democrats to distance themselves from the senator from Illinois, but now most are eager to be as closely associated with his campaign as possible.
In New Hampshire, Democratic Senate candidate and former governor Jeanne Shaheen will campaign in Manchester today with Michelle Obama, whom Republicans have tried to turn into a political liability. Conservative House Democrat John Barrow has persuaded Obama to cut a radio advertisement for him ahead of his July primary in Georgia.
Senate campaign spokesmen for Democrats Tom Allen in Maine, Kay Hagan in North Carolina, Al Franken in Minnesota and Rick Noriega in Texas all said they have reached out to the Obama campaign and are pleading for a visit from either the candidate or his wife. Their efforts are not entirely surprising, given Obama's strength in those states during the Democratic primaries.
But Smith is a Republican, and his new television advertisement is unabashed in its attempt to portray Obama and him as partners.
"Who says Gordon Smith helped lead the fight for better gas mileage and a cleaner environment?" a female narrator asks. "Barack Obama." The ad then flashes to an image of Obama's face and his campaign Web site.
Fearing that the spot will confuse voters, Obama's campaign sent out a release Tuesday making it clear that he supports Smith's opponent, Democrat Jeff Merkley.
Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), who headed the NRCC in 2006, when the GOP was swept from power in Congress, said Smith's ad is smart, using the key West Coast issues of energy and fuel efficiency to distance the senator from President Bush and the Republican Party.
Smith was one of the first senators to endorse presumptive Republican nominee John McCain during the primary season, but, Reynolds said, "at the end of the day, although a lot of Republican strategists can say Oregon is in play, it would be a surprise if he wins it."
Remarkable as Smith's imagery is, Barrow's advertisement may be more telling. In May, Republicans tried to use the specter of Obama to sink another Southern Democrat, Travis Childers, who responded with an ad that said he had never sought Obama's endorsement and had never met him.
Childers won his northern Mississippi district by a wider-than-expected margin, in part because Democratic strategists cited the anti-Obama tactics to rally black voters. The same dynamic -- anti-Obama attacks followed by a Democratic victory -- played out last month in a special election for a House seat in the Baton Rouge area.
Barrow, who beat his Republican opponent in 2006 by 864 votes, might have been as skittish as Childers, but he decided that Obama's endorsement could only help him in an unanticipated primary fight against African American state senator Regina Thomas -- as well as in the general election. Just as Childers benefited from black voter turnout, Barrow, who is white, believes that Obama can rally an often-skeptical Southern black electorate to him.
For his part, Obama decided Barrow had a better chance of holding the seat -- whose district stretches from Savannah to Augusta -- than the more liberal Thomas. Democratic strategists said the primary contest could serve as a test of Obama's strength outside Atlanta, in a state that he intends to contest.
Obama's efforts on behalf of Barrow also jibe with his efforts to broaden the electoral map.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe laid out that plan yesterday, predicting that the campaign's "50-state strategy" will help Democrats down the ballot. Obama ads will soon be on televisions in traditional swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Wisconsin, as well as in the longtime Republican strongholds of Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Alaska and Montana.
The campaign will dispatch workers to some states, such as Wyoming and Texas, not to win them but to help Democratic congressional candidates rally voter turnout.
Republicans scoffed at the strategy yesterday. Spain noted that at least half a dozen House Democrats, including some in districts where Obama lost badly to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) in the primaries, have refused to publicly endorse Obama. One of them, Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) called Obama "the most liberal senator," although he said he will vote Democratic in the fall.
"Like so much about Barack Obama's campaign, his campaign manager's words don't match reality," said Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant.
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; An ad from Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) plays up his Obama ties.
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Washingtonpost.com
June 26, 2008 Thursday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Alec MacGillis, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3706 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Alec MacGillis was online Thursday, June 26 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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washingtonpost.com: Post reporter Alec MacGillis will be filling in on Post Politics Hour this morning. Here are some of his recent articles:
AFL-CIO Outlines Major Election Effort Obama's Evolving Ethanol Rhetoric Obama Meets With Labor Leaders
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Washington: I mean .even gun haters can't somehow argue a total ban was constitutional, can they? If somehow privacy gets interpreted to include abortion, then certainly arms means the right to own guns?
washingtonpost.com: Court Rules in Favor of Second Amendment Gun Right (AP, June 26)
Alec MacGillis: Hello everyone, and thanks for joining us here today at Washingtonpost.com. Seems like this question is a good one to start with, since the gun ban ruling is clearly going to be the story of the day. It will be interesting to see how it plays out on the campaign trail, because Barack Obama has been walking a fine line on this issue all year, making it clear he's in favor of local governments being able to pass reasonable restraints as they see fit for their local needs, while not wanting to be tagged as too strongly anti-gun. Ever since 2000, when many believe Al Gore was badly hurt by the gun issue in states like W.V., Democrats have walked very carefully on this one. John McCain's troops are already trying hard today to use this ruling against Obama.
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Franconia, Va.: Do the Supreme Court's decisions on the gun ban or the death penalty for child rapists either help or hurt either presidential candidate?
Alec MacGillis: A follow up on the Supreme Court rulings: it really depends on how Obama is able to finesse the issue in the coming days. All year, he has said he supported reasonable local gun laws, while stopping short of endorsing the D.C. laws too strongly, saying he was waiting to see how broadly the Supremes would rule on the case. As for the child rapist case, it was interesting to see that Obama sided with the minority and criticized the ruling that the death penalty couldn't be used against child rapists. That upset many of his supporters on the left, but this apparently was an issue that he didn't feel it was worth picking a fight over.
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Maryland: Just on observation. Bill Clinton is taking a lot of heat from bloggers about his lukewarm endorsement of Obama, but I sensed the Obama campaign was running on an anti-Clinton bandwagon from the beginning. I'm a huge fan of Bill Clinton's presidency, and when I started to hear the Obama camp make subtle attacks against Clinton's time in office, I decided right then not to support Obama. Why should Clinton feel he needs to endorse a man who spent the past year playing the subtle "gender" card against his wife and trashing his presidency?!
Alec MacGillis: This question gets at the other big story of the day on the trail, the make-up between Obama and Clinton, which will continue with a fundraiser this evening at the Mayflower Hotel here in D.C. and then a happy photo-op in the appropriately named town of Unity, NH, where each of them got 107 votes in the NH primary. So far, it does seem as if Hillary is more interested in a reconciliation than Bill. Who knows just what Bill is thinking, but this question gets at something that can't be overlooked in the rush for a make-up: the fact is, much of Obama's primary campaign message was geared against the Clintons -- not just his call for getting done everything that was left undone in the 90s (health care, etc) but his broader call for a new politics, with less game-playing and spinning and more candor. That message was very clearly meant as a contrast to the Clintons. How he pivots that message now for the general election, in a way that the Clintons can get on board with, will be interesting to watch.
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Portland, Ore.: Your thoughts on the Gordon Smith ad -- possibly linking the Republican senator to Obama? I can't imagine the Republican National Committee is happy with this. Obama is only up by three in Oregon, and quite a few people thought it would be a legitimate swing state. It looks like Smith unilaterally is conceding it to Obama. I think it will make it much harder for the RNC to demonize Obama there. I could see them tolerating this in Vermont or Rhode Island, but Oregon?
washingtonpost.com: The Fix: Gordon Smith Throws In With Obama (washingtonpost.com, June 25)
Alec MacGillis: My colleague Jonathan Weisman wrote about this today. It's pretty remarkable, as you note, for Smith to be running an ad like this in a state where Obama is up only a handful of points in most polls. And you're right, I can't imagine that the RNC is happy about it, though perhaps at this point they are so set on limiting their losses in Congress that they'll let candidates do whatever they feel they need to to keep their seats. The fact is, while Obama is not up that much in the state right now, it's hard to believe that the Republicans really think they have that great a shot there. I was covering Obama on one swing through there and one definitely got the sense that it was a state that he was a good fit for. (It doens't hurt that his brother in law is the new basketball coach at Oregon State...) And that wasn't even the trip with the 75k person rally in Portland. The odds of Smith keeping his seat are likely better than the odds of Obama losing the state, so perhaps Smith becomes the priority there for the Republicans.
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Fairfax, Va.: In Bob Novak's Evans-Novak Political Report, he has made repeated references to Joe Biden being a hot commodity in the veepstakes, but nowhere else have I read anywhere near that level of enthusiasm. Does Novak know something everyone else doesn't?
Alec MacGillis: Actually, I've seen Biden's name popping up quite a bit. Who knows where he stands on the real list. But Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, made an interesting remark yesterday about the veep search that certainly did not rule out a guy with Biden's profile. Plouffe said that the campaign wasn't really thinking about finding a veep who could win a specific state, as has often been done in the past; that instead it was looking for someone who would be a good match with the campaign's message and someone who would be a good partner in governing. That can only help the chances of someone like Biden, who would not be bringing much to the table with his home state of Delaware, a small state with (it seems)more toll booths than voters.
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Clifton, Va.: So Obama wants a top tax rate of approx 60 percent on the earners, after one figures in his tax increease on federal income tax, plus Medicaid and Social Security. Great way to get the economy moving, bubba. Top earners create jobs; us middle-class folks don't. Then you want to raise the rate on capital gains -- that's a sure winner for the treasury and the econmy, as folks will hold assets. Lowering the tax rate on capital gains actually will bring revenues into the Treasury. I hate to say this, but it worked for the Clinton asministration.
Who cares what Chalrie Black said or if Obama understands his Bible. What is boils down to is, do you want to let Obama's no-growth policies turn a recession into a the worst Depression in the past 150 years, or do you give the economy a chance with a pro growth/pro main street McCain plan? Anyone making over $80,000 probably will see a federal income tax increase under Obama. Not good! And yeah, I know what OBama says about couples making more than $250,000, etc., but come on, do you believe him? I don't!
Alec MacGillis: This is an issue that hasn't gotten too much attention yet beyond the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal, where the writers are warning that Obama will be a return to the days of Jimmy Carter. It's been interesting watching Obama make some tweaks in these plans in the past month -- for much of the campaign, he made it sound like he might be for raising the cap on payroll taxes from $100,k period, but now he's made clear that he'd have a 'donut hole' with no income taxed between $100k and $250,k but then income above that taxed. This would spare a fair number of upper-middle class voters, but would also raise much less than a simple cap-lifting would. It would provide a lot more revenue for the program, but it also would fundamentally change the nature of the program, from one where people's inputs are correlated (to some degree) with what they get out of it, to one where the most wealthy are very clearly carrying more of the load, more akin to our income tax policies. It should make for a good debate.
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Reading, Pa.: Alec, why are some in the media buying into this ruse that supposes Hillary has some mystical control over 18 million supporters? If that were the case, let each of them pitch in fifty cents, and she'll pay that campaign debt off in no time...
Alec MacGillis: Nicely put. You're right, it's been somewhat amusing to see her voting totals described that way, almost like some kind of feudal army in sworn allegiance to its lord. The truth is, of course, that while many of those 18 million voters are very committed to her and upset that she lost, there are surely many others who voted for her in a much more routine way, and are more than willing to move behind Obama. In fact, there are probably even some who voted for her early in the primary season but after watching the campaign go on changed their mind (just as the reverse is true of some Obama voters from early in the campaign.)
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Pennsylvania: Re: The Gordon Smith ad in Oregon favorably linking the Republican incumbent to Obama, here in Pennsylvania, John McCain's running an ad touting how he stood up to the Bush administration on climate change and environmental issues. Go figure!
Alec MacGillis: That ad is running in a lot of states for McCain. Notably, it went up the same day that he came out for offshore drilling, only to be immediately followed by Bush also coming out for the drilling. Depending on how you look at it, that timing either showed McCain as refreshingly unorthodox or of suffering from a mixed message it comes to energy and the Bush record.
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Southwest Nebraska: So, the mainstream media seems to be buying into the tale that Obama is the most liberal member of the Senate -- any pushback against that by journalists without a horse to flog?
Alec MacGillis: You're right, there've been a lot of reports of that one survey by National Journal that showed Obama with the most liberal record last year. But in defense of my colleagues, quite a few of us have pointed out that that survey was based on flawed data since Obama missed so many votes. In fact, if you excuse the self promotion, here's a link to a story I wrote on this subject, looking at whether the Republicans will be able to paint Obama as an old-line liberal, since in some ways his thinking and make-up do seem to move beyond some of the old definitions. Here it is:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/03/25/ST2008032503833.html
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Stone Harbor, N.J. Wonder why the Imus "racial" flap was reported on but very little was reported on Nader's remarks? Seems to me that, with Nader being a liberal darling for years, it should have made big news. Could it be that his "white guilt" comment hits too close to the bone?
washingtonpost.com: Ralph's Race Card (Post, June 26)
Alec MacGillis: In fact, as another questioner noted, Nader's comments about Obama sounding and acting "white" has probablyu gotten more attention than anything else Nader has said this campaign, and was probably intended as such. I doubt there's any liberal media conspiracy to protect Nader in not making more of the comments, given that attention is precisely what Nader wants and is not getting much of. A colleague of mine at the Post actually wrote a nice long profile of Nader this week, befor the white comments broke. But the media's not doing more with him, I imagine, given that he drew only 500,000 votes or so in 2004 and seems unlikely to draw much more this time around. He drew only a small crowd at a recent appearance in Cambridge, Mass., the "People's Republic of Cambridge." Not a good sign. Here's the profile:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/24/AR2008062401619.html
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Re: Clifton, Va.:"Top earners create jobs; us middle-class folks don't." But middle-class folks are the ones buying the stuff those top earners make; they can't make money if we aren't buying. And if I recall correctly, the Congressional Budget Office already has said that McCain's plan only will create a larger income disparity. Wow, anti-Obama sentiment is on the rise.
Alec MacGillis: Well, here's your debate. This reader is correct, McCain's tax plan is definitely skewed more to the wealthy than is Obama's. In fact, one reason Obama is trying to raise so much revenue from the wealthy is that he wants to cut some taxes on the middle and working class, which has gotten him some criticism on the left, from those who think that the country can't afford any more tax cuts beyond the Bush ones. The other argument against the McCain plan, of course, is that it leaves a big budget hole. He says he can make that up with budget cuts but most evaluations so far say that simply can't be done without Draconian cuts far beyond what McCain is talking about.
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Vienna, Va.: For all the Obama campaign's bravado, I noticed that they aren't running ads in three traditional swing states: Tennessee, Arkansas and West Virginia. Does that mean that Obama is writing off the rural white South? Remember that their model for winning Virginia and North Carolina and Georgia relies on heavy black turnout and young suburban whites, not on bubbas.
Alec MacGillis: Good point. When the Obama campaign talks about raiding red territory, it is actually talking about certain states and not others. They see themselves having a chance in Southern states with large African-American populations, like Georgia and NC. And they see a chance in lily-white Western states like North Dakota and Montana where Obama seems to have an unusual rapport as a Democrat. But they acknowledge that they have little shot in border and Appalachian states where he did poorly in the primary. It's worth noting that the Democrats' weakness in those states goes beyond Obama and is not just a racial matter: Gore couldn't win his home state of Tennessee, and Gore and Kerry both lost West Virginia, which previously had been reliably Democratic. There's a shift here that goes beyond Obama. Hillary Clinton would have had better prospects in these states, but then also would have been weaker elsewhere on the map than Obama.
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Baltimore: Re: The 5-4 vote overturning the gun ban, this result is one reason why Hillary Clinton supporters would need a complete disconnect from reality to vote for John McCain. Had Al Gore won the presidency in 2000, John Roberts and Samuel Alito would not be sitting on the bench today. As I kept telling people in 2000 when they said they saw no difference between Gore and Bush, the difference lies entirely with the Supreme Court, which may have Roberts, Alito and Clarence Thomas on it for the next 20 years. Lord know who McCain might name to replace John Paul Stevens.
Alec MacGillis: Many other Obama supporters will be making this same argument in the months ahead. And it looks like it may already be taking hold with many voters -- polls so far suggest that Obama is doing quite well with many in Clinton's constituency, including white women.
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Silver Spring, Md.: I read that Sen. Clinton hired Robert Bennett to represent her in negotiatons with the Obama campaign. Bringing in Bennett represents a lot of what Obama has been running against -- he is the ultimate Washington insider, representing President Clinton in the Paula Jones case and then helping McCain in his dust-up with the New York Times about his lobbyists "friend." The Clintons' instinct is to turn to K Street, just as John McCain's is. This type of thing should keep Clinton off the Obama ticket.
Alec MacGillis: That was a eye-catching detail, that the Obama-Clinton unification is still thorny enough that they need a lawyer to help smooth it out. I'm not sure that having an insider in this role, though, is the same thing as having an insider helping vet veep candidates, like Jim Johnson, who had to step down after his mortgage dealings surfaced. Bennett's role seems more personal than that, almost like a mediator or counselor brought in to settle a personal dispute. Hard to see a better candidate for that than someone who has represented both Obama and Clinton in the past.
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St. Paul, Minn.: Alec, thanks for taking my question today. The McCain campaign is crying foul at a couple of recent polls showing Obama with a significant lead (low double digits). Is that a good strategy for them? Doesn't it risk betraying a certain fear on their part that McCain's campaign hasn't yet really taken off as they would like? Wouldn't they be better focusing on their differences with Obama?
Alec MacGillis: I was actually a bit surprised as well that McCain pushed back so hard at those polls. Sure, the polls may well have overstated Obama's strength -- they're early polls, after all. But it seems as if McCain could use his standing in the polls to his advantage, to build up an underdog aura of the sort that he seems to thrive on. Especially if the Obama campaign keeps showing flashes of overconfidence, as it did when it made up that ill-conceived campaign logo that looked like a presidential seal last week (which it has since admitted was a silly thing to do.)
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Washington: Clifton, Va., may want to watch the CNBC program tonight on the rise of the "super rich," which profiles -- no surprise -- mostly hedge fund managers, one of whom brags about how it cost him $22,000 to repair a tire (!) on his $1.8 million Bugati, one of 70 cars he owns. At least the Carnegies and the Pullmans created something of value (steel mills, railroads). These guys move electrons. I don't give a damn if they are taxed at 99 percent.
Alec MacGillis: Going to throw this one out there for its color value. Nice details. Another fact about these hedge fund managers: a lot of them have given a lot of money to Barack Obama, the candidate most likely to raise their taxes.
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Fairfax, Va.: Although Obama preaches that this is the time for Change, he refused to fight against the FISA bill with retroactive immunity for telecom corporations. Is there any example this year where Obama has taken a leadership role fighting corporate special interests, or is Obama the "empty suit" the Republicans say he is?
Alec MacGillis: This is one of the emerging McCain arguments against Obama, that for all his reform talk he hasn't actually done as much in that arena as McCain. Obama's agreement on the FISA bill got him a lot of heat on the left, but this may have been an issue that he did not see value in sticking himself out on, particularly once the congressional leadership came out for the compromise. Maybe he figures he can ratchet it back once he gets in the White House. It is worth noting here that Obama is not as reflexively anti-corporate as other liberal Democrats, such as John Edwards, so don't be surprised if there are more compromises like this one. Obama did, for instance, vote for a Republican tort reform bill a couple years ago.
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Fairfax County, Va.: When did Bob Bennett represent Obama before? That is, interesting but the rest of us didn't know it, so it would help if you spelled that out. Thanks in advance.
Alec MacGillis: Sorry, should have been more specific. Bennett was Obama's agent for his second book, the Audacity of Hope. He doubles as a literary agent for a lot of DC politicians.
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Bethesda, Md.: I don't really have an opinion one way or the other on the gun ban ruling, but I am bothered when I hear something in the vein of "D.C. citizens need the right to protect themselves." This was a handgun ban, correct? Washington residents still could own a rifle or shotgun big enough to blow the living room into the front yard, if they so desired.
Alec MacGillis: Correct. But the shotguns and rifles needed to be locked up.
_______________________
Bremerton, Wash.: I see the Court has now struck down the "Millionaires Amendment" to Capaign Finance Reform. Should I just make my tax payments directly to Halliburton and Exxon now?
Alec MacGillis: Yes, the other big court story of the day. One thing that's pretty clear is that by the time this election's over, the existing campaign finance structure is going to lie more or less in tatters, between rulings like this and Obama's decision to reject public financing for the general election. Ironic, in a way, that this should happen amid a campaign between two men who have genuinely shown themselves quite interested in reforming the political process over the years.
Alright, guys, that's it for today. Thanks very much for the great questions, and please join us again soon. -Alec
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: June 27, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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The New York Times
June 25, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
INSIDE THE TIMES: June 25, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 2293 words
INTERNATIONAL
ROCKETS FIRE FROM GAZA,
Straining a Nascent Truce
Three Qassam rockets fired from Gaza struck the Israeli border town of Sderot and its environs, causing no serious injuries but constituting the first breach of a five-day-old truce between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic group that controls Gaza. The crack in the calm came on the eve of a preliminary reading of a bill for the dissolution of the Israeli Parliament. The bill was expected to garner a majority of votes in the legislature, threatening to break up the country's governing coalition. PAGE A11
GERMANY COMMITS MORE TROOPS
Under pressure from NATO, Germany announced that it would increase the number of soldiers available for duty in Afghanistan by almost one-third, to 4,500, but that it would maintain its policy of keeping the bulk of them away from the relatively violent southern provinces. The increase is subject to the approval of the lower house of Parliament, the Bundestag. Germany has resisted calls from several NATO allies to send its soldiers to southern Afghanistan. PAGE A8
JAPANESE WARSHIP VISITS CHINA
A Japanese destroyer docked at a heavily guarded naval base in Guangdong Province for a five-day port call, the first by a warship from Japan in China since World War II. The visit by the 4,650-ton destroyer Sazanami, officially an earthquake relief mission, is seen by many military and diplomatic analysts as part of a broad and gradual reconciliation between the countries, which has quickened since President Hu Jintao of China visited Japan in May. ''We are considering the possible reaction of the Chinese people,'' said Takashi Sekine, a Japanese Defense Ministry spokesman, Reuters reported. ''We need to consider the situation.'' PAGE A11
A SURPRISE LAST WISH
An octogenarian native of rural Pennsylvania who spent much of his life in Palm Beach, Fla., surprised everyone in his will by leaving millions to a foundation he had dreamed up in secrecy to aid the poor children of Panama, where he spent the final years of his life. The will of Wilson C. Lucom, who died two years ago at age 88, has set off a vicious legal battle that is playing out in at least four countries, and not a single Panamanian child has yet gotten access to the money. PAGE A6
DIVERS FIND FERRY VICTIMS
Rescue teams from the Philippine Coast Guard penetrated the overturned ferry that was struck by Typhoon Fengshen on Saturday, and they found many bodies. The ferry disaster could turn out to be one of the worst in the Philippines in two decades, with more than 800 passengers and crew members believed to be dead. PAGE A7
Conserving Homes in Siberia A10
NATIONAL
A DISPUTE OVER RELIGION'S ROLE
In the Military Academies
Students and staff members at West Point and the Naval Academy have complained that the schools have pushed religion on cadets and midshipmen. This follows new scrutiny on the role of religion in the military after a group of midshipmen asked the American Civil Liberties Union to petition the school to abolish daily prayer at weekday lunch. PAGE A14
BACK TO HER DAY JOB
It was Senator Hillary Clinton's first day back at the Senate, and she was greeted by scores of well-wishing members of the public. It was also the only place world where so many people know what she's going through: there are 12 current senators and former presidential candidates who returned to the legislative body after unsuccessful White House bids. Senator John Kerry's advice to Ms. Clinton? ''Compartmentalize,'' he said. PAGE A16
MCCAIN'S SECURITY BALANCING ACT
One of the premises of John McCain's campaign against Barack Obama is that Mr. McCain is better suited than Mr. Obama to keep the nation safe from terror. So when Charlie Black, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain, was quoted as saying that a terrorist attack in the United States would ''be a big advantage'' for Mr. McCain in the coming election, it was a logical, if inartfully expressed, extension of that idea. It highlights a balancing act for Mr. McCain: selling himself as a candidate who will keep Americans safe without seeming to be exploiting their fears. PAGE A16
HOUSE BLOCKS CUTS IN DOCTORS' FEES
The House overwhelmingly passed a bill to prevent a cut in Medicare payments to doctors that was scheduled to take effect next week, despite a veto threat from President Bush. In order to pay for a small increase in Medicare payments to doctors, the bill would lower payments to private Medicare Advantage plans. President Bush said that would ''reduce access, benefits and choices'' for older Americans. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the White House was defending ''bloated, unnecessary subsidies for private health insurance plans.'' PAGE A15
GROUP TO WEIGH IN ON DETAINEES
A bipartisan group of former government officials, retired generals and religious leaders plans to issue a statement calling for a presidential order to outlaw some interrogation and detention practices used by the Bush administration. The order they want would commit the government to using only interrogation methods that the United States would find acceptable if used on American civilians or soldiers, and would also outlaw secret detentions. ''It's a good time to step back, take a deep breath and set a standard,'' a former government official said. PAGE A17
METRO
HOLDING BACK YOUNG STUDENTS:
Is Program a Gift or a Stigma?
The 8,400-student East Ramapo school district in Spring Valley, N.Y., has brought back a controversial plan to hold back almost 12 percent of its first graders and teaching them in a separate classroom. School officials say 80 percent of the first graders and second graders enrolled this year in the special classes -- dubbed the Gift of Time -- now read at grade level. But parents and education experts say it stigmatizes low achievers by tracking and retaining them. PAGE B1
DUSTING OFF SPY CASE TESTIMONY
The government consented to release most of the secret grand jury testimony taken in the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed at Sing Sing in 1953 after being convicted of spying on behalf of Russia. Prosecutors said they would not oppose the release of testimony of most of the witnesses, but would not approve the release of testimony from witnesses who were still alive and had not consented or who could not be found. PAGE B1
BUSINESS
BUSINESSMAN CHARGED WITH LYING
About Ties to the Vatican
Raffaello Follieri, an Italian businessman who had dated the actress Anne Hathaway, was arrested in Manhattan and charged with fraud and money laundering. Court documents say he told investors that he had a relationship with the Vatican that allowed him to buy properties from the church at below-market prices, as well as right of first refusal on properties that the church sold in the United States. The government said he had no such relationship with the church. PAGE C3
SO, ABOUT THAT DEAL ...
Citigroup introduced the slogan ''A deal is a deal'' last year to pledge to its credit card customers that it would no longer reserve the right to raise interest rates on cards at any time for any reason -- a move that won applause from even its harshest critics. But now that the company is facing financial troubles, it is quietly reconsidering its pledge -- and a reversal could be particularly embarrassing. PAGE C4
DOW RAISES CHEMICAL PRICES
The Dow Chemical Company said it was raising prices by as much as 25 percent -- the largest increase in the company's history and the second time it has raised its prices in a month -- in order to offset a ''relentless rise'' in energy costs. Dow said it would also add freight surcharges and reduceproduction in some of its plants. Economists say the $664 billion chemical industry has been among the hardest hit by soaring energy prices. PAGE C1
ARTS
A MAN AT EASE WITH HIMSELF, BUT AT ODDS WITH HIS WORLD
In French literature, two are regarded as supporting pillars: Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. But while Sartre's heart and pen seemed to find ease in France, Camus seemed to be a perpetual outsider, a stranger even. Camus was lauded by Sartre and his fellow intellectuals as a marvel, but then condemned when he rebelled against the ideals that they seemed to thrust upon him. This contention comes across in the third and final volume of his notebooks, appearing 19 years after their release in French. A review by Richard Eder. Page E8
THE STAGE IS SET, PLEASE SCRUB IN
The drama in ''Hopkins,'' a new documentary on ABC, unfolds to the blip of EKG's and rides upon six interwoven stories of patients and physicians. While television is no stranger to medical-based plots, this time the cameras are going into the operating rooms at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The show delves deep into the lives of both the surgeons and their charges. But this is real, and as one doctor is quoted as saying: ''This is not 'Grey's Anatomy.''' Page E3
A RECORD PRICE FOR WATERLILLIES
Christie's in London opened their summer auction season in fine fashion. Monet's ''Le Bassin aux Nympheas,'' the rarest of his waterlillies paintings, went for $80.4 million after a six-way battle. The painting is one of four that experts view as among the most important works from his late period, and one of the few that was actually finished at the time of his death, signed and sold by the artist himself. Page B1
The Premiere of 'Baby Borrowers' E2
OBITUARIES
RICHARD J. KOKE, 91
He served as the curator of the New-York Historical Society for nearly 40 years, helping to transform the institution from a repository of documents and artworks into a space where visitors come face to face with relics of New York City and its place in American history. The museum's director said that Mr. Koke ''did a great deal to open up these collections to the broader public.'' PAGE A21
SONNY OKOSUNS, 61
A Nigerian singer and musician whose boyhood inspirations were Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and the Beatles, he achieved international stature by aiming his music against human-rights abuses. His music was a catchy, rock-inflected cocktail of funk, reggae, Afrobeat and more, and among his songs, ''Fire in Soweto,'' was perhaps the best known. PAGE A21
DINING IN
ENSURING A CUISINE'S APPEAL
Isn't Lost in Translation
The dish called mapo tofu in Chinese loosely translates to ''pockmarked old lady's tofu'' in English. So the Chinese government's official list of suggested English translations for Chinese dishes -- an effort to make sure the Western tourists in the country for the Olympics aren't spooked by the idiosyncratic nomenclature of the cuisine there -- probably makes sense. But now the vague and joyful Happy Family, is simply vague (''assorted stewed delicacies''). PAGE F8
RELAXING WITH A NICE OLD BEER
Unlike their beer-drinking counterparts in Europe, most Americans drink lagers, which tend to lose flavor over time. A growing number of Americans, however, are taking up beer cellaring, in which they're housing brews that become more tasty as they age. Aficionados take different tacks. One man does his beer cellaring in his garage. Another uses a cold, pitch-black basement. And another keeps thousands of his bottles of vintage beer in an abandoned gold mine. PAGE F5
FROM WINE GLASSES TO FROSTY MUGS
Eric Asimov temporarily shelves his oenophilia to turn his critical attentions toward root beer, a soft drink on which he says few people take neutral positions. For his assessment of 25 root beers, he was joined by a panel of colleagues, though they were not his first choices. ''I immediately thought of two well-known root beer lovers, but Snoopy and the Red Baron were unavailable,'' he writes. PAGE F6
Frank Bruni:
Gottino and Terroir F8
Ad-Libbing a Cocktail F5
SPORTS
STRAHAN TAKES ON
New Sunday Role
Michael Strahan was introduced as the newest pundit on Fox's ''NFL Sunday,'' and already he and his colleagues were bantering as if they've been doing it for years. For his first media request as a broadcaster, he joked that he wanted to sit down and interview his notoriously strict and punctual former coach, Tom Coughlin. ''And tell him not to be late.'' PAGE D6
WORTHY OF THE HOOPLA
George Vecsey says that Euro 2008, this year's installment of the quadrennial European Football Championship, is the rare sporting event that lives up to its hype. ''All our American tournaments should be so good, should produce a quartet of teams that had willed themselves forward, past favorites, past tradition, past jinxes, past form, beyond exhaustion, beyond injuries,'' he writes. PAGE D2
EDITORIAL
MEDICARE SAVINGS VS. THE LOBBYISTS
To cut Medicare costs, Congress called for competitive bidding on medical equipment. But huge projected savings pale, apparently, in the face of outraged lobbyists. PAGE A22
ANOTHER REBUKE ON GUANTaNAMO
The case of Huzaifa Parhat is the latest court ruling rejecting the Bush administration's denial of the most basic rights to Guantanamo's detainees. PAGE A22
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE
Albany should capitalize on the departure of Joseph Bruno, the Senate majority leader, to clean up one of the most dysfunctional governments in the country. PAGE A22
OP-ED
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Are Iraqis finally taking ownership of their country? PAGE A23
MAUREEN DOWD
Sorry, Rove: The Obama campaign may be so rich that it's turning down public financing, but the candidate himself is no country club elitist. PAGE A23
AMERICA'S NEXT CHAPTER
Some historians believe that political cycles last about 30 years, moving between periods of reform and consolidation. In an Op-Ed article, Gary Hart writes that Barack Obama should seize the opportunity to define the next era. PAGE A23
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: June 25, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Summary
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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The Washington Post
June 25, 2008 Wednesday
Met 2 Edition
McCain Has Plan to Make Government More Green
BYLINE: Juliet Eilperin and Lyndsey Layton; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 896 words
Sen. John McCain pledged yesterday that he would make the federal government more environmentally friendly, while Sen. Barack Obama mocked his rival as crafting energy policies that merely pander to voters, in the latest skirmish over which presidential candidate is better prepared to tackle the nation's energy and environmental problems.
In a speech in Santa Barbara, Calif., McCain (R-Ariz.) vowed to "put the purchasing power of the United States government on the side of green technology" by buying fuel-efficient vehicles for its civilian fleet of cars and trucks and by retrofitting federal office space. The pledge comes months after Obama (D-Ill.) outlined a more detailed and ambitious proposal on the subject, virtually ensuring that the next administration will take significant steps to lower the government's output of energy and pollution.
A greening of the government would probably have a major impact on the Washington region, as the modernizing of buildings would spark a mini-construction boom and ease energy demands. Cleaner vehicles would also reduce harmful auto emissions, environmentalists say.
"Every year, the federal government buys upwards of 60,000 cars and other vehicles, not including military or law enforcement vehicles," McCain said as he campaigned with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a prominent GOP environmentalist. "From now on, we're going to make those civilian vehicles flex-fuel capable, plug-in hybrid, or cars fueled by clean natural gas."
Saying that the U.S. government ranks as "the single largest consumer of electricity in the world" because it holds sway over "3.3 billion square feet of federal office space" worldwide, McCain said he plans to reduce the government's carbon footprint by updating its buildings and demanding better standards in new ones.
"By retrofitting where possible, and by applying a higher efficiency standard to new buildings leased or purchased, we can save taxpayers billions of dollars in energy costs and move the market in the direction of green technology," he said.
McCain did not provide details about his plan, causing some public watchdog and environmental groups to question how much energy would be saved.
Obama, who first set his targets last October, has promised that he would make all new federal buildings 40 percent more efficient than current ones within five years, and carbon-neutral by 2025. He has also pledged to increase efficiency of existing federal buildings by 25 percent within five years and to ensure that the government derives 30 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020 -- none of which McCain has promised to do.
President Bush has already instituted energy-efficiency measures for the White House and the government. The changes are not as dramatic as the proposals Obama has outlined, though they are more specific than McCain's.
In January 2007, the president issued an executive order calling on the government to "increase purchase of alternative fuel, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles when commercially available" and to "reduce petroleum consumption in fleet vehicles by 2 percent annually through 2015," among other measures.
He and Laura Bush have also made changes in the White House, replacing all incandescent bulbs in hallways with compact fluorescent lights, installing low-consumption toilets in many places and putting in energy-efficient cooling units.
Speaking at a town hall meeting yesterday in a nature preserve near the Las Vegas Strip, Obama criticized his rival's energy plans, though he did not mention McCain's proposal to "green" the federal government.
Referring to a McCain statement Monday in which the senator from Arizona acknowledged that new offshore U.S. drilling would not affect oil prices for years, Obama said that the presumptive GOP nominee is focused on extolling the "psychological" benefits of drilling. He called McCain's proposed $300 million prize for a new electric car battery a "bounty" for "some rocket scientist to win."
Obama described the nation's current high gasoline prices as the product of "false promises and irresponsible policies" that have prevented new technology and energy sources from replacing fossil fuels. "For decades, John McCain has been part of this failure in Washington," Obama said.
The McCain campaign responded by saying that "Barack Obama has become the 'Dr. No' of energy, refusing to accept any idea that will contribute to solving America's energy crisis."
Outside groups yesterday praised both candidates for seeking to curb the government's carbon emissions.
Julia Bovey, spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said municipal governments have made similar changes and cut back on their energy use as a result. "We have seen cities and towns across America make a point to start buying efficient cars and trucks, and it can really make a difference," she said. "There's no reason the federal government should continue to buy dinosaurs."
Steve Ellis, vice president of the budget watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, said the government should pursue "a generic approach, meaning certain companies or favored individuals aren't getting huge windfalls."
"As the federal government tries to pursue strategies to make its operation more efficient, as long as you do it in a cost-efficient manner, you're helping lead the way," he said.
LOAD-DATE: June 25, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Lm Otero -- Associated Press; California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joined Sen. John McCain in Santa Barbara, Calif., where the presumptive GOP presidential nominee announced environmental proposals.
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
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Washingtonpost.com
June 25, 2008 Wednesday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Anne E. Kornblut, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 5064 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Anne E. Kornblut was online Wednesday, June 25 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
____________________
Anne E. Kornblut: Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining today! As always, looking forward to your questions...and there's no shortage of political news. Apologies in advance: I have to leave a few minutes early. So please send them on in now.
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Richmond, Va.: I am an Obama supporter, and I can tell you I really dislike the idea that he is asking his supporters to help pay off Hillary's debt. The Fix (on washingtonpost.com) has a column about it this morning, and reading the many comments, very few Obama supporters want to help with the debt, either. Does Obama think he can capture Hillary's supporters by paying off her debt? Did Hillary make that one of her demands for campaigning with him?
washingtonpost.com: The Trail: Obama Asks Donors to Help Pay Clinton Debt (washingtonpost.com, June 24)
Anne E. Kornblut: Great question. We haven't been privy to the one-on-one conversations Clinton had with Obama about debt and their joint campaigning (Robert Gibbs: do you want to get us that transcript?). But certainly Clinton has emphasized the need to pay of her debt, in calls with her own supporters and in public appeals, and the faster her debt is paid off the more quickly she can turn to help Obama raise more for himself. All that said: It's no secret that Obama supporters, having won, are none too pleased to be helping pay off millions and millions on a campaign they did not support and had wished would end far earlier.
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Silver Spring, Md.: I see McCain's lobbyist-to-dictators adviser Charlie Black has declared that a terrorist attack on the U.S. would be good for John McCain. Leaving aside the sheer ugliness of the statement, is it clear that voters agree? Polls I have seen in the past couple of years say that the public trusts Democrats more on terrorism and Iraq now. The last time we were attacked, Sen. McCain urged us on into invading the wrong place while Obama advised against it. Several years in, McCain still is confused about the players there (Shiites vs al-Qaeda in Iraq). The man drank his way to 894th of 899 in his Annapolis class. What am I missing that Charlie Black "knows"?
Anne E. Kornblut: It's a very interesting debate, isn't it? So many years have passed since Sept. 11, it seems to me we have no real way of knowing how the country would react politically, God forbid, especially given that Osama bin Laden is still at large nearly seven years after the Bush administration promised to capture him. So I think it's really a live debate -- one that hopefully we'll never know the answer to.
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Toronto: When it comes to the Internets, are McCain and his campaign staff a series of rubes?
Anne E. Kornblut: Very punny.
I don't actually know how connected, or not, the rest of the staff is, but McCain reportedly does not use the Interwebs all that much. Then again, I am not sure I want my president spending all day on facebook.
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Rockville, Md.: Do you think people are well-enough educated enough to appreciate the value of a better battery, or will they see McCain as a "wonk?" Most of the replies seem to think we have a good battery already. Sigh. I am a retired science librarian and I can assure you that we have needed a better battery for years. It could help solve the energy problem by letting us collect energy where it is available and save it for future for use where we need it. That is the key -- we have plenty of energy, just not where and when we want it. Cars are only a tiny portion of the use we would have for this battery -- think homes, computers, phones, even aircraft.
Anne E. Kornblut: You definitely know more about this subject than I do (despite my desire to quit my job and win $300 million in prize money). Thoughts elsewhere?
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Urbana, Ill.: Everyone seems to think that a terrorist attack on the U.S. will replicate the rally round the flag response after Sept. 11. Has anyone considered the possibility that such an attack might produce a backlash against the administration and the Republicans in general for their inability to protect the country?
Anne E. Kornblut: This is a very good point-- and precisely the question we've been asking around here. Again, with the hope that we never find out.
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Ex-Washingtonian: Do you think John McCain will use the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision against the death penalty for the rape of a child as a campaign issue, in that he would be more likely than Obama to nominate justices who would overturn it?
washingtonpost.com: Court Rejects Death Penalty for Raping Children (AP, June 25)
Anne E. Kornblut: It does seem like a ripe political issue, doesn't it?
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Washington: Milbank reports that Hillary returned after her 14 day vacation to staffers playing ping-pong in her private office. As a former House staffer, I know there's always work to do, even during recess, but the Senate was in session! I bet donuts to campaign dollars that Schumer's staff wasn't in on the fun. Is she going to discipline these staffers, or is this the kind of service the people of New York are just going to have to accept?
washingtonpost.com: To the Loser Go the Spoils (Post, June 25)
Anne E. Kornblut: I believe that the staffers were playing ping pong as a joke -- they were mid-ping as Clinton arrived in her office for a highly publicized return to work, if I am not mistaken -- in an attempt to lighten her first day back, but I appreciate your guardianship of taxpayer dollars!
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Raleigh, N.C.: In the Fox poll done last week, Congress of course had terrible approval ratings -- but counterintuitively, Republican respondents gave Congress a better score than Democratic ones. Is that a rather scathing indictment of Pelosi and Reid and the lack of movement on the Democrats' agenda from 2006? Or is the Democrats' discontent caused by something else?
Anne E. Kornblut: I didn't see that poll. But my gut tells me the answer is: the war, the war, the war. Anyone else have thoughts??
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Oviedo, Fla.: Please tell me that Obama will not choose a man as vice president? I was for Clinton, but there are certainly other viable female options. Enough already with the Boyz Klub duos. And how 'bout all those anti-Hillary types who insisted -- insisted-- that they would vote for a woman, just not that woman. So -- who have they got teed up?
Anne E. Kornblut: That's a really interesting point. I've actually heard from numerous Clinton supporters that they'd be furious if he picked a woman *other* than Clinton -- that it would be a token pick, and that if he's going to pick a woman anyway, Clinton is the one who earned it. No doubt about it, this is going to be a difficult, and possibly treacherous, moment for Obama.
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Veepstakes: I'm intrigued by two veep possibilities on the Democratic side: Dick Gephardt and Colin Powell. Any idea if either is interested? Would either make a strong veep candidate for Obama?
Anne E. Kornblut: I've heard the Gephardt rumor recently, and it makes some sense -- he's a Midesterner, he's very reliable and predictable, i.e. no surprises or distractions. The downsides would be that he voted for the war; that he is a consummate Washington insider; that his own political career dwindled there at the end. I do not know whether he'd be interested -- and the same is true of Powell, whom I doubt would seriously be on the short list for a number of reasons, starting with the war.
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Avon Park, Fla.: This maybe a dumb question. but I've heard pundits say that Barack Obama has a cool demeanor. Why is that such a negative thing? When I was in school, being cool meant being popular. It was a good thing. Why is it bad for a presidential candidate?
Anne E. Kornblut: That's interesting, I'm not sure it necessarily is a negative, though I've heard him similarly described as "aloof." In my (albeit limited) experience so far, Sen. Obama does keep his distance some, relative to other politicians -- which is to say he isn't as gushing or obsequious as some of his colleagues. But neither is he remote or self-absorbed. If anything I've found him to be pretty normal to interact with -- or maybe I'm just cool enough to appreciate his style.
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Montgomery Village, Md.: Anne, is it a good career move to be on a chat opposite the boss?
washingtonpost.com: Discussion: Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. on Retirement, His Memories, Post's Future (washingtonpost.com, Live NOW)
Anne E. Kornblut: Lol. Hysterical. I had no idea. I would encourage everyone on this chat to please sign off and go ask questions of Len Downie, immediately.
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Baltimore: You say that you don't want the president spending all day on Facebook, but when it comes down to it, how does someone stay current in today's world without the Internet? Think about it. McCain has admitted that he doesn't know how to operate his own e-mail or how to do a basic Google search. He always has relied on others to do that sort of thing for him, so it colors what sort of information he gets about the world around him. When Eisenhower was about to leave office he tried to make a phone call and was baffled about what to do when he received a dial tone -- he never had had to do what most people do every day, someone else always found the number for him.
Anne E. Kornblut: I was of course kidding somewhat -- I don't expect even an internet-savvy candidate to spend all day on facebook -- but you make a good point, and this is an issue that seems to have really bothered some voters, judging from the emails I've gotten.
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Alexandria, Va.: I hate to sound snitty, but I'd like McCain and Obama to choose the most-qualified person for veep, regardless of gender. In discussion with a friend, I mentioned that Kathleen Sebelius may not get picked if Obama's concerned about annoying Clinton-philes despite great credentials (popular governor in a red state, works well with Republicans) ... all because of her gender.
Anne E. Kornblut: Another good point on this...
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Gephardt voted for war:: Yes, but two years later he was calling Bush a "miserable failure." The Democratic base has forgiving to those who voted for the war, but came to realize their mistake and admitted it. Hillary's problem was that it took her very, very, very long to get there, and she didn't look comfortable doing it.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another good point on this. Of course, let's not forget that to this very day Clinton has not literally apologized for the war vote, though of course she is against it now.
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Washington: Senator Clinton mismanaged her campaign to the tune of $22 million, lost the nomination battle, and now her supporters are being asked to help pay off the debt. Please help me understand the logic behind this. It looks to me as though Sen. Obama tacitly (or even overtly) is condoning her bad management and dysfunctional campaign. How does this foster party so-called unity? I'm disgusted.
Anne E. Kornblut: You're not the first person I've heard say this. The flip side is that Obama wants to reach out to Clinton supporters, who of course weren't directly responsible for how she ran her campaign -- and not to do so could look punitive. But no question, a very sensitive subject.
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Baltimore: Hi Anne -- thanks for your fine work. This may be a bit out of your bailiwick, but here goes. The title of an article in yesterday's Post stated that "laws were broken" with respect to the hiring practices in the Justice Department. The text of the article implied that no one faced "sanction" because those involved no longer worked at the Justice Department. How can "laws be broken" without anyone being held accountable? Why should anyone believe such hiring practices won't continue, albeit in perhaps a less-overt manner?
washingtonpost.com: Ideology-Based Hiring at Justice Broke Laws, Investigation Finds (Post, June 25)
Anne E. Kornblut: Thanks for the question, though you're right, it's totally outside my arena. Let me pass it on to one of my colleagues and see if it can get answered in another chat (or does anyone here know?)
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Princeton, N.J.: Re: Mccain's prize, do you think it would have been a good idea if we had utilizedd th power of the private sector to develop the A-Bomb or go to the moon by offering prizes instead of starting big government projects?
Anne E. Kornblut: Hm, I hadn't thought of that. Opinions, anyone? I am not sure I have one on this subject.
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Bethesda, Md.: Sure, we need a better battery, but what's the point of offering a government prize for it? The market (very) richly will reward whomever comes up with one anyway. It's not like potential inventors have been sitting back waiting for an incentive.
Anne E. Kornblut: Unless, of course, the potential inventor has a day job and can't spend time on it.
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Rochester, N.Y.: I read yesterday that Karl Rove believes Republicans should characterize Obama as "the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by." That sounds pretty devastating, given that most Americans do know someone like that at their country club. How does the Obama campaign plan to counter this potent attack?
Anne E. Kornblut: Do most Americans actually belong to a country club? I know I don't. The Obama campaign has already launched a biographical ad focusing on his background and upbringing; I would expect to see a lot more of that heading forward, especially at the convention. At every step of the way, it sounds like they will reintroduce him so people feel like they are getting to know him -- and that he's not a character, either from a country club or Karl's imagination.
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Southwest Nebraska: I don't have a problem with Obama talking about Christianity and the Bible -- after all he sat in a pew, evidently, every Sunday for 20 years and listened to preaching -- but I have a big problem with Dobson teaching the Constitution. Is there anything in Dobson's background to suggest that he is a Constitutional expert? Does his criticism of Obama actually help Obama?
washingtonpost.com: Dobson Hits Obama for "Distorting" Bible (washingtonpost.com, June 24)
Anne E. Kornblut: That's a really good point, and I'm not sure we know the answer yet. Another question I would pose: How influential will the Christian right be, generally, in this general election race?
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Re: Your Respona to Rockville, Md.: Given that the U.S. has a significant budgetary deficit financed through foreign borrowing and presumably McCain's first budget would be devoid of pork, where would McCain get the $300 million prize money? Would foreigners (e.g. the Japanese) be eligible to enter McCain's battery contest? Why not assign this challenge to an agency such as NASA, the expenses for which taxpayers already are paying? Likely, $1 million to 5 million in incentive payments to NASA employees or contractors would be sufficient to get enough responses.
Anne E. Kornblut: And this has been one of the criticisms...that instead of offering a prize, McCain should be talking about increasing research & development money.
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Washington: Just how real is the Obama vice president talk regarding Florida's Bob Graham?
Anne E. Kornblut: It's hard to say how real any of the talk is about the potential candidates -- he is vetting a large number of people, so that no one knows what his real list is, I suspect, and the campaign hasn't yet floated any serious trial balloons. A plus with Bob Graham would be his state; a potential negative would be his age and insiderness (he was in the Senate for years), plus he's a little eccentric (though that could also be a plus).
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Bowie, Md.: Thanks for taking my question. Most people who do not support Obama usually claim his inexperience as one of the reasons they will not vote for him. Has the point ever been made that, other than previous presidents, no one else has experience for this unique position? Essentially, no candidate possesses the presidential experience that they are expected to have. It is truly experience gained only after on-the-job training.
Anne E. Kornblut: That's a great point, and in fact, it's one you heard Sen. Clinton make a fair amount during the primary -- her point being that at least she had been *close* to it, even if she had never done it directly.
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Re: McCain battery: I have seen some economists estimate that the atomic bomb could have been built years earlier and at much less cost had there been an incentive plan like McCain's in place. Ditto for the moon landing.
Anne E. Kornblut: Another interesting point, thank you!
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Central Massachusetts: Hi Anne. More on Obama's campaign retiring Hillary's debt: if I understand correctly, the debt in question is the money that Hillary loaned herself -- in other words, it came from her very considerable bank account. If this is the case, I really don't blame Obama's supporters for balking. It's one thing to make a generous gesture to a vanquished opponent, but writing a check to help refill the Clintons' personal coffers is something else entirely.
Anne E. Kornblut: I don't think we know exactly which money he is helping her with yet -- but her personal loans must be repaid before the Democratic convention, whereas the other money can be repaid later on. We should know more later today, or at the latest by the end of this week, about how exactly this will work.
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Arlington, Va.: Why does McCain need to use Google? If the president needs to use Wikipedia on a daily basis, we're all in a lot of trouble. Clinton sent one e-mail while in the White House. Eisenhower couldn't operate a phone, but masterminded the Normany invasion and made prescient comments on the military-industrial complex. This issue is overblown.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another point....thank you!
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Maryland: I thought helping pay off another campaign's debt was a common thing. What's the big fuss?
Anne E. Kornblut: Very true, but usually not in such large amounts (some entire campaigns, after all, cost $22 million, the amount in question here) and not usually so soon after a contentious primary.
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Glittering Prizes: Why should the government offer a prize for developing something they're developing anyway because it's obscenely profitable? Prizes only have an effect when they're awarded for things that seem on first glance like business nonstarters -- like that "X" prize for space exploration.
Anne E. Kornblut: Everyone likes this topic! Points to McCain for getting the conversation going.
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New York: I read that Obama is planning to vote yes to the FISA amendment while his prominent supporters in the Senate, Dodd and Feingold, plan to filibuster. Why isn't this getting more review in the mainstream press? It does not square with Obama's change message or lack of Washinton insider influence, e.g. the telecoms.
Anne E. Kornblut: You are correct -- and this is an issue that has definitely riled some of Obama's more liberal backers. Expect more attention to be drawn to it as the actual vote happens.
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Seattle: Thanks for having these chats, Anne. Are there any retired generals being vetted for vice president? I've heard Wesley Clark, but how about Anthony Zinni, who was critical of the way the Iraq War was conducted?
Anne E. Kornblut: You know, I'm not sure about Zinni, but you are correct about Clark, who is serving on a military panel for Obama's campaign. Somewhere on the site I believe we posted a list of that entire working group, if you wanted to peruse it.
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San Diego: I am seeing Colin Powell's name mentioned as a potential running mate for Barack Obama. While Powell has the military experience that Sen. Obama is lacking, do you really think the country is ready for such a double whammy, if you will? Polls are showing that some -- particularly working-class whites -- are having a hard enough time with just one on the ticket. Wouldn't Sen. Obama be shooting himself in both feet if he did not select a white, male running mate?
Anne E. Kornblut: A fair question -- though I do think the bigger question for any Democrat would be Powell's advocacy of the war on President Bush's behalf.
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Cleveland: I know there's a lot of hand-wringing about Obama's opting to take private financing, but if he's going to have a big financial advantage by doing so, I think he'd be a moron to do otherwise. And if he had done otherwise, he would have been painted as a patsy in some corners. There's no way for him to win on this.
Anne E. Kornblut: And that is exactly why he's doing it -- his campaign made that precise calculation.
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Rockville, Md.: The prize is an expression of national interest and may get some into the mix who otherwise would not work on it. Remember our inventions that came from "outsiders" -- Borden was one.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another view....
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Bethesda, Md.: I am a Clinton supporter conflicted by Obama's decision to back out of the campaign finance pledge he had done very early in the campaign. I realize that a lot of people are saying that Obama has the ability to raise much more money, but has winning an election come down to the ability to raise tons of money? Or should we as voters make our decisions based on the candidate's ability to discuss and communicate issues/beliefs/promises to the voters through more direct contact, such as town hall meetings or debates? Voting would feel so much more meaningful if money were not such a key part of the equation.
Anne E. Kornblut: How true! And this is why the Obama campaign struggled with this question (at least for a little while).
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Washington: For retiring the debt, would Obama backers be limited in their ability to donate (I think it's around $2,300 for campaigns), or does that not apply because it is for paying bills?
Anne E. Kornblut: No, you are correct, the limit is $2300 for the primary, $2300 for the general.
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Wokingham, U.K.: Does either candidate have ideas about the oil price crisis that will gain support? We foreigners too could badly do with some leadership on this matter. Or is it leaving them both looking a bit baffled?
Anne E. Kornblut: And you have it worse over there, don't you? There are a lot of ideas floating around now -- a gas tax holiday from McCain; a more sustainable energy policy overall from Obama -- and I bet if you tune into the debates in the next four months this will be one of the only issues you will hear about. Thanks for joining us from across the pond.
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Just a thought: Some of the Obama supporters who consistently show up on chats --complaining bitterly about Hillary and the nerve she had in continuing a campaign where she won just about half of the vote, and the nerve she has in asking Obama to relieve her debt (which is fairly common in campaigning) -- might want to remember that Obama does in fact need the votes of her supporters. Try being gracious in victory and turn your attentions toward the general election, when Obama may well be glad for the millions of dollars Hillary's big bundlers can bring him.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another good point on this.
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Helena, Mont.: Matt Mosk had an article about the FEC confirmees, but neglected to tell us about their political affiliation. Can you help us out?
washingtonpost.com: Vacancies on FEC Filled As Five Win Senate Approval (Post, June 25)
Anne E. Kornblut: You know, I don't know the answer, but now I'm curious. I will ask Mosk and see if he can't put the information up somewhere.
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Clifton, Va.: Didn't Hillary Clinton say the same thing as Charlie Black regarding a terrorist attack and Republicans back about a year ago? Why didn't Obama's zealots say anything then? Obama's problem is that his body language and word chocie do not project a strong image to our adversatries and friends. He fails to project confidence and the force to act. Hillary Clinton does, as does Gov. Richardson. Edwards and Obama come off as more Barney Fife than Sheriff Taylor.
Obama and Edwards come off as effete metro sexuals. Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama come off as strong and don't-mess-me as does Cindy Mccain! Professor Obama needs to work on his image, although not much can be done. If elected president, our adversaries will test him to max, and I fear thousands of Americans will pay with their lives in terrorist attacks on this country.
Anne E. Kornblut: Here is another view on this...
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Vancouver, Wash.: Can you settle a dispute, Anne? Who was the last nominee for president from either major party who was not a multimillionaire? My guess was either George McGovern or Harry Truman, but I'm not sure. Thanks.
Anne E. Kornblut: I may be mistaken here, but I don't think Clinton was when he was first elected in the 1990s. Anyone care to correct me?
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Seattle: What makes news personnel more knowing than the rest of the citizery when it comes to understanding the American political climate? Why would anyone vote for a person who spends hundreds of millions of dollars to get elected to a job that doesn't even pay tens of millions after eight years of employment? Is that something we should be worrying about, as you see it? Why or why not?
Anne E. Kornblut: Interesting questions. I think, to your first question, that it's not that news reporters are more knowledgeable - it's just that we have the luxury of spending all day reporting on and learning about politics, whereas most people have other jobs to do. In essence, we get to represent everyone else in going to ask elected officials questions. As to the motivations of politicians -- you are right, they're not in it for the money exclusively. But there are plenty of jobs that aren't just about the paycheck (think of a professional musician who pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for a violin, and doesn't make that much in a year) and I think there are plenty of politicians who really do want to do the job at least in part out of a sense of service, not just for personal gain.
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Reston, Va.: Value of a better battery: Lots of people have been working on a better battery for decades. It would be very important to develop one, the writer is correct, but there are two problems with it -- it's hard to do, and it requires a lot of money to be pumped into research. Paying a prize instead of funding research is a device to avoid funding research, and $300 million is nothing in the current world where one F22 costs $350 million. So, this really has nothing to do with McCain being wonky and everything to do with producing yet another fake energy plan to avoid producing a real one.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another....thank you all for being so thoughtful on a subject I am just still learning about.
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Re: the prez and the intertubes: I don't think a lot of people understand how important the use of the Internet and Internet technology could be to managing an efficient government. There is a lot of wasteful government spending that could be eliminated by an administration that understands this technology. That is what is worrisome about McCain's lack of knowledge (or even interest) in this subject.
Anne E. Kornblut: Another great point.
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Reading, Pa.: Anne, as the veepstakes is getting a lot of talk lately, let me say Obama-Bayh is the winning ticket. McCain-Graham is a close second.
Anne E. Kornblut: Here's another view. But what about your governor, Ed Rendell?
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More Re: McCain battery: It likely would have taken the U.S. government a year or two to perfect the incentive atomic bomb contest rules and control against proliferation (an obvious problem given the time constraints). Those economist referred often assume away real-life challenges when they theorize.
Anne E. Kornblut: and more....
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Southwest Nebraska: If Obama asks a military man to be his veep, isn't that admitting that his inexperience is a problem?
Anne E. Kornblut: Certainly it would be an acknowledgment that it isn't his area of expertise, but I'm not sure he can hide that, can he?
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Washington: Re: Campaign debt, I heard this morning that the goal of Obama's fundraising is to help pay for $10 million of the $22 million debt. The extra $11 million that will not be raised is supposedly from Hillary's personal bank account. I don't really agree with Obama helping out Hillary like this, as I see it as her forcing him to pander to her, but very few discussions of the campaign debt address the fact I mentioned above.
Anne E. Kornblut: thank you for this.
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Anne E. Kornblut: I apologize again for having to depart early today, but I'll make it up in the weeks ahead. Thanks again so much for joining, and for all the terrific questions. Talk to you soon!
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
June 24, 2008 Tuesday
Late Edition - Final
'Alex' and the Ad Against the War
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; LETTERS; Pg. 22
LENGTH: 680 words
To the Editor:
Re ''Someone Else's Alex,'' by William Kristol (column, June 23):
Over the course of his campaign, Senator John McCain has said he is fine with a United States presence in Iraq for 100 years as long as we are not taking casualties. William Kristol thinks our quoting him on this in our ad ''Not Alex'' is dishonest.
But with violence continuing on the ground in Iraq and no exit strategy, it is reasonable to ask, How many generations of young Americans will be expected to pay the price of this misguided war?
For too long, John McCain has gotten away with an answer that is fantastically hypothetical -- that United States troops can remain in Iraq without being shot at. Few believe this is a real possibility in the foreseeable future, and the comparison to the United States presence in Germany, Japan and South Korea is both absurd and historically inaccurate.
When we established permanent bases in those countries, there were no insurgents shooting at our soldiers. Most Iraqis and many foreign policy experts believe that our presence is one cause of the violence. But John McCain's position seems to be that we should stay to quell the very violence that our presence is catalyzing, so that we can stay when there is no violence.
That's the kind of faulty logic that got us into this war in the first place.
All American parents realize that their children may have to serve in the military and pay the ultimate price. We honor all those who have served and wish to serve. Our ad simply gives voice to the fear of millions of parents that John McCain will ask generations of Americans to serve in an unwinnable war, with a failed strategy based on lies, maybe for as long as 100 years. Eli Pariser
Executive Director, MoveOn.org
Brooklyn, June 23, 2008
To the Editor:
In William Kristol's attack on MoveOn.org's new antiwar ad, he assumes that the Iraqi war is moral, just and in our interest; then he condemns a mother who wants her newborn son to avoid fighting in that war when he comes of age, leaving the fight against terrorism to others so she and her son can live in narcissistic bliss.
But the message of the ad is that the war is immoral, unjust and against our interest, and that hawkish and narcissistic Republicans like President Bush and John McCain seek to perpetuate the war indefinitely by placing others in harm's way. The poignant image of the infant Alex potentially fighting in Iraq or Iran in 17 years vividly warns of the dangers of continuing down the path of gun-toting cowboy imperialistic foreign policy.
The message isn't someone else's Alex; it's no one else's Alex.
Jeff Hersh
Austin, Tex., June 23, 2008
To the Editor:
Kudos to William Kristol for rightly calling MoveOn.org's ''Alex'' ad ''creepy.'' One sleazy aspect of the ad that Mr. Kristol did not mention is its blatant attempt to associate John McCain with war and Barack Obama with peace. In fact, Mr. Obama has asserted that he would use military force to solve problems in numerous situations, including being willing to deploy troops to Iraq.
John McCain, it might be pointed out, has a son in the military and has personally experienced the barbarism of war.
The ad's cynical use of emotion to cloud the issues only destroys the credibility of those who run it.
Laurel E. Federbush
Ann Arbor, Mich., June 23, 2008
To the Editor:
Perhaps the MoveOn.org anti-John McCain advertisement is not that good, as William Kristol said. But Mr. Kristol's criticism obscures the results of the war policies that John McCain espouses.
Yes, we must remain strong in a dangerous world. But Senator McCain's strong support of the Iraq and Vietnam wars are examples of his beliefs that have made us both morally and functionally weaker. Bruce Shames
New York, June 23, 2008
To the Editor:
I was not sure how effective MoveOn.org's advertisement ''Not My Alex'' would be. But William Kristol seems to be sufficiently disturbed by the ad. This is surely a sign that the ad must indeed be very effective. Prakash Navare
Succasunna, N.J., June 23, 2008
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
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USA TODAY
June 24, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
McCain's $300M lure for new, 'green' car battery sparks buzz;
Energy proposal estimated to cost $1 per person
BYLINE: David Jackson
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 8A
LENGTH: 546 words
WASHINGTON -- Republican candidate John McCain said Monday the government should pay a $300 million reward to the inventor of a battery strong enough to power an automobile.
The proposed prize would cost $1 for "every man, woman and child in the U.S.," McCain said in a town hall meeting at California State University, Fresno. He called that "a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency."
Historians said the offer of a multimillion-dollar prize appears to be a presidential campaign first. Author Rick Shenkman, whose books include Legends, Lies and Cherished Myths of American History, said the idea brings a game-show ethos to American politics.
"It's the Let's Make a Deal or The Price Is Right mentality," he said.
The reward would go to "development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars," McCain said.
Taxpayers would put up the prize money, and the winner would be determined by a panel of government and private-sector experts, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said.
Most automobile manufacturers are working with lithium-ion battery makers on this technology, said Spencer Quong, senior vehicles engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. The main challenges are increasing durability, lowering the cost and maintaining safety, he said, and commercial development could occur in the "near future ... maybe five years."
Alex Molinaroli, president of power solutions for Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls, said his firm is working on a lithium-ion battery that is "half the size and twice the power" to be available next year.
McCain's offer is also another example of how presidential candidates have long talked about reducing dependence on foreign oil, presidential historian Robert Dallek said. "We've been carrying on about this for 40 years," he said.
Aides to Democratic candidate Barack Obama called McCain's proposal inconsistent with his record. While McCain calls for a $300million reward now, he opposed a $15million provision for research into an electric car in 1995 as "egregious," said Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan.
Bounds said that vote dealt with an unauthorized earmark slipped into a defense bill.
Obama's alternative-fuels plan includes higher miles-per-gallon standards and a new $150billion program to develop "clean, renewable sources of energy."
This is the second straight week in which McCain has emphasized energy issues, which he calls "the great national challenge of our time."
Last week, the Arizona senator proposed offshore oil drilling as a way to increase the domestic supply. Obama said that plan would have little effect at the pump, while threatening coastal environments.
McCain outlined other energy ideas Monday, including the possibility of increasing fines for carmakers who violate federal rules requiring vehicles to achieve a minimum number of miles per gallon.
He also suggested new federal rules to promote cars that can use alcohol-based fuels.
McCain has opposed ethanol subsidies and tariffs. He cited Brazil, which makes ethanol from sugar cane, as an example of a market-driven economy for alternative fuels.
McCain also proposed a $5,000 tax credit to every customer who buys a new zero-emissions car.
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The Washington Post
June 24, 2008 Tuesday
Regional Edition
'Blank Slate' Will Wheel Briefly Into View
BYLINE: Lisa de Moraes
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C07
LENGTH: 687 words
TNT will debut a new crime thriller series from Dean Devlin ("Independence Day," "The Librarian") called "Blank Slate" on Sept. 9.
The next week, TNT will telecast the series finale.
It's a very, very short series.
As in: two minutes per episode.
Five of these episodes will air during TNT telecasts of "Law & Order" reruns on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. TNT has ordered 20 episodes.
Among the show's stars: two Acura cars, the TSX and the RL, which will be heavily featured in almost every episode. In promos, TNT will say things such as "stay tuned to 'Blank Slate' presented by Acura." The episodes of "Blank Slate Presented by Acura" will air during the commercial breaks in the "Law & Order" reruns, a network spokeswoman told The TV Column.
Where I come from, these are called "ads." "Fancy-schmancy ads" is the technical phrase, I think. Kind of like those old Taster's Choice commercials with the hot young coffee-craving chick and her hot young coffee-supplying guy neighbor (hot steamy relationship ensued). Except with a much bigger budget. And about 90-seconds longer per episode. And, of course, with two Acura cars. And no coffee.
Here's one bit of good news. You know those annoying pop-up ads that, um, pop up on the screen when you're trying to watch prime-time series on TNT? TNT will absolutely not clutter up episodes of "Blank Slate" with any stinkin' pop-up ads. Might block the view of the Acura TSX.
Acura couldn't be happier about the new "micro-series," noting the show's story line -- SPOILER ALERT -- "integrates the advanced intuitive technologies of the Acura TSX and RL, while showcasing the car's sleek and modern design," according to Susie Rossick, Acura advertising manager.
Written and directed by John Harrison of "Dune" and "Tales From the Crypt" fame, "Blank Slate" is about one Anne Huston, who wakes up in an "execution chamber" after being accused of killing a federal agent. She is suffering from amnesia, which makes her "the perfect candidate" to become the guinea pig for a new FBI program in which memories of recent murder victims are implanted into living people, who are then given Acura TSXes to drive -- RLs for the weekends. You and I know they'd save a lot of time and money if they just kidnapped Barry Sonnenfeld's pie-making guy, who can bring murder victims back to life temporarily and ask them whodunnit, but try explaining that to the FBI.
* * *
In their first broadcast since having Michelle Obama as guest co-host, The Ladies of "The View" made-for-TV-marveled over all the attention they received in the media from that visit with the wife of the Democratic presidential candidate.
"Everywhere you looked all weekend, up until really this morning, there was Michelle on our show," Whoopi Goldberg gushed faux incredulously.
Whoopi insisted the timing of Obama's visit had nothing to do with efforts to fix her public image, as some reporters suggested.
"It had nothing to do with changing over who she was. . . . We have been talking to this woman since December about coming on to 'The View,' " Whoopi said on yesterday's show.
"It happened also because it was just the time where there were all of these articles about 'Is she going to be a help?' 'Is she not?' 'What is she going to be like?' 'Do we really know her?' I mean, it just, it was the perfect timing," added sometime-journalist Barbara Walters, who showed up for the discussion on a purple bed, carried by four ginormous gladiators.
In fairness, the show was being broadcast live from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
"And, don't forget, you know, Cindy McCain was our guest co-host in April," Whoopi added. "Now, did you guys think the media covered her period?"
"Her appearance?" Whoopi added, clarifying her double-entendre so as to avoid any pesky "Cindy McCain Menopausal, 'The View' Reveals" blogger headlines along the lines of those "Michelle Obama Says Her Husband Is 'Kind and Pathetic' " headlines that plagued the show after the wannabe first lady told The Ladies her husband is "kind, empathetic."
Too late.
"She doesn't have her period anymore," Joy Behar deadpanned in re the Republican candidate's wife.
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By J.b. Reed -- Bloomberg News; An Acura TSX has a prominent role in the TNT "micro-series" airing -- oh so fleetingly -- this fall.
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The Washington Post
June 24, 2008 Tuesday
Regional Edition
Race in the Sunlight
BYLINE: Eugene Robinson
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The question isn't whether race will be an issue in the general election campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain. Race is already an issue, even if it is largely confined to the shadow world of implication and coded language. Obama is now dragging the race issue into the sunlight -- a move that has to be considered both risky and inevitable.
I say inevitable because the fact of Obama's race isn't something that voters could possibly miss, whatever they think about it. The riskiness of dealing openly with race is every bit as obvious as Obama's skin color: A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that three of every 10 Americans acknowledge having "at least some feelings of racial prejudice."
Other findings in the survey suggest that the distance between blacks and whites in this country has narrowed steadily in recent decades; nearly eight of 10 whites say they have a "fairly close personal friend" who is black, for example, while barely more than half of whites reported having black friends when the question was asked in 1981. Still, the poll suggests that as far as we've come on matters of race, we have a long way to go -- and that some reservoir of racial suspicion remains, should anyone want to try to exploit it.
On Friday, speaking at a fundraiser in Jacksonville, Obama made what can only be described as a preemptive strike. "It is going to be very difficult for Republicans to run on their stewardship of the economy or their outstanding foreign policy," he said. "We know what kind of campaign they're going to run. They're going to try to make you afraid. They're going to try to make you afraid of me. 'He's young and inexperienced, and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?' " He went on to predict that Republicans would say that "he's got a feisty wife" as a way of attacking Michelle Obama. "We know the strategy because they've already shown their cards," he said. "Ultimately, I think the American people recognize that old stuff hasn't moved us forward. That old stuff just divides us."
The Republican Party has a problematic history on race, beginning with Nixon's "Southern strategy." The era when the likes of the late Lee Atwater could overtly use race as a wedge issue is long gone. Today, any appeal to latent racial prejudice would have to be made more subtly -- the suggestion that there's something of the "other" about Obama, that he might not share traditional American values, that there's some question about his love of country. Given the steadfast patriotism that African Americans have displayed since the nation's founding, none of this makes historical sense. But it's more about the vibe than the reality, and the fact is that voters are attuned not just to what a presidential candidate says but also to how the candidate makes them feel.
Since Obama has given his opponents little ammunition, they have focused on those who are close to him, beginning with his former pastor. Now some critics have turned to Obama's "feisty" wife, whose image as a tall, strong, confident black woman can perhaps be made to seem threatening to some people.
If there are voters who absolutely won't support Obama because of his race, there's not much he can do about it. But at least he can blow away all the smoke. He has served notice that he doesn't intend to be Swift-boated on race the way John Kerry was on his war record -- and that he will hit back even when attacks are more atmospheric than concrete.
The Obama campaign made another move on this front last week when it began running a new television ad in a number of battleground states, including some, such as Georgia and North Carolina, that Republicans have long considered safe. In the ad, which is more about the candidate's character than his policies, Obama speaks of his personal history and delivers a paean to traditional American values -- while the viewer sees old family photos of his mother, who was white, and her parents, who helped raise him.
It's hard to see the ad's iconography as anything but a reminder that while Obama is firmly self-identified as African American, he is also biracial. He is a black man who speaks with great affection and admiration for his white grandparents, who look like Middle America personified. The message: Race may be thorny and complicated, but it's no match for love.
The writer will answer questions at 1 p.m. today at http://www.washingtonpost.com. His e-mail address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com
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June 24, 2008 Tuesday 1:00 PM EST
Opinion Focus
BYLINE: Eugene Robinson, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2010 words
HIGHLIGHT: Washington Post opinion columnist Eugene Robinson was online Tuesday, June 24 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his recent columns and the latest news.
Washington Post opinion columnist Eugene Robinson was online Tuesday, June 24 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his recent columns and the latest news.
Discussion Group: Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood
The transcript follows.
Archive: Eugene Robinson discussion transcripts
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Eugene Robinson: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our regular get-together. There's lots to talk about, as usual, but no one mega-story that's dominating the news cycle -- I guess it'll be more of a smorgasbord today. For reference, today's column is about Barack Obama and race as an election issue, or circumstance, or whatever it turns out to be. Last Friday, I wrote about Tiger Woods and his win at the U.S. Open -- on one leg. What have you been thinking about?
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Bethesda, Md.: Mr. Robinson, thank you for your column today. It is sort of sad that Obama has to play up his white mother and grandparents in order to appease lingering white racism in this country. Seriously, how white does a black man have to be to not be considered alien or unacceptable?
Eugene Robinson: Thanks, but I don't know if you can really say that Obama is "playing up" his mother's side of the family. That's part of who he is. He was basically raised by his mother and his grandparents. Is there a political impact, especially on white voters? I don't know, but maybe we'll be able to draw some conclusions later in the election cycle.
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Riverside, Calif.: What is your opinion of Sen. Obama's opting out of the government election campaign funds? Do you think this represents a "winning at all cost" direction? Thank you.
Eugene Robinson: I think Obama's decision to opt out of using public funds was inevitable, given his proven ability to raise vast sums of money. The decision was obviously (to me) a matter of expediency, not principle -- but politically it was obviously the right thing to do. I don't see how anyone could willingly surrender the kind of financial advantage that Obama is likely to enjoy.
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Racial Bias Study: Mr. Robinson, wonderful piece today, especially the concluding sentence ... what a sentiment! I wanted to ask you about the recent study that found 3 out of 10 Americans report a racial bias. First off, what constitutes racial bias? Not having acquaintances of another race? Locking your doors and rolling up your windows when driving through bad neighborhood? Racial bias can represent so many behaviors that might not have race at its source. I understand that the point of the study was to show that racial bias still does indeed exist in this country, and ostensibly, how that affects the upcoming presidential race, but who is naive enough to think that racial bias doesn't exist?
Eugene Robinson: Good question, but of course in a survey like this one there's no way to spell out all the attitudes and behaviors that constitute an agreed definition of "racial bias." It has to be in the eye of the beholder, or the respondent -- which means a certain inevitable vagueness. I think, though, that even with the inherent imprecision, it's possible to chart trends over time. What would the answer have been 60 years ago?
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New York: Do you see Obama's framing everything through the prism of race a winning strategy? There is a recurring theme by many Obama supporters and media -- even by Obama -- that states or suggests that opposition to Obama must be racist and that short of that everyone would support him. Personally I find this offensive and while it might win some immediate confrontations and put his opposition on the defense, I cannot see how this won't be a damaging and losing strategy in the long run. Can "white guilt" and fear of being called racist build a winning coalition?
Eugene Robinson: I don't know what you're talking about. Who said it was racist not to support Obama? There were editorials in just about all the major papers slamming him for his decision not to take public campaign funds, for example, and there wasn't anything racist about the criticism. Nor is it racist to disagree with him on the war, or say he doesn't have enough experience, or whatever. Right?
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Baltimore: Thank you for taking my question. You wrote "Obama made what can only be described as a preemptive strike" when he said that the GOP is: "going to try to make you afraid of me. 'He's young and inexperienced, and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?' " I disagree. There's another way to decribe this: "dealing the Race Card from the bottom of the deck."
No one in the McCain campaign, no conservative 527, no prominent conservative columnist or blogger has made an issue of Obama's race -- yet Obama assures us that Republicans are racists. Essentially he's telling us that any attack on him or his wife is coded racist language. In other words, if you don't vote for Obama, you're a racist. That's a better explanation of his statement.
Eugene Robinson: See previous response. And let me add that of course it's possible to attack Obama or even his wife without being racist. But coded racist language does exist. I hope it's not employed.
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Strong, Black Women: Do you think all of the fuss over Michelle Obama has more to do with the fact that she is a strong, black woman who doesn't play second fiddle to her husband like most first ladies and potential first ladies are suppose to? Do you think most Americans just haven't been exposed to a black woman like Michelle outside of what you see on TV and movies, and just aren't use to seeing it? As a black man, I actually find her candor refreshing, down to earth and real.
Eugene Robinson: An interesting and provocative question. I don't have the time or space right now to try to work out my thoughts about how black women are perceived in American culture. I do recall, though, the furor over Hillary Clinton -- a strong, white woman -- when she suggested long ago that she didn't want to sit home and bake cookies. So it's possible that the bigger factor is the way this society sees strong, capable women in general. But I'll give your question some thought.
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Alexandria, Va.: I ask this question as a white person who seriously wants to understand. You mention that Senator Obama considers himself African American. He also attended, for many years, a predominantly black church whose leader does not speak kindly of whites. Yet Obama was raised by his white mother as a single parent. So why does Obama identify more with being black than with being white? It would seem that with a single white mother, Obama would have just as much exposure to his white roots as his black. So why does he consider himself more black than white?
Eugene Robinson: In his first book, Obama wrote about these questions of identity. My short answer is that society thought of him as black.
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Los Angeles: Thank you for providing these forums. I'm an Obama supporter, though I find my support getting a bit shaky since he backed off his pledge to use public financing for the GE. I get that it's a strategic decision, but his videotaped explanation was disingenuous at best. And, since he would've been able to spend donations received during the primary season until the convention, why risk the blow back? I also see more and more stagecraft in his campaign, which I find disturbing. His most recent town hall meeting shows him speaking to all white females, clearly a deliberate move on his campaign. He has turned into a conventional politician whereas many of us supported him for his unconventional persona. Your thoughts?
Eugene Robinson: His explanation sounded disingenuous to me. But as I said earlier, I think it was the correct thing to do, at least politically. Part of the narrative of the Democratic primary battle was that the party wanted a candidate who wouldn't back down from the Republicans -- who wouldn't be bullied. Agreeing to take public funds -- and surrender a potentially huge financial advantage -- would have been a gift to John McCain. It just wasn't going to happen.
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Columbus: Recently in a number of forums, including a recent New York Times campaign blog as well as yesterday's Politics chat at washingtonpost.com, it was suggested that Obama 'chose' his racial identity.
As someone of mixed ethnicity myself, I find the notion both simplistic and preposterous. But I do think it reflects a certain difficulty among the mainstream media, and society in general, to discuss the idea of mixed ethnicity. What are your thoughts, particularly having just written about Tiger Woods?
Eugene Robinson: Remember that as recently as 1967, interracial marriage was illegal in many states. I think a nation that has long seen race as a black/white issue has yet to fully come to terms with a growing cohort of biracial Americans.
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Anonymous: I have a question Mr. Robinson. In today's column you point to a survey that shows three out of 10 people have "some feelings of racial prejudice." That number may very well be correct, but without more of a breakdown of the numbers it is misleading at best, because it is assumed the three out of ten are white. You pointed out that eight out of ten whites have black friends, but how about more of a breakdown -- i.e. blacks toward whites, whites toward Latinos, blacks toward Latinos?
As a 58-year-old white male, you and I grew up through the same time in American history -- and though not perfect, today is dramatically different from the '50s and '60s. My gut feeling is that it's a less percentage of white to black and black to white prejudice and more black and white prejudice toward Latino, given that illegal immigration has become such a big issue recently. Your comment or feelings on this?
Eugene Robinson: The poll didn't really shed any light on attitudes toward Latinos, at least as I read the data. There was a question asking what issues are most important, though, and immigration has fallen way down the list behind the economy, the war and quite a few others.
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Arlington, Va.: Another day, another fatuous comment from James Dobson -- how Barack Obama is distorting the Bible. Dobson said that the coming of Jesus negated all the pesky dietary and clothing rules in Leviticus. So, does that mean that Dobson is now "cool" with homosexuality? Frankly, how do you keep your head exploding after hearing this twaddle?
Eugene Robinson: If fatuous twaddle made my head explode, I'd be nothing more than splatter at this point. I think we should all just pray for Rev. Dobson.
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Rockville, Md.: Mr. Robinson, It is sad that we do not agree on more topice, but I liked your comments on Tiger Woods and think the best part of many Sundays was to watch him smile after a good shot. My wife and I will miss that. Best wishes.
Eugene Robinson: Thanks. Tiger will be back next year. In the meantime, maybe somebody else will step up and give us a reason to watch golf.
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San Diego: With the very middle class, white, upbringing depicted in the Obama biographical ad, why did he choose a black church that was so far removed from the maintstream? Who is the real Barrack? The man with Kansas values or the man with Trinity Church of Christ values? There is a disconnect that needs to be explained.
Eugene Robinson: White and black are both elements of the American mainstrea
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Eugene Robinson: I may have glitched that last answer. It was:
White and black are both essential elements of the American mainstream. Without either, there would be no America as we know it.
And with that, my time is up. Thanks for dropping by, and see you again next week.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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June 24, 2008 Tuesday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Matthew Mosk, Washington Post Campaign Finance Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3237 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post campaign finance reporter Matthew Mosk was online Tuesday, June 24 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest news in politics.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
____________________
Matthew Mosk: Good morning,
Sen. Obama is preparing for a series of unity fundraisers with Sen. Clinton while Sen. McCain will be raising funds in Las Vegas. This is the time when the presidential candidates fuel up for the five months ahead. And so, a good time to talk about money and politics.
I welcome your questions.
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Portland, Ore.: Sen. McCain raised essentially as much last month as Sen. Obama did, and the Republican National Committee is sitting on about $54 million while the Democratic National Committee has only $4 million (cash on hand in both cases). Does this imply that as a practical matter, Sen. Obama really has no financial advantage over Sen. McCain? Why in your view is the DNC being outraised by the RNC? Thanks.
Matthew Mosk: Several questions have come in on the subject of May fundraising -- and particularly that Sens. Obama and McCain raised roughly the same amounts ($21 million - $22 million).
So why is there a perception that Sen. Obama will have a huge money advantage in the coming months? Couple reasons:
1. Half the Democrats (including many of the party's longtime givers and most prodigious fundraisers) will just now be joining the Obama team having moved from Sen. Clinton's campaign. They would not have been a presence in May, but they are likely to provide a major boost in coming weeks.
2. Sen. Obama has had a much stronger history of online fundraising than Sen. McCain, and those dynamics probably won't change much.
3. Democrats, as a whole, are raising much more money this year because the party is energized.
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Southwest Nebraska: I felt that Juan Williams was a bit snarky on NPR this morning in talking about Obama's fundraising. He seemed to be saying that Hollywood is Obama's piggy bank. Which is more significant to Obama's campaign -- celebrity donations, or the average contributor's $100?
Matthew Mosk: Hello Nebraska!
This is a very good question, and I believe the answer is both. Let's just assume by celebrity donors, we really mean the large givers who have traditionally fueled Democratic campaigns (of which Hollywood moguls account for only a portion). So far, Obama has shown an ability to operate a hybrid fundraising machine -- raising money from these traditional donors (and there are several Hollywood-type events scheduled for coming months, including a big event at the Disney concert hall in Los Angeles today) -- and from so-called small dollars who send in money over the internet.
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Raleigh, N.C.: Is John McCain breaking the law on public financing by getting in and then pulling out of the system without permission? I've seen some lefty sites flat-out say he's breaking the law, but traditional media sites have said he is not, so I thought I'd go to the expert.
Matthew Mosk: Thanks for the question, Raleigh.
The reason you're not getting a clear answer on this is that it's in dispute. For those who have not followed it, this is a question about Sen. John McCain's decision to enter, and then withdraw, from the public financing system for the primaries. (Not to be confused with the public funding for the general election.) When McCain's campaign was in financial trouble last summer, he expressed an interest in public funds for the primary. But when his campaign rebounded, he withdrew his certification.
The FEC chairman wrote a letter to his campaign saying, in essence, the commission may need to vote to release him from his commitment. The chairman said a key question was: Did Sen. McCain use his position in the public financing system to help him secure a crucial loan.
McCain's campaign lawyer, Trevor Potter, has said the campaign never did anything that would force the campaign to stay inside the system. The Democrats have disputed this.
The DNC has sued in hopes of getting a court to weigh in on this.
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Washington: Do you agree that the distinction between taking and not taking public funding for the general election is not as clear-cut as many would have you believe? McCain's supporters can make "independent expenditures" without limit on his behalf, and the FEC is unlikely to find coordination unless the campaign and those making the expenditures sit down and discuss every last aspect of what is to be done.
Also, the FEC allows unlimited spending for "general election legal and accounting expenditures," and has defined this so broadly as to encompass many activities not usually so considered. The actual expenditure cap, if there is in fact any cap at all, is substantially higher than the $85 million he officially will receive from the government.
Matthew Mosk: This question comes from a well informed reader, and I do agree with his/her point.
The $84.1 million that the government will provide Sen. McCain represents only part of what he can spend. He will be able to spend those separate "legal and accounting" funds to pay for some of the campaign's big ticket expenses. And he will be able to split the cost of other items, such as TV ads, with the Republican Party, so long as the ads qualify as "hybrids" because they mention both the presidential candidate and down-ticket races.
And that's not including spending by the RNC on voter turnout efforts and other election related matters, and spending by independent groups on ads. (Though Sen. McCain has said he will object to independent ads, consistent with his longstanding position on that question.)
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Boston: Not a finance question, but why do Republicans consistently ask terrorists to get involved in our politics?
washingtonpost.com: Terror Strike Would Help McCain, Top Adviser Says (Post, June 24)
Matthew Mosk: Alright... enough campaign finance nitty gritty for now, I'm not sure I completely agree with this characterization, but certainly the flap over McCain adviser Charlie Black's comments seem to be dominating the chatter today. What do you think of his suggestion that a terror strike would help McCain? Has his apology and Sen. McCain's repudiation of the remark helped to make this a non issue?
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Seattle: Good morning, and thanks for having these chats. McCain advisor Charlie Black has some splainin' to do after his comments that a fresh terror attack "would be a big advantage to him." What is Charlie's position in the campaign? Was he a large donor? Will he ever work in Washington again?
Matthew Mosk: Thanks Seattle. I suspect Charlie Black will be just fine, at least long term. He's a senior adviser to the campaign, a position he has held with numerous Republican presidential candidates. And, he's had a longstanding, successful career as a lobbyist in town. As for the immediate impact on him, it's too soon to say.
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Baltimore: Re: Charlie Black's comments on a terrorist attack "helping" McCain -- can anyone honestly believe that a guy who has been in Washington as long as Black has says something like this off the cuff? What is the difference between saying it would help and wishing it would happen, when you are working for the candidate in question? Furthermore, I'm not even sure Black is correct politically. McCain is tied to Bush, so if a devastating attack happened in the last days of Bush's presidency, isn't that proof that Republicans can't protect us?
Matthew Mosk: Thank you Baltimore for these thoughts on Charlie Black.
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Nantucket, Mass.: I noticed a bandage on the top of McCain's head in news photos yesterday when he inclined his head during responses to questioning. Has another cancerous melanoma been removed from the top of his head?
washingtonpost.com: McCain gets scrape after run-in with auto rooftop (AP, June 24)
Matthew Mosk: McCain folks say this is not cancer -- just a bump on the head. But I noticed this item on the Drudge Report this morning, and my reaction was that people are highly sensitized to Sen. McCain's age and condition. This helps explain why the McCain campaign allowed reporters to review stacks of medical records that concluded he is in good health.
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Bremerton, Wash.: Matthew, is McCain-Feingold offically dead, or does anyone think it can be "tweaked" further to make it more effective? Is it really going to take a Constitutional amendment to get some money out of politics?
Matthew Mosk: Well... it seems you all are wonky like me. Lots of campaign finance questions stacked up here.
I think what Bremerton refers to here is not McCain-Feingold, but the Presidential Public Financing System, which emerged after watergate to try and keep the corrupting influence of big money out of presidential politics. For the past few cycles, most major candidates have declined public funding in the primaries. Sen. Obama will be the first to also decline the money in the general election.
For years candidates found the federal funds appealing because the amounts were enough to make it worth doing. Several members of the senate (including Sen. Russ Feingold) have argued that the formulas are outdated and should be updated. Legislation along those lines is pending.
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Richmond, Va.: A lot of media and other pundits are talking about the fact that in May, Obama only raised $22 million -- much less, apparently, than a lot of other months. I haven't heard what might account for that smaller amount. Have you?
Matthew Mosk: Let's get back to those May fundraising numbers with this good question from Richmond.
Yesterday, I asked the Obama campaign about the May number, which is high by most standards, but fairly modest for Obama. So why did his fundraising slow down?
Obama's campaign aides say the candidate was focused on tough contests with Sen. Clinton and so spent less time fundraising. The campaign also sent out fewer appeals by email during May.
That may be true. But I think the slow-down speaks to the unpredictable nature of online fundraising. Donations online typically flow in when people are paying a lot of attention, or a specific event (like Super Tuesday in February) drive them to their computers to give money. May didn't offer as much in that regard as the prior months did.
What this tells me is to expect surges of online donations during the political conventions, and in the weeks leading up to Election Day in November.
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Wilmington, N.C.: I don't quite understand this issue about Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign debts. Is it customary for the nominee with the proper number of delegates to help with other's finances? I was under the impression it was initially the Obama's camp's way of getting Sen. Clinton out of the race. Can you please clarify this for me? Thank you much.
Matthew Mosk: Thanks for this question. It certainly has on some occassions been the case that one candidate will help another retire a debt. I'm told the Clinton and Obama folks are still discussing this.
Couple of possibilities for how this will happen. Sen. Obama could send out an email to his list of supporters asking them to help Sen. Clinton. Or, he may host a couple of high profile fundraisers for her. Or, he'll ask members of his national finance committee to reach out to their friends to donate to her campaign.
He may do this, in part, to help bring aboard some of Sen. Clinton's top fundraisers, so they can help him with his general election efforts. He may also ask Sen. Clinton to request that her general election donors use the refunds they will receive to donate to him.
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Minneapolis: While we're on fundraising, Sen. McCain held an event here last week where they were requesting donations of up to $50,000 from individual donors, which would be split, according to legal requirements, among the campaign, the RNC and various states' party committees. Are the Democrats/Obama campaign holding similar events, or is Sen. Obama focusing fundraising efforts only on his campaign?
Matthew Mosk: Hi Minneapolis. The answer to your question is yes. The Democrats have set up a similar program to the Republicans that essentially allows a single donor to write a five figure check (up to $70,000 in some instances), by parceling out the money to various accounts.
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Franconia, Va.: Charlie Black just committed the classic gaffe of speaking the truth in public. The destruction of the World Trade Center towers and the deaths of those Americans working inside them did lead -- involuntarily of course -- to a much more positive national profile for Giuliani. It's not clear which major American landmark Black is mentally picturing here, or the number of American dead, but another such attack might indeed help John McCain -- although maybe not so much after this remark. I can't imagine a news executive talking for even an instant about the wonderful ratings bump and commercial visibility that his or her network would get from another Sept. 11 attack. I guess television is a cleaner business than party politics.
Matthew Mosk: Thanks for these additional thoughts on Charlie Black. A couple more to follow....
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The Political Mind: Doesn't anyone who works in politics have to think about that stuff? I am not saying it was smart to say it, but I don't even work in politics actively, and I analyze what the effect of a attack would be all the time. For example, taking what Baltimore said -- if there was a terrorist attack before the election, odds are we would go into a Martial Law situation. Anyone with half a brain in Washington has to be smart enough to think that way -- we just aren't supposed to say it.
Matthew Mosk: And this. From the political mind.
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Watergate and Public Financing: Actually, the problem is not the amount of money in campaigns, it's the small group of people who were able to contribute large sums. What Obama has done is enlarged the group of people and shrink the amounts. His fundraising in California is with the national committee, so the cap per person is larger -- much like what McCain is doing with the RNC.
Obama also actively has moved to rein in the 527s -- MoveOn.org just closed their 527 operation. McCain showed that he doesn't have the influence (or maybe it's the desire) to shut down state Republican smear campaigns, such as in North Carolina during the primary there. Obama just looked at the money that would be used against him by the other side -- McCain, the Republican National Committee, 527s and the state parties -- and decided that he would be outgunned with public financing.
Matthew Mosk: On your first point, yes. The question was one of outsized influence. As for independent activity, I'm not sure I agree with you. I think it may be too early to tell whether Sen. Obama or Sen. McCain has been able to shut down these outside groups.
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Indianapolis: To get the money out of politics would require not a constitutional amendment, but God's remaking the universe.
Matthew Mosk: Ha!
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Rochester, N.Y.: Is it possible for candidates to shift money around a bit from one month to the next? Say, not cash the check that comes in May 27 til June 1? Because it might have been smart for Obama to have a low May number, in the sense that it might motivate donors to give in June and add extra money to a huge June payday. If Obama comes in with $70 million-plus in June, that might be a big booster PR-wise.
Matthew Mosk: It's an interesting thought. I think more likely is the campaigns hold off on paying bills for a couple extra days (weeks) to tamp down their spending numbers. I suspect they cash those checks as fast as they can.
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It's not what Black said:... it's the false, obligatory apology that inevitably is issued after such a comment. It is likely an unspoken wisdom that a high-tension terrorist situation would work to McCain's advantage politically, if he handled it well. The knock against Obama is that he just doesn't have the background or experience to be effective in a national crisis brought about by terrorism.
Is that true? Maybe, maybe not. It's worked well to keep Congress and the public in check for several years. It's ugly to think and ugly to say, but certainly not surprising that this would have been running through Black's mind. Politicans and their aides with access to the media are not actually supposed to speak their minds -- that's where Black went wrong.
Matthew Mosk: Thanks for this, another interesting take on Charlie Black.
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Fairfax County, Va.: Your point about online donations in the run-up to Election Day makes it even clearer why Obama made the choice he did. If that's one of the core fundraising periods, eliminating all donations during those two months would be especially disastrous, as the pre-convention months would be, by contrast, a relative low. Do you think Obama will be hurt politically (as opposed to financially) if small-donor donations taper off in June and July, as you predict naturally would occur? He's tied so much of his campaign to these, and he and Clinton competed on these stats.
Matthew Mosk: I suspect that Sen. Obama's campaign is planning for these lulls in online donations a couple ways. One, they'll probably return with some of those artificial motivators, like contests and chances to have dinner with the candidate. And, they'll probably focus more of their attention during those periods (as they are now) on raising money from the fat cat donors.
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Cumming, Ga.: Why in the world would Obama opt for taxpayers' campaign financing when 1.5 millions of us are willing to donate to his campaign over and over again? That's public funding at its best right there. Just use the $84 million that would have been allocated to the Obama campaign to build some levees.
Matthew Mosk: I think the interesting thing about this question is that, among Obama's online supporters especially, there was strong sentiment in favor of him forgoing the public funds. Daily Kos and others urged Obama to take advantage of what could be a major political fundraising edge. Whether the political fallout from breaking his pledge will matter is unclear, but Republicans are pushing to see that it does.
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Matthew Mosk: Folks, I'm afraid that's all the time for today. Lots of great questions, and a healthy interest in campaign finance issues (!) Thank so much for joining me today, and stay tuned for the latest twists and turns.
Best,
Matt
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June 23, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
TV stations stand to gain in campaign;
Spending from both sides to help as other ads drop
BYLINE: David Lieberman
SECTION: MONEY; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 457 words
NEW YORK -- Democrat Barack Obama's decision to eschew public campaign funds, and spend as much as he wants on his presidential race, gave television executives a rare opportunity to smile.
TV station owners including Scripps Howard, Hearst-Argyle and Post Newsweek -- with strong newscasts in hotly contested states including Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan -- stand to benefit most from Obama's plan to blow past the $84 million limit on publicly financed campaigns.
Yet the extraordinary amount of cash to be spent on TV ads for Obama and Republican John McCain, who's accepting public limits, also could boost stations that don't usually see a presidential campaign windfall -- as well as cable networks that want in on the fast-growing political business.
Obama's decision "probably adds a couple of states to the (spending) mix," including North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Arizona, says Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of TNS Media Intelligence's Campaign Media Analysis Group. "He'll go 20 cable channels deep. There won't be something for him that's considered too risky," he says.
McCain should still be competitive, even if his campaign has a cap.
"The Republican national party has a lot more money than the Democrats," says Leo Kivijarv of PQ Media, a research and analysis firm.
Candidates and issue groups at all levels will spend $3 billion on TV ads for this year's election, up from $1.7 billion in 2001 and $1 billion in 2002, TNS says. The presidential campaign will account for about 27% of this year's total.
But forces beyond candidates' control may influence where the money goes.
For example, they may have to spend more on cable, weak TV outlets or other media if key stations run out of ad time in coveted time slots, including newscasts, prime-time shows and sports.
Chances for that increased last year. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling freed private groups to buy ads that mention a candidate right up to the election; in 2004, that stopped 60 days beforehand.
But stations expect to have lots of inventory as sales of car ads, which account for about a third of most stations' revenue, plummet. Political spending will offset those losses for only one or two station groups, says Jack Poor of the Television Bureau of Advertising.
And federal law requires stations to provide candidates with "reasonable access" to ad time. "They pretty much have first dibs," says Kathleen Keefe of Hearst-Argyle Television.
Still, Obama and McCain are paying attention to cable.
Obama's current purchases at CNN include ads on its website, says Greg D'Alba, executive vice president for CNN ad sales. Last week, McCain started running ads on CNN and several Discovery Communications networks, including the Military Channel.
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The Washington Post
June 23, 2008 Monday
Met 2 Edition
Obama Moves To Reintroduce Himself to Voters
BYLINE: Dan Balz and Anne E. Kornblut; Washington Post Staff Writers
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In the opening weeks of the general-election campaign, Sen. Barack Obama has moved aggressively to shape his campaign and offered a clear road map for the kind of candidate he is likely to become in the months ahead: an ambitious gamer of the electoral map, a ruthless fundraiser and a scrupulous manager of his own biography in the face of persistent concerns about how he is perceived.
Obama's early maneuvers suggest a clear understanding within the campaign of his strengths and weaknesses. He bought air time in 18 states, a sure sign that he hopes to expand Democrats' traditional electoral map. He opted out of the public campaign-financing system -- revealing his determination to press his financial advantage, even at the cost of handing his Republican opponent the opportunity to raise questions about the sincerity of his rhetoric on reform.
And with a first ad that delves into his biography, Obama acknowledged ongoing concerns among his advisers that voters do not know whether he shares the values and beliefs of ordinary Americans, a potentially critical vulnerability. The ad speaks to the reality that enough questions were raised about Obama through the long nomination battle that he needs to address them. The campaign's concerns include both taking on misinformation -- such as the persistent claim that he is Muslim when he is in fact a Christian -- and framing a biography unlike that of any nominee in the modern era.
"Any of the attempts to describe him inaccurately he takes head-on with the new commercial," said Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama's closest friends and confidants. "You begin a new campaign with an introduction. You can't presume that everybody was paying attention during the primary season. So let's start with basics. He describes his roots, his philosophy, his love of country. That's a really good start."
Jim Margolis, Obama's media adviser, said that, despite the long primary season, Obama still is not well known to voters in many parts of the country. "They don't know the full story," he said. "They don't have a complete sense of what motivates him, what are the biographical points of his life that have made him the person that he is today and what he wants to do as president."
Margolis said the campaign is primarily working to fill an information vacuum, but he acknowledged that combating rumors that could endanger Obama's candidacy is also part of the motivation behind the opening ad.
"There are just a lot of big holes there for a lot of people," he said. "But, to be sure, we live in a different world than we lived in before. This campaign is only possible because of the Internet, because of the technology, because we could raise a couple of hundred million dollars [from] 1.5 million Americans who on average gave less than $100 each. Could not have happened 10 years ago. On the other hand, you're constantly dealing with the misinformation that can spread quickly, where in 24 hours you can get millions of hits."
Even as the campaign seeks to take control of Obama's image, hammering home the message that his is a thoroughly American story, the decision last week to opt out of the public financing system -- and forgoing more than $84 million in campaign funds -- added a new dimension to his profile as a politician. And it appeared to immediately cut both ways. Sen. John McCain pounced on the decision, questioning Obama's character. "He has completely reversed himself and gone back, not on his word to me, but the commitment he made to the American people," McCain told reporters Thursday, citing Obama's initial pledge to stay within the existing campaign finance rules.
Yet Obama's advocates also argue a positive lesson about their candidate's character can be drawn from the decision: that Obama is willing to take political risks in order to win. His toughness as a politician was often questioned during the Democratic primary, as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton cast herself as the only Democrat able to do hand-to-hand combat with Republicans. "People and commentators have been saying we know Barack is hopeful and that he appeals to a broad cross section of the public," Jarrett said. "But perhaps people didn't know how tough he is. He's been saying all along, don't confuse hope with naivete."
If some Republicans rue the swift and calculated nature they say characterizes Obama's early steps, his campaign advisers say they have needed to move quickly to make up for the months spent waging the extended primary race. They cast the decision on public financing, for example, as motivated partly by timing, with just four full months left until Election Day to provide voters with the vision of Obama they hope to establish.
The scope of Obama's first advertising buy sent an unmistakable signal to McCain and the GOP that, at least initially, the senator from Illinois will invest money in states no Democrat has won in years, including Georgia, Indiana and Alaska. A recent poll for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee showed Obama within two points of McCain in Alaska, although well below 50 percent. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe predicted that Indiana "is going to be a dogfight" in the fall, even though Obama lost the primary there in May.
The content of the ad drew plaudits even from some Republicans for its focus on values, tax cuts and welfare reform. "He is not trying to cobble together the old Democratic coalition of interest groups and get 48 percent like John Kerry," Alex Castellanos, a Republican media consultant, said in an e-mail message. "This is not three yards and a cloud of dust. This is an aggressive leap across the 50-yard line to play on Republican turf."
Throughout the past week, other elements of Obama's aggressive outreach were on display. Shifting increasingly toward general-election issues, he met with military officers and a newly formed national security working group. He hit McCain over a secret meeting the Republican held with Hispanics in Chicago -- a hit that is part of his effort to win over a group that backed Clinton overwhelmingly in the primary and could be key to helping him reshape his electoral opportunities to include Western states.
At his meeting with 16 Democratic governors on Friday, the participants, including some of Clinton's most politically important backers, gushed about the degree to which his campaign staff had sought their input, inviting them to Chicago for dinner, putting them onstage with Obama at a briefing and asking each governor to bring in a top political aide who can be involved in planning as the campaign progresses.
"This isn't about 'I'm coming to your state, and can you go do a photo op,' " said Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Another Democratic governor, Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan, said the level of contact from the Obama campaign has surpassed any she has ever received from a presidential candidate. "We've never been reached out to in this way," said Granholm, a former Clinton supporter.
Given that he is running in a year in which the political climate is as favorable for the Democrats as it has been in any year in recent memory, one question the Obama team must grapple with is why the presumptive Democratic nominee does not have a more substantial lead over McCain in early polls.
Top advisers point to several factors. First, they acknowledge that the long nomination battle has left scars within the party. Right now, polls show that Obama is winning a smaller share of Democratic support than McCain is winning of Republican support. Campaign officials expect that to change as the summer progresses.
But they also acknowledge that McCain runs better with independent voters than anyone else the GOP might have nominated. By the fall they hope to have drawn enough distinctions with McCain to make those independents think twice about their support for him.
Finally, they argue, they have not yet begun to compete for Republican support, particularly among women who favor abortion rights or GOP voters disaffected with President Bush. In the end, they believe that whichever candidate wins the highest percentage of voters in the other party is likely to be the next occupant of the White House.
LOAD-DATE: June 23, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Hans Deryk -- Associated Press; Sen. Barack Obama, continuing his opening thrust of the campaign against Sen. John McCain, greets U.S. mayors on Saturday at a conference in Miami.
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The Washington Post
June 23, 2008 Monday
Suburban Edition
Applying a Personal Touch to the Campaign
BYLINE: Howard Kurtz; Washington Post Staff Writer
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LENGTH: 1479 words
Barack Obama was chatting with Katrina Davis, a Missouri woman whose daughter was hospitalized with a heart ailment, when he turned the talk to the half-dozen 7-year-olds who had slept over for his daughter's birthday.
"I know Chuck E. Cheese," Obama said as a group of reporters looked on. "That's as noisy a place as there is on Earth."
In his march to the Democratic presidential nomination, the Illinois senator has demonstrated an ability to mesmerize 20,000 people in an arena, but for all his sudden fame, most voters know little about the texture of his life. Now, in ways large and small, he and his staff are trying to add some dabs of color to a gauzy portrait, using media coverage to convey the sense of a down-to-earth fellow.
Here he is on Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show, chatting about how his daughters like to make pancakes with whipped cream on Sundays before they go off to church.
There he is with his wife on the cover of Us Weekly, released the same day that Michelle Obama locked arms with Barbara Walters and talked about her disdain for pantyhose on "The View."
Here he is riding his bike in a helmet and tucked-in polo shirt, joking afterward that he figured the press would portray him like Michael Dukakis "wearing that tank helmet" and that some bloggers "said I looked like Urkel."
There he is with his first general-election ad, showcasing his single mom and grandparents who "taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland."
Obama's staff says no artifice is involved. "The most extraordinary thing about him, maybe the most surprising, is how normal he is," says David Axelrod, his chief strategist. "He'll read Foreign Policy magazine, a treatise on economic policy and Sports Illustrated."
The outlines of Obama's life are well known. The son of a Kenyan father who abandoned him, he rocketed to success: Harvard Law School, best-selling author, Illinois lawmaker, freshman senator who seized the nomination from Hillary Clinton, preaching the audacity of hope to large and boisterous crowds.
But there is a less flattering side. For weeks, the most relentlessly reported fact about him was that he was a member of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church. He was mocked for asking an Iowa crowd about the price of arugula at Whole Foods, a store with no outlets in the state, and for rolling gutter balls at a Pennsylvania bowling alley. As he struggled with working-class voters, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd said that "his exclusive Hawaiian prep school and years in the Ivy League made him a charter member of the elite."
Obama strategists say there is no grand plan to overhaul their man's image. "Sometimes a bike ride with your family is just a bike ride with your family," says press secretary Bill Burton.
But few things are left to chance in a presidential campaign, especially media venues. "We're doing everything we can to reach voters where they are," Burton says. "A pretty small percentage of voters read The Washington Post."
Candidates routinely try to sell their preferred personal narrative, and recent history confirms that such things matter. When John Kerry went windsurfing in 2004, President Bush's campaign used the footage to mock the Democratic nominee. President Bill Clinton famously vacationed in Jackson Hole, Wyo., where he was photographed riding a horse and wearing a cowboy hat, after pollster Dick Morris determined that would be more popular than another Martha's Vineyard retreat. And George H.W. Bush discovered a love for pork rinds in his 1988 campaign.
In posing for Us Weekly, Obama is stealing a page from Clinton, who appeared on People's cover with Hillary and Chelsea after clinching the 1992 nomination, at a time when research showed many people didn't even know he had a daughter.
Us Weekly Editor Janice Min says the Obama campaign immediately agreed to the request by her magazine, whose soft-focus profile dealt with such matters as Michelle Obama shopping at Target and enjoying "Sex and the City." "It was a clear win for them," she says. "To me, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have that certain air of celebrity about them that not many politicians end up having."
Todd Harris, a Republican strategist who worked for John McCain's 2000 campaign, says Obama is in danger of being pigeonholed because of his Harvard pedigree and remarks about "bitter" small-town residents who cling to religion and guns.
"The cement has already been set to label Obama as an elitist," Harris says. "Whether his campaign lets it dry will be up to what they do. The idea is to make him someone the average swing voter in the Midwest can relate to."
The challenge may be slightly greater for Obama because of his unusual name, biracial heritage and early childhood in Indonesia. "When you're famous but not well known, you're an empty vessel that can be filled up by one side or the other," says Chris Lehane, a strategist for Al Gore's 2000 campaign. "You try to find social signifiers that people will be drawn to." This is particularly true, he says, for "an African American who by definition needs to appeal to folks who may not have had a lot of interaction with African Americans on a daily basis."
McCain has not mounted a comparable effort. He is occasionally photographed barbecuing ribs at his Arizona ranch and has been interviewed by Jon Stewart and Ellen DeGeneres. His wife, Cindy, did a photo shoot for Vogue and also appeared on "The View," while his daughter Meghan maintains a lighthearted blog. McCain has been on the national stage for two decades, and aides believe his image is well defined.
McCain strategists also recognize that Obama is treated as a phenomenon and simply draws more media coverage. Since 2006, Obama has been featured on 11 Time and Newsweek covers (and Michelle Obama has one appearance), compared with five for McCain.
While Obama is a talented orator, there is a natural reserve about him when he meets with small groups. While touring the St. Louis hospital, he politely questioned several heart patients and wished them well but displayed no real emotion. The campaign's aim is to convey a warm and relaxed person who, despite his deficient bowling skills, can relate to the concerns of working Americans.
Linda Douglass, Obama's spokeswoman, told Time's Mark Halperin that Obama "is a serious movie and TV buff. To test his knowledge of 'The Godfather,' I asked him who betrayed Michael Corleone by setting up the meeting with Barzini: Clemenza or Tessio? He rolled his eyes and said, 'Tessio, of course.' He added that Tessio was played by Abe Vigoda, who, he pointed out, was also on the TV show 'Barney Miller.' "
That tidbit was widely picked up after Halperin posted it June 6 on Time.com. Douglass has also asked Obama about his cooking skills, telling a reporter that he enjoys making curry and Chinese dishes. She calls Obama "the most normal person I've ever met" running for president.
It is practically required these days for candidates to work the entertainment shows -- Obama danced with DeGeneres, for instance -- as a way of showcasing their lighter side. But the Obama effort has intensified lately. On Father's Day, he used a Chicago church to talk about how his father abandoned him at age 2, while hailing "two wonderful grandparents from Kansas who poured everything they had into helping my mother raise my sister and me."
Sports can serve as a common denominator. When Gore was being painted as an egghead in earth tones, Lehane says, aides had him run a few plays with the Pittsburgh Steelers and pitch batting practice to the Detroit Tigers as a way of courting fans. Such lessons have not been lost on the Obama camp.
Obama's love of basketball is well known. But it wasn't until April that HBO's "Real Sports" was allowed to air footage of him on the court. "I can't imagine more fun than having a good pickup basketball game," he told host Bryant Gumbel, especially "when you're actually hitting some shots." It didn't hurt that he scored the game-winning layup.
The jock narrative continued when Obama's traveling aide, Reggie Love, told the New York Times how the two men wind down after a long day by watching ESPN's "SportsCenter." And Obama repeatedly played hoops before the cameras during the final primaries, in one case with the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.
Such images can be an asset in neutralizing the false rumors that have been dogging Obama. "Where there are gaps in knowledge, there's always the danger of misinformation," Axelrod says.
The media can also serve as a megaphone. After the Chicago biking excursion two weeks ago, Boston Herald columnist Margery Eagan wrote: "It's hard to get Willie Hortoned -- turned into the radical black guy who gives white America the heebie jeebies -- when you look as suburban, as unchic, as let's-hop-in-the-Explorer-and-head-to-Costco wonky as Obama looks in this oh-no! photo."
LOAD-DATE: June 23, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; Us Weekly; Getting to know them: The Obamas cultivate a just-folks image.
IMAGE; By Jae C. Hong -- Associated Press; Beats bowling: The candidate shoots hoops before the cameras in April with the UNC's Tyler Hansbrough.
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Washingtonpost.com
June 23, 2008 Monday 4:15 PM EST
Obama Campaign Advisers Remark on Energy
BYLINE: CQ Transcripts Wire, washingtonpost.com
LENGTH: 5424 words
HIGHLIGHT: JASON GRUMET, OBAMA CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER
JASON GRUMET, OBAMA CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER
JASON FURMAN, OBAMA CAMPAIGN ECONOMIC POLICY DIRECTOR
OPERATOR: Good day, everyone, and welcome to the "Obama for America" conference call. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Hari Sevugan. Please go ahead, sir.
SEVUGAN: Thanks, Patrick.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us.
We wanted to get you all on the phone today. I'm joined by Jason Grumet and Jason Furman, advisers for our campaign, to discuss John McCain's recent proposals or the proposals that he's going to put out today concerning energy and the reality of his record when compared to the rhetoric that he's going to be offering today.
I'm going to hand the call over to Jason Furman.
Jason?
FURMAN: Thank you, Hari.
In 26 years in Congress, John McCain had the chance to make a difference for energy security and America's families, and he consistently not only didn't make a difference, but has stood in the way of the people like Senator Obama who have been trying to improve our energy security.
Now, on the campaign trail, John McCain has made his priorities clear. His energy proposals kicked off and started with ideas designed to propose meaningful relief for oil companies that are struggling with record profits.
He's only now belatedly gotten around to talking at all about our energy future with a set of proposals that stand in stark contrast to what he has done in the Senate over the last 26 years and are themselves completely insufficient and tiny compared to both the scope of the problems that families face and the large windfalls that he wants to give to the oil companies.
I will briefly review a little bit of his record to talk about how what he's talking about today goes completely against, rhetorically, everything he has done in the Senate and then turn it over to Jason Grumet, who will talk to you more about what he's specifically proposing today and why it's a bogus solution a major problem in contrast to what Barack Obama has proposed.
First of all, today, John McCain is talking about CAFE standards. It's notable that over the course of his Senate career, he has, multiple times, voted against those CAFE standards. He did it in 2005. He voted against them in 2003, in 2002.
And even today, he's still not proposing any improvement in those CAFE standards.
Second, he has come around to support a tax credit for zero emissions cars that goes against all of the tax credits that has consistently voted against in the Senate. He's imposed alternative energy incentives in 2003, opposed alternative fuel tax credits, talks about how he wants to work voluntarily with the auto companies. But when it's come to proposals that had real teeth, that had renewable fuel mandates for refiners or for autos, he's consistently voted against those, too. So he just has rhetoric, but doesn't back it up with any substance and has consistently refused to.
Finally, in terms of his past record we have today contradicted, today he's talking about a prize for the development of a battery. This is someone who has often in the past taken proposals like this and described them as, for example, in August 1995, a $15 million research grant for electric vehicle technology, he described as egregious.
So this is somebody who, when somebody proposed to spend $15 million on research for (INAUDIBLE) cars, described it as egregious. Today, he's trying to walk away from that record and pretend that he's actually in favor of a better energy future.
SEVUGAN: That's great.
Jason?
GRUMET: It's the Jason show today, folks. Let me add a little bit of context. I'm happy to do some back-and-forth discussion.
So fundamentally, Senator McCain, like so many people in our national dialogue about energy policy, has been fond of the heroic rhetoric, defines the problem in appropriately grand terms. It's about our national security, it's about our economic security. And then it looks the other way when the tough decisions come.
If you compare Senator McCain's vision with what Senator Obama has already done in the few short years in the Senate, I think it's quite clear. You can't give a serious speech about economic security and energy security if you're not willing to tackle transportation.
Senator Obama appreciate that 97 percent of our transportation is fueled by oil and he fundamentally rolled up his sleeves three years ago and got busy and changed the debate on fuel economy standards.
So while John McCain was looking the other way or voting no, Senator Obama stepped up and forged a bipartisan coalition that changed the tenor of this debate. Those of you who cover this closely will remember that in the 2005 energy bill, no one had the guts to talk about CAFE.
The idea was that talking about strengthening mandates for fuel economy was a career shortening proposition. Even in the environmental community had backed away from it.
President Bush gave an interesting speech, the "State of the Union" in 2005, and said we're addicted to oil and people perked up their ears, because it's the first time that we started to kind of have a real frame of the scope of this problem.
Several months later, he sent an interesting letter to the Hill, where he demanded that Congress give the administration the authority to reform fuel economy standards, claiming that the executive branch didn't have adequate statutory authority to do it right.
And while many people thought this was just the president passing the buck, Senator Obama saw opportunity where others saw polarization. He got with his colleague, Senator Lugar, and together they wrote a letter to the president in May 2006 saying, "Mr. President, we embrace the call upon Congress to improve the executive branch's authority to reform and strengthen fuel economy standards."
They decided to add the word "strengthen," since why would you want to reform this process if you weren't going to make it better?
Senator Obama recognized that fuel economy standards had been stagnant in this country for 30 years, that we were trailing even countries like China when it came to fuel economy, and that it was time to stop going to gas stations, doing press releases, and then driving away in SUVs that six miles to the gallon.
He stood up and said it was time to reform CAFE. He and Dick Lugar wrote a note back to the president committing that they were going to work together in a bipartisan manner to bring together a coalition to provide that authority.
They did just that. They worked with organized labor. They worked with the car companies, the environmental community. And in July of 2006, they introduced the Fuel Economy Reform Act, which was widely acclaimed in the New York Times and others as being the first serious effort on fuel economy in more than a decade.
They managed to get about a dozen Senators, many of whom had never supported mandatory action before, to get around an approach going forward. And when you look at what actually passed the Congress in December of 2007, it was virtually the exact same set of proposals that Senator Obama's Fuel Economy Reform Act put forth 18 month earlier.
So at a time when this country was basically talking big and then ducking the tough questions, at a time when just about every member of Congress, even the environmental community, was reluctant to even talk about CAFE because it had been such a political challenge, Senator Obama rolled up his sleeves and did exactly what he would do as president.
He brought a new coalition together. He came up with some creative compromises that fundamentally changed the structure of the law so that it did a better job of protecting American interests.
He addressed many of the competitive concerns and basically broke the debate open. It's that kind of leadership where you actually not just look at a tough challenge and say, "I'm going to go give a touch speech," where you actually then sit down and get something done, that's what attracted, I think, so many of us to Senator Obama on this issue.
When you think about fundamentally the only way we can restore some measure of destiny over our national security and economy, we have to make a serious shift away from oil. The two steps to do that are to increase vehicle fuel economy standards, which will protect our economy and buy time, and diversify to alternative fuels, biofuels, and plug and hybrid vehicles.
While Senator McCain, again, continues to point to these national security risks, when push comes to shove, he's fundamentally supporting policies that perpetuate the status quo.
The gas tax holiday is a perfect storm of political pander. It misdirects the American public from the real problem. It deprives the highway trust fund of resources that we need to be investing in things like renewable fuels and infrastructure, and, more than anything else, it perpetuates this notion that all we need to do is tinker around the edges a little bit. We have this addiction and if we kind of dig deep into the cushions of the couch, we might find some change for another couple of days of the hit.
It's the wrong message and it's not going forward.
The focus on the outer continental shelf is a very similar frame. It basically says we can tinker around the edges.
When Senator McCain stands up and says, in his release, "I feel that we have an obligation to drill for more oil to assure low cost gasoline for American consumers," I'm paraphrasing, but that was the nub of the message, he's misleading the American people.
He's perpetuating the notion that we can go back to our old bag of ineffectual tricks.
Senator Obama believes we fundamentally have to fracture the monopoly that petroleum has over our transportation sector. He has supported a series of legislative proposals that will move us to a new generation of diversified biofuels that are not based on food crops, that are low carbon.
He is supporting efforts to promote a low carbon fuel standard, which is a proposal that was actually initially put forward by Senator -- I'm sorry, not Senator -- but Governor Schwarzenegger.
This is a proposal that would dramatically drive the petroleum industry to diversify fuel and do so in a way that is also going to be promoting lower carbon alternatives.
So he's been out there rolling up his sleeves and doing the real work. As Jason Furman indicated, the contrast between Senator McCain's recent rhetorical interest in things like vehicle efficiency and fuel economy is fundamentally at odds with the 26-year history of voting against those very same measures.
So I think when you just step back and take the big look, what Senator McCain is proposing is basically back to the future. It's a little more tinkering around the edges. It's patting people on the head. It's not asking much from the American people and it's not offering much in return.
Senator Obama is offering a new vision for energy and the economy.
SEVUGAN: Thanks, Jason.
We're going to open it up for questions.
Patrick?
OPERATOR: Yes, sir. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star-one on your telephone. Also, please deactivate any mute function before signaling to be sure that your signal can reach our equipment.
Once again, that's star-one. A voice prop on your phone line will indicate when your line is open. We do ask that you please state your name and your media outlet prior to posing your question.
And we'll take that first question now.
QUESTION: Hello. This is Greg Coy from the "Comcast News Network" in Philadelphia calling.
I just wanted to get a response from you guys from the article today in the "Herald American" talking about how the Obama campaign has some ties to the ethanol corn industry and that's part of the reason -- it's one of the reasons, at the article is alleging, that -- one of the reasons that he's promoting ethanol.
It talks about former Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle (INAUDIBLE) of the board of three ethanol companies, and, also, is a top Obama adviser.
GRUMET: This is Grumet. I'll take the first whack.
Senator Obama has been a consistent advocate of fracturing the monopoly that the oil companies have over our transportation system. As long as 97 percent of our nation's transportation system is dependent upon a fuel over which we have no control, we are fundamentally not going to have any measure of security, economic or national.
Senator Obama has supported basic provisions to encourage that diversification. He believes that corn-based ethanol has been essentially kind of the pioneer fuel. It's the first serious commercial scale effort that has begun to have real bite and started to demonstrate to the world that we are not going to sit back and be passive on this disaster of an oil monopoly.
But he has fundamentally been very persuasive in arguing that we need to accelerate the transition past the existing ethanol technology to the new suite of advanced biofuels, and this is much more than corn-based ethanol.
Senator Obama has always understood, as anyone who's serious about this issue, that corn-based ethanol was the instigation of the revolution in transportation fuels. It was not going to be the answer. We recognize that we will never have the ability to produce enough corn to do more than about an eight to 10 percent offset of our current petroleum and that the real answer lies in moving past corn to the second generation advanced biofuels.
Some of those will be ethanol. Some of those will butanol. Some of those will be diesel synthetic alternatives.
There is tremendous investment coming into this area right now, largely because we now have the beginnings of an ethanol infrastructure. We have always struggled with this chicken-and-egg problem when it comes to breaking the oil addiction.
No one wants to build the fuels until someone has the cars. No one wants to have the cars until someone builds the fuels, which is why Senator Obama has really got out front on promoting biofuels infrastructure and trying to provide incentives that will accelerate that transition.
So for example, I mentioned a low carbon fuel standard. The low carbon fuel standard will dramatically speed the move away from food crop-based biofuels and towards lower carbon, more sustainable approaches using things like switch grass, wood chips, waste products of all different kinds.
There are people who are making great strides making petroleum alternatives from everything from algae to chicken manure. Senator Obama has supported the recent farm bill which decreases the current subsidies for traditional ethanol and provides a significant increase in incentives for these new low carbon alternatives.
So to the fundamental question of does Senator Obama support biofuels, proud and guilty as charged. It's time that we move beyond the last 100 years of plutocracy that has caused us so much woe.
Does Senator Obama believe that corn-based ethanol is playing a significant role in advancing that future? Yes, he does. But he also recognizes that corn-based ethanol is just the beginning of this answer and that we need to have a series of policies that are going to promote a transition to a much more diversified set of fuels that have lower carbon emissions and provide the kind of domestic security that we all look for.
FURMAN: This is Jason Furman, and this is, in effect, just amplifying. But just to make two points clear -- three points clear.
One Senator Obama has been supportive of corn-based ethanol because it's played an important role in reducing our energy dependence and oil dependence.
Number two, he has consistently said he views it as transitional and what he's doing is making major investments in the next generation of biofuels that Jason Grumet was talking about.
And number three, on a going forward basis, he certainly wants to evaluate all of our energy subsidies to make sure taxpayers are getting their money's worth.
All of that is, of course, in contrast to John McCain, who has a corporate tax plan that would give $4 billion to the energy companies, who has a gas tax holiday, raised gas prices, giving $10 billion to the oil companies, and contrast it with those tens of billions of dollars of give-aways and thinks $300 million spent on battery research makes up for it.
SEVUGAN: Next question, Patrick?
OPERATOR: Yes, sir. We'll take our next question now.
QUESTION: This is Tommy Christopher from "AOL News." And my first question is for Hari.
The McCain campaign made a statement on Saturday regarding an emblem that he used at a press conference saying that this campaign is too important for make believe, and I wanted to know if you had any ration to that.
And on the subject of drilling, on Sunday's "Meet the Press," Brian Williams asked Lindsey Graham about several reversals of position, much like the ones you're talking about Senator McCain.
And Lindsey Graham said that the reason that he was reversing his position now is that now we have $4 a gallon gasoline and that that is a game-changer for him.
So while drilling was a bad idea before, he think it's a good idea now because of the urgent nature of that.
Do you have a response to that?
GRUMET: This is Grumet. On the second piece, it may make it what they perceive to be an urgent political imperative, but it doesn't in any way, shape or form change the fundamental fact that drilling for oil in the outer continental shelf, in the Great Lakes, in our nation's great refuges, does not offer real relief to American consumers.
The Department of Energy has indicated that, at best, we would start to see production around 2017 and even by 2030 we would not produce enough oil to, in any meaningful way, change domestic production or reduce prices at the pump.
It's important to recognize we have a very, quote-unquote, "mature" energy industry in this country, despite the fact that we only have three percent of the world's resources.
We have produced more oil in this country than any other nation heretofore. Two-thirds of all the oil wells ever drilled in the world have been drilled here in the U.S.
So we're not down to playing around the margins and it is simply misleading, while it might be a good -- the pollsters might tell you that you want to be out there talking about gas tax holidays and new drilling rigs, the reality is that it's not going to provide real protection to the American public.
The one other thing people need to appreciate is that every benefit, every ounce of oil saved through efficiency measures, like those that Senator Obama is advocating, come to the benefit here of folks in the U.S.
Three-quarter of the benefit of domestic oil production are enjoyed by people overseas. We have a global oil market. So this idea that we're going to kind of drill in the fragile ecosystems of the U.S. simply to provide a trickle more oil to the global market, just bad policy and it's not being square with the American people.
So I think it's quite revealing that Lindsey Graham is essentially acknowledging that while the fundamentals are still bad, they see a political opportunity because of the woeful energy policy that has given us the $4 a gallon oil that we're all suffering with.
SEVUGAN: Hey, Tommy, this is Hari with the campaign.
I'm going to point out a couple more things that I think amplify the point that Jason just made.
And even the McCain campaign admits that their proposal for offshore drilling will not actually affect the price of gasoline.
His adviser, Holtz-Eakin, is quoted by the "LA Times" as conceding that new offshore drilling would have no immediate impact on supplies or gas prices.
And Senator McCain himself, just a few weeks ago, in a town hall in Greendale, Wisconsin, said the resources that you would get from offshore drilling, quote, would take years to develop and would only postpone or temporarily relieve our dependence on fossil fuels.
So I think, again, just as they did with their gas tax gimmick, this proposal is nothing more than sort of the tired Washington gimmickry that doesn't allow real relief and meaningful relief and real answers to the American people, but rather is just another election year ploy that we've all grown tired of.
And that's the difference between Senator McCain's plan, it's a fundamental difference between Senator McCain's approach and Senator Obama's approach.
OPERATOR: We'll take our next question now.
QUESTION: This is Steve Power with the "Wall Street Journal."
For Jason Grumet. Jason, you made it very clear why Senator Obama thinks it's important to accelerate the development of second generation biofuels.
But why does the Senator continue to support the renewable fuel standard, which, in the view of even some environmentalists and hunger groups, may be contributing severely to the food crisis, why doesn't he join Senator McCain in calling for the EPA to loosen that requirement at all?
And second of all, what behavioral changes or sacrifices, if any, does Senator Obama think that the American people need to make to reduce U.S. dependence on fossil fuels?
GRUMET: Nice to hear your voice, Steve. As usual, two easy questions.
Let me start off, first, with the renewable fuel standard. The renewable fuel standard adopted by Congress contains a provision which instructs the U.S. EPA and empowers the U.S. EPA to evaluate the fuel standard impact on all the things that people who were opposing diversification of fuel kept throwing out there.
The EPA has been petitioned by the governor of Texas to assess whether, in fact, the demand that is being driven by the renewable fuel standard is causing economic harm, whether the recent floods are going to create any kind of shortage in feedstock.
Senator Obama encourages EPA to do a full and comprehensive review and believes that they should use the authority they have to manage those requirements appropriately.
No one ever said that kicking our oil addiction was going to be easy. The very reality that we have this addiction, and mine is Diet Coke and I tried to get that off my chest for a couple weeks and wasn't a very pleasant person, this is a much more severe one.
Moving away from the last 100 years of monopolistic dependence on oil is going to be tough. There are going to be bumps along the way. The renewable fuel standard is the first fundamental commitment we've made as a nation to diversify our fuel supply.
As a result of the renewable fuel standard, there has been dramatic investment not just in existing technology, ethanol, which has provided significant supply to a very tight market and, by many accounts, has reduced the cost of petroleum between 10 and 15 percent, but it also fundamentally cast a direction forward which said we, as a nation, are no longer going to accept being victimized by the oil monopolists.
We are fundamentally going to break this addiction and as we move forward with that policy, we're going to have to make adjustments as they come along.
If the U.S. EPA determines that because of the recent flooding, the nine billion gallon target for this year needs to be adjusted, President Obama will welcome that information and make those changes.
But you don't throw off the one significant opportunity we have to really move away from this petroleum dependence because it's going to be tough.
And I also think people really fail to appreciate the remarkable innovation that's been inspired by the renewable fuel standard. If you look at the investment coming from the venture capitalists, the bio tech folks, the Craig Vintners (ph) of the world, what they tell us is that the renewable fuels of the next decade are going to have as much in common with current ethanol a the iPod had with the old Atari computer.
This is going to be a fundamental new shift in the way we think about transportation and it's going to come from a diversified set of products both here and globally, and it's going to give us a sense of control over our own destiny that we haven't had in this country for many decades.
So we think it's the right direction for the country and we welcome the opportunity to see it fine tuned going forward.
On the question of sacrifice, I think Senator Obama believes that these problems are different in scope and scale than that which we have seen in a long time and it's a time for the American president to call upon the American people not to sacrifice, but to pay attention and to contribute and to recognize that the dozens of small actions we take every day actually do have an impact on our national security, on the health of the planet, on their economic security.
And this is why we think that the gimmickry, like the gas tax holiday and the "don't worry, be happy, we're going to drill a little bit more" really misses the point.
The country, I think, is ready for a president who can call upon us to come together as a society and take back a little measure of our future. We're a great nation and going to Saudi Arabia on bended knee every six months begging for a little more hit of the pipe, as Tom Friedman said today, is not what Senator Obama believes is in the best interest of this country.
So I think by having an honest conversation with the American people, helping people appreciate that we're in this together, you'll see a significant kind of response from the American public.
OPERATOR: We'll move to our next question now.
QUESTION: Thank you for taking the call. Rodney Livingston at the "SPNN.NET Television Network" here in Washington, D.C.
Can oil conservation and energy conservation, in general, be in the interest of oil companies and what is Senator Obama's position on nonrenewable energy supply, example, tritium batteries, where the power lasts a lifetime of an individual so that it doesn't have to be removed?
And I'm still trying to understand how everybody concerned won't think that if conservation happens in the United States, that may push oil away from the United States because other countries are willing to pay more since the United States is using less?
SEVUGAN: We're running short on time. So let's just take that first question, Jason. And if you've got some follow-ups, please reach out to me after the call. FURMAN: Senator Obama thinks that we face a -- this s Jason Furman -- a problem of significance in our scope that we really need to be ambitious about it, and the problem with John McCain's plan is that it's really a drop in the bucket.
And what Obama is talking about is a plan that would create -- help create up to five million new green jobs that would reduce the amount of oil we consume by 35 percent by 2030. That would be 10 million barrels per day, and, ultimately, that's in the interest of the entire U.S. economy. It's an important part of our overall economic strategy over the next two decades and that's something that John McCain fails to grasp.
He has no overall economic plan and he has no energy plan. He's not doing anything that we need and that's not in the interest of anyone in the U.S. economy ultimately.
OPERATOR: We'll take our next question now.
QUESTION: Hello, gentlemen. Justin Hyde with the "Detroit Free Press." Going back to McCain's interview speech, how does your description of McCain as a CAFE standard opponent comport with his cosponsoring in 2002 of a CAFE increase with Senator Kerry of Massachusetts?
That bill had a standard of 36 miles per gallon by 2015, which is tougher than what Senator Obama proposed last year that eventually ended up into law.
GRUMET: This is Jason Grumet. I think one of the big challenges that we've had with energy policy is a lack of consistency and the nation kind of careens between trance and hysteria based upon the price at the pump.
And Senator McCain seems to be along for that ride. In 2002, 2003 and 2005, he voted against amendments that would have required CAFE increases in the range of 40 miles per gallon.
He did have a moment of -- I don't know whether it was crisis of conscience or what, but there was a moment where he was a CAFE advocate for a couple of months. He then was a no show when accounted in 2007 on the cloture vote on the energy bill.
Now he's back to advocating for greater energy security again. I think that we just don't have the ability as a nation to predict whether President McCain would be the president who is for more tax cuts for big oil and looking the other way when it comes to measures to increase efficiency or whether he would wake up one morning and decide it was time to come back to the discussion about fuel economy standards.
I just think there has been a lack of consistency in his record which is resonating now with the contradiction between his recent announcements and his recent votes and we fundamentally need a president who is going to point the clear direction to the future and stick with that. That has not been the case with energy policy in general in this country and certainly hasn't been the case with Senator McCain in particular.
FURMAN: This is Jason Furman, just to add. He was sponsoring that CAFE at the same time that he was opposing the Bush tax cuts and since then he has been rather consistent in his support for those tax cuts and his opposition to CAFE.
I think it's clear that we're seeing the real John McCain now and one that, consistent with the majority, the way he's dealt with energy issues over the course of his career.
SEVUGAN: We've got time for one last question.
OPERATOR: We'll take that question now.
QUESTION: This is Susan Ferrechio with the "Washington Examiner."
How do you guys respond to some criticism that's emerged over the past couple of days over the Senator's decision to support the FISA bill? It includes some of the provisions that I think he had said in the past he wouldn't support, like de facto immunity for the telecoms and some bulk surveillance warrants, stuff like that.
How do you guys respond to some of the criticism that's emerging over that?
SEVUGAN: Hey, Susan, we'd like this call to really focus on the energy issue. But I'm happy to discuss this with you after the call. If you shoot me an e-mail, I'll give you a shout.
QUESTION: Thanks a lot.
SEVUGAN: Patrick, we can take one more question.
OPERATOR: We'll take that next question now. Caller, your line is open.
QUESTION: Hello. Rachel Pulfer from "Canadian Business Magazine."
I'm just wondering what the impact of this draft of policies is like to be on oil imports from Canada's oil sands?
GRUMET: This is Jason Grumet. Fundamentally, Rachel, I think Senator Obama believes that we have two structural challenges facing our economy when it comes to energy policy, and those are oil dependence and climate change, and believes that we have to have policies in place that fundamentally move us in the right direction in both of those regards.
There is a lot of technological development underway when it comes to the efforts to exploit the heavy oil in the tar sands. Some of those have unacceptably high carbon emissions. The amount of energy that you have to use to get that oil out of the ground is such that it actually creates a much greater impact on climate change, as well as using much more energy than even traditional petroleum.
So I think the Senator's leadership in supporting the low carbon fuel standard basically says it's government's job to lay out the performance criteria and then get out of the way and see what technology can do.
If it turns out that the technology moves forward and it's possible to develop those resources in ways that are energy efficient and that don't have other attendant unacceptable impacts on water use, land use, et cetera, then those resources will continue to play a significant and growing role in the global economy.
If it turns out that those technologies don't advance, just like with many other aspirations out there, and the only way to produce those resources would be at a significant penalty to climate change, then we don't believe that those resources are going to be part of the long-term -- are going to play a growing role in the long-term future.
So it's kind of a -- it's a meritocracy. We are going to support resources that diversify petroleum supplies, that bring more production to this hemisphere, and that meet our long-term obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
And I think it's an open question as to whether or not the Canadian resources are going to meet those tests.
SEVUGAN: Thanks for joining us, Jason and Jason, as well as all of you on the call. If you have any further questions, please feel free to call our office in Chicago.
Thanks, Patrick.
OPERATOR: Thank you. And this concludes today's conference. We thank everyone for their participation. You may now disconnect your lines.
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Washingtonpost.com
June 23, 2008 Monday 1:00 PM EST
Books: 'Profit From the Peak';
Authors Discuss Peak Oil, Energy Markets, Alternative Fuels and Recent Offshore Drilling Proposals
BYLINE: Brian Hicks and Chris Nelder, Authors, "Profit From the Peak: The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century", washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3952 words
HIGHLIGHT: Brian Hicks and Chris Nelder, authors of " Profit From the Peak: The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century" were online Monday, June 23 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss energy markets, alternative fuels, the future of gas prices and proposals for oil and gas exploration off U.S. coasts.
Brian Hicks and Chris Nelder, authors of " Profit From the Peak: The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century" were online Monday, June 23 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss energy markets, alternative fuels, the future of gas prices and proposals for oil and gas exploration off U.S. coasts.
The transcript follows.
Hicks worked for Agora Publishing, one of the largest financial newsletter publishers in the world, for ten years before helping to found Angel Publishing. In addition to being the managing editor of Energy and Capital and The $20 Trillion Report, Hicks writes a weekly column for Wealth Daily.
Nelder is a self-taught energy expert who has intensively studied peak oil for five years, and written hundreds of articles on peak oil and energy in general for Energy and Capital and other publications.
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Munich, Germany: When I'd first heard of the concept of "peak oil" I'd read that the Saudis were being cautious about trying to increase their capacity from 12.5 million barrels per day to 15 million, because they didn't want to damage the supporting bedrock around the oil fields by over-pressurizing. As the oil fields in the Middle East get older, isn't it going to get more challenging to retrieve the remaining oil?
Chris Nelder: Yes, it will. I am very skeptical that the Saudis ever will produce more than 12 million barrels per day, but they keep their data and field production details very close to the chest, so it's hard to know.
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Washington: I've noticed a recent drop in demand; how far down could it go? Also, is Obama right -- can we drill our way out of this? Thanks.
Chris Nelder: No, we cannot drill our way out of this. The U.S. imports about 14 million barrels per day (mbpd) of oil and products and produces about 7 mbpd. There is no way that the U.S. could add another 14 mbpd of domestic production. As to how far demand could go, that's really a question of how far our economy could fall ... and your guess is as good as mine.
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Harrisburg, Pa.: What is blocking there being a major corporation in alternative energy? Many of these technologies have been around for decades, and the economics always has been the same -- high startup costs but long-term savings. What has no large investor gone for the long-term returns, like Henry Ford did a century ago?
Chris Nelder: Long-term investors are going for the long term! Legendary oil investor T. Boone Pickens is a good example ... he's investing billions in wind and water.
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Washington: Do you see any significance to a legal advisor to Condi Rice endorsing the Law of the Sea treaty in today's New York Times? Could it be that even they want a shot at Arctic oil?
washingtonpost.com: Treaty on Ice (New York Times, June 23)
Chris Nelder: I have no doubt that they want a shot at Arctic oil. However, from what research I have read, it's not a terribly promising area, and tends to be gas-prone. When you get a dry well that cost more than $2 billion to drill, it really stifles further investment.
"Some believe that the oil industry didn't have the capabilities to explore for oil in the Arctic Ocean until recently, but back in the early 1980s a huge structure about 65 miles northwest of the Prudhoe Bay field, in the Arctic Ocean, was drilled. In December 1983 the structure was breached only to discover it was filled with salt water, the infamous $2 billion Mukluk dry hole."
See this link.
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Knoxville, Tenn.: Is oil produced in the United States from public land and offshore to remain in the United States, or is it destined for the highest-priced market, foreign or domestic? Is oil from public lands in Alaska sold to the Asian markets, where profits are higher? Will the cost of oil exploration and drilling that produces no oil be passed on to the consumers with higher prices?
Chris Nelder: Oil is a globally traded commodity, and generally sells to the highest bidder, although transportation costs favor the most local markets. So oil produced in the U.S. could be sold to any foreign buyer as easily as it could be sold to a domestic buyer. And yes, oil company costs, including drilling, all get priced in to the cost of a barrel eventually.
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Linthicum, Md.: Thanks for taking my question. From what I understand, once the shale oil industry kicks in it can provide an almost unlimited source of oil at less than $50 per barrel. Why haven't we heard more about this? Thanks.
Chris Nelder: At this point, there are no commercial oil shale operations. There are many technical issues yet to be resolved. If any such operations succeed, they may be able to deliver oil for a very long time, but it will probably be just a trickle in terms of flow rate.
Brian Hicks: The oil industry has known about oil shale for decades, but the technology -- and more importantly the price of oil -- hasn't been there to support developing it.
But even with oil trading for more than $135 a barrel, going after shale oil will be time-consuming because it doesn't gush out of the ground like a conventional oil well we're used to.
So if we're looking for a cure to our current oil crisis, shale isn't it. It's a Band-Aid.
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Washington: Any comments on John McCain's proposal to give a $300 million prize for a new improved car battery? Are we going to hear more credible ideas from our presidential candidates, such as investing in rail and public transportation? By the way, a new 2008 Toyota Corolla gets 35 miles per gallon, while a 1997 Toyota Corolla used to get 42 miles per gallon.
Chris Nelder: I support all investment into research and development on batteries -- it's a crucial part of the picture. As for investing in rail and transportation, that is second on my list of recommendations, after efficiency gains. I only can hope that our leadership will take up both objectives with full support.
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Bethesda, Md.: Will offshore drilling solve the current crisis?
Chris Nelder: There is no way it can. My guess (we won't know until we drill it) is that the continental offshore would never produce more than 2 mbpd, maybe a little more. Compare that to the 14 mbpd we import...
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Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: Your book was published by Wiley, is that right? Why them? Is it more like a typical Wiley handbook (science, engineering)? I'm a registered electrical engineer (electric power and controls) and many of my solid (not popular puff stuff) texts were published by them. Thus, will we see hard numbers, data and charts in your work, or the usual hand-waving, emotion-laden treatment of the typical general-purpose author? You can see my bias. Thanks much.
Brian Hicks: Wiley also has a financial/investment publishing division. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, they're the largest financial book publisher in the world.
In the summer of 2006, Wiley approached us about doing a book on peak oil and its ramifications to the individual investor.
I haven't counted the number of charts and graphs in our book, but I would venture to guess it's more than 50. I consider our book to be academic, but not so academic that it's intimidating to the average investor. It's an easy read.
Chris Nelder: I absolutely loaded the book with hard data, lots of references, and about 57 charts if memory serves. Those who love hard data will be satisfied with the book. It has received excellent reviews from geologists who really know the data, such as Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrere.
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San Diego: On stocks: I believe energy stock prices (oil and solar) are at their near-highs. Why might this not be true?
Brian Hicks: I think we could be close to a correction in oil and gas -- in fact I'm hoping for it, because I think both commodities (and the underlying stocks) have come too far too fast. I would be looking to buy any dips, because this energy crisis isn't going to end anytime soon. If the International Energy Agency is correct (and I think they are) that we have to invest at least $20 trillion to advert a crisis, the wealth that'll be created will be life-altering.
This is the investment event of the century ... and I'm looking to hold my oil and gas positions for several more years.
Chris Nelder: I am not as optimistic as Brian about significant corrections any time soon in the energy markets. There will be some short ones, but I expect the long-term trends of rising prices to hold. I base my expectations simply on the supply and demand outlook. However, if we should experience a sudden or sharp loss of demand, we could get those corrections.
My advice is to pick good stocks in energy, buy them on the dips, and hold 'em hold 'em hold 'em!
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Winchester, Va.: I enjoyed reading your book. In it there are investment discussions regarding individual stocks in the various energy sectors (i.e., oil, biofuels, solar, etc.). Are there funds that provide broad exposure to alternative energy investments (that include several sectors and a combination of large-cap, mid-cap and perhaps small-cap companies) that you recommend? Thank you.
Brian Hicks: Yes, there are several -- especially in the form of exchange-traded funds. There's a Market Vectors Global Alternative Energy ETF (GEX) that will give you broad exposure to the global alternative energy infrastructure, including wind, geothermal, solar, etc.
There are also renewable-energy-specific ETFs that focus exclusively on solar and most recently wind, which you can find under the symbol FAN.
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Washington: What is more important in the peak oil world, inner-city land that is less reliant on cars and more reliant on group transport and walking, or agricultural land, with its easy access to growing food for yourself and others?
Chris Nelder: That's an excellent question! But I think the question isn't really which is best, but which options you actually have.
Personally, I would choose a rural agricultural option over an inner city one, at least until the necessary public transportation infrastructure is a little more in place.
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Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: Please comment on "energy density" and why it, coupled with unregulated prices for energy equivalents, will determine in the future which energy sources (by type) actively will be developed and which will wither on the vine. There's only one planet, an exploding human population, and a finite resource base. The universe works on numbers, not hand-waving. Something has to give. Thanks much.
Chris Nelder: I agree that something has to give, but I'm not sure that energy density is really the operative factor. The world is beholden to a liquid fuels regime, so any energy source that can be converted into a liquid fuel is going to be developed ASAP, particularly natural gas. But if/when we succeed in developing a larger infrastructure that runs on electricity, then we will see a real explosion of renewables. I hope that answers your question!
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Oak Hill, Va.: The lack of decisions to support domestic exploration or decisions to veto proposals to open domestic sources such as ANWR ten years ago are reasons we are more dependent on foreign sources. Members of Congress wrap themselves in votes to stop filling the strategic petroleum reserve (less than 100,000 barrels per day) because it would impact the market but bring on one million barrels of oil from ANWR would not. I'm sure that makes perfect sense in Congress, but not on the world petroleum markets.
Foreign oil dependence (not all from the Middle East) has increased in the past 30 years because of shortsighted, "re-elect me" decision. Now people are saying we can't reduce imports. Baloney. We can become more secure, but "independence" from foreign oil is neither needed nor prudent. Every barrel found domestically sends a message, albeit somewhat psychological, that we are getting serious.
Is petroleum a finite resource? Yes, but as prices rise, if restrictions are lifted, petroleum will be found! You can take that to the bank. Finally, the doubling of alternative fuel production in the next decade barely will keep up with increasing world demand. Alternatives are part of the energy mix, but so is more petroleum.
Chris Nelder: What you say is basically true, but there is a huge gap between the 14 mbpd we import and the perhaps 2 million or 3 million bpd we could still produce from domestic sources.
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Leesburg, Va.: Given the Hirsch Report, "Twilight in the Desert," Sadad al-Husseini, etc., what scenarios do you forecast (deep recession, depression, collapse) and for how long? What human settlement patterns, agricultural methods and technological shifts do you expect will bring us out of the morass?
Chris Nelder: Unfortunately it would take about another whole book to answer that question! My guess is that we will experience about a 30- or 40-year global recession as we try to fill the gap of declining fossil fuels. Over that time, I expect a renaissance in subsistence farming and self-sufficiency. But I don't think anybody could say, certainly not me, whether the 22nd century will look more like an advanced ecotopia or more like the 17th century...
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Washington: I'm reading some of your earlier responses and trying to figure out why you keep saying an additional 14 million barrels per day is necessary to end the current energy crisis. Why is it necessary to replace all imported oil with domestic resources? Are you confusing the goal of ending the energy crisis with the concept of eliminating the use of foreign oil? It would seem to me to be significant if domestic production increased by a million or two barrels per day, and that prices would fall dramatically as a result. Perhaps you have market data to the contrary, or maybe you are defining the "crisis" in a way that I am not understanding. Please explain.
Chris Nelder: If additional domestic production succeeded in bringing prices down, that only would stimulate further usage. This is a classic problem known as the Jevons Paradox.
The only way we can succeed in meeting our domestic demand is by severely curtailing it until it fits within our domestic supply budget. There is no way we can fill a 14 mbpd gap with additional domestic supply! The U.S. has been on a 40-year decline in domestic oil production, and we aren't going to significantly change that.
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Arlington, Va.: Thanks for your informative insights. Can you explain the issue of leases? I have heard that oil companies have purchased leases to explore/drill oil in the U.S., but have not drilled on all of them. Could the companies be required to explore and drill in areas where they already own leases before they are permitted to purchases additional leases? I would not like to see drilling in ANWR, but if it was permitted, would leases have to be sold? Thanks in advance for your answer!
Brian Hicks: When a "patch" becomes hot, one of the first things you'll see is a land grab by energy companies via leases. This recently occurred in the Bakken Formation in Montana and North Dakota ... and most recently in the Marcellus Formation in Western Pennsylvania, New York, etc.
Companies will acquire leases to land in effort to stake their claim to a potential production bonanza and/or sell the lease to a higher bidder in the future.
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Westcliffe, Colo.: T. Boone Pickens can afford to invest billions -- he's not getting any younger, and life is to the swift and the foresightful, not to the retired and complacent.
Brian Hicks: I think Boone believes he'll live to 125. I've met Boone ... he's a machine!
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Phoenix: How much is the current high price of crude oil affected by the relative abundance of heavy, sulfurous oil vs. the less readily available, lighter, "sweeter" oil, such as West Texas Intermediate? Also, to what extent are gasoline prices in the U.S. exacerbated by the shortage of refineries to process the heavier types of oil?
Chris Nelder: Different grades of crude are sold in various places for various prices. Heavy sour trades at a discount to light sweet, but the tightness of the light sweet market and its high price tends drags the price of heavy sour up along with it. At this point, the independent heavy sour crude refiners in the U.S., like Valero (VLO) and Tesoro (TSO) have seen their margins collapse in the face of much higher imports of finished gasoline, so they have been unable to pass on the higher cost of their crude feedstock to the consumer. As a result, they are running well below capacity right now. So it's not just about the availability and price of the crude -- it's also about the ability to keep selling products like gasoline when high prices are killing demand.
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Long Beach, Calif.: Where is the collusion between big auto and big oil? It's ridiculous when India is rolling out compressed-air cars (they hit the U.S. in 2010, see this Web site) and the White House is talking about hydrogen cars. Hydrogen guarantees another decade of gas guzzlers at least! The laws of supply and demand are broken here. Why are we still driving gas guzzlers, and why isn't the government pushing compressed air if India of all places can get it done now?!
Chris Nelder: I think you answered your own question!
Hydrogen cars are a bad joke, and only have delayed crucially important changes in our existing energy regime. I am glad that we don't hear much about them anymore ... maybe now we can get down to the serious business of addressing the peak oil challenge instead of just waving it away with pie-in-the-sky talk about hydrogen cars.
I wrote an article about this topic one year ago.
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Washington: Last week I was given an flex-fuel vehicle rental car. There was not a single E85 pump en route or near the return location. It seems that even when there may be alternative fuel, the existing means of delivery are controlled by the competition. I'd bet there are tens of thousands of FFVs in the D.C. area that could reduce demand for oil.
Chris Nelder: That's true -- if we had the ethanol to run them on! Unfortunately, the chicken of E85 cars arrived well before the egg of domestic ethanol. In my opinion we will have a very difficult time just meeting the existing ethanol mandate in this country, and it will continue to drive up food prices. E85 isn't the answer; electric vehicles running on renewably produced electricity are.
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Ashburn, Va.: Why is the mainstream media ignoring the role of the Phil Gramm legislation in 2001 -- at the request of his wife while sitting on the Enron board -- to allow trading of Oil from the New York Mercantile Exchange to the IntercontinentalExchange, when the number of contracts being traded went from 150,000 a day to 1.5 million?
Chris Nelder: I don't think they've been ignoring it completely ... I've seen several pieces addressing the IntercontinentalExchange. But it looks like that trade may be put under more restrictive rules now.
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Washington: Could you comment on the role of speculation in the price of a barrel of oil? How significant is speculation in driving up oil prices?
Brian Hicks: I think it's important to understand the role of speculation in free markets. Speculation is to markets what air is to fire. They cannot exist without each other.
If speculators are driving up the price of oil, they're doing it for a reason, i.e., they believe that a supply crunch is coming. As a result, they believe that the current $135/barrel price of oil will be considered cheap years from now. I agree with them!
And listen, we've been hearing this "speculation ... and oil is in a bubble" argument/excuse for years now. Remember the infamous Steve Forbes prediction back in 2005 when he said oil was in a bubble and that it would fall back to $30 a barrel?
Well, we're still waiting...
Chris Nelder: I don't believe that speculation plays much of a role. I addressed this in a recent column.
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Silicon Valley, Calif.: Much of this discussion has ignored the adverse tradeoff of more oil meaning more greenhouse gases (GHGs). I anticipate cap-and-trade mechanisms for near-real-time trading of GHGs. While these will be marginal cost compared to $140-per-barrel oil, these will provide other incentives to shift away from carbon. Can you foresee an awakening that an alternative to oil is a national security and human survival issue great enough to result in a $100-billion-scale Manhattan Project?
Chris Nelder: Yes! And I hope and pray for it, ASAP! Only $100 billion isn't nearly enough. Maybe $100 billion per year, for many years...
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Collegeville, Pa.: Okay, so tell me, if I'm your average homeowner who makes enough money to get by but is feeling the pinch like everyone else ... how can I protect myself from rising gasoline prices, soon-to-be higher natural gas prices, etc.? What is the most practical advice you can give?
Brian Hicks: Well you probably are reacting -- correctly -- to higher energy prices. You just don't know it or haven't acknowledged it.
What I mean is this: For far too long, oil and gas were essentially free to Americans. There are 336 pints in every barrel of oil, so when oil was trading for $20 a barrel, it essentially was selling for 6 cents per pint. That's basically a free commodity.
So, because it was so cheap, Americans consumed as much oil and gas as they possibly could without ever thinking about the future consequences. Well, the consequence is that we've consumed more than 1 trillion barrels in 150 years ... and this was the cheapest of the cheap oil.
Today, we're consuming the more expensive oil. As a result, Americans are having to look into the mirror and make consumption decisions based on this new high price.
Americans -- even myself -- are driving more efficiently and locally.
Chris Nelder: Your best defense is to review every corner of your life and try to reduce your energy consumption: your car, the insulation of your house, your appliances, your commute, everything. If you can, put some solar panels on your roof.
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Virginia Beach, Va.: I read recently that the U.S. produces around 5 million barrels of oil a day, and that of that amount almost 2 million barrels is exported. Do you know why we are exporting oil when we clearly need every drop for our own use? Also, do you know to where it is exported?
Chris Nelder: Exports and imports are a very complex subject. The Energy Information Administration regularly reports the data on where imports and exports come from and where they go. Check out the Petroleum Navigator on their Web site for the data. Exports from the U.S. are a fine example of why oil is a globally traded commodity, and why oil prices aren't all about us.
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Brian Hicks: I want to thank The Washington Post for this session ... and for all the great questions.
I'll see you on the other side of the Peak!
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Chris Nelder: Thank you all for your questions. It's been a pleasure to have an opportunity to answer them directly, and I hope you found the information we provided useful. For those who want to take a closer look at the data, the possibilities and the limits of energy in the future, check out our book -- it's all in there!
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: June 24, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
June 23, 2008 Monday 12:00 PM EST
Washington Post Magazine: The Flight Watchmen;
Inside the Secretive Effort to Prevent Another 9/11
BYLINE: Laura Blumenfeld, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2857 words
HIGHLIGHT: Since 9/11, counterterrorism officials have had to rethink how to keep the nation safe. That mission has put the men and women of the Freedom Center on alert 24/7.
Since 9/11, counterterrorism officials have had to rethink how to keep the nation safe. That mission has put the men and women of the Freedom Center on alert 24/7.
Washington Post Magazine staff writer Laura Blumenfeld was online Monday, June 23 to discuss her cover story, "The Flight Watchmen."
Blumenfeld has covered national politics, counter-terrorism and the Middle East for the Washington Post. Her non-fiction book Revenge: A Story of Hope, has been translated into eight languages.
A transcript follows.
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Laura Blumenfeld: Hi there!
I'm Laura Blumenfeld, Washington Post Staff Writer. Thanks for joining us to chat today.
Happy to answer questions about my Washington Post Magazine story, "The Flight Watchmen."
3...2..1.. Take off!
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Kahului, Maui: Thank you for sharing such a wonderful glimpse of the human side of the Department.
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks! This is my first chat in six years, so I appreciate the gentle question.
I thought it might be interesting to spend time inside a threat center, to see what life is like for people whose job it is to worry.
How do you live with the stress?
It took almost a year -- from start to finish -- to report this article. DHS was wary, and negotiations went on for seasons...
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Washington, D.C.: I was talking about this article with a friend who is an Obama supporter. He said under DHS, there may not be TSA or this watch center because civil liberties, civil rights and freedom of speech will be more important to the liberals than fighting terrorism...
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks, that's interesting. I'd like to hear more on that subject from Barack Obama, yes?
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Maryland: Which watch center is it you profiled? There were three DHS centers described in this GAO report.
Laura Blumenfeld: I profiled the Freedom Center, which had previously been known as the "TSOC"-- the transportation security operations center.
As I mentioned, negotiations were a little touchy with DHS. It took a few visits to a few different watch centers in the Washington area before I was given access to the Watch Floor in northern Virginia.
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Washington, D.C.: Do those people live as paranoid and unpleasant a life as it seems like they do?
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks, interesting question. I think the watchmen do not see their lives as paranoid or unpleasant. They feel like they are contributing to America's security. They work hard, are stressed to the max, but feel good about their mission.
Readers may love, loathe, admire or pity them -- based on their own attitudes and experiences.
Some people emailed me and said, "Wow! True American heroes!" Other folks said they seemed scary.
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Spring, Texas: This is a great story and as an airline employee it is reassuring to know Homeland Security is keeping an eye on things.
How hard was it for you to get the sources and access to do this story?
Laura Blumenfeld: Oh my goodness. In seventeen years of reporting for the Post, I have rarely had such a hard time getting access!
Many of the security officials felt like no good could come of this.
Every time I went out on the Watch Floor, red lights in every corner of the room began flashing, to warn the watchmen, "DANGER! INTRUDER! Put away all classified material!"
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Knoxville, Tenn.: I'm sure you'll get some incendiary questions on this line in the story, so I'll try to be balanced -- I don't really get the "possibly Muslim" line.
Two questions jumped to mind. First, How do they make the determination that someone is "possibly Muslim"? Second, do any Muslims -- or even people with training in Middle Eastern culture -- work at the Freedom Center?
Laura Blumenfeld: Excellent, important question. I lobbed it over to DHS Spokesman Greg Alter, who said:
"Religion is not a factor in our security determinations. While specifics are not available; the Freedom Center indeed has a diverse workforce."
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Harrisburg, Pa.: When I was reading the list of people stopped at airports and who were viewed as suspicious passengers: I got the feeling most of these were drunks and idiots and not terrorists. Maybe this is a question that can't or shouldn't be answered, but how many people who turn out to actually belong to terrorist organizations are actually stopped from boarding an airplane? As an aside, do any of the rules that airports use actually thwart terrorists? I recall the time I watched an airport employee close the doors in front of people running to board an airplane and then explain to the people that closing the doors precisely at ten minutes before boarding was part of the fight against terrorists. I remember thinking to myself: does anyone actually think terrorists don't know to board an airplane ten minutes before takeoff?
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks! Another good one for the DHS spokesman, Greg Alter, to answer:
"We use layers of security to ensure the security of the travelling public and the Nation's transportation system. Because of their visibility to the public, we are most associated with the airport checkpoints that our Transportation Security Officers operate."
"These checkpoints, however, constitute only one security layer of the many in place to protect aviation. Others include intelligence gathering and analysis, checking passenger manifests against watch lists, random canine team searches at airports, federal air marshals, federal flight deck officers and more security measures both visible and invisible to the public."
"Each one of these layers alone is capable of stopping a terrorist attack. In combination their security value is multiplied, creating a much stronger, formidable system. A terrorist who has to overcome multiple security layers in order to carry out an attack is more likely to be pre-empted, deterred, or to fail during the attempt."
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Falls Church, Va.: I assume the location of the center(s) is secret? Was there any concern that, by identifying the personnel and the location of their homes, that it would be easy enough to follow one to work one day to find out where they are?
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks Falls Church -- The location of the center is secret, but only sort of.
Newspapers have published the location before. We wrote "northern Virginia," because that was part of the ground rules for doing the story.
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Upper Marlboro, Md.: What are the backgrounds of the people who are involved in this sort of work?
Laura Blumenfeld: Many of the watchmen come from police, military, government service. Some are former airline pilots.
For many it is a second career. What seemed interesting to me was that many were in their forties, or older. I thought of them as "the mid-life watchmen." Working the Floor was a second chance to achieve their dreams.
One guy had been a secret service agent in the 1960s and had a bad knee from the time he felling while jogging along-side LBJ's motorcade. He had a tumor in his hand and other health problems, but the former agent came to work each day to serve, and that gave him a sense of purpose.
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Rockville, Md.: For many decades thousands of people have died by becoming trapped above completely burning floors of a high rise buildings. This entrapment was specifically induced by terrorists on 9/11 at the WTC towers - twice. These zealots only need a matchstick and not a plane to cause another one. Why then the focus on airport security alone?
Laura Blumenfeld: The Watch Floor monitors terrorist threats across eight modes of transportation: mass transit, bridges, railways, vehicles and roads, pipelines, postal and cargo shipping, maritime matters and ports, as well as aviation.
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Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Is there objective evidence that these furious counter terrorism efforts have made a difference? The personal sacrifices of the Federal counterterrorism employees are real, but "The Flight Watchman" did not indicate whether the USA is at greater risk of devastation from a large meteor, a class 5 hurricane, or terrorist plotters.
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks, great question. Here's Greg Alter from TSA (part of DHS) to answer it:
"Stated simply, the threat to commercial aviation is very real; unfortunately, but for good reason, the basis for this is largely classified."
"There should be no doubt that the dedicated efforts of TSA and all are security partners make travelling today safer than its ever been."
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Cornelius (Charlotte), N.C.: I loved the story, but then again, I'm sort of a geek for this type of thing/subject. I'm former Navy and I hope some of the people you profiled in the story are reading (or going to read) these posts/questions. I don't really have a question, but rather, a comment: To Chuck Phucas, your country needs now now more than ever Marine!! Keep up the good work you're doing... ALL of you.
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks, N.C.
As I said, readers were really divided about how they felt about the characters in this story.
I wonder if it's a reflection of our unresolved national debate on counter-terrorism methods?
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Scared in Alexandria: The Freedom Center "watchmen" seemed to be really, really unsophisticated. The remarks they made seemed straight out of a farm - a bunch of red-state, wannabe-FBI agents who flunked the written test!
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks for your comment. And thanks for helping me make my point: This is the kind of story that touches nerves. Sorry I got on yours!
Either "The Flight Watchmen" makes you feel better or, it makes you mad.
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Virginia: I re-read your article 3 times today. I wondered how are we gonna fight terrorism without being discriminatory????
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks, here's Greg Alter again, from TSA, to respond:
"Racial and/or religious profiling does not work and is not a part of TSA's security strategy. Our strategy is based on behaviors and other unbiased facts."
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University Park, Md.: Thanks for the enlightening article. It's comforting to know that, somewhere, rational people are making decisions based on what happens at checkpoints and on aircraft. The surly security checkers and morass of seemingly meaningless rules are all most of us usually see of TSA's efforts.
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks, that's an interesting response. Now look at the next reader comment I will publish. They seem to have taken the opposite message from the piece --
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Alexandria, Va.: Thanks so much for this story.
The comments, quotes, implications, and nuances from the TSA people offer up the slightly scary impression that, no, the TSA people don't really understand what business travel is. They seem to think that flying is all about planning a family vacation to Disney World a year in advance - plenty of time to use or kill, no cares, no computer, no cell phone.
That's just unrealistic, and it contributes to the completely unreasonable, excessive, low-sophistication, low-common-sense, low-rent approach TSA is perceived to take.
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks, I wonder if you and the guy whose comment I just pulished before yours, could get together and debate this??
You read the same piece, but took opposite messages from it. Fascinating, yes?
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Madison, Wis: Responding to the McCain staffer identified as "Washington, D.C.," Senator Obama favors actually increasing the scope of our nation's vigilance against terrorist attacks, http://www.barackobama.com/issues/homeland/
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks!
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Arlington, Va.: The "flashing red lights" are a staple of any office that deals with classified information. They indicate that someone who doesn't have a security clearance is in the room.
I can't believe the Post would let me walk unescorted around your newsroom. Same principle, higher stakes.
Laura Blumenfeld: It depends. Who are you?
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Arlington, Va.: I'm curious how much all this security costs. TSA costs something like $6 billion a year, but a lot of what you are describing is elsewhere in DHS. Any ideas?
Laura Blumenfeld: Here's what TSA spokesman Greg Alter said:
"Sorry, I don't have specific budget figures readily available."
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Washington, D.C.: Laura: during your interviews for this article, did any of the subjects express any sense of irony about calling their surveillance facility the "Freedom Center?"
Laura Blumenfeld: Nope!
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Virginia: Why are DHS officials calling themselves counterterrorists? They are anti-terrorists. Counterterrorism mean being overseas out of the station in the embassy chasing the terrorists using "illegal" means.
Laura Blumenfeld: Any experts out there care to respond?
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Knoxville, Tenn.: Thanks so much for going to the spokesman for a response to my question!
I guess I just have trouble believing that religion plays 'no role' in their thought process. When I read that, in that short chance to describe the suspected terrorist, his 'possible' religion was one of the three things used to characterize him, I just think it really speaks volumes about the difference between the reality on the floor of the watch room and in the executive suites of DHS.
Thanks for a thought-provoking piece all-around.
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks Knoxville, wishing you safe travels!
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Alexandria, Virginia: Do you really believe that jets crashed into the twin towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001? If so, why do all the crash videos into the south tower look like a cartoon in slow motion. In the CNN video it was necessary to make the twin towers taller so the crash could be seen despite a foreground building. See http://ghostplane.blogspot.com/ In the helicopter shot, the nose of the plane came out the other side of the building for .28 seconds before the screen went blank. Download http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9FAWi_u1hg&NR=1
Furthermore, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics records every departure and landing of every airliner in America. On 9/11/2001, however, it never recorded the departure of flights AA 11 and AA 77, which supposedly struck the north tower and the Pentagon. See http://www.serendipity.li/wot/aa_flts/aa_flts.htm http://www.bts.gov/xml/ontimesummarystatistics/src/dstat/OntimeSummaryDepaturesData.xml http://www.911forum.org.uk/archive/dialoguewithholmgren.htm
If you want proof that war on terror is based entirely on lies straight out of 1984, check my home page at http://tinyurl.com/6s9qdq
Laura Blumenfeld: Free country...
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Silver Spring, Md. - novels about computer programming: I've done a lot of study and work on air travel security while working as a Beltway bandit. I found the article extremely reassuring - it proves there is the kind of coordination that was lacking back when I did the (internal) studies.
Yay.
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks!
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Fairfax County, Virginia: As a longtime Washington area resident (grew up in Maryland suburbs, live now in Virginia suburbs) I like any fresh writing approach that shows a real picture of federal employees doing the public good under real pressure. To me, it wasn't about their particular mission although I admit a story on a group of GSA clerks might not have the same pizzazz (though they may be just as dedicated--and paid far less).
Have you considered using the same ultrapersonal angle on the CDC next, or the (hopefully somewhat) new and improved FEMA or the Coast Guard? Nebulous classified threats aren't really up there with Hanta virus and the current flood disasters. Now THOSE are stories where we don't have to trust that lives are being saved.
Laura Blumenfeld: Thanks, that's a great idea
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Charlottesville, Va.: Your photo of the watch floor appears to show a very crowded working environment that may contribute to the job stress. Is that look of chaos by design to facilitate quick verbal communication amongst the employees? or is it just the camera angle/lens that gives it a crowded look? Otherwise a larger facility may be in order.
Laura Blumenfeld: Hmmm... it's about as crowded as The Washington Post newsroom, except we don't have the nice, high ceilings...
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Just pointing out: The TSA guy said: "Our strategy is based on behaviors and other unbiased facts." so I would assume that if the data show that Muslims (or Buddhists or Freedonians) commit more terrorism the sensible thing to do is keep a watch on them. The trick is picking out the Freedonians.
Laura Blumenfeld: Yes, this is a tricky, touchy area.
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Laura Blumenfeld: Signing off for now. Thanks for the chat.
Hope you enjoy your summer vacations, and as you set off in planes, or boats or trains, just know -- the Watchmen are watching...
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: June 24, 2008
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913 of 972 DOCUMENTS
Washingtonpost.com
June 23, 2008 Monday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post Congressional Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4779 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post congressional reporter Jonathan Weisman was online Monday, June 23 at 11 a.m. ET.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Jonathan Weisman: Hello all. I'm a surprise guest today. My colleague Shailagh is on a plane, winging it to New Mexico with Obama-land, so you get silly old me today. Lots to talk about, though, so let's get started.
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Avon Park, Fla.: Much has been made about the Democrats being divided because of the primary season, but aren't the Republicans divided also? I mean, are conservative Republicans that excited about John McCain? I don't sense that they are.
Jonathan Weisman: Ah yes, the untold story. Obama's people see it -- that's why they're contesting places like Georgia, where they hope a combination of black voter turnout and depressed Christian conservatives can pull off an upset. And don't forget the Paulites: Ron Paul is holding his counterconvention in Minneapolis while John McCain is coronated in St. Paul.
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Alexandria, Va.: Obama's new ad (which plays a lot in Alexandria) shows pictures of his mother and grandparents, playing up his white family. Until now he's been "African American"; now suddenly he's a white Midwesterner? During the primary Hillary was criticized for changing her image too many times. Won't Obama be criticized for doing the same thing?
Jonathan Weisman: I haven't heard that criticism, but it is striking -- not a single picture of his father. Now, that really is consistent with his upbringing -- he really did not become immersed in black American culture until he left college and went to Chicago. The great irony is that he is much more white than black, beyond skin color.
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jhtlag1: Reintroducing oneself can't be good. His appeal as a "grassroots" insurgency that's going to bring "change" to Washington. How are all those small donors going to feel now when Obama has to follow the (gulp) more traditional campaign rhetoric? By the way guys, thanks a lot but I'm moving on now? In the past couple of weeks we've seen him show obeisance to AIPAC, change his mind on funding ("hello fat cats") and now the pros are going to come in and shape his image. Barack, we hardly knew ye.
washingtonpost.com: Obama Moves To Reintroduce Himself to Voters (Post, June 23)
Jonathan Weisman: You are David Axelrod's nightmare. But what they are doing does not surprise me -- he obviously has work to do with white working-class voters, and that ad was all about erasing the image of the exalted one and starting from scratch.
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Winnipeg, Canada: Sorry to be picky, but isn't a person crowned, not "coronated"?
Jonathan Weisman: I knew there was a reason why my spell-checker wouldn't pick up that word. But dictionary.com says I'm right.
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Arugula: I recently discovered that at my local waterhole -- a mostly working-class place in a gritty Buffalo-area neighborhood, frequented by "Big Russ" types -- puts arugula on some of its sandwiches. I'm not making any of this up. Am I an elitist if I eat these sandwiches? And what impact might this have on the future political aspirations of the bar's patrons? Should we all just go somewhere else? I'm counting on you to answer this one -- people's futures could be at stake.
Jonathan Weisman: I was in Altoona, Pa., the other day and happened upon a lovely watercress and goat cheese sandwich on whole-wheat focaccia.
Yes, the arugula thing is silly -- but so is a shot of Crown Royal.
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Tuckahoe, N.Y.: Didn't the current White House press flack, Ms. Perino, admit that she didn't know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was? If so, did anyone send her a copy of your colleague Michael Dobbs's recent book on it?
washingtonpost.com: Book World Review of Dobbs's "One Minute to Midnight" (Post, June 22)
Jonathan Weisman: I will alert The Fact-Checker -- and yes, young Dana admitted she did not know squat about our moment of world peril.
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Chicago: From a political standpoint, should Obama run on the specter of possible war crime indictments, or would that help generate Republican enthusiasm for McCain?
Jonathan Weisman: If I were Obama's campaign advisers, I would run as far away from you as possible. Raising the war crimes issue would kick up all those old stereotypes of Democrats blaming America first. Not the positive campaign Obama wants.
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Chicago: Hey Jon, If Obama picks Biden, how will he finesse Biden's initial support for the war? Knowing Biden, I am sure there are all sorts of bloviating comments he made about war detractors. A quick Google search produced this gem from Sept. 4, 2002: "If we wait for the danger to become clear, it could be too late." Sounds like something Condi would say. Wouldn't picking Biden strongly undermine one of Obama's top selling points?
Jonathan Weisman: My guess -- and I'd put money on it -- is that he will not pick Biden, no way, no how. It's bad enough having two senators on the ticket. He wants a strong, silent military type, not a foreign policy wonk. (Unless he's still having Hillary troubles -- then he'll want a woman. Don't give up, Kathleen Sebelius.)
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New York: Just so we are clear about this, the latest whinge from the "fiscally conservative" McCain supporters is that Obama won't use public tax money to finance his campaign. And they are serious about pushing this hypocritical line of attack? Am I understanding this correctly? Crazy world, huh?
Jonathan Weisman: Sounds like an earmark to me! But seriously folks, McCain has made a career of campaign finance reform, trying to limit the impact of what he used to call (and I stress "used to" to all those ready to attack me) the iron triangle of money, lobbyists and politicians. His stand against Obama's opt-out is perfectly consistent -- even if he may be a bit jealous.
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Wokingham, U.K.: Does the fact that oil prices are already so frighteningly high, even when there is no military action in the Gulf, take the wheels off the bus that was taking us toward war with Iran?
Jonathan Weisman: I don't think economic rationales had anything to do with the drumbeat for military intervention against Iran. The Bush White House isn't necessarily thinking of the whole picture.
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Helena, Mont.: I know there's conventional wisdom that to get to really big numbers fundraisingwise you need to go to fat cats, but look at the liberal blogs, almost all of them have ActBlue fundraising gauges with a goal (mostly in number of contributions) to meet. When that goal is met, they just put another fundraising gauge for another number of contributors. This has to be generating cash for Obama in addition to the fundraising his campaign is doing -- not to mention when he gets his hands on Clinton's list and starts asking them for their $100. A million and a half people giving him $100 each is a lot of money. Some give him the max.
Jonathan Weisman: That's the thinking, but obviously, there are limits. Obama's fundraising fell off sharply in May, almost completely because the flow of small donations from the Internet fell to a trickle. Now he's off on a traditional fundraising tour, and that ain't looking for $100 checks.
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Thank You:... for being the first to note Obama is more white than black from a heritage and upbringing perspective. It seems that we base so much on sight and not facts. I long for the day when someone can just be called a candidate, and not the first black, Latino, woman, etc., for anything. It will be a great day when the labels have passed from our lexicon.
Jonathan Weisman: But we are a long way from that. I think the imagery of Obama with his white grandparents is so striking because we are not race-blind. The color of skin still matters in America.
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La Vale, Md.: Okay so you wouldn't put money on Biden. Who would you put money on vis-a-vis Obama's vice president?
Jonathan Weisman: It will depend on the politics of July. Does he need a woman to win over Clinton voters? Does he need a military man? Does he want to use his pick to win a red state? Does he need a Hispanic pick-me-up? My top three picks are Tim Kaine, governor of Virginia, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas. The dark horses are Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who gets you executive experience, a swing state -- though not a big one -- and loads of Latino votes.
And here's my really left-field pick: Colin Powell.
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Re-branding: I admit that I read the fluff piece about Michelle Obama in US magazine. Amid the talk about shopping at Target, watching "Sex and the City" with her BFF, eating ribs at the local barbecue place and growing up in a one-bedroom apartment, they did happen to mention her degree from Harvard Law School and the fact that she had a $270,000 job that she left when the campaign was under way. I regretted the loss of Elizabeth Edwards as a possible first lady, but Mrs. Obama is an intriguing mix of experience and interests.
Jonathan Weisman: As wonkette.com asked, can Michelle be our first lady, no matter who wins?
Republicans want to use her to further their image of Obama as some strange "other" -- a radical, an intellectual, or whomever you don't like -- but I think Michelle Obama is likely to be a net positive.
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Edinburg, N.Y.: Which president would you most not mind listening to your cell phone conversations?
Jonathan Weisman: Depends whom I'm talking to. Anyone can listen in on my incessant calls from my mother. (Just kidding, ma!)
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New York: Re: The primaries, how did John McCain get to opt out of the campaign finance system that he so adores without paying a political price? I guess ignoring campaign finance laws he thinks should apply to everyone else is "change he can believe in," but shouldn't he at least get some bad press out of it?
Jonathan Weisman: Because that taboo was broken long ago, in 2000, by one George W. Bush. John Kerry did it too. The general election campaign was the last bulwark, and now it too is gone.
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Fairfax, Va.: Who fits the mold of "a strong, silent military type, not a foreign policy wonk"? Wes Clark comes to mind, but hasn't exactly been a strong surrogate or candidate in the past, and you've got the whole "only been a Democrat for about five years" thing.
Jonathan Weisman: I was thinking Jim Webb (and Colin Powell and Chuck Hagel).
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Richmond, Va.: I agree with "jhtlag1" -- as Obama tries to appeal to a broader group, he already is alienating the people who "brung" him. We are very devoted to doing what's right. Let's add Obama's vote on FISA to the growing list of "Obama, we hardly know ye" moments. Obama's fundraising in May was only $22 million, the lowest he's gotten; if we "jhtlag1" types stop giving ... that will matter.
Jonathan Weisman: Alright, another data point. I'm writing about the FISA issue for tomorrow's paper.
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Reston, Va.: I'm almost certain you've ruled out Jim Webb as vice president before. What gives with the flip-floppery, Jon?
Jonathan Weisman: So I contradict myself. I am multitudes. (And I eat arugula.)
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Potential First Ladies: Cindy McCain runs a beer distributorship. She's not exactly chopped liver.
Jonathan Weisman: I agree, she's a tough woman -- but she did inherit the business from a rather rich daddy.
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Seattle: About the public/private funding debate, I've heard a bunch of reports say that Barack Obama is the first candidate to go with private financing since 1976, but didn't George W. Bush and John Kerry go private in 2004? I remember it was a big thing when Kerry announced it in November 2003, when everyone else but Howard Dean and Bush were going with public funding.
Jonathan Weisman: As noted above, Bush and Kerry opted out in the primary season, but not for the general election campaign.
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Anchorage, Alaska: So will St. Paul actually hold his anti-convention in St. Paul? If so, down the street? At the Fitzgerald Theater (Prairie Home Companion)? Sam and Ella's Eatery? And will you be there? Thanks.
Jonathan Weisman: No, he's in Minneapolis. I don't think it's the Metrodome, but it'll be respectable.
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"Meet The Press"/Brokaw: So the guy who made the crack about everybody thinking they deserved to be Russert's successor becomes Russert's successor. Isn't that kinda like Cheney and his vice presidential search ?
washingtonpost.com: Brokaw Steps In for Russert; Former Anchor to Host 'Meet the Press' Through Election (Post, June 23)
Jonathan Weisman: Hey, it worked for Dick.
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Woonsocket, R.I.: Is there any chance that telecom amnesty will be dropped in the Senate, or was Sen. Obama's statement that he'd vote for the bill even with amnesty the end of the matter? Can Dodd sustain a filibuster? And is Obama likely to sustain any political damage for this flip-flop?
Jonathan Weisman: Not a chance -- there are a lot of Senate Democrats already on record in favor of an even broader amnesty provision, and they already have overcome a filibuster on the more Republican version, written by Rockefeller and Bond. This thing is over. Stick a fork in it.
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Richmond, Va.: Jonathan, what is your opinion about the wisdom of Obama's widening-the-playing-field strategy? Part of me feels he would be better off focusing his resources on crushing McCain in places he knows he can win, like Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Jonathan Weisman: The wisdom is based on an assumption -- that he'll have more than enough resources to broaden the field and crush him in the swing states. But May's fundraising totals must be giving them pause. If they need to refocus, they will do so, but only after spending money on states they will regret.
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Mount Vernon, N.Y.: The negatives for Webb is that he's not really all that liberal --he's for off-shore drilling for natural gas only, left to the states, but accidents hurt your neighbors too -- and a lackluster campaigner; he's got a track record of sexist remarks too. The positives are obvious, and Virginia is a great prize. And didn't Gov Kaine kind of take himself out of the running?
Jonathan Weisman: You're never out of the running until you actually are asked. Yes, the Webb sexism thing is a very serious knock. If Obama still is having women problems, he won't pick Webb -- but then, he may have no choice but to pick Clinton or Sebelius.
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Baltimore: Sen. Obama was raised by his white relatives, but he had no choice over that decision. When presented with the choice as an adult, he consciously decided to embrace his blackness: "Dreams From My Father," Rev. Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ, community organizing, etc. I don't care what racial identity a biracial (or any other person) willingly adopts, but it's a little late in the game -- and inconsistent with the past quarter-century -- for Obama to be selling his whiteness.
Jonathan Weisman: Fair enough. He himself said he consciously went out to find an African American identity. His half-sister (who is half white, half Indonesian) chooses to think of herself as more white than Asian.
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Columbus, Ohio: Regarding Obama's ethnic background, I would caution against making statements such as "he's more white than black" (from memory, so not exactly correct). The problem is that this is a discussion the media (and perhaps society) is not familiar with, and consequently generalizes in a rather simplistic fashion. Think of Tiger Woods and the whole "calibasian" flap. Those of us of mixed ethnicity are "either," "both" and "neither" -- often all at the same time. You can not reduce it to simply one or the other, or more one than the other.
Jonathan Weisman: I expected this response, and I defer to you.
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Central Massachusetts: I can't believe Obama would pick a Republican as vice president. What would the Democratic National Committee say about that? Why would you give the tiebreaker vote in the Senate to a Republican? This makes no sense to me. Can you explain your thinking and help clarify? Thanks!
Jonathan Weisman: Obviously, he wouldn't do it without iron-clad guarantees that said Republican (Hagel, Powell) was thoroughly ready to ditch his party -- and certainly ready to cast the vote Obama wanted him to cast in the Senate.
And by the Democratic convention, the DNC will be Obama's. I think a Hagel or Powell choice would be electric -- and would put some meat on the bones of Obama's claim to post-partisanship. (But yes, there would be some ticked off Democrats.)
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Princeton, N.J.: Does the FISA compromise still contain the provision that lets the attorney general or director of national intelligence declare any communication to be foreign with no possible review? Also, I thought the Eichmann Defense (my government told me to do it) pretty much had been discredited.
Jonathan Weisman: I think that was taken out in one of the first offers that Republicans made, but I will check.
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Indianapolis: What is Paul holding a convention to do? Is he running as a third-party candidate? What about Barr? What about the possible influence on the election of a right-wing candidacy? Is it too early to drool in anticipation?
Jonathan Weisman: Paul swears he will not run an independent campaign. The counterconvention is to make the point that the libertarian, antiwar wing of the party is real. I don't think you will see any antiwar speeches in St. Paul.
As for Bob Barr, count me as a skeptic.
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Barr-ing disaster?: Any credence to the claims that Republicans are worried about Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr siphoning votes from Sen. McCain?
Jonathan Weisman: Ah, I just answered this but I'll go into more detail. As a congressman from suburban Atlanta, Barr never had much of a base. When the state was redistricted by a Democratic governor, Barr couldn't even beat Rep. John Linder to stay in the House.
I just don't think the guy has the name recognition and depth of support that a Ralph Nader had when he played spoiler in 2000.
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Rockville, Md.: Were Biden the vice presidential candidate, I would run his comments to our ambassador to Iraq in the Senate as my political advertisement. He mocks with no remorse. A bright person, but not always 100 percent right.
Jonathan Weisman: I just don't think of Biden as a big campaigner. He talks a lot, but can he play the role of attack dog on the stump?
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Rockville, Md.: I expect Hagel would be in the same position as Andrew Johnson -- everyone would hate him. He's all Republican except on the war.
Jonathan Weisman: He does vote Republican on economic issues. That could be very awkward.
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Iowa: I realize the nation's trembling infrastructure is not a sexy political topic, but those of us awash in the Midwest are going to have a deep-seated interest in who is willing to invest some federal dollars in infrastructure repair and rebuilding. Is either candidate talking about this issue? And yes, it would help if we weren't still spending $100,000 per minute in Iraq.
Jonathan Weisman: Obama is glomming onto the issue, and a lot of Democrats on Capitol Hill are pushing it hard. It also puts McCain in a tough spot, as he tends to declare any infrastructure spending as unwarranted pork.
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Philadelphia: "He obviously has work to do with white working-class voters." Not one Democratic president since Johnson has won a majority of white voters -- not one, not even Carter. This should be mentioned every time. Why isn't it?
Jonathan Weisman: I agree with you, and we have mentioned it -- see the lead story in the Sunday Washington Post. But currently, Obama is winning the black vote by massive margins, the Hispanic vote by margins far bigger than Bush got, and he's doing well with women and Catholics -- so unless you think he should fold his tent, he needs to work on something. The white working class is where the votes are that he's not getting.
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Fairfax, Va.: Is the Tom Davis retirement a permanent thing, or is he just going to bide his time in the private sector, make some money, and then challenge Jim Webb in 2012?
Jonathan Weisman: Could be, but Davis is a very smart politician. If Webb is ensconced, and if a Democratic president is popular and running for re-election that year, why would Davis go back for that? Besides, he may still have the same problems with downstate Republicans that he has now.
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Philadelphia: Jonathan ... the previous question about McCain opting out of public financing for the primaries was asking about the criminal aspect of that decision. The Republican head of the FEC has said that McCain can't opt out. He used public funds to secure a $5 million loan last summer. Don't you know the laws? McCain's reversal isn't legal. Check it out.
Jonathan Weisman: The Democratic National Committee filed suit on the issue, and it was thrown out in court. I guess the judge didn't know the laws either.
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Convention in St. Paul: Will McCain be for or against fixing the interstate bridges into Minneapolis/St. Paul with federal, tax-payer funded monies?
Jonathan Weisman: You can bet that question will be asked a lot this summer.
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Shrewsbury, Mass.: Will both Clintons get separate air time at the convention in Denver, or will there just be one Billary night? I'm rooting for the latter or I'm turning on ESPN. Thanks.
Jonathan Weisman: I would bet Hillary gets a prime time slot and Bill doesn't, but I could be wrong. One question: Will you be tuning in to ESPN during McCain's acceptance speech? The Redskins will be squaring off with the Giants that night in the NFL opener. Ouch.
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Albany, N.Y.: Well, that takes George Carlin out of the running.
Jonathan Weisman: And I was just asking my 5-year-old daughter where the blue food is.
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Re: Bob Barr: I agree that Barr won't make much of an impact at the national level, but he's polling at 5 percent to 6 percent in Georgia, which the Obama people are targeting because of its young population and high proportion of African Americans. Just thought you'd like to know.
Jonathan Weisman: I agree that Georgia has a whole brew of issues: Black voters, downtrodden social conservatives and Bob Barr. By the way, I am a Georgian.
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Depth of support that a Ralph Nader had when he played spoiler in 2000: Was Ross Perot a spoiler in 1992? He finished 2nd in Alaska just behind Poppy Bush. Thanks.
Jonathan Weisman: Republicans will say Perot gave us President Clinton. I'm not convinced, as the anger at George H.W. Bush was so great that I'm not sure Perot voters would have flocked to Bush.
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Rockville, Md.: Who so much resistance to off shore drilling? Does the Gulf look like a mess? How about Padre Island? Seems good to me. They have had offshore drilling for many years. This opposition must have some other reason than the environment -- otherwise it makes no sense at all.
Jonathan Weisman: You make a good argument, but Floridians are petrified, not just of oil spills, but of the views of oil derricks that blight parts of the California coast south of Santa Barbara. The oil industry contends any exploration would be over the horizon from the beach front -- but opposition runs deep.
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"It's bad enough having two senators on the ticket": Would that rule out a possible Obama/Chuck Hagel ticket?
Jonathan Weisman: No, it's just a strike against it.
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San Diego: "jhtlag1" and Richmond, Va., are exactly the reasons why the Democrats may, despite everything going their way, find a way to bungle this election. For just once, I'd like the Democrats to be the party that can suck it up and realize that in order to win the presidency, candidates have to run to the middle. After Obama wins, put all the pressure you want on him to meet the far left's concerns. Yay. Until then? Shut up and let him fight McCain unhindered by his own base.
Jonathan Weisman: Touche, jhtlag1. Hey's what's up with that anyway, doesn't sound like any place I've visited.
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Arlington, Va.: What is the appeal of Tim Kaine as vice president? That seems to be more of the old conventional wisdom about choosing someone who could bring a state, which I'm not sure Kaine even could deliver.
Jonathan Weisman: Beyond his state, Kaine has two other things going for him: executive experience to counter a senator's more limited views of government, and Catholicism.
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Florissant Valley, Mo.: Not only does he not want another senator because two on the same ticket is unappealing, a special election also could erode what looks to be a terrific Democratic majority in the Senate after November. Ex-senator like Nunn looks good, and I continue to like Dick Gephardt -- good labor support, red swing state.
Jonathan Weisman: I don't think the special election thing would be a big deal. First, most states have their governors appoint the senator for quite awhile, so he'd definitely have to pick a senator from a state with a Democratic governor. Second, I think Democrats will have a very strong majority but not 60 votes. The loss of one wouldn't be that big a deal.
As for Nunn, I just don't see him as a great campaigner or political force. Gephardt is an idea, especially given that Obama's inner political circle all came from Gephardt's team -- notably including campaign manager David Plouffe.
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Sacramento, Calif.: Hi Jonathan. Wes Clark would be another strong leader with military experience. And is it true there has not been much 527 momentum favoring McCain? If not, why not?
Jonathan Weisman: Re: Clark -- yes, but he ran a lousy campaign in 2004, wasn't very adept politically.
Re: 527s -- yes, the Republican 527 world is pretty pathetic at the moment, but remember, the Swift Boats Vets hardly spent any money and they had a big impact. You never know what's coming.
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Chicago: Hey Jon, no to Joe Biden but yes to Colin Powell? Did Biden go before the U.N. Security Council and destroy his credibility? Powell undermines the main thrust of Obama's argument on Iraq. How can he attack McCain for supporting the war if he picks Powell?
Jonathan Weisman: I was wondering how long it would take for this to come up. Powell's role in taking us to war would be a big deal for the antiwar left, but they'll vote for Obama anyway given McCain's position on Iraq. With most Americans, he has been forgiven. He remains hugely popular.
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Fairfax County, Va.: I'm an Obama donor of the "small" variety, although I must say I always have felt 5-foot-4 was fairly average for a woman of my age (mid-40s). Just as a data point, I didn't donate in May, but have been donating again in June. No reason except that I was getting primary fatigue. It was like (bad) theater, as we already knew the primary was over but someone had failed to copy the Clinton campaign on that.
I respect the people who wrote earlier about feeling that this was not the Barack they knew, but I don't agree with them a bit. I don't know when they decided he was purer than air, but I knew he was one of the best politicians ever, and that isn't quite the same thing. This is exactly the Barack I thought I knew, and it's sure the one I'm going to be donating to (and volunteering for) up through November.
Jonathan Weisman: Okay, Fairfax County gets the last word.
See you all later!
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LOAD-DATE: June 24, 2008
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The New York Times
June 22, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Now That We've 'Won,' Let's Come Home
BYLINE: By FRANK RICH
SECTION: Section WK; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 1549 words
THE Iraq war's defenders like to bash the press for pushing the bad news and ignoring the good. Maybe they'll be happy to hear that the bad news doesn't rate anymore. When a bomb killed at least 51 Iraqis at a Baghdad market on Tuesday, ending an extended run of relative calm, only one of the three network newscasts (NBC's) even bothered to mention it.
The only problem is that no news from Iraq isn't good news -- it's no news. The night of the Baghdad bombing the CBS war correspondent Lara Logan appeared as Jon Stewart's guest on ''The Daily Show'' to lament the vanishing television coverage and the even steeper falloff in viewer interest. ''Tell me the last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier,'' she said. After pointing out that more soldiers died in Afghanistan than Iraq last month, she asked, ''Who's paying attention to that?''
Her question was rhetorical, but there is an answer: Virtually no one. If you follow the nation's op-ed pages and the presidential campaign, Iraq seems as contentious an issue as Vietnam was in 1968. But in the country itself, Cindy vs. Michelle, not Shiites vs. Sunnis, is the hotter battle. This isn't the press's fault, and it isn't the public's fault. It's merely the way things are.
In America, the war has been a settled issue since early 2007. No matter what has happened in Iraq since then, no matter what anyone on any side of the Iraq debate has had to say about it, polls have consistently found that a majority of Americans judge the war a mistake and want out. For that majority, the war is over except for finalizing the withdrawal details. They've moved on without waiting for the results of Election Day 2008 or sampling the latest hectoring ad from moveon.org.
Perhaps if Americans had been asked for shared sacrifice at the war's inception, including a draft, they would be in 1968-ish turmoil now. But they weren't, and they aren't. In 2008, the Vietnam analogy doesn't hold. The center does.
The good news for Democrats -- and the big opportunity for Barack Obama -- is that John McCain and the war's last cheerleaders don't recognize that immutable reality. They're so barricaded in their own Vietnam bunker that they think the country is too. It's their constant and often shrill refrain that if only those peacenik McGovern Democrats and the ''liberal media'' acknowledged that violence is down in Iraq -- as indeed it is, substantially -- voters will want to press on to ''victory'' and not ''surrender.'' And therefore go for Mr. McCain.
One neocon pundit, Charles Krauthammer, summed up this alternative-reality mind-set in a recent column piously commanding Mr. McCain to ''make the election about Iraq'' because ''everything is changed,'' and ''we are winning on every front.'' The war, he wrote, can be ''the central winning plank of his campaign.'' (Italics his.)
This hyperventilating wasn't necessary, because this is what Mr. McCain is already trying to do. His first general election ad, boosted by a large media buy in swing states this month, was all about war. It invoked his Vietnam heroism and tried to have it both ways on Iraq by at once presenting Mr. McCain as a stay-the-course warrior and taking a (timid) swipe at President Bush. ''Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war,'' Mr. McCain said in his voice-over. That unnamed fool would be our cowboy president, who in March told American troops how he envied their ''in some ways romantic'' task of ''confronting danger.''
But reminding voters of his identification with Iraq, no matter how he spins it, pays no political dividends to Mr. McCain. People just don't want to hear about it. Last week, the first polls conducted in Pennsylvania and Ohio since the ad began running there found him well behindin both states.
The G.O.P.'s badgering of Mr. Obama about the war is also backfiring. In sync with Mr. McCain, the Republican National Committee unveiled an online clock -- ''Track How Long Since Obama Was in Iraq!'' -- only to have Mr. Obama call the bluff by announcing that he will go to both Afghanistan and Iraq before the election. Unless he takes along his own Lieberman-like Jiminy Cricket to whisper factual corrections into his ear, this trip is likely to enhance his stature as a potential commander in chief.
The other whiny line of G.O.P.-McCain attack is to demand incessantly that Mr. Obama stop refusing to recognize the decline in violence in Iraq, stop calling for a hasty troop withdrawal and stop ignoring commanders on the ground in assessing his exit strategy. Here, too, Mr. Obama is calling their bluff, though not nearly as loudly as he will, I suspect, in the debates.
The fact is that Mr. Obama frequently recognizes ''the reduction of violence in Iraq'' (his words) and has said he is ''encouraged'' by it. He has never said that he would refuse to consult with commanders on the ground, and he has never called for a precipitous withdrawal. His mantra on Iraq, to the point of tedium, has always been that ''we must be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in.'' His roughly 16-month timetable isn't hasty and isn't ''retreat.'' As The Economist, a supporter of the war, recently put it, a safer Iraq does not necessarily validate Mr. McCain's ''insistence on America staying indefinitely'' and might make Mr. Obama's 16-month framework ''more feasible.''
After all, the point of the surge, as laid out by Mr. Bush, was to buy time for political reconciliation among the Iraqis. The results have been at best spotty, and even the crucial de-Baathification law celebrated by Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain in January remains inoperative. Mr. Obama's timetable is at least an effort to use any remaining American leverage to concentrate the Iraqi leaders' thinking. Mr. McCain offers only the status quo: a blank check holding America hostage to fate and ceding the president's civilian authority over war policy to Gen. David Petraeus and his successors.
Should voters tune in, they'll also discover that the McCain policy is nonsensical on its face. If ''we are winning'' and the surge is a ''success,'' then what is the rationale for keeping American forces bogged down there while the Taliban regroups ominously in Afghanistan? Why, if this is victory, does Mr. McCain keep threatening that ''chaos and genocide'' will follow our departure? And why should we take the word of a prophet who failed to anticipate the chaos and ethnic cleansing that would greet our occupation?
And exactly how, as Mr. McCain keeps claiming, is an indefinite American occupation akin to our long-term military role in South Korea? The diminution of violence notwithstanding, Iraq is an active war zone. And unlike South Korea, it isn't asking America to remain to protect it from a threatening neighbor. Iraq's most malevolent neighbor, Iran, is arguably Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's closest ally. In the most recent survey, in February, only 27 percent of Iraqis said the American presence is improving their country's security. Far from begging us to stay, some Iraqi politicians, including Mr. Maliki, have been pandering to their own election-year voters by threatening to throw the Yankees out.
Mr. McCain's sorest Achilles' heel, of course, is his role in facilitating the fiasco in the first place. Someone in his campaign has figured this out. Go to JohnMcCain.com and, hilariously enough, you'll find a ''McCain on Iraq Timeline'' that conveniently begins in August 2003, months after ''Mission Accomplished.'' Vanished into the memory hole are such earlier examples of the McCain Iraq wisdom as ''the end is very much in sight'' (April 9, 2003) and ''there's not a history of clashes that are violent between Sunnis and Shiites'' (later that same month).
To finesse this embarrassing record, Mr. McCain asks us to believe that the only judgment that matters is who was ''right'' about the surge, not who was right about our reckless plunge into war. That's like saying he deserves credit for tossing life preservers to the survivors after encouraging the captain of the Titanic to plow full speed ahead into the iceberg.
But as Lara Logan asked, who's paying attention to any of this Iraq stuff anyway? That Mr. McCain makes an unpopular and half-forgotten war the centerpiece of his campaign may simply be a default posture -- the legacy of his Vietnam service and a recognition that any war, good or bad, is still a stronger suit for him than delving into the details of health care, education, tax policy or the mortgage crisis.
Even so, it leaves him trapped in a Catch-22. If violence continues to subside in Iraq -- if, as Mr. McCain has it, we keep ''winning'' -- it will only call more attention to the internal contradictions of a policy that says success in Iraq should be punished by forcing American troops to stay there indefinitely. And if Iraq reignites, well, so much for ''winning.''
Not that the Obama policy is foolproof either. As everyone knows, there are no good options in Iraq. Our best hope for a bipartisan resolution of this disaster may be for a President Obama to appoint Mr. McCain as a special envoy to Baghdad, where he can stay for as long as he needs to administer our withdrawal or 100 years, whichever comes first.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: July 10, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: DRAWING (DRAWING BY BARRY BLITT)
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Op-Ed
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
915 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The New York Times
June 22, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Nothing Sells Like Celebrity
BYLINE: By JULIE CRESWELL
SECTION: Section BU; Column 0; Money and Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 3228 words
EARLY last year, marketing executives at Totes Isotoner, a Cincinnati company that had spent the previous 30 years churning out a reliable lineup of humble umbrellas, crowded around a computer and listened to a teenage singer from Barbados named Rihanna breeze through a tune titled, appropriately, ''Umbrella.''
The song, not yet released, had commercial, jingle-ready lyrics and a stick-in-your-head hook: ''You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh.'' Totes, which hadn't deployed celebrity endorsements since the former N.F.L. quarterback Dan Marino hawked its gloves more than a decade earlier, was smitten. ''Umbrella'' became a corporate rallying cry, with the song drifting through Totes' offices at all hours.
Rihanna and her representatives wanted Totes to do more, however, than merely use her to peddle a product. They wanted Totes to create customized umbrellas featuring sparkly fabrics and glittery charms on the handles -- all recommended by the emerging star and her team. Totes also guaranteed the singer a percentage of the sales of the umbrellas.
''Umbrella'' went on to become a huge, Grammy-winning hit. And Totes, although it declines to discuss sales data, describes its relationship with Rihanna as ''invaluable.'' The company, which had never tried such a sweeping design shake-up before, says it now reaches younger shoppers and that traffic on its Web site -- which links to Rihanna's own site -- has soared.
''We've worked hard to build me and my name up as a brand,'' Rihanna says. ''We always want to bring an authentic connection to whatever we do. It must be sincere and people have to feel that.''
But where the star ends and the product and pitch begin has grown less and less discernible in the era of the human billboard.
These days, it's nearly impossible to surf the Internet, open a newspaper or magazine, or watch television without seeing a celebrity selling something, whether it's umbrellas, soda, cars, phones, medications, cosmetics, jewelry, clothing or even mutual funds.
Nicole Kidman sashays in ads for Chanel No. 5 perfume. Eva Longoria, the bombshellette star of ''Desperate Housewives,'' sells L'Oreal Paris hair color. Jessica Simpson struts for a hair extension company, HairUWear, and the acne skin-care line Proactiv Solution. And Jamie Lee Curtis spoons up Dannon Activia yogurt while promoting environmentally friendly Honda cars.
Using celebrities for promotion is hardly new. Film stars in the 1940s posed for cigarette companies, and Bob Hope pitched American Express in the late 1950s. Joe Namath slipped into Hanes pantyhose in the 1970s, and Bill Cosby jiggled for Jell-O for three decades. Sports icons like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods elevated the practice, often scoring more in endorsement and licensing dollars than from their actual sports earnings.
But over the last decade, corporate brands have increasingly turned to Hollywood celebrities and musicians to sell their products. Stars showed up in nearly 14 percent of ads last year, according to Millward Brown, a marketing research agency. While that number has more than doubled in the past decade, it is off from a peak of 19 percent in 2004. (Hey, it could be more extreme: Celebrities appear in 24 percent of the ads in India and 45 percent in Taiwan.)
Starlets and aging rockers are likely to continue popping up in ads for a very simple reason: Celebrity sells. If consumers believe that a certain star or singer might actually use the product sales can take off.
''The reality is people want a piece of something they can't be,'' says Eli Portnoy, a branding strategist. ''They live vicariously through the products and services that those celebrities are tied to. Years from now, our descendants may look at us and say, 'God, these were the most gullible people who ever lived.' ''
Newer forces are also propping up the celebrity-endorsement boom. Companies, trying to align themselves ever closer to A-list stars (as well as B-listers, C-listers and reality TV pseudocelebrities) and their quicksilver fame are constantly seeking new ways to merge the already-blurry lines between the commercial and entertainment worlds.
Television programmers and music producers are particularly eager to play along as joint marketing deals offer artists new ways to reach audiences while also defraying their own marketing costs. Celebrities have also grown much more sophisticated about the structure and payouts of endorsement deals.
Last fall, the rapper-impresario Sean Combs created a 50-50 joint venture with Diageo, the spirits giant, for Mr. Combs to be the brand manager of the Ciroc vodka line. Mr. Combs says he made the profit-sharing deal only after refusing to work solely as a pitchman.
''My brand is rocket fuel. It would take this brand 10 years to get to where I can take it in one year,'' he says. ''I've gotten to the point where I don't want to do just endorsements. I want ownership.''
In the few short years since she exploded onto the music scene, Rihanna, now 20, has been involved in about a dozen endorsement and licensing deals. Behind the scenes, her representatives say they vet every offer for two key criteria: how does it support the brand known as Rihanna, and will it help sell more albums?
Rihanna's commercial for a lip gloss, CoverGirl Wetslicks Fruit Spritzers, opens with outtakes from her steamy ''Umbrella'' video, then morphs into a close-up of her wearing the lip gloss before ending with a shot of her album cover -- leaving viewers possibly confused whether they just saw an ad for a lip gloss or an album. (Totes, for its part, says it cares not a whit about CoverGirl also capitalizing on ''Umbrella.'' The more the merrier, its executives say, because ubiquity benefits everybody in brandland.)
To be sure, marrying a brand to a celebrity has its perils. Just last month, Christian Dior yanked ads from China featuring the actress Sharon Stone after she suggested that the earthquakes that killed tens of thousands of people in China were karmic retribution for the country's policies toward Tibet.
Yet no less an expert than the comedian Ellen DeGeneres enthusiastically embraces the endorsement whirlwind.
''It's flattering that companies think of you and they want to work with you,'' she says, adding that she is working with American Express because she liked earlier ads the company did with Jerry Seinfeld. The AmEx ads routinely appear first during her talk show.
Although she says she would consider other endorsement deals, she's not actively looking. Besides, she says, quality counts.
''I would not feel good if I had made a deal and was making money for something that I'm not proud of and don't have any control over,'' she says. ''Now watch, cut to next week and I'm endorsing five different things. Look, bread! Isn't it great? And what goes well with bread? Mayonnaise!''
BEYONCE is hot. Red hot. The numbers prove it.
On the Davie Brown Index, an independent online rating system that was started two years ago to track the marketing power of celebrities, the singing sensation scores 81.31 on a 100-point scale.
The index bases its score on eight metrics, including influence and trendsetting abilities, and is used by corporate marketers to pinpoint desirable boldface names. With that score, Beyonce is 27th among the more than 1,800 celebrities that the D.B.I. tracks. (The top five are Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Michael Jordan, Morgan Freeman and George Clooney. The presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are 9th and 25th, respectively.)
One Davie Brown category in which most celebrities appear vulnerable is trust. Celebrities are recognizable and appealing, but are often viewed with skepticism. ''Trust always seems to be the lowest score among celebrities,'' observes Matt Fleming, a Davie Brown account director who helps brands evaluate celebrity talent.
SO if some consumers don't really trust celebrities, why do they still run out to buy their perfumes or fashions? The answer, some analysts say, has its roots in two seismic shifts in the cultural landscape that began in the late 1990s.
First has been the emergence of Web sites and magazines that chronicle the mundane, daily activities of stars on a 24/7 basis. A voracious public eager to peek at Hollywood celebrities shopping for shoes and buying coffee wanted, in turn, to buy those shoes and drink that coffee themselves.
The other new force has been the explosive growth and mainstreaming of urban hip-hop music and marketing moves by artists like Mr. Combs, Shawn Carter (better known as Jay-Z) and Jennifer Lopez to slap their personal brands on clothing lines, fragrances and other goods. After hip-hop impresarios narrowed the divide between popular music and blatant hucksterism, other popular musicians followed suit.
''Hip-hop completely opened the eyes of other music genres as to how to relate to corporations and not be seen as sellouts,'' says Steve Stoute, an ad executive who has matched such celebrities and brands as Justin Timberlake and McDonald's, Gwen Stefani and Hewlett-Packard, and Jay-Z with Reebok.
The lucre that pours in from successful endorsements, meanwhile, has convinced celebrities that it's wise to be much more open to such deals than they once were.
''Seven years ago, the belief among celebrities was that perfume was something you did at the end of a career,'' says Bernd Beetz, the chief executive of Coty. ''Now it's different and seen as a key step in the start of a career.''
In 2002, Coty released Glow by JLo, in a successful rollout; global sales peaked at $78 million worldwide in 2003 before falling to $41.4 million last year, according to Euromonitor International, which tracks sales of consumer goods.
Glow by JLo is credited with ushering in a wave of celebrity fragrances. Britney Spears, Tim McGraw, Celine Dion, Halle Berry and even the ''Grey's Anatomy'' star Patrick Dempsey have either created fragrance lines or are about to do so.
And they want you to know that they really like the products. Really.
''I wear my cologne all of the time,'' says Mr. Dempsey, whose fragrance will be introduced by Avon Products in November. ''This is a whole different experience and a real education for me, and it has been something that I've been involved with every step of the way.''
With consumers facing so many choices these days, an emotional connection with a certain celebrity may make the difference between whether a shopper's hand stops over one product or moves on to the competition.
''As consumers, we see over 3,156 images a day. We're just not conscious of them,'' says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst of the consumer research firm NPD Group. ''Our subconscious records maybe 150, and only 30 or so reach our conscious behavior. If I have a celebrity as part of that message, I just accelerated the potential for my product to reach the conscious of the consumer.''
Even savvy, skeptical consumers who understand that stars are paid to support a product may still rely on an endorsement and buy the brand anyway, says Robert Cialdini, a professor of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University.
''We've used our cognitive capacity to build a sophisticated informational and technological environment,'' he says. But overloaded with information and stimulation, shoppers' brains revert to a more primitive, raw association of celebrity and product, Mr. Cialdini explains.
Because a celebrity link may entice consumers, brands continue to use stars as the public face of a corporate entity (Avon hired Reese Witherspoon to be its ''global ambassador''); as emissaries for new products (the luxury goods company Tod's is using Gwyneth Paltrow to introduce a new handbag); or as fresh faces to reinvigorate an aging product (Ms. Kidman for Chanel No. 5).
After Chanel signed Ms. Kidman in 2003 to a high-end campaign, which included a mini-movie commercial shot by the film director Baz Luhrmann, global sales of Chanel's classic perfume have jumped 30 percent, according to Euromonitor. Likewise, sales in Nike's golf division jumped smartly after the company hired Tiger Woods as a spokesman. (Nike declined to offer specific sales data.)
Such results aren't lost on other companies.
''Our primary goal is to tell our clients how beautifully this product is made, and to have a person like Gwyneth wear it is the perfect way to create the magic touch,'' says Claudio Castiglioni, general manager of Tod's.
Mr. Stoute says companies need help forming alliances with performers in order to reach fast-growing young Hispanic and urban markets.
''You get corporations and artists in the same room, and the conversation doesn't align,'' Mr. Stoute says. ''It's like Mars and Jupiter.''
The bigger risk for corporations, however, is spending tons of money on a celebrity and a glitzy campaign and not getting results.
Angelina Jolie doesn't do many endorsement deals, but she did agree to one for the upscale clothier St. John Knits. Analysts say she wasn't the right fit for St. John, which had hoped that she would revamp its conservative image. The company declined to comment on the ads.
Besides trying to carefully match a brand with a celebrity, some corporations say they also value exclusivity.
''We can't stop them from signing other endorsements,'' says Geralyn R. Breig, Avon's global brand president, who was involved in bringing on Ms. Witherspoon last year. ''But we didn't want our spokesperson to be someone who was deal-happy.''
JEFF STRAUGHN rocks back and forth in his office chair, chugging coffee as he describes the challenge he faced three years ago when he left a Madison Avenue ad agency to join the Island Def Jam record label with a new mandate: carve out branding deals with corporations that will raise the visibility of Island Def Jam artists.
Among his first assignments: a young vocalist who had been signed to the label by Jay-Z, then Def Jam's chief executive, and whose first album was about to be released: Rihanna.
''Here was a girl that no one was quite sure how to pronounce her name and quite a few people didn't know where Barbados was,'' he says. ''But we knew we had a pop superstar here.''
What better way to drum up interest in Rihanna among teenagers than a shopping mall tour? As luck would have it, the Secret brand of Procter & Gamble was looking to introduce a new body spray and wanted to align the campaign with an emerging singer.
Secret ended up sponsoring a 12-city mall tour for Rihanna, financing various production costs and creating a MySpace site where fans could get tickets for the shows.
While her first concert attracted about 250 people, Rihanna was drawing crowds of 2,500 when the tour closed. A star -- and a pitchwoman -- were being born.
Mr. Straughn and Rihanna's managers, meanwhile, actively negotiated other deals, including one with the Barbados Tourism Authority, which used portions of a video for one of Rihanna's early songs in television ads.
Eight months after her debut album, Rihanna released a second album, whose hit song ''S.O.S.'' prompted a deal with Nike. Rihanna shot a separate music video for the song, singing and dancing in a high school gym in a new line of Nike fitness dance clothes.
She also did deals with J. C. Penney and Nokia, then with a juice and tea company, Fuze. Rihanna featured Fuze drinks in one of her videos, and the company put six-foot-tall displays of the singer in grocery stores.
While Rihanna was paid for some of her work, the endorsements were intended to raise her visibility, push her music -- and her brand -- in new ways to consumers, and perhaps save the record label some marketing expenses.
BY the time Rihanna was on the verge of releasing her third album, ''Good Girl Gone Bad,'' the offers for endorsement and licensing deals were flying in, Mr. Straughn says. Not all were good fits for the singer, who was trying to reach an older audience with the album.
''We said no to so many deals,'' says Marc Jordan, one of her managers. ''Either the fit wasn't right -- it was more about a check than extending Rihanna's brand -- or there was a disconnect between the brand and Rihanna.''
Despite the desire to reduce marketing costs, Mr. Straughn says he can't push Rihanna or any of Def Jam's other artists into doing endorsement deals they don't want to do. He notes that many artists, like the Killers, don't want to take part in any endorsement deals.
For her part, Rihanna has been a branding machine -- though she says that she has grown more wary of overexposure.
''We started out trying to get everything we could and now we have to be a little more selective,'' she says. ''We have to hold back a little bit. It's a good thing to have to say we can take things back a little bit.''
Last spring, she completed her deal with Totes, which was her first licensing arrangement. Meanwhile, CoverGirl, which planned a print ad and related campaigns for the singer and its Wetslicks lip gloss, was persuaded by Rihanna's representatives to do a commercial as well.
CoverGirl executives saw a chance to connect their new product seamlessly to a megahit song.
''I knew in my gut that this was going to be a hit,'' says Vince Hudson, marketing director for CoverGirl North America. ''Def Jam needed to have promotion of her album, and CoverGirl wanted the product to be associated with the hot song. It was a win-win.''
As part of the promotion, CoverGirl allowed consumers to download the ''Umbrella'' video on its Web site and put displays in stores near its Fruit Spritzers product that allowed consumers to push a button to hear the song.
Mr. Straughn says Rihanna provides a good example of how the recording business is changing and how artists and brands can successfully wed without either feeling as if they've lost themselves. Rihanna, he crows, ''is my single biggest success story.''
Earlier this year, P.& G. provided a glimpse into what the future of celebrity-branded advertising may look like: it's creating a joint-venture record label with Island Def Jam.
The venture, called Tag Records, is headed up by the record producer and rapper Jermaine Dupri and will sign on new artists who, along with Mr. Dupri, will be the faces of P.& G.'s Tag body spray lines. (Aspiring artists hoping to get noticed will be able to upload their music to the Tag Web site, P.& G. says.)
''Our plan is to fully integrate and merge the music and the marketing for the new Tag body sprays that we have out there,'' says Adam Weber, P.& G.'s brand manager for Tag. ''This is different than the typical endorsement deal that has a start and end date. This is going to be ongoing throughout their entire career. The message becomes one and the same at some point between Tag and the artist.''
So are there any limits to what celebrities can endorse, or how far the celebrity pitch could go? Mr. Stoute briefly considers the question before jumping up and grabbing a framed front page from a newspaper.
''See that?'' he asks, pointing to the picture in the center of the page, showing a General Motors S.U.V. in a metallic blue concept color that Jay-Z helped to design. ''That's Jay-Z blue! We invented a color! There are no limits. There is no such thing as too far.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: June 22, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Marketers have clearly become star-struck. For some recent campaigns, Chanel, Accenture and Totes struck deals with Nicole Kidman, Tiger Woods and Rihanna. (PHOTOGRAPHS, TOP AND ABOVE, COMPETITRACK)(BU 1)
Gwyneth Paltrow appeared in a Tod's print ad and, at right, in a short film for Tod's, directed by Dennis Hopper. (PHOTOGRAPH BY BAUER-GRIFFIN.COM)(BU 8)
Patrick Dempsey, right, with his wife, Jillian, and the photographer Tom Munro, has teamed up with Avon to introduce a Dempsey cologne.(BU 8)
Ellen DeGeneres worked with American Express because she liked some of its past ads. ''It's flattering that companies think of you,'' she says.(BU 8) CHART: The Right Stuff: The Davie Brown Index, a celebrity hot list, uses consumer awareness and seven other metrics, including likeability and trendsetting ability, to score marketing potential. (Source: Davie Brown Entertainment)(BU 8)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
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916 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The New York Times
June 22, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
A National Push by Obama on Ads and Turnout
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG and CHRISTOPHER DREW; Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1545 words
Senator Barack Obama is drawing up plans for extensive advertising and voter-turnout drives across the nation, hoping to capitalize on his expected fund-raising advantage over Senator John McCain to force Republicans to compete in states they have not had to defend in decades.
With his decision to give up public financing and the spending limits that go with it, Mr. Obama has added several seasoned hands to his advertising team, a harbinger of a multifaceted television campaign that people inside and outside Obama headquarters said would grow well beyond its already large presence in 18 states.
Future commercials could run on big national showcases like the Olympics in August and smaller cable networks like MTV and Black Entertainment Television that appeal to specific demographic and interest groups.
He is also dispatching paid staff members to all states, an unusual move by the standards of modern presidential campaigns where the fight is often contained to contested territories.
Aides and advisers to Mr. Obama said they did not believe he necessarily had a serious chance of winning in many of the traditionally Republican states. They said he could at least draw Mr. McCain into spending time and money in those places while swelling Democratic enrollment and supporting other Democrats on the ballot.
Mr. Obama's strategists are studying data from focus groups, magazine subscription lists and census studies, the first steps toward an intensive door-to-door drive, using volunteers overseen by a growing staff of organizers.
Their aim is to reach voters with messages tailored to their interests through mail, e-mail and word of mouth.
Free from the constraints of public financing, Mr. Obama's budget for the rest of the year could exceed $300 million, campaign and party officials have said. But his fund-raising slowed in May, when the campaign raised about $22 million -- almost $10 million less than in April and a large decline from the record amounts he was taking in earlier this year. The decline was evidence that he might have to invest substantial time at fund-raising to match the levels he set in the first quarter this year.
Still, Mr. Obama's allies said his success at assembling a huge network of donors should give his campaign the resources to build a far-reaching command-and-control center, something that Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts lacked when he was the Democratic nominee in 2004. Mr. Kerry's depleted coffers and reliance on public funds forced him to count on outside groups to sign up voters and run advertisements on his behalf.
With Mr. McCain's acceptance of public financing restricting him to a budget of $84.1 million this fall, party officials say Mr. Obama's decision to opt out of the system is well worth the criticism he has received for doing so, which even came from some allies.
''To have these enormous resources just gives you so many strategic options,'' said Tad Devine, a senior strategist for Mr. Kerry's 2004 campaign. ''If John Kerry had these resources and had stayed outside the system of public funding, I believe he'd be president today.''
Aides to Mr. Obama, of Illinois, have warned their donors against being overly giddy. His campaign manager, David Plouffe, urged top fund-raisers to intensify their work as they seek to tap into those who previously supported only Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
Mr. Obama will help out by personally attending money-raising events from coast to coast over the next few weeks.
Republicans said they expected Mr. Obama to show a sizable financial advantage, but it might not help him if the race came down to the handful of states that decided the last few presidential elections. In that case, they said, the $84.1 million in public financing that Mr. McCain would receive would be enough for everything he needed to stay competitive.
Mr. McCain also will have considerable help from the Republican National Committee, which has far outpaced the Democratic Party in fund-raising and still holds the vaunted voter identification and turnout machinery that President Bush's campaign built with his chief strategist, Karl Rove, and a former Republican chairman, Ken Mehlman.
And Republican officials said in interviews that Mr. McCain, of Arizona, had a strong political identity that kept him at or near parity with Mr. Obama in several polls and that would help carry him through the general election.
''While we will be outspent in this election, we will have the necessary resources to drive Senator McCain's message of reforming government, achieving prosperity and delivering peace,'' said Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.
Even with the fund-raising dip in May, aides to Mr. Obama expect to have something Mr. McCain likely will not: enough resources to eliminate the hard choices that campaigns have traditionally faced when balancing the competing needs of their various state efforts.
''These resources allow you to not make decisions based on financial limitations,'' Mr. Plouffe said in an interview.
Referring to a state that has long leaned Republican, he added, ''If we want to go play in a state like Georgia'' in the fullest way, ''we'll be able to do that.''
By the end of the month, the Obama campaign will have a director and staff members in all 50 states. While some states will have only a few workers assigned to them, the biggest battlegrounds will have scores, many of whom will arrive by the Fourth of July.
The campaign is in many ways building on a strategy championed by Howard Dean, the party chairman who has been pressing Democrats to establish a presence in all states rather than focus primarily on battlegrounds. But Mr. Obama is putting his own stamp on the plan by moving much of the party's operations from Washington to his headquarters in Chicago and installing Paul Tewes, one of his top organizers, to oversee it.
Party leaders in Republican-leaning states like Georgia and Montana are already reporting an influx of paid Obama staffers and volunteers who were sent there to begin registering potential Obama voters.
Mr. Obama's team is also sending resources to Virginia, which no Democratic presidential candidate has won since 1964. Abbi Easter, treasurer of the state's Democratic Party, said Mr. Obama had dispatched five paid staff members to the state to begin organizing a voter registration drive.
''I've been doing Democratic politics in the state for 25 years,'' Ms. Easter said, ''and this is such a novelty I feel like a kid at their first Christmas.''
She said she was also expecting help from as many as 100 of the 3,600 ''Obama Organizing Fellows,'' a group of full-time volunteers fanning out across the country to oversee local registration efforts. The mobilization is being helped along by Mr. Obama's robust Internet operation specializing in reaching out to the younger voters who use social networking sites like Facebook.
But Mr. Plouffe said the volunteer program was modeled after the one that Mr. Bush's aides devised in 2004, which sent supporters door to door to spread the word about the president in their own neighborhoods -- a personal touch informed by detailed lists of neighbors' occupations, voting histories, pet causes and hobbies.
Four years ago, Democrats and their liberal allies scrambled to match the vast lists of personal voter information gathered by the Republicans through public records and consumer data banks.
The Democratic National Committee has since greatly improved its voter information file, which is now at Mr. Obama's disposal. But his aides were also considering buying another huge list with information on tens of millions of Americans. The list is owned by Catalist, a private concern co-founded by a longtime Democratic operative, Harold M. Ickes.
In an interview, Mr. Ickes said Mr. Obama's campaign aides were particularly interested in new information his company had gathered about cable television viewing habits.
Obama campaign officials said that was because they were considering a tailored commercial campaign on niche cable channels that could give Mr. Obama special access to groups that his campaign deemed crucial for victory, like the young audience for MTV and the African-American viewership for BET.
''It's a great opportunity to get people information that may be particularly germane to them,'' David Axelrod, the campaign's chief strategist, said of the specialty cable commercials, perfected by Mr. Bush in 2004.
Yet Mr. Obama's team has looked into advertising in as many as 25 states and has made clear its openness to running commercials on the broadcast television networks.
All of this, of course, is going to take more than the $43.1 million that Mr. Obama had in the bank as of last month. Officials said they expected that Mrs. Clinton's fund-raisers could bring in a total of $75 million in the coming weeks.
But, members of both parties said, Mr. Obama had his real advantage in his own group of 1.5 million donors, many of whom have given small amounts and could be readily tapped again.
''They'll continue to give,'' said Eli Pariser, the executive director of the liberal group MoveOn, an Internet fund-raising pioneer, ''as long as he doesn't treat them as an A.T.M. but as partners in the movement.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: September 21, 2010
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Senator Barack Obama, at a United States Conference of Mayors meeting on Saturday in Miami, has planned a 50-state strategy for the general election. (PHOTOGRAPH BY GARY I. ROTHSTEIN/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY)(A20)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
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917 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The Washington Post
June 22, 2008 Sunday
Suburban Edition
McCain Driving Debate, But Some Fear Swerving;
GOP Insiders Want More Consistent Theme
BYLINE: Michael D. Shear and Juliet Eilperin; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A06
LENGTH: 1461 words
In the two weeks since Barack Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee, John McCain has demonstrated a knack for driving the daily political debate, forcing his opponent to respond to a challenge to meet in town hall debates, accusing him of being "delusional" about terrorism and saying he flip-flopped on public financing for his campaign.
But even as McCain's strategists claim tactical victories, Republicans outside the campaign worry that underlying weaknesses in its organization and message are costing him valuable time to make the case for his own candidacy.
Allies complain that the campaign has offered myriad confusing themes that lurch between pitching McCain as a committed conservative one day and an independent-minded reformer the next, while displaying little of the discipline and focus that characterized President Bush's successful campaigns.
Several Republican supporters of the presumptive nominee said they were puzzled by a series of easily avoidable mistakes, including sloppy political stagecraft and poorly timed comments that undercut McCain's reputation as a maverick.
The grumbling intensified last week when McCain launched a television commercial declaring that he had "stood up" to Bush on global warming, on the same day he traveled to Houston to call for lifting the federal ban on offshore drilling.
Critics said the ad's message about the differences between McCain and Bush was lost when Bush endorsed the same coastal drilling proposal the next day.
"I'm baffled that the McCain guys have somehow managed to take a guy who practically had 'reform' tattooed to his forehead and turned him into the bastion of the status quo," said one Republican strategist, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The veteran strategist, who has not been asked to join the campaign, said the "devastating me-too chorus from Bush and [Vice President ] Cheney" on oil drilling is a "great example of the schizophrenia that surrounds their campaign."
Senior aides to McCain reject such criticisms as "armchair quarterbacking." They cite recent polls that show McCain only slightly behind Obama despite record low approval ratings for Bush and congressional Republicans. A Washington Post poll on Tuesday showed McCain trailing Obama by six percentage points.
"We feel very good about where our campaign is right now, and John McCain is running very competitively in an electoral environment that is otherwise very challenging for Republicans," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.
The campaign faced inquiries yesterday from Democrats, who continued to raise legal questions about McCain's Friday trip to Canada, where he spoke at a $100-per-person luncheon and then met with business executives privately. Democrats demanded to know whether McCain's campaign received any money from foreign sources, since that would be illegal under U.S. law.
McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said the $100 tickets sold by the Economic Club of Canada did not benefit the campaign and that the meeting with executives was not a fundraiser. Mark Adler, the chief executive of the club, said in an e-mail that "all ticket revenue was used to stage the event and luncheon," and that "the McCain campaign in no way benefited financially from this event." Hazelbaker said flatly that neither of the events was "a campaign event."
Democratic officials questioned why, then, the campaign paid for the Canada trip and brought reporters along. And they said the event with executives could qualify as an in-kind contribution since some of McCain's comments there were reportedly political in nature.
The McCain campaign did get a bit of good news last week: It raised about the same amount of money in May as the Obama campaign did, and the Republican trails by only a little in cash on hand.
But as the criticisms mount, McCain has begun to make some changes to his operation and adapt to a general-election race against a well-funded opponent with a large and sophisticated political organization.
At the request of campaign manager Rick Davis, senior adviser Steve Schmidt will leave McCain's side on the trail and return to headquarters for what a source said will be a "much greater operational role" in the campaign. A former aide to Cheney, Schmidt managed California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's reelection campaign. His portfolio will expand to include strategy, communications, policy, scheduling and other areas, the campaign source said.
Former Bush communications director Nicolle Wallace joined McCain's campaign as a senior strategist in May. Last week, she spent time with McCain on his plane for the first time. Matt McDonald, another veteran of the Bush and Schwarzenegger teams, has also been added to the campaign.
Despite those moves, McCain's campaign continues to be led by a relatively insular group of advisers who stuck by him during the darkest times of his primary campaign. Interviews with lawmakers and Republican operatives last week revealed concern about their strategy.
"The biggest mistake they are making, they are trying to walk this tightrope between creating distance from Bush and not angering the base," said a Michigan Republican operative who described himself as nervous about McCain's chances of victory in that swing state.
"He's got to highlight the things that used to make conservatives pull their hair out," said the Michigan operative. "I don't think they are doing that very well."
Another Republican strategist, who worked for a rival GOP campaign during the primary and has ties to Bush's political team, said the McCain team has "not really figured out" how to present McCain to voters: as an experienced conservative leader or a reformer who wants change.
"To them, McCain is inevitable," the GOP strategist said. "They are good on the opposition research side of forcing the agenda. But who John McCain is and what he stands for -- it's a little hard to connect all the dots."
The problem has played out in the campaign's changing slogans. On June 3, a much-ridiculed green background behind McCain sported the new phrase "A Leader We Can Believe In," a play on Obama's message of "Change We Can Believe In." But just a few days later the campaign had ditched that slogan and replaced it with "Reform. Prosperity. Peace."
McCain or his aides seem to have undercut their message at times.
On the same day that McCain sought to respond to higher gas prices by calling for an end to the drilling moratorium, his senior policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, told reporters in a conference call that the move would not boost oil supplies or bring down gas prices in the immediate future.
A three-day trip to Florida in early June was overshadowed by questions about McCain's opposition to Everglades funding and a catastrophic insurance fund. His comment last week that it's "not important" if troops remain in Iraq distracted from a Philadelphia town hall that day.
Still, some McCain allies believe voters will turn to him if Obama's initial luster fades. "This was a guy who was above politics, and it's becoming clear that he's just another politician," Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) said of Obama. "For most voters, McCain is a safe haven."
"To be even in a . . . horse race, I find that good news," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Tex.), who chairs the Republican Study Committee. "He's clearly the one Republican, I believe, who can be victorious in November."
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) said the race is a draw, adding that McCain has the edge on terrorism and foreign policy while Obama leads on the issue of change. "They're just in the ring, circling each other, and neither is pulling the punches they might want to," he said.
Kingston said McCain does need to focus on certain elements of a modern campaign, such as his Internet operation, if he hopes to stay close with Obama. "Obama and his friends at MoveOn.org, they own the Internet right now," he said.
McCain's people continue to be aggressive in their critique of Obama, pressing what they see as a clear advantage. In a memo released to the news media Friday, Schmidt accused Obama of using words that are "empty of meaning" and of putting rhetoric above policy.
The memo said that Obama broke his word on a promise to participate in the public financing system and that he had gone back on his pledge to debate "anywhere, anytime" by refusing to meet McCain in town hall meetings every week this summer.
Davis, who is leaving Congress after this year, said McCain has the advantage of being a well-defined brand in the minds of many voters. And he said there is plenty of time left to burnish it.
"This is still skirmishing. They are still sparring. The main event won't start until after the conventions," Davis said. "This still has a long way to go. People forget that."
LOAD-DATE: June 22, 2008
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The New York Times
June 21, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
INSIDE THE TIMES: June 21, 2008
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 2382 words
INTERNATIONAL
CHIEF OPPOSITION STRATEGIST DENIED BAIL IN ZIMBABWE
Tendai Biti, the secretary general for Zimbabwe's opposition party and its chief strategist, in self-imposed exile for two months, was assured safety should he return. Instead he was charged with treason and imprisoned in Harare, where he was just denied bail and ordered to be held pending his court appearance on July 7 -- 10 days after the election is set to take place. Page A10
THREAT TO IMMIGRANTS AND THE AGED
It is a common sight in Italy: the elderly gentleman or lady strolling, arms linked, with an aide. Often that aide is an immigrant, and as often illegal. The aides provide a service in a country where the elderly are a rapidly expanding group and birth rates are low. But under a new law proposed by the far right and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, being in Italy illegally would be a felony punishable with jail time. Page A6
SOUTH KOREAN REPLACES TOP AIDES
President Lee Myung-bak of Korea has replaced 9 of his 10 senior presidential aides, hoping to restore trust. After a beef import deal with the United States, widespread protests accused the government of ignoring the health risks of importing American beef products from older cattle, despite assurances from both governments that the meat was safe. South Korea and the United States are currently close to a second deal in which no cattle older than 30 months will be imported. Page A10
CHINA'S TRAFFIC PLANS FOR OLYMPICS
With 49 days remaining before the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, and the air soupy with smog, Beijing officials announced a temporary measure to unsnarl the city's traffic and reduce its chronic and sometimes choking air pollution. The policy will restrict owners of private cars to driving on alternate days for a two month period, while operating hours for public transportation will be extended. Page A9
ARMS COMPANY ACCUSED OF FRAUD
The president of a Miami Beach arms-dealing company and three others were indicted on charges of fraud and conspiring to misrepresent the types of ammunition they sold to the Defense Department as part of a $298 million Army contract. Federal officials say that they sold Chinese bullets to the Pentagon, who would then in turn supply Afghan security forces. But the bullets were old and supposedly Albanian. The Army contract and American law prohibit trading in Chinese arms. Page A8
New Evidence in Torture Claims A10
Hunger Strike in Moroccan Jails A8
NATIONAL
POLICE RAID HOME
Of Baltimore Mayor
Earlier this week, a team of police officers and staff members from the Maryland state prosecutor's office showed up at the home of Sheila Dixon, the mayor of Baltimore, with a search warrant. It was a major turn in a two-year state investigation into Baltimore's spending practices, and the fallout could imperil Ms. Dixon's tenure as mayor, which has been marred by controversy. PAGE A12
JURY GIVES RESERVIST HIS JOB BACK
When Michael Serricchio returned from active duty in the military reserves, he came back to a job at the same company with a smaller salary and less responsibility. So Mr. Serricchio turned to the courts, and a jury ruled that the company intentionally made him an offer it knew he would not be able to accept. ''This is a message to employers across the country that you have to protect the rights of people who are called up for service,'' his lawyer said. PAGE A11
OBAMA DEFENDS FINANCE DECISION
Senator Barack Obama justified his decision to opt out of the public financing system for the general election, saying it doesn't account for spending by independent groups. Senator John McCain's campaign continued to criticize Mr. Obama's decision, accusing Mr. Obama of a reversal on earlier pledges to accept public financing for his campaign. PAGE A13
MCCLELLAN TESTIFIES ON C.I.A. LEAK
In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Scott McClellan, President Bush's former press secretary, was grilled on his involvement in leaking the identity of an intelligence officer. Mr. McClellan didn't offer up much that was not already in his much-discussed best seller, ''What Happened,'' which was critical of the Bush administration. He said he had been unfairly vilified by Bush supporters since his book was published. PAGE A12
PLAYING NICE ON THE HILL
A long-stalled measure on telephone surveillance won easy approval in the House, which illustrates a burst of productivity and cooperation on a hyperpartisan Capitol Hill. Has Congress turned over a new leaf? While that's not impossible, it's more likely that both Republicans and Democrats are trying to deal with all the politically thorny issues now instead of in the weeks before the November election. PAGE A12
MAYORS ADDRESS FUEL COSTS
A report released at a mayors' annual meeting found cities grappling with high fuel costs. The survey found that most of the cities saw an uptick in the use of public transportation. Others saw a silver lining: the return of moneyed empty nesters and young professionals to downtowns areas. PAGE A12
BUSINESS
FEELING THE PINCH,
Credit Cards Lower Limits
The credit crunch has made companies like American Express and banks that issue cards like Visa and Mastercard nervous. So in response, many are cutting the limits for customers who have run up big debts, live in areas that have been hit hard by the housing crisis or work for themselves in troubled industries. And often, they're doing so without warning. PAGE C1
GRADUATION GIFT SEASON IS UPON US
It's graduation season again, which means it's also graduation gift season. So is that graduation invitation really just an invitation for presents? ''It is hard to pinpoint when graduation presents became a must, but the excessiveness of gift giving has followed the general trend in our society to make every occasion a call for swag,'' Alina Tugend says. Miss Manners and other experts in etiquette weigh in. The consensus: whatever you decide to get the graduate, do not send a check. PAGE C5
CHINA FACES HIGHER GAS PRICES
Gasoline in China costs about $3 a gallon -- 25 percent less than it does in the United States. Still, the Chinese government's decision to raise prices has ignited protests among poor Chinese who are hit hardest by higher food and fuel costs. Beijing was weighing those concerns against the huge losses at the country's two biggest refiners, Sinopec and PetroChina, which has pressured them to slow production, and have depressed their shares, dragging down the broader mainland stock market and angering the small investors who have lost much of their savings. PAGE C3
new york report
BLOOMBERG TELLS JEWISH VOTERS
Obama Rumors Are Lies
Speaking before a crucial constituency in the coming election, Jewish voters, in the pivotal state of Florida, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg forcefully denounced what he called a ''whisper campaign'' linking Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to radical Islam. ''Let's call those rumors what they are: lies,'' said Mr. Bloomberg. PAGE B1
A SUMMER LIKE NO OTHER
It is a bittersweet time for freshly sprung college graduates, at least those lucky enough to have landed jobs. Summer is here and for many young people working their first real jobs, it will be a summer reconfigured. ''When you're in college, you have three and a half months of vacation,'' acknowledged a recent graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia. PAGE B1
SPORTS
IN TICS AND IDIOSYNCRASIES,
Top Players Find Their Zen
Novak Djokovic often bounces the tennis ball for gratingly long stretches before he serves, especially before big points. Rafael Nadal towels off obsessively and makes sure that his drink bottle is positioned just-so during changeovers. Roger Federer twirls his racket and superfluously shakes his head. In a golden age of professional men's tennis, it is also the golden age of the quirky rituals meant to calm the jumpy nerves of the game's elite. PAGE D1
END OF THE ROAD FOR SCHILLING?
Curt Schilling of the Red Sox hasn't thrown a pitch this season because of a shoulder injury, and his decision to have surgery rules out not just the prospect of a return this season, but ever. ''My season is over, and there's a pretty decent chance I've thrown my last pitch forever,'' he told a radio station. PAGE D4
Obituaries
GENE PERSSON, 74
When he produced the controversial racial drama, ''Dutchman,'' a two-character drama set in an empty subway car, the play was barred from one theater and the subsequent film was shot in London because New York City would not allow him to use its subways. But within weeks of the New York opening of the ''Dutchman'' film, his musical ''You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown'' opened -- an instant hit that ran nearly four years. PAGE A17
HEWITT D. CRANE, 81
His career traced the arc of the early computing industry, and he was instrumental in the design and construction of the first commercial computer to automate individual checking accounts. He started with a job at I.B.M.'s headquarters in New York City in 1949, before going on to found an internationally known winery. PAGE A17
ARTS
IT'S THE REVENGE OF THE NERDS,
And Hollywood Is Rolling Its Eyes
While Hollywood types don't necessarily revel in navigating the geeky, mostly male crowd at Comic-Con International, the giant comic book and fantasy convention in its 39th year, it's a necessity in a film landscape where comic book franchises routinely rake in hundreds of millions of dollars in domestic box office receipts. ''These people need Comic-Con more than Comic-Con needs them,'' one regular attendee said. In other words: Kneel before Zod! PAGE B7
TIME RUNNING OUT FOR BUILDING
Riverview High School in Sarasota, Fla., is the most influential of the Modernist buildings designed by Paul Rudolph. Earlier this week, the Sarasota County School Board cleared the way for the demolition of the building, halting a plan by preservationists who wanted to restore and it turn it into a music conservatory. The board said the preservationists' proposal failed to come up with a credible strategy to finance the restoration. PAGE B7
THIS WEEKEND
SUNDAY MAGAZINE
''Mad Men,'' a show about the world of advertising in the early 1960s on Madison Avenue, languished for years after being rejected by HBO and Showtime. But after AMC picked it up, the show won instant critical acclaim, a Peabody Award and a Golden Globe. How its creator, Matthew Weiner, turned early-'60s advertising culture into the smartest show on television. PAGE 32
ARTS & LEISURE
A well-financed experiment by some of the nation's most powerful musical institutions (Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute) has young professional musicians teaching music at New York public schools. A year spent following a thoroughbred French horn player named Alana Vegter as she taught at Ditmas Junior High School, Intermediate School 62, in the Kensington section of Brooklyn, showed how high-minded concepts can run smack into reality. PAGE 1
BOOK REVIEW
Any new entry in the crowded field of books on the 1962 Cuban missile crisis must pass an immediate test: Is it just another recapitulation, or does it increase our net understanding of this seminal cold war event? By focusing on the activities of the American, Soviet and Cuban militaries during those tense October days, Michael Dobbs's ''One Minute to Midnight'' passes the test with flying colors, Richard Holbrooke writes. PAGE 1
TRAVEL
While the paintings of Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes, valued for their beauty, power and candor, can be found in private and public collections throughout in the world, most of them still reside in Madrid. Of these, the majority are in the Prado museum. But the best frame for his work may be the city itself. A visitor can discover some of the hidden gems of Madrid by seeking out the Goyas elsewhere in the city, including where the artist left them. Page 3
SUNDAY STYLES
Lance Armstrong, the cycling champion and anticancer campaigner, was in New York last week, making television appearances to promote a new Web venture, livestrong.com, devoted to healthy living. Also in town was the other Lance Armstrong, the tabloid darling and ''notorious Texas playboy,'' as people.com has called him, the one who dated an Olson twin and inspires headlines like ''How Lance Stole Kate From Owen.'' The question arises: Which Lance is Mr. Armstrong best known for? PAGE 1
SUNDAY BUSINESS
Nicole Kidman sashays in ads for Chanel No. 5 perfume. Eva Longoria, the bombshellette star of ''Desperate Housewives,'' sells L'Oreal Paris hair color. Jessica Simpson struts for a hair extension company, HairUWear, and the acne skin-care line Proactiv Solution. And Jamie Lee Curtis spoons up Dannon Activia yogurt while promoting Honda cars. It's nearly impossible to surf the Internet, open a newspaper or magazine, or watch television without seeing a celebrity selling something. In the era of the human billboard, where the star ends and the product and pitch begin is becoming less and less discernible. PAGE 1
EDITORIAL
A GLOBAL AIDS CAMPAIGN STALLED
A handful of Republican senators is blocking action on a bill that would greatly increase American funding to combat AIDS around the world. PAGE A18
THE COURT AND WORKERS
On Thursday, the Supreme Court, which has a reputation for being reflexively probusiness, issued the latest of several proworker decisions. PAGE A18
FROM BROWNFIELDS TO GREENBACKS
The plan for New York State to help pay to clean up toxic sites so developers could build something useful was a terrific idea. But it went astray in Albany. PAGE A18
op-ed
GAIL COLLINS
As voters, all we need out of a vice-presidential nominee is one qualified to run the store in the event of crisis. Picking a running mate is -- no disrespect intended -- like picking a pet. PAGE A19
BOB HERBERT
Long-term economic distress is a big factor in the decline of two-parent families. PAGE A19
SANDBAGGED
After joining a valiant but futile effort to sandbag the riverbanks last week, an Iowa City, Iowa, resident finds himself canoeing over fence posts and mailboxes. An Op-Ed essay by Joe Blair. PAGE A19
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
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The Washington Post
June 21, 2008 Saturday
Met 2 Edition
Clinton Campaign $22.5 Million In Debt at the End of Last Month
BYLINE: Shailagh Murray; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A06
LENGTH: 810 words
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to return to Senate politics next week, now that her run for the Democratic presidential nomination is over, but a campaign finance filing made plain last night that the effects of that losing effort will continue to weigh on her political future.
Clinton's campaign was $22.5 million in debt at the end of May, $3 million more than a month earlier. More than half of the latest debt ($12.2 million) was owed to the candidate herself.
Clinton received $12.6 million in contributions in May, and she had $3.4 million cash on hand left for primary spending. She also had $23.3 million for the general election, money she cannot use to pay off her primary debt.
Clinton has shunned most public appearances since her departure from the race on June 7, but she is expected to campaign with Sen. Barack Obama at a pair of events late next week, the first joint public events for the former rivals.
On Thursday night, Clinton will introduce Obama to a group of her top donors at the Mayflower Hotel in the District, a bid to smooth relations between her supporters and the presumptive Democratic nominee. She is also scheduled to speak that day to the National Association of Latino Elected Officials.
Clinton is expected to return to Capitol Hill early in the week, according to a senior Democratic aide, and could appear on the Senate floor as early as Tuesday morning to vote on a housing crisis bailout package. Votes are expected later in the week on a sweeping new surveillance bill that would effectively shield telecommunications companies from privacy lawsuits, and a war funding bill that also includes new education benefits for veterans. Clinton, and possibly Obama, could be present for both.
"A week from today, you will have seen [Clinton] at the Capitol," her spokesman Philippe Reines said by e-mail yesterday.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said that next Friday's joint appearance may be limited to one event but that the campaign is not ready to announce details.
Speaking to reporters yesterday in Jacksonville, Fla., Obama defended his decision a day earlier to opt out of the federal financing system for the general election after pledging to seek a deal with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to use public as opposed to private money. McCain continued to bash Obama on the issue yesterday, accusing him of breaking his word and saying the decision compromised his claim to credentials as a reformer.
But the decision is almost certain to give Obama an enormous financial advantage in the final eight weeks of the race. While McCain will be restricted to spending the $84.1 million that public financing will provide, Obama can raise and spend as much as he can. The Obama campaign reports that he has already attracted at least 1.5 million donors, and Clinton could ask her donors to redirect to Obama the general-election money she must return. Some political observers believe he could amass $300 million or more to spend on the general election.
The Obama campaign announced last night that it raised $22 million in May, a relatively small sum compared with his previous totals -- he raised $55 million in February -- but still $1 million more than McCain's May total of $21 million, the best showing so far for the Republican. McCain finished May with just under $32 million in the bank, compared with Obama's $43 million, although about $10 million of Obama's total can be spent only after the party's nominating convention in August.
At his news conference, Obama said he had opted out to preserve his ability to compete with independent conservative groups he expected to challenge him, although no such well-funded national organizations have materialized.
He asserted that his fundraising rules, which bar contributions from federal lobbyists and political action committees, represent meaningful campaign finance reform.
When a reporter pointed to the dearth of well-heeled, GOP-aligned independent groups emerging, Obama responded by asserting that they could "pop up pretty quickly and have enormous influence," adding: "And we've already seen them -- and there was an ad run in South Dakota . . . where it took a speech that I had made, extolling faith, and made it seem as if I had said that America was a Muslim nation."
He continued, "We've already seen attacks on my wife from, you know, the Tennessee Republican Party. I don't think I'm off the wall here to see that, you know, there are a lot of outside groups that are potentially going to be going after us hard."
Later, speaking to supporters at a Jacksonville fundraiser, Obama said of Republicans, "We know what kind of campaign they're going to run. They're going to try to make you afraid. They're going to try to make you afraid of me: 'He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black? He's got a feisty wife.' "
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The New York Times
June 20, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
REVERSING STAND, OBAMA DECLINES PUBLIC FINANCING
BYLINE: By MICHAEL LUO and JEFF ZELENY; Jim Rutenberg, Christopher Drew and Michael Cooper contributed reporting.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1617 words
Citing the specter of attacks from independent groups on the right, Senator Barack Obama announced Thursday that he would opt out of the public financing system for the general election.
His decision to break an earlier pledge to take public money will quite likely transform the landscape of presidential campaigns, injecting hundreds of millions of additional dollars into the race and raising doubts about the future of public financing for national races.
In becoming the first major party candidate to reject public financing and its attendant spending limits, Mr. Obama contended that the public financing apparatus was broken and that his Republican opponents were masters at ''gaming'' the system and would spend ''millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations'' smearing him.
But it is not at all clear at this point in the evolving campaign season that Republicans will have the advantage when it comes to support from independent groups. In fact, the Democrats appear much better poised to benefit from such efforts.
Republican activists have been fretting about the absence so far of any major independent effort, comparable to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which helped undermine Senator John Kerry's campaign in 2004, to boost Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, who has badly trailed Mr. Obama in raising money.
''As of today, he's looking for ghosts that don't exist,'' Chris LaCivita, a Republican strategist who helped direct the Swift Boat effort, said of Mr. Obama's rationale for rejecting the financing.
Mr. Obama's decision, which had long been expected given his record-breaking money-raising prowess during the Democratic primary season, was immediately criticized by Mr. McCain, who confirmed Thursday that he would accept public financing.
''This is a big, big deal,'' said Mr. McCain, of Arizona, who was touring flooded areas in Iowa. ''He has completely reversed himself and gone back, not on his word to me, but the commitment he made to the American people.''
Mr. Obama's advisers said Thursday that they believed he could raise $200 million to $300 million for the general election, not counting money raised for the Democratic National Committee, if he were freed from the shackles of accepting public money.
Signaling how his ability to raise record amounts was already affecting the race, Mr. Obama, of Illinois, on Thursday released his first advertisement of the general election, spending what Republicans estimated as $4 million in 18 states, including some that Democrats have not contested in recent elections.
In making its decision to bypass public financing, the campaign declined an infusion of $84.1 million in money from federal taxpayers. The decision means that Mr. Obama will have to spend considerably more time raising money -- he will head to California next week to open the effort -- at the expense of spending time meeting voters.
To make the exchange worthwhile, aides said, Mr. Obama would need to raise at least twice as much money than he would have received under public financing, with a goal of raising three times as much. But in 17 months of raising money for the primary campaign, the Obama campaign has amassed a record 1.5 million individual contributors. Those are the first people the campaign will approach for general election donations.
The public financing system limits the amount of money that campaigns can spend in return for the public money. It was set up to reduce the influence of private donations in the political process.
According to aides, Mr. Obama reached his decision knowing he might tarnish his desired reformist image -- he pledged last year to accept public financing if his opponent did as well -- but strategists for the campaign made the calculation that it was worth it, in part, because of the potential for the Republican National Committee to seriously out-raise its Democratic counterpart. The Republican committee finished May with nearly $54 million in the bank, compared with just $4 million for the Democratic National Committee.
''It's a gap, to say the least,'' said Robert Gibbs, the campaign's communications director, of the disparity in party fund-raising.
There are limitations, however, to the use of party money that Mr. McCain is expected to rely on. Only about $19 million of it can be spent in a coordinated manner with the party's presidential candidate, although the party can spend an unlimited amount without coordinating with the campaign. The party and the candidate's campaign can also split the costs of ''hybrid'' advertisements that must be worded in such a way that refers to both the presidential campaign, as well as other party candidates down the ticket, which media strategists say can be cumbersome.
Early last year, before he became a money-raising phenomenon, Mr. Obama floated in a filing with the Federal Election Commission the possibility of working out an agreement with the other party's nominee to accept public financing if both sides agreed. Later, when asked in a questionnaire whether he would participate in the system if his opponent did the same, Mr. Obama wrote, ''yes,'' adding, ''If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.''
Although Mr. Obama pledged more recently to discuss a deal with the McCain campaign, Mr. McCain's aides said that there were never any real negotiations.
The size and focus of Mr. Obama's new advertising campaign left no doubt that he was prepared to spend his money in ways that Democrats could only dream about four years ago.
Among the 18 states where his advertisements will begin running on Friday are Alaska, Georgia and Montana -- states so reliably Republican that neither party has seen fit to advertise in them in any big way during the past few presidential contests.
''I think the last guy to buy Georgia was General Sherman,'' said Alex Castellanos, a longtime Republican advertising strategist. ''It's a very aggressive general election strategy. With his kind of resources, you're not just buying swing states. He's trying to put new states in play.''
On paper, Mr. Obama is playing catch-up to Mr. McCain, who began his advertising campaign two weeks ago. But Mr. McCain's campaign has been largely focused on roughly 10 states that have been traditional battlegrounds during presidential campaigns, including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Mr. Obama, who has sharply criticized the influence of money in politics and has barred contributions from federal lobbyists and political action committees to his campaign and the party, announced his decision Thursday in a videotaped message to supporters. He argued that the tens of thousands of small donors who had fueled his campaign over the Internet represented a ''new kind of politics,'' free from the influence of special interests.
The Obama campaign highlighted Thursday the fact that 93 percent of the more than three million contributions it had received were for $200 or less. But Mr. Obama has also benefited from a formidable high-dollar network that has collected more money in contributions of $1,000 or more than even Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-vaunted team of bundlers of donations.
Indeed, Mr. Obama stands to receive a significant boost from fund-raisers who formerly supported Mrs. Clinton, of New York.
Michael Coles, a former Clinton fund-raiser from Atlanta, said in an interview that he was one of 20 to 30 Clinton supporters whojoined Mr. Obama's national finance committee at a meeting on Thursday in Chicago. Members of the committee have each pledged to raise $250,000 for Mr. Obama.
People from both camps said they expected most of Mrs. Clinton's top fund-raisers to align behind Mr. Obama, and that they could raise at least $50 million for him.
Mr. Obama, however, cast his decision on Thursday as a necessary counter to unscrupulous supporters of Mr. McCain's.
''We've already seen that he's not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies' running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations,'' Mr. Obama said.
Mr. McCain has been highly critical in the past of 527s and other independent groups, but he seems to have softened his rhetoric lately, saying his campaign could not be expected to ''referee'' such groups.
Nevertheless, Republican strategists said many affluent donors who might be in a position to finance 527 groups were wary this time because of the legal headaches that bedeviled many of these groups after the 2004 election, as well as the possibility they might incur the wrath of Mr. McCain.
The Obama campaign has urged its major fund-raisers not to give to outside groups and cited the decision recently by the leaders of Progressive Media USA, which had been expected to be the major Democratic independent television advertising effort, to shut down, as proof that Mr. Obama's instructions were having an effect.
Activists on the left, however, said they sensed the campaign was mainly concerned about advertising by independent groups, wanting to be able to control Mr. Obama's message, but was willing to accept help from outside groups doing other activities on his behalf, like voter registration and turning out voters.
''It's my understanding that they were primarily focused on the 527s dealing with radio and TV ads,'' said Martin Frost, president of America Votes, a major 527 effort, which is actually an umbrella organization for more than 30 liberal groups, concentrating on coordinating their respective efforts to get out the vote.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: June 20, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Senator Barack Obama ,right, in a discussion Thursday on his campaign's plane, with Reggie Love, a staff member. Mr. Obama has announced his decision not to accept public financing. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEX BRANDON/ASSOCIATED PRESS)(A18) CHART: The Candidates' Fund-Raising Record, So Far: The candidates' fund-raising record figures as of April, 30, 2008. (CHART BY GRIFF PALMER AND FARHANA HOSSAIN/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Source: Federal Election Commission)(A18)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
921 of 972 DOCUMENTS
The Washington Post
June 20, 2008 Friday
Met 2 Edition
Obama to Reject Public Funds for Election
BYLINE: Shailagh Murray and Perry Bacon Jr.; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1237 words
Sen. Barack Obama reversed his pledge to seek public financing in the general election yesterday, a move that drew criticism from adversaries and allies alike but could provide him with a significant spending advantage over Republican rival John McCain.
Obama will become the first major-party presidential nominee to reject the public funds, passing up nearly $85 million in taxpayer money and instead looking to the 1.5 million donors who contributed to his primary campaign. Given his groundbreaking success in raising money in the Democratic primaries, estimates of how much he could collect for the general-election run to $300 million or more, a sum that would allow the senator from Illinois to compete even in traditionally Republican states.
"It's not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections," Obama said in a video message to supporters, circulated yesterday morning by his campaign. "But the public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who've become masters at gaming this broken system."
The announcement came as Obama's national finance committee was preparing to meet in Chicago, and on the same day he launched his first television ad of the general election.
In the hours after the announcement, McCain indicated he would consider forgoing public financing as well, but he later indicated that he will opt into the system. "We will take public financing," he said on the Straight Talk Express bus. Asked why, he said simply, "Because we decided to take public financing."
But earlier in the day the senator from Arizona lashed out at Obama. "This is a big, big deal," McCain told reporters while touring a flood-ravaged area in Columbus Junction, Iowa. "He has completely reversed himself and gone back, not on his word to me, but the commitment he made to the American people."
Through the end of April, Obama had raised $272 million, and he is required to file a report covering his May activities today. McCain submitted his May filing yesterday, showing he had raised a total of about $122 million after bringing in $21 million last month.
Under the public financing system, which was established in the wake of the Watergate scandal, candidates are barred from raising private funds or spending their own money on their general-election bids. The lump sum they receive from the Treasury is the only money they can spend once they are officially declared their party's nominee.
A separate public funding system governs the presidential primaries, and Obama and McCain were among the contenders who shunned the federal money and the spending limits that come with it. With his bid for the GOP nomination foundering late last year, however, McCain used the promise of his ability to collect public funding as collateral for campaign loans. Both the Federal Election Commission, which governs the systems, and the Democratic National Committee have been highly critical of the maneuver.
Yesterday, government watchdog groups expressed disappointment with Obama's move. Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook called $85 million "plenty of money" and warned that private funding -- even in the mostly small sums that Obama relies on -- "comes with the expectations of special access or favors."
The presumptive Democratic nominee is one of three lead Senate sponsors of legislation to change the public financing system.
"Senator Obama knew the circumstances surrounding the presidential general election when he made his public pledge to use the system," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21.
Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), a co-sponsor of the bill, called Obama's decision "a mistake" but added: "I look forward to working on this and a wide range of other reform issues with him when he becomes president."
Yesterday, McCain cleared his schedule to visit the scene of extensive Midwestern flooding, but his trip was overshadowed by Obama's announcement, which has the potential to change the shape of the race.
As if to underscore his financial advantage, Obama released his first national television ad yesterday, a 60-second spot that will run in potential swing states, including Missouri, Florida and Pennsylvania, as well as in Alaska, Montana and North Carolina -- states that McCain needs to carry to win.
McCain brushed aside the suggestion that Obama's potential money edge will hurt his prospects. "That doesn't worry me," he told reporters in Iowa.
Although campaign finance issues rank low on lists of voter concerns, the McCain team pounced on Obama's move, along with his rejection of the 10 town hall meetings that McCain has proposed, as evidence that his claim to represent a "new politics" is empty rhetoric. The campaign circulated Obama quotes praising public financing and accused him of breaking his pledge to negotiate the issue with the GOP nominee. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers dismissed an account by Obama aides of recent talks between the two camps on the issue, saying it was "flat-out false."
"He's broken his word," said Charles R. Black Jr., a top McCain adviser. "He said he believes in the new politics; to me it sounds like the old politics. If you're going to change politics in America, that's a step backward."
But Republicans conceded privately that Obama's decision puts them at a disadvantage. McCain has attended dozens of fundraisers since he clinched the nomination in March, averaging close to one event per day. He appeared in Chicago on Wednesday night at an event that raised more than $1 million, and he met with donors in Minneapolis yesterday. Next week's schedule includes two fundraisers in California, two in Ohio and one in Las Vegas. McCain's wife, Cindy, will join Henry A. Kissinger for an event with U.S. expatriates in London.
McCain's campaign is also bracing for a huge wave of spending from labor unions and other Democratic-aligned groups.
"I assume he's going to outspend us," Black said of Obama. "We don't have to spend as much as he does to win."
Obama's announcement was not unexpected. Months ago, he began to shift away from an early pledge to "pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."
After securing the Democratic nomination this month, Obama moved quickly to impose his own stringent fundraising restrictions on the Democratic National Committee, ordering it to stop accepting donations from federal lobbyists and political action committees, and he has discouraged his donors from contributing to liberal independent political organizations, called 527 groups, that are expected to hammer McCain in the fall.
"John McCain's campaign and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs," Obama said in his message to supporters yesterday. "And we've already seen that he's not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations."
To date, no conservative 527 groups have materialized. But Obama portrayed his call as a preemptive strike.
"From the very beginning of this campaign, I have asked my supporters to avoid that kind of unregulated activity and join us in building a new kind of politics -- and you have," Obama said. ". . . I'm asking you to try to do something that's never been done before."
LOAD-DATE: June 20, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Virginia
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Alex Brandon -- Associated Press; Barack Obama and DNC Chairman Howard Dean on a flight to Chicago, where Obama's finance committee will meet.
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2008 The Washington Post
All Rights Reserved
922 of 972 DOCUMENTS
Washingtonpost.com
June 20, 2008 Friday 2:00 PM EST
Talking With John Cusack
BYLINE: Actor/Producer/Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4013 words
HIGHLIGHT: John Cusack has been starring in movies for more than two decades. Known best for his work in comedies like "Say Anything..." and "High Fidelity," the Chicago native also has taken on dramatic roles in such films as "The Thin Red Line" and "Max."
John Cusack has been starring in movies for more than two decades. Known best for his work in comedies like "Say Anything..." and "High Fidelity," the Chicago native also has taken on dramatic roles in such films as "The Thin Red Line" and "Max."
In his latest movie, "War, Inc.," Cusack uses humor to tackle a serious subject, creating a pointed satire of America's military actions abroad. Cusack produced, co-wrote and stars in "War, Inc.," which is now playing in select cities and opens in Washington, D.C. on June 27.
Cusack was online Friday, June 20 at 2 p.m. ET to discuss the movie, his politics and his career.
The actor's long list of movie credits include "The Sure Thing," "Better Off Dead," "The Grifters," "Bullets Over Broadway," "Being John Malkovich," "Grosse Pointe Blank," "Runaway Jury" and "The Ice Harvest."
In addition to his work in Hollywood, Cusack has become a vocal critic of the Bush administration, recently appearing in this MoveOn.org video that criticizes both President Bush's and John McCain's policies.
A transcript follows.
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washingtonpost.com: John will be with us momentarily...
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Carrboro, N.C.: Has adding years to your life changed the way you view making movies? Why "War, Inc." and not "High Digital Fidelity 2"? Oh and thanks for appearing to be somewhat "normal" in the weird entertainment industry.
John Cusack: Thank you, I guess.
As far as "War, Inc." now, I think it's done from a place of I think outrage that the lies we were forced to swallow as citizens were so blatant and egregious. And the movie business and mainstream media in general seem to be giving the Bush administration a pass on things that were so fundamental. I thought the only way to address that was with a theater of the absurd.
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Eric from Brooklyn, N.Y.: Hi John-
I saw this movie when it opened at Tribeca, and I want to first compliment you on using your starpower to get this political film made.
This film had a lot that it was trying to say. As one of the co-writers and someone who has acted in 50+ films, do you think it was necessary to do this as a satire? Or, could you have made some of the same statements in a different format?
As someone who works in government and has a passion for film, I guess I'm just curious as to whether we're going to see filmmakers turn more to satire to deal with contentious political issues.
Thanks!
John Cusack: I think in a way satire or absurdity is the only way to approach things that are this extreme. In many ways, satire or absurdism is only looking at the current trends and taking them to their horrible, logical conclusions. As I said, in this sense the crimes and the kind of appeasement of the culture seemed so grotesque and distorted that the only lens with which we could tell the story seemed to be in an absurdist satire.
Sometimes when you put that lens on the facts it allows you to see things from a different perspective. I also had done a film that was a much more sober look,. At the time, people were so depressed by the state of the administration and the war, after living their lives people don't want to go to the theater and be reminded of how depressing the situation is. What satire enables you to do is to take a step to the left or right, a step back, and look at the patterns in a broader context. It allows you to reclaim your sense of indignation and sense of spirit, and hopefully allows you to remember subversion should be pleasurable when directed at the right subjects.
It's supposed to feel good to throw a brick at the right people. There is a long tradition of naming and ridiculing and shaming and calling the villains what they are. Usually it was the artistocracy of the day and satire was the only way to speak truth to power. Today that artistocracy resides in a revolving door betwene corporate power and government enablers. So it's sort of a corporate aristocracy that needs enabling today. I think it's very improtant and healthy to tell differnt stories than the corporatist narratives we are being asked to swallow hook, line and sinker. When you see a culture where the intellectual architects of the invasion are not shamed for their behavior but rewarded within the mainstream media culture, black comedy, satire, absurdism is the only response.
When you realize this is the most privatized war in modern history, and that within this Republican ideology, literally everything, every core function of state, is to be turned into a for-profit entrepreneurial opportunity then we're through the looking glass and the nightmare is real. There is no function of the state they don't want to turn into a business. Once you have opened up prisoner interrogation, wiretapping, border patrol, jailing and the services of the military, when this has been turned into a for-profit business in this endless war, then we're in deep trouble.
Whether or not we want to admit it to ourselves, not only is the American government taking away habeas corpus and torturing people, they have turned torture into a niche for-profit business. Not only is it a state-sanctioned crime, but it is being farmed out at cost-plus. What other answer is there to these crimes but punk rock, ridicule, satire? Blackwater has been working incredibly hard as a friendly McMercenary company with nothing to be afraid of. Eric Prince likes to compare what he's doing with the military to what FedEx did with the post office. The man actually compared running a for-profit operation to delivering the mail. Even if you thought to yourself that you would go along with the tortured logic that corporations have the right to hire private armies to do their dirty work overseas to ensure their profit, if you could make that moral and legal stretch, the only problem with it is even that isn't true. They are not paying for Blackwater, we are, the U.S. taxpayers. And not only Blackwater, most of these other corporations are fully subsidized by the U.S. taxpayers, ensuring a profit. This is a horror beyond imagining.
I am not saying anything new. And these are not particularlt subtle facts. It's very out in the open. And beyond dispute.
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Rockville, Md.: Mr. Cusack:
While I don't necessarily disagree with your political views, I'm interested in understanding more about why high-profile personalities take strong public positions on political issues. To put it bluntly, why should people listen to you, an artist, as opposed to various persons who are ostensibly legal and policy experts? This kind of endorsement is more and more prevalent. Do you use your celebrity hoping that people will hop on the bandwagon because of that? Or is it just another way to open up dialogue?
Thanks.
John Cusack: I think it's, primarily from my point of view, an honest expression of beliefs, hopefully from a thoughtful and informed perspective. I would challenge the premise of the questions in some ways. I would ask what gives the people allowed to speak on television any more moral authority than an artist? Given the fact that we can assume our intentions are from a sincere place, I wouldn't cede any more moral authority to any other citizen than I would to myself. I certainly wouldn't when it comes to the fact that many of the people pontificating on television every day are not even journalists. They are, in effect, PR spokesmen.
As far as bandwagons go, I'm not affiliated with any political agenda in its entirety or any organization, including the Democratic party. I've been very careful to say that everyone who has stood with the Bush administration in my view should be forced to reckon with that, including the enablers in the Democratic Party. I don't endorse everything MoveOn says. And I don't work for or get paid by any organization. I'm an individual citizen expressing what I believe.
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Naperville, Ill.: Hi John
Congrats on your "War Inc." success. The movie has certainly touched many.
Do you think you will be helping Obama out more as the election comes nearer?
Laurie
John Cusack: Yes, I will be working for Sen. Obama. What I hope to do with the film is encourage conversation about this very difficult and serious issue. And perhaps help motivate and inspire people to capture their spirit of defiance and outrage to motivate them to take action.
And I certainly hope to put pressure on the Democratic Party to deal with this nightmarish, corporatist reality we have in the Middle East and hold them accountable. I was very happy to her Sen. Obama say that he would be open to prosecuting these crimes, and I would just add that hopefully as a citizen he would be more than open, he would find it to be a Constitutional mandate. It seems to me that any serious, well-meaning Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian would want to band together and expose and name and shame this very, very corporate criminal application of a far right-wing ideology as manifested in the Project for a New American Century, many of whose signatories are part of McCain's consultants and strike at the core of the modern Republican movement.
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Reading, Pa.: John :
A lot of buzz is saying the only reason you've gotten so political now is because you're promoting your new movie. When did you realize the U.S. ship of state was off course and why did you keep it to yourself for so long ?
John Cusack: I wouldn't expect whoever wrote that to be following my public statements closely because why would they? Because that isn't the case. I have been speaking out and making films about the Iraq war duruing the Bush administration that I produced. And I have been openly critical and vocal about this issue for seven years. It would be very easy to check if you cared to do so.
If you look at the film, and realize that it was written and conceived at the very high point of appeasement to the Bush administration when spokesmen were telling people to watch what they say, the statue had just fallen and the country was uniformly accepting and praising and calling the administration heroic for what they have done, I am hardly opportunistic here, as the process was started three or four years ago. I would recommend reading "The Shock Doctrime" by Naomi Klein or Jeremy Scahill's "Blackwater." I started making the film around the time those books were being written.
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Memphis, Tenn.: What role has the Internet played in the promotion of "War, Inc." and based on your experience, how would you recommend other independent filmmakers go about promoting their films on the Internet?
John Cusack: In this case, the entire success of the film has come from the Internet. We've had almost no advertising, minimal small ads in the papers, no commercials, no radio/TV plays, and almost no ad buys on the Internet. What we have had is a MySpace page, which I hope you'll check out, with information abuot the film, resource material, and a list of supporters and benefactors of the film that are an eclectic, impressive collection of some of the brightest people I know: writers, journalists, actors, comedians. And some of the people, writers anyway, have written some of the preeminent books on Iraq and spent a lot of time on the ground reporting from the front lines. I think the endorsement of our own group of so-called critics and the spread of that online has been the reason for our success.
All of the interest has come outside the traditional movie structures that promote films. The writers who wanted to talk to us who had written about politics and culture and had been part of the blogging community, from Crooks and Liars to Huffington Post to MoveOn.org to Alternet to Raw Story, these types of organzations -- Daily Koz -- and many others have fueled interest in the film. Traditional media has followed their enthusiasm and come pretty late to the party. So in that sense it's been quite new, at least for anything I've been invovled in.
I think the idea of taking your content directly to your audeince in a way not possible before seems very exciting. Also, we know how wrong the mainstream media has been about things in the past eight or nine years. So I think there is a hunger and willingness to accept things outside the box and the corporate-approved methods the film business has fallen into. The interesting thing is the wide gap, sort of the canyon between the people who get the film and those who don't. I would invite people to look at the MySpace page and get a sense of the people who get it. But the gap suggests our schism in I think how you see the Iraq conflict and what this film is. It isn't a traditional film. It's an incendiary, political, aggressive cartoon that merges and mangles different styles in a purposeful distortion. Conversely, the Iraq War is not an ordinary conflict. It's something far more sinister.
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Annapolis, MD: I agree with what you've said about putting the state in the business of torture. But it seems to me there's another danger. By subcontracting military action and torture, the administration is creating a market incentive for war and torture. In effect there are economic incentives to start wars and insurgencies -- and many administrations will find that a tempting benefit, without the political costs of things like the draft and higher taxes and votes.
John Cusack: This is absolutely the point of the film, but I would take it one step further. The war is themselves to these companies who have set up shop in the State Department and are using it like the ATM. Wars, occupations, disaster relief -- these are the new markets. To the neoconservatives, the state is the final Colonial frontier. Now they have taken that ideology to foreign policy and the making and exploitation of war. We have about 180,000 contractors versus 140,000 troops in Iraq, so when countries like Britain or Poland pull out of Iraq, they leave a vaccum that is replaced by mercenary soldiers, often from the same countries. Sometimes they are the same guys who switch from wearing a flag to a corporate logo. This ideology is what Naomi deconstructs in her book. It is called corporate mission creep and it is the real story in Iraq.
In Blackwater's case, remember, we are paying for Blackwater, not Shell or Exxon or Haliburton. When our real soldiers come home, they are not afforded a real G.I. Bill of Rights. In some cases, they didn't have the protection they needed. Blackwater does. They have $6 million contracts from the U.S. We've gotten many comments on our MySpace site about Kellogg, Brown and Root and the contractors getting better treatment than the troops themselves and behaving in exploitative manners. What does this say about the sovreignty of our country?
If anybody can tell me how Blackwater is legal, who is granting them their license to kill and why, I'd feel a whole lot better. But I have talked to Constitutional law professors and I get the same answer: We know that Blackwater was exempted from federal and international law by Paul Bremer and his crew. But this is the same group of peopel that while Iraq was literally still burning, sold off all the assets of the country to their favorite corporations. Also compeletely illegal. Who was paying Blackwater while they were roaming the streets of New Orleans after Katrina? What were they protecting? Who did they represent? Who sent them there? For what?
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Arizona Bay, AZ: So, you and Bill O'Reilly are best friends, right?
John Cusack: I've never met him.
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Phoenix, Ariz.: You seem to be sure of the facts that you quote during interviews, and you've spoken to many journalists who have been to Iraq. Are you ever concerned that some of these people are spinning things too far to the left in the same way the conventional media and the current administration are spinning facts too far to the right?
John Cusack: No, because many of the people that I speak to aren't part of the traditional left. Lara Logan is not known to be a leftist and I have spoken to her extensively about this. She is the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News. Naomi and Jeremy spent a great deal of time in Iraq. Their books and their reporting and their journalistic integrity are there for all to see. This country has careened so uncontrollably to the right that I don't even know what the left is anymore.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Everything I've read about "War, Inc." leads me to believe that it's similar in tone to "Grosse Pointe Blank" - true? Hope so, because "Grosse Pointe Blank" is one of our favorite films to watch as a family.
John Cusack: I have to say I like your family.
I think it's similar in tone on some levels. But while "Grosse Pointe Blank" played with the archetypes within the hitman and romantic comedy genres, "War, inc." is far more stylistically aggressive in mixing surrealism, satire, slapstick, melodrama and grim reality in a more experimental hybrid. Some people find that exhilerating and some people find that deranged, but it was a purposeful choice. I think the politics are far more grotesque and in your face, whereas in "Grosse Pointe" they are more subtle. Different times, different movies.
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Arlington, VA: Do you feel at this point in your career that you will only take roles in films which have a political/social message that you believe in? While I share your political views and appreciate your need to inform as well as entertain, I really enjoy your "The Ice Harvest" and "Grosse Point Blank" type of roles. I hope you don't lose your frothy, fun side completely.
John Cusack: Thanks. No, I think I have been lucky to do a whole bunch of different things and hope to continue to. I think in these times with what's been happening with the Bush adminsitration I felt compelled to express myself. Besides voting and acting politically this is what I do. I make films. So I tried to express it in a way that I thought would be new and aggressive and push myself that way. But I certainly hope to get back into different things once Obama is elected and hopefully he starts to turn this ship around. I don't relish speaking out topically in this way. I feel silence by citizens in these times is an endorsement of this lawless behavior so I am just following my conscience and my heart. Whether or not people believe me, I don't know. But I don't really care.
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Washington, DC: Had I voted for Bush once or twice, today I would be apologizing for my poor judgement. Why do you think it is so difficult for the same people who put Bush in office and who hear and read the same reports as we do, find it so difficult to see the mess we are in?
John Cusack: That's a really good question. I think it's, and I mean this in all sincerity, perhaps it's akin to having an alcoholic or addict in the family and it being incredibly hard to admit the problem is as severe as it is and that the whole family has a part in it.
I think what's very hard for well-meaning Republicans to understand is that Bush is not an aberration. He's the purest extension of the neoconservative ideology. Total liberation for corporations. Privatize the world and view government or their roles in government as basically to set the optimal conditions for a corporate feeding frenzy. I am sure somewhere they must believe this is doing someone some good. But I have no doubt they know how fundamentally corrupt their actions are, and how their stock prices triple, etc. etc. This is the Milton Friedman playbook in the purest expression. That's a hard thing to swallow and the right-wing response is the only problem with this is that it wasn't done even in a more pure fashion. Something corrupted our perfect holistic system and of course, that something would be democracy and the rule of law. That's a hard thing to swallow, but it's very out in the open. It's a purposeful, above board, well-documented campaign against the New Deal and Keynesian economics. Read Grover Norquist, Bill Kristol and all their ilk. It's in no way a conspiracy. This was the plan.
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Arlington, Va.: John, is there anything that gives you hope that there can be any victory in confronting the military-industrial complex, since more than 45 years have passed since Eisenhower's warning, and there appears to be no end in sight?
Also a related question--who invented liquid soap, and why?
John Cusack: I don't know the anwer to the last question, but it is the Riddle of the Sphinx.
I think the answer to the first one is very complex but I like to refer to a quote by Arundhati Roy, the writer, and she says, and I quote, "Our strategy should not be only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it, to deprive it of oxygen, to shame it, to mock it with our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness -- and our ability to tell our own stories, stories that are different from the ones we have been brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling -- their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitabillity. Remember this: We be many and they be few. We need us more than we need them."
That always stuck with me as a wonderful call to spirit. And "their notion of inevitability" was the key phrase to me. That's their armor and their last line of defense. I think the more we bring it into the light of day, the better. But there is no easy answer.
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Concord, N.H.: You just talked about stylistic differences between "War, Inc." and "Grosse Pointe Blank" (also a favorite in my family). How does "War, Inc." match up stylistically with my favorite movie of all, "Dr. Strangelove"?
John Cusack: Well, I'm not stupid enough to compare our film with a classic. Somebody wrote something funny about the two movies that I liked: "'Dr. Strangelove' points out weapons of mass destruction in the hands of man can create disaster, but 'War, Inc.' points out that disaster in the hand of corporations run by men can create a powerful endless, new economy with no morality except the bottom line and dot.com-sized numbers." I thought that was pretty interesting.
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Dearborn, Mich.: Aside from not voting for McCain, how can someone who has little influence on politics (not famous), making $30,000 a year (almost near poverty), truly be heard in regards to actual policy changes, whether it be about war, taxes, foreign trade, etc.?
Christine
John Cusack: I'm not sure. I could give you some stock, boilerplate bromides to that situation but I don't know if it would be honest.
I would have to think about that, so that I didn't give you a flippant answer. I guess I would say stay as informed as you can and aschew the corporate narratives of the mainstream media and stay ready. It never hurts to be involved in any political or activist organization. I can never see how participation would be a bad thing. The key is being true to what you participate with and who, and I suppose that would be a much longer conversation.
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John Cusack: Thanks for the questions and thanks for having me.
I hope that although i have some very strong statements and it's not easy to get the tone right, that I am saying everything I say with respect for other people's points of view and with humility and understanding of my lack of total knowledge. But it's something I have been studying on and working on for a long time.
I do hope people will look into these issues more and bring them to the attention of our Representatives. And I hope Obama gets elected so I don't have to talk this way anymore. But I think even if he does, I will.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
LOAD-DATE: June 21, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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Washingtonpost.com
June 20, 2008 Friday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Chris Cillizza, Washingtonpost.com Political Blogger, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2756 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Chris Cillizza, washingtonpost.com political blogger, was online Friday, June 20 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest news in politics.
Read Chris Cillizza's blog, The Fix
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Chris Cillizza: Good morning everyone! It's the end of another week in political Washington.
The big news of the day is that Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton will make their first joint public appearance a week from today -- although the details of the event remain a mystery.
Also, looking for something hip to wear this summer? An official Fix T-shirt is the way to go. Want one? Play our latest contest on The Fix called "Who Won the Week?" Sign on to The Fix and offer your take on the week's winner in the presidential race. I'll sort through them this weekend and announce a winner on Monday.
Here's the link.
Let's chat!
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Washington: Obama was sure to take some flak when he (inevitably) opted out of public campaign finance, but frankly I'm surprised with how much he's taken. Did he make it worse with the disingenuous arguments about McCain "gaming" the system? I think he would have done better to note how he had done so well with an army of small donors. Instead he pushed some paranoid, Clintonian delusion about the ruthlessness of his opponents. Whatever -- after Sunday, we probably never will hear about this again.
washingtonpost.com: Obama to Reject Public Funds for Election (Post, June 20)
Chris Cillizza: The fact of the matter is that Obama made a political -- and very savvy -- decision. He saw the opportunity to enjoy a two-/three-/four-to-one spending edge over McCain -- a huge advantage in presidential politics -- and jumped at it.
It's a smart move, and the right move in the context of a political campaign. It is, however, a reversal of Obama's previously stated position that he would take public financing in the general election if his Republican opponent agreed to do the same. John McCain has said he will accept public financing; Obama is not.
The way I see it, Obama made the calculation to endure some short-term pain for a long-term gain: He will be attacked as a flip-flopper and a faux reformer in the short term, but will reap the benefits of a massive spending edge in the long term.
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Falls Church, Va.: Obama's decision to forego public funding presumably will mean the death of the presidential campaign funding setup, don't you think? No future candidate will agree to be bound, now that Obama has created a precedent.
Chris Cillizza: Yes -- I think the one thing we can say for sure is that the public financing system as we have come to know it is dead. If the financing rules remain in place for future presidential elections, every serious candidate will be able to use Obama's decision to opt out as precedent for their own choice to do so.
The other option is that the finance rules will be changed in a dramatic way between now and the 2012 presidential election. Given the stalemate at the Federal Election Commission currently, however, it seems unlikely that a major overhaul of the public financing system is on the front burner.
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Washington: Please tell me that you think this "Al Gore for vice president" meme is Inside-the-Beltway, I-have-to-fill-time-on-the-24-hour-TV-"news"-networks, ridiculous, speculatory bunkum. Have these people decided to ignore all the evidence?
Chris Cillizza: First, that is a lot of hyphens.
Second, I tend to agree that the idea that Al Gore -- Nobel prize winner, international prophet for global warming -- would not be interested in the second-in-command job under Obama.
Why? For the same reason that Gore wasn't ever truly interested in running for president this time around. He has found considerable success in the private sector and knows the perils of public life better than almost anyone else in the country. As we have said before, if Gore simply could be named president, he would certainly be interested in the job -- but he knows that the political system doesn't work that way.
Given his trepidation about running for president, it's hard to imagine he suddenly would be interested in being the man next to the man -- a job he already has held for eight years in the 1990s. I've learned to never say never in politics but this is as close to a sure thing as you can get.
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Baltimore: Wouldn't it be nice if Obama just came out and said "I am in it to win it. For too long we Democrats have been too timid and fearful to stand up for what we believe, allowing the Republicans to frame the issues and our candidates. My decision to not accept public funding was a difficult one, but as it gives me the best chance to win the election in November, this is the course I chose -- and I make no apologies for the changing circumstances that this campaign has engendered." Could a candidate get away with saying this? Wouldn't that be a breath of fresh air?
Chris Cillizza: That's the clear message behind Obama's decision. I actually think he did himself something of a disservice by laying off the decision on the "broken" system and the Republican 527s that are sure to emerge to attack him in the coming months.
The truth of the matter -- as Politico's Jonathan Martin reported today -- is that the 527 world on the Republican side is in total turmoil, with no one sure whether it will come together to form a group focused on the presidential race.
Obama made this move because it gives him the best chance to broaden the traditional playing field in the fall -- which, in turn, gives him the best chance of winning the White House.
Plain and simple.
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Obama's Decision: "..after Sunday, we probably never will hear about this again." I would respectfully disagree with the poster's comment. We will hear about it a lot in McCain commercials, pointing out the hypocrisy of Sen. "(Ch-ching!) Change We Can Believe In."
Chris Cillizza: There is, without doubt, potential peril in Obama's decision to reverse his position on public financing.
While average voters doesn't know or care about where a candidate gets his (or her) money from, they do care about hypocrisy. Voters deplore hypocrisy; it's the reason why successfully branding a candidate as a flip-flopper is one of the most effective attacks in politics.
McCain is smartly trying to use Obama's public financing decision as indicative of a larger problem that the Illinois senator says one thing and does another -- that he is a reformer without results.
If McCain can make that line of argument stick, it could be problematic for Obama, as his ability to bring about change is at the core of his campaign. Any fundamental disruption of that core message could complicate Obama's pitch to voters.
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Raleigh, N.C.: One of the appealing things about Barack Obama is his boldness, but in the past several weeks, my sense is that he's lost some of that boldness -- that he's playing a prevent defense. What is your sense (I'm talking policy here, not politics)? Why didn't he speak more publicly about the FISA law, for example? Has his advising team changed at all?
Chris Cillizza: Remember that it is easier to be "bold" (in the eyes of Democratic voters) in a Democratic primary than in a general election.
Obama is already working to reintroduce himself to the general electorate by focusing on issues more likely to appeal to the ideological center -- note his highlighting of his work on welfare reform in a new national television ad campaign.
That doesn't mean that Obama won't still cast himself as a change agent in this election -- he will -- but it is unlikely that he will speak out as forcefully on Democratic base hot-button issues like FISA as he seeks to appeal to moderate and independent voters.
It's the natural process of the primary and general election -- move to the ideological left (or right) in the primary and then move back to the middle in the general election. Even Obama isn't immune from the traditional rhythms of the campaign season.
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Arlington, Va: The "reformer without results" storyline might just stick. Even Obama's staunchest supporters can't point to a single policy decision Obama has made that was at odds with his party. Obama is a party-line liberal -- we're just expected to hope that he'll change. Or are we supposed to hope we have some change leftover after he taxes us? I never can remember...
Chris Cillizza: If it does stick I want some sort of cut, because I haven't read it anywhere before. :)
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Oak Park, Mich.: Please speculate on the possibility of Carl Levin for vice president. He lends foreign policy experience to the ticket, he universally is respected and doesn't seem to have skeletons in his closet, he guarantees a win in Michigan, he helps with Jews, and it gives Jennifer Granholm a chance to resurect her political carreer by appointing herself to the Senate.
Chris Cillizza: Well, I am all for rampant speculation but I have heard absolutely no talk about Sen. Levin for vice president.
Sorry....
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Newport News, Va.: Chris, your diagnosis of Obama's decision is dead-on. When he talked about public financing to reduce corruption, that was good politics, but now that he has a money advantage, it's better politics to use it. So he flip-flopped. Most people won't pay any attention. However, it gives me pause. If Obama always does what's in his personal best interest, then he has no principles. Remember, his previous position on campaign finance was a principled argument. He felt public financing was the right thing to do. This certainly doesn't seem like a new kind of politics. What does that say about his "principled" stands on withdrawing troops from Iraq, rewriting NAFTA, and all the rest?
Chris Cillizza: One point of view on public financing...
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Rochester, N.Y.: Why are we hearing so much about Obama's (perfectly legal) decision to opt out of public financing for the general and not McCain's (possibly illegal) decision to get out of the system for the primaries after using his earlier participation to secure loans? Is it time to just admit that the press is on McCain's side? You're a political analyst -- can you realistically handicap this race without factoring in the media's pro-McCain pull?
Chris Cillizza: And the other side....
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House question: I'm curious on your thoughts for Carol Shea-Porter's seat. Jeb Bradley will be running to get his seat back, which certainly would be a dogfight, but the really interesting race could be the Republican primary between Bradley and former Department of Health and Human Services Commisioner John Stephen. Stephen did burn through some political capital while trying to reform DHHS, but he is a hard-line fiscal conservative who does well in New Hampshire. Have you heard anything about this matchup?
washingtonpost.com: The Fix's Friday Line: Generic Ballot Distress for House GOP (washingtonpost.com, June 20)
Chris Cillizza: Thanks for the House question. (I ranked the 20 most competitive House seat on the Fix Friday Line this morning.)
I think that Stephen represents a real primary challenge to Bradley but my sense is that the state and national political establishment has lined up behind the former Congressman believing he represents their best chance of winning the seat back in the fall.
But,given the surprises in New Hampshire last cycle -- most notable Shea Porter's defeat of Bradley -- I am wary of making any hard and fast predictions about how Granite State voters feel about the two men.
Shea Porter seems to me to be in a bit of trouble. After rejecting membership in "Frontline", a group that benefits from the considerable fundraising help from House Democrats, she recently switched positions and is now a member of the group.
It's a sign she may be a little bit over her head in this race.
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Virginia Beach, Va.: What is your take on the congressional race in Virginia's 2nd District between Thelma Drake and Glenn Nye?
Chris Cillizza: Another House question -- alright!
Virginia's 2nd didn't make the Friday House Line this month but has the potential to down the line -- no pun intended.
Rep. Thelma Drake (R) only won this southern Virginia seat with 51 percent in 2006 despite the fact that President Bush carried it with 58 percent in 2004.
The seat has a black population of more than 21 percent and could be a place where Barack Obama at the top of the ticket makes a significant difference for turnout models.
It's not as good a pickup opportunity for Democrats as the northern Virginia 11thd district but is certainly one to keep an eye on.
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Eastern Shore, Md.: Care to speculate on the outcome of Maryland's 1st District now that the Democratic Congressinal Campaign Committee has taken Frank Kratovil under its wing?
Chris Cillizza: On its face Maryland's 1st district is not a place Democrats have any business being competitive. President Bush won the district with 62 percent in 2004 and Rep. Wayne Gilchrest had held the seat relatively easily since 1990.
But, Gilchrest's loss to state Sen. Andrew Harris in the Republican primary and the emergence of Kratovil, a serious candidate with the support of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Md.), make the race more interesting.
Harris is solidly conservative -- a break from the moderate policies of Gilchrest. While Harris' conservative credentials aided him in the primary, they could make it more difficult for him to win over moderate Republicans and indepents in the fall.
This isn't a top tier pickup chance for Democrats but if the playing field is badly slanted against Republicans this fall (as it may well be), it's a seat that could be far more competitive than anyone expected.
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Rockville, Md.: Flip-flop? Forbidding these is quite a rigid requirement, and leaves no room for changes in circumstances and even a person learning more. What can we do to fix this? I want my candidate to give me his best information at this time, not what he knew 20 years ago and is not even true now.
Chris Cillizza: A fair point in the flip-flopping debate.
Modern politics seems to dictate that a politician cannot change his mind on any issue ever or it will be painted as a flip flop and used against him or her.
Speaking only for myself, I regularly change my mind about things -- yesterday my favorite Bob Dylan song was "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" today it is "Boots of Spanish Leather" -- and don't typically think of myself as a flip flopper.
Should politicians be allowed to change their minds? And, on every issue or just some issues? Look for a Wag the Blog post on this in the near future.
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Arlington, Va.: Hey Chris, personal question, and I mean this as a compliment. I see a great deal more depth in your answers and posts than when "The Fix" began. Do you see the growth in your writing and analysis? Basically, thanks for your posts, they are more and more informative.
Chris Cillizza: Well, Mom, I always am trying to refine what we do on The Fix and make it as informative and user-friendly as possible for people who go to the site for their political information.
One thing that has consistently made The Fix better over the past two and a half years that I have been writing it is the feedback I get from fans of the blog.
So, keep reading and reacting. Your function as a sounding board is immensely important to the success of The Fix.
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Chris Cillizza: That's all for today folks.
Don't forget to enter our "Who Won the Week" contest on The Fix for your chance to win the coveted official Fix t-shirt.
Have a great weekend.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
June 19, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
Audit Says Tanker Deal Is Flawed
BYLINE: By LESLIE WAYNE; Reporting was contributed by Caroline Brothers in Paris, Elisabeth Bumiller in Springfield, Mo., and David M. Herszenhorn in Washington.
SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1343 words
In a stunning turnabout for the Boeing Company, government auditors on Wednesday upheld the company's appeal of the Air Force's decision to award a $35 billion contract to build midair refueling tankers to a partnership of Northrop Grumman and the European parent of Airbus.
The action is yet another twist in the competition for one of the modern military's most expensive -- and most controversial -- procurement programs. In February, when the Air Force awarded the contract to the international partnership, it set off a trans-Atlantic battle over jobs and national pride.
Boeing quickly appealed the decision, and members of Congress, arguing that key military contracts should remain in American hands, rallied on behalf of Boeing.
The auditors, with the Government Accountability Office, agreed with Boeing that the Air Force unfairly evaluated the merits and overall cost of the Boeing bid, and urged the Air Force to reopen negotiations. The tanker contract, which could eventually grow to $100 billion to build a fleet of 179 refueling planes, is one of the most lucrative ever awarded by the Pentagon.
''Our review of the record led us to conclude that the Air Force had made a number of significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman,'' said the G.A.O., the agency that Congress has designated to review federal contract disputes. ''We therefore sustained Boeing's protest,'' it added.
The agency report, while a major coup for Boeing, is a setback for the Air Force, whose credibility is in tatters over the besieged procurement program and other recent scandals.
In a statement, the Air Force said it would not decide whether to reopen the bidding for the contract until it had fully reviewed the 69-page G.A.O. report. ''Once the review is complete, the Air Force will be in a position to determine the best course of action,'' said the Air Force statement.
Lt. Col. Karen Platt, an Air Force spokeswoman, said: ''We don't know the way forward right now. It is a huge document, and it will take time to review it.'' The Air Force has 60 days to respond to the G.A.O. report.
The controversy spilled over into presidential politics as well. One of the leading players in the tanker contract dispute is Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, who scuttled an initial deal between the Air Force and Boeing in 2004 as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
That plan, in which the Air Force was to have leased the tankers from Boeing, collapsed in a corruption scandal that sent two Boeing executives to prison and later cost the chief executive his job.
This setback, in turn, opened the door for a challenge to Boeing from Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, known as EADS, eager to do more business with the Pentagon.
Mr. McCain's top advisers, including a co-chairman of his presidential campaign, were lobbyists for EADS. And Mr. McCain had written to the Defense Department, urging it to ignore a trade dispute between the United States and Europe over whether Airbus received improper subsidies. Mr. McCain said that he was asking the Air Force only to maintain a level playing field as it considered the two bids.
Democrats immediately seized on Mr. McCain's role on Wednesday, suggesting that his efforts could lead to a loss of American jobs. A press release issued by the Democratic National Committee carried a headline saying that ''McCain mimicked EADS every step of the way'' on a deal that ''sent American jobs abroad.''
Senator Barack Obama, the likely Democratic nominee, did not echo this line of commentary, but said he ''applauds'' the G.A.O. recommendation and added that the tanker competition ''must be reopened to ensure a fair and transparent process.''
At a news conference in Springfield, Mo., Mr. McCain also called for the Air Force to reopen the competition. ''Obviously, they need to go back and redo the contracting process again,'' said Mr. McCain, adding that he hopes ''that this time they will get it right.'' He also defended his role in the demise of the Boeing-Air Force deal: ''I'm still proud that the first time around, I saved taxpayers $6.2 billion.''
Because of the need to keep some of its report confidential, the G.A.O. released only a three-page summary. In it, the G.A.O. said that the Air Force had made ''unreasonable'' cost calculations which, when corrected, would make Boeing the lower bidder over time. It also said the Air Force had ''conducted misleading and unequal discussions'' with Boeing when the Air Force indicated to Boeing that it had satisfied program requirements when, in fact, it had not.
The G.A.O. ruling is only a recommendation and does not mean that Boeing will prevail in the end. But given the strong wording of the report and that the G.A.O. upholds only a small number of contract protests, analysts say that the Air Force is likely to give Boeing a second chance.
''This means a recompete,'' said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with the Teal Group, a consulting firm in Northern Virginia. ''And it gives Boeing a strong chance.''
In Paris, there was disappointment mixed with hope. ''Though we are disappointed, it is important to recognize that the G.A.O. announcement is an evaluation of the selection process, not of the merits of the aircraft,'' Louis Gallois, the EADS chief executive, said at a Paris reception. He added that he remained confident that the Airbus aerial tanker, which is a version of its A330 commercial plane, was ''best suited to meet the Air Force's critical mission requirements.''
But on Capitol Hill, there was jubilation. Lawmakers from Washington, Kansas and Missouri gathered for an exuberant news conference. Still, they said they would wait to see what the Air Force did before taking any legislative steps. Representative Todd Tiahrt, Republican of Kansas, even went so far as to hold up a banner that said ''Vindication!!'' and referred to the Airbus offering as a ''French tanker.''
''Parents always say it's not nice to say 'I told you so,' but we told you so,'' said Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, where Boeing has operations. Representative Dave Reichert, Republican of Washington, said Boeing workers were rejoicing. ''Over 20,000 of my constituents are Boeing employees,'' he said. ''And I can almost hear the cheer all the way from Washington State here to Washington, D.C.''
Mark McGraw, Boeing's vice president for tanker programs, said, ''We welcome and support today's ruling by the G.A.O. fully sustaining the grounds of our protest.'' Boeing's stock rose 27 cents on Wednesday to close at $74.65, while Northrop shares fell $1.08 to $70.01.
Boeing's decision to lodge a protest was a bold one, and it risked alienating the company's biggest customer. At the time of the decision, Air Force officials had sent out strong signals that they hoped Boeing would not take the course that it did, arguing that a protest by Boeing would only further delay a needed program in a time of war.
But Boeing did so anyway, mounting a multimillion-dollar advertising and public relations campaign and encouraging members of Congress from states where Boeing provides jobs to rally on its behalf. It has run full-page color ads in major newspapers and in trade publications read by members of Congress and Pentagon officials.
For the Air Force, the tanker competition was also about its own reputation and ability to run a fair and honest competition after the 2004 Boeing-Air Force deal failed amid evidence of a pattern of pro-Boeing favoritism within the Air Force.
On Monday, the Pentagon strongly defended and stressed the importance of getting new tankers into its fleet. Geoff Morrell, the Defense Department spokesman, said: ''We believe that the acquisition and contracting process that eventually produced Northrop Grumman and EADS as the winner of this deal was a fair and transparent one. It was very deliberate.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: June 19, 2008
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: In February in Everett, Wash., protesters echoed the calls on Capitol Hill, arguing that Boeing should build the tankers.(PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN BRASHEAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
EADS and Northrop Grumman won out in February with plans for a refueling tanker, in a rendering above with a B-2 bomber.(PHOTOGRAPH BY NORTHROP GRUMMAN, VIA REUTERS)(pg. C8)
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The Washington Post
June 19, 2008 Thursday
Met 2 Edition
Air Force Faulted Over Handling Of Tanker Deal;
Audit Sustains Boeing's Protest of $40 Billion Award
BYLINE: Dana Hedgpeth and Robert O'Harrow Jr.; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1193 words
Federal auditors said yesterday that the Air Force bungled its decision to award a multibillion-dollar contract for new refueling tankers to a team that includes the European company Airbus, touching off calls for a congressional probe and putting yet another twist in the years-long, scandal-plagued effort to replace the aging tanker fleet.
The Feb. 29 award of the $40 billion contract had spurred a fierce and unusual public relations battle between the loser Boeing, which claimed it was treated unfairly, and winner Northrop Grumman and its partner, European Aeronautic Defence and Space, parent of Airbus.
It also triggered fears that thousands of well-paying jobs in the United States would evaporate. Critics said the Air Force was being shortsighted by awarding key defense contracts to a European company, possibly hobbling the industrial might of Boeing, the nation's top airplane maker.
Yesterday's finding by the Government Accountability Office is the latest in a series of public relations debacles for the Air Force. It comes just two weeks after Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne and Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley were asked to resign because of "a chain of failures" in their leadership.
Critics of the award, some of whom represent states where Boeing employs thousands of people, questioned whether those resignations were linked to problems with the tanker contract. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is among several lawmakers who said they would ask Congress to review the Air Force's decision.
"Congress needs to investigate," Cantwell said. "How is it that the process was so flawed? These mistakes are so glaring."
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), whose state is also home to major Boeing operations, called the GAO decision "a major win for Kansas and America's industrial base." Roberts said he and Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) would introduce legislation mandating that the Air Force hold another competition.
The Air Force has 60 days to respond to the GAO findings. The service can agree or ask the GAO to reconsider. It said in a statement that it would review the decision to determine its next step.
"The Air Force will do everything we can to rapidly move forward so America receives this urgently needed capability," said Sue C. Payton, assistant secretary of acquisition for the Air Force. "The Air Force will select the best value tanker for our nation's defense while being good stewards of the taxpayer dollar."
The months-long GAO review found that the Air Force failed repeatedly to follow procedures designed to ensure a fair and open competition and good value for taxpayers. The GAO urged the Air Force to renew discussions with both teams and obtain revised proposals, and to effectively stage a new competition.
"Our review of the record led us to conclude that the Air Force had made a number of significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman," said Michael R. Golden, the GAO's managing associate general counsel.
Boeing filed its protest with the agency March 11 after it lost the deal to build 179 refueling aircraft, which are essentially gas stations in the sky. The Chicago-based company is the largest U.S. aircraft manufacturer, with 44,000 jobs in the United States and operations in 40 states. It began building the Air Force's fleet of KC-135 tankers nearly 50 years ago.
In 2003, the Air Force attempted to award a contract to replace the fleet, but that effort was mishandled. After awarding a $20 billion contract to Boeing to lease tankers, the Air Force's procurement chief at the time, Darleen A. Druyun, admitted that she favored Boeing while negotiating for a job with the company. Druyun and Boeing's former chief financial officer went to prison, and Boeing agreed with the Justice Department to pay $615 million -- the biggest penalty ever paid by a defense contractor -- to settle allegations of misconduct on the tanker deal and others.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, had spearheaded the investigations that turned up fraud in the contract for leasing tankers and pressed the Air Force to widen the competition for a new one. Yesterday, Democrats said the GAO report showed that McCain's pressure on the Air Force was improper, and his Democratic presidential rival, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), called for a new competition. A McCain spokesman said in a statement that the senator's hope all along was for a fair and open process.
The tanker contract, after its initial phase, could be worth up to $100 billion over the next two decades. The deal gives the winner a major inside track on future military aircraft sales and an advantage in commercial airline business.
Boeing said in its protest that the Air Force had not fairly evaluated the technical capabilities, costs and other areas of its proposed aircraft, which is based on the 767 jetliner. Without the tanker contract, Boeing has said it would shut down the 767 production lines. EADS and Northrop said they planned to build a major plant in Mobile, Ala., and had scheduled a groundbreaking for next week.
The GAO's 69-page decision has to be reviewed by both teams and redacted for proprietary information, so it could take several days before the details are known, officials said.
In a summary of its decision, the GAO outlined seven reasons why it sustained Boeing's protest, saying the Air Force conducted "misleading and unequal discussions with Boeing" during the process. The Air Force's evaluation of operating the aircrafts was "unreasonable," it said, noting that the service adjusted Northrop's engineering costs so that they were lower than Boeing's.
The report said that the Air Force never justified its conclusion that the proposed Northrop tanker could handle refueling all types of military planes and that the service mistakenly found that Boeing's plane was more expensive to operate and maintain when it was, in fact, cheaper.
Mike McGraw, vice president of Boeing's tanker program, said "we welcome and support today's ruling by the GAO fully sustaining the grounds of our protest."
Northrop spokesman Randy Belote said, "We continue to believe that Northrop Grumman offered the most modern and capable tanker for our men and women in uniform."
The GAO rarely sustains protests, defense analysts said, so it raises serious questions about the Air Force and its leadership.
"I cannot believe that in the most highly scrutinized procurement in the history of the United States Air Force, the GAO found so many errors," said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.).
Even one of Northrop's strongest supporters called for an investigation of the selection process.
"Air Force officials didn't miss it by a little; they apparently missed it by a mile," said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonprofit group that worked closely with Northrop on a public relations campaign defending the award. "If this is the best the Air Force can do on its most critical contract award, the system remains dysfunctional."
Staff writer Michael D. Shear and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
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The Washington Post
June 19, 2008 Thursday
Regional Edition
Obama Meets With Labor Leaders;
Presumptive Democratic Nominee Works to Overcome Fallout From Primaries
BYLINE: Alec MacGillis; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A06
LENGTH: 836 words
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) met here last night with dozens of union leaders in an effort to mobilize their support for the general election as lingering rifts from a hard-fought primary campaign as well as broader tensions among major unions threaten to undermine organized labor's efforts on his behalf.
Several of the largest unions in the AFL-CIO supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees spent heavily on ads attacking Obama. AFSCME's president, Gerald W. McEntee, criticized Obama until the end of the primaries, declaring in late May that Obama was a weak candidate who "will literally walk almost lame into the Democratic National Convention" and who "has a problem with the blue-collar worker and relating to that worker."
It was the second straight election cycle in which AFSCME picked a loser. In 2004, it endorsed former Vermont governor Howard Dean.
Now, Obama needs McEntee -- both to bring AFSCME's resources to bear and because of McEntee's influential role as the chairman of the AFL-CIO's political committee. AFSCME signaled it was on board this week. It helped pay for a hard-hitting TV ad by the antiwar group MoveOn.org attacking Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and AFSCME's political director had a four-hour meeting with the campaign.
AFSCME leaders declined to comment last night, but leaders of other AFL-CIO unions said they expect McEntee to fall in line. "One of the things with Jerry is that he certainly gets fired up, and he may have overextended himself on this one. He is going to take a serious look at Obama," said Paul Shearon, secretary-treasurer of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.
James Little, president of the Transport Workers Union, the first AFL-CIO union to endorse Obama, said McEntee's misgivings about Obama will not keep the labor federation's political committee from doing all it can for Obama. "He does a good job chairing that committee, but it's a committee decision and not a Jerry McEntee decision in how we move forward," Little said.
Obama met last night with the leaders of many of the 56 unions in the AFL-CIO, but one who was missing was R. Thomas Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Buffenbarger delivered several stinging riffs against Obama while campaigning for Clinton.
"Hope! Change! Yes, we can! Give me a break!" Buffenbarger said in February. "I've got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust-fund babies crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won't last a round against the Republican attack machine!"
AFL-CIO spokeswoman Denise Mitchell said last night that the coalition will wait a short while before officially endorsing Obama, but she noted that the coalition has already spent four months casting McCain as unfriendly to labor, with 16,000 homes visited, 1.5 million leaflets distributed and 500,000 mailings sent out. The AFL-CIO is budgeting more than $50 million for the fall campaign. "While our unions may have a few things to work out, we believe that we'll be strong and united," she said.
There is also tension within the rival Change to Win coalition, which broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2005 and whose leaders will meet with Obama this morning. Its largest member, the Service Employees International Union, initially declined to offer a nationwide endorsement in the primary, instead letting state chapters endorse on their own. After former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.), a labor favorite, dropped out in January, the union's national leadership signed off on a full endorsement of Obama in February -- later than many Obama supporters in the union had hoped.
Among those pushing hardest for an Obama endorsement after Edwards dropped out was United Healthcare Workers-West, a 150,000-member SEIU chapter in California that is embroiled in a nasty power struggle with SEIU President Andy Stern. Yesterday, the chapter's leader, Sal Rosselli, said his union's attempt to protect itself from a breakup being sought by Stern would distract from its efforts on Obama's behalf.
Already, Rosselli noted, the national leadership had blocked his staff from leaving California to campaign for Obama during the primaries. A recent proposal by SEIU's large New York chapter to impose a moratorium on the internal power struggle until after the election was defeated by the national leadership, Rosselli said.
The presidential campaign "is not going to be our priority, and if we could focus on that, that would be our preference," he said.
SEIU secretary-treasurer Anna Burger dismissed his charge, saying SEIU had agreed to campaign for Obama at its recent convention and that it was up to Rosselli's chapter to follow that. "I would expect every single local to go out and implement the program we adopted," she said. "This is no [power] struggle that we started. We're focused on winning the election and winning real change for working families."
LOAD-DATE: June 19, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
June 19, 2008 Thursday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Lois Romano, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2634 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Lois Romano was online Thursday, June 19 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
____________________
Lois Romano: Good morning all! Thanks for joining us today.
_______________________
Oviedo, Fla.: How is Caroline Kennedy part of the "change we can believe in"? Kennedy's connections are all wrapped up in the past and her heritage, yet Hillary's roots and past -- including her personal life -- were scorned and derided as politics of the past. What is more "past" than Camelot? It is a blatant grab for Kennedy pixie dust. I regret her many tragedies, but she's hardly a change agent, nor was she the best for the vetting job -- she was the best for the photo op. Sounds like same-old, same-old Washington to me.
Lois Romano: I disagree. The years of John F. Kennedy represent to the American people the best of public service. In all, don't you think we all want the perfect combination of change and tradition? Carolyn Kennedy is in many ways a fresh face to the process because she never has been involved before. We all have to wait and see what she brings -- it's too early for us to call her just a photo op.
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St. Paul, Minn.: Hi Lois -- thank you for taking my question. For better or worse, the battle of the possible first ladies seems to be heating up, with Michelle Obama's appearance on "The View" covered like a major news story, Cindy McCain's latest cookie debacle, then Sen. Obama getting into it with his comments that both wives should be off limits (but not before criticizing Mrs. McCain for criticizing his wife about her "I'm finally proud" remarks). As a political observer, where do you see this going, and how big a role will the spouses play in the end? Do the public's feelings about spouses ever have a discernible impact on the outcome of an election?
Lois Romano: No longer is the political wife window dressing. Michelle Obama is a Harvard-educated lawyer who had a high-powered career. Cindy McCain runs a multimillion dollar family business. They are not off-limits -- they are part of the package. No one votes for the spouse, but negative publicity can hurt.
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Franconia, VA: What's been the reaction to the "my son Alex" ad so far?
washingtonpost.com: The Trail: New MoveOn Ad Targets McCain's War Stance (washingtonpost.com, June 17)
Lois Romano: None that I know of. I'm not sure it even has aired yet.
_______________________
Crystal City, Va.: I'm a Clinton supporter who wants to get behind Obama, but now CNN is reporting that he's backing away from his earlier NAFTA pledges. In February both Clinton and Obama promised to opt out of NAFTA unless both Canada and Mexico agreed to renegotiate this flawed treaty in order to protect U.S. jobs. Now Obama is backing away from that pledge, the same way he backed away from his Jerusalem pledge to AIPAC. Why isn't The Post reporting on this? Won't this allow Republicans to paint Obama as a flip-flopper in the same way they did Kerry?
washingtonpost.com: Obama: NAFTA not so bad after all (Fortune, June 18)
Lois Romano: Yes, it will give Republicans fodder, but Obama so far as run a far better campaign that Kerry did -- much more discipline. If the primaries are any indication, he won't let the Republicans define him. In the end, Obama's position on NAFTA likely will be more nuanced that just pro or con.
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Washington: Which would be more difficult for Obama -- picking a veep, or breaking the news to Clinton supporters that he didn't pick her?
Lois Romano: Both will be challenging, but by the time he picks a vice president, he will be clear where he is going; if he doesn't pick Clinton, her supporters already will know. Obama will have a hard time getting to Clinton for veep. My guess is that she is not at the top of his list.
_______________________
Re: "My Son, Alex": Lois -- it has been running here in the Pacific Northwest for several weeks now.
Lois Romano: Ah. My recollection was that the original story said it would be a week. Well, I haven't heard any reaction yet -- better to ask the campaign that is testing it in that market. From the comments on The Post site, it didn't seem to move too many people.
_______________________
Washington:"No longer is the political wife window-dressing. Michelle Obama is a Harvard-educated lawyer who had a high-powered career. Cindy McCain runs a multimillion dollar family business. They are not off-limits." Other than potential conflicts of interest, why should the professional status of a political wife move her from "off-limits" to an acceptable target of political commentary?
I understand that each of these particular women has injected themselves into the campaign to some extent -- and for that, it's fine to open them up to commentary/criticism -- but your earlier answer seemed to imply that a political spouse with no outside employment is somehow entitled to more deference from the press than one who does have outside employment. I can't see where that would be coming from...
Lois Romano: No one should be given more deference. My only point is that these two women have injected themselves into the process, and by virtue of the fact that they have had high-profile careers, more is known about them.
_______________________
Hampton, Va.: Barack Obama seems like such a political opportunist -- where's the hope and change here? The guy was adamant about public funding of campaigns to reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on elections. Now that all those special interests want to give him piles of money, he flip-flops. Why does he get a pass on this?
Lois Romano: You must be a McCain campaign worker. It's early, let's see how the public reacts to him up against McCain. So far the public has not wanted to hear too much negative about guy -- they like him, and for that reason, the GOP has to be careful about how they attack. It could backfire.
_______________________
Bethesda, Md.: Re: Michelle Obama -- I am not a huge Obama fan, but if we are going to criticize anyone for a statement, at least get it right (and I just went online to listen to what she actually said that day) she said she was "really" (emphasis on really) proud, not "finally" proud to be an American. It may not have been the best way to put it, but I don't think she was suggesting in any way that she lacked pride in this country.
Lois Romano: I agree -- the whole thing was overblown.
_______________________
Oakton, Va.: So Cindy McCain decides to slam Michelle Obama. Probably which candidate you support determines how you feel about it, but to me it just seemed mean-spirited, particularly given Cindy McCain's immensely privileged upbringing (and adulthood). Can you recall the last time the candidates for first lady went at it?
washingtonpost.com: No slack for Michelle Obama from Cindy McCain (Reuters, June 19)
Lois Romano: I can't recall -- but some the wives took shots at Hillary. I don't think Cindy McCain's comments were particularly harsh.
_______________________
"My Son, Alex" Ad: As a McCain backer, I hope this ad does run nationwide, as it sounds like it would backfire dramatically. Among other reasons, McCain can point to "his son, Jimmy," who actually is serving in the military, unlike any of the MoveOn crowd that is distorting his position..
Lois Romano: I can't figure out who the ad is targeting -- just mothers with sons?
_______________________
Ann Arbor, Mich.: I would just like to note, that despite my personal feelings about Obama backing out of public financing, I am glad that we are having this discussion on a Thursday morning, rather than hearing about it in the typical "Friday night document dump."
washingtonpost.com: The Trail: Obama Opts Out of Public Financing (washingtonpost.com, June 19)
Lois Romano: This is such an inside-baseball issue -- I can't see how it will impact many voters. I think most voters will think "well that makes sense -- he needs the greatest advantage to win."
_______________________
Concord, N.H.: Great article today on Abramoff's ability to remove a federal employee who stood in the way of his firm's objectives. Will this investigation continue to have a ripple effect that uncovers more criminal activity? The web seems to be expanding to ensnare more officials as it simultaneously tightens around those are caught.
washingtonpost.com: Abramoff Used White House To Help Get Rid of Roadblock (Post, June 19)
Lois Romano: It was a great look at inside Washington. I can't say whether it will have legs, as Abramoff is in jail -- but it can't help McCain, who many associate with George Bush and his administration.
_______________________
Southwest Nebraska: I can't see how the Democrats criticizing the McCain campaign for not reimbursing Cindy for the jet rides or revealing where her (and presumably his) financial interests lie are personal attacks on her. Now if Obama's campaign starts talking about her stealing pills, that's a personal attack and off-limits, and far in the past.
Lois Romano: I agree, attacking on those kinds of very personal issues always backfires. One of the goals of raising the plane rides, I believe, is to enlighten the public about an aspect of McCain's life they might not be aware of: that he has a very wealthy wife.
_______________________
Arlington, Va.: You don't have to be a McCain campaign worker to see that Obama is flip-flopping on NAFTA and his campaign-finance pledge. Or is The Post now considering any disagreement with the "Anointed One" to be off-limits?
Lois Romano: Oh please -- it's clear that some of the questions we get are are from campaign aides from both sides trying to inject criticisms into the process. Yours wasn't a question -- it was an opinion crafted as a question from an anti-Obama point of view. We get the same from Democrats.
_______________________
San Jose, Calif.: I agree with Howard Kurtz's article today that McCain has gotten an easy ride with the press. In 1998 it was reported by David Corn and Maureen Dowd that McCain joked during a speech at a fundraiser: "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno." In light of McCain's efforts to attract Clinton voters, this seems like relevant information, yet, neither The Post nor the mainstream media has brought it up. Is this irrelevant because McCain himself said it? Or does it only become relevant if McCain's preacher says it?
Lois Romano: McCain has gotten an easy ride, but the underdog often does. In 2000, he was the renegade up against the well-oiled Bush machine. While the Bush camp froze the press out, McCain embraced the media. I am of the mind that won't happen in this general election. It's early, and the media will look closely at McCain.
_______________________
YouTube: So Obama announces his decision to forego public financing by YouTube, not a press release. Different kind of message control, don't you think? People can go and see it themselves, rather than have gatekeepers tell them what he said.
Lois Romano: Not a new concept, but a smart one. Many candidates have been taking their message directly to the people in this cycle to avoid the judgments of the middle man. It's a smart tactic. Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy on her own Web site instead of at an event with reporters.
Obama has proven to be particularly adept at this -- he built up huge support on the social networks before anyone saw it coming.
_______________________
Feisty first ladies: To answer your earlier history question ("Can you recall the last time the candidates for first lady went at it?"): I always have felt Barbara Bush was pretty good at sparring, but can't recall if her "rhymes with witch" (or was it "rich"?) comment was during campaign season. I think both Democrats and Republicans kind of liked her attitude back in the day, in moderation; her crack about the Katrina refugees in Texas, not so much. But that was long after her first lady years.
Lois Romano: Thanks for reminding us of that wonderful moment with Barbara Bush. A classic.
_______________________
Anonymous:"I can't figure out who the ad is targeting -- just mothers with sons?" Soccer moms who are afraid of a draft? I saw it during "Countdown" last night and was completely unmoved. It seemed like it was associating military service with the GOP, which didn't seem smart.
Lois Romano: Thanks for the comment. I agree.
_______________________
It's all about the money: You are supposed to take the path that provides the best opportunity to win, and if I am not mistaken, the public finance system is meant to lessen the big donors' impacts on a race. Obama's coffers did not get filled by these groups, but from the 1.5 million-plus small, grassroots donors. John McCain is at a severe disadvantage in this department, so he is whining about it.
Lois Romano: That's a very good point -- Obama did rely on many small donors. The fact is that the unregulated 527 special interest groups are about to unleash on Obama big-time, and he wanted the money to fight back. I stand by my earlier statement that his giving up public money will not have any impact on the race -- except a positive one for him.
_______________________
Re: YouTube: Announcing on YouTube also eliminates all of those pesky questions by reporters too. How unhappy is the press pool with access to Obama?
Lois Romano: He has been more accessible recently since the press started complaining and writing about it, but he's no more or less accessible than any other candidate. All campaigns want to control the message, and the more the candidate is accessible the more opportunity there for the message to get off track.
_______________________
Austin, Texas: The "politics of personal destruction" seems to be wearing thin on the public. Perhaps you could help it move offstage by providing some straight, unspun information: The Rovians put out some nastiness on Cindy McCain's apparent drug abuse problems in 2000, like stealing from her own charity, etc. Can you give us the fundamental facts on this part of Cindy McCain's past so that those of us (of whatever political stripe) can counter the catty asides of others who like to monger ugly rumors about the candidates' families?
Lois Romano: I don't know every detail, but on the drug use, she clearly had a problem, admitted it and got help. I tend to think those things should be off-limits. If the Democrats want to look at her finances, that's fair game. She shouldn't get a pass on saying her finances are private -- her life is his life in a presidential campaign.
_______________________
Crestwood, N.Y.: Ms. Romano, your colleagues at The Post do amazing things sometimes. Will someone ask Rove about this Abramoff story? Why wasn't this on the front page?
Lois Romano: It could easily have appeared on the front page. Not sure why it didn't.
_______________________
Lois Romano: Thank you all for joining me today -- hope to see you back in two weeks. Meanwhile, tune into my colleagues every day at this time.
_______________________
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
June 18, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
Vietnam, Iraq and John McCain
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; LETTERS; Pg. 20
LENGTH: 553 words
To the Editor:
Re ''In '74 Thesis, the Seeds of McCain's War Views'' (''The Long Run'' series, front page, June 15):
Despite his awesome sacrifice, in the wake of the Iraq tragedy we must acknowledge that John McCain learned exactly the wrong lesson from Vietnam. It is not unpatriotic to denounce your country's decision to prosecute an immoral war.
What is unpatriotic is precisely to stand by and allow your country to sully its honor with the needless bloodshed of innocents, all the while consoling yourself that your silence must be admirable because its personal costs are so high.
Ironically, Mr. McCain's opponent in this year's presidential election, Barack Obama, did not need to endure Mr. McCain's long suffering to draw the appropriate lesson from it: what we need is not to convince our soldiers that the wrong wars are right, so that as prisoners they will not crack under savage mistreatment; what we need to is to ensure that we ourselves do not betray our soldiers by squandering their lives and their heroic valiance in what Mr. Obama has called ''a dumb war.''
Courage is no substitute for intelligence; ignorance is not strength.
Norm Jones
Chicago, June 15, 2008
To the Editor:
Among the ''welter'' of emotions revealed in John McCain's 1974 thesis was ''a sharp impatience with the American government'' during the war in Vietnam ''for failing to 'explain to its people, young and old, some basic facts of its foreign policy.' ''
I welcome these words, and I only hope that the nominee still harbors the same feelings. For the Bush administration has failed much more grievously to explain the basis of the foreign policy that led to the invasion of Iraq.
During the last presidential campaign, President Bush got away with hiding from the public his true motives for starting the pre-emptive war. Senator McCain can be expected to embark on a wholly different course.
Now we have good reason to assume, on the basis of his own words, that he will at last provide the electorate with a full and clear account of just how and why this country got bogged down and remains in the mess in Iraq.
Joseph Pequigney
New York, June 15, 2008
To the Editor:
You write that John McCain ''recommended that the military should teach its recruits not only how to fight but also the reasons for American foreign policies.''
I recall just such a program during World War II titled ''The 'Why We Fight' Series.'' With great clarity and much success, it did precisely what Mr. McCain recommended.
Now picture a ''Why We Fight'' series for the war in Iraq. The ''why'' as articulated by Bush and Company includes W.M.D., Iraq as an imminent threat to American security, Saddam Hussein with close ties to Al Qaeda and a hand in 9/11. Is there more to be said?
Leonard Yarmus
Oakland Gardens, Queens
June 15, 2008
To the Editor:
In response to Senator John McCain's proposal to have the military teach recruits about American foreign policy, while it may be a good proposal, it is not enough.
John McCain said in his first campaign commercial, ''I hate war.'' We need to start at the high school level -- both private, public and military -- beginning a discussion and debate about foreign policy and continuing it in college and beyond. Michael Kozlowski
Ann Arbor, Mich., June 15, 2008
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
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The New York Times
June 18, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
McCain Showcases His Environmental Side
BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE AD CAMPAIGN; Pg. 16
LENGTH: 510 words
Senator John McCain of Arizona began running this commercial on Tuesday on cable news and in closely contested states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, where his advertisements have been running for the past couple of weeks.
PRODUCER McCain campaign.
ON THE SCREEN The spot opens with a frenetic series of images of industry and nature: Smoke stacks and mountains, traffic and streams and, finally, a huge, orange setting sun. It then shows Mr. McCain at a lectern with an image of a newspaper headline -- ''McCain Climate Views Clash with G.O.P.'' -- below him and in the background. It then shows images of alternative energy sources -- wind turbines, a solar panel -- before switching to a shot of Mr. McCain standing on a mountain. Before the commercial ends with the standard candidate approval, it flashes a new slogan against the bright blue sky beside Mr. McCain, ''Reform. Prosperity. Peace.''
THE SCRIPT A female announcer says, ''John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming five years ago. Today, he has a realistic plan that will curb greenhouse gas emissions. A plan that will help grow our economy and protect our environment. Reform. Prosperity. Peace. John McCain.'' Mr. McCain says, ''I'm John McCain, and I approve this message.''
ACCURACY In 2003 Mr. McCain joined with Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, then a Connecticut Democrat, to draft a bill requiring industries to cut emissions of carbon dioxide. The White House frowned on the bill, and it did not win Senate approval. Mr. McCain has also joined with Democrats in supporting the idea of a system allowing power plants and other industrial polluters to buy credits from more efficient producers that fall well below limits on emitting heat-trapping gases. But Democrats and some environmentalists have criticized him for missing votes on bills setting stricter fuel standards and for opposing incentives devised to promote energy conservation and the development of energy alternatives, like the wind turbines and solar panels shown in this commercial. (Mr. McCain's campaign did not respond to requests for comment on those criticisms on Tuesday, but he has generally favored market approaches to foster energy alternatives.)
SCORECARD This spot does a good job promoting a major policy difference between Mr. McCain and President Bush (not to mention most of the rest of his party.) Promoting that rift could certainly help increase Mr. McCain's appeal to the independent voters over whom he and Senator Barack Obama are expected to fight intensely this fall. But his call this week to lift the federal moratorium on oil and gas exploration and give individual states the right to decide if they wanted to allow drilling off their coasts, which is also being considered by Mr. Bush and is not highlighted in this commercial, may undercut its message. Regardless, the spot, with its ''reform, prosperity, peace'' tagline, is decidedly more upbeat than Mr. McCain's last commercial, which was somber in tone and focused on war.
JIM RUTENBERG
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USA TODAY
June 18, 2008 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
Outside groups plan to spend heavily;
McCain, Obama frown on efforts by organizations to sway election
BYLINE: Fredreka Schouten
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
LENGTH: 711 words
WASHINGTON -- The first wave in a flood of spending by independent groups in the general election race for the White House came Tuesday with a TV ad blasting Republican John McCain for his support of the Iraq war.
The spot was paid for by the liberal MoveOn.org Political Action and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees -- two of the many outside groups and labor unions poised to spend millions to help elect Democrat Barack Obama.
The $540,000 ad campaign is running nationwide on cable and in local TV markets in the battleground states of Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Outside groups have spent more than $25 million since Jan. 1, 2007, on "independent expenditures," and more than 70% has gone toward Democratic candidates, according to an analysis by USA TODAY of campaign-finance data. That's nearly half of what was spent by these groups in 2004.
Among the groups gearing up: Planned Parenthood, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the AFL-CIO.
McCain and Obama frown on the efforts by these outside groups, who were big players four years ago and who cannot legally coordinate with candidates. But there is little either can do to stop them.
"We're proud supporters of Barack Obama, but we'll be working on issues regardless of what he wants us to do," said Eli Pariser of MoveOn.
The new TV ad features a woman with a baby boy named Alex. "John McCain, when you said you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex?" she asks. "Because if you were, you can't have him."
The question is a reference to McCain's comments that he is "fine" with a decades-long presence of non-combat U.S. troops in Iraq, similar to the postwar U.S. presence in Korea, as long as Americans are not being killed or injured.
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds declined to comment on the ad. "John McCain's feeling on these groups is clear: Reckless smears have no place in an elevated political discussion in an election like this one."
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor repeated Obama's call urging campaign donors not to give money to these independent groups. "He wants people interested in supporting his candidacy to do so through the campaign," Vietor said.
Evan Tracey, who tracks political ads at the Campaign Media Analysis Group, said the ad is "clever" and "emotional" but may not be effective. "I'm not sure how well it plays in those states ... where there are lots of families with kids in the military."
Pro-Democrat labor unions, which can enlist members to be foot soldiers in the election, are prepared to spend.
The AFL-CIO has set aside $53.4 million for the presidential and congressional elections and will deploy more than 250,000 volunteers to get out the vote, spokesman Steve Smith said. He said that's a record for money to be spent by the labor federation, which put $49 million into the 2004 election.
The AFL-CIO has not made an endorsement. Smith said the group has sent anti-McCain literature to 400,000 voters in key battlegrounds Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
The SEIU plans to spend $80million on presidential and congressional elections, Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger said. The union backs Obama.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund plans a grass-roots and Internet campaign targeting McCain. Its president, Cecile Richards, said the group wants to recruit 1 million volunteers for voter mobilization efforts.
Few pro-Republican groups are gearing up. Freedom's Watch, founded by former Bush White House staffers to be a counterweight to MoveOn, might focus only on congressional races.
"We have not made a decision to get involved, but neither have we closed the door," spokesman Ed Patru said.
Club for Growth, which spent heavily in the Republican primaries, hasn't "decided what, if anything, we're going to do on the presidential side" in the general election, Executive Director David Keating said.
Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, said some of the more aggressive advertising campaigns may not begin until after the two nominating conventions this summer. "It doesn't take much to have a big impact."
Contributing: Matt Kelley.
"The Price of Power" is an ongoing series tracking the role of money and business interests in politics.
LOAD-DATE: June 18, 2008
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The Washington Post
June 18, 2008 Wednesday
Regional Edition
The Reliable Source
BYLINE: Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C01
LENGTH: 946 words
The Secret of the Ourisman Chevrolet Girl
If you ever turned on a TV in the D.C. area in the 1970s or '80s, you remember the Ourisman Chevrolet girl.
She was Susan Gailey, the radiant blonde who marched through the car lots in all those commercials singing the most indelible jingle of the era: "You'll always get your way-aay / At Ourisman Chev-ro-let!" The ads, an instant sensation, got her dubbed "Washington's only sex symbol." She was mobbed in local restaurants, recognized on the street as far away as Paris.
Her career seemed so promising; then, she vanished. Now we know why: Gailey's daughter was the 13-year-old girl at the center of director Roman Polanski's sensational 1977 statutory rape case.
Though her daughter, Samantha Geimer, went public with her story more than a decade ago, a still shell-shocked Gailey remained in the shadows -- until last month, when she agreed to accompany her daughter to the N.Y.C. premiere of an acclaimed new HBO documentary about the case, "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired."
"She said, 'You need to stand up and face this -- you're going to feel better,' " Gailey told us. "You know, I did feel better."
We reached Gailey via phone in Kilauea, on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Now 69, she's a real estate agent who hasn't worked in showbiz for years. We read Gailey a quote she gave in a Washington Post profile nearly 30 years ago that, in hindsight, breaks your heart. ("There came a time in my life that I don't want to talk about -- I don't know how you'll explain that, but I just went away.") Indeed, she told us, discretion was essential.
"Our first thing was to protect Samantha," she said. "The second thing was to protect my job."
The York, Pa., native had moved her family to Los Angeles a few years after the Chevrolet commercials put her on the map. She quickly won roles on "Starsky and Hutch" and "Police Woman" -- but after the Polanski incident, "I stopped dead in my tracks," she said. Gailey wanted to shield her daughter's identity. And because the unnamed mother who would let her young daughter attend a photo shoot with Polanski was being pilloried in the media ("I was so stupid and naive," she told us), she also had to conceal her own involvement. Otherwise, she feared, she would lose the Chevrolet gigs that were supporting her family.
Gailey continued as the Ourisman Chevrolet girl into the late 1980s; she kept shooting ads for Casey Chevrolet in Virginia's Tidewater area into the 1990s.
She passed up a chance to be interviewed for the HBO documentary. "The first time I watched it, it freaked me out, reliving that time," she said. She felt calmer by the time of the premiere. "I met Roger Gunson, the prosecutor, who was just wonderful. He said, 'All those things they said about you weren't true.' "
Gailey moved to Hawaii nearly two decades ago -- "in the mountains, with peacocks and goats, horses, chickens, ducks, macaws." Both of her daughters and all of her five grandchildren live just minutes away. "We're all happy, healthy, fine, healed, good," she said. So if anyone asked whatever happened to the Ourisman Chevrolet girl, she told us, "You can say she died and went to Heaven."
In the Presidential Bake-Off, the Chips Are Off Old Blocks
The recipe police are at it again! Both Cindy McCain and Bill Clinton are accused of stealing a sweet treat for Family Circle magazine's "Presidential Cookie Bake-Off."
The candidates' spouses were each asked to submit their favorite cookie recipe for readers to vote on: McCain offered an oatmeal-butterscotch recipe from a "good friend," Clinton submitted an oatmeal variety by a family cook, and Michelle Obama shared a fruity shortbread courtesy of her daughters' godmother. Sharp-eyed bakers quickly noticed that McCain's recipe -- "an absolute must" for family get-togethers -- was a duplicate of Hershey's, and Clinton's had been lifted straight from Betty Crocker. (This is the second time the McCain team got caught: In April, a campaign aide posted some family favorites that turned out to come from the Food Network.)
Let's cut them some slack, people. Generations of home bakers (yes, even moms) have passed off plagiarized peanut puffs as original family heirlooms. And honestly, how many amateur cooks ever create their own recipes? Pass the chocolate chips and we'll forget the whole thing.
A Joycean Irish Toast to a Day of Epic Proportions
Belated Happy Bloomsday! The Irish Embassy celebrated June 16 -- the 1904 Dublin day chronicled in James Joyce's "Ulysses" -- with actors from Scena Theatre reading from a stage adaptation on Monday. Guests at the cocktail reception listened hard to keep up with the heavy brogues and brisk stream of consciousness, prompting Ambassador Michael Collins to joke later, "I hope you understood at least some of it." Well, we glanced at the faces around the room as Kerry Waters portrayed a lusty Molly Bloom. ("He asked me would I yes to say yes . . . and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.") Yes we say yes they definitely got that part.
Hey, Isn't That . . . ?
· Michael Chertoff lining up for discount books at Olsson's on Monday. The Homeland Security chief dropped by the Seventh Street location's going-out-of-business sale; was buttonholed by an activist until he closed the conversation with, "You'll have to go through channels. I don't do drive-bys."
· Peter Angelos at Nationals Park, of all places, for the annual American Friends of Lubavitch benefit dinner on Monday. The Orioles owner joined Nationals owners Ted and Mark Lerner to honor team President Stan Kasten; Rabbi Levi Shemtov gave a shout-out for two kosher hot dog stands at the new ballpark.
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June 18, 2008 Wednesday
Regional Edition
The Court McCain Wants
BYLINE: Ruth Marcus
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Conservatives, seizing on the Supreme Court's ruling last week on Guantanamo detainees, want to turn the court into election fodder.
I hope they succeed.
No issue in this campaign is as simultaneously neglected and important. And the opposite reactions of John McCain and Barack Obama to the decision underscore how much is at stake for the future of the court.
Obama hailed the ruling for showing that "a state can't just hold you for any reason without charging you and without giving you any kind of due process -- that's the essence of who we are."
McCain was initially mild, saying only that the decision "obviously concerns me." By the next day, though, he was as over the top as Justice Antonin Scalia, who warned that the court's action "will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed." Legal reasoning -- or ad copy for the Republican National Committee?
In any event, McCain got the point. "One of the worst decisions in the history of this country," he thundered last Friday.
Worse than Roe v. Wade, to take an example on which McCain and I differ but that illustrates the overheated nature of his reaction?
This reaction makes little sense from a man who has repeatedly vowed to shut down Guantanamo -- on his first day in office, no less -- and ship its remaining prisoners to Fort Leavenworth.
After all, the whole point of stashing the detainees at Guantanamo was to avoid giving them the rights that everyone acknowledged they would have on U.S. soil. So the McCain solution -- sending them to Leavenworth -- would create the very situation he now decries.
More important, the ruling will not have anywhere near the disastrous consequences forecast by the McScalias of the world. The five-justice majority did not order that any detainees be freed. It didn't give al-Qaeda fighters an express ticket to federal court. In fact, it said, "except in cases of undue delay," courts should stay out until the military makes the first judgment about whether prisoners should be held or released.
McCain lamented that the court was giving rights to "enemy combatants . . . ardently seeking to destroy the United States of America and all that we stand for and believe in." Strikes me that a big part of what we believe in is the rule of law and the notion that people can't be held indefinitely without a fair hearing.
As his evolving reactions to the Guantanamo case may indicate, legal issues are not at the center of McCain's policy interests. But they are a top priority for conservative activists, which makes me all the more nervous about what a McCain presidency would mean for the court. Yes, a Democratic Senate could temper the kind of nominee McCain would select, but a conservative legal movement whose rallying cry is "No More Souters" will be hard to satisfy with an unknown commodity. Remember Harriet Miers?
The next president is almost certain to have one appointment, and quite possibly two or more. In addition, the oldest justices are also the most liberal: John Paul Stevens is 88; Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 75.
As a result, a President McCain could shift the court significantly to the right, while a President Obama would be lucky, even with a Democratic Senate, to nudge the court even a bit in a liberal direction. More likely, he would merely be able to maintain the shaky, conservative-leaning status quo.
And it is shaky indeed -- not just when it comes to abortion rights, the usual focus of Supreme Court debate in election years. Certainly, the addition of one or two conservative justices could mean, if not Roe's explicit demise, then a dramatic curtailing of the right to choose. Yet the court is at a tipping point on issues that range from the scope of presidential power to the separation of church and state to the future of affirmative action.
Ironically, one of the casualties of a McCain appointee to the high court could be McCain's signature campaign finance legislation. The handwriting for the demise of McCain-Feingold is already on the wall -- and it comes from the very justices he praises as model nominees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, who joined in a ruling last year to overturn a key part of the law.
What, one wonders, would a President McCain say if and when the rest of McCain-Feingold goes -- that this, too, is one of the worst decisions ever?
marcusr@washpost.com
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June 18, 2008 Wednesday
Suburban Edition
McCain's Declaration of Independence
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The Ad: John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming five years ago. Today he has a realistic plan that will curb greenhouse gas emissions. A plan that will help grow our economy and protect our environment. Reform. Prosperity. Peace. John McCain.
Analysis: There is nothing subtle about this ad: The Republican senator from Arizona is explicitly trying to distance himself from an unpopular president. And his chosen issue is climate change, which just happens to have special appeal for independent voters.
McCain broke with President Bush last month when he proposed mandatory curbs on greenhouse gas emissions -- a step the administration has resisted -- along with emissions credits that polluting companies could trade. McCain's approach calls for a 60 percent reduction in emissions by 2050, compared with the 80 percent cut being pushed by his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), and many scientists.
While McCain is using global warming to neutralize Obama's charge that he's running for Bush's third term, he angered environmentalists this week by proposing to lift a ban on offshore oil drilling.
The commercial, with a soft-voiced female narrator, begins with speeded-up images of polluting factories and traffic yielding to a setting sun. It ends with an image of McCain as the Western outdoorsman, wearing a work shirt and baseball cap as he stands on a mountain ridge.
Video of this ad can be found at www.washingtonpost.com/politics.
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June 18, 2008 Wednesday
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Clinton, Fundraisers To Meet With Obama
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AN INTRODUCTION
Clinton, Fundraisers To Meet With Obama
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has scheduled her first appearance with Sen. Barack Obama since the end of the Democratic nomination fight, a joint meeting with some of her top contributors next week at the Mayflower Hotel, officials from both camps confirmed yesterday.
Clinton h as not appeared in public since endorsing her rival on June 7, going on vacation after that. But her finance director, Jonathan Mantz, has reportedly been working overtime to arrange the introduction of some of Clinton's fundraisers to Obama.
Mantz informed donors about the June 26 get-together in e-mails and urged them to attend.
-- Anne E. Kornblut
EX-CLINTON ADVISER
Obama Praises New Addition to Team
A day after hiring Patti Solis Doyle, who was fired from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign in February, Sen. Barack Obama praised her as a "terrific, experienced campaign hand."
Obama sparked fury from some Clinton insiders when he tapped Solis Doyle to serve as chief of staff to his as-yet-unpicked running mate. Her selection strongly suggests that Obama is not considering Clinton for the ticket, a move that one Clinton donor on Monday called a "slap in the face."
Talking to reporters on his plane, Obama said he has known Solis Doyle for years and organized with her brother in Chicago. "I've known the family for a very long time," Obama said. "I think that she will bring not only a set of skills that we're going to need as we put together our ticket, but she's going to be a terrific adviser and offer insight and judgment that will help us win in November."
-- Anne E. Kornblut
'YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM'
Mother in Ad Rebukes McCain Over Iraq War
In a stark new ad by the liberal antiwar group MoveOn.org, a woman confronts Sen. John McCain about a possible lengthy U.S. troop commitment in Iraq by clutching her baby son and declaring, "You can't have him."
The ad is slated to debut today and run for a week in the general-election swing states of Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan, with an additional run on CNN and MSNBC funded by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The initial investment is expected to reach $543,000, a MoveOn spokesman said.
McCain has refused to commit to any Iraq withdrawal plan, and has speculated that U.S. troops could remain in the country for decades, similar to the ongoing American military presence in South Korea.
-- Shailagh Murray
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IMAGE; Moveon.org; An ad by MoveOn.org features a woman telling Sen. John McCain that she will not allow her son to fight in Iraq. The ad will run in some swing states.
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June 18, 2008 Wednesday 12:44 PM EST
General Accuses WH of War Crimes
BYLINE: Dan Froomkin, Special to washingtonpost.com, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: OPINION
LENGTH: 4126 words
HIGHLIGHT: The two-star general who led an Army investigation into the horrific detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib has accused the Bush administration of war crimes and is calling for accountability.
The two-star general who led an Army investigation into the horrific detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib has accused the Bush administration of war crimes and is calling for accountability.
In his 2004 report on Abu Ghraib, then-Major General Anthony Taguba concluded that "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees." He called the abuse "systemic and illegal." And, as Seymour M. Hersh reported in the New Yorker, he was rewarded for his honesty by being forced into retirement.
Now, in a preface to a Physicians for Human Rights report based on medical examinations of former detainees, Taguba adds an epilogue to his own investigation.
The new report, he writes, "tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these individual's lives on their bodies and minds. Our national honor is stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from their captors.
"The profiles of these eleven former detainees, none of whom were ever charged with a crime or told why they were detained, are tragic and brutal rebuttals to those who claim that torture is ever justified. Through the experiences of these men in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, we can see the full-scope of the damage this illegal and unsound policy has inflicted --both on America's institutions and our nation's founding values, which the military, intelligence services, and our justice system are duty-bound to defend.
"In order for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they were subjected, a government policy was promulgated to the field whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice were disregarded. The UN Convention Against Torture was indiscriminately ignored. . . .
"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
Pamela Hess of the Associated Press has more on the report, which resulted from "the most extensive medical study of former U.S. detainees published so far" and "found evidence of torture and other abuse that resulted in serious injuries and mental disorders."
So if war crimes were committed, who's responsible?
In today's installment of a major McClatchy Newspapers series on the U.S. detention system, Tom Lasseter writes: "The framework under which detainees were imprisoned for years without charges at Guantanamo and in many cases abused in Afghanistan wasn't the product of American military policy or the fault of a few rogue soldiers.
"It was largely the work of five White House, Pentagon and Justice Department lawyers who, following the orders of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, reinterpreted or tossed out the U.S. and international laws that govern the treatment of prisoners in wartime, according to former U.S. defense and Bush administration officials.
"The Supreme Court now has struck down many of their legal interpretations. It ruled last Thursday that preventing detainees from challenging their detention in federal courts was unconstitutional.
"The quintet of lawyers, who called themselves the 'War Council,' drafted legal opinions that circumvented the military's code of justice, the federal court system and America's international treaties in order to prevent anyone -- from soldiers on the ground to the president -- from being held accountable for activities that at other times have been considered war crimes. . . .
"The international conventions that the United States helped draft, and to which it's a party, were abandoned in secret meetings among the five men in one another's offices. No one in the War Council has publicly described the group's activities in any detail, and only some of their opinions and memorandums have been made public. . . .
"Only one of the five War Council lawyers remains in office: David Addington, the brilliant but abrasive longtime legal adviser and now chief of staff to Cheney. His primary motive, according to several former administration and defense officials, was to push for an expansion of presidential power that Congress or the courts couldn't check."
The other members were Alberto Gonzales, first the White House counsel and then the attorney general; William J. Haynes II, the former Pentagon general counsel; former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo; and Timothy E. Flanigan, a former deputy to Gonzales.
For more on Addington's central role, see my Sept. 5, 2007 column; for more on the relationship between the administration's legal memos and torture, see my April 2 column.
The Senate Armed Services Committee made news with a hearing yesterday -- part of its continuing investigation into the administration's interrogation policies. (Here's the C-SPAN video.)
Joby Warrick writes in The Washington Post: "A senior CIA lawyer advised Pentagon officials about the use of harsh interrogation techniques on detainees at Guantanamo Bay in a meeting in late 2002, defending waterboarding and other methods as permissible despite U.S. and international laws banning torture, according to documents released yesterday by congressional investigators.
"Torture 'is basically subject to perception,' CIA counterterrorism lawyer Jonathan Fredman told a group of military and intelligence officials gathered at the U.S.-run detention camp in Cuba on Oct. 2, 2002, according to minutes of the meeting. 'If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong.' . . .
"Fredman, whose agency had been granted broad latitude by Justice Department lawyers to conduct harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists, listed key considerations for setting a similar program at the Cuban prison. He discussed the pros and cons of videotaping, talked about how to avoid interference by the International Committee of the Red Cross and offered a strong defense of waterboarding." . . .
"Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), the committee chairman, asked: 'How on Earth did we get to the point where a United States government lawyer would say that . . . torture is subject to perception?'."
Levin also introduced evidence that proposed methods faced opposition at the time from experts in military and international law. Warrick writes: "Among them was Mark Fallon, deputy commander of the Defense Department's Criminal Investigation Task Force. He warned in an October 2002 e-mail to Pentagon colleagues that the techniques under discussion would 'shock the conscience of any legal body' that might review how the interrogations were conducted.
"'This looks like the kind of stuff Congressional hearings are made of,' Fallon wrote. He added: 'Someone needs to be considering how history will look back at this.'"
The star witness yesterday was Haynes -- the former Pentagon general counsel, "War Council" member and Addington protege.
Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane write in the New York Times that Haynes "sparred at length with senators seeking to pin on him some responsibility for the harsh tactics and the worldwide outrage they provoked.
"Documents released Tuesday show that some of Mr. Haynes's aides in July 2002 sought out information about aggressive interrogations.
"Mr. Haynes fended off attacks by Democrats and some Republicans, noting that the Defense Department has 10,000 lawyers and saying he had no time to conduct legal research himself on which methods were permitted.
"Moreover, Mr. Haynes said, 'as the lawyer, I was not the decision maker. I was the adviser.'
"Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, said he thought Mr. Haynes's advice had led American soldiers drastically astray. 'You degraded the integrity of the United States military,' Mr. Reed said."
Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post: "If ever there was a case that cried out for enhanced interrogation techniques, it was yesterday's Senate appearance by the Pentagon's former top lawyer.
"William 'Jim' Haynes II, the man who blessed the use of dogs, hoods and nudity to pry information out of recalcitrant detainees, proved to be a model of evasion himself as he resisted all attempts at inquiry by the Armed Services Committee. . .
"It was the most public case of memory loss since Alberto Gonzales, appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, forgot everything he ever knew about anything. And, like Gonzales, Haynes (who, denied a federal judgeship by the Senate, left the Pentagon in February for a job with Chevron) had good reason to plead temporary senility.
"A committee investigation found that, contrary to his earlier testimony, Haynes had showed strong interest in potentially abusive questioning methods as early as July 2002. Later, ignoring the strong objections of the uniformed military, Haynes sent a memo to Donald Rumsfeld recommending the approval of stress positions, nudity, dogs and light deprivation. . . .
"Haynes mixed his forgetfulness with a dash of insolence. He suggested to [Claire] McCaskill [(D-Mo.)] that 'it's important that you understand how the Defense Department works.' He cut off [Jack] Reed [(D-R.I.)] with a 'Let me finish, Senator!' and disclosed that he had been too busy to give more attention to the Geneva Conventions: 'I mean, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of decisions made every day. This was one.'"
Mark Benjamin of Salon offers up a timeline based on the Senate investigation. He writes that "as more and more documents from inside the Bush government come to light, it is increasingly clear that the administration sought from early on to implement interrogation techniques whose basis was torture.
Phil Carter analyzes the new evidence on washingtonpost.com
Adam Zagorin writes for Time: "Despite years of investigation into alleged abuse and death of prisoners in U.S. custody since 9/11, the only Americans held accountable have been the low-ranking 'bad apples' convicted for the worst atrocities at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. No official blame has been assigned to higher-ups for abuses at Guantanamo or in Afghanistan, much less for crimes allegedly committed by U.S. personnel in various secret CIA prisons around the world."
Tim Rutten writes in his Los Angeles Times opinion column: "Apart from understanding how and why the Bush/Cheney administration tricked the American people into going to war in Iraq, no question is more urgent than how the White House forced the adoption of torture as state policy of the United States."
Rutten writes that, along with earlier revelations, "the current Senate investigation has established definitively that the drive to make torture an instrument of U.S. policy originated at the highest levels of the Bush administration -- mainly in the circle that included Cheney, Rumsfeld and Addington. This group had come to Washington determined to implement its theory of 'the unitary executive,' which holds that presidential powers of all sorts have been dangerously diminished since the Vietnam War. The fact that these guys seem to have defined executive branch power as the ability to hold people in secret and torture them pushes the creepy quotient into areas that probably require psychoanalytic credentials."
Rutten, however, has nothing but scorn for the "handful of European rights activists and people on the lacy left fringe of American politics" who are calling for criminal indictments or war-crime trials.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto repeated the official administration position yesterday: "I'm telling you that abuse of detainees has never been, is not, and will never be the policy of this government. The policy of this government has been to take these detainees and to interrogate them and get the information that we can get to help protect this country, which we have been very successful at doing, and we've been very successful at getting the information that has saved lives and prevented attacks on this country and on our allies. . . .
"[W]e do not abuse and we treat detainees humanely and comporting with the law."
Karen DeYoung writes in The Washington Post: "U.S. and Iraqi officials negotiating long-term security agreements have reworded a proposed White House commitment to defend Iraq against foreign aggression in an effort to avoid submitting the deal for congressional approval, Iraq's foreign minister said yesterday.
"The alternative under discussion will pledge U.S. forces to 'help Iraqi security forces to defend themselves,' rather than a U.S. promise to defend Iraq, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said. Although 'it's the other way around,' he said, 'the meaning is the same, almost.'
"Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), one of the most outspoken critics of the proposed agreement, called the change 'a distinction without a difference.' Senior Democratic and Republican lawmakers have questioned whether the accord will constitute a defense treaty requiring congressional ratification and have accused the Bush administration of withholding information on the talks. . . .
"In a document he signed last fall with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Bush pledged 'security assurances and commitments . . . to deter foreign aggression against Iraq that violates its sovereignty and integrity of its territories, waters, or airspace.'
"Under sharp questioning from U.S. lawmakers, the administration has insisted that the agreement will be 'nonbinding' and can be legally signed by Bush without congressional approval."
Kyle Crichton blogs for the New York Times: "In the debate over the future American military role in Iraq, the Bush administration has held firm on one point in particular: there will be no permanent American bases in Iraq. Just last week, Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker denied a report in The Independent of London to the effect that the United States was building 50 'permanent' bases.
"But what constitutes a permanent base? Almost anything, it turns out. . . .
"[E]ven though we may never have permanent bases in Iraq, we could very well have some venerable temporary facilities there before we finally depart. . . .
"[A] handful of big bases . . . are already there and looking quite permanent, from the KFC and Burger King outlets, to the car dealerships, to the 6,000- person mess halls."
John Goetz and Bob Drogin write in the Los Angeles Times about catching up with Rafid Ahmed Alwan, the Iraqi informant code-named Curveball.
"[I]n his first public comments, the 41-year-old engineer from Baghdad complains that the CIA and other spy agencies are blaming him for their mistakes. . . .
"It was intelligence attributed to Alwan -- as Curveball -- that the White House used in making its case that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. He described what turned out to be fictional mobile germ factories. The CIA belatedly branded him a liar. . . .
"'I never said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, never in my whole life,' he said. 'I challenge anyone in the world to get a piece of paper from me, anything with my signature, that proves I said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.'"
Manu Raju writes in The Hill: "Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday that they would not stand in the way of a compromise overhaul of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), despite their concerns with the impacts of the sprawling measure.
"Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, said some Democrats are 'not happy with that, but there may be enough to get a majority vote.' . . .
"Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) predicted Tuesday that there is enough support within the Democratic Conference to approve [the] contentious overhaul. . . .
"The latest development comes after Rockefeller, Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and the Bush administration reached an accord late last week to break a weeks-long stalemate over balancing electronic surveillance with the right to privacy for American citizens, according to several people familiar with the talks."
The New York Times editorial board writes: "In the waning months of his tenure, President Bush and his allies are once again trying to scare Congress into expanding the president's powers to spy on Americans without a court order.
"This week, the White House and Democratic and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill hope to announce a 'compromise' on a domestic spying bill. If they do, it will be presented as an indispensable tool for protecting the nation's security that still safeguards our civil liberties. The White House will paint opponents as weak-kneed liberals who do not understand and cannot stand up to the threat of terrorism.
"The bill is not a compromise. The final details are being worked out, but all indications are that many of its provisions are both unnecessary and a threat to the Bill of Rights. The White House and the Congressional Republicans who support the bill have two real aims. They want to undermine the power of the courts to review the legality of domestic spying programs. And they want to give a legal shield to the telecommunications companies that broke the law by helping Mr. Bush carry out his warrantless wiretapping operation."
Glenn Greenwald of Salon yesterday started raising money for broadcast ads targeting Hoyer and "other Congressional enablers" for their support of the ostensible compromise. Greenwald announced this morning that in the first 16 hours of the campaign, more than $70,000 came in.
H. Josef Hebert writes for the Associated Press: "With gasoline topping $4 a gallon, President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to lift its long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, saying the United States needs to increase its energy production. Democrats quickly rejected the idea. . . .
"With the presidential election just months away, Bush made a pointed attack on Democrats, accusing them of obstructing his energy proposals and blaming them for high gasoline costs. His proposal echoed a call by Republican presidential candidate John McCain to open the Continental Shelf for exploration. . . .
"Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee, rejected lifting the drilling moratorium that has been supported by a succession of presidents for nearly two decades.
"'This is not something that's going to give consumers short-term relief and it is not a long-term solution to our problems with fossil fuels generally and oil in particular,' said Obama. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, lumping Bush with McCain, accused them of staging a 'cynical campaign ploy' that won't help lower energy prices.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times: "Mr. Bush has long advocated opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to drilling, and in 2006 signed into law a bill that expanded exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. But the topic of coastal drilling has been an extremely sensitive one in the Bush family; Mr. Bush's father, the first President Bush, signed an executive order in 1990 banning coastal oil exploration, and Mr. Bush's brother Jeb was an outspoken opponent of offshore drilling when he was governor of Florida.
"Now, though, President Bush is considering repealing his father's order... [T]wo people outside the White House said such a move was under serious consideration, and a senior White House official did not dispute their account."
Writes Stolberg: "With oil selling for more than $130 a barrel and no end in sight to high gasoline prices, Mr. Bush, a former oilman from Texas who came into office vowing to address an impending energy shortage, does not want to end his presidency in the midst of an energy crisis."
Tom Raum writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush pledged housing help and other federal aid to victims of Midwest storms and said he would inspect flood damage in a trip to Iowa on Thursday.
"Briefed on Tuesday by officials involved in the relief effort, Bush also said he would work with Congress on emergency legislation to help replenish a federal emergency disaster fund."
James V. Grimaldi and Del Quentin Wilber write in The Washington Post: "A federal appeals court yesterday ordered a new trial for a former White House aide convicted of obstructing justice and lying, a setback for prosecutors in their four-year-old investigation into the activities of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff."
Dan Friedman writes for CongressDaily: "House Judiciary Committee Democrats on Monday renewed their demand that former White House political adviser Karl Rove testify publicly on the politicization of the Justice Department but suggested they may accept a compromise in which Rove would be interviewed in private without taking an oath to tell the truth.
"The committee on May 22 subpoenaed Rove to testify at a July 10 hearing on the White House's role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006 and his alleged involvement in the prosecution of Don Siegelman, the former Democratic governor of Alabama.
"Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, has said the White House has ordered Rove not to testify.
"But in a letter sent Monday to Luskin, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Judiciary Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., said Luskin recently suggested to the committee staff that Rove appear 'without a transcript or oath,' but without any limit on the committee's right to seek sworn testimony later.
"Luskin's proposal diverges from a White House offer to allow former White House Counsel Harriet Miers to appear for a similar interview on the condition the committee not seek future testimony from her, the letter said.
"'This is an important step forward,' Conyers and Sanchez said of Luskin's proposal. 'We are encouraged by this suggestion,' they added. . . .
"Nonetheless, the letter by Conyers and Sanchez also called a request by Luskin that the interview covers only the Siegelman matter and not the U.S. attorney firings 'unacceptable.'"
Peter Stone writes in National Journal: "To judge from his public persona, former White House senior adviser Karl Rove is devoting the lion's share of his time to analyzing the presidential campaign as an on-air commentator for Fox News and in columns for Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets; restarting his political consulting firm; writing a book; and giving speeches nationwide.
"Rove has strongly suggested he has largely eschewed dispensing advice to the campaign of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain or to outside political groups seeking to influence the November elections.
"But away from the spotlight, Rove has been busy pitching in by giving informal advice to McCain's team and spending a considerable amount of time as an outside adviser to Freedom's Watch, the conservative political group that is expected to spend tens of millions of dollars to help elect House GOP candidates. . . .
"One prominent GOP strategist says that Rove's various behind-the-scenes efforts for McCain and Freedom's Watch are aimed at bolstering the Bush administration's sagging fortunes, helping Republicans in a tough election year, and protecting his own place in history. Rove, who was a key architect of George W. Bush's presidential victories in 2000 and 2004, is 'trying to vindicate the Bush administration by electing a Republican president,' the GOP source said. 'This is very personal for Karl.'"
Harris Interactive reports: "The latest Harris Poll finds the nation in a foul political mood. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice all register their worst ratings ever. More people than ever also think the country is on the wrong track. . . .
"President Bush's latest ratings are 24 percent positive and fully 75 percent negative. Previously, his worst numbers were 26 percent positive and 72 percent negative in April of this year. His ratings are substantially worse than those of any president, except for Jimmy Carter (22%-77% in July 1980), since Harris first started measuring them in 1963.
"Vice President Cheney's ratings are even worse, 18 percent positive and 74 percent negative, compared to his previous low of 21 percent positive, 74 percent negative last July."
I'm Live Online today at 1 p.m. ET. Come join the conversation.
Daniel Wasserman on McCain's baggage; Pat Oliphant on habeas corpus; Stuart Carlson on King George and Ann Telnaes Cheney's torture defense.
LOAD-DATE: June 20, 2008
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Washingtonpost.com
June 18, 2008 Wednesday 12:00 PM EST
The Reliable Source
BYLINE: Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts, Washington Post Staff Writers, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 5215 words
HIGHLIGHT: Reliable Source columnists Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts were online Wednesday, June 11 to discuss your favorite gossip, what you think about their recent columns or who you want to see them writing about in future ones.
Reliable Source columnists Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts were online Wednesday, June 11 to discuss your favorite gossip, what you think about their recent columns or who you want to see them writing about in future ones.
A transcript follows.
In today's column: Ever wonder whatever happened to the Ourisman Chevrolet girl from those great '70s commercials? Stop what you're doing and read the unbelievble sad-then-happy story.
In recent days: Gov. O'Malley ousts controversial aide -- his overly barky terrier, Scout.
Surprise break-up for D.C.'s favorite May-December couple.
Washington's public nudity problem
Ovechkin wears stylin' clothes;beats everyone at table hockey
And what this town needs is more vodka at noon.
E-mail and bookmark us.
Reliable Source Columns
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Amy Argetsinger: Good morning everyone! Lots of good questions. Seems we've given you stuff to talk about this week...
First, though, a thanks for all your great questions last week. You'll be happy to know that a certain sick-at-home web chatter managed to smoke out The Collector -- or rather, The Imposter -- who yesterday sent us two boxes of Jello. Thank you, Imposter -- you're the best!
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Washington, D.C.: I love it: Richard Hurt is so bothered by all the nudity that he's coming back to videotape it!
Amy Argetsinger: That's Robert Hurt. And yes, well, got to document the problem...
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Fitzmas past: You knew he was engaged, but Patrick Fitzgerald apparently tied the knot with that teacher, according to Chicago's ABC7.
Amy Argetsinger: Hey, thanks for that! Great news! (And just in time to be eliminated from People's latest "hottest bachelors" issue, starring Mario Lopez -- ew.) We'll get right on that.
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New York: It's a shame Cindy McCain is "running" for First Lady- her serial plagiarism would be a lot of fun in here otherwise.
Roxanne Roberts: Isn't it MORE fun because she's running for First Lady?
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Fred Thomspon in the convertible: This was an interesting blurb, and it confirmed so much about Fred Thompson that we already knew. Actually, maybe it was just reinforcement of a stereotype....
Amy Argetsinger: Hey, what's the matter with driving a convertible and looking smugly happy? I do it all the time. (Actually, I forget to take the top down -- too much work.)
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That Irish embassy event: You provided a great description of the reading, but what about the food? And who else was there?
Amy Argetsinger: Nice little quichey-things, nice little sausage-on-toothpick things, shrimp cocktail.... oh, and Michael Collins whiskey. Good stuff. The rest of the crowd were nice Washington types who get invited to nice embassy things, no major celebs that I noticed.
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Washington Nudity: Maybe what we need is more nudity -- by Alex Ovechkin! (Oh, wait -- that would defeat the marketing of his clothing line.)
Amy Argetsinger: Has everyone seen his new modeling shots? Can I just say that, while not conventionally handsome, the guy definitely has a Face. He could do this professionally if he ever wants to chuck the day job.
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The Chris Cooley Short-shorts: Still aren't seeing these as a fashion trend, and hasn't it been a year?
washingtonpost.com: Chris Cooley, Defying the Short Shorts No-No (Post, June 24, 2007)
Amy Argetsinger: But wait: Evidence that the trend is about to catch on has just emerged. Hang on, link to follow...
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washingtonpost.com: Three Wise Guys: Neighbor Etiquette, Short Shorts for Men, Changing Team Colors (Post, June 15)
Amy Argetsinger: See here, people are already writing in to the Post begging to know where they can get short shorts for men! Joe Heim advises the reader against pursuing this fashion, but I believe our esteemed colleague is about to be left in the dust by the inevitable march of fashion history.
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Farewell: Judging from the crowd shown at the Tim Russert funeral, it appears that everyone in the uber-MSM turned out to honor the Big Guy. Do you suppose any of them were pondering their own mortality after having such a sad reminder of the fragility of life?
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, heck yeah. I think that's one of the reasons his death really hit home with so many people -- that he died so suddenly, at boomer prime of life and at the top of his career.
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Washington, D.C.: I was curious to read your note (yesterday)about the breakup of May-December couple Ashley Taylor and Joe Robert. Just a few weeks ago, you reported that the engagement was back on with a wedding planned for three months from now, in September. Taylor hired a celebrity wedding planner. I assume that Taylor/Roberts sent in the press release for that item, since the photo caption said "Photo provided by Joe Roberts." Did Taylor/Roberts report the item about their own breakup, as well? (Embarrassingly enough, I am curious and this item piqued my interest!)
Roxanne Roberts: Let me clarify:
* We asked for a photo when the two became engaged last summer, and they provided that shot, which we've used a few times in our column.
* The engagement was never off---they called off the wedding in Capri, but Ashley kept wearing her engagement ring and the two continued their relationship.
* There was no press release about the September wedding. We heard Ashley had hired Mindy Weiss to plan a ceremony this fall, confirmed that plans were underway for a wedding for 400 guests at the Mellon Auditorium, and wrote about it.
* We heard about the break-up Monday from a source very close to both of them. As you might expect, they're pretty crushed about it.
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Oursiman Chevrolet spokesmodel: Wow! That photo! She looks great - very much the same. And thanks for the story - I had no idea about her connection with the Polanski case. I thought you did such a good job with that, it should have been more prominent than just your column!
Amy Argetsinger: Thanks so much! So glad you liked it. I got goosebumps when we got the tip indicating this never-before-reported connection... She was *such* a big deal around here, everyone felt like they knew her. (Yeah, and aren't those photos amazing?) Such a weird, sad story; nice to know she's doing well now.
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Maryland's first dog: Loved that story! However, was a little disturbed about how quickly they replaced their canine family member...seems a bit fickle. Oh, and by the way - sometimes the dog really does go live on a farm....
Amy Argetsinger: Really? I got that old line about how the kitty went to live on a farm when I was about 9 years old, and I was probably 30 before I realized that the kitty didn't really go live on a farm.
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Kensington, Md.: OK, Roxanne, a question. You left this chat last week just a few minutes before one. Then reported that the vodka party ended at promptly at two. You also reported that you tried all three vodkas in what appears to be a 40-60 minute window. How snocked were you as you did the write-up of the event?
Roxanne Roberts: You give me too much (or not enough) credit. Knowing I had to come back here an write, I sampled a thimble's worth of each---probably didn't add up to one shot. Plus, I ate about a dozen little beef pies, which probably soaked up any alcohol.
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Falls Church, Va.: I think I drove through a movie set last week in Arlington on Williamsburg Blvd. Was something actually filming there? Thanks!
Amy Argetsinger: Uh... off the top of my head, don't know. "Transformers" was filming out at Dulles... kind of doubt this was that, though.
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Recipe-gate: Honestly -- I'm a rather experienced cook, but I don't think I have a single recipe that I didn't get from somewhere else. I wouldn't even want to claim one of my Mom's recipes as a "family" original, since I don't know where she got it. Who cares -- aren't these just "favorites" anyway?
Roxanne Roberts: Exactly our point. Free Cindy!
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Governor's dog: Airedales are notoriously territorial and protective. My sister has two. The poor thing was probably very stressed about the change in residence and all the people.
Amy Argetsinger: Yes, that's what Katie O'Malley suggested. She said Scout was fine when they first got him, living in Baltimore, but he had naturally very protective instincts, and when they ended up in Annapolis -- new home, with dozens of complete strangers walking through every day -- he probably just became completely freaked out. Poor puppy. Sounds like he really is in a happier place now.
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Tim Russert: This has been such a sad week. I'll really miss this guy -- and the write-on, wipe-off board on election night. The most amazing thing was how everyone truly respected him. The most touching photo, to me, was the one of James Carville and Mary Matalin crying while filming their portion of the tribute -- I don't think I've ever seen her cry.
washingtonpost.com: James Carville, Mary Matalin Break Down on Set After Tim Russert's Death (Huffington Post, June 17)
Amy Argetsinger: Thanks for this.
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McLean, Va.: I grew up in Newport News, Va. and used to see those Casey Chevrolet commercials on television all the time. I always wondered what happened to her. And to read this in today's column, I had no idea. Holy cow!
Amy Argetsinger: I know. Amazing, isn't it?
Part of what amazed me was to realize she had a different identity in Tidewater -- as the Casey Chevrolet girl -- but was equally beloved. She told me she was still doing ads for them into her late fifties. What an amazing run.
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"Surprise breakup": Is that sarcasm? Or were you really surprised?
Roxanne Roberts: No sarcasm -- since she had moved in with him and they were planning a wedding in September, I think most people thought they'd gotten over the rocky patch.
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Iowa: Amy, the flooding stuff didn't turn out so well for many of us. Now we have to worry that the President will show up with those nasty FEMA trailers in tow.
Amy Argetsinger: Indeed. I apologize if I sounded flippant about the flooding last week. As crazy as the floods of '93 were, sounds like this is just a completely new level of devastation.
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Food poisoning chatter, here: So glad my intestinal distress led to smoking out of the imposter. Hope you got good Jello flavors! Feeling much better this week and eating a burrito while I read your chat!!
Amy Argetsinger: Orange and cherry, as it happens. I wanted to take them home and whip up a batch right away, but Rox insisted we keep it in our weirdo swag keepsake drawer.
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Herndon, Va.: Why the criticism of Cindy McCain's recipe?Couldn't Michelle Obama have made upa recipe that doesn't call for Amaretto liquor? What about kids? Can they eat those cookies that Michelle conjured up?
Roxanne Roberts: Different issue: One is credit, the other ingredients. I'm an experienced baker, and I've never known anyone to get tipsy from a alcohol in a cookie recipe. More likely that kids wouldn't like the taste---but since Amaretto is almond favored, it acts much like an extract in the recipe. The shortbread sounds yummy, by the way.
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Washington, D.C.: Why are they called May-December couple?
Roxanne Roberts: It's a standard term for a couple where one is much older than the other. Joe is 56, Ashley 25.
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Can you tell us: What brands of beer are preferred by the Presidential candidates. My husband and I had this discussion, and we think Obama is a Corona guy while McCain drinks imports. Think McCain ever drinks those Vietnamese beers?
Amy Argetsinger: Good question... remember when Obama was campaigning in a working-class bar in Pennsylvania and made of point of ordering a beer that wasn't "some designer beer"? Whereas McCain is married to the heiress of a major Arizona beer distributor, so I guess he has his choice.
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Mario Lopez: I second the eewww on Mario Lopez. It does, however, make the whole scandal about his bicep war with a "Chorus Line" co-star that much more entertaining.
Amy Argetsinger: Thanks for alerting me to the bicep war, which I had missed. Link to follow.
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washingtonpost.com: Arms and the Man (New York Post, May 7)
Amy Argetsinger: There you go.
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Georgetown, D.C.: So I can't believe I missed the John Edwards photo shoot yesterday! Any public photos of that yet? Is he still in the area that I can find him and oogle?
washingtonpost,com: John Edwards, Striking a Pose and Running (For Something?) (Post, June 18)
Amy Argetsinger: Unfortunately, looks like we have to wait until the fall...
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Kaneohe, Hawaii: Who is Ashley Taylor? I have to say, I haven't heard of her before. Googling has yielded few bits, except some pictures. She is 25, and ...how did she meet Joe? I'm guessing this was a quick romance? Thanks for catching me up
Roxanne Roberts: Ashley is the tall, blonde, gorgeous granddaughter of a well-known couple in D.C.: Lawyer Lloyd Hand (a former Chief of Protocol) and jewelry designer Ann Hand. The Hands are very popular, and Ashley moved here from California about three years ago to work in her grandmother's business. As you might expect, she became a darling of the young, social set right away. Ann introduced Ashely to Joe and the two started dating two years ago and got engaged last summer. The romance got a lot of attention because both are high-profile figures, he's very rich, and, of course, the age difference.
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RE: May - December: I would like to inform everyone that I'm officially an old person. I thought everyone knew what a May - December couple meant. I am depressed now.
Roxanne Roberts: I went to event last night and felt about 100 years old. Or should I say "December?"
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K Street, D.C.: Lord, I've seen Max Baucus's son everywhere--NY Times, one of the hill papers, etc. Do all senator's kids get this much "exposure" when they get married or are he and new Mrs. just really good at self-promotion?
Amy Argetsinger: Meow! Sen. Baucus's son, a D.C. lawyer (and not a superhero, despite having the very zippy name of "Zeno") got hitched last weekend to another D.C. lawyer, and they were one of 40 couples who got a writeup in this week's NYT weddings section.... It is, of course, notoriously competitive to get your wedding picked for those pages; my general understanding is that they make their picks they're looking for brilliant careers, interesting stories, good-for-the-mix-of-the-page diversity and fame, whether that of the new couple or their parents. But yeah, short answer is that I think if your parent is a senator it definitely helps.
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Luke Russert: Just wanted to say how impressed I have been with the grace, courage and poise he has shown in the last week. Tim would have been so very proud of him. But at the end, he will still be a 22-year-old who has lost his dad way too soon.
Roxanne Roberts: Luke has been fantastic. Tim would have been embarrassed by the coverage overkill, but SO proud of Luke. (By the way, he and Carville are dedicating their Friday sports show to Tim's love of sports.) The thing that will get Luke though is knowing how much his dad loved him. Tim was crazy about that kid---it's something I really liked about him.
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washingtonpost.com: Stephanie Denton, Zeno Baucus Wedding Announcement (New York Times, June 15)
Amy Argetsinger: Here's the wedding announcement.
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New York: Tell the CIA person in Herndon two things: Almond extract is higher in alcohol than amaretto, and stop doing Republican Party business from your government job.
Amy Argetsinger: Ha ha!
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May-December : May is the prime of the yearly cycle, December is the end when everything is dying.
Roxanne Roberts: Now I feel really old.
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What about kids? : Alcohol in baking bakes off, it's just for the flavor. My mom always made rum cake for us. It is NOT intoxicating, just flavorful. Really, is that all you can diss Michelle for? I don't think she wears lapel pins either.
Amy Argetsinger: You know when alcohol does not bake off in a tasty dessert? When you add it to Jello.
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RE: Mario Lopez: I'll be thrilled when his 15 minutes are up and people will only remember him as Slater from Saved by the Bell.
Amy Argetsinger: Isn't that what we mostly remember him for now?
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Midlothian, Va.: All Cindy McCain had to do was the equivalent of footnoting her recipe by noting that it came from Hershey's. I say let them eat cake and off with her head!
Roxanne Roberts: Maybe her "good friend" lifted it and passed it off as her own? People are funny (weird funny, not ha-ha funny) about recipes.
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Annapolis, Md.: Spotted: O'Malley and aide on Southwest flight out to San Diego this morning. O'Malley arrived late, without checking in and lost the chance for an aisle or window seat. Flight attendants managed to seat aide and gov together though after some passengers volunteered to move. Glad to see he's frugal with our tax dollars!!
Amy Argetsinger: The governor was headed out to a biotech conference in California.
Also -- whenever you have a sighting, please send the details to reliablesource@washpost.com We usually don't have the ability to confirm these sightings in the space of a one-hour online discussion, but we're always glad to be able to consider these for print.
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Re: Food poisoning chatter: Wow, how much longer can you milk it? Two weeks running and three different chats?
Amy Argetsinger: It's only been two chats, right? We weren't talking about this before last week, were we?
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More Bicep Wars: Oh, the Mario Lopez diva story has an even more recent update: the co-star was chosen over him for an underwear ad.
washingtonpost.com: Undies Ad Fuels 'Chorus' Feud(New York Post, June 13)
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, thanks -- had totally missed this. The quotes in here are hilarious. Catty, catty world, NYC theater and fashion.
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May-December: Why aren't all the photos that run with your column published online? For this column, we got the dog but not the couple. It doesn't make any sense -- especially given that you also have an ONLINE chat.
Roxanne Roberts: We're working on a change that will allow us to post more photos on the web soon.
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Dude: Now I want to have a barbecue and have Jell-O shots and relive my college years.... so fun.
Amy Argetsinger: I'm pretty sure that I'm the person who invented vodka Jell-O, back in 1986-87, though it didn't gel very well and I didn't perfect the formula until 1989. Then a couple years later everyone was talking about Jell-O shooters. Should have patented it. Hey, if I ever run for president and they ask me for a family recipe, should I give that?
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Native Californian: Any celeb couples from the D.C. area heading to California to get married now that same-sex weddings are legal there?
Roxanne Roberts: Not that we know of---but we'll let you know as soon as they "I do."
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Kensington, Md.: Amy....givin' the shout out to the Jell-O shot.
Amy Argetsinger: Were you there? Do you remember that I invented this? Please, someone, validate me here.
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Food poisioning: Wow. Sorry. I asked Tom last week if I should call the restaurant and then joked around with you all because I was home sick. Then your chat brought it up. I will now no longer joke, because that's apparently not allowed by your police chatters. Wow.
Amy Argetsinger: No, please, we're okay with it! Seriously! And it's not your fault that the Collector/Imposter continued the saga by sending us Jell-O -- for which, if we haven't mentioned it yet, we are very very grateful.
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The "Flex" issue: That link to Mario Lopez & his bicep envy is just too funny! Thanks! What kind of envy do you two have? Do you color-coordinate?
Amy Argetsinger: Well, we did both show up to the White House Correspondent's dinner wearing red, as did Libby Copeland, which meant that we all just had to avoid each other all night.
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Who invented Jell-O shots?: Sorry, but I had them in 1981. I think you were too young to access alcohol then.
Amy Argetsinger: Can you document this?
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Washington, D.C.: I'll vouch for you Amy - I saw you buying the Jell-O in the basement of the TreeHouse.
Amy Argetsinger: Thank you very much!
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Talk about feeling old: Do you not know what teetotaler means? It means someone who doesn't drink alcohol. Makes the story about my Mom making Rum Cake WAY more relevant!
washingtonpost.com: My bad.
Amy Argetsinger: I think I missed a part of the conversation here.
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Food poisoning redeux: That cookie recipe from Cindy McCain gave me food poisoning -- who do I sue: Hershey's or the McCains?
Amy Argetsinger: This is a question the courts will have to wrangle over for decades.
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Jell-O Shots: Sorry, Amy -- Jell-O shots were a big treat in my high school in Indianapolis in 1987. Which means they must have been wiggling and jiggling through pop culture for decades before making it to that godforsaken place.
Amy Argetsinger: What a beautiful thing to think about -- how I was making vodka Jell-O at my Virginia university the same time you were consuming it in Indianapolis. Perhaps the idea of combining vodka and Jell-O was just inevitable, seeping up through our nation's collective unconscious. Perhaps we are not Two Americas after all, but One.
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Mario Lopez Fan Club: Mario Lopez is perfect just the way he is. A lot of us find serious vanity really very sexy. By the way does he still host that show of animal acts or was that just a summer gig ?
Amy Argetsinger: Thank you, Google. How did I ever miss Animal Planet's "Pet Star"? Looks like we haven't had any new episodes since 2005, sadly.
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"That cookie recipe from Cindy McCain gave me food poisoning -- who do I sue: Hershey's or the McCains?": Just have an alcoholic Jell-O shooter, that'll make you feel better.
Amy Argetsinger: It will kill all the germs.
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St. Louis, Mo.: Can you link to the Ourisman piece?
washingtonpost.com: The Secret of the Ourisman Chevrolet Girl(Post, June 18)
Amy Argetsinger: There you go.
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Jell-O shots: Wow Amy, you'd better get the origins of that recipe straightened out before you or your SO ever run for public office! You just know that in the midst of a tight election race, someone will surface whose recipe predates yours by a year. Jellogate. Such a sad end to a bright political career.
Amy Argetsinger: So true. You know how Al Gore was ruined by claiming he invented the Internet? It's sort of like that.
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Jell-O!: I had Jell-O shots in high school in 1980. We also injected watermelons with grain alcohol.
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, yeah. How'd that work out for you?
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Obama's Beer: Is anything more tranparent than saying "I don't want some designer beer". In PA, "I'll have a Rock please" works though.
Amy Argetsinger: It's the only moment in his campaign thus far that he looks like he was trying too hard.
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Who do I sue?: Um, yeah, hi, you sue yourself for making tainted cookies. Pretty sure the recipe(s) don't say "Step 1: Use 3 bad eggs." Duh.
Amy Argetsinger: Oh, you're no fun!
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Washington, D.C.: Roxanne - out of curiosity, you seem protective of the Joe/Ashley relationship. I for one don't really care who dates who (i.e. it's not my place to judge and I am all for finding love in all shapes and sizes), but I think many felt pretty cynical about the intentions of each in the relationship. Given the way our culture works, I am sure Joe, who is a greatly respected business man and philanthropist, will be fine, but in your years of reporting do you think Ashley's reputation will suffer by way of this rejection? In some ways, perhaps the high profileness of it all, enhances her, on the other it's an awfully private and sad thing to have to go through so publicly. Do you think she'll hang around D.C. and see who else her grandmother might be able to introduce her to? Okay, apparently I am feeling snarky today. Would be curious to hear your thoughts though.
Roxanne Roberts: Look, I know both of them and I don't think either of them entered the relationship in bad faith or with cynical intent. I also know---from personal experience---that no one really knows what goes on in any relationship behind closed doors.That being said, OF COURSE people are going to gossip when a very wealthy businessman starts dating a model 30 years his senior---it's the launching pad for 1,001 beach novels----and it's the rare couple that has the maturity to overcome the problems inherent with that kind of age difference.
I presume they'll be fine in the long run. From what I know, the break-up was sad but not nasty, and Ashley's going to stay in town and work for her grandmother.
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Jell-O, shots: Amy, On behalf of a grateful nation, I thank you. But what did you put your Jell-O shots in? The trouble was always in getting the Jell-O out of those little tiny dentist-office cups.... Maybe kids these days have perfected this aspect of them? My experience with Jell-O shots was a full decade after yours. It's like a magical cross-generational elixir!
Amy Argetsinger: I made my Jell-O like Mom did -- in an 8 by 11 glass baking dish and cut up into squares. Except, of course, with vodka added. She didn't do that. That I know of.
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Obamabeerama: You all should read "Dreams From My Father." Obama doesn't drink much, if at all, anymore.
Amy Argetsinger: Apparently a beer called Senator Beer has been selling big in Kenya these days because of the Obamania there...
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Jell-O Shots: Amy, what's the best flavor Jell-O to use with the vodka?
Amy Argetsinger: Orange. So it's kind of like a Screwdriver.
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Am I in the wrong chat?: I thought this was gossip, not bartending school. This is like how the questions about drinks are under "Sports/Leisure" in Trivial Pursuit.
Roxanne Roberts: Maybe we can create a drinking game out of the chat? One shot for every "Britney" mention, another for Clooney? What else? Amy's surfing lessons? Fake boobs?
Amy Argetsinger: Drink every time anyone asks who's the most eligible bachelor in D.C.
Drink every time someone asks "What's Jenna's sister up to these days?"
Chug everytime someone says "Why aren't those girls in Iraq?"
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"You know how Al Gore was ruined by claiming he invented the Internet?": But you do know he never claimed that? The claim was made up by the opposition to discredit him. He SAID that he wrote and introduced the bill FUNDING development of the internet. So he didn't invent the internet, HE PAID FOR IT.
Amy Argetsinger: Yeah yeah yeah, sure, stipulated, etc. Was just being funny.
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Jell-O Shots: They belong in ice cube trays.
Amy Argetsinger: Huh. Not a bad idea.
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OF COURSE people are going to gossip when a very wealthy businessman starts dating a model 30 years his senior: Not to mention one 30 years his junior! But I'd sure like to know about models who 30 years older (a girl can dream, can't she?).
Roxanne Roberts: Ha-ha! Now THAT would be an awesome story! Never happen, but awesome.
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Creation myths: Does it really matter if we are the dream of sleeping god arising from the lotus growing from his belly, or molded out of earth, or baked in an oven by the creator? In the end we have Jell-O shots. And isn't that enough?
Amy Argetsinger: That's deep. I hope no one minds if we're intruding on the turf of our "On Faith" colleagues. Maybe Sally Quinn could join us for our next Jell-O shot discussion?
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Jell-O shots: Lime! Or the red one (cherry?). We also did vodka-infused fruits (honeydew was not great, watermelon was) in college. Good times.
Amy Argetsinger: I think for lime Jell-O we might try gin.
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"The questions about drinks are under 'Sports/Leisure' in Trivial Pursuit": Which I love cuz it's the only way I can win the sports category!
Amy Argetsinger: It's the only way I've maintained my dominance in local Trivial Pursuit championships.
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Jell-O follow up: What Embassy would be most likely to serve Jello shots?
Amy Argetsinger: American embassies abroad.
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"Amy Argetsinger: Huh. Not a bad idea": OK there is NO way in heckeroonie you invented Jell-O shots if you didn't know to put them in ice trays!!! And I was the first to infuse a watermelon with vodka, btw.
Amy Argetsinger: We'll know that Generation X has finally taken the reins of power when our presidential candidates are submitting these recipes to Family Circle.
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Drinking game: Chug every time you need to remind us to contact you ASAP rather than send a chat message saying "Was so-and-so in town 2 weeks ago?" One shot for every minute Roxanne is late to the chat.
Amy Argetsinger: Hey, we did pretty good this week on both counts, huh?
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Kenosha Wisc.: Jell-O Shots (from Wikipedia): "Vodka jelly, (Often known as Jell-O shots in the U.S.) is a party food where some sort of alcohol,usually rum, vodka, tequila or sometimes even grain alcohol replaces some of the water or fruit juice used to congeal the gel. The American satirist and mathematician Tom Lehrer has been rumored to have been the first to invent the gelatin shot in the 1950s while working for the National Security Agency, where he developed vodka gelatin as a way to circumvent a restriction of alcoholic beverages on base, but this claim has not been substantiated. The maximum alcohol content is somewhere between 19 and 20 oz. of vodka per 3 oz. package of Jell-O powder, or about 30 percent alcohol by volume."
Amy Argetsinger: I never knew Tom Lehrer was involved! Am a big fan. I find this even more inspirational than ever.
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Which one of you went to UVA?: I'm thinking Amy -- since Roxanne is very quiet on all this Jell-O shot chatting.
Roxanne Roberts: I'm trying to remember if I've EVER done a Jell-O shot. Maybe once, but it wasn't a Kodak moment. I've missed out on so much---Thank God Amy is here to coach me on the finer points of life, liberty and the pursuit of gossip.
Speaking of which---send your tips and sighting of Jell-O wrangling to reliablesource@washpost.com Next week, kids.
Amy Argetsinger: In defense of my alma mater, I learned about much classier beverages there as well, including gin and Sprite. Wahoowa!
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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USA TODAY
June 17, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
3 reasons to pick Wesley Clark for Obama's VP
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 8A
LENGTH: 809 words
I don't believe Hillary Clinton rounds out Barack Obama's "dream ticket." No, the No. 1 person for the No. 2 job is retired Army general Wesley Clark ("5 lessons for picking a running mate," Cover story, News, Wednesday). Here's why:
*When it comes to fighting international terrorism, few people in politics (or at the Pentagon) have the military credentials Clark has.
*Because he is from Arkansas, Clark can inspire blue-collar whites in states such as West Virginia, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania to vote for Obama.
*As a true-blue Clinton insider, the general's presence on the ticket will send an unmistakable message to millions of Democrats. In its simplest form, that message is one of party unity.
Each is a good reason to name Clark to the Democratic ticket. When you combine all three, he is in a league of his own as Obama's potential running mate.
Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach, Calif.
Strong running mates
I agree with the many people who have said that adding Hillary Clinton as vice president would strengthen Barack Obama's ticket.
John McCain should select Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as his running mate. I'm not predicting who would win, but what an amazing general election season we would have.
Carrie Lamm Bishop
Fishers, Ind.
Go for 'green' energy
For the past 30 years, I have urged my members of Congress to vote against oil exploration and/or drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. USA TODAY's editorial supports drilling although it will not solve our long-term oil needs ("Alaska drilling is no quick fix, but it needs to happen," June 10).
Americans need to be leaders in researching and funding new "green" technologies and not in continuing down the same old, shortsighted path to destruction of the planet and every living thing on it, including humans (in case you were thinking humans would pull off an escape before such a disastrous end).
I, for one -- actually, there are many of us -- don't want to witness the extermination of all other species. Our human survival then would be a hollow victory indeed.
A. Lorraine Rogers
Pomona, Calif.
High prices, record profits
The price of gasoline at the pumps keeps going up. This causes a family's net profit -- spending money after taking care of family expenses -- to go down. This I can understand.
What I can't understand is why does the net profit of the large oil companies that are buying these high-cost barrels of oil rise to record levels?
Maybe if most of the politicians in Washington weren't super rich and had to live like people elsewhere, something might be done to solve the crisis.
Bruce N. Croft
Henderson, Nev.
DVR viewers skip ads
As a small-business owner who advertises regularly, I respectfully submit that the premise of USA TODAY's article "DVRs lifting network TV? Copy that" is wrong (Life, Wednesday).
The primary purpose of all television programming is to bring in advertising revenue. Digital video recorders enable the viewer to skip over all the commercials. Therefore, with the use of more DVRs, less advertising is seen.
The article states networks "can now charge advertisers for delayed viewership." The networks know, as do the advertisers, that viewers speed over commercials when programming is delayed through a DVR. So to charge for these viewers is akin to fraud.
Bill Jones
Knoxville, Tenn.
Helicopter crashes leave open questions
I read with interest USA TODAY's story "Air-ambulance crashes trigger FAA's 'full attention'" (News, June 10).
In 2005, my sister, Erin Reed, was killed when the helicopter she was working aboard crashed into Puget Sound. The accident that killed Erin, fellow nurse Lois Suzuki and pilot Steve Smith was part of an "unfortunate cluster" of accidents in 2004-05, to use the phrase Tom Judge, a safety adviser to the Association of Air Medical Services, uses to describe this most recent spate of fatal crashes. That cluster killed 50 and seriously injured 11. Meanwhile, most of the families who've lost loved ones in these accidents wonder when these unfortunate clusters will end.
Yes, the industry gets shaken out of complacency for a short period of time after an unfortunate cluster, but soon enough, those clusters reappear. Are we expected to believe this is simply coincidence, bad luck or just fate?
What about the lack of basic safety equipment in an already aging fleet of emergency medical services aircraft?
What about increasing competitive pressure to fly dangerous missions or the lack of weather standards when patients are not on board the aircraft?
Congress is considering two EMS flight-safety bills -- HR 3939 and S. 1300, Section 508 -- that would make the skies safer for flight crew and patients.
Let's hope our elected officials can see beyond the cluster theory and demand change from the Federal Aviation Administration and the industry.
Stacey Friedman
El Dorado Hills, Calif.
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The Washington Post
June 17, 2008 Tuesday
Met 2 Edition
McCain Seeks to End Offshore Drilling Ban
BYLINE: Michael D. Shear and Juliet Eilperin; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1034 words
Sen. John McCain called yesterday for an end to the federal ban on offshore oil drilling, offering an aggressive response to high gasoline prices and immediately drawing the ire of environmental groups that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has courted for months.
The move is aimed at easing voter anger over rising energy prices by freeing states to open vast stretches of the country's coastline to oil exploration. In a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, nearly 80 percent said soaring prices at the pump are causing them financial hardship, the highest in surveys this decade.
"We must embark on a national mission to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil," McCain told reporters yesterday. In a speech today, he plans to add that "we have untapped oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production. . . . It is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions."
McCain's announcement is a reversal of the position he took in his 2000 presidential campaign and a break with environmental activists, even as he attempts to win the support of independents and moderate Democrats. Since becoming the presumptive GOP nominee in March, McCain has presented himself as a friend of the environment by touting his plans to combat global warming and his opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in the Everglades.
Representatives of several environmental groups criticized him for backing an idea they said would endanger the nation's most environmentally sensitive waters.
"It's disappointing that Senator McCain is clinging to the failed energy policies of the past," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, legislative director for the League of Conservation Voters.
Sierra Club political director Cathy Duvall said McCain "is using the environment as a way to portray himself as being different from George Bush. But the reality is that he isn't." The group began running radio commercials yesterday that criticize McCain's environmental record in the battleground state of Ohio.
Democratic Sen. Barack Obama joined the criticism, calling the idea of lifting the ban the wrong answer to out-of-control energy prices. "John McCain's plan to simply drill our way out of our energy crisis is the same misguided approach backed by President Bush that has failed our families for too long and only serves to benefit the big oil companies," Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said.
Energy policy -- led by the spike in gas prices -- is now a top-tier issue in the campaign, forcing both candidates to shift their attention from other domestic issues and foreign affairs. Spot prices for a barrel of crude oil briefly hit an all-time high yesterday, flirting with $140 a barrel before settling back to a bit less than $134.
In the Post-ABC poll, conducted Thursday through Sunday, about half of those surveyed called high gas prices a serious burden, while the issue emerged for the first time during the campaign as a top concern for voters. Obama held double-digit leads over McCain as the candidate more trusted to deal with gasoline prices and energy policy.
While both candidates have spoken about the need to shift to cleaner energy sources, they have proposed different ways to do so.
McCain backs federal subsidies for building more nuclear power plants, which he considers the best way to reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. He plans to begin outlining his energy proposals in the first of three major speeches today in Houston. Aides said the centerpiece of the speech will be the proposal to lift the ban on drilling, but McCain will also have harsh words for market speculators who are driving up the cost of oil.
"Investigation is underway to root out this kind of reckless wagering, unrelated to any kind of productive commerce, because it can distort the market, drive prices beyond rational limits, and put the investments and pensions of millions of Americans at risk," he will say in the speech, according to excerpts the campaign provided yesterday.
Obama backs using money raised through an auction of greenhouse-gas emissions credits to bolster research and development projects, while imposing requirements on how much renewable energy public utilities would have to buy.
Yesterday in the down-at-the-heels manufacturing city of Flint, Mich., Obama said that a new energy policy must be part of government efforts to revive the economy.
"Our dependence on foreign oil strains family budgets and it saps our economy. Oil money pays for the bombs going off from Baghdad to Beirut, and the bombast of dictators from Caracas to Tehran," Obama said. "Our nation will not be secure unless we take that leverage away, and our planet will not be safe unless we move decisively toward a clean energy future."
McCain's call for an end to the coastal oil drilling ban is at odds with his oft-stated view that drilling should remain off-limits in sensitive areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Asked by reporters about those places, McCain said yesterday that he still thinks the refuge is a "pristine" area and opposes drilling there.
The senator's push to end the ban is sure to annoy two key Republican allies -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist -- both of whom oppose drilling off their states' coastlines.
Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear noted the governor's overall support for McCain's candidacy but said: "There are things that he and the senator will agree on, and things they won't agree on." Crist said in a statement: "It has become increasingly clear that we must be pragmatic in protecting both our beaches and our economy. We look forward to the dialogue as we move forward to protect both our environment and our country's economic interests."
Congress created a moratorium on new drilling off the coast in 1981, and every president since then has extended it.
While McCain has traditionally sided with environmentalists on climate change, he has a mixed voting record on oil drilling and support for renewable energy.
Staff writers Christopher Twarowski, Anne E. Kornblut and Steven Mufson contributed to this report.
LOAD-DATE: June 17, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Win Mcnamee -- Getty Images; Sen. John McCain's position angered some environmental groups.
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Washingtonpost.com
June 17, 2008 Tuesday 1:00 PM EST
Station Break
BYLINE: Paul Farhi, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 3922 words
HIGHLIGHT: If it's on the dial, over the air, on the cable, or just plain Out There, it's fair game for 'Station Break with Paul Farhi.' Bring your comments to the conversation on America's Fastest Growing Pop Culture Chat.
If it's on the dial, over the air, on the cable, or just plain Out There, it's fair game for 'Station Break with Paul Farhi.' Bring your comments to the conversation on America's Fastest Growing Pop Culture Chat.
Farhi was online Tuesday, June 17, at 1 p.m. ET.
A transcript follows.
Farhi is a reporter in The Post's Style section, writing about media and popular culture. He's been watching TV and listening to the radio since "The Monkees" were in first run and Adam West was a star. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Los Angeles, Farhi had brief stints in the movie business (as an usher at the Picwood Theater), and in the auto industry (rental-car lot guy) before devoting himself fulltime to word processing. His car has 15 radio pre-sets and his cable system has 500 channels. He vows to use all of them for good instead of evil.
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Paul Farhi: Greetings, all, and welcome back...First, of course: RIP, Tim Russert. Plenty's been said already, and I won't belabor what TV has made obvious in the past few days, but that was a shocking death of a fine man and journalist. RIP indeed...
At the risk of completely tacky transition: Let me throw this onto the bonfire of Commercials We Hate: Ellen DeGeneres' "call-my-people" ad with Beyonce for American Express. I wince every time I see it. Premise: Ellen is too down to earth and normal to have "people" who can score her some concert tickets. Uh huh--she's just your everyday multimillionaire syndicated TV talk-show host, just like the rest of us. And then the kicker: Ellen goes out to the studio lot and bathes in the adulation of her fans because, you see, these are her people. I like Ellen and think she does an amusing show. But who's buying this elaborate corporate-run effort to seem "normal"?
Let's go to the phones....
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Centreville, Va.: Hi Paul. Do you feel the coverage of Tim Russert's death have been excessive? I can understand why NBC and Ch4 have had extensive coverage, but not the other networks. Also, the extra emphasis on heart health issues is a positive, however I'm amazed that the experts seem baffled that a favorable stress test does is not a 100 percent guarantee a heart attack cannot happen??? What are your thoughts???
Paul Farhi: Let's throw in a couple of mitigating factors: Russert WAS highly beloved, trusted, skilled. His death WAS shocking. He WAS famous. But even after factoring that in, I don't quite get all the coverage. Let's control now for TV stardom and ask a question: Would the death of any of the 10 most famous/accomplished/important PRINT journalists rate a fraction of the same coverage? Not even close.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Wilbon called me an idiot yesterday for questioning whether he should be taking pictures with porn stars while on assignment for the Post. I don't really care who he hangs out with. I think its sort of funny that he thinks spending time with sleazy women makes him cool. But I don't like being called an idiot when I am a customer of this newspaper and should be respected if I have a legitimate question. Perhaps this lack of respect for its audience is why the Post circulation is declining. Thoughts?
Paul Farhi: Well, I don't know anything about this, and it's not nice for anyone to call anyone else an idiot. But I doubt very much that our circulation is declining for THAT reason.
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Houston, Tex.: Here is something I have been wondering about forever. You are listening to a Top 40 station. A song that hasn't been in rotation for more then ten years is played -- the Spin Doctors' "Two Princes," for example. You don't like this song, so you change the channel to the only other Top 40 station in town. What is playing? The Spin Doctors' "Two Princes." This seems to happen so often. What causes it? Is there some commercial service that both stations have purchased that tells them that this is the exact song that the city's Top 40 audience wants to hear at 8:10 in the morning of Tuesday, June 17th, and so both stations obediently follow along? I know that the two competing DJs didn't come up with the idea of playing this out-dated song on their own at the exact same moment.
Paul Farhi: I've noticed this phenomenon, too. Most recently, I believe, the song was Ted Nugent's "Just What the Doctored Ordered," which I shamelessly adore and which I never hear on the radio--until I heard it twice within a few days. While I can't speak to any specific song, this is very likely an artifact of radio research. Lists of songs are played for test audiences, who then rate how "burned out" they are on a song. Songs that haven't been played in a while on the radio obviously haven't bored their audience in a while, so perhaps the research points this out. It all depends, I guess, on what songs are played for the test audiences. If an oldie gets on several test lists at the same time, it's not unlikely that it will get on the air soon after the research is conducted.
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To Be Fair: Wilbon called him an idiot because his (or her) question implied that Wilbon should be checking the employment of people who ask to be photographed with him, not because he (or she) asked the question. I thought the question (and the implication) was kinda dumb myself...
washingtonpost.com: Wilbon's 'Chat House' Discussion (Post, June 16)
Paul Farhi: Again, I don't know from all this. But I can't endorse people calling people names on chats. You people, for example, are the kindest, nicest, smartest folks around. Except for the idiots, of course.
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Wilbon and Silver Spring: Wilbon fully explained the circumstances of that picture to you. He did not say that having a picture taken with porn stars made him cool, but he also didn't have a fake moral attack over it. He is frequently asked to take pictures with absolute strangers, and it would be EXTREMELY odd for him to ask for a background check before complying. Your tone in pursuing this question is truly distasteful. Are you condemning these women for being porn stars? Are you trying to "get" Wilbon for not detecting and condemning their profession, indeed for declining to condemn them even after informed of their profession? Why are you so concerned about this? Are you also very concerned about politicians who may or may not wear lapel pins of our flag?
Paul Farhi: Oy. We've moved from porn stars to flag pins...Let me say this (again, please ignore my ill-informed speculation): Wilbon is famous enough that all kinds of people want to be around him, photographed with him, play golf with him, etc. Kornheiser, too. I doubt he has people checking the credentials of the people who approach him. And he's just being nice by standing beside them while someone snaps a picture. But I still don't like people calling people they disagree with "idiots." Save that for talk radio.
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Springfield, Va.: What is your professional take on broadcasting schools? Worth it? Will certainly advance your career? A glorified technical school whose graduates are destined for behind-the-scenes positions?
Paul Farhi: I've never met a professional broadcaster of any talent or achievement--heck, of ANY standing--that went to, or admitted going to, a broadcasting school. That's not to say there aren't any such people, or that broadcasting schools are no good. But I would guess that people mostly break into the business with other kinds of education.
That said, I fondly remember the old Columbia School of Broadcasting commercials from eons ago. They had a guy in a radio studio spieling about how great CBS* is/was. His signoff was a classic: "And pardon me, I've got to get back to playing records."
* Not affiliated with the Columbia Broadcasting System.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Do digital cable or FIOS provide data on who is watching what? It seems like this technology would give the cable companies immediate data on who is watching what with (potentially) stupendous implications for the ratings biz. Could I possibly be on to something here?
Paul Farhi: Nielsen already has this data, of course. Not sure if the phone and cable guys collect it on their subscribers, but I wouldn't be surprised if they could and did.
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Arlington, Va.: I haven't seen this much media ink and air time devoted to one journalist since Bob Edwards left NPR. Media coverage of Tim Russert outweighs press coverage of the most recent Medal of Honor winner by at least 50-1! What a bunch of self-serving navel gazers -- when will it be ENOUGH?
Paul Farhi: Well, okay. But there seems to be some--albeit a limited--audience for this stuff. As my fine colleague (MFC) Lisa de Moraes pointed out in her column this morning, the cable news networks got a ratings bump out of their Russert coverage. A small bump, to be sure, but that tends to be the case in cable, where the bumps are all relative.
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RE: Silver Spring, Md.: : Obviously you have an axe to grind. Maybe by Friday you will have hit all the chats. This the third chat you've posted on. We get it, you were offended. How do you know it was a porn star? Research? I'm offended you know that. Paul, what about you? Would you pose with a porn star? Would you know a person was a porn star? (Don't lie.)
Paul Farhi: Pose with a porn star? You're asking that question as if I haven't already.
And who among us hasn't?
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Oakton, Va.: Did you see Obama and McCain interviewed about Tim Russert Saturday morning on the Today show? McCain came across as the guy next door. Obama talked about the time he interviewed Russert. I must have missed that. He gives a great scripted speech but he really needs help when he he speaks extemporaneously.
Paul Farhi: Didn't see that. But I was amused by some of the reactions from others in the TV biz about Russert's passing. Several famous folks (sorry, no names) took the occasion to turn his death into a statement about themselves. Tack-ee.
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Herndon, Va.: Mr. F: I have a solution to the "Wilbon-Mr./Ms Silver Spring" problem. All Post employees (you included) should simply do their job, then immediately head for home or a hermetically sealed hotel room and stay there until called on to work again.
Paul Farhi: Actually, all Post employees are required to attend Media Conspiracy Training each day immediately after work. Keeps us on the same page n' all...
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Bethesda, Md.: Re Wilbon: Wilbon wasn't "on assignment" for the Post when those pictures were taken. He was at a club/party on his own time. He happened to be on travel for his job, but just being on the road doesn't mean every waking minute is on the clock.
Paul Farhi: I don't know how or why we got on this topic, but let me state my basic reaction and be done with it: 1) People can be photographed with anyone they choose; 2) Post columnists don't check the credentials of the people they get depicted with during off hours; 3) It's STILL not nice to call someone an idiot, even if you disagree with them. Strongly.
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This seems to happen so often. What causes it?: Sorry guys, I have to fess up. It's me. I've been reading "The Secret" and learning to control what plays on the radio with my thoughts. Sorry it was Spin Doctors this weekend. For my next trick I'm working on getting ALL radio stations, regardless of format, to play the same song at the same time. Any requests?
Paul Farhi: Sounds like a juicy opportunity. I like that Ted Nugent song. Anyone else down with that?
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Silver Spring also: Hey, if you're in Silver Spring how do you have Fios already? Anyway, they HAVE To disclose collection of individually identifiable data and let you consent. If they haven't gotten your consent, you can sue them...or spit into the wind, your choice.
Paul Farhi: Thanks for that clarification. Was not aware. And on a slightly different note: When the heck is Fios gonna get to my neighborhood? I keep checking with that dude in the kiosk in the mall and calling the 800 number. The dude just smiles at me. The recording on the phone says not yet (and I believe I heard the faint sound of technicians laughing at me in the background).
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PB: Investigators Enter Home of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon. Real headline or season 6 of the Wire?
washingtonpost.com: Investigators Enter Home of Baltimore Mayor (Post, June 17)
Paul Farhi: But Carcetti was clean, wasn't he? Oh, wait. You mean that city council lady who had the deal to succeed him as mayor if he got to be governor, which he did (according to the massive loose-ends-tying montage at the end of the series)? Yeah, she seemed a little shady. Could definitely see the feds going after her...
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Satellite Radio Fan: Curious to hear your take on the XM/Sirius merger. Ilove XM for a variety of reasons... good programming, SMART DJ's, mostly break-free channels, and REAL 'oldies' -- seems like the "full employment act" for those DJs from the past, not to mention the use of echo, etc. While my teenage kids are alternately baffled, enthralled and amused by those guys (especially Phlash on the 60's on 6 channel), I love the replay of 60's airchecks and being able to listen to the hometown play-by-play baseball announcers. Listening to Vin Sully or Jon Miller is wonderful!
Paul Farhi: I was ardently opposed until they started cutting deals with the feds. Now, I'm not so sure. Look it: XM and Sirius have never made a dime (and, in fact, lost lots and lots of them) in all the years they've been in business. There's no prospect they will ever make money, really, given the competitive nature of the business. So one of them is bound to fail at some point. And where would be then? Likely with a monopoly that could do whatever it wanted, without condition. Prices would rise, service would stink. In short, satellite radio would resemble something like the cable business, which holds a "natural" monopoly. So, letting them merge now--with lots of conditions on 'em--might be the best possible deal we can expect.
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When the heck is Fios gonna get to my neighborhood?: I know! You can register on the Verizon website and you'll get an e-mail letting you know when the time is near, but they won't tell you ahead of time. If they keep us guessing, we'll think it's soon, and we'll be less likely to go with the Cox two-year commitment.
Paul Farhi: Clever, Mr. Bond, but too clever. Why don't they just say, "We expect to get to your neighborhood next February (or March or September, or whatever)?" I'll wait, and I'll wait with a rough guess on how long I have to wait. Now, people just shrug at me when I ask. Doesn't exactly fill me with confidence about their customer service.
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A different Silver Spring: Fios is in parts of SS - Not mine yet, but close. Getting information on when is probably impossible unless you know someone who knows someone at Verizon. I called, I went to the customer service website, but they don't seem to know or care to contact the people who (I know someone has to be planning/scheduling the system) are in charge...I did get a post card a few weeks ago saying it will be soon - next couple of months.
Paul Farhi: Well, a postcard is nice. But I don't understand the non-answer. Here we/I am asking to take their service, and they won't even give out a rough guess as to when I can. If you walked into a store and they were out of the product you wanted, you'd certainly hope the clerk or the manager would say, "Come back next week. We'll have a shipment in by then."
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Sheila Dixon: It must've been Lester who put the Feds on her.
Paul Farhi: Yep. Lester had a couple of axes to grind. That would have been one of them. Unless, of course, she threw a few municipal bucks at the wire operation and cop overtime.
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Arlington, Va.: Several famous folks (sorry, no names) took the occasion to turn his death into a statement about themselves. Tack-ee.
I'll name names. Katie Courics remembrance was TACKY. Nothing about Russert the man, but instead all about how Russert identified her talent and got her into the Pentagon, blah blah. She must have used the word me or I 15 times in her response.
washingtonpost.com: CBS' Katie Couric Remembers Tim Russert (CBSnews.com, June 14)
Paul Farhi: No comment from here.
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"The Secret": If the thought control guy throws in some Hendrix and early James Brown, you can have all the Nugent you want. And I'm a vegan!
Paul Farhi: Deal!
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Dulles, Va.: No has asked this yet?! What do you think happens to Czaban, Pollin, Doc Walker, B-Mitch et al in the near future? Will Daniel Snyder dump all of them for syndicated ESPN radio, or stay with the local fare? Will Riggo's horrendous show replace "The Sports Reporters".
Paul Farhi: Ah. We seemed to have overlooked Dan Snyder's little foray into sports radio (very brief recap: Snyder's radio company bought WTEM-AM and two other stations, giving it a lock on the sports-talk market locally)..Well, I have no specific information about personnel moves, but I take Bruce Gilbert, Snyder's point man for radio, at his word: Snyder would not have bought the station if he wanted to get rid of the personalities who made it worth purchasing in the first place. That said, Andy Pollin and Steve Czaban wondered aloud (on the air) about the chilling effect of having Snyder as the source of their paycheck. In other words, it's not what they'll say, it's what they WON'T say on the air about Snyder, the Redskins, etc. And we'll never know what kind of self-censorship, if any, is going on.
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Silver Spring, Md.: No FIOS on my block, yet. Who knows when it's coming. A Comcast truck was torched on my corner a couple months back in the middle of the night so I figure there is some kind of "turf war" going on. I thought Nielson only had sampled data (or was that 20 years ago?) Comcast/Verizon could just bury some minor privacy waver in your subscription contract -- hey, maybe that already happened.
Paul Farhi: Wow--a telecom-cable gang war! (I would suggest that before the fireworks begin, the Comcast and Verizon crews get more colorful names)...And for the record, Nielsen collect data continuously on who's watching what at a given time.
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FIOS is coming, FIOS is coming, FIOS is coming!!!: Now, when you wait for your cable repair guy, he gives you a four or sometimes an eight-hour window -- and you thought that service was poor. Verizon won't even give you an eight-month window for when you will get service! Could they screw this up any more?
Paul Farhi: Can you be home between the months of March and August? Thank you...
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Ron Canada: I just read the IMDB and Wikipedia listings for actor Ron Canada, which say he was a TV newsman in the Washington-Baltimore area in the 1970s. Do you know more on this? I don't remember him, but that proves only that I didn't get Baltimore channels.
washingtonpost.com: Ron Canada (Wikipedia)
Paul Farhi: Never heard of him. Anyone?
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Silver Spring, Md.: I hate to find myself in the position of defending Verizon, but I always assumed they wouldn't give out info about Fios ahead of time because they're afraid their competitors could use it somehow, to offer particularly awesome deals or something. Come to think of it...I can't think of a way that would work. But it's all I've got.
Paul Farhi: Yes, wouldn't that be terrible. If we knew when Fios was coming, we might get better choices and prices from the cable company. Terrible outcome. Really terrible. It's definitely worth it for Verizon to keep its would-be customers in the dark...
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Arlington, Va.: Of course it didn't help that the Wilbon chat was posted on Deadspin and probably AwfulAnnouncing and, not to mention, hundreds of other 'lesser' blogs as well.
So...I saw this list of 10 worst TV shows and was happy to see 'yes, dear' on the list (in the top 5, I think) but decidedly less happy to see that Jim did not make the cut - what gives?
Paul Farhi: I have no respect for any 10 Worst list that has "Yes, Dear" on it but not "According to Jim." As everyone knows, they are the same show.
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Gaithersburg, MD: XM and Sirius may claim they can't survive and there is only enough room for one. But I'll bet you anything they'll fight tooth-and-nail if someone else thinks they have a way and applies for a license.
Paul Farhi: Fair point. I've seen this before: An entrenched company always claims it's in "the public interest" to keep the company entrenched by keeping out would-be competitors. That's capitalism, baby...
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Who was it?: On the "Meet The Press" remembrance of Tim Russert, James Carville mentioned a politician (he didn't say who, just that everyone at the table knew who it was) who'd gone on MTP ill-prepared and Russert had torn him apart (and that the person was much better prepared on a future appearance). So, who was this unnamed politician?
Paul Farhi: I must have missed my Media Conspiracy meeting the day this was discussed. So I don't know. Anyone?
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PB: To follow up, Dixon did a Post Chat a few months back where she admitted that the character in the show was loosely based on her, but she denied any wrong-doing the writers attributed to her character.
washingtonpost.com: Live Online: Mayor Sheila Dixon (Post, Feb. 19)
Paul Farhi: Excellent! Life imitates art. Except when it only sort of comes close to it. Or maybe vice versa.
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Olney, Md.: The Fios cable laying crew was in my neighborhood last week laying the underground cable as well as the above ground lines. They really like to mark your front lawn. However they do try to minimize digging. Good for me, since I spent every weekend in April laying down new sod.
Paul Farhi: I don't know about Verizon, but all of the utilities are pretty obnoxious about that marking-the-lawn business. I've woken up on more than a few mornings to discover Day Glo lines spraypainted across my grass. Makes me wanna yell, "Hey, you kids, get off my lawn!"
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So, who was this unnamed politician?: I'd love to think it was Cheney.
Paul Farhi: I kind of doubt it. Say what you will about Cheney, but he's usually well prepared and very disciplined about whatever message he's trying to put out.
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Seattle: A Sirius question -- and a serious question: My car came with XM radio, which I love and subscribe to. If there's a merger, or Sirius survives and XM dies, will my car stereo be able to accommodate Sirius without alteration?
Paul Farhi: I believe you'll need a new piece of hardware for the full full service. But your existing set will continue to work for the programs you're getting now.
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Paul Farhi: Folks, we haven't identified the mystery politician and we've got to bring this session to a close. But there's still time. I'll give you two weeks to come up with some names. Report back in then. In the meantime, regards to all...Paul
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Washingtonpost.com
June 17, 2008 Tuesday 12:00 PM EST
Chatological Humor: In the Year 2525, Gene Will Still Be Neurotic (UPDATED 6.18.08);
aka Tuesdays With Moron
BYLINE: Gene Weingarten, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 11224 words
HIGHLIGHT: Daily Updates: WED
Daily Updates: WED
Gene Weingarten's humor column, Below the Beltway, appears every Sunday in The Washington Post magazine. It is syndicated nationally by the Washington Post Writers Group.
At one time or another, Below the Beltway has managed to offend persons of both sexes as well as individuals belonging to every religious, ethnic, regional, political and socioeconomic group. If you know of a group we have missed, please write in and the situation will be promptly rectified. "Rectified" is a funny word.
On Tuesdays at noon, Gene is online to take your questions and abuse. He will chat about anything. Although this chat is updated regularly throughout the week, it is not and never will be a "blog," even though many persons keep making that mistake. One reason for the confusion is the Underpants Paradox: Blogs, like underpants, contain "threads," whereas this chat contains no "threads" but, like underpants, does sometimes get funky and inexcusable.
This Week's Survey:
Door A: 29 and Younger Door B: 30 - 40 Door C: 41 and Older
Not chat day? Visit the Gene Pool.
Important, secret note to readers: The management of The Washington Post apparently does not know this chat exists, or it would have been shut down long ago. Please do not tell them. Thank you.
Weingarten is also the author of "The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death" and co-author of "I'm with Stupid," with feminist scholar Gina Barreca.
New to Chatological Humor? Read the FAQ.
P.S. If composing your questions in Microsoft Word please turn off the Smart Quotes functionality or use WordPad. I haven't the time to edit them out. -- Liz
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Gene Weingarten: Good afternoon.
Okay, this is going to be very difficult to own up to, but honest journalism requires it.
Several weeks ago, in a column, I made fun of Teddy Kennedy, jokingly implying that he might be a panty-snatcher. The following day, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Very recently, in the Gene Pool, I started a national debate about whether Tim Russert had farted on the air.
Sigh.
These are good people, and I seem to have some sort of really bad mojo working, vis a vis the tragic results of gratuitous and unfair pelvic humor. Not surprisingly, these two events have caused me to think deeply about what I do and how I do it. Which leads pretty directly to:
TODAY's INSTA-POLL!
Okay.
Today's CLOD, or clip of the day, was suggested by a poster to the chat. It is simply the greatest optical illusion I have ever seen: It works on the brain the same way that the Spinning Dancer did from several months ago, but unlike that one, this is nearly impossible to untwist your brain around. I have figured out how, and will disclose it if no one else does.
---
Regarding my column on Sunday, I'm not sure how many of you took me up on my suggestion to post absurd items about yourself, but at least a half dozen people added to MY already dubious profile. Here's my favorite so far, by someone who calls himself fishman227. It's titled "Titan of Goat Porn":
I was watching this hard core goat porn video (just for fun, not because I'm into it or anything) and just when it was getting really good, I saw a young Gene step into the screen and get involved in the most awful things. After a great deal more video watching on my part (just for research, not because goat porn entrances me with it's sensuality), I found that Gene was the greatest name in goat pornography in the 70's and 80's. Apparently, he stopped this career because of a tragic love triangle involving his favorite goat and Burl Ives.
---
From Will Gorham, we get this odd aptonym. It's not great, but has the remarkable quality in that you only have to read three words into the story to get it.
----
Please take todays generational poll. The geezer part was written by me; the yoot part was written by Rachel Manteuffel. We knew it was at least pretty good because she knew the answers to none of mine, and I knew the answers to none of hers. The answers so far show a rather beautiful learning curve as you move one way or the other in the age groups. But, as we'll get into later, I'm pleasantly surprised that we seem to know more about each other's worlds than I'd guessed.
Many superior comic strips this week, but nothing stands out. All honorable mentions: Today's Mother Goose, today's Speed Bump, today's Agnes, today's Close to Home, Friday's Candorville, Wednesday's Frank and Ernest.
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Highpriceof, GAS: This morning, I awoke to find my girlfriend sleeping on our couch. We had gone to sleep together, in our bed. When I asked her why she had moved to the couch, she said that she had a bad cold and didn't want to wake me. Later, she admitted that wasn't the real reason. She reminded me that I had had some beers the night before at a friend's party, and told me that my "farts smelled worse than usual." I was taken aback by the last part--"than usual." I had no idea that I usually farted while sleeping. Dr. Gene--is that normal? (My girlfriend does not fart while sleeping, at least insofar as I can detect.) Why on earth would any woman put up with this?
Gene Weingarten: THAT's your question? Why they put up with FARTS? It never occurred to you to wonder why they put up with all the other jackassy elements that constitute the basic human male? You know, it is often said that Ringo Starr is the luckiest guy on Earth, in terms of stumbling into something great he really didn't deserve. Nuh-uh. GUYS are the luckiest guys on Earth.
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In case you missed it: This just in from Newsweek: "Fox News mouthpiece Bill O'Reilly has a new memoir in the works, and the title is 'A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity.' Yes, the title refers to him. And yes, he appears to be serious."
Really, I have nothing more to say.
Gene Weingarten: I wish I could claim this as mine, but it's not: In scouring the Web for evidence of this book (it exists, and that is the title) one finds that someone has already figured out that "A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity" is a perfect anagram for "Shameful, Bona-Fide Hypocrite."
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Not a boomer: I'm sure you're going to get a bunch of cranky emails about this aspect of your poll. I'm 42. I was born in 1966. I was a toddler during the Summer of Love. I'M NOT A BABY BOOMER and I don't want to be grouped with you long-haired, pot-smoking freaks.
That said, I do know the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, thanks to my pot-smoking boomer older brother.
Gene Weingarten: You're right. I think the top age in the poll should have started at 50. One of my prize possessions is an autographed copy of a Furry Freak Bros. book. Gilbert Shelton signed it to me from where he lives, in self-imposed exile, in France. The French still love him. The book is in French. The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers were a great 1960s era comic for stoners. The brothers were Fat Freddie Freak, Freewheelin' Frank Freak, and Phineas Freak. Probably their best known line was: "Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope." They also had a version of that quote where "sex" was substituted for "money." They both rang true back in 1969 or so.
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Sculpture Garden, DC: I look forward to hearing your explanation of perspective and the Chaplin mask, since my favorite piece at the sculpture garden, a house by Lichtenstein, does the same thing. The only time I ever got my mother excited about contemporary art was there: She said, "How is a house supposed to be art?" I said, "Look at it and keep walking." She was amazed.
Gene Weingarten: Uh, the voiceover gives a perfect explanation. What I will explain is how to untrick your mind. There is only one way, I think. Cover the top and watch only the neck. Then, slowly uncover the rest, over a period of several minutes.
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Posting now so I don't forget: Hi Gene,
I'm 28 (and hot). And I have a pretty great memory. I can remember stuff from about 4 years old on. Except lately, I can barely remember yesterday. I've been missing appointments and deadlines a lot in the last 6 months. I forgot I was making hard boil eggs this weekend (it was boiling for an hour). Forgot where the car was too.
It's really concerning me, but nobody (dr. included) will take me seriously. I've never been like this - I've been close to the opposite of this my whole life. Not only do I remember stuff like what my husband wore on our first date, I remember what the people next to us were talking about.
I feel like I'm going crazy, and not having people take me seriously is making it worse. I don't think I'm being a hypochondriac. What should I do next?
Gene Weingarten: I gave your question to my friend Kari Tervo, who is a neuropsychology therapist. Here's her answer: First, DON'T FREAK OUT. One, we are all intimately aware of our own cognition, so sometimes mild weaknesses and blips seem like a big thing--you don't know how your memory is actually stacking up against other people your age. Two, recent-onset memory lapses in young people are often due to relatively benign (like, non-neurological) reasons. For instance, the kind of memory lapses you are talking about are really common in depression. Depression kills concentration, so if you can't concentrate, where you parked your car doesn't even make it into your memory. In that case, you are technically having a concentration problem, not a memory problem. Whatever the cause, it is something for your doctor to take seriously because YOU are taking it seriously. Either bring this up with your doctor again or find another doctor who will listen. It would be helpful if s/he screened you for stress/depression as an initial issue to rule out. If, after talking to your doctor and any initial issues are resolved/ruled out and your memory problem is still bothering you, you can see a neuropsychologist, who is a person who evaluates different areas of cognition (attention, memory, etc.) and sees how your performance compares to other people your age. That way you can know for sure if you have an actual impairment or a weakness.
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Liar's Poker Table: Does anyone else think that Bill O'Reilly got the commodity wrong in the title of the new book? He's a piece of.....work, that's for sure.
Gene Weingarten: To be fair and balanced to Bill, the quote was allegedly something a nun once told him when he was an obstreperous kid. She wasn't being kind.
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Stanton Park, DC: My wife and I (I am 34 and she is 36) just scored a perfect 20 out of 20 on the quiz. We did this on the first try, without using Google, Wikipedia, or any other information source.
How should we interpret this "accomplishment"?
Gene Weingarten: Well. My first guess was going to be that it's not you, so much as your ages: that you are the perfect ages to see a little in front and a little in back. But it is not that simple, because I know someone in her mid-thirties, an intelligent and connected person, who took this test and knew only four or five answers. So. I would say you're both pretty inquisitive and aware. Congrats.
Gene Weingarten: I have been authorized to reveal that the mid-thirties numbnuts is our own Chatwoman.
washingtonpost.com: Whatever -- is it my fault you intentionally left Gen X out of this little exercise? Where are the Nirvana references? The "Melrose Place" quotes? The Sun Country Wine Cooler mentions? And, I'm sorry -- but "Miss Suzy" is ours, too.
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Follow-up on pets: Gene, I wrote in last week about having to put a pet to sleep. You being a pet owner yourself, I knew you'd understand how difficult a decision that was and how sad my family would be to lose not just some animal, but a true member of our family. Well we finally reached the point where it was something we had to do, and although we are still very sad and really miss his presence, we are really trying to remember all of the joy he brought us. That said, sometime this summer we are looking to adopt another pet (a kitten this time) and I was thinking that this chat is in need of an "official" kitten. We have an official child (Hope), and your dog is kind of the official dog, so I'm offering the new kitten we adopt from the pound as the official kitten of this chat. We're not sure if it'll come with a name, but if not we'll even let the gallery offer suggestions. If this is OK, I'll follow-up with photos when I have some.
Gene Weingarten: Yes, we will post the picture and ask for names. I will choose the best five, and it will be the next week's poll. In return (here's the tough part) you have to agree to name the kitten what we vote.
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Boomerville, USA: Miss LUCY had a baby and/or a steamboat. Not Miss Suzy.
At least that's how we said it in Brooklyn.
washingtonpost.com: No, no, no -- it was Suzy.
Behin the 'frigerator \ there was a piece of glass \ Miss Suzy sat upon it \ and broke her little asssss \ sssk.... me no more questions...
Gene Weingarten: Exactly.
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Mac or PC: Bloggers are pouncing on the apparent admission that McCain doesn't know how to use a computer. I ask the arbiter of all things, does this matter? Presumably, he has people to do his typing. On the other hand, it shows a pretty serious disconnect with the state of modern technology. What say you?
Gene Weingarten: I haven't yet seen this. If true, it's probably more politically damaging (this is some major late-night comic fodder) than worrisome. But, still. Someone living in the modern world, especially someone who must make decisions for the people, really ought to kind of get involved in the people's world, no?
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Sleep farting: I'm plagued by this. I'm a 30 year old hot woman. I was teased mercilessly after sleep overs in middle school. I was mortified to have boyfriends spend the night. My husband occasionally teases me if it's really bad.
I know what this happens. I have no urge to fart during the day. I think I'm saving them up for when I'm relaxed and asleep. I wish I could change it.
Gene Weingarten: I believe that is exactly what is happening. I bet more women fart at night than men.
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Gene Weingarten: I have been authorized to share with you the following message I just got from Chatwoman in a secret Chatwoman-to-me communications channel: So, I just took my 'puter in the bathroom with me. I love working from home.
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Insta Poll: Wow. I had no question in my mind who to pick -- Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. I gleefully hit "submit".
Then I realized how odd my response is given the fact I am one of your 12 dedicated conservatives.
Gene Weingarten: I did O'Reilly and Hasselbeck.
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Mod the Rod: I didn't know what chat it was
When I clicked into the room
I typed a comment, sagacious
You replied 'indeed' too soon
Skimming through the questions posed
Your obtuse references were so critical
I really must protest right here
The attitude was merely cynical
I read all those quirks of yours
So preposterous and hard to imagine
Your parking style, bumpers be damned
I laughed off as exaggeration
The vegan lady with the rapier wit
Who tried to reign in your diatribe
Her snarky pfffft was unrehearsed
But we knew you needed the jibe
Chorus:
You're an asshat, you're an A-Hole
Not too funny now that you're so old
You're a curmudgeon, your own best friend
You're an A-Hole
Your comedic sense is immeasurable
Your pomposity immense
You're shlumpy, guileless, kitsch and mindless
You're conceited and too intense
You're a predictable romantic comedy
You're an off off-Broadway play
If a critic stumbled upon you
You'd open and close on the same day
(chorus)
You're a consultant in humor
But I've heard a rumor
That you're not really part of the team
No Pastis, or Trudeau, or even a new Breathed
Your strip's the worst thing they've ever seen
After all the crappy columns
I continue your hokum to read
So I gouge my eye and click the link
'cause it provides an excuse to drink
Gene Weingarten: Thank you.
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Mt. Rainier, Md.: I like McCain, or used to at least. He just called the Guantanamo habeas case "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country." I'm Mr. "reasonable people can disagree about political issues," but on this issue reasonable people cannot agree -- and this matter shows most clearly the philosophical divide among the parties. I don't think McCain realizes how much he hurts his standing with thinking people by opposing this decision.
Gene Weingarten: He's not going for the thinking-person vote.
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Boob job: I certainly hope you are going to take the time to address the very serious issue raised by Texas GOP state delegate Robert Hurt in Monday's Reliable Source column. Apparently there are lots of statues of naked people in Washington. Even in the National Gallery. Did you know about this?? How can we be worried about things like the Iraq war and inflation when there are all these naked breasts and other naughty body parts cavorting in plain view? More importantly, how have I managed to live in this area for years without really noticing that I was surrounded by vulgarity?
Gene Weingarten: That was a great item. My favorite part was tactfully underplayed: Mr. Robert Hurt, who just thinks there is too much sex going on all over the place, has 14 children. The only way the story could have been better would be if his name were Richard Hurt.
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Aptony, MN: Homer Bailey, mediocre pitcher for the Reds, prone to giving up, er, dingers. Almost too easy to be funny, isn't it?
Bob Walk, on the other hand, who had a good career with the Pirates a while ago, actually had pretty decent control.
Gene Weingarten: This is in reference to the awkwardly named pitcher mentioned last week: Grant Balfour. Let us not forget pitchers Rollie Fingers and Rich Hand. Or Peter LaCock, Rusty Kuntz, Dick Pole, and Johnny Dickshot. All real.
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What's Your Point, Vanessa?: There is no need for this poll. Everyone already knows that baby boomers, being confident that their generation is the only one of any value, has zero interest in anyone else's, except maybe that of their coddled and entitled spawn.
Ahem. Sorry. Gen-X professor here; just finished the school year. La la la la la la la la. Nanny nanny boo boo! I'm out of range, grade grubbers and "concerned" parents!
Gene Weingarten: Ah, but the results do not show this. It's probably a little skewed by the low upper-age here, but the oldsters are showing a pretty good knowledge of the youngies' lives, and vice versa. The generations appear to be talking to each other and listening.
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Smiting with Humor: OK Gene, since you seem to have a new superpower of smiting people by making fun of them, or else of directing a higher smiting to your targets, I took your poll in hopes of cleaning our society up a little. What I don't understand is that other people are not choosing Paris Hilton. As far as I can tell, she has turned herself into the international symbol for the Great Satan, in that she represents the worst aspects of capitalism, inherited wealth, individual liberty and democracy. Anywhere in the world, someone who wants to highlight a weakness of our political, economic or social system only need point to Paris Hilton. "You want Democracy? Look at the US, where an undereducated, over-wealthy buffoon like Paris Hilton has a vote! Do you want someone like that to have a voice in government?" "Equal rights for women? Do you want your daughters running around making sex tapes of themselves and then building personal celebrity based on them?" Etc. In the past 8 years, I'd guess only GWB has had a worse effect on our international image.
Gene Weingarten: Did you ever see the original video that launched her "career"? There is something really funny about it, especially in retrospect. She is in a hotel room, being serviced by a gentleman in a very loving and intimate and eager yet respectful way, AND SHE STILL HAS THAT VAPID BLASE NON-EXPRESSION ON HER FACE.
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MiddleSchool, Va.: Maybe I'm up too early, but I got a snicker out of this caption on the Post.com home page:
"Northern Virginia congressman says he believes his seat can stay red."
Gene Weingarten: You know what would have been great? If his name were Bob Boone.
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Dog Etiquette: Hi Gene and Liz,
I realize this doesn't exactly align with your typical chat fodder, but it's on my mind.
Last night, I saw a german shepherd in the street. He was clearly lost. There was no owner and he was ambling in the middle of a very busy intersection. I stopped my car, called the cops, and tried to call him over. He looked up when I whistled, but stopped about 10 feet away from me, and turned back into the street and ran off. Cars were braking and honking and then I lost sight of him.
This was eerily similar to an event that happened about six weeks ago, in which a dog ran in front of my car on the exact same street. That time, I stopped and got out, just in time to see him get slammed by a car on the opposite side of the street and it was awful.
So my question is: Last night, should I have stayed? I couldn't see the dog anymore, and couldn't tell the police anything new. The dog was clearly skittish around me. But the real reason I left was that my brain kept replaying the sound the first dog made when the car hit it, and I just couldn't bear the thought of hearing it again, so it was cowardice really, and the other arguments are simply justification.
What was the right thing to do?
Gene Weingarten: I don't have to tell you the answer. You know it. Your guilt is punishment enough. Next time, do what you can. A lost and scared dog in traffic is a dog that is going to die.
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Cambridge, England: Gene, I'm a 20 year-old living in England for 5 weeks. Here I can legally drink! But I don't have any friends in this foreign country. Is it okay for me to drink alone?
Gene Weingarten: I authorize you. Drink responsibly.
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Washington, D.C.: Gene:
Why do you self-worshiping Boomers have to proclaim that everything from the 60s was the greatest ever?
Cartoons about hippie brothers? They smoke a lot of dope? Their name is "Freak"? That sounds hil-frickin-larious!
Gene Weingarten: It was, especially stoned. He was a terrific cartoonist.
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Boomerville, AZ: It wasn't Lucy or Suzy, it was Helen!
Gene Weingarten: Hahahaha.
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Kensington, Md.: In reference to the kitten-naming: Years ago my husband suggested friends name their female puppy Goat, because, well, she looks like a goat. She proceeded to eat everything in sight. Not chew, eat. Houseplants, aluminum foil, underpants, books, everything. So when we mentioned we'd be going to the pound for a kitten the wife looked at us with a steely gaze and told us we were naming the cat Lester. So we had to find a cat that fit the name. Thus, we have a female cat named Lester.
Gene Weingarten: Good.
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Old Fart: Hey there, fellow Old Fart and GenX Tattoo Lady! Back in the 50s when we sang about the steamboat, it was owned by Johnny, aka, the infamous Little Johnny:
Johnny had a steamboat.
Steamboat had a bell.
Steamboat went to heaven.
Johnny went to
Hello operator
Give me number 9.
If they do not answer, I'll kick their big
Behind the refrigerator
There was a piece of glass.
Johnny sat upon it
And cut his little
Ask me no more questions
Tell me no more lies.
This is what Johnny said
Just before he died.
Next up: the various versions of Popeye the Sailor Man. Let's see if Liz knows this nugget.
washingtonpost.com: As in I likes to go swimmin' with bald-headed women, I'm Popeye the Sailor man?
Gene Weingarten: Wow. I know this steamboat one.
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Florida: From Sunday's News:
"HAVANA (CBS4) Ã...\ Eight years after a headline making international custody fight which ended with his return to his father in Cuba, Elian Gonzalez has joined Cuba's Young Communist Union.
"In an article in Cuba's communist youth newspaper, Juventud Rebelde, the 14-year old Gonzalez said he would never let ex-President Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro down. He joined more than 18-thousand others who joined the group on Saturday."
At first I thought this might bother you as much as it bothers the rest of us, but then I realized that you probably see this as a good thing.
Gene Weingarten: I do see it as a good thing. He's a happy 14 year old, doing what he thinks he is supposed to do. At 14 I was a social conservative, because my parents were. At seventeen, when my eyes were opened, it was a whole new ballgame. Listen, there was no perfect answer to the Elian Gonzalez situation, but there was an undeniably right thing to do. Elian had to be returned to the father who undeniably loved him, and to his grandmothers, who doted on him. In Miami's Cuban community, he was treated like a little Messiah, a political symbol to achieve others' partisan goals. Much more of that would have destroyed him. He was a little boy, scared witless. I think that in the next five years, by the time Elian turns 20, Cuba will be a very different place. When I wrote the story about him, someone jokingly suggested that he might become mayor of Havana and then president of the republic, and be the person to bring Cuba back to democracy. We all laughed at that. You know what? Watch. This could be very cool in a decade.
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The Name that Dare Not Speak Its Name: Hi Gene,
Some weeks back some chatters called you on the claim that you never mention The Rib's name because you have in fact mentioned it at least once, I think about four years ago. The last mention was in the context of why you call her by one or another variation on her last name due to a mutual consensus that her given name is too awful to be spoken aloud.
This caught my attention because her given name happens to be my middle name. I have this middle name because it is my mother's middle name, and she gave it to me, although she hates it, because it was her mother's middle name. The reason she hates it is that her father (my grandfather) repeated used it to make an unkind joke about her weight as she was growing up.
I too hate it, to the point where I don't refer it unless I have to even though I am in a profession in which people routinely use their middle names or initials; fortunately I have a relatively uncommon last name so I can get away with it.
Having said all that, I have to concede that there's nothing really wrong with it, it's a perfectly normal French-derived name and all, so my question is: if you can answer without revealing the Name, why do you and The Rib dislike it?
If this gives me any cred, btw, I didn't pass it on to either of my daughters even though I love my mother very much. Despite her having saddled me with that name.
Gene Weingarten: It's a really bad name. Hard to explain why, but there is a terrific play named, I think, "Getting Out" from the 1960s or early 70s in which the character is named that, and the very sound of it explains the problem.
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Memory Lapse woman: please post this, Gene. I had the same problem with memory (except mine came with several other wymptoms). It turned out to be poisoning from mold. Not a mold allergy, but poisoning (I am not actually allergic to mold spores). Some molds produce neurotoxins that get into your system and do not come out without taking powerful meds. My husband and I were on them for 6 months and, luckily, everything eventually cleared up. The poster should check around her house for damp areas and see if there is mold. It is terrible stuff and can damage you permanently.
Gene Weingarten: I've heard of this!
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Popeye: I likes to go swimmin' with BOW-LEGGED women!
That's the only way it makes sense - what the hell would bald-headed women do for you in the water??
washingtonpost.com: So now Popeye jingles have to make sense?
Gene Weingarten: Bow legged is funnier.
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Bethesda, Md.: Wait a minute. How did Stanton Park know they got all 20 questions right? (Unless they looked them up later) I thought the bold answers were just the most popular ones. Don't you usually reveal the answers during the chat?
Gene Weingarten: I'm going to reveal the right answers in the first update, but you can figure them out real easy: The oldies got the first ten right, and the youngsters got the last ten right, I think in both cases with no exceptions.
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A tactful rejoinder: Gene,
I have a coworker I've been friendly with for many years. The problem is this coworker seems to be getting a little too close. I have begun to be tactfully unavailable but now I suffer a few asides ribbing me for not being a good friend. I don't need flack for not wanting another relationship in addition to my marriage. Any tactful but direct way I can make this clear without forcing an ugly "break-up?"
Gene Weingarten: No. Be direct.
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Defending Rod; Question about Big Brass Bed: Flashing back to last week's poll, I rated Rod Stewart's lyrics "good," but I can explain.
I didn't listen to music much in 1978, when "You're in My Heart" came out and I was nine. My parents, like those of half the kids I knew, were recently divorced; Mom got the kids and dad got the stereo. But my friend Stacy's scary stepdad had a stereo, and we listened to this Rod Stewart album and another one from the Captain and Tenille, the one with "Muskrat Love." Some of the bigger kids brought radios to the pool and played disco music. So in that context, "You're in My Heart" sounded pretty profound.
I couldn't understand most of the lyrics, but I got the part about staying together until old age and, most important to me, I got that both of the characters had had affairs but had stayed together. Even at 9 I knew that affairs were why most married people split up, and the idea that they would stay together despite affairs seemed unspeakably devoted.
That's all.
Oh, one more thing: If Bob Dylan's character was so poor and dirty, where did he get a Big Brass Bed? As a kid, that song sounded like it was the creepy seduction technique of a predatory rich guy. I love Bob, don't get me wrong, especially when he's bitter or angry or clever. But seductive? He sounds absurd, like when Michael Jackson takes on the persona of a gang member.
Gene Weingarten: I really love this post. That's all.
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Elizabeth and Anthony: Re today's FBOFW: Is Lizzie (dare I suggest) knocked up? Is she fishing for a babysitter for Anthony's daughter, or her own bun in the oven?
washingtonpost.com: For Better or For Worse, (June 17)
Gene Weingarten: It's hard to be sure; we'll know tomorrow, won't we? My guess is that this is not a Major Announcement, for three reasons. First, I don't think Johnston would go there. Second,they've been talking a while about moving up the date of the wedding so Gramps can be there before he corks. If there were another pressing reason, I think this would indicate a degree of disingenuity about Elizabeth that Johnston wouldn't do. Elizabeth is perfect; the Madonna. On the other side, look at how shocked Dee is in that final frame. Also, why would they suddenly be borrowing the babysitter? They've had Anthony's girl all along. I vote no, tho.
Gene Weingarten: Okay, I meant two reasons, not three.
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BBFL: Business idea: Gene's Humor and Pay-Per-Smite Shop
Gene Weingarten: Thank you.
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Re: Follow-up on pets: Of course we'll agree to abide by the poll's choice. Although I've started looking at e pound's web site, we're probably not going to acutally take one home until later in the summer (we're going to be away on vacation for a few weeks and wouldn't want to leave a new kitten with just a pet-sitter for that long when they are that young.) So look for the photos sometime later this summer and we'll go from there.
Gene Weingarten: Good. You're on. I sense you are making a commitment for an absent spouse, which is never wise, but you're on.
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I have this middle name because it is my mother's middle name, and she gave it to me, although she hates it, because it was her mother's middle name. : What kind of person gives their child a name they hate and suffered through themselves? If it were my name, I'd reject it now, simply based on that illogical decision.
Gene Weingarten: I believe that my wife's first name was her mother's middle name, too.
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RE: Dog Etiquette: That reminds me to put a dog treat in the glove compartment of my new car. I kept one in the old car after a time that I just happened to have some in the car and came across a stray on a busy street. He was turning away from everyone else trying to help, but came to me when I offered the treat.
Gene Weingarten: Oooh, good idea.
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Instant Poll: Gene, I like your instant poll, and the results. But you've ALREADY made fun of O'Reilly & Coulter, and yet they are still with us. So I fear they may have immunity....you may need to do your poll again and revise the choices to take that factor into account.
Gene Weingarten: I don't believe I have specifically made fun of their underpants. That might be the key.
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Granville, Ohio: Ok, now maybe this is because I'm on an age cusp at 29, but which questions were supposed to apply to me? There were several I think I should have gotten, like the Slim Shady and the T9Text one, but had no clue on and there were others that I have no reason to know, like the Accutron, but did.
What gives? Have I been hanging out at this chat too long? Did growing up in a relative rural area (at least at the time) screw me up? Btw, one thing I can tell you is that Laugh-In was on Nick-At-Night for years so you can bet your sweet bippy that I knew that one.
P.S. All of you 20-somethings who looked up the answer before replying... you know what you did was wrong and your karma will get you in the end.
Gene Weingarten: You know, I was going to specify No Googling, but decided to put it on the honor system. That may have been a mistake.
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Allow, ME: ...to be the 10,000th person to remind you that by publishing a column about a deplorable site that isn't even getting much traffic, you are effectively driving traffic to it, helping to both spread the rumors and MAKE MONEY FOR THE OWNERS. Say what you want, but the only reason you did it is to be able to share the "hilarious" rumors that you and your buddies posted. Defend yourself.
washingtonpost.com: Below the Beltway, (Post Magazine, June 15)
Gene Weingarten: I won't try. My editors and I knew that we would be driving some traffic to this site, and, yes, the prime intent here was to publish some "hilarious" items. It's a humor column. But the fact is, there are lots of items on this site permanently, really hurtful things, and we liked the suggestion we had of how to sabotage it.
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from the late 80's/early 90's...: Miss Suzy had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell
Miss Suzy went to heaven
the steamboat went to
hello operator, please give me number 9
and if you disconnect me i'll cut off your
behind the 'frigerator, there was piece of glass
miss Suzy sat upon and broke her big fat
Ask me no more questions
I'll tell you no more lies
the boys are in the bathroom
zipping up their
flies are in the meadow
bees are in the park
miss suzy and her boyfriend are kissing in the d-a-r-k, d-a-r-k, dark
is like a movie
a movie's like a show
a show is like a tv show and that i all i know i know my ma, i know i know my pa, i know i know my sister with the 80 meter bra
Why do I remember this and not trigonometry...
Gene Weingarten: This is in fact the operative version behind the poll.
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Arlington, Va.: This chat is the only place I can turn for an answer to my question.
When a man is in a public restroom with other men present, using a urinal, is it acceptable for him to let loose with a loud, audible fart? In other words, not play the "ooh, our bodies NEVER make any noises" farce, but let nature work without any attempt at concealment?
I think you should be able to let go. Given the location and the purpose of the location, and the fact that often you need to release gas in order to increase flow. It is the bathroom after all. But it is a public place.
What say you?
Gene Weingarten: I think it's rude to the guys next to you, though I've heard it plenty. Go into a stall.
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Hague, Netherlands: I Haight how I got that one wrong.
Gene Weingarten: It was a trick!
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Naples, FL:
RE: Yellow Poop That reminded me of when we would eat and drink at the then Bardo's Rodeo.
They served blue corn nachos and carrots. Blue corn is really blue and carrots have alot of yellow. The next day in the toilet bowl was a scary sight and a lesson in the primary color wheel. Reflecting on the snack I don't think many bars served carrots. Perhaps they did serve them knowing the end result.
I've gotten much enjoyment retelling the Rib's comment that Gene would have to marry immediately after her death so someone would plan her funeral.
Thanks for all the fun. J F Martin
Gene Weingarten: Beets are best of all because they deliver a moment of pure terror.
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Rockville (Don't have to Boil Water!): Gene:
I know you're a street-parker, but I need some condo-parking advice. My darling spouse and I have a ridiculously expensive condo parking space-- assigned to us-- and a parking neighbor who apparently can't park straight, and invariably is crooked with a rear-wheel into our space.
What's the best way to deal with this? I'm in favor of a note on the windshield (though at this point, I'm having trouble thinking of wording that doesn't include "Hey, jerk!"), and my husband wavers between contacting management, or parking so close to the other car (but still in our space) that the person can't leave without hitting us. Not my favorite option. No matter what, the other car person will know it's us complaining. What do you think?
Gene Weingarten: Polite note. Why start an urban war, unless you have to? OVERLY polite note.
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Gambrills, Md.: If schadenfreude explains the emotion for such people as Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton, and Elliot Spitzer, what word would describe the emotion I'm feeling about Tim Russert? Never met the man, never spoke to the man, don't know anything about him other than what I see on TV, but, when NBC ran that homage to him on Sunday, which concluded with a video of him wishing Happy Father's Day to his dad and saying he loved his son, I wept.
I realize this was probably explained by innate concerns about mortality - for me and my family, but there has to be a word to explain this? Grief seems too strong a word when it's someone you really don't know.
Gene Weingarten: I didn't know him, but merely by watching him on the air, you saw someone in love with life and passionate about what he did. When someone like that dies, we all feel vulnerable.
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Wymptoms: I know the mold poison person made a mistake and typed "wymptoms" instead of "symptoms," but I think wymptoms is a great word for ills suffered by people who are always complaining about their personal medical issues or who are genreally wimps about pain, etc.
Gene Weingarten: Yes!!!
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Jacksonville, Fla.: THANK YOU LIZ!
I was losing my mind while taking this thing. I am smart, well-read and love usless trivia and I didn't have a clue about most of these questions. I asked my friends as we are all late 20's and they didn't have a clue on the ones we thought we should know either. Slim Shady... Ha! What about Garbage Pail Kids or Snorks?
May Gen X rule forever!
washingtonpost.com: You are only one of my fellow Gen Xers to write in expressing this sentiment. Gene is supressing most of them.
Gene Weingarten: I am not!
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Baltimore, Md.: Monday's washingtonpost.com had this article about so-called "Pro-life" drugstores that refuse to sell condoms or birth control. Look at the picture of this guy. That is the creepiest, scariest guy I've seen in a long time. And I find his attitude repugnant.
Gene Weingarten: He looks really suspiciously like a cross between Ken Starr and Karl Rove. Ooh, this is a good observation. Lizbeth, can you link to all three?
washingtonpost.com: The guy mentioned above.
Ken Starr
Karl Rove
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Kensington, Md: I am slower than molasses in January. It just hit me that Doonesbury is back. Is there anyone else cartooning right now who could take 12 weeks off and expect to get his/her spot back in seemingly every newspaper in the country?
Gene Weingarten: Unfortunately, yes. Garfield, Beetle Bailey, etc. Though, hm. Maybe not. Maybe sanity would prevail. Maybe that's why those strips never take a vacation.
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BBFL: I got my cat from Animal Control in Hernando County, Florida, which is on Oliver Street. So I named my cat Oliver. It really is a perfect name for him. I do wonder if there is a disproportionate number of pets adopted from that place that end up with the name Oliver, though.
Gene Weingarten: I'll bet there are.
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Richmond, Va.: One day Pinocchio came to Gepetto with a problem.
"Every time I have sex with my girlfriend, she gets splinters. What can I do about this?"
"Have you tried sandpaper?" Pinocchio hadn't, so he went to try it.
"Pinnochio," said Gepetto a few weeks later. "How is the problem work out with your girlfriend?"
"Girlfriend?" said Pinnochio. "Who needs a girlfriend when you have sandpaper?"
-----
What does D.A.M. stand for?
Mothers Against Dysleksia
That's all...try the veal.
Gene Weingarten: Nice, thank you.
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Alexandria, Va.: I went back and reread your piece on The Great Zucchini. Your thesis is that laughter is a tool to triumph over fear. Along these lines, it seems to me the success of TGZ is that of a therapist - kids are afraid of adults, he is a strange adult, and he draws the toddlers out by doing idiotic things, which show him as harmless. The art is getting the audience on your side. I guess the great comics work the same magic on us? Different tricks than the toddlers, I hope.
washingtonpost.com: The Peekaboo Paradox, (Post Magazine, Jan 22, 2006)
Gene Weingarten: Yes. It's the identical trick, and the principles drive the jokes: surprise, conflicting frames of reference, irony. I like this story better than any other I have written.
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Sandy Aygo: Gene! What have you done to me! I cannot get that blasted Rod Stewart song out of my mind. It keeps creeping in, and instead of being a mindless, somewhat pleasant backdrop to my thoughts, I am forced to reflect upon how inane the lyrics are! I am probably not the only one. You must take seriously your powers, and replace it with something poetic and meaningful.
washingtonpost.com: Try Queen's "Radio Ga-Ga."
Gene Weingarten: We should note that that great footage at the start is from Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
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Washington DC: I am small and look a lot younger than I really am. I am also fairly soft spoken.
I was recently on a 'retreat' with several co-workers. For some reason, the older male co-workers found it interesting to discuss my 'innocence'. They all contended that I am probably a lot less innocent than I look. I'm probably being over-sensitive, but I found the whole thing to be really creepy.
How should I have replied to these guys?
Thank you!
Gene Weingarten: You are not oversensitive at all. That's hostile, creepy behavior; they were inviting you to discuss your sex life, and they were ganging up on you to do it. The answer you want is one that makes them ashamed of themselves. I'll throw this out for general response and discussion.
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Sports and Hum, OR: Okay, so I'm switching back and forth between your chat and ESPN.com, and I come across what I think is this absolutely beautiful paragraph by the utterly unpronounceable Gene Wojciechowski:
"(Tiger) Woods won the 108th U.S. Open on Monday and once again was caught cheating on his wife Elin. Cameras captured him kissing the USGA's silver trophy. At least it played hard to get: 72 holes of regulation, 18 playoff holes and one sudden-death hole before falling hard for Woods."
Gene Weingarten: Wow.
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Wow!: Did you see this in your paper over the weekend:
Saturday, June 14, 2008; Page A13
I take issue with the quotation in The Post's June 9 front-page story "Shelters Keep Tight Leash on Adoptions." Mary Ling's quotation, "I had heard a lot of horror stories that it would be easier to adopt a child than a dog here," was terribly offensive to those who have formed families through adoption. Please don't publish comments that reinforce the false belief that adopting a child is even remotely similar to adopting a pet.
-- Kristina Rose
Reston
Wow. Chip on shoulder much? I would never denigrate my pet by comparing them to Ms Rose or anyone in her family. Wow.
Gene Weingarten: This must have been in Free For All. I love Free For All.
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FBOFW: Oh, Liz is clearly pregnant. "I already feel like a parent" is clue #1, Dee's face is #2, and the fact that Lynn Johnston ain't subtle is #3.
washingtonpost.com: Don't scare me like that.
Gene Weingarten: We'll see tomorrow. It's possible. So we have out of wedlock sex! But we also have that weird thing about advancing the wedding so grandpa can go... I still think no.
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Baltimor, ON: NOBODY is "going for the thinking-person's vote." "Thinking" people end up at the close of every election holding their noses until they bleed, or seriously weighing emigration.
Gene Weingarten: You know what? Obama is.
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Creepy old guys talking about your sex-life: "Wow, it's good thing your daughters don't work here."
Gene Weingarten: Very good.
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Washington, D.C.: A serious question for you Gene: why do my boyfriend's towels always smell WAY worse than mine? We pull from the same small stock of towels and I wash them together every weekend. But no matter which towel he uses, his always reeks of mildew after 3 or 4 days, whereas mine still smell relatively fresh at the end of the week. He hangs them up promptly too, so that's not the problem. Is there a scientific explanation for this beyond just Boys Are Gross?
Gene Weingarten: No.
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31 year old here: Liz, I agree!!! Where were GI Joes, Thundercats, Walkmans, Pop rocks, etc.
Gen X rules!!!!!
Gene Weingarten: WE HAVE ESTABLISHED THERE WAS A GENERATION GAP IN THE POLL, OKAY?
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Silver Spring, Md: We had Johnny and the refrigerator too.
60's, Georgia.
Hey, remember the Shaving Cream song?
Gene Weingarten: Yep. Stay nice and clean.
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Less Innocent than I Look: I killed a man once.
Gene Weingarten: ... for being a sexist pig.
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Re: innocence: I get this a lot too, but in a slightly different form. I am a young-looking 29, and relatively fresh faced and soft spoken. Men (friends, people at bars, etc.) like to try to "shock" me for whatever reason. When I respond in a way that indicates that I, for example, know that pornography exists on the Internet and that there are sites devoted to such, I get told that I am "dirty" and there is lots of manly laughing and elbows in each other's ribs. It is amazingly insulting and strange.
Gene Weingarten: These guys are cowards. Seriously.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Lots of flop-houses and down-at-the-mouth apartments featured brass beds. There was a time they were not fashionable, and not expensive.
Gene Weingarten: There ya go.
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Californ, IA: Re: farting in men's room. True story: The gay brother of a friend of mine was doing his business and making eyes in the mirror at the cute guy behind him waiting to do his business, when he suddenly let loose with an unexpected noisy and stinky fart. Cute guy loses interest, leaves men's room. Fast forward a year, gay brother is in a Circuit City with a friend, where all the TVs are tuned to the reporting on the arrest of Jeffrey Dahmer, and he realizes it's the cute guy! So the fart may have saved his life....
Gene Weingarten: I don't believe this, but it's funny enough to print.
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New York, N.Y.: To the "innocent" woman: Maybe something along the lines of, "I'm not so innocent as you think. For instance, I know how to get in touch with men's wives to disclose sexually confrontational behavior."
Gene Weingarten: Uh, no.
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Seattle, Wash.: Where is the line where it's okay to lie about death to spare people? For example, my MIL committed suicide last fall. We told her mom (Grandma, who is really ill) that it was a bad drug interaction. Which is technically and what was put on the death certificate. Another example is an acquaintance recently lost his cat after the vet gave the cat the wrong meds. The emergency vet told the owner that the cat would be alive if it weren't for the wrong drugs. I think that the emergency vet shouldn't have told the owner that there wasn't anything that could have been done and left it at that since my friend is now beating himself up over it. What do you think?
Gene Weingarten: I don't think there is a rule here. I think it depends on the people. When my father was my age, he had intestinal cancer, and the chances of five-year survival were 25 percent. My mother and my brother and I didn't tell him; we said it had been "polyps." That was my mother's decision, which we respected. He told me years later, in his 80s, that he was glad it was handled that way. I would want to know.
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Washington, D.C.: I'm with Gene. Elizabeth is not pregnant. She feels like a parent b/c of Anthony's already existing child. They will be stealing the babysitter b/c they have been taking it slow, etc., not dating a lot. The wedding was pushed up in direct response to April's comment to move it up so Gramps could go. If she were going to be pregnant out of wedlock, they'd of kept her with the pilot dude
Gene Weingarten: Well, I just think she was ever going to be preggers out of wedlock.
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Arlington, Va.: Despite your cogent, detailed analysis of today's For Bettor or for Worse, you are a moron. The sudden ending makes little or no sense unless there's a pending/immediate NEED for a babysitter.
Lynn Johnston has used setups like this for other developments in the strip. Watch that space. And we'll see you in a few weeks at the baby shower.
Gene Weingarten: This is interesting. I like that we'll know tomorrow. A real-time debate.
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Sesame Street Po, RN: Just so all of your readers know, the funny video uses a hit song from the Broadway show Avenue Q. The show is a hoot - not for kids. Go see it.
Gene Weingarten: I have been told this by several people. (This was from the update: Liz, can you re-link?)
washingtonpost.com: Here you are.
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Bethesda, Md.: I liked your poll. I'm a little disappointed that my 29 and under cohort didn't know who Mr Natural was, but I guess the only reason I know is because I discovered my mother's R. Crumb books when I was waay too young for them. Not everything with pictures is for children.
However, in defense of us (since we seem to be performing worse than anyone else) the older age groups were alive to experience our pop culture in real time. we weren't alive for theirs. For example, they weren't getting up on Saturday mornings to watch Captain Planet on TV, but I bet a lot of them had children or younger siblings who did. It's a built-in advantage.
Gene Weingarten: I think you are right. It is an advantage for us coots and geezers.
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Mens Wear Dept, Tysons Corner: The reason that there were no Gen X questions in the poll is that nothing of cultural significance or insignificance happened during the formative years of GenX-ers, which is why they're now trying to make up for lost time by denigrating pleated pants.
washingtonpost.com: Whatever.
Gene Weingarten: Noted.
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I hope some steals your c, AR: Weather stinks, everything at work that can go wrong has, contractor didn't show up at my house, and someone with enough food for the month dropped their bag on top of mine in the fridge.
OK I will take the poll and have a little bit of fun. At 42 I am in with senior citizens, I know the answer to exactly two of the questions, (Arthur and Gonzo), and I have a vague idea of maybe what you are talking about in three other questions. Now I am old, stupid and having a rotten day.
May your next hot dog be topped with catsup and cilantro.
Gene Weingarten: You and numbn... I mean Chatwoman should get together.
washingtopost.com: Yes, we should. And we could talk about idiots who can't get over their first musical crush -- on Bob Dylan -- and spend the rest of their lives holding him up as some kind of deity who never made a misstep. Then we could imagine Iggy Pop busting in to Dylan's Kumbayah circle and kicking Dylan's bony butt...
Gene Weingarten: Chatwoman have gas?
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Clip of the Day: I can't access Youtube from work (stupid video filter), but have you seen Weezer's video for their new song, "Pork and Beans"? They genius-ly collected a bunch of Youtube -ahem- stars and worked them in, from Miss South Carolina to Tay Zonday to Mentos and Coke to Chris "Leave Britney alone!" Crocker. Awesome. I highly recommend.
washingtonpost.com: Weezer: Pork and Beans
Gene Weingarten: This is absolutely great. How did they do some of this? Did they get Tay Zonday to record their song? How about Miss South Carolina? Is this all digital manipulation? I guess so, eh?
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Age breakdown: I went in the third door of the poll, since I'm 47, and I found the references I was able to peg as old as mostly before my time. For instance, I know I've seen the cartoon guy in the robe, but I have no idea of his name. I recognized the lyric as being from The Year 2525, but the farthest into that song I can get is "if mankind is still alive." I know Burroughs and Brautigan, but never heard of the other two. I'd have forgotten Laugh-In if not for reruns. So I don't really think there's much there that really represents "my generation." (The sad exceptions being the WIN button and the ring around the collar commercial.)
Gene Weingarten: Actually, I found the only kinda depressing result the youngsters' inability to recognize the "cartoon guy in the robe." That is R. Crumb's Mr. Natural, the highly cynical hedonistic guru. One of the greatest characters of all comicdom. It's sad that he's gone. Flakey Foont, by the way, was his main disciple. Liz, can we link to Flakey?
washingtonpost.com: Flakey Foont
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Flophouse, brass beds, hookers: Ooh, this reminds me a VERY awkward moment in my life.
I was in ninth grade history and we were studying some crap about Europe. Our teacher got a far away look in his eyes and told of time he was visiting Amsterdam. He said he went to see a prostitute and the experience was so rambunctious that the bed fell through the floor. He then fell silent for about half a minute. Needless to say, we students were silent for far longer.
Gene Weingarten: Wow.
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Free for All: What is the purpose of this section? Every week I read it, despite trying not to. I always want to compose several replies to the more idiotic letters, and at least one to the editor asking that letters from morons not be published. Then I toss the paper aside and go do something else. Does someone spend a lot of time picking the most inflammatory letters by the most ignorant writers? Are there extra points for obvious shoulder chips? Is it pity for these poor doofuses who would never otherwise get a hearing?
Gene Weingarten: Well, I really think it makes for great reading. I like it. And occasionally a reader will make a very good -- if unbelievably picky -- point. It helps keep us honest.
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Not So Innocent: I'm a petite and young-looking 31. Aside from the creep factor, it's a way for these old dudes to keep from having to take you seriously. Clearly, they're easily threatened.
Thing is, they want a witty response so they can get some banter going. I usually say, "Let's leave that up to the judge," and change the subject.
I really, really can't wait for the creepy old dudes to retire and/or die off - hopefully subsequent generations of men will be less creepy.
Gene Weingarten: I do think that's true. Younger guys know better. And it used to be worse. I know I have mentioned this before, but when The Rib was a twentysomething reporter, and miniskirts were in style, a city editor came up to her and a coworker babe -- the two women were sitting on the edge of a desk, talking about a story -- and said to them, smiling: "I don't know what you girls are doing working here. You're sitting on a goldmine."
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Dirty Baseball Nam, ES: You forgot Randy Johnson!
Gene Weingarten: Of course!
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re: Pork and Beans: No - if you look at the other videos Weezer has put up on Youtube, its clear that most if not all of the characters are really there, not just digitally inserted. Tay Zonday does the whole song with acoustic accompaniment in another video.
Gene Weingarten: Very cool.
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FOOB: Isn't it obvious? Dee's just horrified that she won't be able to escape from her twee little brats as often as she'd like.
Gene Weingarten: Yeah, I think you're right.
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For Chatwoman: Lissen - I'm a 59 year old white female boomer, and I think Dylan and his compatriots (Peter Paul & Mary, for example) are pompous windbags. My equally ancient husband loves them.
washingtonpost.com: Thank you.
Gene Weingarten: Noted.
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Arlington, Va.: I liked your column and think it's sweet you want to save some high schoolers from pain.
But I think you could help them out a lot more if you taught them not to be bothered by the opinions of fools.
Maybe you blunt this crisis, but it's just a matter of time before these ill-equipped kids are once again hiding under their beds because of something that should be trivial.
washingtonpost.com: Below the Beltway, (Post Magazine, June 15)
Gene Weingarten: I don't think a child can learn not to be sensitive to the opinions of others until he or she matures enough to have a strong sense of self; to know exactly who that are and be comfortable with themselves. That comes with love and encouragement, but mostly it comes with age. I don't think you can teach it.
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"one to the editor asking that letters from morons not be published": This would make a great Free for All.
Gene Weingarten: It would!
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Don't reuse bath towels!: Continued from last week's chat... After seeing scaly red blotches spread across my skin for a day or two, I went to a dermatologist who prescribed an anti-fungal cream and told me to never re-use bath towels. Even if you hang them up to dry immediately, they stay in a warm, damp bathroom, especially when multiple people shower daily. This encourages the growth of all kinds of germs and fungus that you then spread across your skin after the next shower. Use once, then wash.
Gene Weingarten: This is the third such post I have seen. Apparently, the Rib is right, which does not surprise me.
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Adamsville: I took the poll and hoped to get most of them correct. Would you believe...I missed it by that much?
Gene Weingarten: Tragically, a new Get Smart movies is coming out, and will reintroduce these two Adamsisms to a new, hipper, jaded, unappreciative audience.
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Seattle: In Re: FBOFW's Elizabeth The Pure -- Remember, she lived with her boyfriend when she was in college; she dumped him after he cheated on her.
Gene Weingarten: Yes, but getting knocked up is different.
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harassment at "company retreat": This is why "company retreats" are so loathsome. They personalize what should be a business relationship. The poster should go to whoever set up the damn thing and complain that she was harassed, subjected to a hostile environment, whatever the wording is. And she should point out that the "retreat" obviously did not accomplish what it was supposed to ... unless the object really was to let creepy old guys harass a younger colleague.
Gene Weingarten: I have not published a bunch of posts urging this woman to immediately file a harassment suit. Too much, I thought. This seems right.
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Washington, D.C.: Gene, nobody in my apartment building talks or socializes with anyone else -- we all go into our apartments and shut off the lights at night like cars in garages. Is it like this everywhere?
Gene Weingarten: I thought so. But my neighborhood, deep in DC, is really friendly. People watch out for each other.
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Gene Weingarten: Hey. We're done. Thank you. This was fun. I will be updating through the week, and will see you on Tuesday. Tomorrow, for a column, I am going to be doing something really unusual. It'll give me my third favorite expense account item.
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UPDATED 6.18.08
Gene Weingarten: As promised, an item-by-item annotation of the answers to the poll questions:
1. The Haight, as in Haight-Ashbury, was an area of San Francisco in which the hippie movement flourished.
2. Joseph Hergesheimer was also a flash in the pan, except he did it three decades earlier.
3. These are lyrics from a dreadful, naive one-hit wonder by Sager and Evans: "In the Year 2525." It was all in a pill.
4. The Accutron, by Bulova, was the first electric watch. It hummed. It was also as thick as a brick.
5. Yeah, "boo" was a term for grass. "Flair" I made up.
6. That's Mr. Natural, man.
7. The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, by the great Gilbert Shelton.
8. "Whip Inflation Now" was one of the lamest PR attempts of Jerry Ford's PR-deaf presidency.
9. "Ring around the collar," sung like a schoolyard taunt, was the centerpiece of an ad for Wisk. Here is a link to a dreadful 1980 commercial.
10. "You can bet your sweet bippy" was a mirthless, pointless, but popular punchline in the 1970s show "Laugh-In."
11. "Bop It" is a '90s kids' quick-reflex game with audio. It's a strange-looking object that commands you to bop it, twist it or pull it, and you have about a second to respond correctly.
12. Doug is a cartoon from the early 90s on Nickelodeon. An opening sequence is here.
13. The Slim Shady lyrics are in a song by Eminem, released in 2000.
14. T9Word is a texting option that guesses which word you want based on the first few letters you have typed.
15. Doyyyy= Like, duh
16. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! You're in trouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuble!
17. Arthur and DW are aardvarks in a series of books and a show on PBS.
18. Miss Suzy is to be sung while children play pattycake. These are two different songs with the same tune and hero. (And yes, Lucy seems to be an equally popular version.)
Miss Suzy had a baby.
She named him Tiny Tim.
She put him in the bathtub
To see if he could swim.
As it continues, Tiny Tim does poorly and the doctor, the nurse, and the lady with the alligator purse are all called in to cure him.
Miss Suzy had a steamboat,
The steamboat had a bell (toot, toot).
Miss Suzy went to heaven
and the steamboat went to
Hello, operator, please give me number nine,
and if you disconnect me I'll chop of your
Behind the 'frigerator, there was a piece of glass
Miss Suzy sat upon it, and broke her little
Ask me no more questions...
I could go on.
19. Gonzo the Great is from the Muppets; never moved to Sesame Street.
20. Captain Planet fought pollution. Somehow.
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Post Mag Cover: Gene, I'm interested in your thoughts on this week's Post Mag cover story on Jody Arlington. It just so happens that I know people who lived in Medford, Ore. when this happened and I checked with them -- it seems that a lot of people thought she knew and/or was involved in planning the murders. Her life is an amazing story and despite what I want to feel, I'm some how put-off by the successes Ms. Arlington has had. I don't know, something about the article just rankles and I can't quite put my finger on it.
Gene Weingarten: This is what I thought, as I read it: She deserves every possible benefit of the doubt. It is a clear and uncontested fact that her brother bludgeoned to death not only his parents but his baby sister, simply because she inconveniently became a witness to his crime. In any internal debate over who did what, this fact obliterates all others in significance. He was a coldblooded monster. In any dispute between their versions of the facts, I buy hers.
Having said that, I think it is possible that her memory of events -- what she knew of his plans and when she knew it, whether she might have had reason to suspect what he was up to, etc. -- has shifted a bit, in an effort to harness guilt and retain sanity.
Here is an interesting thought: Had the murderer not killed his little sister, he probably would have walked. A good lawyer might well have pursued and succeeded with a self-defense argument; the evidence of parental abuse was there.
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Springfield, Va.: I'm still trying to piece together what exactly this says about men. But I'm pretty sure he is a true pioneer.
Gene Weingarten: He is the distillate, the purest form, of whatever quality constitutes maleness.
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Aptonym alert: Note the last name of the author of this article on the prevalence of older women going to rehab for "hard drug" addiction.
Gene Weingarten: Several people referenced this. Like, wow, man.
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Pull it, sir: Sorry, I don't think a better version is out there.
Gene Weingarten: Boy, this photo looks phony. But it isn't: Confirmed and triangulated.
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Gravesto, NE: My parents' next-door neighbor bought plots in a cemetery attached to a church that has a huge Labor Day picnic in it's churchyard.
He was excited at the prospect that someone would set a plate of hot dogs and potato salad on his gravestone. When he passed away, his wife also put a bench near the grave.
Gene Weingarten: He'd be welcome in Congressional Cemetery.
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Next Week's Joint.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Washingtonpost.com
June 17, 2008 Tuesday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Anne E. Kornblut, Washington Post National Political Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4901 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post national political reporter Anne E. Kornblut was online Tuesday, June 17 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest news in politics.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Anne E. Kornblut: Hi everyone! Thanks for joining ... today I'm chatting with you from Taylor, Michigan, where Obama is going to speak soon. Apologies in advance for any interruptions. Let's get started!
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Washington: Obama has been dogged by questions about his experience, as he only has about four years in the Senate and a half dozen more in the Illinois state legislature. Yet I don't recall questions about President Bush's inexperience when he first ran as the governor of Texas -- a position he held for a mere six years. Am I supposed to believe that his two extra years in statewide office completely mitigated those questions, especially when they came with little foreign policy dealings, which Obama certainly has sitting on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee?
Anne E. Kornblut: This is a good question. If I recall correctly, Bush did actually face a number of questions about his level of experience -- and countered them by reminding voters that a certain president named Bill Clinton had just as little foreign policy experience when he was elected. Bush also played up his concrete accomplishments as governor (such as education reform). But he did get a lot of criticism for it.
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Newark, N.J.: I've got Obama fatigue. I'm a big fan, but the never-ending primary was too much. By now, I bet even Obama is sick of Obama. How do you guys in the media keep it up?
Anne E. Kornblut: Thank you for your empathy! Actually, I'm just starting to cover Sen. Obama, after a little over two years covering Sen. Clinton, so it's all new and exciting for me. But I think everyone is looking forward to having a few weekends off this summer...
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Baltimore: I learned something incredibly scary yesterday. John McCain admitted he doesn't know how to use a computer. To my surprise, none of the mainstream media are reporting this. This is an incredibly scary thing in this day and age. If someone came into my workplace and applied for a job and didn't know how to use a computer, the job interview would end right there. How on earth can someone even be considered to be president without the knowledge of how to use a computer? I can't imagine that it isn't a job requirement of the president. I'm 26, and three of my grandparents are in their '80s. All three know how to use a computer. Age isn't an excuse here.
Anne E. Kornblut: Where did you see this? I hadn't heard it.
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Plainsboro, N.J.: In the vein of "if a tree falls and no one hears it, does it make a sound," if Al Gore endorses and no one cares, does he make a difference?
Anne E. Kornblut: Good point! I think that's one reason you saw this non-news news event take place in Michigan, one of only states that didn't get the joy of a primary campaign -- and where local news outlets were happy to report on it at length.
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Detroit: I think you guys at the Washington Post are the only ones impressed by Gore's endorsement. Talk about a profile in courage! He waits weeks after Hillary suspends her campaign to weigh in? Do you think Obama intentionally is staggering the big-name endorsements (Carter, Gore, etc.) for the free media? Why are these news? It would be news if Gore didn't endorse his party's nominee, but at this point isn't every Democrat except Lieberman endorsing Obama?
Anne E. Kornblut: I don't know if we're "impressed" (I thought we were jaded and cynical!) but it would have been news if Gore did NOT endorse Obama, don't you think? More to the point, there remains lively speculation about an Obama-Gore ticket, so their joint appearance was of interest. Of course you're right, though -- it was no surprise. The endorsement we're all really waiting to see is Bill Clinton's -- since of course he has not actually weighed in yet.
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Alexandria, Va.: Wasn't one of the reasons we got (shudder) Dick Cheney as vice president because the media relentlessly hammered Bush on his inexperience? Cheney picked himself because he's an old hand, if I'm remembering right.
Anne E. Kornblut: Yes, exactly, that was a central part of the logic at the time. Thanks for pointing that out!
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Wilmington, Del.: Are Virginia and North Carolina really swing states? Is it just the expectation of huge black voter turnout? Or is the world really changing?
Anne E. Kornblut: Great question. I don't know if we're officially calling them swing states, but they are up there on my personal lists of places to watch. Both have produced interesting statewide Democratic officials recently; both have large African-American populations. Add them together and you see Obama potentially having a real shot.
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Miami: Anne, I love that smile in your photo! My question: Why no bounce for Obama? McCain has been the forgotten man for months now, and Obama has soaked up days of new endorsements since Hillary dropped out. Why aren't we seeing it reflected in the polls? Doesn't anyone listen to Al Gore anymore?
washingtonpost.com: Gore Gives Backing to Obama (Post, June 17)
Anne E. Kornblut: That's a really interesting question, and I have to confess that I have no idea why it's the case. But I have asked our polling director, Jon Cohen, who says that we might be erring in expecting a post-nomination bounce -- that traditionally bounces have come around convention time instead. Other thoughts: Is it maybe because the electorate assumed Obama would win in the end? Or a reflection of some disenchanted Clinton voters? Thank you for being thought-provoking.
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Bremerton, Wash.: Ann, after following the Clinton campaign for so long, did the new poll numbers where Hispanics and former Clinton supporters are breaking for Obama seem to surprise you? Also, did Hillary Clinton ever get close to apologizing for her 2002 vote to authorize Bush to invade Iraq?
Anne E. Kornblut: I won't be at all surprised to see Clinton supporters move toward Obama -- or not. I think there are people in her universe with a wide array of feelings right now. I'm better equipped to answer your second question, by simply saying: No.
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John McCain admitted he doesn't know how to use a computer. : And why exactly is this scary, if it is accurate? Prior to being elected, it was reported that Bush was good at using e-mail. Did this prove to be a good barometer for presidential ability?
Anne E. Kornblut: Another observation...
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Seattle: Great to have you chatting with us, Ann. How are the former staff members of the Clinton Campaign getting along with the Obama staffers? Is it genuinely warm, or as cold as ice?
Anne E. Kornblut: Well, many Clinton staffers have taken some time off or are still at her headquarters, which will take some time to close down. A number of Clinton people were longtime friends with certain Obama staffers, and it seems like their friendships have endured. From what I can tell, their fundraising teams are also meshing just fine. But there is no question that there are still hard feelings on both sides -- and we'll see who if anyone from the real Clinton inner circle Obama winds up hiring.
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Evidentally, not inside the Beltway enough: When Obama chose Solis Doyle to run the vice presidential staff, did you immediately know this was a "slap in the face" to Hillary Clinton (in the words of some of her supporters) and that it meant Clinton wasn't in the running for vice president? My first impression was the opposite -- that it was an overture to Clinton's supporters and meant Clinton was being considered. Just how inside the Beltway do you have to be to understand these things?
washingtonpost.com: The Trail: Clinton Insiders Take Umbrage at Solis Doyle Move (Post, June 16)
Anne E. Kornblut: Thank you for this question! I am not sure it requires being inside the Beltway -- it merely requires having a Ph.D. in Clintonology, which I have honorarily bestowed upon myself. It's true, from the outside, it looks like an olive branch -- Solis Doyle worked for Clinton forever, and was once considered the consummate loyalist. But she was fired pretty unceremoniously in the middle of the primaries (and here's where the advanced degree in Clinton studies comes in), in part for her handling of the campaign finances, and Clinton herself is reportedly quite angry at her. They are no longer really on speaking terms. Here's an example of why the Clinton insiders are mad at her, one of them told me: Solis Doyle sent out her "new contact information" to her colleagues in the middle of one of the Clinton-Obama primary debates, which really struck some Clinton insiders as harsh (now there is a level of Washington detail I bet you didn't want to know, right?). So in other words -- there is absolutely no reason for you to have recognized the double meaning in this move. That's what I'm here for.
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Anonymous: Do you get the impression that some of Hillary's spokespeople protest too much over the Obama hiring of Solis-Doyle? And wouldn't Gwen Ifill be the best replacement for the late, great Tim Russert?
Anne E. Kornblut: I'm not sure on the first question, but on the second, Gwen Ifill is absolutely amazing. I have no idea who is being considered -- I'm sure it will take a long time -- but I hope she'd be on the list.
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McCain's computer knowledge: While agree that being computer-savvy is not on the top of the list of presidential requirements, it does go to something else for me. We are a technological society/world. He doesn't know it or get it. It's like hearing a U.S. senator describe the internet as a "series of tubes." That he doesn't "do" economics either ... I mean, he starts to come off as very uninformed other than issues of war and torture.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another...Thank you!
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Washington: Can you please link to the poll results from the WaPo/ABC poll? Thanks!
washingtonpost.com: Poll Data (washingtonpost.com, June 17)
Anne E. Kornblut: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/16/AR2008061602690.html
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Tampa, Fla.: Anne, I'm completely baffled by the Obama campaign naming Patti Solis Doyle to chief of staff for veep. Does this mean Clinton has it in the bag? Or that she's definitely scratched? And if the latter, wouldn't the veep want to name their own chief of staff and not a former Clintonite? Finally, couldn't the Obama campaign have named Solis Doyle to some other position -- any other position -- and avoided this kind of speculation? It's just weird.
Anne E. Kornblut: My interpretation of this move is that it does, in fact, mean that Clinton is probably not high on the potential veep list if she is there at all. Solis Doyle and Clinton are at odds now; the Obama folks surely know that. As for the kind of power a vice presidential pick would have over his or her own staff, I assume that there will be some flexibility, but you're right -- they'd better hope the nominee and Patti get along!
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Bellingham, Wash.: Anne, posting really early (like yesterday) from the left coast. ... A comment about your Susie Tompkins Buell "it's a slap in the face!" quote on Obama picking Patti Solis Doyle as future vice presidential candidate's chief of staff: First, as a life-long Democrat I wish I could tell Ms. Tompkins Buell where she could put her money and "support." She is more than welcome aboard, but her candidate lost, and this time around we don't need her or her friends or her money.
Second, it was just this sort of martial language that drove millions of Democrats away from Hillary Clinton in the first place. All those boxing gloves and the "Rocky" theme and the "now the fun part begins" really turned me off. Americans are tired of the constant fighting and bickering and voted accordingly. I think Clinton and her friends really missed the cultural moment here, and they obviously still don't get it. If there is a question, it is just how many of the Democratic rank-and-file you see following Ms. Tompkins Buell off a cliff this November. by the way, thanks for all the hard work over the past more-than-a-dozen months!
Anne E. Kornblut: Thank you for these thoughts (and for getting up so early to send them in -- extra points!). I think this may all be part of the "sorting out" process now that the nomination fight is over and everyone (or more accurately the Clinton people) adjust to the new landscape, but I suspect this is a conversation taking place between Clinton and Obama people all over the country. Thanks for the input.
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Buffalo, N.Y.: I've always been proud to be from the same city as Tim Russert. Do many other reporters come from such hardscrable, working-class backgrounds? I always felt that Russert's blue-collar attitude gave him a leg up on other reporters.
Anne E. Kornblut: One of the nice things about this business is that people seem to come from all over -- it's a real meritocracy, and few of us have advanced degrees. Another Buffalo native, if you're interested, is Susan Milligan of the Boston Globe.
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Franconia, Va.: So the largely male senior staffers from the Clinton campaign (Mark Penn et al) have concluded that it was a female senior staffer -- the one who lacked the political skills to defend herself and got fired -- who is the reason that Clinton is not the nominee. It was all that woman's fault, evidently; they are just the innocent victims. Am I the only female professional who is seeing an all-too-familiar pattern here? Maybe I did the Clintonites an injustice, and "sexism" is part of their unfolding story after all.
Anne E. Kornblut: A really interesting point, and one I have heard made internally from Solis Doyle's supporters. Thanks for making it here.
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McCain is Computer illiterate: This video looks like it was done by Mike Allen from Politico. It includes McCain, Romney, Huckabee and Ron Paul being asked whether they use Mac or PC. McCain says he's computer illiterate and relies on his wife. I think he better get himself a "PC for Dummies" book quick.
Anne E. Kornblut: OK, let's check this out
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Silver Spring, Md.: If this McCain story is true, who cares? When exactly has John McCain been required to use a computer? And since when is computer knowledge a prerequisite for the presidency. Obama doesn't even have experience at the federal level (sorry, four years in the Senate where two of those years were spent running for president doesn't count) and we're worried that McCain doesn't use a computer?
Anne E. Kornblut: And another...
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Rockville, Md.: It is a matter of details. Pilots have got to understand technology and even computers (as users not operators) to get by. He knows technology as a senator and as a pilot and really that is "good enough." Remember, President Carter was an engineer.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another!
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Bel Air, Md.: How does it feel to not have Hillary Clinton to kick around any more?
Anne E. Kornblut: To be honest, it has been a really strange adjustment. A lot of reporters who covered her, myself included, keep asking the campaign when she is going to re-emerge -- covering her became such a constant part of our lives. I do know that it was a real honor to watch her run from start to finish, and I'm looking forward to seeing and covering whatever she does next, because if there is anyone I am confident will have another newsworthy chapter, it is her.
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Baltimore: Obama touts himself as the candidate of change, so why the talk of a Obama/Gore ticket? What positives could come from such an alliance?
Anne E. Kornblut: OK, so the caveat here is that we are in the realm of wild speculation, right? But as long as you know that: The advantage would be that a) Gore is a national hero to many; b) he'd only be the veep, so they could still argue change, plus his whole environmental message is about change; c) he'd bring gravitas. I'm not saying it will happen, but that's the logic.
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Fairfax County, Va.: I savored every minute of Al Gore's speech last night ("dream ticket" is a great label for either Obama-Gore or Obama-Edwards as far as I am concerned, for different reasons). But I came away with a new perception of Gore's potential role here. I don't think he's likely to be a vice presidential nominee, given his existing role outside of politics, but for the duration of the campaign he came across to me very much like a Ted Kennedy -- a very popular, familiar, senior leader of the party strongly embracing Obama's candidacy and making joint appearances with him. I am sure Sen. Kennedy will campaign for Obama if he can, which will be great, but I would assume it's likely he can't handle the schedule this summer that they probably had envisioned. Do you see Al Gore as taking up some of that role for Sen. Kennedy?
Anne E. Kornblut: I hadn't thought of it in precisely those terms, but there's no question that Gore has moved well into the elder statesman role. It was a fascinating speech to watch, wasn't it?
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Fairfax, Va.: You seem to intentionally avoid writing about the stances Obama and McCain take, and I was wondering why, as so few of your articles go into issues in any depth or even at all. Do you think we the electorate only are interested in who is leading at any point in time as opposed to, for example, what McCain's position is on the bill to tax oil company windfall profits and limit speculation that drives up oil prices?
Anne E. Kornblut: Well, I've only written one article so far on Obama (I started on this new beat yesterday) so hopefully you will give me some time to work on my batting average. But you have identified a common conunudrum. We actually do, in fact, try to write as many substantive pieces as we can -- and the candidates are all too eager to have us cover policy as opposed to process. But the traffic on the web is often driven by snazzier stories (about politics)and I can tell you those are so often the ones I hear about from readers. But thank you for your encouragement.
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Anonymous: Sen. Reid was asked how he would feel if Sen. Clinton were the next Majority leader. Reid appeared somewhat perturbed by the question. My instincts tell me Sens. Reid, Durbin and Schumer will be the losers of Clinton's power with her 18 million votes, and Clinton will leapfrog to the majority leader job. Pelosi as Speaker, Hillary as majority leader and Obama as president truly would display a big-tent party.
Anne E. Kornblut: That's interesting...comments, anyone?
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Washington: Anne, has a candidate ever taken a portion of his/her campaign funds and donated it to a relief effort (like the Midwest flooding, for example)? It seems like it would generate the kind of positive publicity that you just can't get from the standard advertisement barrage. In fact, I really can't see any downside at all -- even the donors probably would be happy if it helped their candidate win!
Anne E. Kornblut: I actually don't know the answer -- or even if it's legal under FEC regulations -- but I'm going to post this and see if any of the campaigns take you up on the idea. Thank you...
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Toronto: It would be appreciated if you would talk about the possibility of a coattail affect next November. By this I mean either that Democrats doing so well in the congressional elections that it helps Obama, or McCain that becomes president and helps the Republicans do better in the elections. Or is it possible that the two are separated so much in people's minds that the coattail affect no longer applies?
Anne E. Kornblut: I don't know the answer yet - I think it's a little to early in the season to really tell - but the Democratic party feels confident that Obama can help in some House races, due to his appeal to Independents. Projecting beyond that -- to, what, the 2010 midterms? Phew, I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
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Washington: Any speculation on Gen. Wesley Clark for vice president? He has the resume and experience, and as I understand it was in the Clinton camp.
Anne E. Kornblut: His name has been on short lists for awhile, but I haven't heard anything concrete. He was definitely in the Clinton camp, and has the foreign policy credentials as you suggest. One down side is that his own presidential campaign didn't get very far off the ground, and the Obama folks might want someone who brings a more obvious political network (think Ed Rendell). Thanks for the question!
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Virginia and North Carolina Swing States?: Wilmington should check out realclearpolitics.com for latest state polling data. McCain's average lead in North Carolina is only five points. In Virginia, only one point. Yes, Virginia, you are a swing state.
Anne E. Kornblut: Great line, thank you.
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Michigan: Hi Anne -- thanks for taking my question. I have been reading that Obama strategist, David Plouffe is stating that Sen. Obama can win without either Florida or Ohio. Why would such statements make any sense? Alienating either state, particularly Ohio, cannot help Obama's chances, even if polls show him currently behind. I would think they would be putting the "hard press" on Ohio, showing how Democratic policies would greatly benefit the state's financial future.
Anne E. Kornblut: I think, if I read the remarks correctly, that the Obama campaign believes they *can* win without those states -- not that they *want* to win without them. I expect we'll see Obama visiting both fairly soon, in fact...
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Washington: It doesn't matter that familiarity with computers never before has been a prerequisite for the presidency. Familiarity with TV media and how it affects people's decisions was never a prerequisite before the '60s. The world changes.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another thought...
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McCain doesn't use a computer: I'm a fervent Democrat, and don't care about this. If I recall, Clinton couldn't figure out the White House e-mail system.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another! Here's one more data point: Clinton and subsequently Bush staffers avoided email on some occasions because they did not want anything to be subpoena-able. More old media...
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Kensington, Md.: A twofer question if you will, Anne. First, in your article on the Gore endorsement, you said that it "renewed speculation that they might share a ticket." Could you be more specific about who is speculating that? Anything more than the same predictable typical bystander chatter we heard after Richardson and Edwards came out for him? It seems like it would a step down for Gore, and a step backward in time for the future-focused Obama. And on the Solis-Doyle hiring, as someone who greatly has admired Obama for his deft political hand, it strikes me as a bit of an oafish move in this time of trying to soothe the bruised egos of the Clinton folks. Or was this a necessary step to set the stage for a non-Hillary veep choice?
Anne E. Kornblut: Well, I am speculating it, for one. But I can't claim credit for the idea -- it came from the band of Democratic operative types that I talk to on a regular basis, and who sometimes know specific things and other times have really good instincts. Which is to say it's only marginally more real than the speculation about Edwards and Richardson. No one but Obama knows who is really on his short list, and he's been pretty clear that they're not going to go around leaking names. As for Solis Doyle, I'm not really sure what the full logic was; it may have been, as you suggest, to prepare Clinton people for the eventual reality that she is not getting picked. I just don't know.
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Arlington, Va.: Wolf Blitzer is also from Buffalo.
Anne E. Kornblut: Thank you! I didn't know that.
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Washington: I am generally not a partisan person, but give me a break on the fear-mongering from the environmental movement. How on earth did drilling for oil become to be viewed as an evil thing? Eighty percent of our oil reserves in this country are untapped. We can't drill on one-half of one-percent in Alaska, we can't drill offshore even though nations like Sweden and Denmark do it.
We can't make our own energy, but we can ask other nations to drill for more. Sooner or later Americans are going to wake up and realize we have been brainwashed and lied to by the environmentalists. We need to start using our own energy and stop buying it from the worst people on earth, who then use the money to kill us. It's sick. Obama needs to stand up to the liberal environmental special interest groups, the way McCain has the conservative ones, or else he will lose.
Anne E. Kornblut: Thank you for this perspective.
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Sen. Clinton as Senate Leader: I thought the Senate Leader was selected by the other senators in their party, not 18 million voters spread throughout the country. Is a senator liable to lose her/his seat because they don't vote for Sen. Clinton for an internal party position?
Anne E. Kornblut: A good point...
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Fairfax, Va.: Gwen Ifill "absolutely amazing"! Yes if you want to keep America uninformed about the corporate crimes washing over our country. I would much rather see Bill Moyers in Tim Russert's slot at "Meet the Press" or anyone of Moyers's calibre who would not see America through the eyes of the powerful but would instead allow or encourage alternative and competing narratives to emerge and be seen and heard by the electorate.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another view...
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Helena, Mont.: I have been mulling this for awhile, and Wesley Clark on CNN just pointed it out recently: Why is McCain seen as so strong on national security? I mean, he was in the military and was prisoner of war, but that by itself doesn't make a person strong on national security. Is it because he's a Republican? Because he served on the Armed Services committee (but never as chairman)? What are his bona fides on national security (and foreign policy, for that matter)?
Anne E. Kornblut: I don't have a good answer, but I'm just going to go ahead and post this interesting question.
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Washington: Why computers matter. Maybe McCain's use of a PC isn't that important, but what is would be his understanding of the role and power that personal computers now play in most aspects of everyday life. Heck, my 82-year-old mother uses one. It's as if Harding or Cox said in 1920: "Them new fangled horseless carraiges? Don't have any use for them..."
That's why it is important. So long as the U.S. is a leader in computers and computer technologies, we've a chance to compete in a world where we quickly are losing position. If we lose it, we potentially become a technology backwater. McCain knowing even simple uses of the computer would have a better understanding of the power of the device ... also, possibly a better understanding of how the Obama people so effectively used the Internet to win ... and how the Internet (like YouTube) can make him look like a fool, with people making their own commercials with quick juxtapositions and putting 3-year-old statements up against what he's saying today ... and how those get circulated and passed along ... so there.
Anne E. Kornblut: Another point of view, thank you!
_______________________
Baltimore: I know about 10 swing states still are swinging, but are there any blue states that might swing back to McCain? Pennsylvania maybe? Given Obama's advantages (money, media adoration), doesn't McCain need to structure a very specifically-targeted Electoral College strategy rather than running a national race? Obama has the money and free press to run nationally, but that was Hillary's mistake in the primary. Why not let Obama repeat the mistake while McCain solely focuses on swing states and those with a narrow Democratic edge? If McCain has to win this through the national media, he's toast.
Anne E. Kornblut: And another good observation
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Anne E. Kornblut: It looks like Sen. Obama is just arriving here at this event in Taylor, Michigan, so I'm going to run. Thank you all for joining today! See you all very soon.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
June 16, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
Remote Clicks That Do More Than Just Change Channels
BYLINE: By STUART ELLIOTT
SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; ADVERTISING; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 1121 words
AN ambitious effort to take interactive television into American homes is expanding after a test of the system began at a single station last month.
The system, operated by a company in Boston, Backchannel Media, was introduced in May in Boston at WCVB, an affiliate of ABC that is owned by Hearst-Argyle Television. Now, another Hearst-Argyle station, WMUR in Manchester, N.H., which is also an ABC affiliate, is signing on, along with WJAR in Providence, R.I., an NBC affiliate that is owned by Media General.
The test offers viewers programs -- and ads -- they can respond to by using remote controls to click on icons they see on their screens. Each click sends a signal to the viewer's personal portal -- basically, a site where everything the person has expressed interest in is aggregated. Then, the viewer can look up more information there the next time he or she goes online.
For example, someone who clicks on an icon embedded in a spot for a local car dealer can send to a personal portal a link to the dealer's Web site or to the Web site of the car brand. Backchannel Media -- which hosts the portals on its server -- refers to these response opportunities as ''clickable moments.''
Backchannel plans to announce on Monday that it has added WJAR and WMUR to the test, which is starting in New England because it is the company's home turf. Backchannel executives are trying to persuade other stations in the area and around the country to join the test.
Linking TV and the Internet can be ''a game-changing technology,'' said Michael Kokernak, who shares the title of chief executive at Backchannel with Daniel Hassan, because it represents ''a huge shift from how stations operate today.''
The Backchannel system is one of several experiments with interactive television, which seeks to blend the ubiquity and convenience of traditional TV with the interactive qualities of personal computers.
''It's not the first attempt at interactivity,'' Bill Fine, president and general manager at WCVB, said of Backchannel, ''but this one has more potential than any I've heard of.''
Another high-profile effort is being undertaken by six large cable system operators in an initiative known as Canoe Ventures. The companies, which include Cablevision Systems, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, last week hired a well-known media agency executive, David Verklin, to become the chief executive at Canoe, effective on Aug. 4.
For years, interactive TV has been sort of a holy grail to Madison Avenue. To paraphrase an old joke, it is the future of media ... and always will be.
Among industry executives, there is even a catchphrase drawn from the old series ''Friends'' for what the devotees of interactive television are trying to accomplish: ''Rachel's sweater.'' That is, viewers of ''Friends'' were supposed to be able to click on a sweater worn by the character played by Jennifer Aniston and learn more about it or even buy it. (How long this has been a goal can be inferred from the use of ''Friends'' as the example, given that the show made its debut on NBC in 1994.)
The desire to turn TV into a truly interactive medium is part of the growing push among marketers and agencies to make commercials -- and all advertising -- as accountable as possible, to better determine return on investment.
''The notion of the convergence between the computer and the television has been presaged for about a decade,'' said Lisa Churchville, president and general manager at WJAR.
''We know people love their televisions and we know people love their computers,'' she added. ''Connecting them makes an awful lot of sense, but it has never come to fruition in an easy, manageable way.''
What Ms. Churchville said she found appealing about the Backchannel system was that ''the technology is much less complex for the television station and the user.''
And the price is right, too. For the test phase, ''we're not charging the television stations,'' said Mr. Kokernak of Backchannel. The business model calls for Backchannel to derive its revenue eventually from sources like monthly fees paid by the stations.
''If it works the way it's supposed to work,'' said Jeff Bartlett, president and general manager at WMUR, ''it's a great new device to connect our advertisers and our viewers.''
Mr. Bartlett said he liked the opt-in aspect of the Backchannel system, in that viewers ''will only get information that they themselves requested.''
So far, all of the participating stations plan to phase in the system in the same fashion. First, the Backchannel set-top boxes are being installed in the homes of station employees and any Backchannel employees who live in the coverage areas. Next, the boxes will be installed in the homes of so-called friends and family, among them station advertisers and executives at local agencies.
After that will come installations in the homes of ''regular viewers, people who aren't in the industry,'' Mr. Bartlett said. They can serve as ''an extended focus group to give us feedback on what works and what doesn't,'' he added.
The Backchannel experiment could even get some bounce from presidential politics. WMUR is in New Hampshire, which polls indicate is a swing state, and is its largest commercial station. Perhaps Senators John McCain and Barack Obama will be interested in buying interactive ads?
In fact, Mr. McCain just bought his first ad on WMUR, said Mr. Bartlett, who joked that New Hampshire offers ''the cheapest four electoral votes in the country'' because of the size of the state.
The test at WCVB in Boston includes interactive commercials for a new casino in Connecticut, MGM Grand at Foxwoods, which were arranged by the casino's media agency, Horizon Media.
The campaign ''tends to skew upscale and a little younger,'' said Rob Kalman, brand group director at Horizon in New York, ''and those are the same people we believe would find interest in this new technology.''
''And, in all honesty, it's a free opportunity,'' he added, because MGM Grand, like the three stations, would not pay to participate in the test.
Mr. Hassan of Backchannel likened the arrival of interactive TV to the introduction of other innovations in the medium, ''like high definition, like black-and-white becoming color.''
Some are reminded of the arrival of TV itself six decades ago. As the screenwriter and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz observed in the 1949 movie ''A Letter to Three Wives,'' its introduction was a major topic of conversation.
When a character boasts at a dinner party that he owns the ''only television set in town,'' his wife retorts that because there are no local stations, watching it is ''like playing tennis without a ball.''
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The New York Times
June 16, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
No Ordinary Candidates, No Typical Campaign
BYLINE: By JOHN HARWOOD
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE CAUCUS; Pg. 15
LENGTH: 838 words
''Let the conversation begin'' is how Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton entered the 2008 presidential campaign. As that conversation now continues without her, it plainly will be different from what American voters have grown accustomed to.
Senator Barack Obama's status as the first African-American nominee of a major party is only the most conspicuous difference. There are others -- including style, scale and the silence of the leading journalistic voice in contemporary political culture.
The style difference flows from the remarkable profile Senator John McCain of Arizona cuts as Republican standard-bearer. Eyes atwinkle at age 71, he boasts skills rare in the Republican Party for waging guerrilla war with help from the news media.
The scale difference flows from his young Democratic foe's record-shattering ability to raise money. If Mr. Obama casts off the constraints of taxpayer financing in the general election, as strategists in both parties expect, he'll have an unprecedented range of options for communicating with voters by being free of the spending limits that accompany public financing.
The silence is that of Tim Russert, who died last week at 58. As the leading political analyst in the American media, he played an arbiter's role that echoed beyond the viewership of ''Meet the Press'' on NBC. This general election will be the first since 1988 without Mr. Russert in the moderator's chair of that program.
A Matter of Medium
Mr. McCain's White House bid faces serious headwinds, from the Republican incumbent's unpopularity to public weariness with the Iraq war and anxiety about the economy. Lately, invoking a time-tested rallying cry for the Republican base, his aides have added liberal media bias to the list of obstacles.
But his communications style and relationship with the press have already seen him through a storm-tossed primary campaign. By his accessibility, humor and candor, Mr. McCain, a former war prisoner, has bonded not only with mainstream political journalists but also with satirists who interpret the campaign conversation for late-night TV audiences.
''What makes 2008 different -- and why I think Mr. McCain can be called the first post-modernist presidential candidate -- is his acknowledgment of the symbiosis between himself and the press,'' the author Neal Gabler wrote recently in an Op-Ed column in The New York Times. ''Mr. McCain's sense of irony makes him their spiritual kin -- a cosmological liberal.''
Mr. McCain's talent at close-quarters communication underlies his challenge to Mr. Obama to join him for 10 town-hall-style meetings, beyond the three moderated debates that have become general election rituals. Aides to Mr. Obama's campaign say he won't duck the challenge completely, which alone suggests that voters may hear a fresh form of dialogue.
Financial Edge
For different reasons, so does the fund-raising talent that has accompanied Mr. Obama's ability to draw stadium-size crowds. In his primary campaign, he raised three times the $84 million that the public financing system offers for major party nominees in the fall.
Mr. Obama's aides say he will seek to connect with voters and debunk the ''just a speechmaker'' rap against him, with intimate appearances in voters' homes and workplaces. But the money he could wield would also allow him to supplement that with voter contact of extraordinary range and depth.
Because the 2000 and 2004 campaigns were fought on a narrow battlefield of around 15 swing states, voters elsewhere rarely saw TV commercials in the general election campaign; candidates mostly limited their broadcasting advertising to ''spot'' buys in selected markets. But because Mr. Obama, of Illinois, plans to expand the battlefield to more states, he may pass what media buyers call the ''tipping point'' at which nationwide advertising becomes cost-effective.
''He doesn't have to choose,'' said Will Feltus, a media strategist for the 2004 campaign of President Bush, with more than a touch of envy.
Nor would he have to choose among ''micro-targeting'' methods like direct mail, phone banks and the Internet. Mr. Feltus predicted that Mr. Obama might even invest in an old-school technique that represents the ultimate political luxury good: printed advertising in newspapers.
A Substantial Loss
Tim Russert's life saw the influence of print journalists in politics largely displaced by those on television. Mr. Russert became the most influential journalist in that world: grilling candidates, moderating debates, interpreting election results while commanding respect from both parties.
''He did not ask gotcha questions aimed at scoring cheap points for himself,'' noted Linda Douglass, a onetime ABC competitor who recently joined Mr. Obama's campaign. Mr. McCain's campaign never included Mr. Russert in its catalog of alleged media sins.
''An election without Russert,'' concluded Mark McKinnon, a past media adviser to Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain, ''will be like Oz without the Wizard.''
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USA TODAY
June 16, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
Ad Track: New & Notable
BYLINE: Laura Petrecca and Bruce Horovitz
SECTION: MONEY; Pg. 3B
LENGTH: 733 words
Carbonated campaign posters
With all the campaign hype, it may already seem that the presidential candidates are being sold with as much salesmanship as Coke and Pepsi. Now the folks at Jones Soda have joined the two worlds with Campaign Cola.
For $14.99 per six pack at CampaignCola.com, Jones is offering you a choice of presidential colas with candidate photos on the labels: John McCain (Pure McCain Cola), Barack Obama (Yes We Can Cola) and beaten but unbowed Hillary Clinton (Capital Hillary Cola).
"What could be a better conversation starter than drinking from a soda that has your chosen candidate's face?" asks Seth Godwin, Jones marketing director.
California Roll over, Rover
Think of it as sushi for your dog -- no chopsticks required. Pet Botanics Omega Treats, a hand-rolled dog snack that looks and smells like sushi, is just hitting pet store shelves. The basic ingredient is fish and, as at your favorite sushi restaurant, there are varieties to choose from, such as cod rolled with tuna, salmon or duck.
Good news for doggie dieters: They have just 9 calories each and are loaded with omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. "They won't give your pooch a paunch like a lot of dog biscuits will," says Tony De Vos, president of treat maker Cardinal Laboratories.
For people who think of their dogs as dogs -- and not family members -- the $4.99 tab for a 6-ounce bag may be over-the-top, De Vos says. "But people do crazy things during tough times to take their minds off their troubles, and for under five bucks, it's a cheap thrill."
Take a shot at a new soft drink
If you don't care about politics, but want to vote for something, Mountain Dew will let you weigh in on which of three new flavors should survive. In Los Angeles, Dew-heads can even vote by firing paint balls at the options on a billboard the brand put up last week.
Less aggressive soft-drink fans can vote online at DEWmocracy.com for raspberry-citrus Voltage, strawberry-melon Supernova or wild berry Revolution. The flavors are now in stores nationally, but only one will get to stay. Dew will tally the billboard and Web votes and announce the winner in September.
A la carte in Newport Beach
When is a restaurant more than a restaurant? When it's A Restaurant.
That's the oh-so-sly new name for The Arches, a Newport Beach, Calif., institution since the 1920s. Stars from Humphrey Bogart to John Wayne were patrons.
What A-list names will be spotted at the new A Restaurant? It's too early to tell. But owners Tim and Liza Goodell have partnered with director McG (Charlie's Angel's) and singer Mark McGrath (of band Sugar Ray).
If you visit, bring the plastic. For wine alone, beverage director Tamira Clayton notes, there's a regular list (under $100) and a "Captain's List" ($100 and up).
Doctor endorsers are weak medicine
Note to Rx-focused marketers: Think twice before paying a doctor big bucks to endorse your brand in an ad. Three-fourths of consumers say a physician's appearance does not make the medicine seem more effective, according to a March phone survey by Rodale's Prevention, Men's Health and Women's Health magazines. Almost as many say it doesn't make the drug seem safer.
While a doc in an ad is not much help, putting information in a doctor's office builds brand awareness: 63% say they notice posters, brochures or videos there. Ads in magazines work, too: 75% of consumers say magazine ads are somewhat or very useful in conveying drug benefits and 76% in communicating risks.
One final stat: Half of consumers said they visit drugmakers' websites. So our advice is to ditch any ho-hum, jargon-filled areas that might scare off the patients.
Ads earn silver for screen owners
Those branded popcorn bags, pre-movie ads and sponsored soft-drink cups are big business for theater owners. Today, the Cinema Advertising Council will report that in-theater ad revenue of its members grew by 18.5% to $540 million in 2007. (CAC members account for more than 82% of U.S. movie screens.)
On-screen commercials accounted for 92% of cinema ad revenue. Among the fastest growth was in so-called off-screen advertising: Concession-area marketing revenue was up 48%, and the take from in-lobby product sampling promotions was up 374%.
The Ad Team wonders why the in-lobby product samples are never food products. Ten bucks for a kiddie-size popcorn and soft drink is busting our bank.
By Laura Petrecca and Bruce Horovitz
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USA TODAY
June 16, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
Why the Christian right fears Obama;
The language of faith isn't a foreign tongue to the senator of Illinois. He talks the talk and easily engages believers. In fact, Obama has a better footing with the religious-minded than competitor John McCain.
BYLINE: Daniel Gilgoff
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 11A
LENGTH: 1201 words
On paper, the Democrats' nomination of Barack Obama is a gift to the Christian right.
Obama's liberal record on gay rights and abortion -- he opposes the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal "partial-birth abortion" ban and, as a state senator in Illinois, opposed the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which attempted to protect unsuccessfully aborted fetuses -- should make him easy enough for "values voters" to oppose.
And Obama has struggled among religious voters in this year's Democratic primaries. In Ohio, his 2-to-1 loss among white Catholics and a 20-point loss among white evangelicals gave Hillary Clinton's campaign a second wind that kept her in the race these last three months.
That same faith-based divide undergirded Obama's losses in Pennsylvania -- where Clinton took nearly 60% of weekly churchgoers -- and Indiana. Heavily religious West Virginia and Kentucky, meanwhile, handed Obama his biggest defeats of this campaign, even though he appeared to have the nomination sealed up by the time voters in those states cast their ballots.
Yet for months, the Christian right had been more worried about the prospect of Obama's nomination than Clinton's. The evangelical Family Research Council's frequent e-mail alerts to supporters laid into Obama while largely laying off of Clinton. One of Focus on the Family Action's recent "Action Update" explained why the Illinois senator is as "extreme as they come on family issues" -- using 26 footnotes to make its case -- but barely mentions his Democratic opponent.
The conservative Catholic League For Religious and Civil Rights, for its part, had gone so far as to call Obama's position on abortion "Hitlerian," even though it was virtually indistinguishable from Clinton's.
Of course, part of the reason for the Christian right's focus on Obama is his emergence months ago as the Democratic front-runner. But the movement's leaders also fear him because, despite his weak showing among religious Democrats, he has shown unusual potential for appealing to the rank-and-file evangelicals and other religious voters who usually back the Christian right's Republican allies.
Openly faithful
That's largely because Obama isn't afraid to discuss faith's role in his life, including his come-to-Jesus experience. Speaking of the influence that the now well-known Rev. Jeremiah Wright had on him, Obama told a church audience last year: "He introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, He would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in Him."
Such talk is more reminiscent of George W. Bush than of recent Democratic presidential nominees. "To a lot of people, Sen. Obama is an unknown suit that talks the 'evangelical talk' without actually saying anything on his opinions or his track record," says Tom McClusky, the Family Research Council's chief lobbyist. "In the general election, Sen. Obama speaking 'religion' is going to sound more familiar and natural than Sen. (John) McCain."
And -- to evangelicals, at least -- more familiar than Hillary Clinton, whose mainline Methodist background helps explain her preference for discussing the importance of doing good works over her personal relationship with Jesus. "Clinton does not compete with the religious right because her message is one not of hope and of healing, but of meeting the pragmatic concerns of economic advantage," says Douglas Kmiec, a conservative Catholic legal scholar and former adviser to presidential candidate Mitt Romney. (Kmiec has since endorsed Obama.)
"Obama has the capacity to win the soul of the working person," Kmiec says, "whereas Mrs. Clinton speaks to the pocketbook and the here and now."
Another asset for Obama among religious conservatives is his past expressions of admiration for the Christian right and its positions, unusual for a liberal Democrat. In The Audacity of Hope -- whose title, taken from one of Wright's sermons, is itself a testament to the influence of religion in his life -- Obama writes of tinkering with his website's indelicate language on his pro-choice position after receiving a letter from an anti-abortion doctor.
Obama's gestures to the faithful come at a moment when evangelicals, nearly 80% of whom supported President Bush in 2004, are showing less allegiance to the GOP than perhaps at any time since Jerry Falwell launched the modern Christian right three decades ago. A report last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 40% of white evangelicals ages 18 to 29 identified themselves as Republicans. That's down from 55% two years earlier. With more evangelicals taking up traditionally progressive causes such as the environment and international human rights, challenging the hot-button agenda of the old line Christian right, Obama's pledge to work across the partisan divide might have special resonance with them.
To be sure, Obama still has his work cut out. After all, evangelicals and other religious conservatives have heavily supported Republicans for decades. Even so, Democrats need to make only small inroads among values voters to change the outcome of a close election. For instance, had John Kerry won half of Ohio's weekly churchgoers in 2004 -- as current Democratic Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland managed to do in his 2006 race -- he would be in the White House today. Building such inroads has been made easier by McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.
McCain's challenge
Though McCain has vowed to improve his famously strained relations with the Christian right -- remember his 2006 commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University? -- he still lacks a full-time religious outreach director. Obama's campaign hired such an operative well over a year ago and has expanded its faith outreach staff since then.
In the past month alone, McCain has outraged many in the Christian right by publicly rejecting Texas evangelist John Hagee and Ohio pastor Rod Parsley, two of his few major Christian right backers. He also had a relatively measured response to the California Supreme Court's legalization of gay marriage, an issue that galvanizes social conservatives.
And though his solidly anti-abortion voting record could be a big selling point to religious conservatives, McCain has done little to advertise it on the campaign trail. "A number of us have met with his people to let him know that our base is going to be dramatically lacking energy unless he really makes their hearts beat on an issue like life," says Texas-based Christian activist Kelly Shackelford, who runs an advocacy group associated with Focus on the Family. "The candidate has to speak on those issues in a way that people believe him."
So far, McCain has demurred. Obama, though not telling values voters what they want to hear on issues such as abortion, is nonetheless speaking to them. And the Christian right's heart is beating faster.
Dan Gilgoff is politics editor at Beliefnet.com and author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War. His God-o-Meter blog on religion in the presidential race is at www.beliefnet.com/godometer.
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The New York Times
June 15, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
In '74 Thesis, the Seeds Of McCain's War Views
BYLINE: By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE LONG RUN; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 2675 words
About a year after his release from a North Vietnamese prison camp, Cmdr. John S. McCain III sat down to address one of the most vexing questions confronting his fellow prisoners: Why did some choose to collaborate with the North Vietnamese?
Mr. McCain blamed American politics.
''The biggest factor in a man's ability to perform credibly as a prisoner of war is a strong belief in the correctness of his nation's foreign policy,'' Mr. McCain wrote in a 1974 essay submitted to the National War College and never released to the public. Prisoners who questioned ''the legality of the war'' were ''extremely easy marks for Communist propaganda,'' he wrote.
Americans captured after 1968 had proven to be more susceptible to North Vietnamese pressure, he argued, because they ''had been exposed to the divisive forces which had come into focus as a result of the antiwar movement in the United States.''
To insulate against such doubts, he recommended that the military should teach its recruits not only how to fight but also the reasons for American foreign policies like the containment of Southeast Asian communism -- even though, Mr. McCain acknowledged, ''a program of this nature could be construed as 'brainwashing' or 'thought control' and could come in for a great deal of criticism.''
Now a senator who is the all-but-certain Republican presidential nominee, Mr. McCain often points to his nine months at the War College as the time that crystallized his views toward foreign conflicts like the war in Iraq. He has talked about his studies as a tutorial in the hows-and-whys of America's involvement in Southeast Asia. But the 40-page final paper he produced was limited to an evaluation of the military code of conduct through the prism of his ''narrow, but personal, viewpoint.''
It was in many ways a first draft of his political autobiography, recounting the ennobling stories of resistance that he and his co-author, Mark Salter, would later retell in his 1999 memoir, ''Faith of My Fathers.''
Mr. McCain's 1974 thesis, though, also revealed a welter of other emotions about his years as a prisoner of war, including a deep anger at those he considered collaborators, a tough-minded disdain for public hand-wringing about captives like himself, and a sharp impatience with the American government for failing to ''explain to its people, young and old, some basic facts of its foreign policy.'' But at the same time, Mr. McCain also urged that any military survival training should include lessons in what he called ''the necessity to forgive.''
Mr. McCain's paper sheds new light on the experience that first brought him national attention and remains a staple of his campaign commercials. His conclusions hint at themes of his career, like his habit of making peace with former enemies. And his arguments that the government and the military should have done more to convince the voters and the troops about the case for the war in Vietnam echo in current debates about Iraq as well.
Asked if he still had those views, Mr. McCain said in an e-mail message that he still believed the antiwar movement had hurt the morale of some prisoners, although he added the vast majority ''performed their duty with courage and resolve irrespective of how controversy about the war influenced their view of it.''
Historians, though, say his assertion that the antiwar movement weakened the resistance of Americans captured late in the war is misleading, in part because almost all the most cooperative prisoners were captured early and in part because many other cultural shifts contributed to differences in the later war captives. And some of his fellow prisoners also question the connection between the war protests and the camp collaborators.
''Don't connect those guys with the antiwar movement,'' said Orson Swindle, a prisoner who became a friend of Mr. McCain. ''It was the guy in the next cell who was the reason we were trying so hard to uphold the code and our honor, and those guys just betrayed everything we stood for.''
But others say it is easy to see how Mr. McCain's dismay at prisoners' propaganda statements could feed his current impatience with calls for a withdrawal from Iraq. In the crucible of the camps, it was easy to see the collaborators -- broadcasting antiwar statements over prison loudspeakers, smiling for Jane Fonda and visiting peace activists, enjoying the rewards of better food and less torture -- as embodiments of the war protesters that the North Vietnamese counted on to wear down the American war effort.
''Just like the 'pull-out movement' today, as I call it, the peace movement would give them something to hang their hats on,'' said Richard A. Stratton, another former prisoner incarcerated with Mr. McCain. ''You are being tortured and all you have to do to get them to stop is say the same thing that Bobby Kennedy is saying. The same thing that George McGovern is saying. You don't even have to make anything up.''
Determination Redoubled
Mr. McCain, then a Navy lieutenant commander, was by all accounts what the American prisoners called a ''tough resister.'' He was nicknamed Crip for the severity of the injuries he sustained -- a shoulder, both arms and his knee broken, with a bayonet wound near the groin -- when his fighter plane was shot down in October 1967. Military rules only allowed P.O.W.'s to go home in the order of their capture, but some senior officers said his medical condition justified accepting an offer of release from the North Vietnamese. Mr. McCain, the son of a prominent admiral, did not want to be part of North Vietnamese propaganda, so he chose to endure years of torture instead.
At times, Mr. McCain seemed to court punishment, noisily cussing out his captors while giving ''thumbs up'' signs to his fellow prisoners. ''No matter what he did, he always played to the bleachers,'' Robert Coram, a military historian, wrote in a book about the camps.
All of the prisoners acknowledged that everyone had a breaking point. Mr. McCain's came 10 months after he arrived. With his father taking command of the Pacific Fleet, the North Vietnamese were determined to coerce the son into denouncing the war. For four days they tied him with ropes, beat him every few hours, re-broke his arm, and left him in a pool of his own blood and refuse. Finally, he signed and tape-recorded a war crimes confession.
His fellow prisoners say his capitulation only redoubled his determination to provoke his captors. ''Acts of defiance felt so good that I felt they more than compensated for their repercussions,'' he wrote, ''and they helped me keep at bay the unsettled feelings of guilt and self doubt my confession had aroused.''
Others responded differently. Initially unable to feed or clean himself, Mr. McCain was nursed back to health by his cellmate, Maj. Norris Overly of the Air Force. Mr. McCain has often credited Mr. Overly with saving his life, calling him ''a very fine man.''
Returning from an interrogation in February 1968, however, Mr. Overly told his cellmates he was going home. He said, as he later testified to Congress, that he had given his captors nothing and could not explain their decision.
Mr. McCain said in his e-mail message that he had never been angry with Mr. Overly. In his memoir, he recalls only a fear his friend was making a mistake. ''I couldn't stand in judgment of him,'' he wrote.
But his fellow prisoners say he felt betrayed. After a goodbye ceremony staged for North Vietnamese cameras -- Mr. McCain arrived on a stretcher -- he and the others began referring to the departures as the ''fink release program'' and ''the slimies.''
Mr. Overly declined to comment.
By the end of 1972, a dozen of the roughly 400 American prisoners of war in the North had accepted offers to be freed, only one with the permission of the senior American officers. All were required, at the very least, to sign letters requesting ''amnesty'' and thanking the North Vietnamese.
Some went further. As early as 1969, Mr. McCain began hearing three American officers denouncing the war over camp loudspeakers. The first two, Robert Schweitzer and Edison Miller, became known as ''The Bob and Ed Show.'' Walter Eugene Wilber soon joined.
They were followed by as many as a dozen others: enlisted infantrymen captured in South Vietnam early in the war and later brought to the northern prisons. They had not received the same training in survival strategies and the code of conduct as the pilots who made up the rest of the prisons in the North. The cooperators called themselves the ''peace committee'' and enjoyed treats from their captors, including beer, ice cream, Vietnamese dinners, and front-row seats at a local circus. They lived in fear of retribution from the tough resisters.
Mr. Miller and Mr. Wilber, the officers, said in interviews that they considered it pointless to resist after they had surrendered. ''I think our duty as senior officers is to get these men home as healthy emotionally and physically as we can, and I don't intend to play politics,'' Mr. Miller, a Marine lieutenant colonel, said he told the others.
Some members of the peace committee said that watching the destruction of Vietnamese villages had turned them against the war, arguing that the pilots did not see the carnage. Others said they were beaten down. ''We said what we had to say to get through it,'' Michael Branch, one of the enlisted men, said in an interview.
Mr. McCain was as enraged as any of the tough resisters by what they considered the treason of the two officers and enlisted men, his friends said. ''He thought this was 'terrible, terrible, terrible,' they should all be shot,'' said John Dramesi, a fellow prisoner.
In his memoirs, Mr. McCain addressed only briefly what he called ''the camp rats.'' During a stint in solitary confinement, he had caught a glimpse of two other American officers acting friendly with their guards and enjoying delicacies like eggs and bananas, Mr. McCain and his co-author wrote. Assuming that contact with a fellow American would restore their nerve, Mr. McCain called out: ''Hey, guys, my name's McCain. Who are you?'' They called the guards, who beat him again.
Those two were Mr. Miller and Mr. Wilber. They denied the exchange took place, but in his e-mail message Mr. McCain said, ''I would have been astonished if they admitted it.''
Willingness to Forgive
But Mr. Schweitzer, who died in a car crash soon after the war, became an example of what Mr. McCain later called ''the necessity to forgive.'' Confronted by a senior officer, Mr. Schweitzer renounced his participation in the propaganda and resumed his place in the American ranks.
''It is neither American nor Christian to nag a repentant sinner to his grave,'' the senior Americans taught.
''John McCain has lived by that his whole life,'' Mr. Swindle said. Others have observed the pattern as Mr. McCain has embraced former adversaries from antiwar activists and North Vietnamese prison commanders to the critics who charged him with corruption in the Keating Five scandal.
Mr. McCain was one of about a half-dozen former prisoners of war who spent the year after their release at the National War College, an elite academy for future admirals or generals.
Some officers fresh from Vietnam questioned the premise of the war. ''The vast majority of generals who had experience in Vietnam will tell you we should never have gone past the advisory level,'' said John H. Johns, a retired Army general and a student at the college that year. But in Mr. McCain's paper, he instead focused on the failure to sustain public support for the fight. The paper was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and provided to The New York Times by Matt Welch, an author of a book about Mr. McCain.
He cast a cold eye on the public sympathy for prisoners like himself. ''Two and a half million American fighting men served in the Vietnam conflict, and more importantly 46,000 sacrificed their lives,'' Mr. McCain wrote. ''Yet in the latter stages of that war millions of people were more actively concerned about the plight of 565 P.O.W.'s in Hanoi than in any bigger issue of the war.''
American elected officials, he argued, had fostered a myopic focus on the prisoners by forsaking the goal of unconditional surrender in favor of a negotiated peace, enabling the North Vietnamese to turn their hostages into a bargaining chip. ''Many Congressional resolutions, favorable to the enemy, were based solely on the guaranteed return of Americans from North Vietnam,'' he wrote.
With prisoners returned, he argued, ambivalence about the war was protecting the minority of American prisoners ''who did not keep faith with their country or their fellow prisoners.''
Court-martial charges were filed against two officers and seven enlisted men, he noted. ''Probably more would have been charged if the Vietnam War had been like other wars in which this country has engaged,'' Mr. McCain wrote. (Top military leaders quickly quashed charges against those nine.)
Mr. McCain reserved his fiercest criticism for what he called ''the evils of parole and amnesty,'' returning repeatedly to the importance of teaching recruits to reject such offers as he did. The prospect of early release had tempted and demoralized the other captives while providing the North Vietnamese ''a maximum of favorable publicity and propaganda value from these 'humane acts,' '' he wrote.
''Probably the greatest shock to great numbers of the P.O.W.'s was to find, on returning to the U.S., that P.O.W.'s who were released early had not been court-martialed but in fact had received choice assignments and early promotions,'' he added, calling their warm welcome ''inexcusable.''
Mr. McCain's proposal that the military teach U.S. foreign policy to its recruits may be his most notable recommendation. ''Too many men in the armed forces of the United States do not understand what this nation's foreign policy is,'' Mr. McCain wrote, adding he did not propose a Soviet-style ''indoctrination,'' but ''a simple, straightforward explanation of the foreign policy of the United States.''
In his e-mail message, Mr. McCain stood by the idea. ''It is important, not just for P.O.W.'s, but all Americans serving in combat to understand the purpose and reason for the sacrifices they are asked to make for our country,'' he said.
Such instruction, though, sounds close to heretical to some military officers because it risks instructing the troops in the foreign policy of either one president or another, a prospect that particularly troubles Mr. McCain's contemporaries who came to opposite conclusions about the Vietnam War.
''It gets to be partisan political positioning and regime support,'' said Merrill McPeak, a retired Air Force general and another War College classmate of Mr. McCain. (Both Mr. Johns and Mr. McPeak are supporting the Democratic presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama.)
But Prof. Richard H. Kohn, a historian of civil-military relations at the University of North Carolina who has taught at the War College, suggested that Mr. McCain's recommendation was more of a ''time warp'' back to the 1950s, when he came of age at the Naval Academy. It was an era of staunchly anti-communist foreign policy consensus that was shattered by the debates over the Vietnam War while Mr. McCain was in prison, Professor Kohn said.
Mr. McCain's public statements when he returned from the war suggested that he saw a similar consensus emerging again. ''I see more of an appreciation of our way of life,'' he wrote in a 1973 article for U.S. News & World Report. ''There is more patriotism. The flag is all over the place.''
''Some of my fellow prisoners sang a different tune, but they were a very small minority,'' he added. ''I ask myself if they should be prosecuted, and I don't find that easy to answer. It might destroy the very fine image the great majority of us have brought back from that hellhole.''
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: John McCain arrived at Clark Air Base in the Philippines on March 14, 1973. The time he spent as a prisoner in North Vietnam helped mold his views on war policy and conduct that he discussed later in a thesis. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ASSOCIATED PRESS)(A1)
John McCain, a prisoner of war, in a Hanoi hospital in the fall of 1967 after his Navy jet was shot down during a bombing run. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ASSOCIATED PRESS)(A16)
Services for Sgt. Abel Kavanaugh, who fatally shot himself, in Denver in 1973. While John McCain was considered a ''tough resister'' as a prisoner of war, Mr. Kavanaugh and the six pallbearers were accused of collaborating with the enemy. Those charges were later dropped. (PHOTOGRAPH BY UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL)(A16)
Senator John McCain greeted by a former North Vietnamese colonel, Bui Tin, at a Congressional hearing in 1991. (PHOTOGRAPH BY DENNIS COOK/ASSOCIATED PRESS)(A16)
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The New York Times
June 15, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Think the Gender War Is Over? Think Again
BYLINE: By SUSAN FALUDI.
Susan Faludi is the author of ''Backlash,'' ''Stiffed'' and ''The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America.''
SECTION: Section WK; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 1238 words
DATELINE: San Francisco
FOR months, our political punditry foresaw one, and only one, prospective gender contest looming in the general election: between the first serious female presidential candidate and the Republican male ''warrior.'' But those who were dreading a plebiscite on sexual politics shouldn't celebrate just yet. Hillary Clinton may be out of the race, but a Barack Obama versus John McCain match-up still has the makings of an epic American gender showdown.
The reason is a gender ethic that has guided American politics since the age of Andrew Jackson. The sentiment was succinctly expressed in a massive marble statue that stood on the steps of the United States Capitol from 1853 to 1958. Named ''The Rescue,'' but more commonly known as ''Daniel Boone Protects His Family,'' the monument featured a gigantic white pioneer in a buckskin coat holding a nearly naked Indian in a death's grip, while off to the side a frail white woman crouched over her infant.
The question asked by this American Sphinx to all who dared enter the halls of leadership was, ''Are you man enough?'' This year, Senator Obama has notably refused to give the traditional answer.
The particulars of that masculine myth were established early in American politics. While the war hero-turned-statesman is a trope common to many countries in many eras, it has a particular quality and urgency here, based on our earliest history, when two centuries of Indian wars brought repeated raids on frontier settlements and humiliating failures on the part of the young nation's ''protectors'' to fend off those attacks or rescue captives. The architects of American culture papered over this shaming history by concocting what would become our prevailing national security fantasy -- personified by the ever-vigilant white frontiersman who, by triumphing over the rapacious ''savage'' and rescuing the American maiden from his clutches, redeemed American manhood.
Aspirants to the White House have long known they must audition for the Boone role in the ''Rescue'' tableau. Those who have pulled off a persuasive performance, from Jackson to Teddy Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower to John F. Kennedy, have proved victorious at the ballot box. Even candidates lacking in martial bona fides have understood the need to try to fake it with the appropriate accessories -- riding high in the saddle (Ronald Reagan), commanding tanks (Michael Dukakis), wielding shotguns (John Kerry) or brandishing chainsaws and donning flight suits (you know who).
Senator McCain may fit the model better than anyone. After all, he actually starred in a real-life captivity narrative, having withstood five and a half years of imprisonment by non-white tormentors, declining special treatment and coming home a hero. ''I have seen men's hopes tested in hard and cruel ways that few will ever experience,'' he declared from the hustings. A 12-minute video on his Web site dwells on how his faith in the ''fathers'' and his will ''to fight to survive'' got the young Navy pilot through Vietcong bayonetings, bone smashings and bondage.
The story's appeal is evident in the flood of news media adulation. The worshipful tone of the last Newsweek cover article on Mr. McCain is typical. The subtitle: ''He's Endured the Unendurable and Survived.'' As the liberal television watchdog group Media Matters for America has noted, the press is most reverent about the candidate's humble refusal to trumpet his captivity -- even as his campaign advertises it freely.
Although Senator McCain didn't rescue any helpless maidens, he outdid even Daniel Boone in averting emasculating domination. Boone was a captive for only a few months, and was widely suspected by his contemporaries of having enjoyed his time with the Shawnees rather too much (he was adopted by the Shawnee chief and evidently passed up several opportunities for escape).
Senator Obama, for his part, will not be cast as the avenging hero in ''The Rescue'' any time soon -- and not because of the color of his skin or his lack of military experience. He doesn't seem to want the role. You don't see him crouching in a duck blind or posing in camouflage duds or engaging in anything more gladiatorial than a game of pick-up basketball. If Mr. Obama's candidacy seeks to move beyond race, it also moves beyond gender. A 20-minute campaign Web documentary showcased a President Obama who would exude ''a real sensitivity'' and ''empathy'' and provide a world safe for the American mother's son. Mr. Obama is surrounded in the video by pacifist -- not security -- moms.
If Mr. Obama's campaign has fashioned any master narrative, it's that of the young man in the bower of a matriarchy -- raised by a ''strong'' mother, bolstered by a ''strong'' sister, married to a ''strong'' wife and proud of his ''strong'' daughters. (Bill Clinton had a similar story, although his handlers highlighted his efforts to save his mother from domestic violence.)
''In many ways, he really will be the first woman president,'' Megan Beyer of Virginia, a charter member of Women for Obama, told reporters. An op-ed essay in The New York Post headlined ''Bam: Our 1st Woman Prez?'' came to a similar conclusion, if a tad more snidely: ''Those shots of Barack and Michelle sitting with Oprah on stools had the feel of a smart, all-women talk panel.''
Hillary Clinton's candidacy showed that a woman, too, can play the tough-guy protector. But Mr. Obama takes the iconoclasm a step further -- by suggesting that martial swagger isn't what America needs anymore.
In the campaign ahead, expect a fierce Republican effort to reinstate the nation's guardian myth -- by demonstrating how the other party's candidate fails to fit the formula. Had Mrs. Clinton been the candidate, she would no doubt have faced more attacks for being too mannishly abrasive or, conversely, too emotional to play the manly role. But Mr. Obama should expect similar damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't gender assaults. He will be cast either as the epicene metrosexual who can't protect the country or else as the modern heathen with a suspicious middle name.
The attacks are already under way, as is evident if one enters the words ''Obama'' and ''effeminate'' into a search engine. The effeminacy canard lurks in Mike Huckabee's imaginings of Mr. Obama tripping off a chair and diving for the floor when confronted by a gunman, and in the words of Tucker Bounds, Mr. McCain's campaign spokesman, who depicted Mr. Obama as ''hysterical.''
News media blatherers and bloggers are taking up the theme. On MSNBC, Tucker Carlson called Mr. Obama ''kind of a wuss''; Joe Scarborough, the morning TV talk show host, dubbed Mr. Obama's bowling style ''prissy'' and declared, ''Americans want their president, if it's a man, to be a real man''; and Don Imus, the radio host, never one to be outdone in the sexual slur department, dubbed Mr. Obama a ''sissy boy.''
Will such attacks succeed? The wild card in the campaign drama to come is 9/11, which for a while kicked us into Daniel Boone overdrive. But in recent years, the dangers and costs of that prolonged delusion have become painfully apparent. In the primaries, a substantial portion of Democratic voters turned away from the dictates of ''The Rescue.'' In choosing between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain in the general election, Americans will pass a referendum on 200 years of bedrock gender mythology.
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The Washington Post
June 15, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
GOP Incumbents Are Serving a Familiar Dish
BYLINE: Chris Cillizza And Ben Pershing; PLAYERS and PLAYERS
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A08
LENGTH: 1110 words
Faced with one of the worst national political environments in modern political history, Republican incumbents are turning to a tried-and-true approach to win reelection: pork.
In recent ads for Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Elizabeth Dole (N.C.) and Norm Coleman (Minn.), the incumbents highlight their ability to work across party lines to deliver dollars for their respective states.
Call it the clout factor.
"Clout is certainly something people want out of their senators," said Sen. John Ensign (Nev.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, adding that any GOP incumbent on the ballot this fall faces serious peril. "If you have an 'R' in front of your name, you had better run scared," Ensign said.
Dole's ad notes that she helped win $4 billion for agriculture programs and kept "every major North Carolina military base" from closing during the latest round of the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) plan.
"Now that's clout . . . that's Elizabeth Dole," say two of the North Carolinians featured in the commercial.
McConnell's ad strikes a similar tone -- seeking to turn his role as Senate minority leader into a positive.
"Senate Leader Mitch McConnell has a vision for a new Kentucky," says the narrator, before noting that the Republican has delivered $280 million for the state's university system, $70 million to "fight crime" and $1 billion for parks and conservation. "The leader who can do more for Kentucky's future," the narrator says at the end of the commercial.
In Coleman's ad, he touts his ability to bring compromise. "The business of serving the people is about making a difference and about doing something, not just fighting about it but doing something about it," he says.
What's not in the ads is as important as what is. In none of the three commercials is President Bush's name mentioned. The limited use of the Republican brand is particularly striking in Kentucky and North Carolina, which Bush carried with 60 percent and 56 percent, respectively, during the 2004 election. Coleman's qualifying his party ties makes more sense, given that in 2004 Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) won Minnesota by three percentage points.
It appears as though McConnell, Coleman and Dole have all reached the conclusion that the only message that can win for a Republican in the current environment is a purely transactional one: Reelect me, and I'll continue to bring home the bacon.
While pork-barrel spending is decried by many politicians in Washington -- including, loudly, by presumptive GOP nominee John McCain -- there's a reason it remains a staple. Many voters like to see their politicians providing "deliverables" back home.
In places such as Kentucky and North Carolina, highlighting the delivery of federal dollars could be even more effective, given the slowdowns in the two states' economies. Money coming back to a state means jobs, and, in an economic downturn, voters -- no matter how much they may dislike the president or stand in opposition to the war in Iraq -- can get behind someone who is helping them keep their jobs.
For Dole, Coleman and McConnell -- as well as Republican senators in tougher reelection fights, such as John E. Sununu (N.H.) and Gordon Smith (Ore.) -- the transactional approach may well be their best path to reelection.
Revolution's Bucks
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) officially suspended his presidential campaign Thursday night, having never won a GOP primary or caucus but nonetheless stirring up an impressive cadre of passionate supporters eager to follow his Libertarian-style lead. In the process, Paul proved himself to be a surprisingly strong fundraiser, bringing in $35 million through April 30, with $4.7 million left in the bank.
So while Paul's army waits for word of where the "revolution" will lead them next, Republicans around town might be more interested to know what he intends to do with all that cash.
"It is time now to take the energy this campaign has awakened and channel it into long-term efforts to take back our country," Paul wrote on his campaign site. "We have some exciting plans and projects to move the revolution forward that will come together in the next several months. Watch for them."
Paul doesn't plan to endorse McCain, and he still appears intent on holding an alternative convention in Minnesota while the official Republican National Convention is underway in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Perhaps more important, Paul plans to support Libertarian-leaning candidates within the GOP for various offices. Does that mean he will back primary challenges to sitting Republicans? That's not clear yet.
What is indisputable is that Paul has demonstrated the ability to mobilize large numbers of volunteers and supporters quickly, and that he can back up his preferred candidates with financial support. The vast majority of his contributors are small-dollar donors, the kind campaigns salivate over because they can be asked to contribute again and again.
Through March 31, Paul's House reelection committee gave $26,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee and contributed to a handful of GOP incumbents and candidates -- more than Paul has given in other recent election cycles. His fellow House GOPers might want to try to stay on his good side, lest they end up on the wrong end of the revolution in their next primary campaigns.
P LAYERS
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) continues to tap senior aides to former senator Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) for critical roles in the general-election race. Mindy Myers and Mitch Stewart are the most recent additions. Myers, who had been serving as chief of staff to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), has a long history with Daschle, having worked in his Senate office and served as political director of DASHPAC -- Dedicated Americans for Senate and House Political Action Committee. Stewart, too, goes way back with Daschle. He was a field organizer for Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) in his 2002 reelection victory over then-Rep. John Thune (R) and served as field director for Daschle's unsuccessful reelection bid in 2004 (a race lost to Thune). Stewart served as Obama's Iowa caucus director this year.
12 DAYS: Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, one of the most mentioned names in the Republican veepstakes, will speak at a dinner for the Connecticut Republican Party. The dinner has been a hotbed of national political talent, having hosted former Florida governor Jeb Bush and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in recent years.
54 DAYS: The Summer Olympics begin in Beijing, China. The games are sure to dominate the news for the two weeks they will span, shunting all but the most urgent of political coverage.
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; Mitch McConnell's ad doesn't mention President Bush.
IMAGE; And neither does Elizabeth Dole's ad.
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The Washington Post
June 13, 2008 Friday
Met 2 Edition
Earmark Spending Makes a Comeback;
Congress Pledged Curbs in 2007
BYLINE: Robert O'Harrow Jr.; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1172 words
More than a year after Congress pledged to curb pork barrel funding known as earmarks, lawmakers are gearing up for another spending binge, directing billions toward organizations and companies in their home districts.
Earmark spending in the House's defense authorization bill alone soared 29 percent last month, from $7.7 billion last year to $9.9 billion now, according to data compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group in the District. The Senate bill has not been approved, but the proposal includes an increased number of earmarks, although for a slightly lesser total cost.
Lawmakers had promised to cut back on earmarks and mandated better disclosure of them after steady criticism that they were funding programs with little debate or oversight. The promises led to an initial decline in earmarks last year that was trumpeted on Capitol Hill. But the new data show that they are surging again, at least in the proposed Pentagon authorization budget, which sets out priorities to be funded in a later appropriations bill.
"Both parties talk a good game on cutting earmarks, but at first opportunity, the House larded up," said Stephen Ellis, vice president of the watchdog group. "This is just another broken promise."
Think of a way to spend money on defense, and it could easily be among the hundreds of projects added quietly to the House and Senate spending plans this spring. Many of the earmarks serve as no-bid contracts for the recipients.
Requests include $204,000 for an infantry platoon battle course from Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both Arkansas Democrats; $2.2 million for nanofluids for advanced military mobility from Rep. Geoff Davis (R-Ky); $98 million for a Northrop Grumman project to develop an aircraft sensor suite, from Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).
Chambliss was a part of another bipartisan group of lawmakers who also requested allocating $497 million to United Technologies, Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney for "advanced procurement or line close down costs," the watchdog group's data show.
Funding for an indoor small-arms range in Connecticut? It's in there too, at $11 million, care of Sens. Lieberman and Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) So is $10 million for school-age services on a military base in Kentucky.
Tens of millions of dollars more are directed at lawmakers' state universities, sometimes for research of metals, composites and other technology. That includes $2.5 million for development of three-dimensional integrated circuit research at Boise State University and $3 million for "superstructural particle evaluation" at East Carolina University.
The latest surge has occurred under Democratic leadership of Congress, but it is difficult to compare earmark spending with that of Republican-controlled Congresses because there was no disclosure requirement until last year. This year, all sides have racked up some big requests in the defense authorization bills.
In the Senate, Lieberman led the way with his participation in 14 requests worth more than $292 million, some of them involving more than one lawmaker, the watchdog group data show. Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) made 48 requests, many with colleagues, worth more than $198 million. Sens. Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and Elizabeth Dole (N.C.) led Republicans by participating in requests totaling $188 million and $182 million, respectively.
Leading earmarkers in the House include Democrats Solomon P. Ortiz (Tex.) and Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii) and Republicans Duncan Hunter (Calif.) and Robin Hayes (N.C.).
Earmark spending has a long history, and some lawmakers said it is a constitutional right for Congress to control the government's purse. Proponents note that earmarks often provide funding to organizations doing good work that otherwise would not get a dime from Congress.
Other lawmakers contend that the standard practice on Capitol Hill of slipping in earmarked extras -- often at the behest of lobbyists working for corporations, universities and other beneficiaries -- is fostering an atmosphere of dirty politics. Critics said the process of sorting through earmarks also distracts lawmakers from providing oversight of other budget matters.
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said the budget system almost demands that lawmakers use earmarks to win support from voters. He said his colleagues also award earmarks with the expectation that they will generate campaign contributions from happy recipients and their lobbyists, a dynamic that Taxpayers for Common Sense describes as the "pay-to-play system." Lawmakers often boast of the earmarks they have obtained.
The data compiled by the watchdog group show that 60 percent of the members of the House Armed Services Committee who arranged earmarks also received campaign contributions from the companies that received the funding. Almost all the members of the committee received campaign contributions from companies that got earmarks this year.
"It's corrupting. It's a much bigger problem than the sum of its parts. It's much more than just waste," said Flake, who has criticized both Republican and Democratic colleagues for questionable earmarked projects. "One good defense earmark can yield tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions."
Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), for instance, requested a $4 million earmark for Digital Fusion, a company whose executives have recently donated $18,000 to the lawmaker. Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) also inserted a $5.4 million earmark for Clean Earth Technologies, whose executives have donated $14,000 to him.
Vincent Perez, a spokesman for Reyes, said, "The congressman's appropriations projects are carefully vetted to ensure they are consistent with the needs and interests of his constituency, and there is no connection between his fundraising efforts and his work in Congress." Akin's office said his earmark was for developing imaging technology that "would be a huge step forward in force protection."
The Senate also relies on earmarks, though not quite so heavily. The number of earmarks in the Senate defense authorization bill rose sharply from 309 to 435, although the overall spending declined slightly this year, to $5.4 billion.
The requests by Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, included earmarks to General Motors, whose executives have recently donated $29,000 to the senator, according to the watchdog group. Levin's office did not respond to a request for comment.
The issue of earmarks is not going to go away anytime soon. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill), the presumptive Democratic nominee for the White House, disclosed in March that he had sought $740 million in earmarks over the past three years, about a third of which received funding. He has also proposed legislation requiring better disclosure of earmarks before they are approved. GOP rival Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of the sharpest earmark critics in Congress, has made it a point to buck the trend and avoid asking for earmarks.
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The Washington Post
June 13, 2008 Friday
Suburban Edition
Town Hall: McCain's Comfort Zone;
Campaign Banks On Meetings to Give Best Forum for Republican
BYLINE: Michael D. Shear and Juliet Eilperin; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A06
LENGTH: 1179 words
DATELINE: NEW YORK, June 12
Microphone in hand and surrounded on all sides by friendly inquisitors, Republican Sen. John McCain called on a man in the back row of New York's Federal Hall on Thursday night and waited for another opportunity to demonstrate his mastery of the off-the-cuff answer.
"We've got to put our country first and not our party first, and too many people have that reversed," McCain told the man, who asked about how he would break Washington gridlock. "And by the way, this is not a cheap shot. It's a matter of record. . . . You put your finger on what has to be done. Yes, there's going to be a change in Washington, but will it be the right kind of change or the wrong kind of change?"
This is McCain's arena of choice -- the town hall -- where mixing serious answers with flip comments and the occasional sarcastic insult has become his trademark as much as the smartly crafted speech in front of thousands defines his rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Now, the McCain campaign sees town halls as a necessity, hoping the old-style format will serve as a video-age counterweight to the rhetorical chasm between his stilted and sometimes awkward speechmaking and Obama's often rousing delivery.
McCain (Ariz.) has dared Obama to join him at 10 town hall meetings during the next 10 weeks, answering questions from a few hundred undecided people at a time. If it works as the campaign hopes, voters will see McCain as the more informed candidate, with a better command of the nitty-gritty issues that presidents face.
"This isn't a gimmick or some type of a hidden ruse," said McCain adviser Steve Schmidt, calling it a way to elevate the presidential debate and a chance to "change the trajectory of this campaign."
The idea has helped soothe concerns among Republican strategists, who have been distraught over McCain's inability to compete with Obama's rhetorical flair. That contrast was never more evident than on the day last week when Obama clinched the Democratic nomination.
In a widely panned speech in Louisiana designed to kick off the general election, McCain flubbed some lines and smiled awkwardly at moments. He stood in front of a green banner and spoke to a crowd of a couple of hundred, a setting that was lampooned by Democrats and Republicans alike. An hour or so later, Obama spoke in the center of a St. Paul, Minn., arena in front of 17,000 screaming supporters.
"McCain has the potential in town hall meetings to be really good. He has almost no potential to be really good in a big speech and zero potential being better than Obama in a big speech," said one Republican consultant, who asked for anonymity to discuss the campaign's strategy on the town hall challenge. "It's the one format where he could legitimately shine."
But the risks are huge for McCain. He is essentially betting the presidency on a series of side-by-side performances with his rival in a largely uncontrolled environment.
As evidence of the danger, McCain's most famous gaffes have come during town hall meetings. It was at a January town hall in Derry, N.H., that McCain said it would be "fine with me" if U.S. troops stay in Iraq for 50 years or more, providing a sound bite that his political rivals have put to great use.
"Make it a hundred," he said, cutting off the questioner as a bit of annoyance showed through.
When McCain is on his own, town hall audiences are generally filled with Republicans, most of whom are supporters and often allow him to joke or finesse his way out of tough answers. The dynamic with Obama would be different, with a more skeptical audience and with McCain's chief rival on stage ready to challenge his answers.
Standing next to Obama during televised town hall meetings could also highlight the kind of direct comparison that most campaigns strive to avoid: the image of a 71-year-old candidate next to one who is 46.
It could give Obama a chance to upstage McCain, looking presidential in the one forum that had been exclusively McCain's. Although Obama's performance in debates was more uneven than his formal speechmaking, McCain's advisers say they do not believe the Harvard-educated lawyer will flop in a town hall.
"It's a risk that I believe is absolutely worth taking," said Mark McKinnon, a former media consultant for McCain who helped conceive the town hall challenge. "I think when people see McCain unvarnished, they like what they see."
The problem for McCain is that most people in the country do not see him at his town hall meetings. After well over 100 of them during the primary campaign, they have become routine, unlikely to garner more than a brief mention in news reports. Joint town hall meetings with Obama would be seen as grand political theater and would almost surely be televised nationally.
One result would be plenty of free media exposure for a campaign that has little hope of matching Obama in ad dollars. In the primaries, Obama spent nearly $78 million on television commercials, and McCain spent about $11 million.
One GOP adviser said the consensus in the campaign is that town halls are McCain's "best setting," whereas Obama is "only average" in unscripted exchanges.
It was during debates with his Democratic rivals that Obama said he would meet with anti-U.S. heads of government without conditions. And the candidate answered a question about how he would respond to another al-Qaeda attack with the wonkish answer that he would ensure an "effective emergency response."
McCain's use of town halls has become legendary. In his 2000 campaign, they helped create his reputation for "straight talk" because he was willing to take tough, unscripted questions. After his 2008 campaign imploded last summer, he held 100 town hall meetings in New Hampshire in a bid to revive the "maverick spirit" of his candidacy.
Armed with that confidence, McCain has challenged Obama to one town hall meeting each week, to have started with Thursday night's forum at Federal Hall, where George Washington took his first presidential oath of office.
Obama initially praised the idea, but his campaign said Thursday night was too soon to work out the details. It later offered a counterproposal: lengthier exchanges along the lines of the famous meetings between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.
"We are happy to do more than the three typical presidential debates in the fall," Obama told reporters this week. "It's not realistic for us to do 10. We're dealing with all the campaign events that I have to do, since we've just finished our primary election."
McCain aides had considered putting an empty chair on the stage for Obama but thought better of it. Still, McCain tweaked Obama for failing to show up.
"Now, this town hall meeting probably would have been a little more interesting if Senator Obama had accepted my request to join," McCain said.
McCain's aides insist their proposal is not strictly an attempt to provide a safe environment for their candidate, and they reject the notion that they are seeking free air time.
"It's a good thing for democracy," McKinnon said. "This is the sort of thing voters are looking for."
LOAD-DATE: June 13, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Michael Fein -- Bloomberg News; John McCain, shown in Nashua, N.H., has challenged Barack Obama to join him at 10 such events.
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The Washington Post
June 13, 2008 Friday
Suburban Edition
Let Us Now Praise Power Brokers
BYLINE: Steven Pearlstein
SECTION: FINANCIAL; Pg. D01
LENGTH: 889 words
It was a quintessentially Washington moment:
There, in the Ritz-Carlton ballroom Monday, stood Vernon Jordan -- the political insider, corporate networker and financial rainmaker, tall and impeccably turned out -- presiding over his last meeting as head of the Economic Club of Washington.
During his four-year tenure, Jordan had used his incomparable connections to bring the heads of J.P. Morgan Chase, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, American Express, Pfizer and General Electric, along with the secretary of the Treasury, the chairman of the Federal Reserve and the president of the United States, to speak to 400 of the city's top business executives.
Now, for his final act, Jordan had reached beyond the Old Economy establishment and snared the chief executive of Google, the hottest company on the planet. Jordan had met Eric Schmidt the year before at Bilderberg, the super-secret gathering that falls between Davos and Bohemian Grove on the calendars of the global elite. By the end of that three-day meeting in Istanbul, Jordan had snared his final speaker.
Depending on your point of view, Jordan represents everything that is right or wrong with Washington.
To the cynical and conspiratorial, Jordan epitomizes the clubby and back-scratching Washington power broker, an amoral fixer who uses his web of connections to enrich himself and his clients while corrupting the political process.
But to those who know him, Jordan is a good friend and generous colleague who does well only by doing good. He follows in a long line of super-lawyers -- Harry McPherson, Clark Clifford, Bob Strauss and Lloyd Cutler -- who moved as gracefully in the government as they did in the corporate boardroom, serving as counselors valued for their wisdom and discretion.
So, which is it: Are Washington power brokers good or bad for the system? Apparently, we can't decide.
We never could in the case of Jordan, whose friendship with Bill Clinton was the source of never-ending controversy, starting with his chairmanship of the Clinton transition effort in 1992 and ending with a special prosecutor's investigation into his job-placement activities on behalf of White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Nothing unethical was ever uncovered.
And now it's happening again in a presidential campaign in which both candidates are competing to distance themselves from the permanent Washington establishment.
Republican John McCain has already fired a number of his top campaign aides because at some point they made money as Washington lobbyists. So far, the hatchet hasn't fallen on volunteers and unpaid advisers, but given the overheated rhetoric and mindless media coverage, it's only a matter of time.
On the Democratic side, Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman and former chief of staff to Walter Mondale, was forced to resign this week as head of the vice presidential vetting committee for Democrat Barack Obama in response to a variety of allegations about corporate missteps. Meanwhile, Obama's new economic adviser, Jason Furman, came under fire from labor unions that complained he consorted with known free-traders such as former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin.
There is, of course, a certain appeal to candidates who vow to change the way business is done in Washington and hold out the promise of bringing new people with fresh ideas into the process. God knows, we could use a good dose of that.
But at the same time, there are both silly and dangerous qualities to the current purge.
Over the years, I've had plenty of critical things to say about the way Johnson ran Fannie Mae and his willingness to defend excessive pay packages. He certainly wouldn't be on my list for secretary of the Treasury or chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
But if Obama were looking for someone discreet and thorough, with deep experience in presidential campaigns and wide contacts in the Democratic Party who has experience vetting potential running mates, it's hard to think of a better candidate than Johnson.
The problem about this presidential campaign is that it has been too little about the candidates and their programs and too much about drawing deep meaning from whom they hire, who has given political contributions or even where the candidates go to church. It all smacks of a new kind of political correctness in which anyone with an unpopular view, a controversial past or a connection to the political or corporate establishment has to be officially renounced and banished from the political process.
In a way, we've seen this before. Jimmy Carter and Clinton both came to Washington vowing to change the way things were done. Initially, they had broad support from the public and the media. But after the inevitable stumbles, the sentiment turned, and suddenly it was conventional wisdom that they were naive and arrogant and that it was a mistake not to recruit people with more Washington experience.
The lesson from Carter and Clinton is that we need both: a mix of old hands and fresh blood, of time-tested experience and reformist zeal. It may be good politics, and good sport, to rail against the Vernon Jordans, the Jim Johnsons and others in the permanent establishment. But the dirty little secret is that it's folly to try to succeed in Washington without them.
Steven Pearlstein may be reached at pearlsteins@washpost.com
LOAD-DATE: June 13, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: Maryland
GRAPHIC: IMAGE; Vernon Jordan, left, wrapping up his tenure as head of the Economic Club of Washington, and Jim Johnson, who had spearheaded Sen. Barack Obama's vice presidential search, epitomize the political power broker elite.
IMAGE; Vernon Jordan, left, wrapping up his tenure as head of the Economic Club of Washington, and Jim Johnson, who had spearheaded Sen. Barack Obama's vice presidential search, epitomize the political power broker elite.
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Washingtonpost.com
June 13, 2008 Friday 11:00 AM EST
Post Politics Hour;
washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion
BYLINE: Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post Congressional Reporter, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4936 words
HIGHLIGHT: Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
Washington Post congressional reporter Jonathan Weisman was online Friday, June 13 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest news in politics.
The transcript follows.
Get the latest campaign news live on washingtonpost.com's The Trail, or subscribe to the daily Post Politics Podcast.
Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts
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Crystal City, Va.: Both McCain and Obama say they will close the camp at Guantanamo Bay; what to they propose to do with these prisoners?
washingtonpost.com: The Trail: Obama, McCain Respond to Guantanamo Bay Ruling (washingtonpost.com, June 12)
Jonathan Weisman: Both have said the maximum-security federal and military prisons would be just as safe as Guantanamo. Beyond the political sloganeering (they want terrorists in your backyard!), the real reason for having these guys offshore at Gitmo was to deny them habeas corpus rights, something that would have been harder to do if they were on U.S. soil. With the Supreme Court ruling, that doesn't matter anymore.
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Rockville, Md.: Is McCain confused, or is the best way to keep troops in Iraq to reduce the level of violence? Kerry seems to think the best thing we can do for a soldier is to bring him home. Does it matter if their work is completed? What use is a soldier at home who cannot be deployed? Defense? If we had waited for Hitler to hit the Atlantic coast, it would have been over. (I do know WWII examples are not popular -- sorry.)
Jonathan Weisman: I'm a little confused by your question. Are you asking whether having troops in Iraq naturally raises casualty rates, or whether having them at home puts us at risk of terrorist invasion?
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Washington: I hope you can answer this question. Are there any Obama campaign offices open in the D.C. metro area, and specifically in Northern Virginia? Thanks!
Jonathan Weisman: I am absolutely sure there is an Obama office in Northern Virginia, but I don't know where it is. Go on his Web site and look.
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Plano, Texas: As always, looking forward to your chat, Jonathan! Now that even the conservative-controlled Supreme Court has, once again, told Bush and his cadre of neocons that basic notions such as indefinite interment without being charged with any crime are contrary to the Constitution, we hear the predictable bleating from the administration and its shrinking group of supporters that there is "no doubt" that this will "weaken" the U.S.'s ability to fight terrorism. What is the reaction on the Hill to this claptrap, which seems to resurface every time the administration doesn't get its way?
Jonathan Weisman: Reaction was predictable -- the Republicans (and Joe Lieberman) who helped write the military commissions act said the ruling would do grievous harm to our security, while the Democrats (including Obama) said the court had interpreted the Constitution correctly. Only Arlen Specter tried to straddle the middle. As he had noted during the debate on the act, the court was bound to strike down any law that summarily did away with habeas corpus. He had tried to find a middle ground at the time, and found no takers. The court did precisely what he predicted two years ago.
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Washington: Jon, when you get a story on A1, do you make a terrorist fist jab with other Post writers?
Jonathan Weisman: I throw a Molotov cocktail.
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Monmouth, Ore.: I am very much for Obama but I could have accepted a Clinton/Obama ticket, as I felt that would have given me 16 years of a Democratic president (eight years of Bush II has made me never, ever want to see another Republican president). Who among possible Obama vice presidents would seem to have the age and potential to win in eight years? Most names, such as Nunn, Webb, Clinton, Biden, etc. would seem to have a McCain issue in eight years. I am 61, so I figure that if I can get 16 years I basically will be able to run out the clock. Thanks.
Jonathan Weisman: Very interesting question, and I hadn't thought about it much. Webb is pretty healthy. Tim Kaine of Virginia is spry. How about Kathleen Sebelius, governor of Kansas?
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Arlington, Va.: Why does the Post have a double standard when it comes to access to the candidates medical records? McCain gave a pool of reporters access to his complete file, and his doctor answered questions until no one asked for more. Obama provides a one-page summary of his records, and his doctor made a statement -- no questions -- and The Post and every other reporter said "okay, we've heard enough." If the Obama campaign is stiffing you on comparable access medical records, please let the your readers know about it.
Jonathan Weisman: I agree with your point. We obviously are giving Obama the benefit of the doubt, since he's 46, but we should be pushing harder. (I guess because many of us are close to his age, we'd like to think we all don't have health issues.)
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Seattle: While I am ecstatic over yesterday's Supreme Court ruling, what are the chances anything happens on the congressional side until Jan. 21, 2009, if ever? I can't see even a resolution saying "terrorism bad" passes without language about "so is waterboarding" being added, and then filibustered, and then vetoed, etc.
Jonathan Weisman: No chance whatsoever. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is once again pushing her bill to close down Guantanamo, but it doesn't have a chance. Not even the Democratic leadership wants to touch it. Congress will be pretty much closed for business in a matter of weeks.
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New Haven, Conn.: Judging by the recent Washington Post article, earmarks flourish -- not wither -- in the sunshine. What happens next? Will there be an attempt to limit the number or dollar amount for each member? Will we simply see more experienced lobbyists kicked off the presidential campaigns/advisory groups? Also, what congressional office has the best softball team/team name?
washingtonpost.com: Earmark Spending Makes a Comeback (Post, June 13)
Jonathan Weisman: I have to raise a point here: The Post this morning questioned the return of earmarks, citing the defense authorization bill. But traditionally, an earmark was an appropriation that had not been authorized by the authorizing committees. So if Congress is not supposed to appropriate funds, nor authorize them, what happened to the Constitutional granting of the power of the purse to the House and Senate?
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Chicago: Thanks for taking my question. How do polls accurately gauge intensity? It seems like there have been tremendous excitement and increased turn out on the Democrats' side this primary season and not so much on the GOP's side. Are polls showing that this disparity in intensity is possibly carrying over to November? How do they do that?
Jonathan Weisman: I don't think polls can show that in the horse-race numbers. If you drill down, you can see things like the fact that Democrats, for the first time in a long time, are by and large saying they want to vote for Barack Obama, not just against John McCain. You can weigh enthusiasm by asking your intention to vote. But I agree that the horse-race numbers -- Obama X percent, McCain Y percent -- isn't going to capture the prospects of a surge in voter turnout.
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Helena, Mont.: McCain can't be bothered to read the court's opinion, but he knows he agrees with Chief Justice Roberts? Was he instrumental in writing the law for the military tribunals, or was that written by that great JAG lawyer Lindsay Graham. and McCain just took his word that it was correct and voted for it?
Jonathan Weisman: I covered the passage of that bill. McCain and Graham were joined at the hip on it (this was before the campaign really took off). He deserves pride of authorship or scorn, depending on your perspective.
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Harrisburg, Pa.: One person who should be very happy with the Gitmo ruling is John McCain. While I am certain McCain will win this, we are certain that someone would file a lawsuit challenging McCain's ability to take the oath of office as president because he was not born in America. A court decision affirming that our Cuban base is American soil only strengthens the argument that the Panama Canal Zone (where McCain was born) indeed was American at the time of his birth (even if it no longer is part of America).
Jonathan Weisman: I don't think he needs to worry. There's a bipartisan bill (with Obama on board) waiting for just such a challenge.
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Los Angeles: Is McCain's "not too important" response about US troop withdrawals from Iraq confirmation he shoots from the hip but doesn't always shoot straight? He says in his new campaign ad that "only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war." Was he aiming at "bring them on," "dead or alive," "I'm a war president" George Bush? In the ad, McCain also says he "hates war." But when you consider him saying 100 years in Iraq "would be fine with me," "my friends, I hate to tell, but you there will be other wars" and singing "Bomb Bomb Iran" as initial response to a serious question about Iran -- at a town hall meeting no less -- one wonders if McCain is ready to be the next president of the U.S. Perhaps McCain should say he did not mean to say or imply that withdrawing troops from Iraq is not too important, and try improving his aim in future responses.
Jonathan Weisman: Much as the Democrats try, they cannot convince me his "not too important" quip was anything more than an inartful restatement of his position. McCain long has said the political problem with the Iraq war stemmed from casualties, that if U.S. troops' presence there yielded the number of incidences in, say, Japan or Germany, Americans would be happy to have U.S. bases in Iraq indefinitely as a stabilizing presence. He said that again, and Democrats have been taking it out of context.
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Gen Y: Bob Novak wrote today: "Even for the feckless Senate, last week was extraordinary. When Republicans contended that Reid broke his pledge to confirm three of President Bush's appeals court nominees by Memorial Day, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell retaliated by requiring the entire climate-change bill to be read into the record (consuming more than 10 hours). A half-century ago, when I covered the Senate under Lyndon B. Johnson, such an event would have been headline news. Last week, it was barely noticed." Is that true? That would have been "headline news"?
washingtonpost.com: Decline of the Senate (Post, June 12)
Jonathan Weisman: It is indeed true, but in this era of partisan gamesmanship, it barely merits a shrug. The fact is, though, that if that had happened last year -- when the Democratic control of Congress was fresh and the presidential campaign wasn't consuming all the oxygen -- it would have been bigger news.
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Seattle: Is McCain for or against Social Security privatization? I've read quotes saying he's absolutely for both.
Jonathan Weisman: He has said he was for making private investment accounts a part of a Social Security fix. He hasn't given us much details.
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Poplar Bluff, Mo.: Jonathon, potential appointments to the Supreme Court is always of importance to presidential candidates. Justice Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, is now the swing vote on the court. Do you believe that McCain, if elected president, would appoint justices in the Kennedy mode?
Jonathan Weisman: If you take him at his word, he has said he would appoint justices in the mode of Scalia, Alito and Roberts. It was an early offering to the social conservatives who were not with him.
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Fairfax, Va.: One of the Republican arguments against the recently defeated bill to limit price-inflating speculation and to implement a windfall-profits tax on oil companies was that the firms simply would pass the cost of the tax on to consumers. Is that a truthful claim, or are there ways in which the legislators could prevent the oil companies from passing on the costs to the public? Also, why so little Post coverage of the bill, specifically the original Post story that was actually an AP story and was not followed up by analysis pointing out the different positions the parties took. Nor was there any reporting connecting the bill with either Obama or McCain. Why was such important legislative activity given such short shrift by The Post?
Jonathan Weisman: First off, no, there's no real way to stop them from passing it on to consumers. All Congress could hope for is that, given the magnitude of the oil companies' profits at the moment, they would not need to and would come under tremendous public pressure if they did.
Second, here's the problem with Hill coverage right now. The Post once had three reporters on Capitol Hill. First my colleague, Shailagh Murray, went onto campaign coverage. Now I am covering the campaign. Paul Kane is trying mightily to hold down the fort, with help from Ben Pershing -- our Hill blogger for washingtonpost.com -- and from beat reporters, such as our energy reporter. But it's tough.
If you guys want more reporters, buy the newspaper, don't just read us online.
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Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: So Republicans are keeping climate change bill stuck on the floor of the Senate. Doesn't that stop all the budget bill debating? Including the supplemental money for Iraq and Afghanistan? And when does that money run out? Next month? Good on Republicans -- starve the troops into submission. Thanks much.
Jonathan Weisman: Not really. The Republicans understand that if the bill is going nowhere, Majority Leader Reid will pull it, which he has the authority to do. They are just preventing it from coming to a final, up-or-down vote.
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Shiner, Texas: No Democrat is going to give up his U.S. Senate seat to become Obama's vice president; the same is true for the Republicans. Those seats cost too much and they're too hard to win in the first place. Conservative parties like these two aren't going to take chances this election season. Too risky. So please update the conventional wisdom. It always proves too little and much too late.
Jonathan Weisman: I totally disagree with you. If you were offered the vice presidency and a real shot at the White House, you'd take it. Besides, no one has to give up his seat -- John Kerry is still in the Senate, and next year either Obama or McCain will be in the Senate.
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Philadelphia: "Americans will be happy to have U.S. bases in Iraq indefinitely as a stabilizing presence." But the Muslim extremists will not. Our permanent presence is an agitator. We never were told that permanent military bases were part of the plan when we were lied into this war. Having bases in Saudi Arabia was a contributing factor in bin Laden's attack on Sept. 11. I know the press loves McCain, but he is wrong, and you all love to give him the benefit of the doubt. Get over him, because he is getting over on all of us.
Jonathan Weisman: That is, of course, the counterargument to McCain's position, not saying, "ha ha, he said 'it's not important!' "
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Occupying Iraq as Korea, Japan, etc.: Well, the polls show that Americans are not okay with indefinite occupation of Iraq, even if we are not having the casualties. If this is McCain's view and he is certain that the American public agree, he should be more forthright about it instead of constantly hedging here and there.
Jonathan Weisman: I don't think he is hedging. The voters have a clear choice on this.
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Re: Your Response to Los Angeles: Haven't we had enough of a president who is known for "inartful" statements? When speaking for the U.S., shouldn't we expect the president be precise, rather than others having to explain what he is supposed to have meant?
Jonathan Weisman: You get to vote, and on the language front there seems to be a clear choice.
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McSame or not?: Jonathan, I asked this question of Paul Kane yesterday, but wanted to get your thoughts, too, if possible: Can you point to one or two major policy differences between McCain and Bush? It seems to me that McCain agrees with Bush on economic policy, tax policy, foreign policy, national security policy, judicial policy, health care policy, immigration policy and housing policy. What else is there?
Jonathan Weisman: He will say he agrees with President Bush on most policies, but he does want to ban torture, he does want to close Guantanamo and he does want mandatory regulations of greenhouse gasses.
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Iowa: If McCain's main concern is casualties, what does he think about Defense Secretary Gates noting that in May the "coalition" had more casualties in Afghanistan than in Iraq? Starting another war when you haven't concluded the first one can't be a recommended military tactic.
Jonathan Weisman: Okay, printed as-is.
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Hill: I am on the Hill quite a bit, and have been for more than a decade. How is it that I haven't been able to spot you? Are you incognito, like a restaurant reviewer? Do you only stick to the high-powered, highly lit hearings with generals and such? Where's the love for the smaller, hard-working House committees?
Jonathan Weisman: For the past few weeks, I've been in the office, Hill. But for years, I have been prowling the halls of Congress, especially the Capitol. Trust me on this. Maybe I just look like another white guy in a suit.
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Fed Up to Here: This just in: The Obama Camp is concerned that he's having trouble attracting the support of left-handed Hispanic kayakers, a key segment of the vote in the swing state of New Hampshire. Jonathan, tell your colleagues to do us all a huge favor and not bother with any apologetic retrospective articles after this election decrying the tendency of the news media to concentrate on the horse race at the expense of every issue of importance to the people in this election. You just have no credibility anymore as an institution. It's self-parody at this point; the ludicrous fake example I just gave is barely distinguishable from stories that are being printed this very day! Maybe less coverage would be a good idea?
Jonathan Weisman: Well, that was nice. How did you sleep last night?
I'm looking at our front page today -- a story on the Guantanamo/habeas decision, an analysis of its impact on detention policy, a cataloguing of the re-emergence of earmarking on Capitol Hill, a piece on Medicare fraud, another on the Chinese getting a taste of their own medicine with Olympic knockoffs and nary a horse-race/Brittany/gotcha article among them.
So what's your point?
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San Clemente, Calif.: As much as Americans hate U.S. casualties in Iraq, the $12 billion or so monthly cost of the war might also cause political problems. I think that McCain's idea for a decades-long extension of the U.S. presence will be a very tough sale.
Jonathan Weisman: And yet, in the most recent polls, he has a narrow lead over Obama on the question of who could best handle Iraq. Obviously with many, there is a trust element.
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New York: John McCain tells us that we should be grateful for the fact that Iraqis are grateful for the fact that we are helping them resist the "al-Qaeda" presence that they are resisting because they were resisting us and they were wasting effort on that resistance and failed to resist "al-Qaeda," who they hadn't needed to resist before we showed up because they weren't there before to be resisted. Apparently, McCain can take a nothing war and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile. How does he do that?
Jonathan Weisman: I feel like breaking into song. See above answer -- as it is the one policy area that he actually leads Obama on, he seems to be holding his own.
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Boston: Are earmarks really a bad thing? As I understand it, Congress appropriates funds to the various departments (Education, FEMA, etc.). Without earmarks, it is spent as they seem fit. Under certain administrations, which control the leaderships of the departments, the spending becomes questionable.
Jonathan Weisman: I agree, to a point. Surely earmarking has gotten out of hand, but to shut it down completely seems absurd. I have a next-door neighbor who is developing a defense technology. He says he can't even get in the door at the Pentagon to show off what he's got, but he can get an audience with the congressman representing his company's district.
Should my neighbor have no chance to appeal for federal assistance through his elected representative?
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Helena, Mont.: Do you have an opinion about McCain's town hall yesterday, which he touted as being "Democrats, independents and Republicans" but later admitted was only his supporters? Shades of Bush!
Jonathan Weisman: When you get grief from Fox News on said issue, you know you may have a problem.
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Rochester, N.Y.: Harper's is reporting that your colleagues David Broder and Bob Woodward earn five figure honoraria for speaking before business groups. When are you gonna start getting some of that action? You're the most entertaining guy in these chats. How can I book Jonathan Weisman to speak before my business group or nonprofit?
Jonathan Weisman: I've been thinking the same thing! I gotta get me an agent!
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Princeton, N.J.: While there are many factors controlling the price of oil, the one man most responsible is Phil Gramm, who snuck thru the "Enron Loophole" that allows any form of energy to be traded in unregulated "dark" markets. The same traders who worked for Enron in the California debacle are working for the oil speculators. (Don't give me supply and demand. Did 135,000,000 Chinese buy Hummers in the past six months?) Phil Gramm is one of McCain's main advisors.
Jonathan Weisman: Wow, I didn't know Phil Gramm was that powerful! I have, in a front-page story, made note of Gramm's Enron loophole. Congress has been trying to close it of late, but it keeps getting blocked in the Senate.
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Princeton, N.J.: Talking about judgment on Iraq, will we get a summary of McCain's statements early on that the war would be a cakewalk, etc., etc., etc.?
Jonathan Weisman: Such statements have been widely showcased, but I agree that The Post should do an out-take Iraq story.
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Hill again: Yes, but I would be able to spot you, as I'm sure that you emanate the power that comes from writing for The Post. Besides, you seem taller than the average guy on the Hill...
Jonathan Weisman: I most certainly am not taller than average, at 5-foot-9, and I hope I'm not radiating anything.
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Chicago: Hey Jonathan, What do you make of the Bobby Jindal exorcism story? Is that it for his current vice presidential ambitions? Does it in some strange way make him more appealing to the base, and ergo improve his chances?
Jonathan Weisman: It makes me laugh. I actually know Bobby Jindal from way back. He worked at my wife's company, McKinsey, when she joined up, and I used to talk to him when he was executive director of the Medicare commission in the Clinton years. The guy is flat-out brilliant, exorcisms or not.
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Philadelphia: I think the point of "fed up to here" is that the latest polls show Obama winning just about every demographic group, including independents, Catholics, blue-collar, women, Hispanics and those who voted for Clinton in the primary. He also is leading in Ohio and Pennsylvania according to an averages of the four most prominent pollsters. These leads are all in categories or states that the press keeps telling us Obama can't win or will have trouble winning.
Jonathan Weisman: I guess we should stop covering the campaign. The guy's got it in the bag!
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He does want to close Guantanamo: Right now he's on C-SPAN bashing the Supreme Court. So which is it, he wants Gitmo closed or he wants it open? Maybe he wants to just have it both ways -- and that, Jonathan Weisman, is a politician.
Jonathan Weisman: He doesn't want to give prisoners at Guantanamo habeas corpus rights -- he wants to try them under the rules of his Military Commissions Act. That is not contradictory to his desire to close Gitmo.
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Washington: Now that we are out of the primaries I hope some folks will wake up about what is being said and spun. Poor Sen. Clinton was boxed in by a pro-Obama media. No one really has challenged his positions. For example I am tired of hearing he "always has been against the war in Iraq" -- he was a state senator with no access to the flawed intel briefings that Clinton and McCain received. His being against the war is about as significant as you and I being against the war.
The other thing that Obama and his left-leaning supporters do not understand is this is a volunteer military. Having been in the military myself, we sign on the dotted line to protect and serve. If I or my family were overly concerned about deployments, they would seek other employment. Another misstatement is to talk about the casualty count -- the number is insignificant, we lose more troops to training accidents than wars, or think how many are killed every year by drunk drivers.
Jonathan Weisman: Okay, where to start? Maybe I'll just let you have your say. I have been hearing about casualty statistics ever since the opening days of the Iraq invasion, but obviously most Americans do not agree with you that 4,000-plus dead and tens of thousands wounded are insignificant numbers. That's a political question, whether you want to compare it to past wars or not.
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New York: For years we've been hearing the McCain-is-a-straight-talker narrative from all sorts of folks, but now that YouTube is biting him in the keister on a regular basis -- immediately confirming denied quotations and defunct "maverick" positions -- we're told that McCain just needs to "get up to speed, to recognize he's living with new rules." But wouldn't it be better/easier if John McCain just learned not to lie in the first place?
Jonathan Weisman: Oy.
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San Diego: Jindal may be brilliant, but does David Brooks think he'd fit in at the salad bar in Applebee's?
Jonathan Weisman: I do wonder whether McCain would want Jindal as a running mate if he is getting some (I hope not much) advantage from the racist vote.
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Shiner, Texas: You have to give up your seat if you win! Then, what happens? Some states have a special election. In some states the governor appoints a replacement. Maybe there are other methods elsewhere. Why run the foolish risk? In a nation of 300 million, we don't need to pick just from the same feed lot of 100 cows. From a whiner in Shiner who knows his cattle.
Jonathan Weisman: And you are saying that if you win the vice presidency, you'd rather stay a senator? I don't think so.
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Central Massachusetts: Hi Jonathan. Any more scoops on the Democratic National Committee's move to Chicago? In The Trail you indicated it was "unprecedented." What happens in November, after the election? What are party leaders saying about this behind the scenes? What does this mean for fundraising? Does the Democratic National Committee typically get absorbed into a nominee's infrastructure during campaign season? Thanks!
washingtonpost.com: The Trail: Obama Shakes Up the DNC (washingtonpost.com, June 12)
Jonathan Weisman: I take back the "unprecedented" thing -- the move has been remarkably swift, but pieces of the DNC (mostly fundraising) went to Nashville in 2000, and a big chunk went to Little Rock in 1992.
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Atlanta: Have the Democrats been taking McCain out of context? They are criticizing his position that it is okay if we stay in Iraq for 50 years as long as we aren't taking casualties. He envisions it like Korea or Germany. Democrats feel that $10 billion dollars a month and an overstretched military not ready for the next war is too high a price to pay to stay in Iraq indefinitely. Also, bin Laden still is roaming free and we need to pay more attention to Afghanistan before that blows up even more. Is this out of context, and if so, could someone explain it in context?
Jonathan Weisman: You have not taken him out of context -- they have.
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Nebraska: What do you think the chances are of Obama joining McCain for a couple of town halls? I understand why the so-called "one man gaffe machine" would be reluctant to participate, but I think it would be an interesting forum.
Jonathan Weisman: Okay folks, last question. McCain would love to knock Obama off his pedestal, bring him down to the forum where he does better, and stop him from giving stirring speeches with a teleprompter.
Don't count on it. See you at the debates in the fall.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
June 12, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
Barack's Bad Day
BYLINE: By GAIL COLLINS
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 31
LENGTH: 802 words
Everybody knows that the very first rule in picking a vice president is to do no harm. Really, you can choose anybody. How dumb would you feel if it turned into an embarrassment? This is why the careful, modern candidate sets up a screening system.
Now ask yourself: how dumb would you feel if you got in trouble over your selection for the vice-presidential screener.
Barack Obama is having the first postprimary crisis, a moment in which the only conceivable response is: what was he thinking?
James Johnson, who resigned Wednesday as the leader of the Obama vice-presidential selection committee, is an old Washington hand who had helped Walter Mondale and John Kerry with the same task. His aura of experience was apparently not diminished one whit by the fact that both the candidates he assisted lost and that one of them ran into embarrassing controversies over his running mate.
The immediate cause of Johnson's downfall was a charge that he had been given a sweet deal on three home loans by the head of the Countrywide Financial Corporation, which Obama had criticized for its role in the subprime lending crisis. Since Countrywide seems to hold the mortgage on every house in the United States, it is also disliked by many, many Americans on general principles.
So far, not so bad. As Obama pointed out, you cannot really expect a presidential candidate to set up a committee to vet the people who are going to be on the vetting committee. Although you can bet that by 2012, that will become standard operating procedure.
But there's all this other stuff. Johnson is the former head of Fannie Mae, which under his direction, according to regulators, engaged in accounting practices that were, at best, sloppy. At the same time, he sat on the boards of five different corporations, where he appeared to serve as cheerleader for the theory that corporate executives deserve to be paid obscene amounts of money.
How does someone go up to Barack Obama, who once sponsored a bill to curb excessive executive compensation, and say -- ''You know the vice-presidential search committee? For chairman, how about Jim Johnson? Remember, the guy who tried to give the head of UnitedHealth Group $1.4 billion in stock options?''
When Johnson quit on Wednesday, the McCain headquarters issued a statement saying that the fact that he had been selected in the first place raised ''serious questions about Barack Obama's judgment.'' This does not seem like a great avenue of attack for a campaign in which a large chunk of the top staff was recently dismissed for being lobbyists.
Perhaps in an attempt to differentiate the cases, the McCain spokesman said: ''America can't afford a president who flip-flops on key questions in the course of 24 hours.'' Under a McCain presidency, the bleeding would presumably go on for weeks and weeks before the inevitable occurred.
Although McCain has, so far, not demonstrated that he can manage anything more challenging than a backyard barbecue, that still does not make the Johnson story look any better.
Keep in mind that the head of the vice-presidential vetting committee is not a job for which there are a limited number of qualified candidates. You could appoint a hero firefighter or a nun to be the public face of the search. You hire experts to do the background checks. You would want your own trusted advisers sitting in on the interviews. The other two committee members, Caroline Kennedy and a former deputy attorney general, could have managed on their own.
But no, we have to have a seasoned wise man whose high standing among the movers and shakers of the nation's business and political elite seemed to hinge on the fact that he feels every single one of them deserves more money.
Talk about unnecessary disasters. It's like having your career ruined because you invited the wrong person to host a party in honor of your nephew's godparents.
Gentle spirits may decide that it's a good thing that the Obama campaign is getting this sort of thing out of the way early. Crueler ones may note that at least they can't blame this one on Hillary.
Rather than falling into complete depression at such an early point in the game, let's work under the assumption that the people involved were so tired that they didn't know what they were doing.
Just before the final primaries, I was in South Dakota talking to George McGovern, who is the gold standard when it comes to disastrous vice-presidential selections. If Obama ever asked him for advice, McGovern said, he'd tell him to avoid exhaustion.
''I got that advice from Barry Goldwater. He said watch out for fatigue. That's when you make mistakes,'' McGovern added.
One ridiculous decision doesn't mean that Obama won't be a good candidate.
But it does suggest that he needs to take a long nap.
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The New York Times
June 12, 2008 Thursday
Late Edition - Final
Obama Aide Quits Under Fire for Business Ties
BYLINE: By JOHN M. BRODER and LESLIE WAYNE; John M. Broder reported from Chicago, and Leslie Wayne from New York. Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting from Washington.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1318 words
DATELINE: CHICAGO
James A. Johnson, the consummate Washington insider whom Senator Barack Obama tapped to head his vice-presidential search effort, resigned abruptly on Wednesday to try to silence a growing furor over his business activities.
Mr. Johnson's departure deprives Mr. Obama of decades of experience and access to Washington's power elite. Mr. Johnson has been a fixture in Washington political and legal circles for three decades, and he led the vice-presidential search team for Senator John Kerry, the Democrats' presidential nominee in 2004.
His resignation, at the start of a general election contest in which the candidates have pledged to run issue-based campaigns, came after days of intense scrutiny from the news media and attacks from Senator John McCain and Republican Party officials over mortgages Mr. Johnson, a former chief executive of Fannie Mae, received on favorable terms from the Countrywide Financial Corporation, the mortgage company that was a central player in the subprime lending crisis. Mr. Johnson also faced questions about his role on compensation committees that awarded large payouts to corporate executives.
His resignation highlights the difficulties for Mr. Obama's campaign in trying to live up to his promises to remain independent of the Washington establishment and the special interests that populate it.
In a statement issued by his Chicago campaign headquarters, Mr. Obama said Wednesday afternoon that ''Jim did not want to distract in any way from the very important task of gathering information about my vice-presidential nominee, so he has made a decision to step aside that I accept.''
Mr. Obama had defended Mr. Johnson as recently as Tuesday, saying that he had only a ''tangential'' role and that the campaign would not hire people to, as Mr. Obama put it, ''vet the vetters.''
But as questions about Mr. Johnson grew, Mr. Obama felt he had to move quickly to rid the campaign of a man who had come to symbolize the Washington fixers that Mr. Obama was running against, aides said. One aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said that Mr. Obama, a relative newcomer to Washington, had little loyalty to Mr. Johnson, a major presence in Democratic politics for more than two decades.
But the loss will carry some costs for the Obama team. The controversy is the latest example of the demonization of so-called Washington insiders, who both profit from the political system and bring irreplaceable experience and insight to it.
Mr. Johnson, in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, said he was leaving the campaign not because he had done anything wrong but to save Mr. Obama further grief.
''I believe Barack Obama's candidacy for president of the United States is the most exciting and important of my lifetime,'' he said. ''I would not dream of being a party to distracting attention from that historic effort.''
He added: ''I am extremely proud of my service to Fannie Mae and in other important dimensions of public service. This withdrawal should in no way imply that I accept the blatantly false statements and misrepresentations that have been written about me in recent days.''
Mr. McCain and national Republican officials, who had seized on the questions being raised about Mr. Johnson, gloated over his departure on Wednesday.
''The American people have reason to question the judgment of a candidate who has shown he will only make the right call when under pressure from the news media,'' Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, said in a statement.
Mr. Obama's spokesman, Bill Burton snapped back a few minutes later in an e-mail message: ''We don't need any lectures from a campaign that waited 15 months to purge the lobbyists from their staff, and only did so because they said it was a 'perception problem.' ''
Although Mr. Obama's campaign is known for its stability and cohesiveness, Mr. Johnson is at least the second high-profile adviser to step down in the wake of controversy. In March, Samantha Power, a close friend and foreign policy adviser, resigned after referring to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as ''a monster.''
Mr. Johnson, who for nearly two months has been quietly arranging a network of lawyers as he built a confidential vice-presidential vetting system, informed the campaign of his decision on Wednesday. He angered some Obama campaign advisers, officials said, by failing to disclose specific information about his business dealings. A visit to Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill this week also attracted unwanted attention, officials said, and was at odds with Mr. Obama's desire to keep the search for a running mate secret.
The decision to resign was Mr. Johnson's, campaign officials said privately, but advisers believed it was the only way to end the controversy.
Mr. Johnson, 64, is the vice chairman of Perseus, a $2 billion private equity fund in Washington. A native of Minnesota, he began his career as a Senate staff member and became a policy aide to Vice President Walter F. Mondale. In 1981, he left the government, founding Public Strategies, a corporate consulting firm, and later was a managing director at Lehman Brothers before joining Fannie Mae.
As chief executive of Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored organization that guarantees mortgages for millions of homeowners, Mr. Johnson earned a lucrative paycheck, even by private-sector standards. In 1998 alone, he earned $21 million, according an analysis by federal regulators.
After Mr. Johnson left in 1998, Fannie Mae was caught up in an accounting scandal in which federal regulators found that the company had manipulated its earnings to provide large bonuses for Fannie Mae executives.
While Mr. Johnson was not implicated in the accounting scandal, federal regulators said he had created a culture of arrogance at the company that contributed to its fall from grace.
In Mr. Johnson's tenure at Fannie Mae, he became close to Countrywide, the hobbled mortgage lender now at the center of the subprime mortgage crisis. Countrywide was Fannie Mae's largest mortgage provider, which brought Mr. Johnson into contact with Angelo R. Mozilo, Countrywide's chief executive.
Through that relationship, Mr. Johnson received three home mortgages totaling at least $2 million at rates that appear to be lower than the prevailing mortgage rates at the time. When the story about the personal mortgages broke in The Wall Street Journal last weekend, Mr. Johnson's business relationships began to draw greater scrutiny.
In addition, Mr. Johnson served on the boards of a number of corporations that were at the center of a furor over excessive executive compensation, a subject that has been not only a campaign cause for Mr. Obama but also the subject of major legislation he introduced in the Senate to rein in such high-dollar pay packages. Mr. Obama's ''Say on Pay'' legislation calls for greater shareholder oversight of executive compensation.
Perhaps the best-known case was Mr. Johnson's board seat at UnitedHealthcare, a Minneapolis company where he headed the compensation committee. In that position, he oversaw and approved executive pay packages that have since come under fire, even becoming symbols of corporate excess and greed.
In years past, Mr. Johnson's ties hardly raised an eyebrow. But a combination of the ethical standards that Mr. Obama set for his campaign and an explosion of readily available information on the Internet contributed to the controversy.
''Candidates themselves are setting standards that their campaign may not be able to live up to,'' said David B. Cohen, an associate professor of political science at the University of Akron. ''In politics, you often reap what you sow. And that is the situation that Obama finds himself in right now with Jim Johnson. The rhetoric is idealistic, but the actual practice of politics is different.''
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Washingtonpost.com
June 12, 2008 Thursday 1:00 PM EST
Washington Sketch
BYLINE: Dana Milbank, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 1959 words
HIGHLIGHT: Post columnist Dana Milbank, who serves as the capital's foremost critic of political theater in his Washington Sketch columns and videos, was online Thursday, June 12 at 1 p.m. ET to take your questions and comments about the things politicians say -- and the absurd ways they find to say them.
Post columnist Dana Milbank, who serves as the capital's foremost critic of political theater in his Washington Sketch columns and videos, was online Thursday, June 12 at 1 p.m. ET to take your questions and comments about the things politicians say -- and the absurd ways they find to say them.
The transcript follows.
____________________
Dana Milbank: Hello from Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building, where we've entered hour four of a House Commerce hearing into the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
Speaking of which, Vice President Cheney lobbed a tomato at conservationists in a speech before the Chamber of Commerce yesterday, and Dennis Kucinich tossed one at the president on the House floor yesterday when he forced a vote on his impeachment articles. These were the subject of today's Sketch.
Questions?
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Concord, N.H.: Hi Dana -- enjoyed your column as usual. I have to say, no one ever has produced the clear-cut argument that impeaching Bush would be a bad, bad thing quite like you did today. Perhaps even more remarkably, Cheney provided you with everything needed to make the argument in a single speech. He is jaw-droppingly inhumane. What kind of president do you think Bush would have made with a different veep? Bush really does seem like a compassionate conservative in comparison with the Dark Overlord.
Dana Milbank: It's of course impossible to know whether Bush was pulled from uniter to divider by Cheney, or whether Bush chose Cheney with the intention of moving to divider. Complicating things further, Cheney is not the same Cheney he was in the Ford administration, or even in the first Bush administration. Possibly he bit a Killer Tomato.
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Edinburg, N.Y.: Damn, I thought this was Sex and Senility. It isn't, is it? Of course, you did write about Cheney.
washingtonpost.com: Discussion Transcript: Sex and Senility (washingtonpost.com, June 12)
Dana Milbank: Sorry, this chat is titled Senility and -- well, I can't remember.
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Baltimore: Your point about Dick Cheney made me think. Who could Obama nominate as his vice presidential candidate who would be anywhere near the impeachment insurance Dick Cheney has been for Bush, in a strange future universe where the Democrats lose control of the House? (I know, it sounds difficult, but I never underestimate the Democrats' ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.)
Dana Milbank: How about Dennis Kucinich?
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Arlington, Va.: Is it true that the Clinton campaign sent Obama a congratulatory case of tomatoes?
Dana Milbank: Mexican red rounds, as a matter of fact.
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Washington: Where've you been for the past 10 years, Krispy Kreme? Saying Cheney's pitch for drilling in ANWR would do nothing in the short-term ignores that if the Democrats hadn't blocked drilling for at least a decade, the short term would be over and ANWR oil would be having some downward influence on prices.
Dana Milbank: And if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a wagon.
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Yonkers, N.Y.: Your colleague George Will today seems to be reading the last rites over McCain already. I guess he wants to be first in line. Is this how a lot of Big Time Washington Insiders like yourself look at this?
washingtonpost.com: November's Magic Numbers (Post, June 12)
Dana Milbank: No way -- George Will is very late to this party. We all wrote McCain off for dead this past summer.
That's just a way of saying there's no way to know what November will bring. As noted in Wednesday's Sketch, never underestimate the Democrats' ability to screw things up.
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Re: Baltimore: Now who could McCain pick as insurance? I would say against normal male life expectancy, but that ship already has sailed.
Dana Milbank: Larry Craig might be available -- the GOP convention is, after all, in Minneapolis.
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Impeach them both?: Why can't Dennis get rid of them both at the same time?
Dana Milbank: He actually already tried to impeach Cheney. At the time, he said he wasn't going after Bush because that only would elevate Cheney, and then he'd have to do the whole impeachment thing over again. Apparently he changed his mind.
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Washington: Dana -- saw you in the press corral at Clinton's speech last weekend. Just one thing: Did you leave the house with a suit that wrinkled, or was it the oppressive heat that made you look like you just rolled out of bed?
Dana Milbank: As part of my mourning process for Hillary's departure from the race, I went through a ritualistic rending of garments that morning.
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Madison, Wis.: Okay, maybe I'm suffering from dementia, but didn't the Republicans control Congress for a decade? And they still couldn't pass a bill to drill in ANWR? And they still blame Democrats, whom they ignored this whole time? What am I forgetting?
Dana Milbank: You are forgetting that Clinton vetoed it.
More relevant, I think, is that the whole ANWR effort is all about finding another source of the drug (and not a very large one at that) rather than ending what a wise president once called our addiction to oil.
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Ocala, Fla.: Cheney also said that the Chinese were drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba, which is apparently another statement substantiated by "Curveball."
Dana Milbank: Who knew? I heard him say that, but immediately assumed it was true, because the vice president had said it. Surely the Defense Intelligence Agency has the intelligence to prove that this is true, even if the CIA dissents.
Maybe they just drilled so deep in China it came out the other end?
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Washington: Dana, can you stand a serious question, please? Before your current incarnation, you were a very fine reporter for this newspaper (and the Wall Street Journal too, I think). Do you think that the people at The Post and Wall Street Journal who reported on the James-Johnson-low-interest-rate non scandal did their profession any favors?
I'm not a fan of Obama's -- or Johnson's, for that matter. I just don't like people to be treated unfairly or hysterically. So he's a rich guy who got a few loans at lower-than-market interest rates -- that's not unusual. And yes, he's very rich. As Dick Cheney would say: So? (Okay, bad example.)
And yes, Johnson also sat on the Compensation Committee for United Health (as repeatedly is pointed out), but today's Los Angeles Times also points out (which neither The Post nor the Wall Street Journal has bothered to do) that when Johnson learned of the compensation problems at United Health, he moved very quickly to fix them (this according to a shareholder activist). I'm very disappointed in the poor reporting and hysteria-mongering on this. It's not like there aren't a few other things of concern right now (Iraq, Afghanistan, the economy, etc.).
Dana Milbank: Seems to me the only reason this is a story -- and the only reason Johnson was ousted -- was because the Obama campaign had taken a holier-than-thou attitude about lobbyists and influence. This, sadly, sets off a witch hunt for the class of person I identified as the Washington "Big Man" in my book, "Homo Politicus." I believe we must preserve the way of life for Jim Johnson and the other Big Men.
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Maryland: Hey Dana. What's the buzz on the Hill today about the Supremes dealing strike three to the Bush administration on Guantanamo? (Loved the Milbank-in-Milbank piece, but you needed to mention "Milbank" a little more often.)
Dana Milbank: Well, I'm in here with the Killer Tomatoes, but I'm guessing the Republicans really think they got Milbanked by the court on that one.
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Los Angeles: Does McCain's "not too important" response about US troop withdrawals from Iraq confirm he shoots from the hip but doesn't always shoot straight? He says in his new campaign ad "only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war." Was he aiming at "bring them on," "dead or alive," "I'm a war president" George Bush?
McCain also says in the ad that he "hates war." Considering his statements 100 years in Iraq "would be fine with me," "my friends I hate to tell you there will be more wars" and singing "Bomb Bomb Iran" as initial response to a serious question about Iran -- at a town hall meeting no less -- one wonders if McCain fits the image of Gen. Buck Turgidson (played by George C. Scott) in the movie "Dr. Strangelove," rather than someone ready to be the next U.S. president. Perhaps McCain should say he did not mean to say or imply that withdrawing troops from Iraq is not too important and try improving his aim in the future.
washingtonpost.com: Parties Do Battle Over U.S. Forces' Future in Iraq; McCain Comments on 'Today' Stir Fire (Post, June 12)
Dana Milbank: Hmmm. I also got a question today suggesting the best film to capture McCain is "Weekend at Bernie's."
I don't interpret what he said yesterday, or in his 100 years remark, as warmongering as much as clumsy talk. In each case it's the same point: The irritant is not the assignment of troops to Iraq but the casualties. That's roughly true, as evidenced by the absence of protest about troops in South Korea. But he keeps finding awfully dumb ways to say it.
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Re: Chinese drilling: Nah it's an American company, post office box in the Caymans, but they invested in subprime-backed bonds and got bought out by the Chinese for pennies on the dollar. Not that I am cynical or anything...
Dana Milbank: Ah, yes. I believe Jim Johnson is involved, and Eric Holder is chief counsel.
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Richmond, Va.: Just checking: Does the Washington Post vet its reporter/commentary people?
Dana Milbank: Apparently not -- but we do have a drug test before somebody is hired, so as a reader you can have confidence that, for at least one week in their lives, Washington Post reporters have been drug-free.
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St. Paul, Minn.: Dana, do you reporters do a lot of fist bumping at The Washington Post when you break a really good story, or is it not allowed? Also, can we expect to see John and Cindy getting on the bump bandwagon?
Dana Milbank: We don't bump -- just grind.
I'm recommending something much more intimate than a fist bump for the McCain PDA. This, and getting rid of the teleprompters, would help with the whole "Weekend at Bernie's" thing.
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Boxer: Is that Sen. Barbara Boxer I hear on my radio mixing things up over there?
Dana Milbank: Wrong side of the Capitol. Here in the House, the FDA food czar is covered head to toe in tomato paste.
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To the guy who mocked your wrinkled "look": There is an advantage to seersucker suits, but then you would need to start wearing straw boaters, and I believe they went out of style with Taft.
Dana Milbank: Appreciate the defense, but it was actually a cotton poplin suit. I wore the seersucker on Monday, for the save-the-tigers Sketch at the zoo, but it was so hot that the calamine lotion on my arms (poison ivy) got all over my shirt and trousers -- just before my interview of Bo Derek.
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Providence, R.I.: Now that you've experienced the charms of Milbank, S.D., can you ever be fully reconciled to life in the nation's capital?
Dana Milbank: I suppose not. But while it is not Milbank, Washington allows me a front row seat to the great issues of our time. Now, back to the Killer Tomatoes...
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The New York Times
June 11, 2008 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
Vetting a Vetter: Obama's Pick Fuels G.O.P. Criticism
BYLINE: By LESLIE WAYNE; John M. Broder contributed reporting.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 21
LENGTH: 881 words
In choosing James A. Johnson for his vice-presidential selection committee, Senator Barack Obama tapped the ultimate Washington insider: a nationally recognized business executive who also helped Walter F. Mondale and John Kerry pick their Democratic running mates.
But now some of the business ties that made Mr. Johnson so attractive to Mr. Obama are being used against him.
Republicans and their presumed presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, have criticized Mr. Johnson, the former chairman of Fannie Mae, accusing him of getting favorable rates on three home mortgages totaling $1.7 million as a friend of the chief executive of the Countrywide Financial Corporation, the troubled mortgage lender that has became a symbol of the excesses that led to the crisis in subprime mortgage.
Mr. Johnson was also involved in some of the more controversial executive compensation decisions in recent years, serving on the board of five companies that granted lavish pay packages to their executives -- and often playing a key role in approving them.
One of the more well-known cases involves UnitedHealth Group, a Minnesota company, where Mr. Johnson was a board member and later head of the compensation committee.
The company came under fire after the chief executive was granted more than $1.4 billion in stock options -- some $618 million of which was returned as a result of settlements with federal regulators and shareholders.
The executive, William McGuire, resigned, but he kept $800 million from the package.
Because of cases like UnitedHealth Group, Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, introduced legislation in the Senate last year to restrict runaway compensation.
The measure, informally called ''Say on Pay,'' would give shareholders an advisory role in setting executive pay packages. It passed the House and is pending in the Senate.
In introducing the measure, Mr. Obama said it was intended to ''force corporate boards to think twice before signing over millions of dollars to C.E.O.'s.''
He added that ''the rate at which executive pay has grown, as compared to stagnating wages among American workers, is rightfully frustrating shareholders and employees alike, especially given the lackluster performance of many of the companies paying these high salaries.''
Mr. Johnson is one of three people vetting possible running mates for Mr. Obama. His appointment has created a wave of negative publicity just as Mr. Obama has begun his general election campaign and is challenging Mr. McCain on economic issues.
''Jim Johnson is an unusual choice for Obama to have heading up his vice-presidential selection committee,'' said Charles M. Elson, head of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.
''Johnson found himself in the middle of the controversy that spurred the introduction of the Say on Pay bill,'' Mr. Elson said. Given that Mr. Obama is leading the effort to rein in such excesses, ''that makes it more strange,'' he added.
Say on Pay is directed at the kind of decisions that led to enormous compensation packages at UnitedHealth Care and at four other companies where Mr. Johnson headed the compensation committees. One of them was Goldman Sachs, where Mr. Johnson defended a pay package granted to Henry Paulson, now the treasury secretary, that allowed Mr. Paulson to keep an extra $26 million in stock options.
At some of the companies where Mr. Johnson sat on the board, controversy erupted after packages were approved that included the backdating of options -- or the practice of granting options to corporate executives on dates when the company's share price was low, to guarantee the maximum profit when the options were exercised.
UnitedHealth Care reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and shareholders over the issue in December.
In return for his work on the UnitedHealth Care board, Mr. Johnson received more than 3.1 million stock options, with an underlying value of about $175 million. He also received a director's fee of $400,000 a year.
Oversight groups have also raised questions about the number of boards on which Mr. Johnson served while holding a full-time position at Fannie Mae. Besides UnitedHealth and Goldman Sachs, he served on the boards and compensation committees of KB Homes, the Gannett Corporation and Temple Inland. He was also a board member at Target.
''He was on the boards of five companies at the time we had flagged him in our reports,'' said Paul Hodgson, senior research analyst at the Corporate Library, a company that analyzes corporate governance issues. ''Two of those were involved in the backdating of stock options, and the levels of executive compensation at four of them were considered excessive.''
The Obama campaign did not directly respond to questions about Mr. Johnson, nor did it provide additional information about the terms of the mortgages that he received from Countrywide.
On Tuesday, Mr. Obama responded by saying, ''I am not vetting my V.P. search committee for their mortgages.''
The senator said that Mr. Johnson had a ''very discrete task'' to gather information about potential vice-presidential candidates, that he was performing his job well and that he was not being paid for his work.
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Washingtonpost.com
June 11, 2008 Wednesday 1:19 PM EST
Another Backfire in Iraq
BYLINE: Dan Froomkin, Special to washingtonpost.com, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: OPINION
LENGTH: 4456 words
HIGHLIGHT: President Bush's brashest attempt to lock in his Iraq policy beyond his presidency, like so many other Bush initiatives in the region, appears to be backfiring spectacularly.
President Bush's brashest attempt to lock in his Iraq policy beyond his presidency, like so many other Bush initiatives in the region, appears to be backfiring spectacularly.
Secret negotiations between U.S. and Iraqi officials over a multi-year security agreement aren't so secret anymore. Details have been dribbling out over the last several days (see my June 5 column, Bush's Secret Iraq Deal).
And the American demands seem to be infuriating Iraqi lawmakers, some of whom are even threatening to kick out U.S. troops entirely.
Bush claims he is trying to make things easier for his successor. He told the Times of London in an interview this week: "My focus in the remaining time of my presidency is to leave behind a series of structures that makes it easier for the next president to be able to deal with the problems that he is going to have to face."
But committing to a sustained occupation is a blatant attempt to tie the hands of Barack Obama should he become president in January. The presumptive Democratic nominee favors a relatively quick withdrawal of American troops.
And now an ironic result of Bush's overreach could be that the domestic debate over American troop withdrawal -- in which presumptive Republican nominee John McCain is Bush's most ardent defender -- becomes moot, with the Iraqis insisting that we leave on their terms.
That would mean that, for once, a Bush backfire in the Middle East wouldn't actually further entangle us in the region, but would serve the interest of the American people.
The latest CBS News poll, for instance, shows a plurality of Americans (45 percent) want U.S. troops home immediately or within a year; and a sizeable majority (66 percent) want them home within two.
Bush held a joint press conference this morning with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In his response to a question from Washington Post reporter Dan Eggen, he tried to spin the dissent in Iraq as a positive sign, expressed no concern about the direction of the negotiations, and once again repeated his meaningless assertion that the U.S. is not seeking permanent military bases in Iraq. (In a Senate hearing in April, a senior Defense Department lawyer acknowledged that the Pentagon had no definition for the term "permanent base" and that it "doesn't really mean anything.")
Here's what Bush had to say: "I think we'll end up with a strategic agreement with Iraq. You know, it's all kinds of noise in their system and our system. What eventually will win out is the truth. For example, you read stories perhaps in your newspaper that the U.S. is planning all kinds of permanent bases in Iraq. That's an erroneous story. The Iraqis know -- will learn it's erroneous, too. We're there at the invitation of the sovereign government of Iraq. . . .
"And as I said clearly in past speeches, this will not involve permanent bases, nor will it bind any future President to troop levels. You know, as to -- look, Eggen, you can find any voice you want in the Iraqi political scene and quote them, which is interesting, isn't it, because in the past you could only find one voice, and now you can find a myriad of voices. It's a vibrant democracy; people are debating."
Here's the Washington Post story by Amit R. Paley and Karen DeYoung that Bush was disparaging. It's worth reading from beginning to end. But here are some excerpts.
"High-level negotiations over the future role of the U.S. military in Iraq have turned into an increasingly acrimonious public debate, with Iraqi politicians denouncing what they say are U.S. demands to maintain nearly 60 bases in their country indefinitely," Paley and DeYoung write.
"Top Iraqi officials are calling for a radical reduction of the U.S. military's role here after the U.N. mandate authorizing its presence expires at the end of this year. Encouraged by recent Iraqi military successes, government officials have said that the United States should agree to confine American troops to military bases unless the Iraqis ask for their assistance, with some saying Iraq might be better off without them.
"'The Americans are making demands that would lead to the colonization of Iraq,' said Sami al-Askari, a senior Shiite politician on parliament's foreign relations committee who is close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. 'If we can't reach a fair agreement, many people think we should say, "Goodbye, U.S. troops. We don't need you here anymore."' . . .
"U.S. officials have refused to publicly discuss details of the negotiations. But Iraqi politicians have become more open in their descriptions of the talks, stoking popular anger at American demands that Iraqis across the political spectrum view as a form of continued occupation."
Paley and DeYoung write that the American demand for 58 long-term bases in Iraq is actually a compromise. "The Americans originally pushed for more than 200 facilities across the country, according to Hadi al-Amiri, a powerful lawmaker who is the head of the Badr Organization, the former armed wing of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, the country's largest Shiite political party."
And the administration is backpedaling in other ways, as well: "Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish member of parliament who has been briefed on the negotiations, said the Americans recently had changed their position on four key issues: Private contractors would no longer be guaranteed immunity; detainees would be turned over to the Iraqi judicial system after combat operations; U.S. troops would operate only with the agreement of the Iraqi government; and the Americans would promise not to use Iraq as a base for attacking other countries. . . .
"In Washington, the White House hastily organized a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday after Sens. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.), the chairman and ranking minority member of the Armed Services Committee, respectively, demanded Monday that the administration 'be more transparent with Congress, with greater consultation, about the progress and content of these deliberations.'"
Leila Fadel and Warren P. Strobel write for McClatchy Newspapers: "A proposed U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that would set the conditions for a defense alliance and long-term U.S. troop presence appears increasingly in trouble, facing growing resistance from the Iraqi government, bipartisan opposition in Congress and strong questioning from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
"President Bush is trying to finish the agreement before he leaves office, and senior U.S. officials insist publicly that the negotiations can be completed by a July 31 target date. The U.S. is apparently scaling back some of its demands, including backing off one that particularly incenses Iraqis, blanket immunity for private security contractors.
"But meeting the July 31 deadline seems increasing doubtful, and in Baghdad and Washington there is growing speculation that a United Nations mandate for U.S.-led military operations in Iraq may have to be renewed after it expires at the end of 2008."
Ned Parker writes in the Los Angeles Times: "A Western official who works closely with the Iraqi government said . . . Maliki's advisors are now asking aloud whether the American presence creates more trouble for Iraq with its Arab and Iranian neighbors or whether it safeguards the country's sovereignty. . . .
"During Maliki's trip this week to Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Iraq against such a deal with the Americans. Tehran's protests have been echoed in Lebanon by the armed Shiite political movement Hezbollah and by Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia."
Scott Shane writes in the New York Times: "In a flurry of oversight that some critics say comes years too late, Congress is pressing Bush administration officials on a still-unanswered question: How did the United States come to embrace harsh interrogation methods it had always shunned?
"The interrogation techniques themselves have been repeatedly discussed, and administration officials have been forced to explain why waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique of torturers dating back to the Spanish Inquisition, was not torture when used by the C.I.A.
"But it has never been clear what roles were played by President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their subordinates in approving the interrogation techniques used after the Sept. 11 attacks against terrorism suspects. Only gradually has the fog of secrecy begun to lift, and two hearings on Tuesday showed there is a long way to go. . . .
"More testimony on interrogation is coming, some of it from officials with firsthand knowledge of how the policies were developed, including those that applied to the secret prisons that the C.I.A. established overseas. . . .
"Human rights advocates are heartened. 'Members of Congress are beginning to connect the dots,' said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union. 'First they blamed the privates and the field operatives, then the generals. But now Congress is finally beginning to ask who made the ultimate decisions at the top.'"
Bob Deans covered the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday and writes for Cox News Service: "Retired FBI interrogator John Cloonan said most terrorist suspects detained after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks knew nothing about al Qaeda's operational plans and that subjecting them to harsh questioning wouldn't produce accurate and reliable information.
"Instead, he said, al Qaeda has used reports of U.S. prisoner abuse as a recruiting tool."
From Cloonan's prepared statement: "There are 3 questions I would like this committee to ponder. Has the use of coercive interrogation techniques lessened Al Qaeda's thirst for revenge against the US? Have these methods helped to recruit a new generation of jihadist martyrs? Has the use of coercive interrogation produced the reliable information its proponents claim for it? I would suggest that the answers are 'no', 'yes' and 'no'. Based on my experience in talking to al Qaeda members, I am persuaded that revenge, in the form of a catastrophic attack on the homeland, is coming, that a new generation of jihadist martyrs, motivated in part by the images from Abu Ghraib, is, as we speak, planning to kill American and that nothing gleaned from the use of coercive interrogation techniques will be of any significant use in the forestalling this calamitous eventuality.
"Torture degrades our image abroad and complicates our working relationships with foreign law enforcement and intelligence agencies. If I were the director of marketing for al Qaeda and intent on replenishing the ranks of jihadists. I know what my first piece of marketing collateral would be. It would be a blast e-mail with an attachment. The attachment would contain a picture of Private [Lynddie] England pointing at the stacked, naked bodies of the detainees at Abu Ghraib. The picture screams out for revenge and the day of reckoning will come. The consequences of coercive intelligence gathering will not evaporate with time."
Ben Pershing writes in The Washington Post: "Having failed in efforts to impeach Vice President Cheney, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) escalated his battle against the administration this week by introducing 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush, using a parliamentary maneuver that will probably force a vote today.
"Kucinich's impeachment measure accuses Bush of taking the country to war in Iraq under false pretenses; he introduced it as a 'privileged resolution,' which requires the House to take it up within two legislative days. Any lawmaker may offer a privileged resolution, but it is usually done only by party leaders.
"Kucinich, upon introducing his articles of impeachment Monday evening, insisted on reading the resolution into the Congressional Record, a process that took nearly five hours. He finished reading it late yesterday after the close of legislative business.
"As they have previously, Democratic leaders staunchly oppose Kucinich's impeachment effort. They expect to table the resolution by referring it to the Judiciary Committee, where they expect it to die."
Sabrina Eaton writes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich's surprise resolution this week to impeach President Bush has irritated some of his fellow Democrats and drawn ridicule from Republicans, but it got support from at least one colleague.
"'It is time for Congress to stand up and defend the Constitution against the blatant violations and illegalities of this administration,' said Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat."
How do the people American feel about impeachment? Major pollsters have asked only infrequently. But on the few occasions that they have, public support has been short of a majority, but nevertheless surprisingly strong. Pollingreport.com has the numbers.
In a USA Today/Gallup Poll in July 2007, more than a third of voters -- 36 percent -- said there was justification for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush. A CNN poll in September 2006 found that 30 percent of American felt Bush should be impeached. When Fox News asked in May 2006 whether Democrats should impeach Bush "over the Iraq war and weapons of mass destruction", 30 percent said yes. In an April 2006 Los Angeles Times poll, 36 percent said Bush should be impeached if he "broke the law when he authorized government agencies to use electronic surveillance to monitor American citizens without a court warrant."
And as I noted at the time, a Zogby poll in July 2005 found that 42 percent of respondents said that if Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment.
To put these numbers in context, remember that Bush's job-approval rating is averaging just under 30 percent. In other words, it's pretty safe to say that more Americans want Bush impeached than think he is doing a good job.
Via the Crooks and Liars blog, here's Jonathan Turley talking to Keith Olbermann on MSNBC last night: "The framers, I think, would have been astonished by the absolute passivity, if not the collusion of the Democrats in protecting President Bush from impeachment. I mean, they created a system that was essentially idiot-proof, and God knows we've put that to the test in the past few years, but I don't think they anticipated that so many members of the opposition would stand quietly in the face of clear presidential crimes."
Deb Riechmann writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush said Wednesday that his first choice is to solve a nuclear standoff with Iran by using diplomacy, but 'all options are on the table.'
"The president reinforced the possibility of military strike against Iran, even as a last resort, during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Bush warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would be a danger to world peace, and he is rallying European allies to back sanctions.
"The president is pushing Iran to halt its uranium enrichment in a verifiable way. Iran insists it is enriching only for peaceful purposes.
"Bush said, 'I told the chancellor my first choice, of course, is to solve this diplomatically.' He quickly added, 'all options are on the table.' . . .
"The diplomatic pressure came as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday said Bush's era 'has come to an end' and he has failed in his goals to attack Iran and stop its nuclear program."
Steven Lee Myers and Nazila Fathi write in this morning's New York Times: "Opening a farewell tour of Europe, President Bush won European support on Tuesday to consider additional punitive sanctions against Iran, including restrictions on its banks, if Iran rejects a package of incentives to suspend its uranium enrichment program. . . .
"The communiqué coincided with heightened tensions over Iran's nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna registered 'serious concern' last month about Iran's suspected research into the development of nuclear weapons.
"The issue became even more pressing after Israel's transportation minister, Shaul Mofaz, warned last week that an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites would be 'unavoidable' if weapons programs proceeded.
"Some analysts said the language of the joint communiqué on Tuesday appeared to try to ease that threat.
"'I think this was a European attempt to show the Bush administration that Europe takes the threat seriously and to try to continue to prevent a situation where Israel or the United States might turn to the military instrument,' said Julianne Smith of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"Mr. Bush expressed sympathy for Israeli concerns about Iran's intentions, telling a questioner at [Tuesday's] news conference, 'If you were living in Israel, you'd be a little nervous, too, if a leader in your neighborhood announced that they -- he'd like to destroy you.'
"But Mr. Bush also appeared to play down interest in a military option, saying he was leaving behind 'a multilateral framework' to address Iran."
Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "National security adviser Stephen J. Hadley told reporters that the United States and E.U. nations are waiting to see Iran's reaction to a new package of incentives and sanctions that will be presented by Javier Solana, the E.U.'s foreign policy head, within the next week.
"If Iran rejects the package, Hadley said, foreign governments could get 'much more aggressive' in enforcing existing U.N. penalties and in moving toward the types of new sanctions mentioned in Tuesday's statement. . . .
"Some foreign policy and nonproliferation experts said it is not clear how far U.S. officials could push the E.U., which has often been more cautious than the United States on the Iran issue. 'I'd say there's a suggestion, but not proof, that they made progress,' said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington."
Jennifer Loven writes for the Associated Press: "Jon Wolfsthal, an expert in the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said . . . Bush has little leverage left with either Iran or Europe . . . and the chances of getting Russia and China to go along with any new U.N. sanctions proposal are remote."
Steve Clemmons writes in his Washington Note blog that there are signs that Vice President Cheney and his fellow Iran hawks are in ascendance again.
Nicholas Kulish reports for the New York Times from Berlin: "The young anarchists, middle-aged peace activists and established left-wing politicians here have at least one thing in common: none bothered to keep a six-year tradition alive by organizing a protest against President Bush's arrival here Tuesday.
"'Bush is not even popular in the role of the enemy anymore,' wrote Der Tagesspiegel newspaper."
The editorial writers at the Telegraph write: "There is a certain pathos about President George W. Bush's valedictory visit to Europe this week."
One place Bush is still getting attention, however, is on the front page of the Times of London, which did its best to turn some familiar responses in an interview with Bush into news. It did so well, in fact, that its story is being picked up all over the place.
Tom Baldwin and Gerard Baker write: "President Bush has admitted to The Times that his gun-slinging rhetoric made the world believe that he was a 'guy really anxious for war' in Iraq. He said that his aim now was to leave his successor a legacy of international diplomacy for tackling Iran.
"In an exclusive interview, he expressed regret at the bitter divisions over the war and said that he was troubled about how his country had been misunderstood. 'I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric.'
"Phrases such as 'bring them on' or 'dead or alive', he said, 'indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace'. He said that he found it very painful 'to put youngsters in harm's way'. He added: 'I try to meet with as many of the families as I can. And I have an obligation to comfort and console as best as I possibly can. I also have an obligation to make sure that those lives were not lost in vain.'"
But for previous, nearly identical expressions of regret for his cowboy rhetoric, see my Jan. 14, 2005, column, Second Thoughts About 'Bring 'em On, and my May 26, 2006 column, No New Contrition.
The Times reporters were also quite taken with Bush's ostensible makeover. In a separate story they write: "On the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, he no longer sounds like a wild-eyed unilateralist, bent on military action.
"Instead, he attacks his critics for being insufficiently multilateralist. Mr Obama's proposal to speak directly to the Iranian President, he suggests, will undermine the careful diplomacy Mr Bush has pioneered in the past few years. . . .
"And he insists that his plan is to have a diplomatic legacy, not only for Iran, but for all the pressing global crises: ' . . . The six-party talks, for example, in the Far East, in dealing with North Korea, the Iranian multilateral framework, hopefully a Palestinian state defined by Israel and the Palestinians.'"
Baldwin and Baker even relate without comment Bush's astonishing excuse for why he is not held in higher esteem: "Mr Bush says the arrows aimed in his direction over the past seven years are the consequence of taking 'tough decisions' and are 'what comes with the position I'm in'.
"'There are going to be moments when the world becomes fatigued, or those of us who are responsible for trying to protect our citizens from international terrorism get tired,' he says. 'It's easy for negativism to creep in, and there's kind of an exhaustion that comes with staying on offence.'
"But not this President, not yet. While critics are impatient for the Bush era to end, and most of his initiatives appear to be running into the sand, Mr Bush sneers at the hundred would-be 'secretaries of state in the United States Senate that think they can do a better job'."
And to top it off, the Times reporters were quite smitten with Bush's ride. In yet another story, they write: "Even for a president on his last lame legs, Air Force One remains the biggest and shiniest symbol of virility in global politics. . . .
"When the waving President bounds down the stairway, even the most robust egos among the leaders who wait below to greet him must feel a little diminished."
Sasha Issenberg writes in the Boston Globe about John McCain's first major television ad of the general election.
"'Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war,' McCain says over mournful strings against a bleak backdrop, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. 'I hate war, and I know how terrible its costs are.' . . .
"'To me, the ad is much more playing off Bush than playing off Obama,' said Jeremy Varon, a historian at Drew University in Madison, N.J., who has studied antiwar movements. 'The point of this is for McCain to say: "I'm very different from my predecessor even if I want to fight the same war." '"
Jonathan Martin writes in the Politico: "Vice President Dick Cheney is unlikely to share a stage with McCain anytime soon--and may not be called on to play any role at all in the 2008 presidential campaign.
"In part, it's a reflection of political expediency. Though Cheney is one of the nation's most influential and talked about vice presidents ever, his favorability ratings are near toxic lows.
"But Cheney and McCain also have had a rocky relationship. . . .
"Asked about what role Cheney would have in the campaign, McCain communications director Jill Hazelbaker only said: 'John McCain will always treat the vice president with respect.' "
Dale McFeatters writes in a Scripps Howard News Service opinion piece: "The House has just passed a bill that would give Vice President Dick Cheney and his successors up to six months of Secret Service protection after leaving office. . . .
"That's fine both on general principle and on the basis that Cheney was a controversial figure. . . .
"However, we would insert one caveat: The protection should be at considerably less than the imperial levels he has enjoyed while in office. And that means no more motorcades.
"The vice president's motorcades are notorious in Washington for their size and disruption as major arteries like Massachusetts Avenue are blocked off so the vice president can roar between his home and office. . . .
"One reporter protested at a White House briefing after she was nearly run off the road by the vice president's motorcade tearing through the narrow, twisty confines of Rock Creek Park. She got the brush-off but not before observing, accurately in the opinion of locals, that Cheney's motorcades seem 'so much louder and aggressive than the others.'
"And it's not just here. A quick check of the Web shows complaints about his motorcade in the Twin Cities, Atlanta, Portland, Chicago, Toledo and as far away as Australia. And there's even a small but very noisy collection of videos on YouTube.
"A two-car motorcade should do it. And if extra security is called for, the former vice president could always ride shotgun."
Over at NiemanWatchdog.org, where I am deputy editor, we're out with part three of my series on what top administration officials might be doing to make it as difficult as possible for their successors to roll back their policies. Today's focus is on how the time for a national conversation on pardons is before, not after, they're granted.
The Associated Press reports: "After discussing pressing problems such as Iran's nuclear program with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the issue at the front of U.S. President George W. Bush's mind Wednesday was . . . German asparagus."
Mario Tarradell writes in the Dallas Morning News that Texas singer-songwriter James McMurtry's new CD, Just Us Kids, "offers three piercingly potent numbers. . . . During 'Cheney's Toy,' the usually soft-spoken artist doesn't hem and haw. 'You're the man/Show 'em what you're made of/You're no longer daddy's boy,' he sings in the song's chorus. 'You're the man/That they're all afraid of/But you're only Cheney's toy.'"
Jay Leno, via U.S. News: "You know, I'll tell you, things are not good. The price of oil doubled in less than a year. Home foreclosures are at a record high. Unemployment is surging. But yesterday . . . we saw a ray of hope. President Bush left the country. So maybe things will get better."
Tom Toles on Bush in Europe; Stuart Carlson on Bush and history; Ed Stein on Bush's end-of-the-administration clearance; and Bruce Plante on the 29 percenters.
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June 11, 2008 Wednesday 11:00 AM EST
Pearlstein: Competitive Markets vs. Public Sector
BYLINE: Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 5791 words
HIGHLIGHT: Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein was online Wednesday, June 11 at 11:00 a.m. ET to discuss why our adaptive and innovative competitive markets are capable of producing new products like the iPhone, while the public sector is slow, uncreative and unadaptive in responding to urgent issues like the housing crisis or financial regulation reform.
Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein was online Wednesday, June 11 at 11:00 a.m. ET to discuss why our adaptive and innovative competitive markets are capable of producing new products like the iPhone, while the public sector is slow, uncreative and unadaptive in responding to urgent issues like the housing crisis or financial regulation reform.
A transcript follows.
About Pearlstein: Steven Pearlstein writes about business and the economy for The Washington Post. His journalism career includes editing roles at The Post and Inc. magazine. He was founding publisher and editor of The Boston Observer, a monthly journal of liberal opinion. He got his start in journalism reporting for two New Hampshire newspapers -- the Concord Monitor and the Foster's Daily Democrat. Pearlstein has also worked as a television news reporter and a congressional staffer.
Pearlstein was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his columns about mounting problems in the financial markets. His award was one of six Pulitzer Prizes won by The Washington Post this year.
Read Pearlstein's latest columns.
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Oviedo, Fla.: All this talk of upgrading - or initially embracing - smartphones makes me wonder about the fate of all the current cell phones most of us have. Is tossing them into a recycle bin at Radio Shack the best thing to do with them? Aren't about 30% of U.S. Americans still without cell service? How can we get at least basic portable telephones to those too poor for them, with credit too marginal for a contract, etc.? With cell now a tiered commodity can't we make sure everyone has a pocket that rings?
Steven Pearlstein: Not sure the handset is the key barrier to low income people having cell phones. It is the monthly service charges and credit, although you can buy phone cards to deal with that to some degree. Not sure it is a big problem, however, although I would say that the disappearance of the pay phone is sometimes an annoyance to those of us who don't usually carry a phone.
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Arlington, Va.: Why is it that when the price of a barrel of oil rises so do gas prices, but when the price of a barrel of oil drops gas prices do not?
And also McCain is proposing his "gas tax holiday," but wouldn't the oil companies just raise prices to make up for all or most of that "holiday" and just keep the money for themselves?
Steven Pearlstein: Not sure your intial observation is correct, although there are susupicious lags on the way down that suggest the system is not fully symmetric when it comes to gasoline prices reflecting oil prices. Also, you have to remember that the markets for refined oil (gasoline) are regional and have their own supply and demand characteristics apart from those of the global oil markets.
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Alexandria, Va.: Steven, I don't think its just the Senate rules that make responsive legislation difficult. The entrenched interests that you cite in your column have a lot more money to spend on candidates than the good governance think tanks. Public funding of campaigns would remove one disincentive to responsive legislation.
Now, if we could only figure out how to get people to vote for candidates that introduce and promote effective and responsive legislation, instead of the candidate that has better hair.
Steven Pearlstein: Obviously special interestes have, and have always had, undue influence on the process through bribes and campaign contributions and the like. But if you think about it, difficult issues are likely to be decided by votes of 55 to 45 in a body of 100 Americans and the constitution says they should be, in favor of the party that gets 55 votes. But that doesn't happen because of the Senate rules, which are self imposed.
Starting in November, I am going to begin a relentless campaign in my column urging the new Senate to change its rules when it organizes on Jan. 2. This has really become the most important political issue in the United States, in my opinion, because it affects all the others. And it has been largely ignored in the sense that everyone believes there is nothing we can do about it, that somehow these rules were handed down by God from Mount Sinai. They were not. It is a classic example of people tying themselves up in their own underwear.
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Chicago, Ill.: Hey Steve, what lessons from Hyman Minsky could we learn about the present financial crisis?
Steven Pearlstein: Wow, a Hyman Minsky fan. We can learn everything from Hyman, since he basically understood that periods of prosperity and financial calm always lead to a deterioration of underwriting standards in loans and stocks that leads to bubbles that burst. He laid it all out years ago, and most economists treated him as a liberal, anti-market crank. You don't hear that now, however.
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Frederick, Md.: I have this fantasy that at their first Town Meeting, Barack Obama will say to John McCain: "John, the problem in Washington is that the parties and special interests are so hidebound that solving problems has become impossible. Neither side wants to give an inch, so critical problems are allowed to fester, rather than find a compromise that moves us toward policies that will do what we all know needs to be done. Here's my challenge to you: Let's not wait until January to try and break this cycle. Let's you and me go back to the Senate tomorrow and jointly propose a bill that allows for drilling in ANWR and off the coasts plus a windfall profits tax. You bring the Republicans to support the tax and I'll bring the Democrats to support more drilling. Neither of these choices will end the world, they may not even bring gasoline prices back to a tolerable level, but they'll show that we're going to change the way Washington does business. It will be a great way to show the American people how we can lead and a test of our abilities to actually get things done in a way that will make a difference for the American people. So let's do it tomorrow. How about I come to your office at 9:00 a.m. and we work out the details?"
Okay, I know what you're thinking: I need to get a better fantasy life. But I do think it just might work.
Steven Pearlstein: I don't think that's a fantasy at all. First of all, I proposed exactly what you just did years ago, and have repeated it several times. More drilling, more pipelines, and higher taxes (mostly through closing loopholes and subsidies to oil drillers). I'm there, man. But good news: so are certain members of the Senate, who are working on just such as deal as we speak. Stay tuned.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Hey Steve. A couple weeks back you had a column about the inevitable re-adjustment of our American standard of living back to something sustainable and realistic. For the past decade, the rich/poor gap has been increasing at an astounding rate and I think there hasn't been big time political fallout yet largely because of that inflated, unsustainable standard of living that you wrote about. Big business, executives and politicians have pretty much said to Americans: "Sure I'm making 150x what you make when 30 years ago that was 13x... but look at all this cheap junk you can buy at Walmart.. After all, the number one sign of American prosperity is a house full of junk!" Now that we're going to see a readjustment to reality in the next decade, with oil prices sky high and while maybe bubbling now, certainly not coming down too much... that whole wildly limited resource side of supply and demand we like to ignore and all... food prices quickly following, imports getting expensive as big-bank interest-rate bailouts continue to drive the U.S. dollar into oblivion... Are those "look at all this cheap junk at Walmart!" arguments going to fly anymore? Or is there finally going to be some political backlash against these big-business friendly politicians (repub's AND dem's!) for pursuing a decade of policies directly benefiting business and rich folk?
Steven Pearlstein: One fundamental problem with your argument: public policies are not the primary driver of income inequality. How do I know? Because roughly the same thing is happening in Sweden and France and Japan and places that have public policies that are like the ones you and other liberals prefer. Now it is true that we could have policies that do a better job at mitigating or compensating for what the private markets are doing, and we should consider those. I've written about many of those. But it is important in this debate not to blame public policies for causing income inequality, because that will lead you to bad fixes.
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Laurel, Md.: Just two unrelated comments:
1. iPhone service is now $70/month. I'm surprised they don't give away the things for free with a two-year commitment. (And being a T-mobile customer who pays $100/year for 1000 minutes of voice, it will be a LONG time before I get one.)
2. I wish I could come up with more examples, but doesn't the government's stodginess sometimes keep it from getting swept up in silly trends? Like the proposal from the 2000 election to link Social Security to the stock market?
Steven Pearlstein: As to your second question, the privatization of Social Security couldn't even get 50 votes, let alone 60, so it wouldn't have passed even without the arcane Senate rules. And if we make mistakes like that, the good thing about a flexible system is that you fix them. The idea that our public policy apparatus should never make a mistake is a fallacy, just as any business executive would tell you: If we don't make an occassional mistake, then we're not taking enough chances and experimenting with enough new ideas. The trick is to be honest enough when it turns out what we thought would work doesn't, and quick enough to change it before it becomes hard wired into the system. That's a distinctly American characteristic that serves our businesses well in global competition. But in government, we're losing the knack.
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New York, N.Y.: Hi Steve,
Good column, but I wished you would have talked about how municipal unions (in concert with state & local governments) are driving states and cities to the brink of disaster (see Vallejo, California) and its only going to get worse.
Although the private sector has at some times been ruthless in holding down pension and medical costs, at least the private sector is trying. The public sector seems willing to do absolutely nothing to address this mushrooming problem.
In New York City police officers can retire with half salary and full lifetime medical coverage after 20 years on the job. You ultimately have armies of 40 year old retired men on the public dole. This is a prime reason why my state and local taxes are 11%, the subways and schools are crumbling, and water main breaks are in abundance.
Steven Pearlstein: Not sure how, as a writer, I was going to segway from smart phones and patent reform and senate rules into municipal pension reform, but I suppose its only a lack of imagination on my part. As to the issue, it is a real time bomb that is about to explode in municipal budgets, there is no doubt about that. And we need to stop adding to the problem by moving away from these lavish pension programs and using at least some of the savings to increase hourly pay.
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Ashland, Mo.: What would happen if Congress passed a law declaring that it is a breach of fiduciary duty to invest in any commodity futures instruments?
Steven Pearlstein: We could certainly pass rules saying that it would be a breach to exceed a certain percentage of a portfolio, or to use too much leverage. And we could certainly increase margin requirements. That would be a start.
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Rocky Mount, N.C.: A technical question on oil. If you go to www.eia.doe.gov, you can find all of the info you want on U.S. oil production, OPEC imports, and non-OPEC imports. In March 2008 (its latest data), the U.S. produced 5.1 million barrels of oil per day, 1.8 million of which were exported. From OPEC, we imported 5.9 million barrels per day, with the main countries being the Saudis (1.5 million/day), Nigeria (1.2 million/day), Venezuela (1.0 million/day), and Iraq (773k/day). From non-OPEC, we imported 6.6 million barrels per day, with the main countries being Canada (2.5 million/day), Mexico (1.4 million/day), and Russia (400k/day). So our grand total for imported oil in March 2008 12.5 million barrels per day. It has data going back to 1973 for the monthly imports. We've been in the range for 12-15 million barrels per day fluctuating both ways since December 2003. You can also see our oil production since 1920. Domestically, we peaked at 10 million/day in November 1970. We touched 9 million in 1986 and it's been downhill from there, and we're only 60% of that 1986 level today.
First, all those derricks that produced oil in the 1970s and 1980s are still there and still approved, why aren't their owners opening them up? Second, OPEC I think is made more of a scapegoat by domestic economists. The only people we get big oil from there are the Saudis (who we're "friends" with), Nigeria, Chavez (who we're decreasing our receipts from him looking at historical data), and Iraq (who we're "newly friends" with). A majority of our oil is non-OPEC, and we receive more oil from Canada than we do the Saudis and Mexico is about the same as the Saudis. Heck, we receive more oil from the U.S. Virgin Islands than Kuwait, and we went to war for them! Third, at the same site, our refinery utilization and capacity in March was 83.2%. That was our lowest refinery utilization since 2005 and the normal level is 92-95% from previous data. I understand maintenance and breakdowns and all that, but you'd think at higher prices it would be higher, why not? If I were an investor, I think I'd build a refinery. But existing refineries and oil companies are not interested in one being built, why not? It's easy money.
Steven Pearlstein: That's a mouthful and, as readers of this column know, I'm not a believer in peak oil. But as to your question of why nobody is building refineries, the answer is staring us in the face: The handful of oil refiners who are left like having an oligopoly and like having very tight supplies and it is not in their individual or collective interest to try to increase profits and market share by increasing supply, because there is too much of a danger that it will lower the price and ruin it not only for themselves but for all the other refiners. So they engage in a form of collusion, all tacitly agreeing not to build a new refinery or add too much capacity to existing refineries.
If our government was serious about this, it would pre-approve a refinery plan on appropriate pieces of federal land (decommissioned military bases) and invite companies to bid on the right to build there. And if nobody responded, the governmennt should set up a publicly chartered company to do it itself. Fannie Mae for gasoline, or something like that.
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Re: Inequality in other countries: While other countries have seen their inequality go up in the last 30-40 years, they haven't seen the spike that we have, not as quickly, not as sharply, and those countries are more open to talking about inequality problems without "class warfare."
Steven Pearlstein: Not sure you're right about that. Let me give you one good example: one of the most significant drivers of household income inequality (and there are lots of measures, so you have to be careful here) is that highly educated people are, more than ever, marrying other highly educated people, while poorly educated people are more likely to marry down or not be married at all. Now I'm not aware of any government policies that are really driving that phenomenon. But it is a huge part of the inquality story.
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Anonymous: A recent segment on the PBS NewsHour indicated that the best employment market for recent graduates was in the health care, education, and government sectors. This made me wonder if the creative entrepreneurial corporate spirit that I identify with our country is at risk of being taken over by government run or regulated institutions. What do you think?
Steven Pearlstein: No, I don't think so.
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College Park, Md.: Hello Steven,
Montgomery County (and presumably other counties, states etc) want to raise taxes during a recession.
How dumb is that?
Steven Pearlstein: Actually, they have no choice. They either have to raise taxes or reduce services, and through their elected representatives, they've chosen to raise taxes. There is nothing inherently bad about that, particularly at the level of municipal government, whose fiscal policies are just too limited to affect the economy of the larger region or the country.
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York, Penn.: I'm also a holdout from smart phones. One of my big hangups is the awful keyboard.
Steven Pearlstein: Yeah, but on the touch screen keyboards, its better.
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Falls Church, Va.: I asked you a few months ago whether you thought the addition of the Dulles/NoVa stations would be overbearing to the current infrastructure and trains that exist right now, especially for downtown stations.
You said it was nonsense. I guess you were wrong. So many people are now turning to a public transportation system that's already overwhelmed and will get worse and I don't foresee Metro getting any more funding sources for relief.
Jampacked transit systems running on fumes
Steven Pearlstein: I don't think I said that there isn't a problem with the capacity of the existing trunk line on the Orange Line. There might be, although the planners have obviously considered that and feel they can deal with it. But if so, there is nothing in the laws of nature that prevent us from increasing the track capacity of the orange line. It will have a cost associated with it, but that is the kind of problem you want to have in public transit -- too many paying customers wanting to climb on board.
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Re: Frederick's Fantasy: Tie the drilling to a cap-and-trade program, not windfall profits tax. The latter is just fundamentally unfair.
Steven Pearlstein: I'd prefer to tie it to a carbon tax and keep things simple.
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Washington, D.C.: Mr. Pearlstein: Thanks for your as-ever thought-provoking column today. Two quick points. 1. Might the difficulty of getting things through the Senate prevent more disastrous legislation than disastrous lack of legislation? 2. Some of us are willing to drill more, but not everywhere. Given that the total lack of a coherent energy policy in this country makes these choices difficult, do you not still agree that some places should be off limits, at least in principle?
Steven Pearlstein: In principle, yes. I don't like a lot of the drilling that has been proposed for the mountain states, where there is a lot of damage to the water. But drilling for natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico and off California, and drilling for oil and gas in limited areas in Alaska, including ANWR -- I can live with that, assuming the environmental controls are good.
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Washington, D.C.: Concerning the outrageous paydays that some CEO's enjoy after being dismissed for running a company into the ground... In many cases the search committee for the failed CEO finds that the finalists are all, or mostly senior company employees/executives. GE is a recent case in point. In this case at least it seems to me that the hiring authorities could drive a bargain such that obscene payouts for poor performing CEO's, and those who are forced out, could be avoided
Steven Pearlstein: That would seem logical, wouldn't it.
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Tampa, Fla.: When discussing the public sector, you have to distinguish between its two parts: elected public officials, and career civil service and other ordinary workers. The former is unusually effective at handcuffing the later. I worked in the Treasury Dept. and saw this first hand.
Consider financial regulation. Congress has always short-changed the SEC in its funding, and deliberately so. Thus, the SEC has always been short of resources. As the number of public companies skyrocketed, the number of employees at the SEC remained stagnant. It's no wonder the SEC was in no position to prevent corporate scandals like Enron, WorldCom, and AIG.
Take the IRS. The Service started auditing small business for improperly classifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees. This relieved the employers of their share of FICA tax and allowed them to deny benefits to the workers. The IRS started winning cases. So Congress jumps in and forbids the IRS from auditing this issue. Even worse, Congress creates a special "Everyone Does It" exception. That employers in a specific industry cheat on this issue is allowed as evidence that it's legal! Could you or I do this were we to argue that the income tax is unconstitutional? No way.
As for scientific innovation, keep in mind the creations of the public sector: the internet, jet aircraft, all the discoveries of NIH, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and NASA.
So gov't can innovate. But when it comes to industries that contribute money to political campaigns, Congress hates regulatory innovation other than giveaways. It's not difficult to imagine how Congress would have reacted if, 3 years ago, the SEC or another agency tried to crack down on sub-prime lending. Congress would have handcuffed them faster than you can say "Thanks for the money, Mr. Lobbyist."
Steven Pearlstein: Thanks for that. But as I said, even above and beyond the pernicious effect of money on the legislative process, there is no need to compound the problem by giving the special interests an advantage of only having to round up 40 votes on close issues. That's a recipe for stalemate, which is what we have now.
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Danvers, Mass.:"Unless we recapture that ability to make Washington work again, it is a pretty good bet that, a generation from now, the next new thing will be developed somewhere else."
A good question might be just how much of the iPhone is U.S. developed, or California developed, or Steve Jobs developed. You mention "Palm, Nokia, Samsung, Research in Motion, Google and Microsoft" also, three of which are foreign.
What's the tangible connection between "free markets" and innovation?
Steven Pearlstein: Yes, some of those are foreign companies but some of the work done by those foreign companies is right here, in their biggest and richest consumer market.
I think the literature is pretty clear that there is a link between the openness and flexibility of markets (product, labor, financial) and the pace of innovation. Obviously, you have to have other things in place, like a good patent system and good education and no wars. But there is a reason, for example, that the US became the locus of pharmaceutical innovation as the center of gravity moved away from France and Switzerland and England.
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McLean, Va.: Steven,
Doesn't the commercial sector have an analogous problem to the government sector: the inbred, entrenched, interlocking corporate boards and corporate management? What percentage of shareholder sponsored initiatives do the boards recommend for approval? I'd be surprised at any percentage greater than zero. Then there is the weighting of various types of shares and the default counting of undeclared proxy votes. Finally, there is the entrenched idea that executive mangers are so rare and so valuable that they must be offered outrageous compensation packages that make them kings if they succeed and princes if they fail. I say it's time to storm that castle, too.
Steven Pearlstein: Sure, the private sector has its problems. Doesn't mean government can't learn something from it, however.
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Boston, Mass.: Another oil question- all this "cost per barrel of oil" talk, let's assume that the refining cost (the oil companies piece of the pie, not the oil producer) is 10%. When oil was $20 a barrel the cost was $2 per barrel. At $120 it becomes $12 per barrel. Have refining cost increased a corresponding 600%? Same hold true with profit margins argument, "we only make 2% per barrel.
Steven Pearlstein: There is a problem with using percentages, since the actual out of pocket cost for refining a barrel of oil, excluding the oil, doesn't change. But at the moment, refiners margins are actually being squeezed, so this isn't really working against the consumer interest at the moment. It's complicated, but let's say that the windfall -- and it is a windfall, make no mistake about that -- is going to the people who control the crude.
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Re: Refineries: I'm not disputing your conclusion about why refineries don't get built. But I've always heard another issue is the onerous regulations (OSHA maybe?) in place for building new refineries, which are much more strident than those for expanding older refineries. Any comment to that?
Steven Pearlstein: Refineries have lots of regulation and lots of community opposition, so they are a pain in the butt to build and run. That's just a given. It's because they are dirty and dangerous and its just a cost of doing business. But if you've invested in that business lately, you'll know its worth it.
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Bowie, Md.: Steven, don't know how much of a conspiracist you are, but do you remember two summers ago, the price of gasoline dropped to about $2.00/gal in time for the November elections, and then went back up starting the following February?
Would you expect the same sort of thing this election?
Steven Pearlstein: I wouldn't count on it. But we are in the middle of an oil bubble that could burst any time, and its certainly not out of the realm of possibility that the price of gas could go back to $3 in the medium term.
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Rochester, N.Y.: McCain's chief economic adviser is Phil Gramm, who wrote the legislation that gave rise to both Enron AND the subprime crisis in the minds of many observers. Gramm was also a lobbyist for UBS, which is under criminal investigation and was also a major subprime player.
This should be an important issue, right? How come no one is talking about it except the blogs?
Is this another example of the mainstream press chasing haircuts and reverends while the blogs tackle the serious issues?
Steven Pearlstein: No, its an example of the mainstream press not jumping to conclusions and engaging in guilt by association. But you're right that some inquiry needs to be done as to Gramm's influence on the campaign and whether he's shown the best policy judgment in the past. Among his other contributions, for example, is the Enron loophole that allows much of the speculation on commodities to go on on unregulated over the counter markets. Now it looks like that is contributing to the commodities and oil bubbles. Wonder what Phil (and McCain) have to say about that.
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College Park, Md.: Good morning! Any thoughts on the decision of Inova & Prince William Hospital to not go forward with the merger (thus giving the FTC its first success in blocking a hospital merger in over 15 years)? Thanks!
Steven Pearlstein: I think we got the right outcome. Now Prince William will have to resume its search for the right partner, one that can give it the scale and access to capital it needs without substantially reducing the prospect of competition. There are better alternatives, if they are only willing to look a little harder and more creatively.
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McLean, Va.: When, say, Goldman Sachs issues a report about oil going to $200, how much credence does it deserve? To what extent should I just assume that means Goldman is long on crude?
Steven Pearlstein: Goldman is making lots of money on people investing in the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index. They are talking their book, as they say on Wall Street.
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Troy, N.Y.: Hi Steve. Way off topic, but I'm a chemical engineer, and it's already been mentioned. I own stock in an integrated oil company. During presentations I see time and again that their refinery business is a drag on the bottom line. I think that is the incentive that keeps them investing money elsewhere (whether it is buybacks or dividends or new production).
Steven Pearlstein: There was a period in which refinery profits were lousy. But excess capacity has gone away, there has been a lot of consolidation, and that period seems to be behind us now.
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Alexandria, Va.: In your article today, you say that "All this is a glorious example of how free markets are supposed to work: fostering innovation, increasing productivity, driving down costs, creating jobs, generating wealth and improving quality of life. It is a case study of what people can accomplish in a relatively short time when a sense of competitive urgency forces them to think creatively and focus on pleasing and delighting customers."
While I agree that advances in phone/PDA tech are wonderful, I disagree with that last part about "pleasing and delighting customers." With the partial exception of Apple, most people would happily throttle anyone associated with the cell/PDA provider for their so-called "customer service."
Yes, customers (and the market) love innovation. But they'd also like service that works as advertised, with a minimum of hidden "gotcha" language and more freedom to use Phone A with Carrier B (see the iPhone and AT&T).
Then again, since people put up with it and do nothing but grouse, are those things not valued in the market, and ultimately, by customers?
Steven Pearlstein: I'm sure there are problems with the customer service. But you wouldn't see the tremendous growth in this area if, on balance, customers weren't getting benefits that exceeded costs and inconvenience.
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Freising, Germany: I have to say that I can appreciate the concept of, "it's time to let go of this inner Luddite." But what does your inner Luddite tell you at the moment of environmental challenges?
I agree that free markets can foster innovation, increase productivity, drive down costs, create jobs, generate wealth and improve quality of life, etc., but I often wonder if market forces can solve environmental dilemmas without governmental intervention.
Steven Pearlstein: No, it is a well understood principle in economics that markets do not do a good job, by themselves, of pricing externalities, and that in those cases, government intervention is necessary. That's not an argument for why all markets are bad in all cases. Sorry.
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Helena, Mont.: Boy, you want to throw the baby out with the bathwater just because you can't bring yourself to criticize the Republicans. The 40-vote rule in Senate has not been an issue in the past but has been with McConnell as minority leader because he uses it on all legislation. In the past, legislation could be passed on simple majority vote - which is why VP could break a tie.
Steven Pearlstein: McConnell has obviously ignored Senate tradition by using the role to stop consideration of just about everything. But criticizing McConnell is like criticizing child pornography -- its too easy and doesn't accomplish anything. We need to deal with the rule itself. McConnell is unreformable.
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Re: Filibusters: I've always thought that the Senate should maintain its filibusters with one giant exception: let the House be able to override the filibuster and force a vote. That's what Great Britain did in the 19th century when the House of Commons decided that the House of Lords was being obstructionist in order to protect vested and counter-majority interests. Could that work here?
Steven Pearlstein: Suppose so, but it really runs against our consitutional tradition of letting the houses operate separately. Better just to scrap the 60 vote requirements, which in my opinion are patently and blatantly unconstitutional.
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Seattle, Wash.: Great column about how the market is working to provide us better stuff cheaper as far as cellphones go, but you missed a key point: the companies involved largely agreed to not let copyrights get in their way. Imagine if IBM had decided that the iPhone's OS resembled an OS that they had a copyright on. It'd be 2020 by the time that case got settled.
Steven Pearlstein: That is a key point. Thanks for adding it to the discussion.
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Va.: Steve,
You have to name names. It's not an undifferentiated block of faceless entities, the Senate. There's only 100 people in it. If you want to help move things along, don't tar everyone with a brush as "typical Washington". Single out the senators, who have NAMES and PARTY AFFILIATIONS, who you believe are blocking progress, and criticize them. You might help inform readers who could, through their letters or votes, change the Senators' minds. Use your platform, bud. Don't be afraid to get on the S--- list of a few legislative dead-enders.
Steven Pearlstein: Trust me, I'm on the S--- list of lots of senators, Republican and Democrat. These days most of the obstructionists are Republicans, given the Democratic control of the chambers. But the same would have applied to Democrats in the past. We've just got to get comfortable with majority rule again.
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Baltimore, Md.: Re: stalemates in the Senate: One of the most pernicious developments in the last 25 years or so has been the development of the non-filibuster filibuster. Senators who didn't like legislation had to literally get up in the chamber and talk it to death, or risk losing by a simple 51-49 majority vote. Now, unless you have 60 votes, a successful filibuster is presumed to have happened. Why did the Senate go this route and how can we get back to the old days of watching Senators read the phone book on the floor of the chamber?
Steven Pearlstein: My sentiments, exactly. I think Harry Reid has been a willing partner in allowing the Republicans to tie up the chamber. It would have been good politics for the country to see Republicans tying up the entire government on behalf of narrow special interests.
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Steven Pearlstein: That's all the time we have today, folks. "See" you next week.
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Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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USA TODAY
June 10, 2008 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
Political books ride in on election's coattails;
That makes it tough for other new titles
BYLINE: Bob Minzesheimer
SECTION: LIFE; Pg. 1D
LENGTH: 416 words
What Happened, Scott McClellan's newsmaking book about the Bush administration and a USA TODAY best seller, is just the warm-up act for more political books to come this presidential election year.
New titles are due this summer and fall from Bob Woodward, Michael Moore and Bill O'Reilly. But while McClellan's book has driven customers into stores, publishers, perhaps surprisingly, tend not to like presidential elections.
As a recent JPMorgan forecast put it: "Book industry growth slows in election years as customers focus on media events/debates in lieu of bookstore browsing."
And the news media's focus on the campaign means less attention on books that don't deal with politics.
But 2004 was a great year for political books. Ten of them, including Woodward's Plan of Attack, on how the Bush administration went to war, and Ron Suskind's The Price of Loyalty, on former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill's disillusionment, were among USA TODAY's top 100 best sellers. Suskind has a new book in the works.
Woodward's untitled fourth book about President Bush, touted as "inside the Bush White House," will be published Sept. 8. Suskind's, also untitled, promises "uncomfortable truths about the direction our nation is heading" and is due in early August.
Two best-selling pundits also have new books:
*Moore's Mike's Election Guide (Aug. 19), asks, "Why are Democrats scared of their own shadow?" and "Who would Jesus vote for?"
*O'Reilly's A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity (Sept. 23) is billed as an "issues-based memoir."
Also in the pipeline:
*America: A User's Manual by Naomi Wolf (Sept. 16).
*The Third Term: Why John McCain Is Really Just More George W. Bush by Democratic strategist Paul Begala (Sept. 9).
*An as-yet-untitled biography of Michelle Obama by Washington Post reporter Liza Mundy (Oct. 7).
This campaign, books by John McCain and Barack Obama may outsell books about them.
Presidents and would-be presidents usually hit the best-seller lists after retiring, as did Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. (Among exceptions: Barry Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative, a 1960 best seller, four years before his presidential bid.)
Books by Obama and McCain have been best sellers, and their publishers see renewed interest this summer and fall.
Obama's The Audacity of Hope hit No. 3 on USA TODAY's list; his memoir, Dreams of My Father, was as high as No. 15. McCain's memoir, written with Mark Salter, Faith of My Fathers, hit No. 25; his Why Courage Matters reached No. 42.
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Washingtonpost.com
June 10, 2008 Tuesday 12:00 PM EST
Chatological Humor: It's in Your Heart (UPDATED 6.11.08);
aka Tuesdays With Moron
BYLINE: Gene Weingarten, Washington Post Staff Writer, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 11197 words
HIGHLIGHT: DAILY UPDATES: WED
DAILY UPDATES: WED
Gene Weingarten's humor column, Below the Beltway, appears every Sunday in The Washington Post magazine. It is syndicated nationally by the Washington Post Writers Group.
At one time or another, Below the Beltway has managed to offend persons of both sexes as well as individuals belonging to every religious, ethnic, regional, political and socioeconomic group. If you know of a group we have missed, please write in and the situation will be promptly rectified. "Rectified" is a funny word.
On Tuesdays at noon, Weingarten is online to take your questions and abuse. He will chat about anything. Although this chat is updated regularly throughout the week, it is not and never will be a "blog," even though many persons keep making that mistake. One reason for the confusion is the Underpants Paradox: Blogs, like underpants, contain "threads," whereas this chat contains no "threads" but, like underpants, does sometimes get funky and inexcusable.
This Week's Poll.
Not chat day? Visit the Gene Pool.
Important, secret note to readers: The management of The Washington Post apparently does not know this chat exists, or it would have been shut down long ago. Please do not tell them. Thank you.
Weingarten is also the author of "The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death" and co-author of "I'm with Stupid," with feminist scholar Gina Barreca.
New to Chatological Humor? Read the FAQ.
P.S. If composing your questions in Microsoft Word please turn off the Smart Quotes functionality. I haven't the time to edit them out. -- Liz
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Gene Weingarten: Good afternoon.
A short intro today because we are going to have a long chat. Some great questions await.
My general view is that Chatological Humor and The Gene Pool are distinct and good things that are better when not mixed, like fertilizer and gasoline. But I really liked the results of last week's GP challenge to come up with bad ideas for Obama and McCain campaign slogans. Here are some of my favorites:
Be Part of an Obama Nation! (Seytom1)
Vote McCain, by Cracky! (Ruefulman)
Vote Obama. He's As American As Makuahine and Poi! (hlabadie)
McCain: Supporting Social Security Since The Beginning. (Hlabadie)
Obama08 Inshallah! (jhbyer)
Vote "Present" for Obama (egonemo)
McCain ¿ Pants on, teeth in, ready to roll! (Eastrow)
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Deborah Surman sent this link right here, with the subject line "Ow."
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Today's CLOD is this little item from Man Stroke Woman. (Warning: it has a naughty word in it, and depicts a naughty situation so might not be safe for work.)
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Please take today's poll. I am shocked and appalled at how many of you are exhibiting appalling judgment about this atrocious song. Oops, I gave it away. Atrocious. Laughably awful. A full explanation will soon be forthcoming, at which point I shall demand explanation, if you dare, about how you can have found the lyrics to this song anything other than "fair" or "awful." Even "fair" is wildly charitable.
CPOW is a joint entry: Wednesday's and Friday's The Knight Life. First Runner Up is Monday's Rhymes With Orange (guest cartoonist.) Honorables: Thursday's Speed Bump, Saturday's Speed Bump, Saturday's Brewster Rockit.
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Tampa, Fla.: I read your column this morning and it immediately made me think that maybe you any my husband have the same weird memory dysfunction.
My husband is very bright. He is an epidemilogist and the head of a research center at the local university here. He's been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. But his memory is - pathologically bad. I mean horrid. I mean, I have recommended that he see a specialist.
For example. When we first started dating, his family lived in CT and my family lived in NJ. During the Christmas holidays, I traveled to CT to visit his family (the first time I had ever met them). I stayed for 3 days, we went skiing with his close friend in MA, I met his younger brother, etc.
He has NO MEMORY of this entire weekend. At all. You would think that something as significant as your girlfriend meeting your family for the first time, would for ever remain in your memory. Not for him.
One day, we were watching a movie on TV. He said, "Oh, you have to see this movie. It's great. I said, "I've already seen it. I saw it WITH YOU!" He had no recollection that we had gone to the movie together.
I could go on and on - What is WRONG with you people? I can see forgetting day-to-day stuff, but significant events - clueless.
There has to be some medical or psychological term for this.
washingtonpost.com: Below the Beltway, (Post Magazine, June 9)
Gene Weingarten: Your husband and I share something else, apparently -- clearly, he is able to remain focused and competent at his job. When I am acting as a reporter, observing a scene, I am super aware. I don't miss anything; I pick up nuance, I notice little details that might become important later. It is when the mind is in semi-repose that people like your husband and me seem to disengage.
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Hudson Valley, NY: If this song was #27, what were numbers 1 and 2? What made you choose this one to analyze?
Gene Weingarten: Because I had just heard it on the radio, and really listened to the words for the first time, and could not believe that such a pile of crap was produced, and became a hit. It's only when I began to research it for the poll that I discovered it was #27 in that poll. The poll is ridiculous. Here are the top 10: 001- Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You 002 - Elvis Presley - Love Me Tender 003 - Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On 004 - Journey - Open Arms 005 - Paul McCartney - Maybe I'm Amazed 006 - Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody 007 - Lionel Richie (With Diana Ross) - Endless Love 008 - Elton John - Your Song 009 - Jackson Five - I'll Be There 010 - Aerosmith - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing So "My Song," with Bernie Taupin's infantile lyrics, is on this list, way up high. Chaka Khan is on the list lower down, but nowhere on this list is ... Bob Dylan.
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Alexandria, Va.: So, going up the metro escalator this morning, dressed appropriately for a 90+ degree summer day, I am wondering... exactly how short does a skirt need to be before I have to worry about men looking up it? I am wearing a floaty sundress, shorter than knee-length, longer than mid-thigh length... are men looking at my underwear? I do not know the answer to this question because I can not remember ever looking up a woman's skirt on an escalator, intentionally or not, so I don't know how short is too short.
Yes, I am serious. I am 40, and have been wearing skirts for my entire life, and thanks to this chat, I am now worried that my whole life, men have been looking up my skirts and ogling my underwear. I think this is one of those cases where ignorance is bliss, but since I am no longer ignorant, I need to know what the limits are. Thank you.
Gene Weingarten: Yes, men are looking at your underwear. I wrote a whole column about this, with Gina. Lizzie, can you find this? Search for escalator and underpants and Gina.
washingtonpost.com: Below the Beltway, (Post, Aug. 1, 2004)
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Bethesda, Md.: I liked the song better than you did, but it's still not going in my regular play list.
I thought line 16 was the best, but you didn't even offer it. Now please tell me why you think it is not.
Gene Weingarten: Because it is an AWFUL line. What a weird turn, and a thudding end to it.
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Baltimore: Your lyrics polls are always my favorite, amateur musicologist that I am. This one, though, is pretty weird. Even by Rod Stewart standards, this is pretty godawful. "Ludicrous" and "pretentious" all the way. I can't believe anybody could possibly like this tripe, much less say so publicly (even with anonymity). Twenty-seventh best love song? Ye gods.
Gene Weingarten: We are going to hear from these people, dagnabbit, because I am going to demand that they answer for their votes. There are dozens who call these lyrics "great."
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DC: I know you are acquainted with the Empress. Could you pass along a contest idea? It's based on the most difficult question I'm routinely asked on forms, like tax returns: state your occupation.
The contest idea is this. Pick a person, and indicate both how they probably answer the question of their occupation, and how they should answer the question. Two examples:
Tony Kornheiser. Probably: Reporter. Should: Performer.
Jose Canseco. Probably: Athlete. Should: Informant.
Gene Weingarten: I like this a lot. Consider her informed.
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Reston, VA: My wife normally hates it when I shove articles before her and assert that they are "really funny," but she made an exception for your most recent column. She laughed to the point of asphyxiation, put the magazine down, and wiped the tears from her eyes while muttering, "My God. There's more of you."
For like you, I have gone through life dazed and confused. Last month I changed where I work and still found myself driving to the old location in the morning. Twice.
And yet, I am reckoned a very bright person who has a position of some responsibility and make a good salary. I can't recall exactly how much I earn, but my wife knows so that's all that matters.
Far from being absent-minded, I attribute my behavior to having a very intense inner monologue. I am always thinking about things. Not necessarily important things, but certainly salient things. Not all of which involve Scarlett Johansson.
Is this your situation as well? Do you find yourself so engrossed in your own thoughts that the outside world sometimes fades away to a vague murmur?
I eagerly look forward to your response. That is, if I can remember to read it.
Gene Weingarten: I do have a very intense inner monologue. But it doesn't explain some of these things. I'd like it to, but i doesn't. Vis a vis this column, it might explain the final anecdote about the restaurant, but it surely does not explain hanging up the phone after having talked for 15 minutes with Achenbach, and instantly not recalling whom I had spoken with.
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Your Heart, Your Soul: Here is a rule of thumb about the worst line of that insipid, trying-too-hard song: the worst line is the line one is listening to at a given moment. It was after I gave my answer (line 13) that I realized it. Or perhaps after I saw that the early returns were lining up against me.
Gene Weingarten: I like this point a lot.
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The writing process...?: You're an essay in glamour. Please pass me that hammer... No.
You're an essay in glamour. I'm locked in the slammer... No.
Aha!
You're an essay in glamour, please pardon the grammar...
Eureka!
Gene Weingarten: Exactly. My analysis follows.
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Gene Weingarten: Okay, the poll.
Dave Barry, a published expert on bad rock songs, declares this one "very, very bad." Pat the Perfect, an expert in the use of language, says this song belongs to a genre she calls "moron rock." Both are being too kind.
I'm sure there are songs with even more insipid, cliched, wooden, cumbersome, and immature lyrics, but I cannot bring one to mind just now. Bernie Taupin's inept "Your Song" at least has the virtue of intent: He was trying (unwisely) to sound inarticulate. This song has no such excuse. Rod is trying to sound erudite, but succeeds only in sounding like an 11-year-old boy who has learned a bunch of big words and phrases and who then proceeds to comically misappropriate them all in a song.
Let us begin with the hook, the refrain, the thing most of us can sing along to, if we dare. It's got a bunch of words in it but it basically comes down to "You're in my heart, you're in my soul." An obnoxious elitist would argue that this is a pretty unoriginal, simplistic, downright juvenile and clichéd central point. I would basically agree with that elitist, though I would say to him, well, y'know, simple and juvenile and heartfelt can work in a love song. Let's give Rod a chance to prove he's packing at least a little bit of intelligence in the rest of it!
Ooop! He isn't! Aooooga! Moron alert!
"Breezin' through the clientele, spinnin' yarns that were so lyrical I really must confess right here that the attraction was purely physical."
The rhyme is nails-on-the-chalkboard winceworthy, of course, so bad that even a good singer like Rod can't pull it off; we also have no idea what the clientele is, or what "spinnin' yarns that were so lyrical" is supposed to mean.
This might also be the first rock song that uses the word "purely." It is the beginning of the end for Rod and this song: Among all his sins -- unintelligence, lack of clarity, cliched thinking -- poor word selection is the worst.
... I took all those habits of yours, that in the beginning were hard to accept Your fashion sense, your Beardsley prints I chalked up to experience ...
These lines are dreadful for a number of reasons: First, they are remarkably awkward for a song -- banal prose, wordy and wooden, squeezed improbably into a lyric. They sound like they are taken from a job performance evaluation: "habits of yours that in the beginning were hard to accept..." Second, they are incomprehensible. He "took" those habits? What does "took" mean in that context? Plus, what habits? Is a "fashion sense" a habit? Is a Beardsley print a habit? He is forgiving her bad taste and cheesy art by "chalking it up to experience?" What? Whose experience? Rod clearly doesn't understand what this phrase means, but he seems to like the sound of it, and he thinks it interior-rhymes with "prints," so by God he is using it, even if meaninglessly. (Also, it's a really non-poetic expression, guys-around-water-cooler language, ridiculous in a love song.)
This last point is key to understanding just how terrible this song is: Thuddingly awkward constructions are inimical to love songs, especially one that is so earnestly and beautifully crooned. "My love for you is immeasurable, my respect for you immense" is just an awful line in a ballad. He's proud of knowing words like "Immeasurable" and "immense," though! Big-boy words!
This line -- "You're every love song ever written, but honey what do you see in me?" -¿ needs no criticism from me. It's its own worst enemy.
Let's try this one: "You're an essay in glamour, please pardon the grammar, but you're every schoolboy's dream ..."
Please pardon the GRAMMAR? Yep, Rod wanted some more interior rhyme there, intelligence be damned. In fact, the grammar's fine. He meant, perhaps, "excuse my French," because he's ultimately saying she's an adolescent's stroke-book material. But, see, that didn't RHYME.
Many of you rightfully focused on the idiot line in which he compares his woman, favorably at least, to soccer teams. If there had been one single hint that this song was intended as parody or humor, we could accept this line with a grain of salt. Rod, being funny. But, nope. Rod means it. He's a soccer fan. He has a tin ear for how ludicrous it sounds.
Now let's go to the last two lines, because they are really special:
"And there have been many affairs, many times I felt to leave But I bite my lip and turn around, 'cause you're the warmest thing I ever found."
Uh, "Many times I felt to leave?" What? This sounds like it was written by a native Italian who has only a smattering of English.
And finally, that fabulous last line, which is so inept, so tone deaf, that it brings to mind a man encountering a fresh turd in the street. Compare that last line to this one, done by a fella who kinda knows how to write a love song:
"His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean And you're the best thing that he's ever seen, Stay, lady, stay. Stay with your man a while."
See? Simple, elegant, intelligent, evocative. Everything this stupid song is not.
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STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT: Stop isolating the lyrics to songs and treating them as if they can stand alone. The lyrics are meant to go with the music and both are meant to be performed. The fact that there are some lyrics that can stand alone as poetry is a nice little coincidence but has no more bearing on the song than rating a book by it having the correct thickness to prop up my dining room table.
'I'm like a one-eyed cat peeping in a seafood store' Makes no sense when written but perfect sense when Big Joe Turner sings it.
BTW You poll song is dopey when Rod sings it and the lyrics are no less dopey on their own. AND the worst line is:
15. You're a rhapsody, a comedy, you're a symphony and a play
Gene Weingarten: I'm sorry, but 'I'm like a one-eyed cat peeping in a seafood store' makes total sense, is colorful, explicable, and nuanced, and is exponentially better than anything in the poll song.
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Vienna, Va.: How about a poll on humor for a change? Other than Cul de Sac, Lisa de Moraes (I want to bear her child) and Robin Givhan's laugh-out-loud piece every Sunday, the Post is almost completely devoid of anything funny.
Gene Weingarten: Uh. This WAS a poll on humor.
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Rod Stewart Sucks!: "You'll be my breathe SHOULD I grow old"
You can't put a caveat in a "love song" - that's like saying:
Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four
(Unless I die before then)
Gene Weingarten: Very true. Yet another crap line.
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Arlington, Va.: I was reading your column Sunday, and found it pretty funny because I am similar to you in my astounding lack of short-term memory. I finished reading the column and directly went to tell my wife that she should read it. Somewhere along the way I put the magazine down. I told my wife she should read the column, and then turned around to get the magazine and give it to her. It was GONE. We live in a 2-bedroom apartment. It probably took me 10 seconds to find my wife and tell her about your column. In about 20 feet and that space of time, I was able to disappear the Washington Post Magazine in its entirety. I'm not making any of this up.
washingtonpost.com: Below the Beltway, (Post Magazine, June 8)
Gene Weingarten: So far I have four posts from couples reporting exactly my sort of disability. In each case, the pathetic feeb is the guy.
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Silver Spring, Md.: "I wrote a whole column about this."
She knows that. That is why she is asking the question. You need to slow down and read the questions, Mr. Nuance.
Gene Weingarten: Oh! I never read to the end! HAHAHA. To the END.
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Lyric, AL: On the song:
It's the refrain that makes this song. The verses are pedestrian, but all anyone remembers is that great refrain.
Gene Weingarten: You think that's a great refrain? You'll be my breath should I grow old?
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Not in my heart: Do we have to choose a best line for this song? That's like asking me to select my favorite Bush policy.
Gene Weingarten: I know. The best line is line two, because it is inoffensively ordinary. Every other line offends the sensibilities of anyone who appreciates English, and has any regard for communication skills.
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Savannah by way of Washington, D.C.: Question on dog etiquette. I know you walk your dog in the cemetery and I know you aren't particularly sentimental about human remains. So, do you let your dog pee on gravestones? If it happens, do you feel bad?
Gene Weingarten: Well, Murphy is female, so she doesn't pee on the stones. Harry did. What's to feel bad about? They're STONES. You are aware of my desires, vis a vis my headstone, right? It's going to be in Congressional Cemetery. It's going to say, A MAN WHO LOVED DOGS. And it will be carved in the shape of a fire hydrant.
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Ethics Question: Last week's poll and discussion started me thinking. What are the ethics of journalism in some of these situations? Is it acceptable to put down the camera and join in, or does that violate the objectivity? The image of that starving child, and your story about the photo's author really struck a nerve. After he took that photo, did he help her? Did he find some food and give it to her? Would it be a violation of journalistic ethics if he had?
I know that journalists get the access they do because of respect for their assumed objectivity. Is it more important to preserve that in order to bring the story to the rest of the world? How in the world can anyone not be overwhelmed by that choice?
Gene Weingarten: This is a complicated question. The answer is complicated. A good newspaper / network, etc. expects its employees to act legally, responsibly, and ethically. There are no specific rules, obviously, about what to do with a starving child and a vulture. If the vulture were menacing the child, the photographer, Kevin Carter, would have been a vulture himself to sit there and shoot the attack. As I recall the background of this photo, he sat there waiting for the vulture to spread its wings, but in 20 minutes, it did not. Then the vulture flew away. This shot was taken near a UN plane that was delivering food. (The girl's parents were probably at the plane, getting food.) Carter was criticized for not finding out what happened to the girl, but the truth was there were many children around that plane, all in similar bony, bloated conditions. Most or all had parents in the vicinity. I don't see that Carter did anything wrong. Plus, you have to add in the undeniable fact that the photo he got had the potential to change minds, open up purse strings, etc. Carter was a pro at this. He had made decisions along this calculus before. He was the first person to photograph a "necklacing" in South Africa. It was a horror to witness, but he was powerless to stop and his photo was a powerful tool to expose the brutality of the practice. I remember watching a TV report some years ago where the reporter and cameraman had set up near an icy road at a sharp turn and got dramatic footage of a dozen cars skidding out of control and crashing against guardrails and each other. Not fatalities, but not fenderbenders either. I remember thinking, ok, if this team waited even a second before alerting police to this dangerous situation, then they were guilty of ethical misbehavior. But if they saw the situation, radioed the cops for help, and then watched and recorded what happened, you couldn't blame them. There was no reasonable way THEY could have alerted people without putting themselves in serious jeopardy. These things are complicated.
Gene Weingarten: Kevin Carter was fearless. This is a photo of him in South Africa, in harm's way during rock-throwing violence. And here is the sort of thing he saw. This is a Kevin Carter photo of a necklacing. Warning: It is very, very disturbing.
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McLean, Va.: Regarding the constraints of your memory: motivation could be a major factor. Many times in these discussions you have recalled minutiae from past discussions that most people would not have noticed. You seem to have a great memory for humorous items. Unlike a certain editor, you remember how to spell most words, including many that are difficult. I would be surprised if you were unable to reference a particular make and model of watch or clock off the top of your head if someone asked you a clock-watch question.
But you can't recall traveling by car to eat, much less where you parked the car. Could it be that you have a secret desire to rid yourself of the car? I assume it's the old 323 that was the subject of the column.
Gene Weingarten: I wish it were that simple. It just isn't.
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Bethesda, MD: Great poll question, but it's funny that after the line containing the lyric "please pardon the grammar," you inserted an extraneous comma that fouls up the sense of the line. Celtic United is one of Stewart's favorite soccer teams (he apparently tried to go pro), making it actually kind of a sweet, funny line.
Gene Weingarten: Okay, I THINK you are wrong here, but am willing to learn that you are right. I believe he is referring to two teams: The Glasgow Celtic, and the Manchester United. I don't think there is a Celtic United.
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Chuck Norris, S.I.: Has lame duckiness set in over at the SI? How could The Empress allow that Web entry to slip through as No. 3 in the Chuck Norris competition?
washingtonpost.com: Style Invitational, (Post, June 7)
Gene Weingarten: Ah. Well, it happens sometimes. Happened to the Czar sometimes, too. I think these results, in general, were great.
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Providence: Gene, in your Gene Pool discussion of online gripes, someone recommended using a freely available ad blocking feature of the Firefox browser. I installed this a few weeks ago and now I don't see any more ads, including on washingtonpost.com. Now my pages load 30% faster, but I feel slightly guilty that I am stealing content.
What is your verdict on the ethics of ad blocking? If everyone adopted this feature, your employer would have to come up with a new way to make money online. But isn't this the same as fast-forwarding through the commercials on a VCR? I guess my bottom line is that viewers should be free to surf as they like, and if that doesn't fit with a corporation's business model then they'll have to figure out something else. Do you agree?
Gene Weingarten: I agree. Reluctantly. But I agree.
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Washington, D.C.: OK, so I also read the story and handed it directly to my husband and said, "wow, you aren't the only one with this problem." He promptly took the magazine from me and then forgot to read it.
Is this a man only problem? Why would that be? Are women evolutionarily blessed with better memories so we don't forget where we put our kids or something?
Gene Weingarten: I like that explanation.
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Knowing when to let go: How does a pet owner know when it is time to say goodbye. Out beloved "Teddy" is 18+ years old and basically failing medically. We took him to the vet for the last time in April and she told us that we should use his desire to eat as a sign (when he stops eating, it's time). At the time the vet said 2-3 weeks. That was almost 8 weeks ago. "Teddy" is still eating and wants to be around us at all times, but he sleeps a lot now, is a bit unsteady on his feet, and had basically lost so much weight he is nothing but fur & bones. We hope he is not in pain, but can't really tell. I feel so sad and I don't know if I can do this even though I know I have to. You are a pet owner so I know you understand that these creatures are not just animals, but family members, so I'm looking for any words of wisdom or thoughts you might have.
Gene Weingarten: There is a point when one is keeping an animal alive not for the sake of the animal, but for one's on sake because you cannot bear to lose him. I understand this impulse, but it is wrong. I suspect you are at that point. Teddy is 18. He has lived a long life, and more. You've loved him all his life; do him a final kindness.
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Washington, D.C.: GW:
If you were single, and still had the Mazda, would you get a new car in part to impress other women. I am going through a similar thing with my old car, except it is in much better shape, and I only drive it on weekends. On one hand, the car still runs well, gets good gas mileage. on the other hand, I may appear frugal by driving an old car.
Your thoughts?
Gene Weingarten: I don't think I'd be interested in a woman who gave a hoot about whether I was driving an old or a new car.
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Social Secuirty Ca, rd: Why oh why do people carry around their Social Security card? There is no need to unless you are starting a new job. Part of my job is to collect IDs for new employees and I hear all the time how their wallet was lost or stolen and they don't have their social security card. I want to say to them, why was it in your wallet to begin with?
Gene Weingarten: I don't carry my social security card. I carry my GRANDFATHER's social security card. I also carry a real business card from a real astronaut, and I carry my real draft card.
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Stunn, ED: My Heart Will Go On is number three? It is one of the worst lyrics ever written. It makes no sense. The metaphors are a complete failure. The point of view shifts in the middle of the song. And even if these things were all fixed, we would still gag due to the saccharine content.
This reminds me of Dave Barry's poll to discover the worst song of all time ... the winner was MacArthur Park. This song can't be the worst of all time, in a world that has Bill, Don't Be a Hero and Yummy Yummy Yummy. Besides, it's a JOKE. It's bombastic music with silly lyrics and was intended to be funny. People don't get it. What's sad about The Heart Must Go On is that it IS a joke, but no one ever intended it to be one.
Gene Weingarten: Yummy Yummy Yummy isn't bad. It's trying to be bad and succeeding.
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Gene Weingarten: I think it is time to bluntly ask the lovers of the LYRICS of this song to defend themselves.
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Ludicrous: -ly good that is! Rod takes this song to "ludicrous speed" -- transporting us all to a world were poorly written songs that compare girls to soccer and old Dutch hags using a series of trite over used metaphors is good enough to be judged one of the most romantic songs ever!
This, along with Adam Sandler's "I wanna grow old with you" should give hope to all of us.
Gene Weingarten: And Cream's "I'll stay with you till my seeds are dried up."
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Best Little XX in London: Am I mistaken in thinking that Rod is singing to a prostitute?
Gene Weingarten: The only suggestion, as far as I see, is "clientele."
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Alexandria, Va.: So, someone at work doesn't like me. It's mutual, but I don't think I've done anything to warrant his now subtle slights. It's just a matter of no rapport whatsoever, plus I lack respect for his work behavior (oh, like consistently coming into work late, coming into work even later when our supe is out, etc. Yeah, stuff that doesn't affect my work, but it's not a morale booster when someone gets away with this). Anyway, I digress. So, something happened last Friday where I looked like a fool in front of him, and I could tell he reveled in it (although, he wouldn't have done any better than I did, which makes his behavior all the more moronic, I mean, ironic). My supe was not here for this. Well, yesterday, I didn't put it past him to bring up this fiasco out of the blue. All day, nothing, until just after 4 when out of the blue he says something. I had told my supe what had happened way back in the morning before he got in, so she knew. There was really no reaction to his query, but it just cemented what a jerk he is. He had no reason to bring it up because he had absolutely no hand in what happened on Friday. I only wish my colleagues knew what a jerk he was for doing so, but they didn't. I am so sensitive, I let this cast a pall over my weekend. Please, Gene, tell me how to work on being less sensitive to this. I am a sensitive person and am trying to tell myself to think like a man and just brush it all off, but it's very difficult. I know this is long, but I think you are just the person to ask.
Gene Weingarten: You need to calm down. You won this one, rather handily. Don't you see how? By fessing up to the boss (which was the right thing to do), you created the perfect situation for him to look like a jerk. Boss, if she is smart, recognized his raising this issue as a crummy, backstabbing, hostile act. Lord, I hate petty office politics.
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Now THIS is a LOVE Song.: I walked 47 miles of barbed wire,
Used a cobra snake for a neck tie.
Got a brand new house on the roadside,
Made out of rattlesnake hide.
I got a brand new chimney made on top,
Made out of human skulls.
Now come on darling let's take a little walk, tell me,
Who do you love,
Who do you love, Who do you love, Who do you love.
Arlene took me by the hand,
And said oooh eeeh daddy I understand.
Who do you love,
Who do you love, Who do you love, Who do you love.
The night was black and the night was blue,
And around the corner an ice wagon flew.
A bump was a hittin' lord and somebody screemed,
You should have heard just what I seen.
Who do you love, Who do you love, Who do you love, Who do you love.
Arleen took me by my hand, she said Ooo-ee Bo you know I understand
I got a tombstone hand and a graveyard mind,
I lived long enough and I ain't scared of dying.
Who do you love
Gene Weingarten: Fine, fine song.
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Miami, Fla.: Re: Elian Gonzalez...
I'm not sure your outlook on Clinton's/Reno's actions is as clear cut as you think. It seems you have forgotten that Elian's mother lost her life during the trek to get her son to United States. So there remained the issue of how much weight the mom's dying act should have.
Admittedly without that, it is very clear what the policy should be. With it, I think it was much more muddled.
Gene Weingarten: Well, I think you are letting your politics intrude. Elian's mother, Elena, stole Elian from the father and then put his life in extraordinary jeopardy, almost killing him. Do you think she had that right?
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Weehauken, N.J.: Gene :
Why haven't you followed half of your colleques at the Post and made the run of MSNBC shows ? I'm sure you could do the full Ginsberg if it wouldn't hurt your back.
Gene Weingarten: I freeze on TV. I'd be bad.
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Re STOP IT: Uh, no. You can pair good music with insipid lyrics, and poetic lyrics with crap music, but neither can possibly ever reach greatness. They're completely hamstrung by their deficiencies.
Gene Weingarten: Of course. Having crap lyrics is just stupid and lazy.
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Socc,ER: No, there is no "Celtic United." In fact, you'd get beaten up in Glasgow for even thinking such a thing. The "United" reference MIGHT even be a more obscure Scottish team, Dundee United. Manchester United and Celtic don't play in the same league.
Gene Weingarten: I have been informed since that, indeed, STewart is a fan of both Celtic and Manchester United.
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CPOW: Gene, Gene, Gene.
The CPOW is clearly Saturday's Get Fuzzy. Allowing for differences in opinion, there's no excuse for it not making Runner Up status. How can you put that lame eggplant joke in over Conley's gem?
I went commando today, otherwise I'd fling my panties at you.
Hugs.
washingtonpost.com: Get Fuzzy, (June 7)
Gene Weingarten: It's okay.
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The Empress of The Style Invitaitonal: Other than Cul de Sac, Lisa de Moraes (I want to bear her child) and Robin Givhan's laugh-out-loud piece every Sunday, the Post is almost completely devoid of anything funny.
sheez.
Gene Weingarten: Uh, Empress. The poster also left out someone else who tries to be funny.
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I don't think I'd be interested in a woman who gave a hoot about whether I was driving an old or a new car.: Thank, you, Gene, for saying that. I recall years ago meeting a woman for a first dinner date. Somehow the discussion ventured into motor vehicles. She said that she would ahve no respect for a man who drove something like a Mazda 323. Guess what I was driving at the time. There was no second date.
Would you say that having the attitude, "I don't care if my ride impresses you," is a sign of reaching maturity?
Gene Weingarten: I would.
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Balltriv, IA: During a 1917 Red Sox-Senators baseball game, Ernie Shore came in to relieve pitcher George Herman Ruth after Ruth had walked the first batter of the first inning, then got ejected for arguing the call for ball four. The runner was then caught stealing, and Shore went on to record 26 consecutive outs. Was this pitching performance considered a perfect game?
(From "Baffling Baseball Trivia" by Dom Forker, Wayne Stewart, and Michael J. Pellowski)
Gene Weingarten: No. Because he only retired 26 batters. One was a baserunner. It's too bad, but no. Even worse was befell the hapless Harvey Haddix, who took a perfect game into the 13th inning in 1959. Unfortunately, he was pitching against Lew Burdette, who had a shutout going, too. Haddix lost it in the 13th. And that wasn't a perfect game, either.
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Downtown, DC: I'm a long-time chatster and column-reader, Gene, and I have to say that your column on short-skirted women on escalators inspired me to undertake some serious scientific study of the phenomenon you described in your 2004 column. I ride the Metro every day to a certain downtown stop (I'll decline to name it, though it is near a square named after Gen. Macpherson) and ride the escalator up to street level. Through careful observation I have determined that, although the view of a woman's legs definitely improves as a factor of her distance up the escalator from the viewer, no undergarments are ever visible. I have not repeated this experiment on any of Metro's fabled longer escalators (e.g., Rosslyn), and though that is a consequence of my failing eyesight, I would not expect different results.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you for your scientific diligence. I would refer you to Dupont Circle.
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Reston, Va.: I think "You'll be my breath should I grow old" is the worst line because it's in the refrain. Thus, we have to hear it three times.
Gene Weingarten: I agree, and almost put that in, but Pat persuaded me that on a very primitive level, and clumsily, it actually is making a point: That when he is old, her presence will give him life and vitality.
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Obama Supporter: Gene-
Will you share your thoughts on Michelle Obama?
I think she is attractive, articulate, smart, and will make a wonderful first lady. In fact, she'll be a breath of fresh air after the plastic Stepford wives that have largely held that position up until now.
I have been shocked, however, at the ugly things that have been said about her in the blogosphere and by people on the street. The depth of the negative commentary about her looks, her hair, her figure, etc. have been astounding. (Not much, I might add, about her intellect or anything substantive).
What do you make of this? Are these just Hillary/McCain supporters being anti-everything Obama? Are these racists venting their spleen? Am I blinded by my support for Obama to a major lack of comeliness?
Shed some light, please.
Gene Weingarten: I am unaware of any of this. She's a brilliant accomplished woman. She very attractive. What the hell are people saying?
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Gene Weingarten: Still waiting for a defense of these lyrics, all you "GREAT" voters out there. My mind is open to being persuaded that I am all wrong!
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Uhm...: I thought the lyric in Sunshine of Your Love was "...until the seas are dried up".
Gene Weingarten: Nope. I have researched this thoroughly. Seeds. My seeds.
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Well, Murphy is female, so she doesn't pee on the stones: I find this rather odd, since my female dog, Millie, pees on everything when I take her for a walk. I have a male dog as well and they compete to see who marks first, sometimes on each other. She actually lifts her left, its an awkward squat leg lift, but she does it. The other day while walking her alone, she literally propped her hind legs on a tree to mark it. She did this 3 times. All I could do is stand there and laugh.
Gene Weingarten: Murphy is MUCH more of a lady. She is, however, a douchebag. Yesterday at the vet, she peed all over the floor out of vet terror.
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Defender of the Rod: I said these lyrics were good. or great. or whatever was middling to high on your list?
Why? Because there better than anything I would write.
If I wrote a love poem it would go something like, "you're a girl, I'm a boy, we should hang out" then I'd probably try and rhyme hang-out with make out and then argue it is one word.
So why is he good? Because even if his song sucks? I suck more.
Gene Weingarten: I love this defense. Thank you.
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Washington, D.C.: On the whole, I like the song's lyrics. You don't like the immeasurable/immense line because it has big words -- why can't a song have big words? Yes, fashion sense is a habit. Are you sure it's "felt to leave"? I thought it was "thought to leave." But mostly I like "You are my lover/you're my best friend/you're in my soul" -- a sentiment too rarely expressed in love songs. Should I use it for my wedding dance just to annoy you?
Gene Weingarten: The mere thought of a "wedding dance" annoys me.
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You drove where?: Gene, I need to understand why, in the days of $4+ gasoline, you and your wife drove to a restaurant that lies in such proximity to your house that you both apparently had no problems walking home. I just don't get it! But tell us about it, so that I may understand.
washingtonpost.com: Below the Beltway, (Post Magazine, June 8)
Gene Weingarten: I explained it in the column. We had been somewhere else, were returning to our neighborhood, and parked near the restaurant.
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Tralfamad, Ore.: "Her ad lib lines were well rehearsed" is genius. I used that in a high school essay and got an "A". Are you saying you are smarter than my twelfth grade teacher?
Gene Weingarten: Well, you know, after he writes that he says BUT my heart yearned for you, or something.... Wrong connective! She's a fraud and a phony, BUT still, for some reason, I wanted you. He's a moron. He should not be allowed anywhere near words.
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Alexandria, Va.: To put the "Celtic, United" dispute to rest see this and go to the Product Description Synopsis. All will be answered.
Gene Weingarten: Okay, I'm taking your word for it. No time to look.
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NOW WAIT JUST A SECOND!!: I'm the Baltimore, MD that submitted the question as to why a Scarlett Johannson picture didn't win the Pulitzer, but the picture I submitted wasn't the one that got linked to when my question got posted to the updates. I linked to the picture of her with the striped athletic socks and matching sweater, not the bikini one. Which one of you changed it? I'm guessing Liz since Gene probably doesn't know hyperlinks from a comb. Damn you Liz. They taught better ethics when I was at Tech.
Bad link monkey... bad!
washingtonpost.com: Link monkey I may be, but bad I am not. Talk to Mr. Gene about this breach of link-etiquette.
Gene Weingarten: I changed it, for humor purposes. Your idea was good, but it was much funnier to link to the photo we had all seen 12 times, and which Liz had refused to link to anymore. I see no breach of ethics. I used your idea, I just edited it.
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Midlothian, Va.: My husband wrote a love poem where he rhymed my name (Kathy) with apathy. Somehow, he made it work.
Gene Weingarten: Uh, they don't rhyme. The only rhyme for your name would be a lisp. I could make that work. You are thweet and thathy. You have to have an ear, people. The Empress has recently gotten a song parody where someone tried to rhyme "brown hair" with "raison d'etre."
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Herndon, Va.: Re: Song written about a prostitute.
I believe he wrote the song for Britt Ekland (a big bosomed lady with a Dutch accent) with whom he had a relationship.
Gene Weingarten: But he's putting her down!
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McLean, Va.: Good Lord, Gene! You can pull out baseball trivia known to perhaps .0001 percent of the population without taking a second breath, and you can't remember that you were talking to Achenbach for 15 minutes?
Hmmmm, here's a test: Was the bill the last time you filled up Mazda's fuel tank? For extra credit: Where did you buy the fuel? For extra-extra credit: When did you buy the fuel? Betcha your wife can answer quicker and more accurately than you can.
Gene Weingarten: I have no idea. None. I don't even remember when it was. I don't know how much has I have in the tank.
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Anonymous: "What are the ethics of journalism in some of these situations?"
The author of "The Corner," a true story about a man sinking into a life of drug addiciton and crime, described his approach pretty well (and his approach was appropriate, I think). Basically he was there to report, but helped when he could.
Gene Weingarten: Yep. The author was my good friend and co-screenwriter, David Simon.
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Pity Party: I am officially in a funk. All this talk of breasts has confirmed how I have felt about my body since I was twelve years old. I am 5'6, 136 lbs. (last I checked) and I wear a 34 DD bra. My breasts are an easy winner for "body part I hate most". I have always wished I had small, cute breasts but instead I got¿ these. I feel like they are an unfortunate genetic accident: an anomaly that doesn't fit my (publicly) reserved personality. I think they make me look trashy and hyper-sexual. I hate the way some guys will not even attempt to keep their rubbernecking under control. I hate that, when I accidentally catch someone staring at them, I am instantly reminded of how trashy I think I look and how exposed I feel. I hate that there isn't anything I can say to the creepy guys who won't look away even after we make brief eye contact and they know that I know that they are staring at my chest. And now I get to hate them because apparently a large percentage of men don't actually want to be with a woman with large breasts. It's OK to stare to at them but they disqualify me as long-term relationship material.
This sounds so horribly bitter and I probably shouldn't send it in.
Sigh.
Gene Weingarten: Bad attitude, girl. Try having this attitude. Feel ANY better?
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Mazda 323: "Could it be that you have a secret desire to rid yourself of the car? I assume it's the old 323 that was the subject of the column."
No way. I had one. Best. Car. Ever. No AC, roll-down windows. Best. Car. Ever.
Gene Weingarten: No question. Mine is 17 years old. I will still have it in ten years.
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Oella, Md.: Later in his life, Harvey Haddix realized that far more people remembered him for his tough luck than would have if he'd just completed the perfect game. Some pretty good pitchers threw perfect games, but so did some pretty forgettable ones.
Gene Weingarten: It's true. I read a book about perfect games. About half the guys who threw em were mediocre pitchers. There's a reason: You need really good luck to pitch a perfect game. Every ball that is hit has to be hit to someone.
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Smaller Doucheb, AG: My female chihuahua, while riding a floating raft in my pool over the weekend, squatted and peed in the pool!
Gene Weingarten: Wow!
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A reading: Gene, Let me know if I am off my rocker, but in my reading of the Stewart song, the scene of the first two stanzas is a brothel. This would (potentially) explain the "clientele", "spinnin' yarns" (business talk), "big-bosomed lady" (the madam)with her well rehearsed ad-lib lines etc.
Also the singer has mixed feelings towards the subject -- attracted physically but repulsed by her lifestyle. That would explain the "many affairs" and "should I grow old." Hence "immeasurable" is not synonymous with "immense", but is meant literally as roughly, "indecipherable".
Am I the only one who thinks so?
PS: The song is still awful, but ...
Gene Weingarten: Uh. I don't see this. For one thing, there simply isn't this much thought put into this song.
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Michelle, Ma Belle: Gene--51-year-old gay white man here. I think Michelle Obama is smoking hot. I'd switch for her, and I have said that about no other woman since figuring out I like men. Which isn't to say she looks manly in the least, um, I mean ... she's just really, really hot.
Gene Weingarten: I just don't see how you can look at her and see an ugly woman.
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Kaneohe, HI: I found a tip that ranks right up there with Heloise's "Use a pencil to do crosswords if you make mistakes" sage advice. The Honolulu Advertiser has an environmental tip each day and sometimes they're pretty good. Today, however, the tip is "Shrink your laundry pile by hanging up bath towels to dry so you can use them more than once. Less laundry means less time running the washer and dryer."
Seriously? Do people only use towels one time? Am I the smelly kid that nobody wants to hang out with because I use towels for at least 4-5 days before swapping them out? If I am that kid, I guess I'll start doing my Word Finds in pencil.
Gene Weingarten: My wife puts the towel in the hamper after one use. I've never understood it. Towels, by definition, are used to dry clean bodies, no?
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Lay off the Dylan genius already: OK, I am completely with you on Rod in every sense except your mysterious contention that he is a "good singer." His voice sounds as though he is straining on the pot. All the time.
But please. Dylan is many good and admirable things, but a great writer of romantic love songs isn't one of them. Lay Lady Lay is a song about lust, as are all of Dylan's songs about women except the ones about how all women are hateful.
Gene Weingarten: "y clothes are dirty / but my hands are clean" is the opposite of lust. This is a very gentle song. He is telling her he is a plain man, but a good man, and will not take advantage of her.
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Southern Maryland: You're wrong about Ernie Shore. MLB does recognize it on its list of perfect games
Gene Weingarten: There is a number commonly given for perfect games; 14, I think? You telling me Shore is one of them? I don't think so.
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Somewhere out West: So, Gene, where's the line between absent-mindedness and incipient Alzheimer's? I ask as a 50-year-old guy who frequently forgets why he entered a particular room.
This leads to a discussion my wife and I have occasionally: Neither of us wants to burden the other if we get Alzheimer's and neither of us would have any trouble pulling our own plug to make sure of it. The only question is timing. I wouldn't want to go too early, but I also wouldn't want to wander past the point where I was capable of pulling said plug.
What do you think? Is it better to miss a sunset or two than to doom my family to watching me shrivel into an incontinent financial nightmare?
Gene Weingarten: By the way you asked the question, I think you know the answer. I also think you know that absentmindedness and Alzheimer's are not the same thing. Before anyone goes offing himself because of Alzheimer's, it might be wise to visit a doctor or two. Brains scans offer proof for this and for vascular dementia, too.
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Treacle Pudding: Rod Stewart's song is sappy, sweet, overdone, predictable, and yet we know the words. These are musical Twinkies having no nutritional value, but sometimes I sneak a Ho-Ho behind my wife's back.
Gene Weingarten: Well, I like listening to this song. But, no, I didn't know all the words until the other day when I stopped to listen. It was a near-puke experience.
Gene Weingarten: I felt betrayed, basically.
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Name some good ones: Gene -
Please give some examples of some good/great love songs.
Take Dylan's "If Not For You". It's a great song but I could see you ivory tower types destroying lines like, "if not for you my sky would fall rain would gather too" or "Babe, I couldn't find the door,
Couldn't even see the floor,
I'd be sad and blue,
If not for you."
Thanks!
Gene Weingarten: Re Dylan: Love Minus Zero / She Belongs to Me. Both complex and ambivalent, but love songs of class and beauty.
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Perfect Ga, ME: According to the book, Ernie Shore was originally credited with a perfect game up until 1991 when commissioner Fay Vincent stripped his name from the list of "perfect" pitchers.
Ernie must have balked in his grave.
washingtonpost.com: zzzz
Gene Weingarten: Hahaha.
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Oyecomo, VA: I'm not sure about the authorship, but I've always liked this agglomeration of i-before-e exceptions. Excerpt:
"Deirdre Oppenheimer came down from the heights of a glacier, tore off her veil, seized an ancient financier, and shamed our consciences grievously. 'This society is inefficient!', she inveighed. 'I wasted my leisure becoming proficient in cuneiform hieroglyphs. Either reimburse me with the value of the Einstein coefficient, or I will drag this man back to my hacienda in Muncie, wherein he will forfeit his life!'
"I feigned interest, but looked for our feisty concierge Neil, whom I might inveigle into reining in this weird being. But he had gone to Anaheim, Beijing, Madeira and Taipei with Alexei to shop for a beige geiger counter. His absenteeism made me feel like queueing for the exit. The only sound was the neighing of the sheik's eight reindeer, chewing their edelweiss.
"I turned to Sheila, the Budweiser heiress. "Cease your surveillance of the sleigh and its freight!"
Gene Weingarten: Beautiful.
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I think this person reads your chats:: Job Search While Pregnant-update: Hi, I wrote a while back and just wanted to report on my situation. I interviewed and found a job while only 3 months pregnant. I ended up revealing this to my employer after they verbally offered the position, but before all negotiations had finalized. They were very supportive and I will start my leave in September. Its been a busy few months starting a new job while also prepping for being away but it can be done!
Mary Ellen Slayter: Congrats! Yes, I think that is the best arrangement. That way they aren't shocked by your need for maternity leave and you aren't unfairly taken out of the running for the job.
Gene Weingarten: Wow! Something I suggested actually worked!
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Washington, D.C.: Gene, I'm super upset because a C-list celeb just gave birth and used the baby name I have in mind for my kid (one of twins, due in Sept). I loved the name because it was old-timey in the best way, fairly unique, and just lovely. Husband and I have been through dozens of name options before settling on this one.
So, do I have to give it up? Does it make a difference that it's not Angelina Jolie's kid's name, but a C-list celeb? Or does this portend a trend and my kid will be one of 5 kids in her kindergarten class with the name? Ugh.
washingtonpost.com: Lemme guess: Tori Spelling and "Stella."
Gene Weingarten: It portends.
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Stanford, Calif.: As a college kid/newspaper junkie on the west coast, I skim the Post and Times magazines online right before bed sometimes on Saturdays. So this week, maybe around 1 or 2am, I'm scrolling down to the bottom of the Post magazine page when I see your column:
"(Headline)-"
-Tom: Gene promises to make up a headline by the time this goes to press"
That's probably not it, but it captures the basics--a reference to Tom the Butcher, an asterisk, a promise, a headline of "headline." I only wish the Post delivered to the west coast, because after finding out that there was no headline at 5am EST on a Sunday morning, I really, really wanted to see what made it into print!
(Did you make it in time? What happened? And if a headline like that ever appeared in the Post, what would Tom's reaction be?)
washingtonpost.com: Below the Beltway, (Post Magazine, June 8)
Gene Weingarten: Someone tell him, plese.
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Rod Stewa, RT: Listen, I don't know what you people were taking in the 60s, but Rod Stewart sucks. I mean, I can understand wondering what Jeff Beck's lead singer got up to, but after you heard it, wasn't that enough?
When I was a shallow, horny, redundant teenager in the late 80s, I would watch MTV for the ... ah ... the articles. Yes, for the articles. I changed the channel whenever Rod Stewart came on, and there was little else I refused to put up with... uh, for the great news coverage.
My question is, how do idiots like him get famous? What is it about him that anyone at all likes?
Gene Weingarten: His voice. It's damn good. And he's had some good songs. Maggie May. You Wear It Well. But mostly, they're crap. Tonight's The Night has the worst lyric in rock history: "Don't say a word my virgin child. Just let your inhibitions run wild." That's vintage Stewart: Clutzy, stupid, and factually incorrect.
Gene Weingarten: I didn't mean You Wear it Well. I mean Reason to Believe.
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Poll: How in the world did people think this was an awful love song? I think it's beautiful. The last line is a bit dodgy, but it seems an honest song about a love that's had ups and downs and survived over time. I don't think I'd be thrilled about the affairs part, but if my husband wrote something similar for me, I'd be all goo. Goo!
Gene Weingarten: He's a lucky man to have such an undemanding wife. Are you happy with just a nice Hallmark Card on your birthday?
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So, do new veterinarians: do "internships," and if so what's your baby girl Molly doing now?
Gene Weingarten: My baby girl Molly turned 27 three days ago. She has entered her fourth and final year of veterinary school. No days off; all clinics. Pure hell.
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Did he or did she?: So I'm a little perplexed by line 18:
"And there have been many affairs, many times I've thought to leave"
I originally interpreted this to mean that he's had many affairs during his relationship with this woman -- which would completely undermine the sincerity of the rest of the song. If that's the case, I think the song is pretty sucky based on that alone. However, I then considered that the woman may have been the one having the affairs, and while he has considered leaving, can't bring himself to do so. That would actually strengthen the devotional tone of the rest of the song -- though making him look like a total schmuck.
How do you interpret that line?
Gene Weingarten: I don't care. By the time I get there, I Just Don't Care.
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Reston, Va.: God, I love Rachel's essay, so good to read it again. My favorite bit is the chicken wire and upholstery construction. That's exactly what the 36H I'm wearing right now feels like.
washingtonpost.com: Not sure what size they go up to, but I definitely recommend trying the new Victoria's Secret Bio-Fit bras. So comfy, yet lifty.
Gene Weingarten: I love it when big-bosomed girls talk amongst themselves.
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I thought you liked "Your Song"?: In an earlier version of this poll, you covered "Your Song" and I thought you liked it. Didn't you like the goofy, childish way the singer trys to explain how this woman makes him feel? He can't put it into proper words but he tries anyway.
Gene Weingarten: No, I said it was execrable. But this song is a lot worse.
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stopthehyperlin,KS: For Gawd's sake, the dateline (Los Angeles) is hyperlinked in Wilbon's column.
This is insane and must cease forthwith!
Gene Weingarten: Wow.
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San Francisco, Calif.: You're just the one I had to tell this to. I don't understand this one.
There's a woman in my office who, when going potty, lifts the seat and sits on the rim. I know this from the sounds she makes when she comes into the bathroom and goes into her stall... the seat goes up, she does her business, flushes, puts the seat down, rinses her hands, and leaves.
Gene Weingarten: She is hovering. And doesn't want to do it over the seat for fear of messing the seat.
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Soccer f, AN: I really must confess right here that the fools who think line 18 is the worst are clearly not soccer fans and don't know that Rod Stewart wanted to be a professional soccer (football) player long before he was a successful singer. Read Stewart's Wikipedia article for more about his love of soccer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Stewart
Gene Weingarten: I don't think that's the problem with that line. I think the problem with that line is that he is comparing, without any apparent irony or humor, his love for a woman to his love for teams. In a different sort of song -- one that didn't take itself so vomitously seriously -- this could work.
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Explaining the headline ...: Unfortunately it didn't get in -- ironic that in a column about Gene being forgetful, he would FORGET to send the headline. What are the odds!?
As to what Tom the Butcher did? Well, let's just say that Gene needs double knee replacement surgery. DOUBLE!!
Gene Weingarten: Thank you.
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Dylan Love Song: Gene,
What is your opinion of "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go"?
Lyrics are below for reference:
I've seen love go by my door
It's never been this close before
Never been so easy or so slow.
Been shooting in the dark too long
When somethin's not right it's wrong
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.
Dragon clouds so high above
I've only known careless love,
It's always hit me from below.
This time around it's more correct
Right on target, so direct,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.
Purple clover, Queen Anne lace,
Crimson hair across your face,
You could make me cry if you don't know.
Can't remember what I was thinkin' of
You might be spoilin' me too much, love,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.
Flowers on the hillside, bloomin' crazy,
Crickets talkin' back and forth in rhyme,
Blue river runnin' slow and lazy,
I could stay with you forever
And never realize the time.
Situations have ended sad,
Relationships have all been bad.
Mine've been like Verlaine's and Rimbaud.
But there's no way I can compare
All those scenes to this affair,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.
Yer gonna make me wonder what I'm doin',
Stayin' far behind without you.
Yer gonna make me wonder what I'm sayin',
Yer gonna make me give myself a good talkin' to.
I'll look for you in old Honolulu,
San Francisco, Ashtabula,
Yer gonna have to leave me now, I know.
But I'll see you in the sky above,
In the tall grass, in the ones I love,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.
Gene Weingarten: I think it's fabulous. Don't you?
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Breezin' through the clientele, spinnin' yarns that were so lyrical : You're funny and not in a good way.
You pick these lines to "not understand"?!?!
How about as a big rock star he meets all sorts of women all the time, who tell all sorts of outrageous tales, and his only attraction to them is based on their looks not their personalities?
Is that such a leap?!?!
For the guy who did an amazing job on Ballad of a Thin Man, you seem to have put your dumb guy hat on for this one.
Gene Weingarten: Sorry, but it's just a nonsensical line.
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Cellu, AR: I thought you had ditched the home phone in favor of just the cell phone, Gene? What happened?
Gene Weingarten: The rib forced my hand.
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Stellllllllla!: Just go with the formal version - Estelle - for crying out loud.
Gene Weingarten: There is no one under 75 named Estelle. They are all old Jewish ladies. It's like Ceil. Just don't. We're done, peeps. Thank you muchly, I like yr. spirit. I'll be updating through the week.
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UPDATED 6.11.08
Gene Weingarten: Thank you to Ronnie Martin for this. Some are really excellent.
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you angel y, OU: This is a Dylan song that is neither misogynistic or lustful or any such thing. I don't know that I've ever heard a version sung by him, but the New Riders of the Purple Sage version is one of the most straightforward simple, sweet bluegrassy love songs ever. So there.
Gene Weingarten: I love New Riders. I haven't thought of them in 30 years. Panama Red, Last Lonely Eagle. Here is their great cover of "Hello, Mary Lou."
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Concer,ND: Dr. Weingarten....my poop has turned yellow. For the last two weeks.
What's wrong with me? Must I go to a doctor or can I ignore it?
Gene Weingarten: You need to see a doctor.
There are plenty of benign reasons for yellow poop, but the fact is that this is sometimes a presenting symptom of liver problems. The liver problems can be major or minor, but you need to see a gastroenterologist.
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Lexington, Ky.: Hi Gene,
Next month I'm getting married (I know how much you love those events) and my last name will be changing from a one-syllable, common, English-sounding one into a four syllable Polish one. What's your favorite Polish joke, to help me get ready for this life-changing experience? Thanks!
Gene Weingarten: Did you hear about the 727 that crashed into a cemetery in Warsaw? Police recovered 596 bodies.
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Futb, OL: So I'm assuming your analysis of Rod Stewart's song, "You're in My Heart" will include the little tidbit that the song is about futbol (soccer, footie...whatever...)
That taken into account, the line that lists the teams (17? I can't remember) completely undermines the cleverness of the other lines. It's as if he gets to that line and sings "Ok, dumb@sses, this song's about footie."
That said, the delivery and music are perfect for rocking back and forth with a warm glass of beer and all your sweaty friends in their stinky uniforms.
Gene Weingarten: Several posters have made this contention, that the song is about soccer. Sorry, but that's a ludicrous contention. Soccer did not walk into a room. Soccer does not favor Beardsley prints. Rod would not wonder what soccer sees in him.
Furthermore, the straightforwardly moronic nature of this love song is well established by the moronic nature of his other love songs, at least the ones he has written.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Why did you answer honestly to the woman with the short skirt? The right answer from a guy's perspective is "No! Of course we don't! You have nothing to worry about."
Gene Weingarten: I know what you mean. I wanted to, but I had a collision of responsibilities. On the one hand, that was the funniest of answers. On the other hand, that assertion would have directly contradicted something I had already written. It is the solemn duty of every journalist to stand behind every single word he or she has ever written.
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Memo, RI: For the fellow who wanted to know the difference between absentmindedness and Alzheimer's:
Absentmindedness: You can't remember where you left your keys and you finally find them on the nightstand.
Alzheimer's: You can't remember where you left your keys and you finally find them in the refrigerator.
Gene Weingarten: Thank you.
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Next Week's Chat
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LOAD-DATE: June 11, 2008
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The New York Times
June 9, 2008 Monday
Late Edition - Final
It's A Different Country
BYLINE: By Paul Krugman
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED COLUMNIST; Pg. 21
LENGTH: 819 words
Fervent supporters of Barack Obama like to say that putting him in the White House would transform America. With all due respect to the candidate, that gets it backward. Mr. Obama is an impressive speaker who has run a brilliant campaign -- but if he wins in November, it will be because our country has already been transformed.
Mr. Obama's nomination wouldn't have been possible 20 years ago. It's possible today only because racial division, which has driven U.S. politics rightward for more than four decades, has lost much of its sting.
And the de-racialization of U.S. politics has implications that go far beyond the possibility that we're about to elect an African-American president. Without racial division, the conservative message -- which has long dominated the political scene -- loses most of its effectiveness.
Take, for example, that old standby of conservatives: denouncing Big Government. Last week John McCain's economic spokesman claimed that Barack Obama is President Bush's true fiscal heir, because he's ''dedicated to the recent Bush tradition of spending money on everything.''
Now, the truth is that the Bush administration's big-spending impulses have been largely limited to defense contractors. But more to the point, the McCain campaign is deluding itself if it thinks this issue will resonate with the public.
For Americans have never disliked Big Government in general. In fact, they love Social Security and Medicare, and strongly approve of Medicaid -- which means that the three big programs that dominate domestic spending have overwhelming public support.
If Ronald Reagan and other politicians succeeded, for a time, in convincing voters that government spending was bad, it was by suggesting that bureaucrats were taking away workers' hard-earned money and giving it to you-know-who: the ''strapping young buck'' using food stamps to buy T-bone steaks, the welfare queen driving her Cadillac. Take away the racial element, and Americans like government spending just fine.
But why has racial division become so much less important in American politics?
Part of the credit surely goes to Bill Clinton, who ended welfare as we knew it. I'm not saying that the end of Aid to Families With Dependent Children was an unalloyed good thing; it created a great deal of hardship. But the ''bums on welfare'' played a role in political discourse vastly disproportionate to the actual expense of A.F.D.C., and welfare reform took that issue off the table.
Another large factor has been the decline in urban violence.
As the historian Rick Perlstein documents in his terrific new book ''Nixonland,'' America's hard right turn really began in 1966, when the Democrats suffered a severe setback in Congress -- and Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California.
The cause of that right turn, as Mr. Perlstein shows, was white fear of urban disorder -- and the associated fear that fair housing laws would let dangerous blacks move into white neighborhoods. ''Law and order'' became the rallying cry of right-wing politicians, above all Richard Nixon, who rode that fear right into the White House.
But during the Clinton years, for reasons nobody fully understands, the wave of urban violence receded, and with it the ability of politicians to exploit Americans' fear.
It's true that 9/11 gave the fear factor a second wind: Karl Rove accusing liberals of being soft on terrorism sounded just like Spiro Agnew accusing liberals of being soft on crime. But the G.O.P.'s credibility as America's defender has leaked away into the sands of Iraq.
Let me add one more hypothesis: although everyone makes fun of political correctness, I'd argue that decades of pressure on public figures and the media have helped drive both overt and strongly implied racism out of our national discourse. For example, I don't think a politician today could get away with running the infamous 1988 Willie Horton ad.
Unfortunately, the campaign against misogyny hasn't been equally successful.
By the way, it was during the heyday of the baby boom generation that crude racism became unacceptable. Mr. Obama, who has been dismissive of the boomers' ''psychodrama,'' might want to give the generation that brought about this change, fought for civil rights and protested the Vietnam War a bit more credit.
Anyway, none of this guarantees an Obama victory in November. Racial division has lost much of its sting, but not all: you can be sure that we'll be hearing a lot more about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and all that. Moreover, despite Hillary Clinton's gracious, eloquent concession speech, some of her supporters may yet refuse to support the Democratic nominee.
But if Mr. Obama does win, it will symbolize the great change that has taken place in America. Racial polarization used to be a dominating force in our politics -- but we're now a different, and better, country.
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USA TODAY
June 9, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
Treatment is right alternative for vets
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 10A
LENGTH: 821 words
I was pleasantly surprised to read about the Buffalo drug treatment program that caters to veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and drug addiction ("Court in N.Y. gives vets chance to straighten out," News, June 2).
The story mentioned a RAND Corp. study finding that 19% of the veterans who returned from Iraq and Afghanistan -- about 300,000 people -- report symptoms of PTSD or severe depression. When one considers the experiences of veterans -- having friends killed, having to kill others, thinking that every day might be their last -- it is understandable many would suffer from PTSD and, in turn, self-medicate with alcohol and other drugs.
It is humane and cost-effective to offer compassion and treatment -- not a jail cell -- to veterans dealing with trauma.
Once more people realize that incarceration for petty drug law violations is not an appropriate response to veterans' suffering from addiction and depression, then people will question the logic of giving long jail sentences to others in our society who also could be self-medicating for pain and trauma in their own lives.
Tony Newman
Drug Policy Alliance, New York
Roles of CPR, AED
As cities work to make more Americans confident in their ability to use CPR and automated external defibrillators (AEDs), it's important to define the difference between a heart attack and sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) ("Cities move to teach all employees CPR," USATODAY.com, June 3).
SCA is an arrhythmia, a disorder of the heart's electrical activity causing an abnormal heart beat. A heart attack is a plumbing problem: An artery leading to the heart becomes clogged, causing insufficient blood supply to the heart.
The difference between SCA and a heart attack is important. CPR alone can't save an arrhythmia victim because only a defibrillator can "reboot" the heart, making it beat normally again. In such cases, CPR can only buy time until a defibrillator arrives.
Neither an AED nor CPR can definitively treat a heart attack victim because neither treatment can fully restore adequate blood flow. In the case of a heart attack, CPR should be performed until the victim is in the hands of emergency medical services for transport to the nearest hospital.
Glenn W. Laub, MD
La Grange, Ill.
Marine's proud story
Thanks for the story "'Miracle' Marine loses final battle." The article about Sgt. Merlin German, who died after fighting to live for three years after injuries in Iraq, was written with compassion and deep emotion (USATODAY.com, May 24).
I spent time in the Philadelphia Naval Hospital in 1968. I had lost a leg and remember the first steps I took without a cane. I was in one of two amputee wards with 58 Marines and one other sailor. The Marine next to me was nicknamed "Gunny Turtle" because he wore a full-body cast. This was a result of diving on a grenade, which saved his team. There were guys there in far worse shape than I, and none complained. This story should be sent to every member of Congress and presidential appointees. It is about the spirit of an American who loved his country and being a Marine.
Ken Delfino
Colfax, Calif.
Candidates' experience trumps their ages
Kirsten Powers, who served in the Clinton administration, once again rehashes the issue of John McCain's age ("McCain and age: An issue, not ageism," The Forum, Wednesday).
Some believe that once you become a senior citizen, your faculties diminish, your life as you once knew it is over and you soon die.
Here's a history lesson: Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father, noted printer, scientist, inventor and diplomat, was more than 70 years of age when he was elected to the Second Continental Congress. In 1776, Franklin, more than 70 years young, was then appointed a member of the committee of five that drafted the Declaration of Independence.
Another example is Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who was more than 70 years young when he was appointed commander of the United Nations forces.
Democrats must learn that age is not the issue, but that the candidates' morality, solutions to the problems facing this nation and experiences are.
McCain's service to his country during the Vietnam War and his extensive legislative experience, I believe, far outweigh those of Barack Obama.
Christian Gatsby
Orlando
An impressive start
I've seen a lot of brilliant political moves in my time, but what Barack Obama did last Tuesday was incredibly impressive. Not only did he give a visionary and inspirational speech, but he did it in the very same hall where the Republican convention is going to be held ("To Obama, rally site symbolic of things to come," News, Wednesday).
Now, when the Republicans have their convention at the same location, the news media likely will compare it with Obama's speech. Obama might have stolen McCain's thunder.
As a Hillary Clinton supporter, I have to say Obama is off to a great start. Maybe he does have what it takes to win.
Marc Perkel
San Bruno, Calif.
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The Washington Post
June 9, 2008 Monday
Met 2 Edition
Former Ally Of Gilmore To Endorse Warner;
Ex-Del. Callahan Cites Budget Figures
BYLINE: Tim Craig; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: METRO; Pg. B01
LENGTH: 891 words
DATELINE: RICHMOND, June 8
Fairfax County Republican Vincent F. Callahan Jr., former chairman of the Virginia House Appropriations Committee and onetime ally of James S. Gilmore III, said he would announce Monday that he is supporting Democrat Mark R. Warner in the state's U.S. Senate race.
Callahan said Gilmore, Warner's GOP opponent, misled legislators and the public about the state's finances and the cost of his signature effort to eliminate the car tax when he was governor from 1998 to 2002.
"The figures Gilmore used were so utterly erroneous and far-fetched that they were mind-boggling," said Callahan, who helped Gilmore push his car tax proposal through the House of Delegates in the late 1990s.
Callahan's endorsement comes as Warner is working hard to get some Republicans behind his campaign against Gilmore, who secured the GOP nomination last weekend. Warner, who succeeded Gilmore as governor, said Callahan's endorsement "reflects the kind of bipartisan approach we brought to Richmond and hopefully we can bring to Washington."
Dick Leggitt, Gilmore's campaign manager, disputed Callahan's suggestion that Gilmore was fiscally reckless as governor. Leggitt also dismissed Warner's efforts to win over Republicans.
"The bottom line with the car tax is it put $1 billion into the hands of working men and women and it took it out of the hands of a group of powerful state legislators," said Leggitt. He later added, "We are comfortable [Warner] is going to get some support from 'country club Republicans,' and he is going to get a lot of support from tax collectors and tax spenders. But we are picking up support from a lot of working men and women."
Callahan will join former Senate president John H. Chichester Jr., also a Republican, on a conference call with reporters Monday to announce their support for Warner.
Chichester already is featured in a Warner TV commercial. But Callahan's decision to back Warner is somewhat of surprise because he has long ties to the Republican Party.
Callahan was the lead House sponsor of Gilmore's proposal to eliminate the car tax, also know as the personal property tax, in 1998. Gilmore ran for governor on a promise to get rid of the unpopular tax.
Gilmore and legislative leaders agreed to phase out the tax over five years. To make sure the state could afford it, they agreed to suspend the plan if revenue growth fell below 5 percent. In 2001, Chichester and Senate Republicans said the economy had slowed enough that they could not enact the fourth phase of the tax cut. But Callahan sided with Gilmore to keep it on track.
Callahan, who represented McLean from 1968 until this year, said he made a mistake because the Gilmore administration gave him bad information about state finances.
"I've never seen figures so far off the mark," said Callahan, who called Warner "among the best governors" he served with during his 40-year career in the legislature.
Warner accuses Gilmore of leaving the state with a $6 billion budget deficit. Warner said he slashed spending early in his term but was forced to push through a $1.4 billion tax increase in 2004. Callahan initially supported raising taxes that year but voted against the final bill because he said the tax increase was too big.
Warner and legislators also froze the phasing out of the car tax in 2004. Because the phaseout was never fully implemented, Virginia residents still pay the tax annually, although just a portion of what they would have paid had Gilmore not sought to eliminate it.
In an interview Friday on WTOP radio, Gilmore defended his record by noting that the state constitution requires that the budget be balanced every year.
"The state was not broke," Gilmore said. "It had over $1 billion in the bank when I left. The truth is the budget was balanced. . . . We put $1 billion in the rainy-day fund, and we gave a substantial tax cut."
Gilmore accuses Warner of spending too much money instead of keeping his 2001 campaign promise not to raise taxes.
"I kept my word and did what I said I was going to do," said Gilmore, who maintains his car tax cut proposal was "an excellent program that really helps regular people."
Although their differing views on each other's record as governor is shaping up as a major issue in the Senate race, Gilmore's campaign hopes to pivot toward a discussion of such federal issues as national security, energy policy and taxes.
Gilmore also is trying to make the Senate race a referendum on the presidential contest between Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). Gilmore says Obama is too liberal for Virginia. To try to insulate himself from the outcome of the presidential race if voters turn against Obama, Warner has begun an aggressive program of outreach to Republicans.
"I think you will see others step forward," said Warner, who has met with dozens of Republicans in recent weeks to seek their endorsements or ask them not to help Gilmore, according to Warner's staff and Republicans who have been contacted.
Callahan and Chichester note they are both supporting McCain. But one Virginia McCain supporter -- retiring Sen. John W. Warner (R) -- appears to be sticking with Gilmore this year. John Warner announced Friday that he has donated $2,000 to Gilmore's campaign, although he has yet to formally endorse him.
"I am confident we will be able to unite this party," Gilmore said Friday.
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The New York Times
June 8, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Obama Is Mapping A Nationwide Push In G.O.P. Strongholds
BYLINE: By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY; Jim Rutenberg contributed reporting.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 28
LENGTH: 1733 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
Senator Barack Obama's general election plan calls for broadening the electoral map by challenging Senator John McCain in typically Republican states -- from North Carolina to Missouri to Montana -- as Mr. Obama seeks to take advantage of voter turnout operations built in nearly 50 states in the long Democratic nomination battle, aides said.
On Monday, Mr. Obama will travel to North Carolina -- a state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in 32 years -- to start a two-week tour of speeches, town hall forums and other appearances intended to highlight differences with Mr. McCain on the economy. From there, he heads to Missouri, which last voted for a Democrat in 1996. His first campaign swing after securing the Democratic presidential nomination last week was to Virginia, which last voted Democratic in 1964.
With Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton now having formally bowed out of the race and thrown her backing to him, Mr. Obama wants to define the faltering economy as the paramount issue facing the country, a task probably made easier by ever-rising gasoline prices and the sharp rise in unemployment the government reported on Friday. Mr. McCain, by contrast, has been emphasizing national security more than any other issue and has made clear that he would like to fight the election primarily on that ground.
Mr. Obama has moved in recent days to transform his primary organization into a general election machine, hiring staff members, sending organizers into important states and preparing a television advertisement campaign to present his views and his biography to millions of Americans who followed the primaries from a distance.
In one telling example, he is moving to hire Aaron Pickrell, the chief political strategist of Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio -- who helped steer Mrs. Clinton to victory in that state's primary -- to run his effort against Mr. McCain there. In another, aides said, he has tapped Dan Carroll, an opposition researcher who gained fame digging up information on opponents' records for Bill Clinton in 1992, to help gather information about Mr. McCain. That is the latest evidence that, for all the talk on both sides about a new kind of politics, the general election campaign is likely to be bloody.
Mr. Obama's campaign is considering hiring Patti Solis Doyle, a longtime associate of Mrs. Clinton who was her campaign manager until a shake-up in February, the first of what Mr. Obama's aides said would be a number of hires from the Clinton campaign.
Recognizing the extent to which Republicans view Michelle Obama's strong views and personality as a potential liability for her husband, Mr. Obama's aides said they were preparing to bring aboard senior operatives from previous Democratic presidential campaigns to work with her, a clear departure from the typical way the spouse of a candidate is staffed. Mrs. Obama's operation would include senior aides devoted to responding to attacks and challenges to her, particularly if she continues to campaign as much as she has so far.
To counter persistent rumors and mischaracterizations about his background, Mr. Obama's advisers said they would also begin using television advertising and speeches in a biographical campaign to present his story on his terms. But they suggested that their research had found that voters were not that well acquainted with Mr. McCain, either, signaling that the next few months will see a scramble by the two campaigns to define the rival candidate.
''Even though Senator McCain has been on the scene for three decades, there are a lot of people who don't know a lot about him -- and there are a lot of people who don't know about us,'' said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama's senior strategist. ''Both campaigns are about to begin filling in the gaps.''
Mr. Obama has sought in recent weeks to deal pre-emptively with issues that shadowed him in the primary and on which Mr. McCain has already challenged him. At a speech to Jewish leaders in Washington, he markedly toughened his statements about how he would deal with Iran after coming under attack for his pledge to meet with its leader; he now almost always wears an American flag pin on his lapel after Republicans sought to raise questions about his patriotism by pointing to the absence of one.
While the lengthy, contentious Democratic primary fight against Mrs. Clinton exposed vulnerabilities in Mr. Obama that the Republicans will no doubt seek to exploit, it also allowed him to build a nearly nationwide network of volunteers and professional organizers. While early assertions by presidential campaigns that they intend to expand the playing field are often little more than feints intended to force opponents to spend time and money defending states that they should have locked up, Mr. Obama's fund-raising success gives his campaign more flexibility than most to play in more places.
Mr. Obama's aides said some states where they intend to campaign -- like Georgia, Missouri, Montana and North Carolina -- might ultimately be too red to turn blue. But the result of making an effort there could force Mr. McCain to spend money or send him to campaign in what should be safe ground, rather than using those resources in states like Ohio.
Mr. Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, said that the primary contest had left the campaign with strong get-out-the-vote operations in Republican states that were small enough that better-than-usual turnout could make a difference in the general election. Among those he pointed to was Alaska, which last voted for a Democrat in 1964.
''Do we have to win any of those to get to 270?'' Mr. Plouffe said, referring to the number of electoral votes needed to win the election. ''No. Do we have reason to think we can be competitive there? Yes. Do we have organizations in those states to be competitive? Yes. This is where the primary was really helpful to us now.''
Mr. Plouffe also pointed to Oregon and Washington, states that have traditionally been competitive and where Mr. Obama defeated Mrs. Clinton, as places the campaign could have significant advantages .
Still, the Republican Party has a history of out-hustling and out-organizing the Democratic Party in national elections. The question is whether the more organically grown game plans that carried Mr. Obama to victory in Democratic primaries and caucuses can match the well-oiled organizations Republicans have put together.
Mr. McCain's advisers dismissed the Obama campaign claims as bluster. ''We're confident about our ability to win those states,'' said Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain.
And Mr. Obama is not alone in trying to fight on what is historically unfriendly territory. A central part of Mr. McCain's strategy is an effort to pick up Democratic voters unhappy with the outcome of the primary, and to compete for states that have recently voted Democratic, like Pennsylvania, where Mr. Obama was soundly beaten by Mrs. Clinton, and Michigan, where Mr. Obama did not compete in the primary.
Mr. Obama's aides would not say when he would begin his television advertising campaign, saying that disclosure would help their opponent.
A Republican strategist said that, according to party monitoring services, Mr. Obama's campaign had inquired about advertising rates in 25 states, including traditionally Republican states like Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina. That would constitute a very large purchase. President Bush, whose 2004 campaign had the most expensive advertising drive in presidential history, usually ran commercials in a maximum of 17 states.
The strategist said that the Republican intelligence was that Mr. Obama's campaign was indicating to television stations that it was considering beginning its commercials in mid-June, or possibly after July 4. But Mr. McCain started an advertising campaign on Friday that surprised Democrats with its size and expense -- more than $3 million -- and it was unclear if that would prompt Mr. Obama's strategists to change their timetable.
Media strategists in both parties said that Mr. Obama's campaign would have enough money to run a break-all-records advertising campaign. In theory, at least, he will have enough money to run one set of prime-time national advertisements on broadcast television, and a concurrent and harder-hitting campaign against Mr. McCain in closely contested states.
A national campaign on broadcast television -- which has traditionally been prohibitively expensive for presidential campaigns -- could make sense in this case, particularly if the Obama campaign looks to expand the playing field as significantly as Mr. Plouffe suggested it would.
Mr. Obama and a team of senior advisers spent Friday morning in Chicago planning the next few weeks. In addition to presenting his economic policies, Mr. Obama is also exploring a foreign trip and a biographical tour before the party's convention in August.
Mr. Obama's a 17-day economic tour, starting Monday, comes as polls suggest acute public anxiety about the economy, fueled by a new wave of bad news, including a surge in the unemployment rate and a record rise in the cost of oil.
The economic push is intended to highlight the distinctions between Democratic and Republican proposals on health care, jobs, energy prices, education and taxes. Mr. Obama is expected to deliver a series of policy speeches and visit voters in small towns and rural areas.
While Mr. Obama's economic tour will take him through several states where he registered strong performances in the primary season, including Iowa and Wisconsin, he will also visit other general election battleground states where he lost primaries by substantial margins, including Ohio.
At Mr. Obama's campaign headquarters in Chicago, where for two months separate teams had focused on Mrs. Clinton and Mr. McCain, aides are adjusting their duties. One area in particular where Mr. Obama is adding muscle is a team that is tasked with tracking down rumors and erroneous statements circulated on the Internet.
''The growth of the Internet, which has been a fabulous asset for helping to build the Obama community, is also a place where erroneous e-mails live,'' said Anita Dunn, a senior campaign adviser. ''That's a challenge I don't think previous campaigns have had to deal with to the extent that the Obama campaign has.''
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The Washington Post
June 8, 2008 Sunday
Regional Edition
Want Universal Health Care? The Operative Word Is 'Care.'
BYLINE: Michael L. Millenson
SECTION: OUTLOOK; Pg. B03
LENGTH: 1380 words
On a recently posted YouTube music video, to a hypnotic bongo beat, rapper MIKE-E knocks out rhymes about . . . universal health care:
You are among the masses/ One of 47 million people without health care access . . . Focus on the laws that must be enacted/ Because we know there are flaws in our health care practices.
These may sound like lyrics only a lobbyist could love, but the video -- sponsored by the American Cancer Society -- expresses the frustration felt by those trying to end the United States's status as the only industrialized nation whose citizens don't have universal access to health care.
Here's a cold truth: Despite much media hand-wringing on the subject, most of us give about as much thought to those who lack health coverage as we do to soybean subsidies.The major obstacle to change? Those of us with insurance simply don't care very much about those without it. It's only when health care costs spike sharply, the economy totters or private employers begin to cut back on benefits that the lack of universal health care comes into focus. Noticing the steadily growing ranks of the uninsured, the broad American public -- "us" -- begins to worry that we'll soon be joining the ranks of "them."
News stories about the uninsured typically offer poignant profiles of people with whom the public can easily identify. As an award-winning article in Redbook last year informed its readers, "Increasingly, this is a problem for the middle class." Similarly, the Cover the Uninsured Web site, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, highlights personal stories of seven appealing uninsured individuals. Several are current or former small-business owners. Six are white, and one is an African-American woman. There are no identifiable Hispanics.
The reality, however, is that only a minority of the uninsured are either the typical Redbook reader or that nice shopkeeper down the street. Two-thirds of those without health insurance are poor or near poor, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. And there are clear disparities in how different racial and ethnic groups are affected. Only 13 percent of non-Hispanic white Americans is uninsured, compared with 36 percent of Hispanics, 33 percent of Native Americans, 22 percent of blacks and 17 percent of Asians/Pacific Islanders.
Politicians understand what this means in practical terms. If a lack of health insurance were truly a white middle-class crisis, then conservatives and liberals would long ago have joined together, carved out a compromise and done something. Instead, we're served a constantly recycled set of excuses for legislative stalemate.
The unofficial Republican attitude toward universal health care can be boiled down to the three "nots": not our voters, not our kind of solution and not our priority. None of the Republican presidential candidates even pretended to present a serious plan for universal coverage, nor did Republican primary voters demand one. The only candidate who had actually worked successfully toward universal health care -- former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney -- apologetically disowned his own groundbreaking achievement. Presumptive nominee John McCain's recent health care proposal doesn't make anything more than a start toward covering all the uninsured.
Meanwhile, Democrats play their own "us vs. them" games. Although high-profile party leaders are loudly calling for universal coverage -- recall the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton slugfest over their respective plans -- they reassure the middle class that the cost of compassion will be covered by repealing tax cuts for the wealthy. This "free lunch" approach may tax credulity, but it does avoid the need for discussing other taxes.
To be fair to the politicians, the interest groups representing the public have exhibited little appetite for genuinely grappling with the uninsured problem. AARP, one of the most powerful consumer groups, is running a high-profile ad campaign advocating a vague health care "reform." But imagine the revolt if the organization's leaders had asked its elderly membership to insist that those with no health insurance, including 9 million children, should be guaranteed basic care before Congress spent hundreds of billions of dollars adding a Medicare pharmaceutical benefit.
Though the American Medical Association has been a consistent voice for covering the uninsured, it reserves its political muscle for issues that excite its members. And the blunt truth is that the percentage of physicians who actually provide care to the uninsured or to Medicaid patients has been steadily declining for a decade.
When the American Cancer Society decided to focus its marketing budget on coverage for the uninsured, some supporters grumbled that it wasn't "our fight." The society responded that cancer patients without health insurance are diagnosed later and have a far greater chance of dying.
Other interest groups have been more likely to follow the AARP and AMA "stick to your knitting" model than the ACS one. Large unions advocate health care for all, but in practice, they're most concerned about maintaining benefits for their members. As a self-employed consultant who pays more than $1,000 a month for a very modest family plan (and am grimly happy to have even this), I have gazed longingly at the $25 per month that a friend who belongs to a municipal union pays for a far more generous plan.
When the general public talks about a health care crisis, what they're generally talking about is rising costs, a constant complaint since the Hoover administration (though Richard M. Nixon was the first president to officially declare a health care "crisis"). In response to this public clamor for cost control, those who advocate for the uninsured have decided to talk not only about the 22,000 of "them" who die annually because of a lack of access to care, but also to emphasize the money that providing coverage to "them" could actually save the rest of "us."
The Commonwealth Fund recently tallied the ways in which universal health care would save hundreds of millions of dollars, most of which were related to lowering the societal costs exacted by the greater burden of illness among the uninsured. The list was an exhaustive and exhausting one that nonetheless had the whiff of desperation, as if civil rights activists had appealed for support against segregation because it was reducing the pool of qualified candidates for the Selma, Ala., police department.
There are glimmers of hope. A growing number of insured families are struggling with higher co-payments and deductibles and skimpier coverage. These uneasy "underinsured" may yet join forces with the uninsured to demand protection from a situation that places them, as MIKE-E puts it, "One paycheck from poverty/ One illness or injury from misery."
A survey last year by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that more than two thirds of Americans were willing to pay 1 percent more in federal income taxes to make sure that everyone had health insurance. This counts as progress, as does the bipartisan Healthy Americans Act, a significant step toward universal coverage proposed by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)and Bob Bennett (R-Utah).
Over the years, our society has gradually provided a medical safety net for the elderly and disabled (Medicare), the poor (Medicaid) and veterans. At one time, these commitments were controversial, and there's no doubt that they're expensive. Yet Americans from all walks of life understand that the true value of these programs must be weighed on a moral scale as well as a financial one. It's our willingness to be our brothers' keepers that in part defines who we are as Americans.
It has been nearly a century since Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican running unsuccessfully on the Bull Moose Party ticket, boldly became the first presidential candidate to promise universal health coverage. That was in 1912. Nearly a century later, we're still waiting for a leader with the courage and skill to break through our fears and successfully lead the charge up that particular hill.
mm@healthqualityadvisors.com
Michael L. Millenson is a health care consultant and the author of "Demanding Medical Excellence: Doctors and Accountability in the Information Age."
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The New York Times
June 7, 2008 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
Talk of War and Family Highlights McCain's Kickoff Commercial
BYLINE: By JULIE BOSMAN
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; THE AD CAMPAIGN; Pg. 11
LENGTH: 369 words
This is a television advertisement for the campaign of Senator John McCain, and it is the start of Mr. McCain's first major advertising push of the general election. It was released Friday morning on the Internet.
PRODUCER John McCain campaign media team.
THE SCRIPT Mr. McCain says, ''Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war. When I was 5 years old, my father left for war. My grandfather came home from war, and died the next day. I was shot down over Vietnam and spent five years as a P.O.W. Some of the friends I served with never came home. I hate war, and I know how terrible its costs are. I'm running for president to keep the country I love safe. I'm John McCain, and I approve this message.''
ON THE SCREEN The 30-second spot begins with a somber Mr. McCain, wearing a dark suit and purplish striped tie, facing the camera in front of an inky black background. As Mr. McCain speaks, a series of black-and-white images appear behind him, depicting his father, wearing a military uniform and surrounded by exuberant soldiers; his grandfather, also in uniform and gazing at the camera; a video clip of Mr. McCain himself, lying on a cot as a prisoner in North Vietnam; and, finally, a picture of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial framed by the Washington Monument in the background. (A caption reminds viewers, ''Military images do not imply endorsement by D.O.D. or service branch,'' referring to the Department of Defense.)
ACCURACY Mr. McCain's claims about his family military history and time as a prisoner of war are true.
SCORECARD If Mr. McCain has developed a reputation as a warmonger, with his strong support of the Iraq war and his campaign-trail jokes about bombing Iran (to the tune of the Beach Boys song ''Barbara Ann''), this advertisement is an effort to smooth over that perception. It also puts the best possible spin on his support for the unpopular Iraq war, a position that could be a political liability in November. Drawing on the McCain family's history of military service sends the message that Mr. McCain is rich in experience and strong on national security, two areas that have formed the core of his argument against Senator Barack Obama.
JULIE BOSMAN
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The Washington Post
June 7, 2008 Saturday
Met 2 Edition
In Money Race, Obama Has the Advantage
BYLINE: Matthew Mosk; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1209 words
Sen. Barack Obama will head into the general election with the ability to raise significantly more money than his Republican opponent, an extremely rare position for a Democrat and one that could give him a huge advantage in mobilizing supporters, reaching voters and competing across the country.
Party leaders say they expect Obama to surpass the more than quarter-billion dollars he amassed during the primaries, buoyed by a fundraising list with more than 1.5 million names, an uncommon knack for attracting money online and the expected addition of scores of established bundlers who helped bankroll Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign.
Obama's advantage, which could stretch into the tens of millions over Republican Sen. John McCain, would allow the senator from Illinois to build a far more robust field operation and let him drench radio and television airwaves in a much broader array of states, including those where Democrats do not traditionally compete. He would also have enough money to enjoy the luxury of making mistakes, whereas any poor choices McCain makes would be felt much more acutely.
"From my vantage point, the enthusiasm is there, and for the first time we're seeing the [Internet] fundraising and the traditional fundraising both pulling the rope the same way," said Mitchell Berger, a Florida lawyer who helped oversee fundraising for President Bill Clinton in 1996 and for Vice President Al Gore in 2000, and who is raising money for Obama. "More than any time in my memory, Democrats are ready to go."
While not all of McCain's aides and supporters agree that Obama will substantially outraise him this fall, they said the senator from Arizona is uniquely positioned to wage a lean, underdog effort, much as he did in the Republican primaries. They said his knack for parlaying late-night television appearances and free-wheeling bus tours into free media attention have proved that money is not the only way to win.
"Senator McCain has demonstrated he can run a competitive campaign without spending as much as his opponents," said senior adviser Charles R. Black Jr. "He just finished demonstrating it."
McCain also appears confident that his fundraising will continue to accelerate. Yesterday, campaign manager Rick Davis announced that McCain will air ads in 10 swing states, including costly markets such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, from now until November. Davis called it "the single most significant ad buy since this election cycle began two years ago."
McCain campaign officials told reporters yesterday that their fundraising will be bolstered by the Republican National Committee, which had more than $53 million in the bank at the start of the month; in comparison, the Democratic National Committee had less than $5 million on hand.
Republicans have enjoyed a fundraising advantage in the modern era of presidential politics, and only Democrats backed by the power of incumbency, such as President Bill Clinton in 1996, have been in a position to compete.
In 2000, for instance, George W. Bush raised $95.5 million during the primaries, almost double Gore's $48 million. And during the general election, when both candidates accepted an equal share of federal funds, the RNC outraised its Democratic counterpart by almost $120 million, according to Federal Election Commission records. The pattern continued in 2004.
This year, that pattern has flipped. Obama has raised $265 million over 15 months, and he had $46 million on hand at the end of April. McCain finished the same period having raised $96 million. He raised another $21.5 million in May and finished the month with $31.5 million in the bank. Obama has not released May figures.
While McCain appears poised to accept $85 million in federal money for the general election -- funding that will kick in after he formally accepts the nomination in September -- Obama has not indicated whether he will honor an earlier pledge to do the same. His top fundraisers say they expect him to forgo the funds in favor of raising money with no upper limits.
Their confidence in Obama's ability to far exceed the federal amount stems in part from discussions with top Clinton fundraisers, who helped bring in $214 million for her bid. "I was talking to them all day yesterday and today," Berger said. "They're not difficult conversations."
Several veteran campaign strategists from both parties said Obama's potential financial edge could emerge as a significant barrier for McCain, particularly as the two candidates start to organize efforts in key battleground states.
McCain will have to consider the expensive advertising costs in places such as New Jersey and California when deciding whether to try to compete there, said Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
"If I'm McCain, I've got to be a little intimidated by the kind of money Obama can raise," Tracey said. "I mean, McCain basically has got to outmaneuver Obama. He's got to guess right on issues, timing and markets pretty much every time between now and November."
Mike Stratton, a Colorado-based Democratic political consultant, said money could prove more important in 2008, because both Obama and McCain intend to make strong appeals to independent voters and in more states than in previous elections.
"I think they'll both find they have lots of states that are not locked in, states where both camps have the ability to play, and they'll have to decide how to spread out their resources," Stratton said.
Scott Reed, a Washington political strategist who managed Sen. Robert J. Dole's presidential campaign in 1996 and is close to McCain, said the candidate is no doubt aware of the financial impediments he faces.
"This will not be a traditional button-down campaign; McCain cannot afford that," Reed said. "I think you can expect to see the old playbook thrown out the window."
Reed suggested that an early example of this is McCain's offer to hold a lengthy series of town-hall-style discussions with Obama. "Bringing the circus to town brings you a week of free media," he said.
He also predicted that McCain would name his vice presidential pick early, in part to generate media attention during a normally quiet period during the summer.
Meanwhile, the RNC has begun preparing for the enhanced role it will play if McCain takes public funding after the party's convention. RNC officials said they have been investing heavily in the voter files and commercial data that allow them to narrowly target their appeals to various groups of voters. The party has also moved quickly to establish a Victory Fund program that enables it to raise money in tandem with the candidate and with state committees.
Democrats have launched a similar program, though the DNC's fundraising efforts have lagged. Officials there say that has been largely a result of the protracted primary. This week, the party also invoked rules matching Obama's self-imposed restrictions on not taking money from federal lobbyists and political action committees.
RNC Chairman Mike Duncan said that while McCain probably will not have as much money as Obama, he will have enough to be competitive. "A year ago, people were writing him off," Duncan said. "He proved that the person with the most amount of money doesn't always win."
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IMAGE; By Richard A. Lipski -- The Washington Post; While Democratic leaders expect Barack Obama to outraise his GOP rival, John McCain's supporters say he is ready to run a lean, underdog campaign.
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The New York Times
June 6, 2008 Friday
Late Edition - Final
Clinton Meets With Obama After Dousing Talk of Ticket
BYLINE: By JEFF ZELENY and ADAM NAGOURNEY
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 1364 words
DATELINE: BRISTOL, Va.
Senator Barack Obama moved forcefully into the general election on Thursday, placing his stamp on the Democratic Party apparatus and holding a private nighttime meeting with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in an effort to unify Democrats.
A day after her campaign said she would end her quest for the presidential nomination, Mrs. Clinton disavowed an effort by her supporters to pressure Mr. Obama into choosing her as his running mate. She said that they were acting on their own and that the decision was ''Senator Obama's and his alone.''
The meeting between the two former rivals in Washington was initiated by Mrs. Clinton after Mr. Obama spent the day in Virginia, a state symbolic of his efforts to expand the Democratic reach.
The senators instructed their aides not to disclose details of the meeting. They issued an unusual joint statement late Thursday, saying, ''Senator Clinton and Senator Obama met tonight and had a productive discussion about the important work that needs to be done to succeed in November.''
As Mrs. Clinton prepared to formally endorse his candidacy on Saturday, Mr. Obama said the Democratic National Committee would no longer accept donations from federal lobbyists or political action committees. He said he would keep Howard Dean as the national chairman, but was deploying his own advisers to oversee party operations.
For the first time since the general-election field was set, Mr. Obama spoke with Senator John McCain, who is the presumptive Republican nominee. Aides described the brief telephone call as a cordial conversation, with both men pledging to have a civil discussion over the next five months.
Even as Mrs. Clinton began to outline her exit strategy, discussing among advisers what she wanted her delegates to do, the race between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain rolled along.
Their destinations were telling: Mr. McCain trying to appeal to independent voters in Florida, while Mr. Obama arrived in this small southwestern Virginia town as a signal that he intended to try to compete in nontraditional battlegrounds for a Democratic presidential candidate.
Mr. McCain bought time for television advertisements to begin running as soon as Friday in what Democrats were describing as a vigorous move that they estimated cost $3 million or more. Democrats monitoring his spending said the commercials would run in Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada and New Mexico; beginning on Saturday, he bought time in Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Early indications were that Mr. McCain was going to advertise heavily in markets both large and small.
While Virginia was among the states that Mr. Obama won in the primary season, he had trouble here in the southwest. Mrs. Clinton carried the city of Bristol, as well as the surrounding county, by 67 percent to 32 percent. Four years ago, President Bush won 64 percent of the vote.
So the visit by Mr. Obama, which he declared his first official campaign stop of the general-election campaign, was intended to be as rich with symbolism as political strategy. He talked about health care, the Iraq war and the economy. He was interrupted by heavy applause, even though some people in the audience had other topics on their mind.
''Immigration! Immigration!'' one man shouted from the back of the gymnasium.
Mark Warner, a former Virginia governor who briefly was a presidential candidate and is running for a United States Senate seat, introduced Mr. Obama. Mr. Warner implored those in attendance to keep an open mind about the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Among the challenges facing Mr. Obama is to introduce himself before his rival does it for him.
''Listen, Virginia, I'm not going to be able to do it by myself; I am going to need every one of you,'' Mr. Obama told an audience of several hundred supporters. ''So in the next few months, I need you to be my ambassadors.''
While Mrs. Clinton staged no campaign events, she remained a presence in the race.
The statement from her campaign came after a number of her key supporters had pressed the idea of picking her as the vice-presidential candidate, saying that such a match-up was the best way to salve wounds in the party and to assure victory in the fall.
Until Thursday, Mrs. Clinton had made no obvious effort to discourage it, telling New York lawmakers, in a private conference call earlier this week, that she was open to serving as Mr. Obama's running mate.
The efforts to push Mrs. Clinton onto the ticket was, in its directness, unusual, and, several Democrats said, arguably counterproductive. Aides to Mr. Obama said they were unhappy with the effort, and some Democrats outside the campaign said Mr. Obama could be portrayed as bowing to pressure should he choose Mrs. Clinton to run with him.
The statement issued Thursday was, in many ways, a more typical statement put out by a vanquished candidate seeking consideration for the No. 2 spot. Mrs. Clinton did not rule out accepting the position if offered, even as she made clear that she thought it was Mr. Obama's decision to do what he liked, and that she was not authorizing the activities on her behalf.
''While Senator Clinton has made clear throughout this process that she will do whatever she can to elect a Democrat to the White House, she is not seeking the vice presidency, and no one speaks for her but her,'' Howard Wolfson, one of the campaign's chief strategists, said in a statement. ''The choice here is Senator Obama's and his alone.''
Mr. Obama, speaking to reporters on Thursday, said, ''I appreciate it very much.''
He added that he felt no pressure to rush through his vice-presidential selection process, declaring that he would not be swayed by Democrats who have urged him to put Mrs. Clinton on the ticket.
''Obviously, Senator Clinton's been through this when President Clinton went through a very deliberative process before he selected Al Gore,'' Mr. Obama said.
He added, ''There's no decision that I'm going to make that's going to be more important before the November election. I intend to do it right, and I'm not going to do it in the press.''
While he conceded that Mrs. Clinton ''would be on anybody's short list,'' he declined to answer additional questions about the matter. ''The next time you hear from me about the vice-presidential selection process will be when I have selected a vice president,'' he said.
Mrs. Clinton set the final event of her campaign for president for noon Saturday in Washington. A sign of the chaotic end of the nominating fight -- in response to pressure from some of her former supporters on Capitol Hill -- was that her remaining aides were left scrambling for a venue to hold what his aides said would be several thousand of her supporters.
On that day, Mr. Obama said he intended to take a brief respite.
''We've been going at a pretty fast clip,'' he told reporters Thursday between his campaign events. ''I intend to take the weekend off, and I'm going to take my wife out on a date. I hope to go on a bike ride with my kids.''
There still was some question about precisely what Mrs. Clinton would do and say, reflecting a disagreement inside her circles. Some aides are urging her to hold on to her delegates and permit supporters to enter her name at the convention for the nomination, a symbolic if potentially divisive gesture.
Others warned that such a step could further damage her standing in Democratic circles, particularly after the rough reaction to her speech on Tuesday night when she signaled she might not leave the race any time soon and did not acknowledge Mr. Obama's victory.
Several Democratic members of New York's Congressional delegation, who had been among Mrs. Clinton's earliest supporters, endorsed Mr. Obama on Thursday. Representative Edolphus Towns, Democrat of Brooklyn, made it clear that he would not have waited for Mrs. Clinton to step aside in order to throw his support behind Mr. Obama, who has strong support in Mr. Towns's district.
''The process was over,'' Mr. Towns said, referring to the fact that Mr. Obama had clinched the nomination on Tuesday. ''There was no reason for me to wait to make a decision.''
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GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Barack Obama after a rally on Thursday in Bristol, Va., which he called his first official campaign stop of the general-election race. (PHOTOGRAPH BY DAMON WINTER/THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg. A19)
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York on Tuesday. (PHOTOGRAPH BY TODD HEISLER/THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg. A14)
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The Washington Post
June 5, 2008 Thursday
Regional Edition
The Gas Prices We Deserve
BYLINE: George F. Will
SECTION: EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A19
LENGTH: 738 words
Rising in the Senate on May 13, Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat, explained: "I rise to discuss rising energy prices." The president was heading to Saudi Arabia to seek an increase in its oil production, and Schumer's gorge was rising.
Saudi Arabia, he said, "holds the key to reducing gasoline prices at home in the short term." Therefore arms sales to that kingdom should be blocked unless it "increases its oil production by one million barrels per day," which would cause the price of gasoline to fall "50 cents a gallon almost immediately."
Can a senator, with so many things on his mind, know so precisely how the price of gasoline would respond to that increase in the oil supply? Schumer does know that if you increase the supply of something, the price of it probably will fall. That is why he and 96 other senators recently voted to increase the supply of oil on the market by stopping the flow of oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which protects against major physical interruptions. Seventy-one of the 97 senators who voted to stop filling the reserve also oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
One million barrels is what might today be flowing from ANWR if in 1995 President Bill Clinton had not vetoed legislation to permit drilling there. One million barrels produce 27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel. Seventy-two of today's senators -- including Schumer, of course, and 38 other Democrats, including Barack Obama, and 33 Republicans, including John McCain -- have voted to keep ANWR's estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil off the market.
So Schumer, according to Schumer, is complicit in taking $10 away from every American who buys 20 gallons of gasoline. "Democracy," said H.L. Mencken, "is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." The common people of New York want Schumer to be their senator, so they should pipe down about gasoline prices, which are a predictable consequence of their political choice.
Also disqualified from complaining are all voters who sent to Washington senators and representatives who have voted to keep ANWR's oil in the ground and who voted to put 85 percent of America's offshore territory off-limits to drilling. The U.S. Minerals Management Service says that restricted area contains perhaps 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas -- 10 times as much oil and 20 times as much natural gas as Americans use in a year.
Drilling is underway 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.
ANWR is larger than the combined areas of five states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware), and drilling along its coastal plain would be confined to a space one-sixth the size of Washington's Dulles airport. Offshore? Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed or damaged hundreds of drilling rigs without causing a large spill. There has not been a significant spill from an offshore U.S. well since 1969. Of the more than 7 billion barrels of oil pumped offshore in the past 25 years, 0.001 percent -- that is one-thousandth of 1 percent -- has been spilled. Louisiana has more than 3,200 rigs offshore -- and a thriving commercial fishing industry.
In his book "Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of 'Energy Independence,' " Robert Bryce says Brazil's energy success has little to do with its much-discussed ethanol production and much to do with its increased oil production, the vast majority of which comes from off Brazil's shore. Investor's Business Daily reports that Brazil, "which recently made a major oil discovery almost in sight of Rio's beaches," has leased most of the world's deep-sea drilling rigs.
In September 2006, two U.S. companies announced that their Jack No. 2 well, in the Gulf 270 miles southwest of New Orleans, had tapped a field with perhaps 15 billion barrels of oil, which would increase America's proven reserves by 50 percent. Just probing four miles below the Gulf's floor costs $100 million. Congress's response to such expenditures is to propose increasing the oil companies' tax burdens.
America says to foreign producers: We prefer not to pump our oil, so please pump more of yours, thereby lowering its value, for our benefit. Let it not be said that America has no energy policy.
georgewill@washpost.com
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Washingtonpost.com
June 5, 2008 Thursday 1:00 PM EST
Washington Sketch
BYLINE: Dana Milbank, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 2576 words
HIGHLIGHT: Post columnist Dana Milbank, who serves as the capital's foremost critic of political theater in his Washington Sketch columns and videos, was online Thursday, June 4 at 1 p.m. ET to take your questions and comments about the things politicians say -- and the absurd ways they find to say them.
Post columnist Dana Milbank, who serves as the capital's foremost critic of political theater in his Washington Sketch columns and videos, was online Thursday, June 4 at 1 p.m. ET to take your questions and comments about the things politicians say -- and the absurd ways they find to say them.
The transcript follows.
____________________
Dana Milbank: Good afternoon, campers.
So the day after claiming the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama has knocked down prospects for a Middle East peace deal. He said yesterday that Jerusalem should be the undivided capital of Israel -- a position that goes well beyond that of Bush or McCain. Here, according to Reuters, is the Palestinian Authority reaction:
"This statement is totally rejected," President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Ramallah. "The whole world knows that East Jerusalem, holy Jerusalem, was occupied in 1967 and we will not accept a Palestinian state without having Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state."
Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said of Obama: "He has closed all doors to peace."
I now open the doors to your questions.
_______________________
Silver Spring, Md.: A comment rather than a question. (Well, okay -- a rant.) I really am ticked off that the very first place Obama and Clinton went the day after the nomination was clinched was AIPAC. This is the first issue that needed to be addressed? I mean really, how many American Jews (of which I am one) would base their vote on a candidate's position on Israel? Does anyone think for a second that a candidate from either party is going to announce one day that he has "changed his mind" about Israel's security? Maybe it's a generational thing -- and I suppose there's campaign money at stake -- but couldn't the pandering have waiting at least a week? I'm disgusted.
Dana Milbank: I think they can't be blamed for the timing. The AIPAC conference is an annual thing, and was scheduled before anybody knew the nomination fight would end the night before.
What I'm intrigued by is what Obama said. He clearly didn't have to announce that he had taken Israel's side on one of the thorniest final status issues. Even Bush, who never hesitates to stick a thumb in the Palestinian eye, devoted part of yesterday to suspending for another six months plans to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
_______________________
Washington: Hi there. So, what did you go over and ask Ickes on Saturday?
Dana Milbank: Ah, a keen eye in the room at the DNC rules committee meeting at the Marriott. It had appeared to me and others that, after Obama man Wexler made his presentation, he shook hands with everybody at the table but skipped over Clinton man Harold Ickes. But Ickes denied this, and when we went back to look at the tape, we saw that they had, in fact, shook hands, just out of order at the table. So, much ado about nothing.
_______________________
San Francisco: It sounds like Hillary Clinton has booked the entire weekend to say goodbye. When will she cede the spotlight to Barack Obama?
Dana Milbank: January 20, 2009.
_______________________
Washington: So Dana, are you ecstatic about Obama's victory, or just merely stoked?
Dana Milbank:
I think if you read today's column, you'll see I'm no flack for Obama. It was, perhaps, assumed by people who read my coverage of the Clinton deathwatch that I was opposed to her. Hopefully you'll find that I'm holding everybody to account.
So I guess just "merely stoked."
_______________________
New York: Do you think Obama just said what he believed, that he spoke rashly about an area which is not his forte, or that he's cynically trying to position himself as the non-Hamas candidate?
Dana Milbank:
Can't guess at motive, but he was reading the speech carefully off a teleprompter. This wasn't an offhand remark. I note, however, that Hamas has rescinded its previous endorsement of Obama, so it seems to have achieved that result.
Here's the Hamas guy from the same Reuters story:
"Obama's comments have confirmed there will be no change in the U.S. administration's policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict," Sami Abu Zuhri said. "Hamas does not differentiate between the two presidential candidates, Obama and McCain, because their policies regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict are the same and are hostile to us."
Of course, being hostile to Hamas is a good thing; if I were Obama, I'd be more worried about the Palestinian Authority's reaction.
_______________________
Primary Rehab: A big fist-bump to you, sir. Ever since you wrote the sketch about Hillary pointing out a friend in the imaginary crowd that greeted her plane -- a staffer she'd just seen inside the plane -- I can't help but notice every time she does it. She did it a couple of times Tuesyday night, and all I could think of was that windswept tarmac...
washingtonpost.com: This Is an Ex-Candidate (Post, May 13)
Dana Milbank:
I was at Tuesday night's non-concession speech in the Baruch College gym, and saw the pointing and waving you're talking about. Now in this case, there was a crowd and a decent chance she did recognize some old friend in it. But that's the problem with phony pointing and waving -- once you do it, people will always assume you're gesturing to imaginary friends.
_______________________
McLean, Va.: Are you going to make traffic reports on the I-66 backup caused by the Obama event at the Nissan Pavillion in Beautiful Bristow, Va., not Prince William County, Va.?
Dana Milbank: Now that would have been a fine Sketch. Alas, I got a late start today. Pepco just got our power back on after yesterday's storms. And I've got to rest up for Hillaryfest on Saturday.
_______________________
New York: Dana, Love your work and your bits on Olbermann's show. My question is about delusion, which seems to be epidemic on both ends of the political spectrum. When, as on Tuesday night, a Terry McAuliffe can announce, "I give you the next president of the United States, Hillary Clinton!" and then Clinton can go on to give the speech she gave, do you think these folks actually believe what they're saying? Are they baldfacedly lying for some inscrutable political reason, exhausted and temporarily irrational, still just putting on a brave face, or something else entirely? If they actually do believe it, what does that mean for Americans who have just suffered through eight years of raving delusion?
Dana Milbank:
Interesting question. I assume they know they're full of it in an intellectual sense but they get caught up in the moment. Kind of like how Scott McClellan described the march to war in Iraq. So, yes, I guess you've found another good reason to be cynical. Will add it to my collection.
_______________________
Bethesda, Md.: As the namesake of the town where Hillary's campaign went to die, you would seem to be a logical choice for press secretary in an Obama White House. To audition, please give us your best McClellan-esque rendering of what Obama should say on the topic of Clinton as running mate.
washingtonpost.com: A No-Name Town Looks Like Waterloo (Post, June 3)
Dana Milbank: When we have something to announce on that, we'll announce it.
_______________________
West of Milbank, S.D.: Did you get an oversized key to the town of Milbank, S.D.? Because if there's anyone who deserves it, it's a guy named Milbank!
Dana Milbank:
All I got was this lousy T-shirt.
(Actually the "You'll like Milbank" T-shirts are pretty spiffy, and 100% cotton.)
_______________________
Washington:"How many American Jews (of which I am one) would base their vote on a candidate's position on Israel?" Like this person, I am Jewish and I would not base my vote based on this. However, I know many relatives of mine would, so I find it surprising that this question would be posed. Unofortunately, the answer is: a lot.
Dana Milbank:
I think we've got a minyan for this chat.
Actually, the stats show that Jews vote overwhelmingly Democratic, and primarily on domestic issues. But Obama has a particular difficulty with this issue, being a Muslim plant an all.
(Note to David Brock: I'm kidding. He is not a Muslim plant. He is not a Muslim. As far as I know.)
_______________________
Albany, N.Y.: While "The Daily Show" reporters are amusing on TV, I always have wondered if they annoy the the rest of the reporters at these events. Did your colleagues find the "four more months" chant entertaining during the Hillary speech on Tuesday, or are they more like that class clown who crosses the line?
Dana Milbank: Actually Jim Axelrod from CBS shouted back at them: "We're on air!" But I think that's the first time I came across a Daily Show crew. We reporters do a fine job of causing disruptions without them.
_______________________
Boston: Dana, what is your take on the notion of the Obama/Clinton ticket? At one point in this was considered a dream ticket. I think that this was maybe a pipe-dream ticket, and I don't see how Obama really could offer her the vice president slot.
Dana Milbank: When we have something to announce on that, we'll announce it.
_______________________
Dunnellon, Fla.: Do we know if Obama has visited a mohel lately?
Dana Milbank: That's it! We're kicking you out of the minyan.
_______________________
Anonymous: Muslim plant? Is that like a date palm?
Dana Milbank: Actually I believe he is a Sabra cactus.
(This, too, is a joke, David Brock. Obama is not a cactus or a date palm. He is a beautiful forget-me-not.)
_______________________
Seattle: Inquiring minds want to know: Who are you rooting for in the NBA Finals between the Lakers and the Celtics?
Dana Milbank: When we have something to announce on that, we'll announce it.
_______________________
Arlington, Va.: Dana, what do you think of McCain's proposal for 10 debates with Obama? Though it will provide a plethora of material for your columns, it seems so clearly a mistake -- the comparison of the 1960 debates between Kennedy and Nixon seem so obvious, my friends.
Dana Milbank:
Actually, the town-hall format McCain proposes is probably a better medium for both men, neither of whom shined in the debates. If we were going by debate performance, I think November would be a Huckabee-Gravel matchup.
The more important McCain idea, and the one that Obama should be pressed to support as well, is his promise to do regular "Question Time" before the Congress. That would be excellent for the nation and, more importantly, the Sketch.
_______________________
Cube City: You said "once you do it, people will always assume you're gesturing to imaginary friends." Excuse me -- just because you can't see them doesn't mean they are imaginary or that their ir votes don't count! They're not invisible to her! No sir!
Dana Milbank:
Thank you, Lanny Davis.
_______________________
New York: When it comes down to it, I think Hillary lost the nomination because her campaign had the feel of one being run by Karl Rove and his cadre: Spin the truth, change the rules, never admit fault, deny reality. On the same day Obama clinched the nomination, she was introduced as the next president of the U.S. It looked like she was in the same type of bubble Bush has been in for eight years. Please, no more of that.
Dana Milbank: All the more reason for Obama, after pledging a different sort of foreign policy, not to reverse course the day after clinching the nomination.
_______________________
Washington: Wow, you know the campaign is getting way too long when you find yourself writing stories about towns that share your surname.
Dana Milbank: Indeed, it was a cheap and tawdry stunt, and I enjoyed it immensely, Milbank you very much.
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Washington:"Question Time" is clearly a ploy to boost C-SPAN's ratings, and the 10 televised debates proposed by McCain are a ploy to sell his message on national TV 10 times without having to pay a buck in ad spend. It's all very noble.
Dana Milbank: What's good for the Sketch is good for America.
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Technically speaking...: by birth he is Muslim, via simple fact that his father was Muslim (just as a Jew is so by virtue of his/her mother being a Jew). I don't see a lot of talk about this, perhaps because folks feel the general public is just too dumb to get the concept.
Dana Milbank: Thank heavens he has all these crazy Christian preachers.
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New Hampshire: Hi Dana and thanks for taking my question. As your intro states, you are the person "who serves as the capital's foremost critic of political theater in his Washington Sketch columns and videos." Can you please explain to me what all that posturing at AIPAC was yesterday, and why the media actually covered it at length, as opposed to other years when only C-SPAN covered any speech at all? Do you think that these speeches will have any effect on the electorate or the general election?
Dana Milbank: Actually AIPAC is a Sketch perennial. From 2005:
"Reporters arriving at the convention center yesterday were given a list of "Food Facts" for the three-day AIPAC meeting: 26,000 kosher meals, 32,640 hors d'oeuvres, 2,500 pounds of salmon, 1,200 pounds of turkey, 900 pounds of chicken, 700 pounds of beef and 125 gallons of hummus."
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Minneapolis: I didn't realize religion was determined by birth. Perhaps "Technically Speaking" should tell Tony Blair to stop parading around like he's a Catholic.
Dana Milbank: Yes, he is definitely a Sabra cactus.
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washingtonpost.com: AIPAC's Big, Bigger, Biggest Moment (Post, May 24, 2005)
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Washington: Of course that pointing and gesturing is fake -- do you ever notice how she says a few words as she's waving? Like whoever it is going to hear any of that. Maybe she has a lot of lip-reading pals.
Dana Milbank: In fact there was somebody doing sign language on the stage, I recall, when McAuliffe was giving his speech. I wasn't looking but I'm guessing that when he introduced her as the "next president of the United States," the interpreter circled her finger around her ear in the the international symbol for "cuckoo."
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Farmington Hills, Mich.: Love your chats Dana. Always puts a smile on my face. One question -- have you ever been invited to "The Daily Show"? You'd be a natural. Maybe you should start your own and give Stewart a run for his money.
Dana Milbank: Thank you for the question; please debit my account the usual charge.
Alas it is a sore point. No amount of begging and pleading would get me on the show to sell my book, Homo Politicus. I therefore am boycotting the show; I know this has hurt them terribly.
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Milbank on Milbank: Hellooo Milbank! Did you get the chance to sit with Bill Clinton for an interview in Milbank? Do you feel he's lost a step, or is that just vicious rumor?
Dana Milbank:
His labeling of the honorable Todd Purdum as a "scumbag" did indeed fuel the speculation that he has some sort of surgery related brain damage. But possibly he was just hungry for lunch and the Milbankians were not leaving him alone.
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Veepsterland: How do you handicap the race to be Obama's pick for vice president?
Dana Milbank: When we have something to announce on that, we'll announce it.
Thanks for tuning in.
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The Washington Post
June 4, 2008 Wednesday
Suburban Edition
McCain Mounts Immediate Attack on Obama's Record
BYLINE: Michael D. Shear and Juliet Eilperin; Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A-SECTION; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 957 words
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS, June 3
Republican Sen. John McCain wasted no time Tuesday night in launching his first general-election broadside against Sen. Barack Obama, casting the Democrat as an out-of-touch liberal who offers a false promise of change.
In a prime-time speech designed to upstage Obama on the night he claimed the Democratic nomination, McCain began what top aides and other Republicans promise will be an aggressive effort to claim the mantles of reform, experience and mainstream values. Obama, he said, is an "impressive man" but one with a thin record.
"For all his fine words and all his promise, he has never taken the hard but right course of risking his own interests for yours, of standing against the partisan rancor on his side to stand up for our country," McCain said less than two hours before Obama spoke in the same arena in St. Paul, Minn., where McCain will claim the Republican nomination in September.
McCain began his speech by praising Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who in the Democratic primary race won over many rural and working-class voters that McCain hopes to capture in November. "As the father of three daughters, I owe her a debt for inspiring millions of women to believe there is no opportunity in this great country beyond their reach," McCain said. "I am proud to call her my friend."
Two McCain aides said his speech was the beginning of a "great debate" on the direction of the country. It will be followed quickly by a television ad campaign aimed at reinforcing McCain's core message: that Obama's sweeping rhetoric offers little real promise of changing the political culture in Washington.
Confronting what his aides expect to be Obama's principal attack against him, McCain explicitly rejected the idea that he represents President Bush's third term.
"Why does Senator Obama believe it's so important to repeat that idea over and over again?" he asked. "Because he knows it's very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false."
As evidence of his independence, McCain highlighted his breaks with Bush on Iraq, energy and climate change.
In his speech, Obama honored McCain's service but derided the Republican's claim to stand for change, linking him to what he called the "failed" foreign and economic policies of Bush. "So I'll say this -- there are many words to describe John McCain's attempt to pass off his embrace of George Bush's policies as bipartisan and new," Obama said. "But change is not one of them."
The speeches were more direct and personal than they have been in the past. McCain said half a dozen times that Obama's "old" ways "are not change we can believe in" -- a play on Obama's slogan -- as he stood in front of a sign that said "Leadership we can believe in." Obama mocked McCain's support for Republican policies, saying his Democratic vision is "the change we need."
On Iraq, McCain said Obama would "draw us into a wider war with even greater sacrifices." Obama accused McCain of supporting "a policy where all we look for are reasons to stay in Iraq, while we spend billions of dollars a month on a war that isn't making the American people any safer."
McCain decried "wasteful spending by both parties" and said, "Senator Obama has supported it and proposed more of his own." Obama invited McCain to travel more to economically hard-hit communities, so "he'd understand the kind of change that people are looking for."
A McCain-Obama matchup means voters will have a stark choice between two men who both assert that they will be the agents of upheaval in Washington. One is a military hero who Americans have known for decades. The other is a Chicago community organizer introduced to the public at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
McCain crossed the nominating finish line long before Obama, but he has struggled to take advantage of the extra time. McCain has spent the past two months unveiling campaign themes and taking swipes at Obama, but he has also been dogged by questions about his age and health, his wife's tax returns and his connection to controversial pastors and lobbyists. And some Republicans have expressed concern about how slowly McCain has moved to match Obama's organizational prowess across the nation.
After watching Clinton beat up on Obama, top McCain advisers say that the Republican nominee faces the likelihood of a revitalized rival who will quickly seek to unify his party and to tap into the obvious energy among Democratic activists and donors.
McCain advisers concede that the battle for the White House will play out in a political environment that is terrible for Republicans: Gas and food prices are high, economic anxiety runs deep, Bush is pushing an unpopular war, and 80 percent of Americans think the country is on the wrong track.
But those advisers say the long Democratic battle has exposed serious weaknesses for Obama, especially among blue-collar voters, and provided a road map for questioning the nominee's lack of experience and judgment.
With the help of the Republican National Committee, McCain's campaign aims to portray Obama as weak and naive on foreign policy, with questionable judgment on big issues.
They will call him a liberal who is out of the mainstream. They will question his record on bipartisanship and cast him as an elitist who cannot identify with middle Americans.
McCain spoke in Kenner, a suburb of New Orleans hit hard by Hurricane Katrina and a place that McCain's campaign said exemplifies the government dysfunction that he vows to fix. A couple of hundred people crammed into a small room at a local convention center, while nearly another thousand lined up outside.
A brass band played, and local high school cheerleaders cried: "Get those votes! Let's go, McCain! Get those votes, let's go!"
LOAD-DATE: June 4, 2008
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GRAPHIC: IMAGE; By Bill Haber -- Associated Press; John McCain greets backers of his presidential campaign in Kenner, La. He called his likely opponent "an impressive man" short on accomplishments.
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Washingtonpost.com
June 4, 2008 Wednesday 12:00 PM EST
Federal Diary Live
BYLINE: Stephen Barr, Washington Post Columnist, washingtonpost.com
SECTION: LIVEONLINE
LENGTH: 4038 words
HIGHLIGHT: It seems almost every federal agency has its share of troubles today. They may stem from politicization, poor leadership, needless bureaucratic layering, staffing cuts, outsourcing, and dwindling interest in federal careers among young people. One of the next president's most important jobs will be to revitalize the government.
It seems almost every federal agency has its share of troubles today. They may stem from politicization, poor leadership, needless bureaucratic layering, staffing cuts, outsourcing, and dwindling interest in federal careers among young people. One of the next president's most important jobs will be to revitalize the government.
Paul C. Light, an expert on public service, joined The Post's Stephen Barr, who writes the Federal Diary column, to discuss what the presidential transition may mean for federal employees on Wednesday, June 4 at noon ET on Federal Diary Live.
The transcript follows.
Light is a professor of public service at New York University and the author of a new book, "A Government Ill Executed: The Decline of the Federal Service and How to Reverse It." Before joining New York University, he was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he led the Government Studies Program and founded the Center for Public Service. He also has been the director of the public policy program at the Pew Charitable Trusts and associate dean and professor of public affairs at the University of Minnesota. Light has written 18 books, including "Thickening Government" and "The Tides of Reform."
Archive: Federal Diary Live transcripts
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Stephen Barr: Thanks to all joining this discussion, especially our guest today, Paul Light, who knows the ways of Washington and of the government. The newspapers today are filled with reports and analysis of Sen. Barack Obama's victory in the Democratic presidential contest, and I'd like to use that as a peg for my first question. Paul, please tell us what you think we can expect from either an Obama or McCain administration, in terms of federal management issues. Is it automatic that they will scrap the Bush administration's management agenda? Again, thanks for being our guest today!
Paul Light: We don't really know yet what McCain or Obama will do--frankly, government management is rarely mentioned on the campaign trail except in harsh messages about cutting waste, fraud, and abuse (which is a recurring McCain theme).
The problem is that neither has really managed anything beyond a relatively small Senate staff--Obama has said on occasion that he does not intend to be the COO of government, but he hasn't outlined much else (though he did recommend a pretty hierarchical structure for New Orleans relief last summer). McCain has done a little more on government management over the years, including a proposed cut in the number of political appointees. He hasn't mentioned it for eight years now, but he ought to rescue it.
Then there's the issue of campaign management. Obama and his senior staff have been spot-on in their organizing, while McCain stumbled badly last summer. There may be some insights there.
As for the Bush management agenda, say "goodbye." It's history, though pieces may be continued under different names. Can't imagine that the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) will stay, though. It's so subjective.
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Fairfax, Va.: If Barack Obama is elected president, do you think there will be an upswing in younger Americans wanting to work in public service, much like after John F. Kennedy became president?
Paul Light: I don't think Obama will stimulate a great surge in student interest. There is some evidence that many students are willing to consider federal careers, but just don't follow through. I think the hiring process and the prospect of 30 years in a career just saps the interest in joining the government. This is very much a seller's market--some economists estimate that we may have 14 million empty jobs over the coming 10 years. The federal government has to have more than a secure paycheck to attract the Millennials. It's the work, chance to acquire new skills, and immediate impact that young people want (no matter how naive that might be). Very impatient for results. The more the federal government emphasizes pay and benefits, the less interested many students are. They can get bigger paychecks from the private section (including contractors), and more meaningful work from nonprofits perhaps.
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W. Bethesda, Md.: In Tuesday's column, "Past the Time for Tinkering on Public Service," you state "Light also proposes to cut the number of political appointees by half..." For many of us who work for DoD we would like to see a similar proposal for limiting the number of uniformed military in management positions. While most of these people are smart and well meaning they frequently come into a position of authority without much background and understanding of their organization. As they then tend to rotate to a new position every two or three years, they are rarely held accountable for bad decisions which come to fruition after their watch. This is a continual frustration for career civil service employees who do have to live with the repurcussions of these bad decisions and frequenly have to clean up the mess.
Stephen Barr: Paul, just to add a related note here. Many Diary readers who work in the Defense Department have expressed concern that their military supervisors will lose interest in the National Security Personnel System over time because of the policy of regular rotations for officers, etc.
Paul Light: I agree completely. We ought to make sure that our managers/leaders have the skills to do their jobs. It's not just a rotation. Managing a federal unit is just not the same as managing a platoon or battalion. It can be just another checkmark on a long list of badges. One reason that these officers tire of the new personnel system is that it's hard to learn and requires a great deal of interest to administer fairly (that's the same for managers, too; we must invest in managerial training for this to work, and we must be very patient). Maybe a bumper-sticker like "It's Not Just a Rotation Anymore" would remind officers that this is a big deal.
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Stephen Barr: I cannot resist asking you to elaborate on the PART. While many congressional aides see it as subjective or "political," doesn't the PART represent a good step forward in trying to sort out federal programs and put some light on those in need of a budgetary or staffing rescue? Or is the PART simply too high level and will never be able to drill down to provide useful information? Thanks, Paul.
Paul Light: This is where the good can be the enemy of the perfect. A lot of observers question the validity of the scoring system. It seems to vary greatly from budget analyst to analyst. Why was the Consumer Product Safety Commission ranked so highly this year, for example? I do think that measuring performance/results is essential, but we have to be consistent and agree on just how we are doing it. I think the next administration will need to take another look at the issue. For the most part (no pun intended), I like the annual performance reports, which go much deeper, but even here we can't be sure of consistency. Congress needs to be included in the discussion, too. There may well be a new chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee next year--Liberman is likely to be driven out of the Democratic caucus. So perhaps that's where we can restart the process so that it actually matters on the Hill.
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Washington, D.C.: The increasing number of political appointees into the top (and lower and lower) levels of the US Federal agencies is simply getting worse with each new administration. Their interference with the work of the Career Civil Service is all too common. What practical steps are there to take in starting to reverse this ongoing (and adverse) process?
Paul Light: Cut 'em back to size. McCain actually supported legislation during the 1990s to reduce the number by 3,000. I support a 50 percent cut, and a limit on the number of "at will" appointees who surround the Senate-confirmed appointees. Moreover, one could go even further by suggesting that no "at will" appointees can be appointed until their Senate-confirmed boss arrives. And we should consider a methodology for restricting the number of layers political appointees occupy. I'm hoping that McCain and Obama will work on this issue over the next few months--but it is a very tough issue when candidates start thinking about giving up the patronage.
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Atlanta, Ga.: I am a 28 year old female who began her career with the federal government 8 years ago right out of college, do you think that it is a bad idea to jump ship to the private industry for higher pay, better benefits, and a lesser commute? Many of my colleagues my age are beginning to inquire and accept positions outside of the government because of pay, overall incentives by private companies and closer commutes to home while avoiding downtown city traffic.
Paul Light: I think many younger feds worry about getting locked into a thirty-year career and jump quickly. Quit rates among new recruits appear, and I emphasize appear, to be rising somewhat. I think the federal government has to realize that new recruits will want to come and go, which means more opportunity at the middle level. Why should the federal government do the training for the private sector? Let the private sector do some training and invite former feds back in with credit for their past service perhaps?
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Laurel, Md.: Fifty years ago, a college graduate considering a federal career would have seen exiting projects like civil rights, space exploration and building the interstate highway system on which to base a career. With government facing decades of elderly security program costs, what would a young worker today see facing them?
Paul Light: The federal agenda has been growing, albeit at a slower pace in recent years, and is still pretty exciting. But a lot of the work involves maintaining past achievement rather than launching new initiatives. We've been in such a cut-down mode that potential recruits wonder whether they'll get a chance to participate in something big? In that regard, Obama seems the more inspiration candidate. Who knows where we'll get the money, though, especially if the Bush tax cuts are extended.
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Washington, D.C.: I was surprised that you did not mention the current congressional initiative to found and develop a U.S. Public Service Academy, modeled on the military service institutions that have successfully fostered professionalism in our country's defense forces. Isn't the provision of equivalent training for public service a worthy undertaking, in light of obvious needs?
Stephen Barr: Paul, I assume this Diary reader is faulting my summary of your new book. But the question is interesting, so please share your views on the pros and cons of a Public Service Academy as a way to bring talented young people into the federal service.
Paul Light: I like the idea of a public service academy, though it is a very expensive proposition (imagine starting a new 5,000 student university from scratch). It could easily be appended to one of the military academies, however, thereby solving the problem of recruiting a top-flight faculty, etc. I just don't see it as a big threat to the current schools of public administration and public service. We've got plenty of room for both.
I'd didn't endorse it in my book, however, largely because I've focused more on how to retain talent and renew the federal career. I worry that coercion is not a very helpful tool for filling jobs--requiring five years of service in return for an academy appointment may merely delay the day when these new recruits jump ship.
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Stephen Barr: Paul, in addition to cutting by half the number of political appointees, your book includes a recommendation to provide federal funds to the political parties for pre-election transition planning. I imagine that transition plans are tightly held by most candidates. What led you to make this recommendation?
Paul Light: I worked on this idea way back when. It actually passed the Senate and died in the House when Jack Brooks (D-TX) decided it would be a waste of money to give planning money to two campaigns when only one might lose. Of course that logic just doesn't hold when you look at federal campaign financing--both parties will get about $15 million in federal funding for their conventions. I just think we need to remind the public that campaigns are about governing, not vice versa, and make it okay to do pre-election planning, legitimize it. It might be a waste, but at least candidates would be able to say that its an important task. They're already doing it, though who knows where--maybe in the Cheney bunker?
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Arlington, Va.: In Steve's column, you are apparently asking what programs should be dumped and which should be kept by the government. Your thoughts?
Paul Light: Well we have a penchant for continuing to pursue failed programs. But as an earlier questioner asked, how do we know what is failure or success? My main point is that we should fund the missions, provide the capabilities need to succeed, or dump the program. It's an extreme way of saying "give us the resources" or "get off our backs."
When I say capabilities, btw, I refer to the basic "stuff" that we need to deliver the mission--good leadership, decent support, intense commitment, rewards for a job done well and discipline/retraining for a job done poorly. What I mean is that federal employees are plenty smart, but they are often hamstrung by the lack of support.
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Burke, Va.: Can we expect to see any changes in federal agencies' hiring of federal IT workers (versus their contracting-out of IT work to private sector contractors and vendor organizations) in the metropolitan-Washington DC area during an upcoming McCain presidential administration? How about during an upcoming Obama presidential administration?
Paul Light: I'm not sure what we're going to do about IT. We've got to have the talent to oversee the work, integrate the contract. We've outsourced almost all aspects of IT and are now recognizing that we have become overly dependent on contractors to do it all. It may be that we need an IT Service Corps to stimulate higher pay, etc. But once we go that route, we would rightly be under pressure to create an Acquisition Service Corps, etc. Something's got to give, however. Is it high pay? More responsibility for integration? Not sure.
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Washington, D.C.: Given that we are looking to a new White House, what does your research show should be of utmost concern to the new president, regarding the civil service/government?
Paul Light: I'm particularly concerned about three things that need to be done right away.
1. Cut the number of appointees. It takes too long to get them into office, they turnover too quickly, and there's just too much meddling (read the recent story about interference with NASA's global warming report). There's just no need for so many appointees. I'm often criticized for making too much of so few appointees (just 3,000 more or less in a federal workforce of 1.8 million). But it's not the number by the layering that matters most. These appointees really stuff the senior hiearchy and have too much opportunity for mischief.
2. We've got to deal with the layering of the bureaucracy. Get more resources down into the hierarchy and junk some of the unnecessary layers. I know that we created many of the layers for good reason, but we also created many during pay freezes and to help the baby boomers like me advance. The cost is clear in the front-line delays. Some argue that I'm an apologist for federal unions on this, but we see the delays all the time and the dangers of using contractors to open tax returns and handle passports.
3. We've got to get control of our contractors. They are often free from any oversight. Case after case of this. The downsizing of the acquisition workforce is a serious problem. The recent report that the number of acquisition workers is rising is fine--but a little overdone if I may say so. However, the number of acqusition officers is still well below its 1990 mark. Meanwhile the number of large, bundled contracts has increased dramatically.
I haven't heard word one from the candidates on this--although Clinton did talk about downsizing the contract workforce.
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FEMA Person: I wanted to ask a couple of questions, if I may. First, are there agencies that a new President might be encourged to tinker with, such as DHS with its consistently bad press and low morale, or HUD, which has let the housing crisis pass by without much response.
The second is in regards to hiring. Congress in the Post Katrina Act mandated that everyone in FEMA get a clear career path, with necessary training, something that we had been looking forward to. (The mandate, however has yet to be implemented by management.) In your discussion of Millennials, are you suggesting that established career paths might actually turn off younger people looking at Federal jobs?
Paul Light: First question: I wouldn't tinker with DHS, but break it down. FEMA needs to be on its own, as does the Coast Guard. The department is still a mess--these mergers take time of course, as Energy shows, but time is not what we have. It needs to get back to a single mission, which is homeland security. It's spending too much time on immigration and other issues.
As for HUD, all ideas are welcome.
Second question: I think that rebuilding career paths is essential to retention. Millennials have so many options for the future and have been taught not to trust any employer. But some will stay for thirty years and others will leave, and still others will leave and come back. We shouldn't think of one career path per se, I guess, but several. And make the invitation to return visible. The Partnership for Public Service has done some nice work on middle-level hiring. Why train all these younger feds and just let them go--send them off with a standing invitation to return with credits for their service.
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Washington, D.C.: The Bush administration likes the 9 to 5, business-type model of work. What do you recommend for the next administration?
Paul Light: Let federal employees do their jobs, get the mission done. If that means overtime, so be it. There's no excuse for sending employees home when so many agencies are backlogged.
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Arlington, Va.: I think I am on the opposite side of what you describe as far as attractiveness of the federal government. I am 35, and worked for 13 years in the nonprofit sector. I enjoyed my work, and the flexibility of the orgs I worked for, but after a certain point the flatness of nonprofits meant I couldn't rise any further, career-wise. It doesn't feel good to be "maxed" out when you're 30!
So I went back to get my MPA (part-time, while working) and decided to start looking for a job in the government. My dad was a 30+ year fed retiree, and my husband works for the gov't too, and for the most part, enjoys his work. What I wanted was challenging work, career advancement, and a better sense of job security (always lacking as an administrator in a nonprofit, esp. as the economy slows).
I found this through the Federal Career Intern Program. (I encourage young people to check out this program, and the opportunities that exist at various agencies.) I'm now in a 2-year training and development program, targeting a Management Analyst position in a small executive agency, and I am happier, career-wise, than I've been since I was 25.
Yes, there are rules and regulations galore in the government. But the nonprofits I worked at often suffered due to LACK of policy/SOPs, and I often felt that I was constantly "re-inventing the wheel."
It's actually an exciting time to be in the government, I feel, with retirements coming more rapidly and senior staff looking to do some knowledge transfer to younger employees. ....
Just my two cents on my new foray into the federal government!
Paul Light: Thanks for the comment. Welcome back! Public service comes in many shapes and sizes today, of course, and you're quite right about nonprofits. They can be just as bureaucratic as any organizations, and the smaller ones have very little room for advancement. I like to say that the nonprofit sector has a first-class workforce but often operates with third-class organizations. But there is something that called you to the nonprofit sector right out of college, I'd guess. It was the chance to make a difference. Now that you're older, you have decided that you can make a difference in government, too. More power to you. All government agencies are not alike either, which is why my writing is sometimes (some might say often-times) over-generalized.
I'm a slender reed on which to hang this, but I'm proud of you and wish you every good thing.
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Washington, D.C.: It's a pity more young people aren't aware of the interesting types of jobs the Federal Govt. can offer. I work as a lawyer at Treasury and assist in creating the regulations for the deferred comp/pension law for the United States. It's like being in law school full time. Very interesting work. However, the pay is not great compared to what can be earned in the private sector. Many of us here are working moms who want some flexibility, people who opted out of the high pressure firms, or academia types. Nevertheless, we all feel we do something important. I agree, however, that streamlining the hiring process would help greatly.
Paul Light: There are some great examples of agencies that have really shortened the hiring process. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has apparently got the days down below 30, for example (they'll have to correct me if I'm wrong). And others have worked it. Better advertising, too. But you still need a lot of information to find a job that fits--not a PhD, but pretty good sleuthing skills. And you need patience.
The problem comes on the day when you start. It's like that old Maytag commercial--new recruits can feel pretty lonely right off the starting block and sometimes feel that their agencies can't honor the promise of interesting, meaningful work. I'm glad you found it. Good luck.
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Stephen Barr: Well, Paul, we've run out of time today. Thank you for taking the time to answer questions from Federal Diary readers and share your views on the upcoming presidential transition. If any Diary readers are interested in purchasing "A Government Ill Executed," where should they look? Again, thank you for joining us today.
Paul Light: Thanks for asking--I'm tempted to say you can find the book on remainder tables all across America, but it's still selling nicely. The best place to go is Harvard University Press athttp://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/LIGGOV.html. Amazon.com is listing it as out of stock, but they just got a shipment. So that's an option, too.
It's always my pleasure to join you in these chats. You've done more for public service over the past few years than anyone I know. You ought to get a Service to America Medal and ask for it in gold.
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Stephen Barr: Paul, I'm not sure that I'm gold medal material, but, like you, I hold the public service in high regard and have really enjoyed these discussion groups and feedback from readers over the last eight years.As many of you know, I'm leaving the Federal Diary column in mid-June, to chart new career options for myself. It has been a honor to report news and other information about the federal community. The Post will continue the column after my departure. But this is my last discussion, and I will miss the give and take with Post readers. Please stick with washingtonpost.com and keep an eye out for the next installment of Federal Diary Live and related features!
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